Elevation, the connotation was altitude and flight, or very low mass and density, a combination of these things was all true of the elevated state. All ones mass remained however, and though ones physical density acted and seemed lowered in the state, the reality was altogether the opposite. One was far more durable in every way, and above normal material interaction.
The bodies matter went through a process of excitation to reach the elevation state, as molecularly, they began to speed up to all the intensities of a superheated gas. Ascension took the process on to what was more of a plasmatic state, where energy volume, frequential stability, and sound intensity all were increased. Nobody had come to ask whose manifestation had gone so wrong, if I had been noticed for the ascension process.
It mostly changed the body another way compared to elevation. Ascension meant that your spirit would hold on better to an increasingly more damaged body, whose survivability had been increased. One needed the ability to be able to bring their vessel about to a state where it would be able to handle far greater damage and cope. Physically and psychologically, as bodily conditioning alone was not sufficient to much by itself. Minds, or psyche, the mental and emotional was also a part of everything one did.
Aerich had been the one to sense this, as paladins were most common to it, and he'd known someone entered that state immediately. Tears had been upon his face nearing me in proximity, as he'd never felt a more clear and clean, succinct and subtle process. To him it was concern that brought him running from the training grounds for pages to the academy, knowing that he was familiar with the individual, if not their identity.
Later he decided it was because I was young, but when running towards us he had thought a knight had raised his state, and the closer he had come the more he became aware of how weak and fragile yours truly felt. After a few minutes of seeing me, it had only gotten worse, and the man became aggrieved that I should be seeming to become weaker instead of stronger. To be fair his instinct to protect was being irritated, and it did so more as time went on, sharpness and repetition of the calls for him to protect increasing both, at once.
After awhile, he had grown angry enough to seek to strike me with everything, but just before he could do so all of so much happened in one moment. 'The crescendo of volume and intensity, of the repeating pulses volumes, and the pulsated sharp intensities made a single sound that reached him through berserk madness that had already long blacked out his minds ability to think or reason.' His experience was only his own.
After it, he'd hit his knees in awe at once, then was weeping like a wretch who'd known nothing and just glimpsed everything right before death and would never do more than glimpse it. He'd decided in that moment to take me as his squire, but was too overcome with emotion, and I wouldn't know it until the paladin who'd been my sponsor before sent me word he'd yielded my charge to Aerich the next day.
What I'd felt was subtle, it startled me. The feeling was so subtle, yet sudden, then gone, I could scarcely attribute the word startling to it only because that was my reaction. A tap to the philosophers stone, my minds eye, the eye of my heart. Another succinction, so brief and lucid you would yourself doubt it, but that you knew it occurred. I'd felt that as Aerich looked still to me, but he'd been close the instant that tap was over, so I figured he had done it.
Kostya had been nearby inspecting the phantom sun, when all at once it was gone, and a mule was there instead. He wept too, but bittersweet, laughing and crying over the mule like it was a long, lost, loved relative. I figured them both for crying over the mule then. There was no reason for me to think otherwise. "Who is she, Kostya? Why are you two so moved?" I'd asked, trying to harden my heart reflexively for a somber tale, or true tragedy.
"A majestic-mule. They were extinct, but the prime first and last of them are always female, and can birth of themselves with infinite genetic potential all of their lives. They were eradicated in mankinds attempts to control them in antiquity, controls lines blurred as desire to control their advantage would wax and wane, as those thinking they would lose the advantage they ultimately gained destroyed it. Mans folly and fallacy, the majestic-mule!
"Heavenly-horses, divine-donkeys, origin-oxen, celestial-camels, they're called 'Gods Gifts of Grace' but with the fifth species missing so long, and with the most versatile of them gone the, that title was missing much of its meaning in many meaningful ways. She'll give birth to hundreds of her species, each a healthy and unique genetic specimen, and of them every one will be unfit to be equated to a relative of the other.
"Each new generation will lose some of her endless genetic potential, so imbreeding will be possible within a dozen generations, but until those mules are born there can be no such occurrences. She'll also oulive most of her descendants." There was too much in his statement for me to respond to right away, but such a mule was clearly worth the emotions they showed.
