My mind was subsumed by a brilliant light flaring out of the arcane formation hovering in my imagination, symbols dancing and rearranging themselves into new and more powerful shapes. The flood of energy into my body thickened, forcing the mysterious passages in my mind to stretch and grow as they struggled to accommodate the influx, and then it was over as suddenly as it had begun. I was left with a sense of serenity and calm as my consciousness fled and sleep overcame me. This was an experience that had repeated itself at least once a year since the Celestial's book had first activated a few months after my birth, the formation of impossibly complex fractal-like shapes growing and evolving, as if moving ever nearer to an ideal embodiment of everything true and right within all of creation!
Or something like that, anyway. Whatever; it was impossible for me to really know what was happening. All I could do was try to come up with neat-sounding theories.
Either way, I was able to confirm at least one of the effects of the random 'breakthrough' events that happened to me every now and then: My rate of CP generation would exactly double each time! Whatever the crazy fractal symbol thingies were, they were almost certainly responsible for my ability to absorb the energy of the universe (aka qi, chi, manna, and now aka CP using my internal naming scheme) when I slept.
I had no idea if the increases were due to my physical growth (maybe younger children could handle less energy - it had been pretty painful the first time, after all), some outside force (perhaps it was due to some kinda 'update' that was sent over the cosmic 'radio waves,' which sounded dumb but could be real since there were probably a ton of wacky cultivation thingies out there), or if the energy-gathering magic shapes were simply expanding on their own (mayhap even growing like a plant, where the book that had been 'sowed' in my mind was in truth a 'seed' of cultivation) because... well, who knows?
... And the point of that rant was to illustrate the reason I had given up trying to figure out why it was happening, and just tried to accept that it was, indeed, happening. I had run myself round and round in pointless circles too many times to count already, thank you very much.
After I woke up I confirmed that the growth in my CP accumulation rate had yet again doubled, which meant that it was currently experiencing exponential growth! This was great news for me, as my ongoing work in developing my System was constantly requiring more and more energy to build and refine. Over the years I added a bunch of cool features that helped me figure out how to get conflicting abilities and powers to work together, as well as synergize complimentary sets to be able to accomplish more than the sum of their parts. The vast majority were much more expensive than I could afford right now, costing tens of thousands of CP at a minimum for some of the more exotic abilities like [Flight] and [Regeneration], but I was able to continuously lower the costs as I built up my understanding of how they might work in a 'realistic' evidence-based scientific model.
In truth, I probably shouldn't say 'realistic,' because, to be honest, there was very little that was actually 'realistic' about having access to a freaking magical power source that allowed me to alter the laws of physics on a sub-atomic level like my CP could, but... hey, we play the cards we are dealt, right?
[Flight] was a great example of how my System worked. My first attempt at the 'Superman-style' of magical non-Newtonian flight (as in, a flight power that ignores Newton's laws completely) came in at nearly a hundred thousand CP for each mile per hour, meaning that it would cost me around four hundred thousand CP to be able to fly at the same speed my mother could walk. Not a great value-for-money kinda option... and while the cost scaled linearly (a few million CP to fly as fast as a city bus), there were no protections against the dangers of wind resistance built into the power, not to mention crashing into buildings, getting plastered by bugs, or freezing to death while suffocating in the cold vacuum of space.
To put the numbers into perspective, my CP generation rate was currently around eighty-eight points per year (after having already doubled a few times), meaning that if the doubling continued forever I would be able to afford something like that when I was maybe twenty years old or so... which felt like forever at the moment! There was no way I could wait that long! And to make matters worse, I had a strong suspicion that the energy-gathering formation was building towards something, which meant that it might eventually reach its 'final form' and the rate could stabilize.
The solution, of course, was science. Even allowing [Flight] to adhere to basic Newtonian physics (including the laws governing acceleration and inertia, so no more stopping on a dime while flying faster than a speeding bullet) reduced the cost by a factor of five, and coming up with a power source that actually provided the thrust lowered it even more! An 'Iron-Man' like system with thrust generators located in the hands and feet, for example, dropped the cost to roughly three thousand CP for each mile per hour - with most of the CP going towards creating a power source and safely modifying my appendages.
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From there I was able to refine it even further, by spending a few weeks designing an (admittedly magical) biological system that was able to spark a focused fusion reaction with the nitrogen in the air (I didn't want to risk burning oxygen and suffocating indoors) and use that to provide thrust. It required a lot of separate sub-systems to make it work without risking serious injury, but luckily the gift I had gotten from the Celestial was great at providing feedback related to health and safety. I hadn't even completed the design yet as I had moved onto different things (and I didn't know if I really wanted my forte to be 'bio-fusion'...) but initial estimates put the cost at only nine hundred CP per each MPH of speed, which was more than one hundred times cheaper than the initial cost! (Plus you could knock people back with the bio-fusion rockets, or light enemies on fire... hmm, perhaps I ought to revisit this one after all...)
