"It only took me a day for three Ikari to appear. But there's one catch..." said Flain.

Then he told him practically everything about the Phantom, the inside of his soul, and so on. He had no reason to lie; he didn't see that information as some kind of crucial secret that couldn't be told to anyone.

On the contrary, if he hadn't told him, it would have been a disadvantage. Because he wouldn't gain indications that might be important in the future.

"Hmm... To help you understand, I'll give you a little lecture," said Flor with a smile. Despite constantly smiling, there wasn't even a hint of a wrinkle on his face.

"Every being has a soul, from insects to giants. When an individual is born, their soul is the weakest, and the more hardships they endure, the more they live through, the stronger it becomes. For most people, the soul has no form at all, but sometimes it happens that for a lucky few, the soul begins to take shape."

"A person's soul can gain form between Stage 6 and 10. If by that time the individual has not formed an environment within their soul, the so-called Domain, they will never again have the chance to obtain one. Having a Domain is extremely rare — about one in a million people has it. Of course, the fact that your soul has an image or shape in itself means nothing, but it gives you the possibility to learn a very powerful spiritual spell."

"This spiritual spell is called Domain Expansion, and it allows an individual with a Domain to expand their soul into space. When it is created, a black arc appears. The owner of the Domain can then do whatever they want with people inside it and can control their Domain. When two people cast Domains, a so-called Domain Battle begins. Domain Expansion is very costly in mana and damages the soul, so it can only be used again after quite some time. Naturally, the stronger your soul, the more often you can use Domain Expansion."

Flain stood there and listened, like a disciple obediently listening to his master. Even if he didn't like that image, such information was a small price he would be willing to pay anytime.

"Alright, we've covered Domains, now let's move on to Phantoms," Flor paused.

"Phantoms are evil rare beings that attack people, cause diseases, or possess humans to grow stronger. Very few people can see them — only individuals with Exorcist Eyes. Their natural enemies are exorcists and the Exorcist Guild, which is capable of effectively killing them. To become an exorcist, one must have Exorcist Eyes in order to see Phantoms, and also a very strong soul, since Phantoms attack the soul very often."

"That's why when someone contracts an incurable mysterious disease, or when people begin to disappear and investigations reveal nothing, an exorcist is summoned. Some very powerful exorcists are able to imprison a Phantom inside their soul, and it becomes their Subjugated Phantom, which the exorcist can then use for various purposes. Phantoms are not classified within the usual stage system because they don't emit magical energy, but rather phantom energy. This makes it difficult to measure their strength, but there is a system for it."

"The White Phantom is the weakest, it mostly does nothing and can hardly possess someone's body. The Gray one can possess a body and spread small diseases. The Blue Phantom can easily possess bodies and sometimes spread hard diseases. The Orange Phantom can control multiple bodies at once and spread quite serious diseases that an experienced exorcist can dispel. The Red Phantom is a calamity that can destroy small factions and possess armies. The Purple one is the highest rank, and practically nothing is known about them since almost none have ever been recorded; the only one who was ever recorded was the Shell Fisherman," Flor finished.

The Shell Fisherman ruled over all continents more than 5000 years ago BYEBTBC (before years even began to be counted). The whole world was shrouded in darkness, and all people were only half-conscious.

They felt such pain that they would have paid everything in the world just to die, but the Shell Fisherman did not allow it. In the end, the strongest individuals from the world gathered and defeated the Shell Fisherman.

He is not called the Shell Fisherman for nothing. He collected the strongest creatures from the depths of the waters and implanted into them the souls of people who had been able to fight against him. He then sent those creatures after anyone who managed to escape his grip.

The world was divided into four continents: the Northern Continent, the Eastern, the Western, and the Southern Continent. The Empire of Light was located in the West.

Flain learned this information from the library at the academy. He used to take the books with him to lectures, and when something was being taught that he already knew well, he read them instead.

Flain was surprised that in the library there was only a single book of geography, which explained only the basic division of the world's continents. So he didn't learn anything about what lay around the Empire of Light, only where it was located.

When Flain came across a book about the Shell Fisherman, it was mentioned that he was a Phantom. But since at that time he didn't yet know what a Phantom was, he thought it was just one of his nicknames. So he assumed that...

From most of the books he didn't gain any important information that could help him at the moment, but in the future, it might be useful to know — except for the geography book.

Flain awoke from his thoughts about the Shell Fisherman and focused on the information Flor had provided.

"What are the assumptions about why I was able to defeat him so easily?" Flain asked.

"I estimate that your Phantom was Blue or Orange. And it could be said that you're lucky you survived, since fighting even a Blue Phantom as someone who isn't an exorcist and hasn't even reached Stage 6 usually ends very quickly in death or possession. I suspect that Phantom forcibly triggered Domain Expansion in you and was preparing to possess you.

"The fact that you were able to kill that Phantom just by looking at it is not normal. When the system gave you Exorcist Eyes, maybe it also made you a natural enemy of Phantoms," said Flor.

Flain fell into thought...

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.