Ability Course
fuuh fuuh fuuh
The wind as he passed by the cars coming from the opposite direction, crashed into his ears. His steps were light and swift as he kept running towards his destination.
An intersection, saw Kira excitedly. This was his ninth intersection already and he felt this was the one where he would get it right.
Kira was actually running on the street, alongside cars and other vehicles. Not only was he running side by side but he was matching their speed as well, even able to surpass it by allot in short bursts.
FUH!
A person had just passed by him, at extremely high speeds, creating a gale on Kira’s right side. Kira smiled like a child, realizing how fun running could be.
Energy flowed into his leg muscles, his core, and arms. He had the task of coordinating all of them to stabilize himself so as to not lose balance and crash.
Miu had waked him up early, and told him what to do. He had to send energy to his body parts, but with measure and caution. Unlike the brief contact he had with Miu, this time he had to slowly feed energy to his body, and run at a certain cruise speed. One where his muscles would not become fatigued by running. One where his body would regenerate at a faster pace, than the damage it was receiving by using psionic energy.
He had stumbled a couple of times and sometimes he had run faster than he should have, briefly making his muscles ache. But overall, after a dozen minutes of practice, he had gotten the hang of it.
Kira had been shocked when Miu had told him that he would need to run alongside cars and such, since sidewalks were buzzing with pedestrians. She said that if he hit someone with insurance, insurance agents would kindly pay him a visit, so he had to pay attention to not hit anyone. This had put some amount of pressure on him driving, no, running according to the law.
After a couple of kilometers, he had gotten accustomed and grew confident, especially since he noticed he was not the only one running alongside cars. He felt this would have been funny in some other reality, but here, this was, reality. A slight problem arose tough, one that was more of a nuisance then an obstacle.
Like all cars, and people, he had to slow down when he came to an intersection. Except he saw other people not slow down when they ended near one. They would instead speed up briefly and simply jump over it, flying passed ongoing traffic.
He had tried jumping eight times now, and every time he felt he could not do it. A faint feeling as if he did not have enough energy in his legs, or enough speed to move forward so that he would not have to crack the street to make the jump.
If he jumped without enough speed, he would need to crack the road to perform it. Miu had said in green zones this was something he should not do. Unless he was in a red zone, impetuously damaging your surroundings would get you some insurance agent on your back.
He turned his head to gaze at a faraway place in the sky. There was a big hole in the green ceiling there, where the sunlight came through and blessed the world with its warmth. Miu had said not to step in that kind of a zone carelessly since that was a red zone. Most red zone could be identified by their lack of a ceiling. Kira wondered why they did not have a ceiling.
As he looked at the distant hole in the sky, he thought it looked quite beautiful. Shaking his head, he turned his attention back to the road. The intersection was almost upon him.
Calm as a still lake and with a cool akin to ice, he thought: speed up a bit more making sure you pay attention to the slowing cars, then with careful intent, inject more energy into your right leg and jump to the other side of it, while at the same time using your momentum.
He sped up.
A hundred, a hundred and twenty, more, faster.
fuuh fuuh fuuh
Cars slowed down as they approached while he moved passed them with blinding speed. He slowly pumped energy into his legs and pressed his right leg into the road.
As his right leg connected with the ground, time slowed down as his attention was revved up to the maximum. He could feel the world slowly come to a standstill.
He could feel the psionic energy pooling in his leg muscles, feeding power to them. There was a slight burn in his leg.
He looked at where he would land on the other side, his gaze flying past the intersection filled with moving cars and people.
He contracted his leg muscle, leaned forward so that his momentum would not continue to transfer into the ground, and jumped.
FUH!
He quickly reached the apex of them jump. Five meters into the air, cutting the air at over a hundred and fifty kilometers per hour.
He suddenly felt a presence come from behind him, moving faster than him, overtaking him midjump with a whirling sound of clothes fluttering in the wind.