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The sound of bells rang across the market as I was out shopping with Mom, laden with as many bags as my small frame could carry as I tottered around behind her. The bells were more subdued and had a different tone than the ones I had first heard a few years ago on the night of the shadow-wolf attack, but there was a sense of urgency to them nevertheless. I had heard this particular ringing a few times throughout my short life, but we had already been at home when it happened so the instructions of 'seek shelter, stay indoors' hadn't had much meaning for us.
"Bloody beasts!" Mom let out a curse, quickly swiveling towards me and looking around as if expecting something. "Drop the food, Heller! We can come back for the bags later."
She quickly followed her own advice, dropping the few items she was carrying. Gasp! Mom, how could you! What if our food got stepped on, or someone took it? This was dinner for tonight, breakfast and lunch for tomorrow, and I am a hungry growing boy! Was my little life really worth more than this delicious, nutritious food?
... I suspect my answer to that would largely depend on how hungry I was feeling at the time, but Mother showed no hesitation as she rushed over to me and knocked the bags I had been balancing onto the cobblestones at our feet. No, what have you done? The humanity!!
The rest of the people in the market were quickly closing up shop (for the vendors) or rushing for shelter (for the customers), with only a few of them sparing a glance at us as I gaped forlornly at the spilled groceries that we had already bought and paid for (including the sweet purple tubers that Mom had promised to fry for me!) and she pulled me by the hand towards the nearest building. Was this really so dangerous? Nobody seemed to be all that freaked out, and the few times this had happened in the past Jaws had simply chuckled and shaken his head when we had asked if there had been any issues at the Smithy (which was at the edge of the village, and therefore technically at much greater risk from minor beast attacks like this).
Abruptly a shadow passed overhead, blocking out the sun for only the briefest of moments, and I heard a scream from right behind us. I turned in place, nearly making both myself and my mother stumble as she continued pulling me forwards, and saw two large red bird-like creatures, each about the size of a large raven. One landed near our spilled groceries and started tearing apart one of the bags, and I gasped out loud this time as I saw one of my precious tubers fall out. Die, devil-bird! I was seriously about to scream a war cry and charge into battle when I saw that the second bird was after a far more precious cargo; the baby strapped to the back of a woman nearby.
She had still been holding onto her heavy shopping bags when the birds descended, although they were now strewn all across the street as she struggled to reach back and protect her child. She had clearly been far less decisive and quick acting than we had been, and I didn't even know if Mom had noticed what was going on since she was still tugging on my hand. Forgetting all about my tubers, I jerked my hand free and threw myself at the bird that was still flapping madly on the woman's back while it tugged at the bundled-up form of her baby and pecked at the cloth strap on her shoulder.
Luckily she wasn't very tall, and I was relatively tall and athletic for my age, so I was able to leap upwards to grasp one of its talons in my right hand and a fist full of feathers in my left as I straight away activated [Minor Shock] at maximum power. The monster bird began jerking in my hands and let out a loud squawk of pain as the electrical current flowing through its lower body forced it to let go of the woman's back, but it was still able to aim a vicious peck at my head. I flinched as my [Weak Forcefield] snapped into place just in time to tank the blow, exactly as it had been designed... but I felt the drain as a discrete message popped up and alerted me that nearly a full third of the forcefields energy had been used up in that single hit.
I tumbled to the ground with the red avian monstrosity, its beak still wet from the woman's blood where it had been tearing at her shoulder. Now that I had it down on the ground with me it was easier to hug it close so that it couldn't maneuver its sharp beak into position to peck at me again, but I was getting smashed by its wings as its talons tore at my clothes. Only the strongest hits activated my protective shield (again, as designed) since I wasn't supposed to have a protective shield and it was meant to stay hidden unless the incoming attack was life-threatening, or targeted one of my sensory or vital organs (eyes, ears, heart, etc). I could already see smoke starting to come off the monster as I pumped more and more electrical current through it, and its flailing attacks were more the final struggle of a dying beast than a coordinated assault - it would be dead long before my forcefield fell.
Then I heard two voices call out, almost in unison.
"Blessed Chosen of Fate, watch out!"
"Heller, NO! Heavenward Flame, save him!"
Simultaneously, I noticed the second monster bird flying straight towards me, the purple tubers forgotten as-
-Wait... what did she say? No... hang on, what did she say!?
And then my world exploded in fire.