It was now the next day and what was supposed to be the last day of the students' short break.
Riven woke up in his bed yawning, getting up and going to the bathroom to handle his business. Jordan invented the same, waiting for his brother to be done. After the boy opened the door with a toothbrush and toothpaste in his mouth, scrubbing his teeth, he let his brother in as he walked out of the bathroom, getting ready to go.
"I'm going to work now. Remember to be ready when I come back. We're going out to eat tonight."
"Yes ma'am," the two said in unison as she walked out.
"Now that your mother is gone, you two ready for your training on resonance?" their father asked with a big smile. Both responded with their heads going up and down. They found the energy known as resonance interesting and exciting—even while sleeping, they could still feel the dormant energy building up even while not using it.
"I wonder how the others are using it, or if they even notice something different about them," Jordan commented.
"Even Dad told us to be calm. When we first tried, for some reason, it seemed like the catalyst, for the most part, is anger—so one person who I definitely know used it unconsciously is definitely—"
"Wren," they said at the same time.
"Okay, now let's head outside." Kaden started to walk out to the backyard but was stopped by Jordan.
"As a matter of fact, can we just stay inside and possibly block up some of the windows or go to a room without windows?"
"Why would we do that?"
"Well, this is a secret. You don't want people to know about resonance and pick up on what we're doing, do you?"
Riven had a pretty good idea of what his brother was getting at. The Academy was technically watching them—hell, they could have this entire place bugged. But he highly doubted that. To bug every single house of a person who went to the Academy would take them months on end, even with all the support they get. But going outside—they have spies everywhere, and most of those spies are from the Storm Guild. It wouldn't be safe for them to talk freely out there.
"I guess you're right. Who knows who could be listening? Let's go to the dining room." The two went down to help their father move things out of the way so they could make free space in the dining room.
"So what exactly are we going to be doing?" Riven questioned.
"Remember what I said—the more you use it, the stronger it gets, and the more potent it becomes. To the point where you can use it without really activating it or, as you put it, causing a fire to ignite in your heart. Basically, you would just breathe and bam—you have it on. Using it day-to-day allows it to grow more and more, but it can have mental strain—not physical, but mental—making you tired, groggy, or have a headache, basically making you take a break. Now obviously, with you being evolvers, I don't know how this would work on you. Do you have any problems with using resonance?"
"There is one that most likely puts us at a big disadvantage compared to others who use it—that being after we use it a certain number of times, our chest starts to burn up in intense heat, like we're in an oven and our body is being burned up," Jordan answered.
"Then this is bad. Instead of having mental strain, your cases seem more physical. This meditation may work, but it's most likely that the way for you two and that friend of yours to really master it is through combat—building up resistance to it. But I don't really know. You're all pretty experimental. I have no idea what resonance could do to your body, so I'd also say you need to tread lightly on what you do."
Both nodded at their father's advice. They then got into a meditative stance. While the two boys had their eyes closed, their father got up to get something for today's lesson. "Now I want both of you to open your eyes." When they did, they saw a wooden sword in both of their faces.
"What, are we gonna fight?" Riven questioned.
"Maybe, but first I teach you this about resonance." He then pulled out a wooden sword of his own. "How does that wooden floor look to you compared to that wooden sword?"
The two were confused by his question but decided to answer honestly.
"They both look the same. Nothing really stands out."
"Wrong," Kaden said as he patted Riven on his shoulder.
"Ouch," Riven frowned as a small mark appeared on his shoulder.
He had barely tapped Riven—or at least it looked like he barely tried to hurt him—yet it left such a mark. "A fact—it's a wooden sword. We've been struck harder, and our bodies have likely gotten stronger as well, so a wooden sword shouldn't have left such a big mark," Jordan thought, starting to piece it together.
"What makes this wooden sword so different from that wooden sword?" Kaden asked, pacing back and forth like a teacher in a classroom.
"The—" Jordan prepared to answer but was cut off by Riven.
"The sword's been empowered by your resonance," Riven answered.
"And how did you come to that conclusion?" Kaden asked with a confident smirk.
"I guess I can feel leftover energy from the attack. It's flowing off my body, but it's not my own energy."
"Exactly. I did that for two reasons. One—" He then did the same to Jordan.
"Hey!" The boy started rubbing his mark, but he could see what Riven was talking about—it was like a smoke cloud coming off where his father struck.
