Hellish preparation.

"Chance..."

Jin contemplated Karth's words

"Don't be so discouraged, just because you're here now means that your destiny is not so fragile." Corin said

"I agree with Corin, Jin. Just because something so extraordinary happens to you can be a sign that your destiny is greater than dying soon after."

Shaking his head, Jin said:

"Thanks for trying to cheer me up, but I don't believe in something like fate ... I was thinking about what you guys might have planned to help me with, so what? Are you going to tell me or not?"

"(Sigh), we were going to explain it to you. Our plan to make you capable enough to accomplish this mission is simply to make you skilled enough to deal with the various situations and difficulties that can arise in these universes." Corin explained as he spun around around Jin.

"Karth will be in charge of giving you enough knowledge about the basic principles of the universes, since she[or he] can communicate with other consciences."

"And I will be in charge of teaching you how to be able to be strong."

"What do you mean" capable "?" Jin had a bad premonition and asked

"hehe ..." Without answering, Corin just laughed and shook his head.

"Jin, I must warn you that this will take a long, long time. It may be decades before you complete this mission, so I'll give you a choice. Accept it now and have a chance to find out how big the world really is, or deny it and I will send you back to your original body, with your memories erased. " Karth spoke in a serious tone.

Corin looked surprised and tried to intervene, but before he could say anything, Jin said:

"I accept!"

Corin seemed even more surprised to hear this and asked:

"You ... Do you really want to take a chance? Karth just gave you a great opportunity to get out of this mess."

"Yes ... Because she said she would erase my memories ... For me, this is no different than dying once." Jin replied

Silence reigned for a few moments until Corin said in a surprised voice:

"An Sucker! .."

Twisting every corner of his face, Jin thought and didn't dare say:

-You are a sucker, your parents are suckers, your whole family is made up of suckers !.

Karth was silent, probably from reading Jin's thoughts

"Maybe you don't understand the risk, don't think that because your soul is solid, you can't die!" Corin said seriously.

-Don't tell me, are you Athena?

Jin thought as he cursed in his heart.

"Precisely because your soul is solid, theoretically, if your physical body in one of these universes dies, your soul suffers a rebound from the universe, something like a universal punishment, and if your soul does not endure you are simply erased from existence. even I can't resist something like that! " Corin willingly explained.

"I get it. I already made my choice, and besides, isn't that just what you wanted?" Jin spoke calmly

Looking a little flustered, Corin suddenly showed Jin something.

It looked like a small rope, and had a black glow.

"This is the form of the contract, you hold one end of the rope while me and Karth the other, and, in sequence, we take our respective oaths."

"Before you suddenly change your mind, hurry up and complete the contract with me!" Corin spoke coldly.

Swallowing the curses, Jin asked Karth:

"Karth, is this 'contract' really effective?"

"Although not 100% reliable, it can still be considered effective. Don't worry Jin, even if Corin doesn't plan to keep his word, I certainly will!" Karth spoke seriously

"I, Jin Luxten, swear to carry out what the being who called himself Corin, will order me, as long as his orders are not harmful to me, until my mission to help the merger of the universes is complete. As long as Corin and Karth swear to return me to my original body in this universe, I plan to comply with that oath. " Jin said and looked at Corin with a bitter smile.

"Hmph. I, ***** *****, swear to do my part, returning Jin Luxten's soul to its original body ..."

"I, innate consciousness of the universe called ******, self-named Karth, I swear to do my part ..."

After hearing Corin and Karth's oaths, Jin frowned, but remained silent.

-In spite of not seeing any flaw in their oath, why can't I hear the real name of Corin and this universe?

After finishing with the oaths, the rope suddenly started to disintegrate until it disappeared completely.

Jin then felt like something had changed in his astral body, even though he didn't know exactly what it was that changed.

"Okay Jin, although your soul is solid, it cannot be considered an astral body. An astral body is based on the principles of its post-GT universe and a large amount of energy in its constitution." Karth suddenly spoke

"Got it ..." Jin said while thinking about why Karth is saying this.

"That's why you don't understand the names mentioned earlier." Karth, responding to Jin's thoughts, spoke.

Nodding, Jin then asked in a slightly excited voice:

"So ... when do we start with my preparation?"

Looking at the young soul, Corin said in a visibly excited voice:

"Of course right now."

A little surprised by the answer, Jin suddenly felt chills.

***

"Where am I?"

Feeling a little dizzy, Jin stood up.

Looking around, Jin saw nothing but a patio and a space with no limits in sight.

"Have you lost your memories yet? Tsk, you should have accepted Karth's proposal" Coron's voice resonated

After hearing this, Jin felt a strong nausea as he slowly recovered his memories.

Shivering Jin thought bitterly:

-I remembered ... hehe, maybe hell exists after all ... But it is not full of sulfur and fire ...

Turning to the patio and facing the figure that suddenly appeared in its center, Jin smiled bitterly.

-Hell, is that courtyard designed to torture the souls of everyone who steps on it. And the devil, is that figure that represents the most evil sadism.

"Are you going to stay there forever?" Corin said a cold tone

Swallowing his own saliva, Jin began to slowly walk towards the courtyard.

In the past few days, maybe months, or even years ... Anyway, Jin just lost his sense of time after a few days.

Jin was being beaten, I mean ... he was being trained by Corin to, according to her, improve his stamina. Since Jin is not truly an astral body, he cannot follow a normal training regime, as he does not have the necessary basis to support it.

Other than that, the space was filled with a beneficial energy for souls, which can help Jin to endure and have results.

