The Rebirth

 “Now focus your mind and steady your breathing, do not allow your emotions to control you” the voice continued to instruct Asher.

Even though he was trying to do as instructed, Asher was a person driven by emotions; the more he tried to calm his emotions down the harder it was for him, only leading him to become frustrated with himself which ultimately led his emotions to become more chaotic.

Being a part of “The Book of slaughter” the image naturally experienced what the book experienced, it was able to peer into Asher’s memories and thoughts but what he saw only made him sigh.

“Emotions are…powerful, they can give us strength to do a lot of things, in your case it allows us to move on and survive, however, just as it can give us incredible strength, it can create an incredible weakness also.”

Choosing its words carefully in order to not agitate Asher’s situation further the voice continued on with its speech.

 “Emotions are created from mental and spiritual energy, mental energy is self-created… you create it from various influences such as your interaction with other people or your actions. Mortals are extremely weak minded creatures; they easily allow the words and actions of others to set their course in life…people such as your father and you’re ex-lover”

Hearing the mention of his father  and his ex-girlfriend, Asher’s emotion’s became even more mixed and frantic than before, but those complex emotions died down as soon as his memories of these two surfaced, the various emotions were replaced by another instantly, what Asher felt was rage, almost uncontrollable rage.

“But…what you feel currently is also the influence of those people, you rage because you are angry at them but more so because you are angry at yourself for being too weak to oppose your father and too weak to hold on to her, just like how you hate yourself for not being able to protect that old man over there, you are angry because you were too weak to protect him”

The voice continued in an unemotional and indifferent manor

“This world has changed…if you want to survive then you need strength, if you want strength then you cannot allow your mental energy to be influenced by others, calm your mind and focus”

After hearing what the voice said Asher’s mind was gradually able to calm down, his pained face relaxed a bit and his breathing was no longer erratic.

“Good you’ve calmed down a bit…The other half of emotions come from your spiritual energy; spiritual energy is unique to every individual and unlike mental energy it is not easy to influence, but at the same point in time it is the hardest to control. Emotions created by spiritual energy is the most primal type of emotions, emotions such as love and anger”

Said the voice

“Your spiritual energy is stronger than the average mortal, therefore your primal emotions are stronger especially anger…it seems to be a driving force for you, you need to be careful of this, being blinded by primal emotions will only lead to your own destruction”

While the voice was explaining all this Asher had calmed down, the pain had resided, his mind was no longer chaotic and his emotions had returned to normal, seeing that he had calmed the voice continued on

“Steady your breathing and focus your mind on the circle created by you right hand”

Doing as he was told Asher steadied his breathing and began to focus on the circle in his hands, once he did so he felt a weird sensation surrounding his body, with every breath it felt as if needles were piercing into every pore of his body, but he rather than pain he felt extreme comfort, as he breathed in he felt as if he was being pierced, but once he breathed out he felt like his body was becoming lighter and more relaxed.

“This breathing technique is called “The Rebirth”, it observes the surrounding natural energy into your body, which it uses to nurture and purify your body. Mortals are originally created with bodies freed from the impurities of the world, however, due to how polluted the natural energy of this world has become your bodies are plagued with impurities. Since the body is the foundation of everything, once your foundation is polluted by impurities, it hinders everything from using your body to its full potential too feeling the natural state of the universe around you.”

The cold indifferent voice from before slightly changed and even though it was a slight change one could still tell the disdain that was in his voice as he spoke about impurities and the state of the body.

“The Rebirth breathing technique will help you strength your body, right now it’s weak, the first thing that will be strengthened is your bone structure…your bones are the pillars that hold your body together, if the pillars are not strong naturally the structure they support will be weak. Strengthening your bones is the first step, after that comes your skin, the skin is the first and the most important level of defence when it comes to the body, once the skin is broken the body becomes opened to attacks of various sources, such as poison and infections among many others. Once you have completed these two steps I will explain the other steps to you, if you cannot so much as finish these two steps within a month, then there is no point in thinking about the rest.”

Asher did not respond to the voice he quietly practiced what he was told, in fact he barely heard what was said to him, he was lost in the feeling his body was currently experiencing. Before he was exhausted by the previous events but all that disappeared, his mind was at peace even if it was only briefly and his body was free of its previous tension.

