- Your training will consist of only mana training. Your feeble 2-month-old body can barely move for 10 minutes before you pass out. You also have no motor control; other than flailing, you can't do much. - Fallen Star said.
- You will train 2 aspects of mana. Efficiency and Capacity. Capacity is self-explanatory. It is the amount of mana you have. Efficiency is how much mana you utilize. For example, if we assign mana a numerical value, using 1,000 mana to create a spear with 40% efficiency is equivalent to a spear with 400 mana at 100% efficiency. There are 2 ways to train mana efficiency, but you can't use one because you have no spells. The method you will use is 'Fixing Yourself'. All you have to do is channel mana throughout the body over and over, pouring it into the holes you feel. Think of it as a bottle with holes. Your goal is to close them all. Since we can't have you repeatedly use spells, this slow method is the only option. - It continued.
- Don't expect anything. This method is extremely slow and you might see a change after 3 months... maybe. - Fallen Staer said.
Full of hope at the possibility of growing stronger, Grey started to do as Fallen Star said. There was only one problem.
'Umm... how do you feel mana?' He inquired quietly.
- Ahh, yes. That is important. -
- To feel mana, you must learn to breathe. -
'I beg your pardon?' Grey thought. 'Learn to breathe? I already know how!'
- Yes, but it's wrong. To feel mana, you must attune your body to it. Breathe in sync with the mana. It is not a living thing, but it does breathe. Match its pace and you will see it. You will feel it. - Fallen Star replied.
Grey, confused by the meaning of the words, ignored them and asked how he should breathe. Fallen Star relayed the method to Grey, but he couldn't seem to grasp it.
'Hey, can't you take me back to the black space and show me?' Grey asked.
- I can, but you become autonomous. It looks suspicious. - The reply came.
'I know, but I don't understand. Show me once and then bring me back. Simple, right?' He said.
- Well, if it's only once. -
---
Grey soon found himself back in the black nothingness, floating up and down as the blob from before, a core residing in his middle.
The core flew out, stretching into a panel.
"By the way," Grey asked, "Where is this?"
- This area is called the [Inner Soul], the blob is the [True Core] and the blackness is the [Outer Soul]. I reside in the True Core. -
"I see... wait, WHAT! SOULS ARE REAL!"
- Well, yes. How else would you have been reincarnated? - It spoke as if Grey was dumb.
- Moving on. -
The panel shifted again becoming a transparent screen. A depiction of Grey's body came into view. The only problem was that it was hollow. The silver tuft of hair was there, the maroon eyes still visible, but he could somehow see inside himself. It didn't make sense, but dwelling on the mystery of the helper would do him no good.
Grey watched as the 'him' on the panel breathed. In once through the mouth, in again through the nose, hold. Wait for 10 seconds, and then breathe out through the nose once and out through the mouth. It followed this cyclical pattern.
He was unable to see where he had gone wrong, he was sure he had done the same, but watching the video, something inside him clicked.
- Have you figured it out yet? - Fallen Star asked as the screen above the video shifted into words.
It seemed impatient to leave, not wanting to scare the parents more than they had already.
"Yes, I think I have the hang of it." He replied. "We can go."
---
Bringing Grey out of the [Inner Soul], Fallen Star asked him to repeat the breathing exercise. Doing as he was told, Grey went through the steps once more. He closed his eyes and breathed in through the mouth.
By the 10th breath, Grey felt a subtle shift in the atmosphere. Opening his eyes, reflected on his black pupils was a sight one would see in a fairytale. There were bubbles all in the air. Transparent bubbles that seemed to change one's perspective. Looking through them, Grey found a truth which would have remained unseen otherwise. The world changed. He felt as if he had been blind his whole life.
The ceiling above his cot, a dull white, was now filled with a vibrance so lively one would think the ceiling itself was living.
The walls of his cot, a sky blue, seemed to have become the skies themselves, a vast expanse of blue that had no end.
His hands, the pale-white ivory of the skin had become like clouds, as soft as one would imagine heaven to be.
The bubble floated out of his sight and everything became normal again. No more were the walls alive, the cot was no longer infinite, and his hands now felt heavy. Grey now realised the words Fallen Star had said at the beginning.
- Do you see it? - Fallen Star spoke.
'I feel like I've seen the true version of the world.' Grey said.
- I take that as a yes. The next step, now you can feel mana is to look inside yourself. -
Grey looked down, taking Fallen Star's words to heart, but then-
- Not literally, Grey. Close your eyes, feel the mana, and imagine that it is inside your body. - It scolded.
Grey followed the instructions that Fallen Star had given, embarrassed at his lack of common sense on this new topic. Closing his eyes, their maroon irises disappearing from sight, feeling the mana through his breathing, Grey imagined it inside of him. He saw in his mind's eye himself. He was a kaleidoscope of colour, and trying to move them, the pigments began to shift.
The reds moved towards the greens. The greens towards the oranges, which went towards the blues. In a cyclical pattern, the colours rolled.
- Yes! That's it, Grey. Keep going! - Fallen Star encouraged loudly.
