<h4>Chapter 285: First Stage</h4>


    Date- 27 Mar 2321


    Time- 13:29


    Location- Sky Blossom City, Sky Blossom Card Stadium, VIP Box no.1


    “Now why would you go and make a bet with someone you couldn’t possibly defeat? For a man who ims to be smart, you do a lot of stupid shit.” Anna stated the obvious.


    ” I made the bet before I knew all that shit like Ego Gem, Rules and Runes even existed. How am I supposed to know Corey has formed her Ego Gem and forged Rune cards if I don’t even know if they exist?” I made an excuse for my stupidity.


    “Whatever fool, you are screwed royally. It’s your mistake to underestimate your opponent.” Anna did not buy into my excuse and med me for underestimating my opponent.


    “Not if I can help it. Anna, teach me how to find my Ethereal Spirit.” I will not give up without attempting even once.


    “Wow, you are relentless aren’t you. Fine but don’t be disappointed if you fail to find your Ethereal spirit on your first try. It took over a month for a genius like a demigod Baylor to find his spirit so do not expect much. That doesn’t mean I am asking you to give up. I say you try your best but do not get your hopes up as it is normal that you can’t find your spirit in your first try.” Asking me not to get my hopes up Anna soon began to impart how to find the ethereal spirit of the soul to me.


    Following Anna’s guidance, I searched my soul for my Ethereal Spirit in my 2-times mutated soul which looked like a ball with fourrge bumps covering it. After all, I had four souls that werebined to form one huge mutated soul. Thanks to my soul pupils I found the Ethereal spirit that Anna was speaking of at the core of my soul without any suspense.


    My spirit looked exactly like a replica of me wound to every little detail except for a tiny little mutation. My spirit had four heads instead of one. Quite simr to the twin-headed ogre or Cerberus monster core, I used to mutate my soul to have 3 ve consciousness and one master consciousness totalling 4 consciousness. Knowing that Anna would ask to see my ethereal spirit I started panicking about how to exin my conduit to Anna or rather how to hide this from her.


    There is no way I could hide about finding my ethereal spirit if I want Anna to teach me how to achieve 2nd and 3rd state of Ego Gem formation. Now I was in a pickle, now the only question that remained in my mind was, How much did I trust Anna?


    No, I can’t give up yet there have to be other ways. How about I make the ethereal spirit retract the four heads into one? It should be possible, right? After all, only the Master consciousness is in control. I can try willing it to retract the four heads into one.


    Having thought of the solution I decided to follow it by concentrating on my Ethereal spirit to establish a connection with it. As the Ethereal Spirit was mine we already had a connection. I only had to beef up the connection enough to send my thoughts to so that it can retract the other three heads. After a while, I was finally able to contact my Ethereal Spirit. Listening to my intent, all four heads of my Ethereal spirit opened their closed eyes and a devious smile formed on the face of the Master head while the other heads were expressionless. Maintaining the devious expression on its face the Master head followed my intent and retracted the other three heads.


    “Anna, I found my Ethereal Spirit and was sessful in establishing a connection with it. What next?” Having taken care of the problem I enthusiastically reported my sess to Anna.


    “What! You gotta be shitting me. ” Anna eximed in rm. Finding the Ethereal spirit on the first try Anna was right to be alerted. This goes beyond the realm of genius to the realm of godly genius.


    “…” Anna’s current expression was a sight to behold just like an alerted cat, and I was enjoying it.


    “Did you lie just to mess with me?” Anna did not seem to believe me.


    “Yes, I lied just to mess with. Just kidding, see my Ethereal spirit. “An Ethereal replica of me with a devious face l showed in my eyes. My spirit was in an Ethereal state so I could not summon my spirit out as Anna did with hers yet. But I used my eyes to show her my Ethereal spirit.


    ” You, you monster! Get out of here. How is it even possible?” Anna’s eyes almost pooped seeing my Ethereal Spirit? Not every day do I get to see a Card Emperor make cute expressions.


    “Stop overreacting, I had already found my ethereal spirit long ago but I did not know what it was until today. Following your guidance, I realized that the thing that I thought was a part of my soul is my Ethereal spirit. ” I did not lie, I did find the mini-me, simrly I found mini Elliott, mini Jaya, mini Pax using my soul pupils long ago while creating the viltronian core. Until today I did not know they were called ethereal spirits.


    “No wonder. That exins a lot of the recent abnormalities rted to you. Fuq! I was frightened to death by you. But still entering an Ego Gem should not be possible, or being able to see runes. You are getting more mysterious with every passing second. Now I am more curious about you than before. You know what they say about mysterious men?” Anna started to flirt with me again, trying to establish her dynamic that she lost due to the fiasco earlier.


    “How about we move on to the next stage of condensing my Ethereal spirit to reality?” I asked, trying to bring Anna back to the track.