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As he continued with the breathing technique, he found out that he could redirect the energy that his body was currently observing, however, he decided not to do so and let it flow naturally into him unobstructed. While paying attention to the energy flow he suddenly heard the voice say

“I’m returning to “The Book of Slaughter” it’s to tiring talking to you for so long, I will come back out every now and then to check on your progress, do not disappoint me and remember, you have a month to complete the first two steps, I can tell you from now that meditating to observe the natural energy of the world will not be enough to help you complete your task, your best option is continuous battle, you have that medal on your chest, put it to good use…OH! And before I forget the ring on your finger is a gift from me, what is inside is a gift from sister, I won’t tell you how to use the ring figure it out yourself…HAHA”

Asher heard the laugh and could not tell if it was the same indifferent voice from before or not, the sudden loud laughter was just too much of a 180 turn from his initial impression that he honestly did not even take it serious.

“Wait…who are you? And what’s this book you keep talking about as for that matter where are you even speaking to me from?”

Asher finally spoke asking out loud.

“…I really overestimated your mental level “sigh” focus and the flow of energy and follow it, it will lead you to your consciousness, you will find the book there, I will be in the book and for the time being you can just call me Kanada.”

With that the voice faded, Asher asked a few more questions but since the voice never replied to him, he could only sigh and give up, he relaxed his body and leaned against the wall staring up at the ceiling of the room, he sound still hear a faint cracking noise coming from inside his body but he could also tell that his body was slowly changing, he could not exactly describe what he was feeling, but his instincts told him that he was slowly getting stronger.

He then crossed his legs and once again assumed the meditation position for “The Rebirth” breathing technique. Asher felt the flow of energy entering him again and once more felt the comforting prickling feeling that he had felt when he first preformed the technique, losing himself to the warmth and comfort, he began to follow the flow of energy in his body. The flow was similar to a large river of white lights flowing into his body through his mouth and gathered in his chest, then slowly began to flow towards his skeletal frame refining it. However, Asher noticed something else that piqued his curiosity, the position where the energy had gathered was located right where the Golden Medal was located.

This made Asher even more curious as to what the medal actually was, from his brief inspection of the other two dead bodies around him and the mention of it by Kanada, he could easily tell that it was something not common, but to what degree he was unsure.

“heh maybe I just became the main character of some novel”

Asher commented in his heart with a self-ridiculing smile, when has his luck ever been so good, but still what was happening to him, he had no way of answering that, but what he did know was that his life would never again be the same.

Thanks to his memories being forced to the surface he couldn’t help but think of his family, well not that they were much of a family to him, he hadn’t spoken to any of them for the past 6 years, they never made any attempt to contact him and he did the same, it was better that way, the more they stayed out of his way and the more he stayed out of their way the better for everyone, his relationship with them was farm to volatile.

He also couldn’t help but think of his ex, was she alright and safe, or was she scared and alone

“Yea right… she’s probably better off than you right now you idiot” he said to himself.

Pushing all the useless thoughts out of his mind, he followed the energy flow into the center, the bright river enveloped him.

Swish!

The lights flew past him and completely disappeared, he was standing in a completely black space, the blackness seemed to go on forever without any end and any light, but rather than feeling scared he felt at home, he felt extremely familiar with this place, even though the darkness went on for what seemed like forever, he still felt as if he knew every inch and corner of this endless void, that was why he was immediately able to locate two foreign items that were never there originally.

With just a simple thought the endless void began to move, he still stood there motionless but the space around him shifted to his will and within a breath a giant book appeared in front of him, it had a brown leather cover, but it was no longer bound by the black hair. Asher reached out to touch it and discovered that even though the cover was leather, it felt as soft as feather and was smooth to the touch. He closed his eyes and focused on the book

Bizz!

The moment he focused onto the book a buzzing sound resounded in his ear and then followed by a surge of energy that ran through his entire body, but he did not feel any discomfort, Asher’s eyes snapped open, he did not know what just happened but the book in front of him no longer felt foreign, it was as if the book was a part of him all his life

“Good boy good, it seems you did not disappoint old Kana and sister after all”