A woman with hair just above her shoulders, similar looking in build to Miu. She had grey hair and a grey opened coat, that in the wind, was raised and showed her black and white clothes underneath. As she landed on the other side ahead of him, Kira thought he could see her head turning slightly to him and smirking.
He laughed inside and accepted the challenge.
He landed with ease; his footsteps being filled with steadiness. He increased his speed and tried catching up, not forgetting about being careful to not damage the road. Since Miu had needed to pay for the dinner last night, he thought Mira had probably not put any money on the circuit slate for him to pay insurance damages. He would not play with Mira.
As he tried to not lose the woman ahead of him, he noticed her feet left marks on the road accompanied by a thumping sound.
She was faster than him, but also more forceful. She slowly turned her head to check on Kira and when she found that he was somewhat keeping up, she sped up once more.
Kira smiled and tried to keep up. He had memorized the map before he left home, so he was surprised when the woman ahead of him, was actually following the same route. He wondered at the coincidence.
Kira continued to run at a faster pace and after about half an hour he arrived at his destination. A building at the edge of the city. The low ceiling of leaves, pressing down on it.
As he stopped, he observed his body, checking if he had sweat thinking that so much running had to have made him sweat. But besides some muscle fatigue, he was fine. In fact, he felt as if he could do that a couple more times if necessary.
Surrounded by trees, the building looked inconspicuous and the only sign it had was a small one that read “Triage”.
He went inside and saw dozens of people waiting in a reception room. Chairs all over the place.
Most of the people were staying in their own corner minding their own business. He also saw the woman he tried to keep up with. She had probably arrived a couple of minutes before him, since she was already sitting on chair arms crossed and eyes closed.
He thought she looked stoic, and shook his head thinking he would not bother her at the moment. He had wanted to chat with her since they had raced, but changed his mind seeing her in a meditative state.
Kira also found a chair and sat down and closed his eyes. Trying to once more feel the energy coursing through his body, and striving to perceive what kind of changes were happening to him physically.
As the clock turned ten, the inner doors opened and out came a middle-aged looking woman in a formal attire.
“Lined up come up to me one by one.” she had a notepad in which she wrote.
“Name? Type?” at the mention of type, they either said cultivator or transmuter.
Since Mira had referred to him as a cultivator, when it was his turn, he answered cultivator and afterwards was asked to wait in the reception room.
The woman wrote everyone down and left. Shortly after one man and one woman entered.
The man said in a loud voice “All cultivators, come with me!” He was as tall as Kira and had short cut hair. He did not look old but at the same time one could tell how his eyes exuded experience.
Kira got up and followed him alongside a dozen other people. The others were apparently transmuters. About four fifths of them, leaving with the woman.
Kira could see the look of pride the cultivators had while looking at the transmuters. He could tell what they were thinking.
The only one who did not have any emotional response was the woman who he had raced coming there. She seemed to not have any interest in joining the other cultivators, in staring down with pride at the transmuters.
Kira wondered what difference there was between cultivators and transmuters.
Their group followed the man trough the building out the back of it, and through a path in the forest.
Once they exited the building, the path through the forest was not paved anymore being only dirt and grass. Kira could feel the fresh air, accompanied by the gentle rustle of leaves from above, coming from the forest ceiling.
There were no buildings here, and Kira could finally see the low trees from up-close. They did not have any branches except the ones high up making the crown. Those branches also extended laterally, taking up all the sunlight that escaped the nuwa trees during the day, and the energy transferred down to them at night. The amount of sunlight reaching the ground was small, but even so, everything was a bright green color, unlike the monotone purple of the night.
The ground was also not barren, how Kira had expected it to be due to the lack of sunlight. Instead, there were a multitude of grasses and other such small vegetation. The green they had, was darker, and he imagined it would look black at night. Even in purple light.
Kira for the first time, heard the sound of animals, foreign to his ears as they assaulted him. He was not able to recognize any of the sounds he heard. He tried focusing on individual sounds but all he could know for sure, was that the background noise was still that of the city, and all its inhabitants.
Even if he were at the edge of the city, he could still make out the low buzz of the Night District.