"The first people were the same." "Of course. How else could it happen? Evolution slows down when there's a lot, and times are easy, speeds up when there's a few, and times are harder. How else would worlds repair themselves after an apocalypse and restore nature? They don't come up out of the dirt all by themselves, you know. That's the only way they should have reappeared."
'Oof. Cyclical apocalypses, no thanks.' "Hope one doesn't come in my life. Nobody wants to be those people." "The source of this was beyond detection, and the mule was not expected, but it can certainly be appreciated. I'll take her to the imperial stables, then return to the emperor. I'll find you later, Alyseus, but you should not be in the imperial garden alone. Aerich, can you-." The man was gone by the time we looked back.
"He ran here so quick, too, and had the look like he had something to say. Did he say anything? He did come running straight over to us." "No. Nothing, but he came close about the time the mule appeared." "His majesty will not disapprove of our taking her to him, you may come with me, but he may decide to talk with me in private. That, you can still follow me to his court for, but you will not approach with me.
"You'll wait as I approach the step, to address him about the phantom sun, then we'll go. She'll probably keep us talking for hours, though." "Well, I can talk about mules for hours too, but I wouldn't presume to before his majesty. An emperor surely knows the value of a mule, so a grand mule species, it would go without saying."
Their conversation was barely about her, though the emperor was in awe of her, his mind was on other things. He'd been the one with the most right to probe, who could better help a grieving individual, one who'd lost the magic they'd been building in themselves? To find they hadn't was not a surprise to him, but to a few others in his court instead, some I hoped I could trust as much as he did. 'I could if he could. Right?'
Aerich had talked Kostya into 'taking' me the next day, but it wasn't just us leaving, two tutors for the road would come from the academy. An adept teacher, and a journeymen teacher, the former to help teach me in secret whilst acting as an escort with the latter to appear to be the one teaching me. Both were already going that way, and had been awaiting others to as well. Still others would come.
This was a venture for more than other squires, as some who would be knights and paladins had potentials to have their chivalry challenged more than others, so some small portion were chosen at twelve instead of the customary fourteen for squiring. They'd be those made officers, or if not still those mostly in charge during campaigns of all types, especially in the other empires lands or near imperial borders.
Being taught by mostly other squires, cared for and after by nobles and knights lady wives, hearing the odd page or squire being lectured to with a few constantly lectured, being given plenty of work and chores to learn and condition ourselves whilst being useful more often than not, I'd longed for something like this awhile. But, I had hoped to get to know my peers better, and had lost the chance to do so there and then.
It would take us over half a year to get there, we'd stay until we were twenty, and by then return back to Akyria. In Revenia we would be working as squire to our masters, but they'd be working as mercenary lords over us, when they weren't needed themselves to fight in battles. There was no human, nor humanoid wars going on, and hadn't been in a long time. There were still some criminals, who avoided civilized places where their acts would raise alarms, and where they'd be hung.
Robbers and murderers, not petty thieves or troublemakers, bandits were the type no civilization kept around. Those who saw other people as less would be treated by them with fear, by most, except those who saw such predators as less and felt the need to stop them would always hunt them like they hunted the innocent. We'd be getting worked up to battles with such groups, and be given challenges to our ability even on the way there. We would be taking the majestic mule with us, to Revenia.
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Aerich had me start wearing weighted suits, although it was a cooler material they were made of, only their being doused made the heat of wearing them bearable. By the first night, I had already started trying to befriend others, and the commiseration of the weighted suits was no little chance. Dubbing them as 'Diaper-Doublets' had gotten most laughing, but others were in awe I had said so little to them before, in the end some took longer to take to the humor.
It wasn't funny, long. They didn't cause rashes, but after awhile, you'd learn to douse yourself less so as not to be so heavy all the time. A few times a day, so ones sweat and the grime of dead skin, skins oil, and dead skin would be cleansed, but more was wasteful and rough. A couple weeks in, we were switched over to our first suits, padded leathers with a weighted article to hang on us like a cloak.
The heavy wood and tough twines were reminiscent of an artistic curtain, there was more than one thing I could think of where rope and wood met like bridges and ships but none came close. It was shaped like armor that would perform, only it did a lot of moving, which was why we wore the leathers beneath. All that rubbing would have quickly gotten worse. There was too little shade the first month.
