Time sped by for Cronix. He wasn’t aware of what he felt or heard. His eyes weren’t able to see, and despite the number of people surrounding him or the changing environments, he didn’t smell, or taste anything.
His mind was empty, everything was so disjointed.
It wasn’t until a throbbing pain originating from his head which felt like a combination of pressure trying to blow open his skull and his horns being ripped off that Cronix was finally able to form segments of thoughts.
But those mainly consisted of silent cries as the throbbing pain contracted and expanded, each movement slowly increasing the area of pain,
The first cohesive thought that came into Cronix’s mind was the ice wraith, as that was the usual source of his head pains, but he knew this wasn’t the ice wraith. This was different.
The ice wraith felt like someone was squeezing his head while being frozen, which felt completely different from this type of pain.
A hand brushed Cronix’s forehead, it must’ve been there for a while since the area suddenly started feeling cold.
He desperately tried lifting his eyelids to find out whose hand was touching him, but quickly found out he could barely make them twitch.
Even after all this time, I’m still completely helpless in this situation.
Memories of his first awakening in the forest clearing flooded his mind.
Is the pendant going to work like last time or is the formation going to malfunction? Did Mr. Ezerta know this was going to happen, is that why he sent me out? Did he expect me to know how to deal with this?
Outside Cronix’s head, four people surrounded the unconscious boy in the living room. The one with light blue hair leaned over to the boy with the black and white hair, and whispered, "Hey Cayden, did you see his eyelids twitch?”
Cayden glanced at Cronix and shook his head.
“Well, I think he’s dreaming.” Lapsa said with a smile, “I wonder if we’re in it.”
Cayden smiled back and flicked the kid's forehead, “This is serious, this isn’t the time to be joking around.”
“Well, this should be the best time to joke around, and I mean come on, it’s Cronix, he’s been collapsing ever since we’ve got here, I don’t think we should worry too much,” Lapsa replied, then muttered, “I’m starting to think it’s the purple.”
Cayden decided to ignore him and shifted his attention to the lady next to Cronix, she was part of the group that recently moved into the Potpourri residences.
They introduced themselves as a part of an organization called the Orzen Mercenaries and she was the most experienced member of the trio that arrived as well as their self-appointed medic.
“Ms. Yune, have you found anything yet?” Cayden asked.
The Orzen Mercenary member tilted her head back and forth as if weighing a decision, when she finally opened her mouth, she replied with a question, “I don’t think there’s anything physically wrong with him, but is your friend into mental energy refinement?”
Cayden looked at her confused, and Lapsa was about to nod his head, when the fourth person in the room, who was behind Ms. Yune, frantically shook both her head and hands to shut them up.
Lapsa frowned at her, it was already strange for Wendril to stick around them for so long, but she’s been watching Lapsa’s trio and this new group like a hawk ever since they met.
Cayden made eye contact with her and sighed, he replied, “You should ask Wendril.” before closing his eyes and slowly turning away from Ms. Yune to withdraw from the conversation.
Wendril smiled, and asked, “Is there any reason you’re interested in that, Madame Yune?”
Ms. Yune glanced at Wendril and raised a brow. Wendril slightly shrunk under the look but quickly regained her composure.
Ms. Yune slightly chuckled, and began explaining, “Because like I said, there’s nothing physically wrong with him. I doubt this was a stress reaction considering how he collapsed, and can you feel anything wrong with his magical energy?”
Wendril frowned and focused on Cronix’s body. With Cayden’s permission, and under his and Lapsa’s eyes, Ms. Yune was already allowed and already did partially remove the cloak, only leaving the hood, which the two other boys wouldn’t compromise on.
So Wendril didn’t have anything to block her senses from feeling any type of spikes or movements from Cronix’s magical energy.
But she didn’t feel anything. There were no abnormal rhythms nor weird fluctuations, everything was absolutely normal with his energy.
Wendril looked back at Ms. Yune and told her, “I don’t feel anything. Should I call Madame Potpourri, she’s already in the Core Creation stage, she should be able to find anything wrong?”
Ms. Yune shook her head, “We don’t need to bother the madame because you’re right, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with his magic.”