As they followed the man, the beaten path led them to an open field, where the low trees had been cleared, and one could see clearly, the nuwa ceiling up above.
The clearing was spacious, about the size of an arena, and the ground had beaten grasses padding it, proving it had seen allot of use. The man went to the center of the field.
Kira could see various potholes in the ground, and even shallow ditches meters in length.
Using a loud voice, the man said “Let me first congratulate you in awakening. Secondly, let me add that you are not the dumbest person alive, for actually taking a course before fiddling with psionic energy on your own.”
After a brief pause, examining the expressions of everyone present he spoke with a gentle tone “You are probably dreaming of being spoken in the same breath as Odin, or have ambition of uniting all the branches of the warp tree, not much unlike Kasandar.” he gazed at the looks of excitement on their faces. He smirked.
“Hahaha! Give up. Statistically, it would be heaven smiling down on me, if even one of you managed to ignite your soul. Most of you will die under some tree, deep inside the jungle, or on some street corner, playing with fire in Lord Yamato’s city.” shaking his head from side to side, animating his own thoughts.
Seeing as their desire had simmered down, he smiled and continued.
“I will treat each and every one of you, as completely blank slates. So, I don’t want to hear any complaint, as to how you already know this and that. Leave your pride at the door!” shouting the last sentence.
“Let me begin by first explaining what psionic energy is, why you have awakened and other more common knowledge.”
“As you all know, this energy which you have all felt, comes from something called Psionic Space. Other people call it a dimension, some call it warp, it doesn’t matter. You'll learn to contact it directly and appreciate its magnitude in time”
“It is not the body that makes contact with this space, rather it is something scientists or most likely diviners, have called, the soul. Not much is known about the soul, but what is known, is that the soul is linked to the body, and the link with psionic space is made by the soul. More importantly, if one carelessly touches this dimension with their soul, it may lead to soul deviation.”
“You all know what that entails.” bringing a finger at his throat and making a cutting motion. Kira could see some fear on the faces of some, while others had pure excitement at what he said.
“The only times people awaken, is when they have an intense soul experience. These are ambiguous terms to be honest. What is known is that an intense soul experience is probably similar to an emotional one, but that an emotional experience is not necessarily related to the soul.”
Coming to this point the man closed his eyes, his face having a brooding expression. Opening his eyes, he smiled coldly at the group.
“In all fairness, you guys are pretty lucky to have awakened. We all know the stats. BUT! You should not think yourselves balrogs under the heavens, just because of this. People can still trample upon you. Calamity may strike just as it does on mortals, and your path towards the heavens, severed. DONT THINK YOURSELF INVINCIBLE!”
His voice turned into thunderclaps, as his words crashed into their ears. The words penetrated deep into their bodies. For some reason Kira felt something stir inside him, in apparent discomfort. The shout he gave was somehow different than the one Miu had done last night, when they left. It lacked the same physical power, but somehow penetrated allot more. Every person in their group, took a step back at the mans shout.
The instructor’s face slowly lost its edge, as he saw how scared the people in front of him were. Every person there, had fear in their eyes. As he gazed at each and every person in turn, he saw that everyone was trembling except two.
One had a calm smile on his face while the other had maddening desire in her eyes. The man’s eyes had an inquisitive glint in them, his thoughts unknown.
He smiled and said “I am instructor Varo. A rank 1 emitter. Formally known as an external cultivator. You may call me Instructor Varo. And if you piss me off, you'll need to call me Your Valor Varo. Since I am that much more powerful than you ants. A hundred of you could not even touch me. Let alone dream of defeating me”
“If you behave appropriately and make me happy, I shall give you a reward at the end of the course. I shall show you, what a Rank 1 Immortal is capable of.”
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“Now let's start with simple a meditation technique.” He pulled out small scrolls from a bag he carried, and sent them flying gently to everyone.
Reaching for the small scroll, he unwound it and found a small visual schematic of what seemed to be something resembling the body, but somehow had an ethereal feeling about it. The image had purple color and it looked to be shimmering.
