Tao

“	The Tao is the ultimate and strongest battle technique that was created by the ancestors for my greatness!!!	”
—Shiki

Tao is The Apostles' main source of power. The Tao is a mystical oriental art developed and used by the population of "another continent" called Yamto. People who lived in

this land were called the Tao Masters. They all had the power of Tao, and they knew how to make a potion called the Shinkito (the Spirit Drink) that could awaken the power of Tao dormant in someone. (If someone drinks it without having a power of Tao, he/she dies.) Shiki and Maro, two of the few surviving Tao Masters came in contact with Creed Diskenth, who was at this time a renegade assassin from Chronos. As the three of them had a score to settle with the organization, they joined sides and started to recruit Tao wielders from all around the world.

The power of Tao is always linked to its wielder's skills and personality. This power calls upon its wielder's ki (life energy) and the user needs to go through difficult and extremely rigorous training in order to fully master it; carelessly using Tao without proper training will consume the wielder's ki. Continuously using Tao, will result in the depletion of the user's ki and will ultimately lead to the user's death.

Every Apostle of the Star masters his or her power to the point of perfection and gains from it immense might and beyond-human fighting abilities, putting them on equal footing with the Chrono Numbers themselves. (Chronos' elite military brigade: a group of thirteen supreme warriors, each one of them being unmatchable skilled in the use of a particular sort of weapon.) Aside from their unique power, the Tao wielders also gain the ki-based abilities that follows. (However, few of them are seen using it.)

Chi: The life energy needed to use Tao abilities. It exists in all living creatures, and when it is depleted in great amounts, it can lead to death.

Inner chi kung: People who use inner chi kung excel in controlling ki within the body.

Outer chi kung: People who use outer chi kung release ki outside the body.

Soft chi kung is one of the Tao techniques that uses the power of ki to accelerate cellular functions. Kyoko's heat is mainly an application of this technique. In the manga, by sending his ki into Train, Doctor forced soft chi kung to occur, and healed his wounds.

Users

Users	Power
Creed Diskenth	Imagine Blade
Doctor (manga only)	Warp World
Shiki	Insects
Kyoko Kyoko Kirisaki	Fire
Charden Flamberg	Blood
Echidna Parass	Gate
Maro	Gravity
Leon Elliot	Wind
Durham Glaster	Shot
Preta Ghoul	Decay
Deek Slathky (manga only)	Freeze

Trivia

• In the one-shot Stay Cat, Train was a taoist with powers similar to those of Durham.

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