Noah's spiritual force, which after advancing to Rank 2 had become denser and acquired a light silver color, began to increase, purifying and solidifying at a dizzying rate. The torrent of energy flowing into him from the Harmonic Convergence gave no respite, and his body and soul responded by absorbing everything like a sponge in the ocean.
Rank 2 was divided into three substages known as solidification. In the initial stage, spiritual force was a light silver, barely a pale reflection of what it would become. In the intermediate stage, it grew more concentrated and took on a silvery-white tone, denser and purer. In the maximum stage, the solidified spiritual force reached a brilliant silver, dense as liquid mercury.
Noah's spiritual force changed before his eyes. The light silver intensified, passing in a matter of minutes through silvery-white until it reached the brilliant silver of the maximum stage. His spiritual force became extremely dense, flowing through his spiritual sea with the heaviness of mercury and the luster of molten silver. In a single step he was about to cross the threshold of Rank 3.
He did not have much time to choose an innate spell. The window was narrow and the energy flow would not wait. So he decided to test a bold idea he had conceived long ago—a theory he had never been able to put into practice until now.
Inside his spiritual sea, above the crystal that constituted the core of his existence as a Magus, a new spell matrix materialized. But this matrix was strange, different from all the previous ones: it was neither circular nor flat, but spherical—a three-dimensional construction of interwoven runes that rotated slowly on its own axis. Noah summoned a hundred strands of Void Energy and imbued them into that runic sphere. Then he added part of the chaos and order essences of Vaatu and Raava, the material and spiritual essence of the Northern and Southern Portals, and the cosmic power of the Tree of Time.
The matrix trembled violently. The runes sparked, the sphere deformed like a soap bubble on the verge of bursting, and an unbearable pressure accumulated at the center of his spiritual sea. Noah clenched his teeth and concentrated to the absolute limit of his strength. His will projected onto the matrix like an anvil, stabilizing it, shaping it, and forcing it to adopt a definitive form.
And then he succeeded.
The sphere condensed into a small pearl. Inside it one could see a miniature galaxy, spirals of stars and nebulae slowly turning in the darkness. Its crystalline surface was etched with clouds and mountains, like a map of a world yet to be born. The pearl floated above the spiritual crystal, yet instead of fusing with it as the previous matrices had done, it remained an independent entity, orbiting around it.
A new layer formed over the spiritual crystal—the third—marking his successful advancement to Rank 3.
In that instant his sea of consciousness changed once more. The Rank 2 innate spell, which had remained latent since its formation, activated on its own. His brilliant-silver spiritual force was dyed in white and black and transformed into two divided seas: half pure white, half absolute black, rotating in a yin-yang pattern that encompassed his entire spiritual sea. The final remnants of Vaatu's and Raava's essences, which still floated unabsorbed, were dragged by that dual whirlpool and fused into its depths.
But the process was not yet finished.
There were three stages of spiritual force before reaching Rank 4: the vapor, liquid, and crystalline phases. As one approached Rank 3, the particles of spiritual force gradually condensed. Through these three stages they were refined still further to form a Truesoul—the core of a Rank 4 Magus's existence. But Noah's spiritual force was so pure and dense from the overwhelming quantity of energy he had absorbed that it skipped the vapor phase entirely. He was already in the liquid stage.
Noah felt numerous waves of heat gather inside his sea of consciousness. The white-and-black current of Hydro-Phase spiritual force circulated wildly through his consciousness, crashing against the walls of his spiritual sea like an ocean in tempest. The spiritual crystal at the center shone with strange blue runes and began to generate an enormous compressive force.
Noah started to tremble uncontrollably. His physical body, which had only just completed a metamorphosis, was subjected to a new trial. A large portion of the liquid spiritual force contracted under that immense compressive force and was refined still further, sparkling with flashes that lit his spiritual sea like fireworks. This led to the formation of the first crystals, marking the transition from the Hydro Phase to the Crystal Phase.
The spiritual force of the Crystal Phase was unique to each Magus. Noah paid attention to his own as it formed: it was composed of crystals half white and half dark, interwoven in a pattern that recalled the yin-yang of his innate spell, and within them they contained a touch of ghostly blue. The liquid spiritual force transformed into solid crystals and its volume shrank considerably, concentrating into a far more compact and powerful form. In less than ten minutes Noah's spiritual force appeared to reach its limit, solidifying completely.
"My lord! Your body seems to have surpassed its current genetic limitations."
Vantian's voice resonated in his mind, monitoring him through the mental pearl. After entering the Crystal Phase, the entire body underwent a complete transformation as the foundation for advancing to Rank 4.
"As expected," Noah said, and his expression revealed a fleeting euphoria. "It is an advancement that affects even the genes."
There were few opportunities to surpass genetic limits, and therefore it was an extremely valuable achievement. It meant that his own genes had improved, allowing him to add more genetic information without worrying about the collapse of his genetic sequences. His genetic load capacity had expanded.
Noah quickly calmed himself and his face regained its seriousness. He was not finished yet. Concentrating the continuous flow of spiritual power he received from the Harmonic Convergence, he increased his spiritual force by constantly condensing and refining it again and again, until the number on the Nexus screen surpassed the mark of 1,000 points of spiritual force.