We'd go from one small semi-arid area to another semi-fertile one and vice versa thousands of times in just a day, the last week, where the environment changed to more dry and hot. It was no desert, just plains luckily, but the river we were following had seemed to say we were heading towards one as we went. Hunting had become our job, guarding each night in rotations, especially we kept most of us on watch near them as ordered.
In that way, one knight or paladin made sure those on watch stayed vigilant some of the time, but we could be guaranteed to wake them and thus we were all safer. Staying awake was hard on them, and every boy detested this most, but all the other stresses of body and mind seemed to worsen every watch shift they took. Every one of us was easier to provoke and grow irate, the heat, thirst, exhaustion and all were a lot.
After that month, a few boys were sent back with an older knight, and things got better and worse. Mostly better, because we started getting fed great, fatty cuts of meat, larded stews thick with meat and vegetables, buttered oatmeals and cornbreads too good to be anything but attempts at getting some of the weight we'd depleted back on. Every odd day we ate like this, and every even day we'd eat leaner meals and move more that day.
The second month I'd gotten as friendly as I could short term with most everyone, but none were that quick to trust someone they didn't know, if I wasn't being pushed away I was definitely being scrutinized until I could be understood better. Keeping up with alchemic, magic, etheric, and now esperic trainings were hard on quickly making friends when it took you away from sentinel duties, too often.
Elevation had opened to me what Aerich called Ki, an element much different from magic or etheric elements. If it was one then 'Physical' would have been its name, but its energy was ones stamina, and the practice of using it was not like the other elements where self harm was nearly impossible even after you were proficient enough to do so. It had little such protections, except it would stop working when you were exhausted.
Ascension had opened another esper, Mana, with its own energy independent of the body. With mana one could make nutrient rich foods and drinks, and unlike divine which purified, mana healed. Health, used upon living beings and stamina, through consuming the foods and drinks you made. Since it worked by memory of taste, I could start making dishes and drinks from my world, though none alcoholic and nothing made with it would ferment or rot.
I'd been taking to both naturally since I had some experience actuating, and bringing out latent ability to being, but they were indeed not like other elements. Aerich trained me with ki, and a priestess named Vanessa taught me to use mana, but they did each have a weariness that could effect you, where chakra had no such constraint. Ki had the more immediate and longterm impact.
You overstrain trying to use the brain to harness telekinesis, and quickly you realize that you're doing the physical with mental efforts, so straining your brain that way has all the obvious side effects. Nosebleeds, should you overstrain some, and migraines that pulsated with your heartbeat if your actuation was directed against. If you wanted a projectile, you had to stop acting on it before contact.
Or, migraine, one that would not allow you to use ki for minutes at all. These migraines were the best way to overcome worse pains later, so I made sure to get dozens of the minutes long experiences everyday, with no relief in sight months later. It would lead to the enhancement of physical abilities, and, ki was not susceptible to magical or ethereal defenses. Just material and ki defenses, or enhancements.
Our boots were taken when we had spent the couple months, as we drew close to the jungle forrest, which like me no boy had seen but each knew that was a death sentence. Large spiders and scorpions bigger than our feet were around, and, few of us like me went barefooted long enough to resist the worst of rocks, heat, and briars. No foot resisted bites from such spiders, nor snakes, or stings from scorpions, or wasps and hornets.
"You want to make us more vigilant?" "That, and your footwork, balance, core and ankles will appreciate it later. You will run in armor barefooted then you will not move like most do in armor, and you will only wear boots from now on in combat and sparring only, and there'll be no wrapping your feet except where you get blisters. You won't be getting any blisters on the bottom of your feet, in a battle or war that way."
"What 'bout the backs of our feet?" "By the time you leave here, what you wear of the boots will stop that, unless you let the rot take the callous off of you. For that, you'll make sure your feet are never wet more than an hour a day, and you'll be adding a mixture to your feet anytime they'll get wet longer than that. Here it'll be often, and once every hour, you'll dry your feet and apply it to soak for a few minutes."