It read “Elementary soul diagram.” Below the image there were some words written.
“This is a meditation scroll. You can buy it on any planet in every port most likely. Here on Jangala however, its distribution has been the council's duty, and no one is allowed to sell it. You may thank Lord Yamato for this, since he is the one who decided it so, over a century ago.” A small proudful smile appeared on his face as he said this.
“Without it, the chances are high that you would experience psionic deviation and cause destruction for those around you and death at best for you.” saying it with a somber tone.
“First lesson in sensing your soul will be meditating on the contents of the scroll. Put your hand on it, close your eyes and try to sense what the scroll says.” motioning with his hands for the people to begin.
Kira seemed confused and looked around at other people, and his gaze was attracted to the woman he had raced. She had closed her eyes and put her palm on the scroll image. She had a small frown on her now stoic face.
He mimicked her and put his hand on the image. Closing his eyes, he tried to sense inside it, just as he did with guiding energy into his body. He tried to not think, but see what actually was, instead of think of what it was.
After about a minute of doing this, he sensed the part of him that was disturbed by the instructor's shout, stir in him. He instinctively grabbed onto it, and tried to sense the image with it.
He could perceive what was on the image. Instructions that appeared in an esoteric manner. Not heard or seen or felt by his body, but perceived with some other tool. It felt calming and unrelated to anything material.
He tried observing this new medium for sensation, so much so that he forgot about perceiving the scroll.
“IT'S BEEN ONE HOUR!” Kira felt a loud wave coming towards him. When it hit him, he sensed what it meant. The wave also disturbed him, awakening him from his meditations. Kira could feel that this discomfort, was not felt by his body, but rather something else. The something else, that he had managed to perceive the scroll with.
Smiling he thought: That is probably the soul.
He opened his eyes and looked at everyone around him. They all looked lost, with some frowning and having frustration on their faces.
The only one smiling besides him was the woman. The features of her clear-cut face forming a confident smile. Kira finally got a good look at her. She had sharp eyebrows and nose; a defined jaw and wide forehead. Her gray eyes in tone with her ashen hair and grey long jacket. The wild feel she gave off was complimented by her open grey coat, showing of her muscle's trough her white and black clothes.
Turning towards the instructor, he noticed that he was watching him and the woman, smiling.
“Thats it. Next, we will have some miscellaneous power practice, telekinesis and such. Good tricks if you can master them and have a sense for it.”
At this point a man in the group raised a hand, and after the instructor signaled that he could talk, he asked “Instructor Varo, is it hard to perceive the soul? Is it hard to...” the man seemed to have a hard time finding his words.
The instructor smiled and said in an understanding tone “Yes. For a small number of you it will be easier to sense it. While for others...” shaking his head “Who knows. Some of you may despair at this step. But what I do know however, is that you should never stop trying to sense it. If you stop, you will forever not move past this hurdle, whereas if you don’t, you will always have a chance.”
The man seemed encouraged by what the instructor had said and his face loosened up.
Next, the instructor tried telling his group how telekinesis works, saying everyone who awakens is capable of it, to some extent. As with sensing the soul, this to, was subject to some random chance as to how proficient one was with it.
Another hour had passed. Only three people could lift a rock with it, while Kira and the woman in a grey coat, struggled at lifting blades of grass, all while they sat down and scrunched their faces.
Kira thought this was funny as he was sweating, while running a dozen miles would not. If he had to describe lifting those blades up in the air, he would say it was imbuing psionic energy into and object, something other than your body, but at the same time, not having any feel over the object you try to manipulate. When he used energy on his body parts, he could very easily sense and control that energy. Whereas the blades of grass were much tougher to sense and tie psionic energy to them.
“Don't bother to much about this. This is just non combative use of psionic energy. This may be a good indicator that you could turn into a craftsman. Maybe you ought to consider a job as a smith, or even alchemist if your talent is that good. In any case we will have time to talk about future prospects at the end of the course” smiled the man, while staring at them as one would look, at a good harvest of leeks.
