A Villainess Should Be Strong

Following her previous attempts, Estelle began to slowly heal her soul count.

Now, she was completely used to nonsensical time consuming processes. She could go through it without breaking a single sweat, as compared to her first few moments where she struggled.

At this point, Estelle was practically a training machine. She never stopped her practice sessions because she was motivated after she saw her brilliant success.

She set the target to bring her soul count up to 40 before stopping to have a rest. With a defined goal, Estelle was able to focus much better, because she believed that it would be easily reached.

Having certain stops and breaks was the key to continuous progression without being burnt out. Although Estelle was someone who could handle rigorous training over and over again, she did not want her memory of Eterna to consist of only boredom and strenuous mind exercises.

Estelle began to think of her goals as part of a game. Whenever she reached a goal, she would feel the instant gratification and relief surge through her, and that kept her going.

If her soul count was a cake, and it was consumed more than halfway, she was reversing the food back to its original state one slice at a time.

It did not take a short period of time. It took days for her to finally be able to shorten the original hours of work for one single digit of soul count to a decent enough time.

At first, it felt very vexing to have to go through so many stages just for one digit. However, Estelle fully believed in improvements. From the similar conditions she had experienced with the other targets, her time would always increase once she hit the bottlenecks.

And whenever she broke those blockages that prevented her from going further, it was very satisfying.

She began to imagine what would've happened if everything was handed to her on a silver platter. Without challenges, without stress, a fully smooth journey from zero to a hundred.

In her imagination, that smooth journey was akin to someone like Arayle's life. The Princess who was blessed with uncontrollable benefits.

However, Estelle did not feel like she was cheated, or that the whole fiasco was unfair. She would've never gotten these experiences that brought her to where she was right now, she would've never cultivated her sense and knowledge.

Estelle implemented different methods of the combination magic's cultivation at all times to give herself the maximum amount of benefits. These different variations of the original method yielded her with more results, which ultimately made her happy.

She was able to passively cultivate her energies every passing second. No matter what activity she was doing, she could manage to tend to her training.

With the variant's help, she was able to progress even further and achieve bigger results. Estelle was satisfied with her advancements.

In total, the time she spent would go up to over a month.

She had been counting the days she stayed for, so her expressions were quite morphed when she noticed that she had gone over a month.

A month in coma would be distressing not only to her, but also the people around her.

Her absence meant that her people had to deal with the disasters' aftermath without her aid. Estelle knew well that she was an essential figure in her territory even if she wasn't recognized widely.

Not to mention, there was also the uncertain worry that new disasters might sprout when she was staying in the Eterna. She would not be able to do anything if that was the case.

There was Heine and Minerva staying in Clareste's lands, but she wasn't sure if those two could suffice in face of great danger like the previous two storms.

Their opponent was Elias. Someone she couldn't even handle. In terms of power, she was sure that she would win against Heine and Minerva. If so, then wouldn't Elias be an impossible calamity to beat for them?

Elias was still present and active. She didn't know what went inside that man's head. His ploys, schemes, the detestable man was hatred inducing.

Luckily, the omniscient Ruler had eyes all over the realms. The being could freely peer into the world, although it would not be able to lay its hands on the matters.

The Ruler could relay any potential danger to Estelle, but none of them would be able to do anything.

It just served as means to assure Estelle that everything was alright. The emotional consolation meant huge for her.

Today, her total recorded time spent in Eterna had reached one month and a week. As usual, Estelle would start of her day with a bang- training vigorously with her highest concentration strength.

The more she concentrated, the more she could achieve. However, she also had to be mindful of the cost for concentrating. She would lose her soul digit if she failed to control everything perfectly. Concentrating was highly related to the soul's vibrations, and if she wasn't careful, she could lose more than what she gained.

This powerful session would kickstart the rest of her training.

Her best record was one digit raised in two hours. Raising this number wasn't easy, and she was perfectly aware of it. Thus, she withstood her slow work more.

Even though it was slow, the process definitely worked. Her soul count was now resting at the ample number of 83, much to her liking. Estelle gleamed every time she saw the fantastic count.

Another day passed. Her count rose again.

The end was near. The more she approached 100, the more she wondered.

After some experiments, she discovered that she wasn't able to use the elements of nothingness from the Eterna itself. She had to extract it from herself.

Now, she was facing this so called progress curve where her work was being hindered by the lack of resources. At first, she had much room to work with, and although the time taken was still a bit long for the results she earned, it was definitely working.

But now, not to mention 100, as she approached the 90 count, the nothingness within her was thinning out. And with it, her record breaking time slowly regressed to something much worse than the first time she started.

Gloom covered Estelle. If this was the case, then wouldn't she never be able to reach the 100 threshold?

To put it into perspective, in the time Estelle used to heal back one soul digit, she would have to consume one soul digit and even more than that. She would not be able to earn. A stagnant state.

"What must I do?" The soul meter that now had high numbers was nothing but depressing to the current Estelle. She looked at the count with sadness.

She had just been back from her training session, where she managed to produce one digit. However, to her dismay, she lost one of her digits right after stopping the session.

Her current bottleneck was '87'. She was stuck in a continuous cycle of earning and losing the energy.

She waited for the Ruler with much anticipation. She did not leave her training, however, as she continued to circulate her magic. She kept up her spirits, but it was indeed discomforting to have your progress be stilled like this.

It only took one day for the Ruler to pay its next visit. Its previous visit was when Estelle was in her 60 digits.

"You really are progressing fast. Good," The Ruler complimented, but Estelle couldn't accept the being's words wholeheartedly.

The being saw Estelle's high count, and then looked at Estelle's low spirited expressions.

Estelle's chest felt pressed in regards to this matter, so she wasn't able to be as cheerful as usual.

"What? Are you stuck?" The Ruler asked.

"Yes," Estelle readily replied.

"I guessed so. You are not utilizing Eterna's element at all, so you wouldn't gain anything from this point on,"

"In that case, should I learn how to use Eterna's element?" Estelle had prepared all her possible theories within the days she had been stuck.

She was very wary to the environment she was put in after many incidents, so she didn't try out this method previously as the Ruler never told her to do so.

"No. Using Eterna's element will only corrupt you further. It is completely different from your own energy,"

"..Then?" Estelle accepted the being's statement. It made sense. However, if so, what should she use?

Estelle let out a relieved sigh inside her heart, as she thought that she had dodged a dangerous bullet. If she was reckless and tried the method out without consulting the Ruler, what would've happened?

"From what I see right now, you have an external helper in your process that you would be fine going on without," The Ruler gave a vague advice. "Remember, to the Creation Magic, there should be no limits,"

Estelle slipped into a trance after hearing the words. She had an unconscious habit of falling into a deep focus state where she wouldn't be able to absorb unneeded external influences after being trained to concentrate for so long.

Realizing that Estelle would be unresponsive from this point on, the Ruler decided to leave the vicinity.

With those pieces of advices, Estelle marched on.

At first, she was lost. She didn't know how to interpret the Ruler's message.

She pondered on the issue for a long time.

Creation Magic. A boundless element was what it was supposed to be. Yet, on Estelle's hands, it wasn't able to mature fully.

Estelle racked her brains up to produce a great solution. After hard brainstorming, she came up with one.

"Filling the nothingness with my [Creation]?" Estelle mumbled after much thoughts.