"One, to show there's more than one way to use resonance. You can channel the energy through your weapons, empowering them even—but there's one caveat." Kaden's look turned intense. As quickly as the boys blinked, the sword burst, and above the hilt, the sword was smashed.
"Whoa, that is so cool," they said in unison.
"No, not cool." He grabbed Riven's sword, hitting the two of them on the shoulder. "Putting too much resonance could do the opposite of what you want. Instead of empowering your weapon, it could make it unbalanced or even destroy it. You need to be careful about how much you channel into your body and weapon. That's why you both have swords in front of you. Two—I want you to tell when someone is using resonance. If you channel it directly into your eyes, you can see a person's aura and see if they're using resonance—but more importantly, you can tell when an opponent will attack or predict their movement. The issue is—it's hard to coordinate your resonance into a specific point on your body, especially your eyes. It took me maybe three weeks to do this. For you, maybe longer. That's why we're also in a meditative stance. I want you to move the resonance around your body. You can try your eyes, but I doubt you'll be able to do it. You must choose—either channel it into your weapon or control it around your body. Your choice."
"Weapon," Riven called out.
"Body," Jordan called out.
"Oh, the twin brothers going down different paths, hmm?" Kaden walked away, getting a recorder. "Reminder—make a novel called Two Brothers Going Down Different Paths." He walked back to them. "Okay, let's see how this works out."
Riven picked up his sword, trying to use resonance, but realized it wasn't easy to channel it through the weapon. Kaden could see his struggle.
"Now you see, it's not so easy to put it through the sword alone. You need to be forceful yet gentle at the same time—or the result will be—" Before he could finish, the wooden sword shattered into pieces. He then handed Riven Jordan's wooden sword so he could try again.
Meanwhile, Jordan could feel the difficulty in his training too. The more he moved, the more energy he used. When he tried to channel it into his eyes, he felt a burning sensation—like his eyes were red—and he couldn't help but scratch them, though it didn't help.
"Putting too much may also hinder your vision and make your eyes red, causing you to scratch—or in worse cases, if you push too much—blood."
"Blood?" Jordan yelled. "What kind of teacher are you? We just learned about this today!"
"The world moves fast, so to be ahead, you need to move faster."
[System: Analyzing complete. New skill — Resonate Edge. This allows the user to channel resonance through a blade. You are able to use the bar to expand your output of resonance. Note: too much could break the sword and limit the timeframe on how long resonance can be used.]
Riven smirked as he gripped his sword. He could see the bar right in front of his face. Holding the wooden sword, he decided to fill the bar up by 20—but he couldn't see his resonance coming off the sword. So he upped it to 30. When that didn't work—40. Then, that's when he felt the change. He could see a white aura coming off like smoke from the sword. Riven then heard another prompt:
[System: Analyzing complete. New skill — Resonance Body Control. This allows the user to channel resonance into specific points of their body, making them stronger and giving them more energy to work with. Overuse may cause irreversible damage.]
Riven looked at his brother, who seemed to be having an easier time. He turned on the system for him whereby he could see he could just pick a body part, and his resonance would move to that part—but he still felt the strain of it moving around his body.
"Oh, now isn't this something? It's only been a few minutes, yet both of you were able to use what I was talking about after only one explanation. Hmm—just like your old man." Kaden had a proud expression, though he knew not even he had learned that fast.
Since they had a free space, Riven thought it was a great time to practice attacking with his resonance-infused weapon to get a good feel for it, so he charged toward his father, who easily dodged.
"Hey, calm down. If we break something and your mother finds out, that's both our asses!"
But Riven didn't hear him—he was amazed at how the wooden sword felt in his hand. It was light as a feather, but the hits didn't feel light. Riven stopped and backed off.
"Well, it's clear to me your primary weapon isn't a sword—at least I hope not—because you have no skill at all when it comes down to it."
But once again, the boy didn't hear his father.
"I wonder if it's already this—what would happen if I were to—" The white aura that Riven could see on the wooden sword started to gain a light purple tint. He then struck at his father. The man's face shifted from relaxed to one sensing danger coming his way. Riven's strike was as fast as lightning. Kaden blocked it with his forearm. Riven came back to his senses and realized what he did. "Dad, I'm sorry! I got lost in thought." The boy's words trailed off as he saw his arm was okay.
"It's okay, I'm fine. I'm actually proud of you—you're growing fast. Same goes for you," he said, looking at Jordan, whose eyes were glowing.
"He was able to use resonance as an outside shield, protecting him from most of the damage." This told Jordan there's more their father isn't telling them about resonance.