Kira felt there was much more to this ability course then meets the eye. He sensed that it was free -it being sponsored by the ruling government- not just out of the kindness of their heart. He would ask Miu when he got home.
“Now is the last part of today's training”
“You shall all attack me in turn for a couple of rounds, so that I may asses your level of skill. Perhaps tomorrow...” giving a dramatic pause to his speech and sending a cold smile “Perhaps we will go hunting!” his face having a murderous smile.
The instructor pointed at someone in the crowd and had the person attack him. The person ferociously charged towards the instructor, confident and smiling, sending a punch towards him as he neared him.
His speed was lower than his, thought Kira, but the man's movements seemed practiced. As he neared the instructor, Kira tried slowing his perception, trying to better see how the instructor would react.
His effort paid off, and the way he sensed the world around him slowed, the man's charge did not seem as bullish now, the way his legs moved clearer and Kira could better see the expression on his face.
Kira was elated at the idea, of being able to so easily slow down time. He gave a wide smile. It did not bother him, giving this unrestrained smile, since no one was paying attention to him anyway.
He thought this was most likely related to his soul, since when running, entering the state had been extremely hard to achieve.
Keeping his attention on the fight, as the fist was about to make contact with the instructor's chest, Instructor Varo lazily sidestepped turning into a blur as he did, and dodged the man's fist.
Kira could see the face of the man turn dumb with wonder, probably thinking, where had the instructor disappeared. Kira knew why he had made such a face, for Kira, the view he had of the scene, was wide, and he saw the instructor switch positions. But the charging man, only saw him disappear.
Seeing the man's face change in slow motion, was a funny sight, Kira thought. A moment later he was taken aback, by the realization that he did not know, how fast the instructor was moving.
Essentially, Kira, was too weak to see him move, let alone touch. He did not even bother, to think about a fight. Touching the man, seemed harder than treading the nine heavenly steps.
A fraction later, the man noticed where the instructor was, and whirled on his feet striking at him without pause. Another fist passed through an after image, shocking the fighter even more.
“Thats it.” the instructor said this in a low lazy tone.
“Next!” the man did not complain at being sent back, since he had seen how thorough his defeat had been.
Cultivator after cultivator came up to test themselves against the instructor. All of them got sent back in two moves. After a while Kira could tell that even someone twice as fast as him, would not make a difference. And amongst everyone here, he thought he would not rank to low.
Everyone who came up for testing, was in the same league as Kira, or so he felt. He had fought only Miu and even then, only for one move. But he thought that of everyone who came up, he could spar with any of them and not lose face.
In a brief period of time, only two people remained. The ashen woman, and Kira.
Kira glanced at the ashen woman, and she made small turn with her head, signaling him to go first. He accepted.
Kira took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and tried sensing the psionic energy again. This time, after he practiced with perceiving the scroll, his drawing of energy was smoother and not so obstruse as before. He could clearly sense it coming into him, welling up into his body.
He abruptly opened his eyes wide looking ahead at the instructor. He continued charging his body with psionic energy, more and more, so much so that his skin gained a red hue, and small lighting snakes appeared around him. The instructor saw the phenomenon and he gave a small nod at what he saw.
Kira sent most of the energy into his legs. His muscles there bulged and his bones groaned from the pressure. He bent forward and in a moment of insight, lowering himself even more and crashed his arms into the ground.
‘Since I will miss anyway, I might as well, go all out!’
He charged his hands as well and his skin turned red as blood. The air around him started shimmering and groaning from the pressure. The energy in his body reaching a tipping point. He could absorb no more, his muscles were screaming in pain. His mind turned calm and the excitement disappeared. He knew he had made a mistake and charged his body with too much energy. He had to let the tension out or his muscles would tear apart and his bones would shatter.
The instructor face turned solemn and he raised his arms in front of his chest making a small shield them.
Time slowed down. His legs and arms pushed against the ground, and released the enormous energy gathered in them.
The ground behind him cracked and exploded in shower of grass.