There were a few young ladies our age, mostly noble, and they too were let out to walk in the jungle forrests. The humidity was so much with the heat, the feeling of moving through the all too often still air was hard to pass up. At night we'd started sleeping in tents, all of the girls tents circled to face a central latrine we dug nightly, and the ladies guarded the inner perimeter over the younger.
Knights began light patrols, using scouts now across an outer perimeter and sentinels to guard close. We still yet guarded the sleeping knights and paladins, but more actively gave us a watch as well, and in the third month things shifted. The jungle thickened, our own patrols began, and within days the first portal was opened to allow a boy to be taken back to Akyria. It was not a true discharge from service.
The snake that had bit hims venom had turned his whole calf black in an hour, and since he'd run off in a fugue state in panic causing the venom to circulate more rapidly and saturate widely, there would be plenty of time required for him to be restored. Lucky for him, that was a mild venom, but the pain and swelling had driven him to get lost when he'd started backtracking.
What little direction he recalled was gone after he started writhing in pain, and he'd managed to go further away but not by much overall, as within minutes of finding him he'd come to the point he'd been bitten at. Not as far as he'd thought, but a half mile in the thick jungle, the sounds are constant and many besides loud. Most of that sound is high pitched, and comes in from up higher, birds and bugs mostly.
The trees and brush lower on block out most deeper sound quickly, due in mainly to the densely plant saturated area, but the constant cries and screeches would overwhelm screams less than a half of a mile away. It was something to consider, for a barefoot boy, in snake and spider heaven. The animals had not changed abruptly. Monkeys, stealthy and small felines, watchful and wary canine packs of little groups took time to first see.
Insects, birds, reptiles, amphibians, most of these kept just far enough away then went on with their business. Only unfortunate steps on or near things provoked, which was insects more often than anything, as quite a few never made efforts to evade and others sometimes made their home where you put your foot. I went forth soft, but, stepped solid to let my presence be made known ahead of me more.
Most bugs got the message, though ants and centipedes were hard cases, spiders and scorpions were content to scurry. After that was established, and with snakes even better about avoiding I decided to start searching for the boons of the jungle. Ki was better than wind, for knocking fruits and eggs out of trees, as well as knocking game down. It used up the bodies energy, so it made good sense to use it for that, and plucking distant food worked.
The real horrors came later, if only a few fights we were given, and after the first we were given spears to go with our daggers. At least, with a dagger and a knife each, we had not been unarmed. Small snake-folk, armed things with cobras stance, but able to throw. One throwing small stones from cover trying to ward us away had drawn a boy too close, and he had sought to engage it. He was the first to die, Darien, bit by a few of these all at once and gone just after.
The much less common but far larger spiders were my issue, as they only ate things as big as an adult rabbit. Squirrels and rats didn't come into the adult hunter-spiders equations, but we weren't exactly out of them, as they ate and caught deer as well. I complained, but Aerich said the trapper-spiders were all smaller species with only one or two moderate specimens. The very venemous ones had bright colors and patterns but the others didn't.
The gargantulas were different, and for them, man or deer were about the least it sought out. It preferred the more medium, as the things larger than it put up a lot more physical resistance, and that was the only kind it was aware of. Mass wise they would be 'small bear weight and size' but they looked 'big bear size and weight and hairiness' to the eye. Didn't matter if they were curled hiding or propped peeking they seemed huge.
It was one of the bigger, but a joke this was only a young adolescent almost had me flee, as each leg was almost five feet long and about ten inches thick. Forty feet of legs on something was intimidating alone, then there was that body like a barrel, and its meat-hook mandibles. I wouldn't shoot one with an anti-tank-rifle, for fear it would live, or I'd draw its attention or ire.
'Nukes. This whole place needs to be nuked, saturation bombed again and again with them until every bacteria that lived here is gone. Bleached to sterility, and too hostile with radiation for any life like it to try and come back here, everything else is an acceptable loss. This empire is doomed, doomed, doomed. And cursed, haunted, even demon-possessed, is not too much. Who could live here?'
I would not even touch it with ki, nope, even though it stalked us watchful for a few moments it never came closer than a hundred meters. If it came close, I'd burn both of us up, rather than let that thing eat me.