Cayden quickly realized what she was implying and exclaimed, “His auto-defenses!”
“Exactly,” Ms. Yune clarified, “His magic would’ve done something, even if it was only a stress reaction. That means there are only two reasons why this kid could be like this.”
Ms. Yune put a finger up, “One, is that there is a substance or energy that’s so well hidden none of us, not even his own magic can tell what’s wrong, which would mean there’s nothing I can do and he’s as good as dead.”
She then put up a second finger, “Or, everything that’s going on is internal and his magic can’t do anything, which is common for people who made a breakthrough in their mental energy.”
Ms. Yune turned away from Wendril, and looked back at Cayden, “So which one do you think it is?”
“He’s making a breakthrough.” Cayden Answered, slightly relaxing, but not completely since he still needed to know “Is there anything we can do to help?”
Ms. Yune paused and slowly shook her head, “Usually preparations for these scenarios are done beforehand, and it’s harder to give him anything since, as a Caster, he still needs his airways to breathe and I’m not trained for bypassing that.”
Cayden frowned, and asked, “Don’t you have equipment or something?”
Ms. Yune shook her head, “I’m not actually a doctor or anything like that, I just know the most about this type of stuff compared to the rest in my group, and most of what I know is for the higher stages.”
Cayden blankly stared at her, then turned his attention to Wendril, and raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t look at me like that, this is the only person we have on hand right now, you should be grateful she’s even here.”
With a sigh, Cayden nodded and collapsed on the couch next to Cronix, “It’s frustrating when you know there’s nothing you can do.”
The room became uncomfortably silent, so much so that Lapsa began fidgeting with the surrounding elements.
He twirled them around his fingers, creating a slight breeze as they flew by and collecting dust along the way. It started with only a few particles, but as Lapsa expanded his area of activity, his breeze gained a faint streak.
His dust cloud circled the room, eventually going across Cronix’s body. When it brushed past his face, Cronix began exhaling harshly through his nose.
Lapsa cursed under his breath and rushed to move the cloud away, but the dust was already moving away from Cronix. Instead, they gathered and hardened into a ball near one of Cayden’s hands, zig-zagging through his fingers.
Once they were solid enough to not break apart on their own, Cayden flicked it at Lapsa.
Lapsa reactively intercepted it with his original cloud, now shaped like a funnel, and sent it back towards Cayden, who let it reach about an inch away from between his eyes, before launching it away.
Now in more control, Lapsa made a small crescent-shaped wind, having it fan away the dust ball. However, instead of flying in Cayden’s direction, it went off course and headed in Wendril’s direction.
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Wendril glanced at the incoming dust ball, and like a ping pong, she used the water elements to whack the dust ball back to Lapsa.
Ms. Yune watched all this unfold, but her attention mainly focused on the one lying on the couch, who thankfully stopped coughing, she watched as his eye twitched ever so slightly.
A small idea started forming in her mind when Cronix first began coughing and took shape when he stopped.
“Ms. Tyii.”
Wendril perked up at the call of her name and looked at Ms. Yune, her eyes asking why she was called.
“I’m going to be right back, I have a small idea of what we should do, but I need my bag.” Wendril nodded, and Ms. Yune got up and left the residence.
The residence where she and her group were staying was across the property, away from the three boys and the strangely destroyed building near them.
After a few minutes of walking, she arrived at another purple residence, its structure and layout resembling the one she was just at.
She dug up the key from her pocket and unlocked the door. The moment she entered, she was greeted by the sounds of voices, except, they weren’t greeting her. They weren’t even talking to her. They were yelling at each other.
Ms. Yune ignored them and went for the stairs, but the voices weren’t going to ignore her. “Urena, what do you think?” Ms. Yune looked at the girl who called her name, this being her younger sister and the one who found Cronix, Abigail.
Ms. Yune sighed and asked, “About what?”
“She’s trying to trade away everything we own.” A man’s voice answered her.
“I’m not!” Abigail glared at the man, “I just think we don’t need to fight for the focuser game tickets, instead we can buy them. I found someone willing to sell us their tickets.”
The man laughed and said, “Tell her about the price.”
