The spike in difficulty proved to be rather troublesome for Amon. He knew he had to build up even more speed, so he went for twice the rotations necessary to catch the first wisp. It was enough speed for him to capture one, but they moved independently of one another. When he moved toward one of them, the other one moved in a separate direction. If he got too far from one, it’d moved back into the circumference they created with him as the focal point, but they always stayed on opposite sides of him.

He could build up the speed, he just couldn’t reposition himself and switch directions to go towards the second wisp without diminishing his momentum.

It took a few failures for him to stop running head first into the problem. He was trying to solve the problem with brute force, which may have worked for some, but that wasn’t the kind of Player he wanted to be. He was supposed to be calm, cool, and collected at all times. He was supposed to be capable of accomplishing anything, that was the kind of character Amon needed to be.

He knew that the platforms responded to where he thought they should be for him to land safely, and they were also malleable, so he went for a different approach. When he built up speed and caught the first wisp, he imagined that there was another platform right beside it. This one, however, was a solid vertical pole that he gripped with his spare hand to spin on and quickly redirect himself. It was like a parkour puzzle!

He zipped past the second wisp and failed again. The solution was there, he just needed to practice it. He had no real experience with this stuff, so it wasn’t a blow to his confidence that it initially didn’t work. But, after a few more tries, he found himself capable of capturing both wisps with relative ease. His ability to gauge his momentum and intuitively understand where he would end up after bouncing off the walls was on par with the math that Captain America naturally understood when throwing his shield around.

“If I keep this up I think I’ll master my momentum, eldest sister. Thank you for this training.”

“That’s great, little brother, but that isn’t all this training is about.”

He was slightly vexed by what she said. Her tone told him that he was missing something, but he wasn’t sure what it was. He thought back to everything she’d told him since their training began, then back to what he saw when she had her brief altercation back in the courtyard, then what he was able to notice when they were fighting rather one sidedly. She could probably tell that he was on the cusp of a realization because she didn’t say anything to interrupt his thinking, she only watched him with a knowing smile.

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After almost a minute, he finally opened his mouth again. “Give me five wisps this time.”

She obliged and he began.

It wasn’t just about momentum, it was also about control. Absolute control, like what she displayed when she fought. He knew that this was an ideal style for Amon, to display the pinnacle of dominance and overwhelming ability on the battlefield. This time, he used the same tricks he’d already learned. The rotations. The elasticity. The poles. But, that wasn’t enough. He had to build on all of it.

His momentum was under his control, but what of the battlefield? He predicted the paths of the wisps and willed for platforms to appear where they were trying to run to, causing them to suddenly crash and have to shift. He even created walls out of the platforms that curved and funneled them exactly where he wanted them to go, so that he could reach the only place they had to escape to before they even realized they were playing into his hands.

He was having fun.

Once he successfully completed the challenge, he turned to his sister, who was watching him happily the entire time.

“Good job, little brother!” she beamed. He received a notification from the System, alerting him that he had acquired the skill Mana Platform and it was maxed out immediately. “This will be the foundation for the power you receive from me going forward.”

Words couldn’t express how grateful Amon was for Juno. She had done so much for him as soon as she met him just because they were family. “Oh, I never properly introduced myself. My name is Amon, eldest sister.”

She laughed softly and walked over to him, clasping his shoulder. “No it’s not, little brother. Your name is *&#%&^%^#.”

It felt like she had caused an error in the System, because what she said was absolute nonsense. It actually hurt for him to hear it, to the point where he was left with a headache and blood trickling out of his ears. She noticed the pain he was in and gave him an apologetic smile.

“Ah, I’m sorry, little brother. I seem to have made a mistake. Forget I said that, alright? You can be Amon for now.”

He was frustrated. How did she know who he was, the same way Mother did? There was something that he couldn’t see, something that he didn’t know. Were his memories of the world he came from, the world he was trying to get back to, even real? How could they be if entities of the Tower were more aware of his life than he was and that world wasn’t even a part of the Tower?

Was it a part of the Tower?

He pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind. That was the kind of information that would take him a while to obtain. He knew next to nothing about the Tower, he didn’t even know his own name for crying out loud! He had to focus on increasing his strength so that he could live the way he wanted since he had a feeling that the process of finding out more about himself would be a dangerous one filled with many powerful enemies. Hell, just surviving in the Tower when Juno wasn’t around would be challenging enough.

“What’s next?” he asked, wanting to shift his focus to something more concrete.

“Actual combat. I’ll teach you hand to hand until I’m satisfied with your results, then move on to whatever weapons you want to learn until your techniques are proficiently polished.”

“I want to learn every type of weapon so I can pick up anything and be a threat with it.”

Juno smiled harder than he’d ever seen her smile before. “I’d expect nothing less from my dearest little brother! You’re a true Alucard, just like me. Let’s get started then!”