‘boom’
His body disappeared, leaving a trail of lighting in the air.
Kira only managed to think about punching when his body was already in front of the instructor.
He only managed to see the instructor smirk, the air around him contorting with a purple glow and moving to the side, just as easily as with the others.
Kira shot past him, fast as lightning leaving a trail of ripped grass, on the open field. Kira could see the trees approaching him with a speed he could not comprehend.
Kira mind stopped thinking, and he acted on instinct. He spun midair, and hit a tree, with his legs landing on it, bending, and transferring all the energy of his flight.
‘BOOM!’
The tree began falling to the ground with a crashing sound.
All people saw was Kira flying into the forest at tremendous speed, and then a tree shaking half its leaves before dropping to the ground.
Mouths agape, they all ran towards the forest to see the results. Was he dead? Did he smash his head in a tree taking it down with him.
The only one not rushing was the ashen haired woman. She had however lost her stoic demeanor, replaced by a condescending smile. Even the instructor was not smiling, and had a funny face. As if he forgot that in teaching a child a lesson, he should not let them kill themselves.
As they entered the forest, they saw a bloody, disheveled man standing near a broken tree. The tree had a huge segment of it completely pulverized, small splinters covering the nearby area, making the forest floor brown with tree guts.
This was a tree that took three grown humans to encircle. What had happened for his charge to hold such power, they asked themselves.
The instructor leaned down and pressed a hand on his shoulder, sending his energy into Kira, probing his condition.
His face slowly relaxed the more he checked.
“His body is in poor condition, but it's not heavily damaged. If he refrains from intense use for a couple of days, he should recover.” smiling as he said this. Hell, he might even grow stronger.
He picked up Kira and hoisted him on his shoulder, carrying him like a sack of dry alge.
He reached the middle ground and threw Kira off to the side with a thud, motioning for the last person left to come at him. He had a face that said, everything he needed to see today had already happened. She was only the nuisance left for him to deal him.
He waved dismissively at her giving her the signal to start.
Seeing this, the woman face turned cold, and lowering her body she charged at him suddenly.
The ground shook as she charged at him, giving him a simple punch.
Just as the punch was closing in on the instructor, the air around her fist started blurring and a fraction later, fire appeared in the air, surrounding the attack.
Everyone could feel their face burn hot and lifted their hands instinctively, an orange sphere, one meter in diameter appearing between the woman’s attack and the instructor.
The instructor gave a wide smile and moved backwards, for the first time doing something else other than dodging to the side.
Everyone smiled as they saw this, thinking they had not wasted their time trying out their hands at the instructor. At least someone had managed to push him back.
“ONE MORE!” Her loud domineering voice, impetuously shouting at the man.
“Hahaha, Okay!” said the man boldly laughing.
All of sudden the air on the field changed. Instructor Varo had stopped laughing and looked at them all, as if looking at some ants. He had a serene look on his face, but everyone could see in his eyes he was looking at them, just as they looked at trash.
The very air around them trembled, heavily pressing down on them, and without knowing, everyone dropped to their knees. The only one still standing was the woman. Her whole body shaking. She looked at him with fear.
The air groaned and screamed with the pressure the man was exuding, a pressure so high that it affected the material world.
“Go on.” said the man in a low voice. “Attack”
With these words the woman finally fell on her knees.
With this, the man let go of the vice like grip he had on them. Looking at them calmly he said:
“This was not to make you drop to your knees, but for you to realize there are people in this world, who have the ability to look at you, just as you look at an insect. As powerful as you may get as a cultivator, as proud as your spirit may become, know this. There are monsters out there.”
With this the class for today was over. Everyone left the building looking as if they had been forced to take a cold shower.
The man looked at Kira and scratched his head, finding he did not know what to do with him now. Would he not be to injured to go home? First of all, he was still unconscious.
As he was thinking of the dilemma in front him, the man heard someone running towards him. Turning back, he realized it was his female assistant stumbling as she ran towards him.
