There was a girl, a beautiful young lady- Alice. Like Ethan she too was an orphan. And both of them had grown together at the same young.
They could not even remember from what time they had been together. As far as their memory could take them in their childhood, they remembered each other.
They had spent their life together. They had grown together. It was relation which had been forged by time. If there was one person whom they could trust blindly, then it would be each other.
Alice was one year elder than Ethan. Like everyone else, she had her awakening and she was one of those people who soared into the sky.
She had awakened a very powerful ability. A very powerful affinity with sword. Her known grade of talent was silver grade but Ethan knew that she had been hiding her true grade.
Since there was no method to find out about the grade of the ability other than to guess based on its power, no one could know the truth. Although Ethan was not sure but he would guess that her ability was at least gold grade.
She had joined the Derisota academy and was the star of the academy.
One year later, Ethan followed behind her and the relation between the duo was for all to see. The care Ethan received from the princess of Derisota academy was the cause of envy among many students.
Many students wanted to pursue Alice but her eyes were for no one but Ethan. And this turned Ethan their target of hatred but even so no one dared to touch him out of fear of Alice.
But things took a worse turn yesterday. There was an admirer of Alice. A powerful man with an influential background.
A beast hunt training program had been organised by the academy into the forests. And Ethan had found himself becoming the target of that man. And the man had blasted a hole through Ethan' chest.
But thanks to his newly awakened Primordial Monarch power Ethan had healed from that injury and Alice had been able to save himself.
Ethan was lost in his cultivation and thoughts when the door of his room was pushed open and Alice walked in. She was tall, almost 6 feet. She had dark black hair and dark black eyes.
As she walked inside, her big round eyes were filled with rage and a fierce expression was plastered on her face.
As she walked near Ethan, she did not even spare a glance at him. She was livid and Ethan knew that he also had a role in the reasons of her anger.
As she closed in the distance, Ethan felt his throat going dry and he gulped hard.
Alice stood too close to the bed as she placed her hands on his bare chest and slid it across the area where the scraps of the wound had been formed.
"You are healed," she muttered; her tone was icy.
"Alice," he mumbled. She did not respond but instead she lifted her hand and turned around to leave.
Ethan' was immediate in his action. He caught Alice's wrist and pulled her as her upper torso landed on his chest.
Ethan wrapped both his hands around her and hugged her tightly.
"Alice," he called her again.
Alice had been slightly shocked at this gesture from Ethan but she did not pull herself away. If she had wanted, she could have snapped Ethan into two let alone freeing herself from his grip. But she did not want.
"What? Has your status now suddenly risen to be with me?" She snorted in fake anger.
"Yes," he mumbled.
Alice did not react for the first few moments but she suddenly jerked off freeing herself from Ethan' embrace.
"What did you say?" She asked in disbelief as her big eyes were bulging even more.
Ethan shook his head with a dry smile. This 'status' thing was one of the things about which Alice was angry and disappointed in Ethan.
After he had joined the academy, he began to feel that he and Alice did not belong to the same world.
She was a top tier talent, a flawless beauty and was sure to rise. He on the other hand was trash talent and did not have a glorious future. This factor mixed with the belittling he received from the other students at the academy for being a 'toad lusting over a swam' developed an inferiority complex in Ethan.
Thus, he started to try and develop some distance from her. He did not want to be an obstacle in her path. He knew that his presence was dragging her back, holding her back from becoming the phoenix she was, and he did not want that.
But Alice was not ready to accept the arrangement. She, very soon observed the new behaviour from Ethan and she without any hesitation confrontation him.
At first, he tried to refrain from giving a direct answer but when she did not stop her interrogation, he blurted out that both of them had vastly different status and he was not suitable of her friendship.
The moments those words had left his mouth; she had turned livid and had barely kept herself from throwing a punch on Ethan. She had not spoken much after that but Ethan knew that she had been extremely disappointed and more importantly hurt.
All this incident had happened two months back.
"Well, technically, my status has risen," he replied to her earlier question. "But that was not the reason about why I hugged you."
"Even if I had the same status, I would have done the same. I had been a fool to try and push you away from me."
Alice would have overjoyed hearing all those words from Ethan but her mind was struck on the first line he had uttered.
"What do you mean by your status has risen?" She questioned with a shocked face. The term 'status' between them meant only one thing- the ability and power.
Ethan smiled, "Let me show you."
With this he raised his right hand with his palm open and the next moment the chair which had been placed near the wall sped towards the bed stopping only inches away from Ethan' hand.
Alice eyes bulged in shock seeing this.
"How did this?" She mumbled in disbelief not even able to form the sentences coherently. "How did this happen?"
Ethan even earlier should have been able to drag a chair using Gravity Manipulation but the power and the speed would have remained vastly slow.
But the way it had moved now, the acceleration and then the abrupt halt clearly showed one thing- that the power of Ethan' Gravity Manipulation had increased vastly.
"I do not know," he answered honestly. "It was like this after I woke up."
She was about to something more when he answered even before she asked, "And I do not feel anything different. I feel completely fine."
"It was like that previously I used to feel that something was holding me back… pulling me back from using my full powers but now I feel completely free. It is like as if my ability is in now my complete control which did not use feel previously."
A thoughtful look appeared on her face as went quiet for the next few moments.
"Maybe you had somehow not completely awakened in your first attempt but now that you got a stimulus… in the form of an injury, your awakening is now complete."
Ethan also nodded in response, "Incomprehensible it sounds but it seems entirely possible."
"Anyways," Ethan broke the silence that had formed between the duo, "where are we?"
Alice slightly blushed at this side, "Seeing that your injury was recovering quickly and you did not require urgent medical care, I decided to bring to you an inn."
"The academy?" Ethan asked with a raised eyebrow. "Do they know? I do not think they allow anyone to go missing without any knowledge."
"Yes," she nodded. "I had informed an instructor."
Ethan gave a slight nod but he knew that things were not simple as Alice told to be.
He knew that no instructor would have given her unobstructed permission to leave as she wished. She simply would have not been willing to listen any suggestion provided by the instructor.
She was a stubborn character after all.
"Who injured you?" Alice now brought the main topic to fore.
Ethan smiled wryly, "Are you going to take revenge on me?"
Before she could answer, he added, "I will deal with this myself. And I am not going to tell you anything."
Alice glared at him as she muttered, "Do you think, I would not be able to find out?"
"You can," he said. "But I do not want you too."
"Let me deal with this on my own," he added.
Alice glared at him for few moments before she sighed and relented, "Fine. But you will not do anything reckless. I will be keeping a watch on you."
Ethan gave a nod of agreement.
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