'Well that was awfully convenient.'

  Johan thought as he heard Lucius's words. In the next second, Lucius suddenly grabbed Johan by his neck and threw him into a flaming void.

  As Johan went into the shadowy fire, he felt no pain, in fact he felt comfortable.

  When he opened his eyes, all he saw was a dark castle that emitted a warm heat. Upon getting closer to it, he saw that the castle was not stable but instead the building was constantly moving, like a fire that wanted to envelope everything in sight.

  "This is my soul city or at least the part that will help you become a controller.

  You see there are three ways to become a controller.

  The first way is to simply be born having the ability to control your ki.

  The second is to enter the deepest parts of your soul and pull out your ki, the problem is that it's quite dangerous. One small mistake could kill you.

  Lastly is to experience a controller event while in a spirit form."

  Lucius said as looked towards Johan.

  "So this isn't my body but rather my soul?"

  Johan said as he looked at his hands and body.

  "That is correct. Now you're doing the second one."

  Lucius said as he looked at Johan.

  "Wha, why did you bring me in here then if i'm doing the second one!?"

  Johan said as he looked at Lucius, his gaze showing his puzzlement and annoyance.

  "That's because it's the most effective method. If you're worried about dying, don't be. I'll make sure you don't turn into a monster. Now are you strong enough to take the risk or are you just a little kid who can't even get revenge for his father's killer?"

  Johan punched at Lucius which was caught effortlessly by the latter.

  "Have that energy when it comes to making sure you don't die, kid."

  Upon saying that, Lucius flung Johan into the door of the darkened castle before sitting down.

  As his back hit the castle's door, Johan felt as if every bone in his body had broken into a million tiny pieces before coming back together.

  He crawled on the floor, spitting up a light amount of blood before getting back up.

  As he staggered to his feet, Johan calmed down and started to think about becoming a controller:

  "I'm doing the second method which is to draw out my ki. But the question is how? He said go deep into my soul but I don't know how. Wait I am my soul currently, doesn't that mean I just have to go inside myself or something? No that can't be it."

  After thinking for a few more seconds, Johan looked towards Lucius before speaking:

  "Yo old man, how do I go into my soul?"

  "Hey, old man? I'm not even 30 yet brat."

  "Yeah yeah just tell me how to do it."

  "The kid can insult now. Alright fine, just focus on opening a locked door or something of that nature. It's different for everyone. For me, I entered a dark void, so just try. The only thing you need to do after that is walk until you find the end of the road or a symbol."

  Lucius said as he looked towards the child in front of him.

  After hearing his words, Johan began to think:

  "I need to think. I should probably rest or something."

  Upon thinking, Johan laid down on the ground and started to think, after a while he felt a rushing wind with the scent of burning flesh in the air. Johan then opened his eyes and realized he was standing in a shallow river. After looking around the area, he saw multiple broken blades, houses, and even glass around the river.

  "Well, he never said it was a pretty sight. Thought for my soul to be this ugly feels like an insult."

  After saying that, he started walking to the end of the river, or at least just forward as he couldn't see an end.

  Though the river wasn't deep and only at ankle height for Johan, he felt that each step he took got harder and harder as if rocks were attaching to his feet every time he took a step.

  After a few steps, it became painful to walk but he kept on pushing. Trying to somehow overcome this to become a controller.

  "He couldn't at least warn me about this, my feet feel like they're about to fall off.

  As he walked in the river, his form began to crack as fire poured out of them. The scouring pain made Johan scream at the top of his lungs as he bent forward and looked towards the river water. Nearly passing out from the pain, Johan after collecting himself, resumed walking forward.

  "As long as I pass this, I will become a controller, and after that I will avenge you father, while making Lucius or anyone else on that ship never be able to hurt another person again at least when I'm around."

  The boy said through, clenched teeth. It was very obvious to anyone who would have seen to know that he was in deep pain. For both his expression and the fact he had a huge crack had appeared on his neck that was constantly spitting out fire.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  After walking for what seemed like an eternity, Johan arrived at the end of the river and when he was about to exit out of it, he felt a pain far greater than he could imagine as he screamed and fell to his knees.

  He tried to speak but the pain was too much for him to even speak. It was all he could focus on.

  His arms started burning off while his legs were encased in dark chains. Struggling for a while, Johan raised his arms out trying to grab onto the rock beside him to crawl out of the river.

  He grunted every time he moved his arms, nearly pulling them back each time in an embrace to keep himself from pain.

  Finally after a few attempts, he finally grabbed onto a rock and used to push himself forward. His feet kicked the ground as he tried to keep his arm from falling off.

  "I can't die here! DAD, DAD I WILL HAVE HIS HEAD FOR YOU, JUST YOU WAIT! I'LL RIP OFF HIS HEAD AND PUT IT NEXT TO YOUR GRAVE!"

  He yelled out as he kept grabbing onto rocks and pulling himself forward.

  The chains around his feet kept tightening around his feet, he could feel his skin start to peel off but he didn't care. He was already feeling a much higher level of pain as his charred arms were constantly grabbing at rocks to pull closer to the river bed. His pull made it seem like his arms were going to off. No, his arms were going to fall off!