Grey, moving the mana, began to feel a warm, soothing sensation. Fallen Star began to analyze Grey's condition.
- About 20% efficiency. As far as I'm aware, that is genius level. Either you have good genes, or I am a positive bonus. I think it is the latter. - Fallen Star boasted.
- Keep moving it and feel where the mana is leaking. What you have to do is patch the holes. Focus on one at a time and fill them with mana. They leak mana but if it is directed into them, they begin to fix themselves. - Fallen Star stated.
Grey was about to direct the mana towards the first hole he felt when-
- Grey, stop now! - Fallen Star shouted, Its voice shaking.
Unsure of the reason why he was being told to stop and why It was so agitated, Grey quickly did as instructed, sure that Fallen Star had a good reason.
At that moment, Grey's mother burst into the room. She quickly ran towards Grey, checking on him. She called out to his father, "There's nothing wrong with Grey, Lucas."
Bewildered, Grey, following his promise to be more observant, heard his mother's voice for the first time. He was ashamed that it had taken 2 months for him to listen to her, but he knew that there were certain priorities in life.
Her voice was angelic, she was soft-spoken and sounded ethereal, like a spring in summer.
He tuned in to listen to what she was saying.
"Lucas, you said that there was a large pool of concentrated mana, right?" Her voice came out once more, a pleasant treat for the ears.
A voice came from outside the room, getting louder and louder, "Yes Samantha, I'm sure of it. Let me see."
It was at this moment that Grey's father entered the room. He came towards him and took a deep look, presumably at the mana surrounding the boy, and said, "Strange. I was sure of it." Looking towards Samantha, he spoke. "I might be losing it, Sam."
His voice was a deep baritone, and full of gravitas, yet it was smoother than a forest stream.
The baby peered towards the two, looking at them both.
Now that Grey had been given the chance, he first took a deep long, look at his mother, Samantha's face.
She looked to be about 26. Long straight black hair draped over her neck in a high ponytail, the tips of which changed to blue- a sign of her first attribute being Water. Her heart-shaped face, devoid of blemishes had a button nose settled in its centre. On each side sat maroon orbs, looking at him. Above those sat 2 rounded eyebrows and below sat a pair of thin, heart-shaped lips; a natural rouge.
She was a natural beauty which had no comparison... not one that he had seen, at least.
After admiring her face, he moved his eyes towards his father, Lucas. The man was also handsome, making Grey hopeful of his future. The man, who looked to be 30, had silver hair with red tips adorning his face in a two-block cut. His square face had a straight, roman nose, with a chiselled jawline. 2 oceans were set deep in his face above which sat straight eyebrows. He had thin, full lips of a shallow red colour.
Now that Grey had seen his parent's faces, he deeply regretted not doing so sooner. His first month had been spent in boredom, contemplating the knowledge he had gained. The second was spent enduring hellish agony and sleeping. He wished he had seen the face of them sooner, for now that he knew the names and faces of the two, he could thank them.
Demons didn't have parents, so the unconditional affection he had received was uncomfortable at best. In the past months, however, he had grown to quite like it, as it made him feel important, if only slightly. It also gave him this warm, tingly sensation inside, one he hadn't felt in Sincia and was unsure of.
His parents, after having seen everything was okay, proceeded to leave the room. The doctors had told them that he was alright and that there was nothing to worry about, but they couldn't help it.
---
- Well, that was close. - Fallen Star said.
- I see that it was good genes, after all, not me. - It joked, bringing up a past topic.
'Fallen Star...' Grey mumbled in his mind, 'What feeling is this?'
Fallen Star, after hearing Grey, thought for a while before answering.
- I believe that feeling is a mix of happiness and love. It feels warm and tingly, right? -
'Yeah. It does.' Grey absent-mindedly replied, his mind still focused on the faces of his parents, and what feeling they had brought with them.
---
10 minutes passed, before Grey managed to compose himself. 'So, do I continue training?'
- No. If your father, Lucas, is that sensitive to mana, you will have to train at night. All we can do now is chat about our future plans. -
'I see, then what should we start with.' Grey asked.
- Well, let's start with something important. What weapon do you want to use? - Fallen Star asked.
'Wait, I thought I would use magic spells and stuff.' Grey said, shocked.
- You will need a weapon, Grey. Magic can only take you so far. And besides, you won't use magic, but [Manipulation]. However, that's for the future. Don't worry. -
' Well if I had to choose, something that's sharp, pointy and dangerous.' He said.
- Okay... We'll come back to this in the future. For now, just sleep. For tonight, you train. -
---
The night came quicker than expected, the moonlight shining down through the window. It didn't reach Grey's crib, but it didn't matter.
- Grey. I believe Lucas and Samantha are asleep. Begin. -
Grey breathed in and out as he was taught. On the 10th breath, the shift happened. Grey opened his eyes to the transcendent scene. He began to move the mana inside him, after envisioning himself. Pushing it to the first hole he found, he began to leak a constant amount of mana. It was a small hole, so the amount was not a lot, However, the mental burden was quite taxing.
Grey had not realised before, for he had only done it for a few seconds.
He knew that it was going to be a long night.