The Price of victory

"I will not allow you to save him, Lorem. Honoured Royal Knight and Divine Bird, whom holds my admiration."

Siegfried looked solemn as Asura struggled against the fetters binding him, feelings of anger and murderous intent filling his soul as the whispers and darkness of Azoth continued to sound inside his mind. 

'This man will kill our loved ones. We must stop him, Asura.'

"I will not permit you to harm him, even if it means cutting short my eternal lifespan!"

While Lorem was ready to fight Siegfried, Asura himself sensed a strange sensation. Asura hadn't heard his past selves speak before, and this was the first time one of his past lives had communicated with him directly.

However, this might have been a sign that the cultivation technique itself had broken the user. Like a piece of glass smashed into nine parts, that was the true form of his technique: nine plumes, nine selves. 

A soul shattered into nine.