  Johan looked at his wrists, mangled,and nearly burnt off, before grunting, and resuming pulling himself out of the water.

  As he burned alive, Johan pushed himself, reminding himself of his goal repeatedly. After a while of this, he finally touched the ground outside of the river with the tip of head.

  His right arm nearly lost its hand as it hung on by just a few pieces of skin and muscle. His left was better but by only a little. The skin on the bottom of his legs peeled off.

  After touching the river bed, he felt nothing, all the pain was gone, before it came back.

  But it was much more normal levels of pain as he only felt beat up.

  His body was covered in cuts and burn marks as sweat flowed down his head.

  "Did I pass?"

  Johan asked as he looked at his battered body.

  "Yes, though you're not a true controller yet. We need to find out your pathway so you level up and become one. Currently you're just a normal guy who can spread his ki out of his soul. Here, spread your aura around that."

  As Lucius said, he tossed a whitish rock towards Johan.

  As Johan went forward to grab it, the rock landed right behind his hand.

  "Man you suck at catching. Anyways it's limestone, i'm guessing you should be a fighter but i'm checking anyways."

  As Johan picked up the limestone, he focused his ki onto the rock.

  After a few seconds, the limestone suddenly felt heavier not only that but it also grew small sharp needles across its entire body.

  "Throw it."

  Lucius said to Johan.

  Upon hearing that Johan threw the rock at Lucius which was blocked against a hard metal shield before being hit but said shield. The limestone flew across the room, nearly hitting Johan in the head; as it went past Johan, it struck the wall and embedded itself into it.

  Lucius walked towards it before removing it from the wall:

  "Yeah you're a fighter, its durability and weight were enhanced while also giving it needles. Well after you rest up, I'll turn you into an actual fighter."

  Lucius said as threw the limestone at Johan which the latter caught this time, before leaving the room.

  "Are you kidding me? I did all that just to be told I need to do one more thing to be a real one."

  Johan mumbled under his breath as he collected himself.

  As he stood up, Johan thought about what happened:

  "Alright, he will definitely think I'm some hot headed kid who can't control his anger when his father is brought up. When he uses it again, I'll simply just pretend again and then get a sneak attack when he isn't on guard. Now what can I do with this? So far all the combat I have is from my father and him.

  No no stuck to the plan you made earlier, you can't get ahead of yourself.

  The first thing is to get to rank 4 then do trials, improve my skill, duel against him as well as the soul city's training dummy in his form before I can even think of killing him. I should probably rest up, I just felt what burning alive is like."

  Upon saying that Johan went to the bathroom to take a bath but when he looked into the mirror, his eyes widened, the right side of his face had a massive wound resembling that of a volcanic crack. The crack went from his forehead to his right check. The center of the wound was that his eye which resembled a dark abyss thought at the same time a liquid that was simply over his eye.

  "I guess that's why it's dangerous, though judging from the fact no one else has a scar like this, it should heal over time."

  As Johan said this, he went to do what he needed to do, taking a bath, putting on his clothes before going to bed.

  After 4 hours, Lucius kicked down his door and threw a bucket of water on to Johan:

  "Wake up kid, it's time to become an actual fighter now."

  Lucius said as he picked up a steel katana while kicking the one he gave Johan to him.

  Johan just got woken up by freezing water, didn't see the blade coming near him and got hit in the face.

  After collecting himself, he got out of bed and got into a ready stance.

  At the next moment, Johan unsheathed his blade and stepped while making a left downwards diagonally slash towards the top right of Lucius's torso to its bottom left while using his left hand.

  Lucius stepped back to avoid it and Johan followed up by stepping forward, making a crescent slash upwards towards the former's neck which was then blocked by him.

  He then used the momentum of the slash to chain it with a left upwards diagonally slash which was dodged again

  Johan stepped forward performing a stab towards Lucius's upper chest.

  As Lucius stepped backwards to the side while parrying the attack effortlessly before cutting Johan's neck, and yet no wound appeared, the only thing that showed proof was the look of pain on Johan's face.

  "Good your footwork, edge alignment, and ability to take in your surroundings are improved though here's a one piece of advice. If your opponent doesn't try to attack in the middle of a fight it means two things. One is that you have completely taken over the fight or two they are leading you into a trap.

  Always go with the latter even if it doesn't seem like it. It's better to be safe than sorry."

  Lucius said as he looked at Johan, his tone showing his superior.

  Johan while listening to this also felt the sensation of bubbling before learning how to enhance the weapon in hands as well as himself.

  After gaining that piece of information he smiled subconsciously, knowing that he has truly become a controller of the fighter pathway.

  After seeing Johan's smile, Lucius spoke, his tone calm:

  "Alright now even though you're a fighter now, don't use it, we'll simply keep going like this."

  For the next 15 minutes Johan attacked Lucius over and over again but no matter what, he lost at the last second. Though he did win but rarely in fact out of all the matches they had, he won 3 of them.

  "Alright, well my job is done."

  Lucius said as he left Johan's room.

  Johan, who was exhausted, laid down on his bed as he huffed out air. He had gone from being a normal person to level 8 controller of the fighter pathway.