“Shut up, Makan!” Abagail glared at him and sighed, “It’ll cost 10,000 crystals… For each.”
“10,000!” Makan repeated.
Ms. Yune glanced at Makan, then looked back at her sister. Abigail continued, “Okay, I know how it sounds but if we move things around, and sell some of our supplies, we could afford it. And think about it, if we don’t fight, we have an element of surprise in any future fights during the focuser game.”
She quickly went silent after saying her piece, and both Makan and her waited for Ms. Yune to finally settle this disagreement.
“Abigail, after we pay for everything, how do you propose we continue paying rent for this place?”
“Rent?” Abagail frowned and said,” I thought we were going to leave O’Kairo after the focuser game.”
“We were, but then we ran out of money so we couldn’t afford the transportation unless, of course, you’re suggesting we go to Klavor.“
Abigail’s eyes widened, “No, no, no, um… I actually think fighting here is good. In fact, it’s a great idea. Makan why are you so stupid, why would we ever waste money buying focuser tickets?” And then she quickly rushed away.
Makan rubbed the back of his neck, and looked at Ms. Yune, “Not even I would joke about going to Klavor right now, even the Gamma family is getting involved. There are even rumors that an Ayuna killed one of the Gamma’s higher-ups.”
“Makan, I think you should stop listening to gossip, and follow me, I need your help,” Abigail said while going up the stairs.
“Gossip?” Makan repeated, “This is world news, it’s how you stay informed. What do you even need help with?”
“I need to make a powdered energy concentrator.”
“Wendril, how long is she going to take?”
“Just be patient Cayden,” Wendril assured, slightly getting annoyed.
Lapsa glanced at them before looking back at Cronix. He didn’t know why, but it bothered him whenever Cronix’s eyelids would twitch.
With mental energy, it felt easier to control your body, even Lapsa, who barely started practicing mental energy faintly felt this, so why couldn’t Cronix, who had been practicing it for much longer, wake up?
It was like the twitching eyes were a message.
Thankfully, he didn’t have to think about it much longer, because the door swung open, and in came Ms. Yune, followed behind by a tall man wearing the same jacket as her.
The dark elements surrounding Lapsa’s body fluctuate.
“Yeah, I know, there’s too many people in this place.” He muttered while patting the element.
Ms. Yune shook a small bag of a green powder, and said to Wendril, “This is what he needs.”
“What is it?” Cayden asked.
“It’s an energy concentrator,” The man behind Ms. Yune answered.
Wendril frowned and asked, “Why does he need that?”
The man looked at Ms. Yune, she didn’t exactly clarify the details with him either.
“It’s to center his power or energy into his head, hopefully, that does something.” Ms. Yune said and approached Cronix, but Cayden quickly blocked her way, with his hands up.
“Woah, woah, woah, what do you mean by head, do we have to take off the hood for this?”
Wendril stifled a laugh with her head down, “That’s what you’re concerned about?”
Behind Ms. Yune, Makan frowned. He was about to say something when he noticed the darkness covering Cayden’s body. He then took a peek at Lapsa and saw the same with him. His eyes narrowed, and he suddenly didn’t want to be here. Something felt wrong, really wrong.
His hand twitched and the earth elements in the area spiked. Cayden looked away from Ms. Yune and looked at Makan, the earth elements again fluctuated.
“What the hell are you doing?” Ms. Yune glared at the man behind her.
Makan looked at her confused, “What…? Oh shit!” He finally realized what his thoughts were doing and the ruckus he was causing, “I’m so sorry.”
Cayden didn’t relax nor did he disperse the elements he gathered. Lapsa remained sitting where he was, but the wind elements were surrounding both him and the unconscious Cronix.
A hand landed on Cayden’s shoulder and Wendril’s voice softly whispered, “Calm down, this is the Potpourri Residences and you’re our guests, no one’s going to hurt you guys here. If they try anything Madame Potpourri would put them put them six feet under.”
Cayden glanced at her before sighing and finally releasing his elements.
Ms. Yune thought this was probably the best time to speak, “Don’t worry Cayden, all I need him to do is breathe the concentrator in, the cloak doesn’t have to move an inch.”