“Siiiiiiiiiiiir! There is someone at the entrance looking for a man named Kira! They said he has long black hair and a beautiful face, not allot unlike that of a woman!” the aide said this in a hasty voice, apparently whoever was looking for Kira, they were powerful.
As the aide came close to the instructor, he saw a body near his feet. A long-haired person, bloody as if he had just fought a devil.
Long, jet black hair. Full of blood.
A face covered in dust mixed with blood. The bloody mixture unable to hide the man's beauty.
“OH NO!” the aide pointed at the body lying on the floor trembling. “Sir. Why did... You killed him?!” tears forming in her eyes.
The instructor frowned, then his eyes went wide as he realized the potential Kira had as a cultivator. After all, he was already incorporating lightning into his movements. And whoever had potential, usually had backing.
He asked in a solemn tone “Who came looking for him?”
“It's the Empress!” her voice a small squeal.
Varo’s jaw dropped, and he made an ugly face. He looked as if he had swallowed a mouthful of rotten algae, and he had to pay for it as well.
“Agh this is my fault.” saying it in a crying tone, while gesticulating with his hand. “I tried to teach him a lesson in restraint and I forgot to be gentle.”
‘sighhhh’
He looked up and said “This is how heaven rewards me, for trying to help someone. By sending me the ruthless devil of Night City”
“Oh. Is that how people who play at cultivation, call me in this city?” said a light voice, full of smiles and giggles that were felt and not heard.
Mira saw a bloody Kira, thrown on the ground akin to a dead dog.
Instructor Varo froze. Not even cold sweat coming to him, as he looked at the woman in front of him. She stood there with her hands clasped together in front of her, looking fairer then Luxana’s mortal avatar.
“Instructor, I understand this course is free, but you should not abandon all morality on your way to the heavens.” her small frown seemed heavier than a battlestar. Just as he had done to his students, this seemingly frail woman was doing it to him in return.
‘thud’
A small thud was heard as his aide's body hit the ground. Looking at her, he saw she had fainted face down, her expression unknown.
‘sigh’
The instructor's face calmed down, and he looked at the one and only Empress with no fear in his eyes. She had not started emanating soul pressure yet, so she was waiting for an explanation. He had decided to tell her the truth, and anything beyond that would be left up to heavens will.
“He overcharged himself charging at me, and I dodged him. I forgot to think he might not know how to stop. He crashed into a tree passing by me.” a calm and adamant face, he stepped forward. He raised both his hands, and cupped his left fist, while saying in tone neither servile no proud.
“I ask the Empress for her forgiveness” keeping his eyes straight at her, not blinking, allowing her to see inside him.
Mira looked at him, and while keeping her hands locked together, made a small wave with her index finger.
Varo closed his eyes gently and bowed slightly towards Mira, still keeping his hands cupped.
“Varo, thanks the saintes for her magnanimity”
“A saint? I was not aware I could fight a battlestar.” As Mira nodded her head slightly at his respect for her, Miu who had kept silent and stealthy up until this point said in a heavy low voice.
“Big sis. Just use your cards and check on him if he tells the truth or not.” giving the instructor a baleful look.
The man stood there unflinching. He had no fear in him.
“It's fine even if he is not. Kira will wake up at some point.”
She went to him and bent down to touch him. As soon as she did, her face lost her frown and returned to her usual playfulness.
“He is fine. In fact, he is better than fine. I am sensing remnant lighting energy throughout his body. Pick him up and let us go home.”
“Really? He already uses lightning energy?” asked Miu in a slightly questioning tone. She picked him up and hoisted him on her shoulder.
“It’s probably subconscious.” smiling at Miu. “It will take a while for him to catch up to you.” saying this in a provocative tone as they left the field.
“HAH! Big sis don’t underestimate me. I could beat him with a finger if I so choose. In fact, even a finger might kill him. All those resources you invested in me are not going to waste you know” saying this with a loud confident voice.
“Yes. Yes. I know” a bit of exasperation leaking out. I was merely joking with you thought Mira.