Damien arrived in his room in great spirits. His mood was entirely lifted, forgetting of his impending doom.

“That was the most fun I ever had. I never knew just eating with friends can be a good time. With Grandpa it just became a normal routine. Also I can’t ever go back to eating normal food! That geezer has deprived me of many things but that is the last straw!”

As he was ranting to himself, he began to undress himself. Even though the uniform was made to fit perfectly and comfortably, nothing beat the feeling of his worn down sleepwear. It was the sense of familiarity that relaxed his mind to sleep.

He unbuttoned his uniform top, then took each of his arms out of the sleeves. As he folded it up ready to place it down, he felt a hard object in its pocket. For a quick moment he was surprised, but quickly remembered what it was. He took out a metallic cube with runes carved into it. He copied Cal’s movements from earlier today and inserted some of his mana.

“Sorry Kemo, I completely forgot about you. I promise to remember next time.”

Kemo unfolded itself and stared silently at Damien. After a few seconds he jumped off his hand and began inspecting every corner of the room. Damien let him do his things so he could get himself for sleep.

Without a shirt on he walked by his mirror and went back to it. He had noticed weird movements and thought he was just seeing things. He looked at himself closely through the mirror and noticed most of his body and muscles were twitching relentlessly. He did not feel anything problematic except the overwhelming sensation of energy coursing through him.

“It must be because of all that energy dense food I ate today. My body might not be used to it yet.”

Damien drew his own conclusions and decided to not worry since he didn’t feel any issues popping up. He completely changed into his sleepwear and dramatically dropped himself onto his bed. The suppleness of the mattress accepted him like a mother cradling her baby. He slowly waved in and out of consciousness. Even with all the energy going through him he felt completely exhausted.

After he fell asleep Kemo continued to go about his business. Eventually he started to move things around the room to his liking. By the time he was finished, the room was organized in a way that was optimally arranged for maximum space. Kemo was internally satisfied and made its way to the top of Damien’s chest. He shut himself down and closed down to a cube.

Damien’s relaxed body allowed the surging energies to go through intense and violent changes. His body greedily accepted the reforming of its structure like it had been begging to do so for a long time.

While his body changed without his knowledge, Damien was experiencing a surreal dream. Damien was in the sky amongst the heavens, flying to an unknown destination. He was able to admire the innumerable and magnificent wonders of the world. Nothing escaped his sight, every mystery and piece of knowledge was in the palm of his hands.

“This is it. This is what I wanted. I will never be caged again! Nothing will escape my knowledge!”

Damien relished in this feeling, bringing his arms out wide while looking up. He saw the night sky unfiltered and unbothered by any disturbances. Upon millions of resplendent celestial objects dotted the skies all the way down to the horizon. It lit up the night sky with its overwhelming demonstration of infinity. It was a new frontier of knowledge that could never be understood. It let Damien realize how incredibly and utterly impossible it is to truly know everything.

He shrunk his sight from the imposing true nature of his dream. He could only focus on what was below him; what felt possible. Surveying the world before him, his sight was drawn to a black circular object deep into the distance. On the rim of the object, dark red orange flares of energy pulsed wildly. With careful inspection the massive object headed straight to Damien.

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Damien felt an intense feeling of doom. He instinctively tried to fly away but no matter how hard he willed it, he could only stay put. In no time the object reached the space below him. The red orange flares extended out to his body slowly constricting him. He was now entangled completely with even his vision being covered.

The object suddenly dragged him down rapidly to the earth below him. Damien could only feel the violent force rushing him downward through the wind. The tentacles of energy brought Damien into its grasp, seemingly swallowing him whole. Every feeling disappeared leaving him an empty shell with nothing to do. He struggled with all his might to move just a single centimeter. With every bit of desperation he gained control of his movement and shocked himself awake.

He awoke in cold sweat breathing rapidly. The force of him leaping forward rattled the bed vigorously. Kemo in his cube form launched away bouncing around the floor. It was pitch black and the only sound left in the room was his own breath. He reached out his arms and moved his fingers around.

“I’m safe, it was just a bad dream. It felt so real. I thought I was eaten up!”

Damien pushed himself off the bed and flew a few feet forward with no control. He somersaulted in midair landing on his back. The hardwood floor was of no help to cushion his fall.

“That was weird. I think I’m still giddy from that dream and I’m using too much force.”

He turned his head on the floor catching sight of Kemo in the corner of his room. He remembered an object bouncing around moments after he woke up and realized he was the one who sent him off like a rocket.

Damien walked over to pick Kemo up and to make sure there was no damage done. Finding not a single scratch, he sighed from relief. He didn’t want the gift he received to be in a damaged state, it was too precious to him. He lightly tossed it back onto his cushioning bed knowing that it would land softly.

As it left his fingertips it screeched through the air slicing it apart. It hit the wall and bounced right off, continuously bouncing around the room with great force. It showed no sign of stopping so Damien tried his best to stop it in its tracks. After a few complete misses he directly got in the trajectory of it and was hit square on his back.

“That freaking hurt! What is it made of? And what’s wrong with me? I know I didn’t use any force.”

Surprisingly out of sheer luck, nothing was damaged or knocked over. With further precautions he laid Kemo down slowly on the bed and then checked the time.

“I got one more hour to kill. I might as well figure out what’s happening to me.”

He started off with a few experimental punches. He lightly punched his fist forward creating shockwaves. Nothing he did was with any real exertion but its power was scary. He tried observing his hand down to his arms and then his body. He took off his shirt and could not tell that anything had changed.

“Maybe something changed with my core?”

He immediately sat down in a meditative position and drowned his thoughts away. His breath became steadied and entered a rhythmic cycle. With this he was able to achieve his trancelike state that separated him from his emotions and worldly desires. He traversed his link to his core and found it to be exactly the same as it was. It floated in place mindlessly flickering its flames. Finding no answers to his change he checked the rest of his body while he was already in that state.

He went down into his mana circulatory pathway and found that his meridians grew twice the size they used to be. His meridians even gave off a resplendent shine like that of a pure gemstone. Every single part of his body that he checked seemed to be fortified and condensed. His muscle fibers were throbbing with unending energy releasing waves of heat.

“It’s like my body went through a qualitative change!”

After drawing some answers he brought his mind back to the world. He stood up and activated his self lit candles so he could inspect his outer appearance better.

“Woah. It looks so much more spacious than before. Everything has been moved and organized. It could have only been Kemo. Well never mind that, let’s try looking in the mirror.”

A youth with a bad case of nappy bed hair stared directly back at Damien. His frame was still on the thinner side and his muscles were still not developed enough. With closer examination he finally spotted the difference. His skin, which was usually fair, appeared to have a shade of healthy rosiness glowing out. It was a much healthier appearance than his usual shade.

The only thing he could think that would induce this change was the food he ate yesterday. His body was squirming about visibly to the naked eye right before he slept. He could only accept that cause and try to figure out what to do from now on.

“I’m going to need to control myself a lot more carefully now.”

For the next hour before he needed to leave he began to try to reconfigure his brain. He went through various physical sequences to establish his baseline. Slowly the time went by as he wreaked havoc on his room. His time expired and he quickly got himself dressed. He ran up to Kemo to activate him.

“Sorry Kemo, but can you clean up this mess for me? Thanks!”

Kemo watched Damien run out the door and slam it shut. Kemo steadily scanned his surroundings and stood still for a few moments. His lonely figure stood atop of the mountainous bed looking over at what appeared to be an apocalyptic wasteland. Kemo sat down and hung his head in despair.