With a start Kye jolted awake and sat up. He looked at his left shoulder to find that his arm that was cut off was now reattached. While he felt fatigued, all the pain in his body was gone. Thanatos sat next to Kye in a meditative trance. He opened one of his closed eyes to look at Kye.

"So, you're finally awake. How are you feeling?"

"Really tired."

Thanatos just smiled and held out one of his hands palm up.

"Sit like I sit and lay your hand on top of mine, palm to palm."

Kye did as he was asked and took the same posture that Thanatos had. When he laid his palm against his, the first thing Kye thought was how cold Thanatos' skin was.

"Now, take some deep breaths and focus on circulating your mana around your body. Just like me, you have a pure dark mana core. This will become a benefit to you as you will be able to cast dark magic on a large scale easily so long as you have the base mana for it. Because our cores are pure, we can practice two things at once with high efficiency. We can practice control and expand our base mana well at the same time. I want you to gather a ball of dark mana in one of your hands, try to get it as small as you can."

Kye focused on creating a ball of pure dark mana in his left hand while his right still sat atop Thanatos' palm. The ball wasn't perfectly smooth and rippled unstably as Kye focused all his mind on keeping the dark mana in shape and not scattering to the wind. Thanatos moved his palm with Kye's still atop his own and raised it to the limt of Kye's arm length.

"Focus on both the ball and on your other palm. Try and absorb the energy flowing through the air and adapting it into your own."

Kye tried to do as Thanatos asked but the moment he took his focus off the ball, it dissapated into a fine black mist. Thanatos just nodded.

"That's okay, I want you to focus on doing this for the next four hours before you go to Hephaestus. Just try and eventually you'll get it. Eventually your body will adapt to what your mind wants it to be if you keep putting in the effort. Your body is your mind's temple, the temple is built to fit the king, not the other way around."

Thanatos nodded and walked away leaving Kye to his exercises. Kye's mind was constantly wracked with the fatigue of his physical training almsost like an ice cold wave crashing against the sea wall that was his sanity. Every moment that passed he wanted to give up and go to sleep, yet he didn't stop. Despite his tiredness and the strain of trying to use his mana channels to do two things at a time, Kye sat there holding the ball of dark mana in his hand and attempting to draw in more mana through his raised hand. He would lose the ball every now and then but would just reform it and continue on. Staying like this for the mandated 4 hours, Kye was shook out of his trance by Hephaestus.

"Time to do something a bit different."

She motioned to Kye to follow. Getting up and dusting the dirt off his trousers, Kye fell into step with Hephaestus as they walked away from the main house and to a small shed in the yard. Hephaestus unlocked the door and opened it to reveal a well kept workshop inside. There were benches for blueprinting and benches for assembily with various machining tools.

"You mentioned earlier that you were good with machines right? Well, I think fostering that talent is more important than simply testing your mental fortitude against the Eternal Flame. I want you to use this time to help me do some designs for devices and concepts that we come up with. Your first job is going to be studying."

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Hephaestus walked to a large bookshelf and took several large books off the shelf and placed them down in front of Kye.

"Read and absorb the knowledge in these books. If you have questions then ask me. Get to it."

Kye picked up a book with a title that read 'Using Magic Runes In Modern Machinery' and flicked it open to the first page. Setling in on a stool at one of the benches, Kye got to reading. He learned that by inscribing patterns with a mana retaining liquid medium, such as refined crystal essence, a rune that activates with trace amiounts of mana could be written. Kye wondered why they had to be rather intricate rune patterns and not something more logical like circuit board patterns, that way he might be able to influence the effects like you would code in a computer. While he was thinking about this, 5 hours had passed and Hephaestus tapped Kye on the shoulder.

"Times up kiddo. You got any questions?"

"Just one, why do runes have to be drawn like that when it would be more efficient to do them like circuits and stuff?"

"Well, the runes are based on an ancient language that gives them power, so these runes get discovered as people discipher them."

Kye's brows furrowed.

"Can I see some runes in action then?"

Hephaestus nodded.

"Tomorrow Kye, it's dinner and then Thanatos needs to teach you his restoration meditation. You did well today Kye."

Hephaestus ruffled his hair and they walked back into the main building where Kye would cook a simple meal of roast chicken and vegetables which everyone ate and complimented him on. Kye took a shower and threw his diried clothes into the washing hamper. There were large tears in the clothes but Hephaestus said she would take care of it. Changing into some more comfortable pijamas, Kye met up with Thanatos who was standing just outside his room. Nodding, they both entered and Thanatos sat cross legged on the bed and patted the spot next to him. Kye got up and copied Thanatos' pose and began listening to his instructions with his eyes closed.

"Now, what is the most comfortable memory you have, the one where you felt most wanted or loved?"

"Hmm... probably the memory of my Mum reading me a story just before bed. Dad used to walk in with three hot chocolates and they used to tell me stories about their exploits in the dungeon."

Thanatos smiled.

"Now, keep that memory in your head and begin to circulate your mana. Because it's dark mana, try and focus on the points in your body that hurt the most and imagine your dark mana enveloping the pain. We want to isolate it with our dark mana and then use the good memories of our past to help influence the effect of the mana. Remember this Kye, when raw mana is being used, the only things that matter are emotions and intent. Mana is every bit a part of our bodies as any else so your mind has great purchase over it."

Kye did as he was asked and unbeknownst to him, a dark aura began to radiate off his body. Thanatos just kept the small and gentle smile on his face as he watched Kye perfectly execute a very hard spiritual technique on his first attempt. While many may not associate a god of death with meditation, death is a very spiritual thing and through arts of enlightenment, much good can be found in the cycle of life and death. Thanatos is regarded as one of the most spiritual gods of death amongst all the pantheons that descended 400 years ago and through having many children blessed by him becoming powerful mages, he grew attached to techniques that aligned with his outlook and also helped develop those he blessed. Leaving Kye to his meditation, Thanatos left the room and gently closed the door behind him. Walking down the stairs he met up with his brother and sister who were sitting on the couches in the living room. Hephaestus looked at Thanatos.

"How'd it go Than, did it work?"

Thanatos nodded.

"Worked first time. While he may only be 10, his body's mana veins are exceptionally well developed."

"It's probably got something to do with whatever lessons he was having before, the kid had some sharp movements during the spar with myself earlier."

Ares chimed in. They all went silent before Hephaestus spoke up a bit more quietly than before.

"Is this really okay? I mean, he's just 10 years old. This kind of training breaks most of the kids who win the divinity war for heavens sake!"

Ares just shook his head.

"Doesn't matter sis. Kid has his heart set on it. You don't see that kind of resolve without reason."

"The young one is undoubtedly trying to live up to everyone elses expectations from what his parents have done. All we can do is support him and ensure he doesn't push himself past the brink."

Hephaestus just took a deep breath before letting out as a drawn out sigh.

"Then we better get ready to face the wrath of the parents once they know what we're doing. I can only imagine the look on their faces."

Both the brothers nodded. Kye's training was going to be tough on him. More than he could ever know in this current moment.