Corin's approach is to try to increase the resilience of Jin's soul, to try to at least partially compensate for his lack of a solid foundation.

Although the way she does it is not pleasant, training without rest has been showing some results.

In the beginning, Jin was able to endure just 3 seconds of beating.

Now he can take a minute!

Although Jin doesn't like the fact that he now gets beaten longer before he loses consciousness, he admits that even the pain is starting to subside.

It's not like he's losing his sense of pain or creating some strange fetish. But rather that, the fists of Corin, which previously made him want to be dead (really), now just wanted to make him lose consciousness.

(A great evolution!)

With slightly shaky legs, Jin stopped in front of Corin.

"Can you-" Before he could finish the sentence, Jin was hit in the stomach and sent flying for a few meters.

"... ARE YOU AT LEAST TRYING TO RESIST? HAVE AN IDEA ON HOW MUCH I HAVE TO RESTRICT ME NOT TO KILL YOU BY STRIKING?" Corin screamed as he kicked Jin's fallen body.

With tears in his eyes, Jin could only think:

-Karth, help me!

-

Karth was watching the abuse Jin was suffering, and, reading his thoughts, thought:

-Sorry my child, but you need to endure this torture for some more time if you want to have any chance of enduring the next training.

Karth then begins to revise her plan to help Jin learn as much as possible about the other universes.

Although Karth knows it is impossible for him to absorb all knowledge, since even a being like Corin does not have this ability, Karth expects him to learn at least the basics.

-Energy only has a fundamental nature, no matter its shape. Everything tends to change, and to remain the same. The limit of infinity resides in the 'whole'.

-At least these three parts he must have a good foundation. This will be what will define your chances of success.

Looking towards the cloudy future, Karth murmured:

"Why must everything change ... to continue ... and be the same whole."

"I can't wait ... to see what will happen this time ... my time."

***

"Where am I?"

-Ah, I remembered!

With a steady look, Jin then walked towards the courtyard and the demon in his center.

"Hoooo, it looks like the beating is finally paying off. What's with that look?" In a surprised voice, Corin asked.

-She even acknowledges this to be beating!

Clenching his teeth, Jin just looked at Corin steadily.

But to Corin's surprise, his eyes didn't seem to contain the slightest trace of hatred, although there was clearly a grudge.

"Okay, now that you can stay conscious for like ten minutes, I think we can move on to the next stage." Corin spoke in a slightly disappointed tone.

Jin pursed the corners of the mouth, but was silent.

"Remember when I found you? You couldn't even observe what was around you, right? That's because you have zero astral energy in you, and a soul force just too weak to see in the astral dimension, where the energy that circulates is essentially different from the universes. "

"Soul energy is the standard energy of each and every astral body, although its characteristics vary greatly from individual to individual for several reasons that I will not bother to explain"

"Soul energy is the essence of the astral body, the most important energy of a being. And that is what defines the potential that a being has in controlling and increasing its astral energy."

"A soul's strength is directly related to it's soul and astral energy."

"The next stage of training will be to try to increase your soul strength to the point where you can see at least a radius of one meter in the astral dimension."

In a shaky voice, Jin then asked:

"And how will this training be?"

"Unfortunately it won't be as interesting as the previous one, it consists of you trying to bear to see me."

"???"

"Currently, since we entered this universe, I could show you what I look like. However, it would result in your eternal rest, since you couldn't stand even a millisecond. That's why I have been hiding myself from your view." Corin said as he saw the doubts on the boy's face.

"Got it ..." Jin said as he understood the purpose of the previous training.

After hearing this, Corin asked:

"Are you ready? We have no reason to waste time."

After taking a deep breath, closing his eyes and opening them with a determined look, Jin said:

"I already died once, what is there to fear."

Corin just nodded.

All Jin saw before he lost consciousness was a black glow with the figure of a person.

-Corin is ... a person?

Jin thought just before he lost consciousness and temporarily lost his memory.

***

Days, months or years. Jin didn't mind thinking how much time passed.

But even after so long, his progress in the new training was minimal.

Jin could only see Corin's silhouette a little more in detail than before before the black glow extinguished it.

Even so, Corin did not appear to be disappointed in Jin, probably having already foreseen this situation.

According to Corin, Jin must be able to see at least a radius of 60 centimeters within the astral dimension.

Great progress in view of his inability to see even a single inch before.

Jin, possibly because of previous training, doesn't seem to be disappointed or rushed either.

Day by day, month by month, time passed and Jin was finally able to see some details of Corin's robes.

According to Corin, Jin must finally be able to see within a radius of one meter in the astral dimension.

Although Jin is not sure how these trainings will help him with his mission, he has at least one notion.

Suddenly, next to Corin, who had once again been wrapped in shadows so as not to affect Jin, a ball of light appeared.

Surprised, Jin asked:

"You are ... Karth, aren't you?"

"... That's right, I'm surprised you can still remember that. I think it's a good sign that the training had a better effect than expected." Karth said that while seemed to be facing Corin

Corin simply turned his head to the side and remained silent.

"(sigh). Jin, you still remember your mission, right?" Karth asked

With a serious look, Jin replied:

"Yes"

"Great. I came to warn you that this phase of your preparation has been completed. I will now be in charge of teaching you the basics about the principles of the other universes in general ... apart from other general knowledge."

After hearing this, Jin looked disappointed and just nodded.

"!!!"

"!!!"

-This boy didn't develop any strange fetish, right?

Corin and Karth simultaneously thought.