Cayden silently nodded and moved out of the way, allowing Ms. Yune through. Ms. Yune walked forward but she didn’t directly go for Cronix, instead, she stopped by Lapsa.
“You can use air magic, right? Can you release this into the air around his nose?” She asked, passing along the green powder.
Lapsa glanced at Cayden before nodding and taking the bag. He dumped the powder into a small torrent of air above his hand, letting it blow above Cronix.
They all watched as he breathed in and out, the green dust entering his nose along with the air.
“What are you expecting to happen?” Makan asked Ms. Yune as they watched the rest of the green particles settle into a cloud around Cronix’s nose, “Why an energy concentrator?”
Ms. Yune watched Cronix breathe in the air, before saying, “I heard that it’s very dangerous when people make a mental energy breakthrough since their mental energy leaves the body and everything just stops for them. Well, look at him, it’s obvious there’s still some mental energy left.”
Makan frowned, and said, “So what, do you think just because this kid is still breathing or something that he’s having trouble with a breakthrough? I don’t think they literally mean everything stops working for them, and how do you know if you’re wrong?”
“If his magic power begins acting up, then I was wrong.” Ms. Yune calmly said, “We’ll then have to give him a constant supply of magic power to make sure it doesn’t all gather into his head, and of course, I’ll have to jumpstart his heart.”
“His… His heart? Oh my gosh, you’re going to kill this kid.” Makan rubbed his face and kept one eye on Cronix at all times.
“You’re one to talk after that stunt you just pulled,” Ms. Yune retorted, “What were you thinking?”
Makan uncomfortably moved his body, “That was an accident, I just got lost in my thoughts, and can you blame me? Look at them, they’re obviously hiding something.”
“And that something isn’t any of our business, We already decided we were going to help them, why would anything else matter right now?”
“I don’t know,” Makan shrugged, “I already said I was sorry, let’s just move on.”
Under the dark element cloak, Cayden’s ears twitched and he fidgeted with his rings, “It’s too late to turn back now.” He muttered.
Suddenly Lapsa gasped and he blew away the green powder, “No, No, No! He stopped breathing.”
Makan glanced at Ms. Yune and mumbled “Let’s see if you were right,”
Inside Cronix’s body, his external mental energy gathered throughout his form. There was an extremely thin, but present layer of it, surrounding him all over. It was how he was able to hear them all.
This layer gathered at his head, then disappeared with the energy concentrator, reappearing in his mental expanse where an entity in the shape of Cronix floated in a dormant state.
Several aspects of this ‘body’ were incomplete, the most obvious being the eyes. When the remaining external mental energy reentered the mental expanse, it filled up these spaces.
It started with the small patches of missing skin, before filling up a single toe, and finally, the eyes began forming onto Cronix’s ‘body’ and all outside senses came to an abrupt stop.
His ‘body’ remained in a free-floating state for a few more seconds before his own consciousness dawned on him.
Slowly as his sluggish mind cleared, Cronix outstretched his arm and flexed his fingers, wiggling them like it was a strange, new sensation.
His body also soon began fidgeting and twisting, and his legs were kicking. He felt like screaming as he moved, so he did.
S’kaw Unio, S’kaw Zhechon, un a pedra om..!
In an instant, all his movements stopped and the mental energy filling up the space fluctuated.
Cronix, wrong language, you idiot. We were so good for three years, why’d you have to mess up now? What a killjoy.
With all the excitement gone from his body, Cronix was finally given the opportunity to look around his expanse.
At first, it was a small glance, not even a sweeping one, but that quickly turned into a double take followed by a quick intake of breath.
What did he see?
He saw emptiness and space. The little box that was his mental expanse was no more, instead, it felt more like an environment, an area for mental energy.
Still, it wasn’t too big, only around 3000 feet from one end to the other on all sides, but it no longer felt like a measly container. This could be a home, a place where things could be created, where his mental energy could roam free.
The ice wraith floated in the center of it all, its hunger more uncontrollable than ever before, yet it didn’t bother him. The expanse remained stable, unaffected by anything the wraith was doing.
In one of the far corners, the red string cage of memories remained, surprisingly the area was very barren when it came to mental energy presence.
This… This was a mental energy breakthrough!