Ike dangled in the darkness. Cold wind rushed around him. No mana met his call. His core sat empty, emptier than it had been since he’d first become aware of it. Only a few meager scraps of mana remained, tiny pieces he couldn’t press out. Not enough to do anything, just enough to keep him alive.

Sense aether. Sense… the aether.

How did I sense mana in the first place? I can’t remember.

Didn’t I just awaken the System? Do I have to awaken another System to gain access to aether?

That can’t be the case. Ket never mentioned a competing System when he talked about lunam. Wisp… doesn’t seem to operate on a different System than me. She can absorb orbs too. So what is it? What am I missing?

All monsters could absorb aether. Beings that operated on pure instinct, without any intellect at all, had succeeded at this. Surely it wasn’t impossible. Surely he could do it. But how? Where do I start? You couldn’t have given me a hint, huh, Wisp?

Taking a deep breath, Ike let it out smoothly. He pushed away his intrusive thoughts and focused only on breathing. Mana was absorbed through breathing. It fell to reason that aether would be the same.

Cold air rushed into his lungs, chilling his body from within. He barely suppressed a shiver. Without his mana, the air felt colder than it had before. He didn’t know if it was all in his head or if his mana had really held off the cold, but it was unpleasant. Ike sneezed and wiped his nose. If I don’t sense this soon, I’m going to catch a cold and freeze to death.

He dangled there. Eyes closed. Reaching out with his mind, as strongly as he could. Nothing. Nothing. A whole lot of nothing. He sensed no energy. Not mana, not lunam, not aether.

His body grew colder. Uncontrollable shivers wracked his body. Ike hugged his arms around himself. At this rate, he really was going to die before he sensed aether. He opened his eyes and turned his head upward. “Wisp! Pull me up. I need a break!”

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No response.

Ike frowned. He tugged at the string. She can feel the smallest twitch of her web. No way she can’t feel this. “Wisp! Come on!”

Still no response. Ike pressed his lips together. Is this meant to be part of the training? Does she know I’m actually freezing to death down here without my mana? The whole thing seemed pretty ad-hoc…

“Wisp! I’m freezing to death!”

At last, a familiar face peered over the edge. “You’ll be fine.”

“I won’t be fine!”

Wisp sighed. “If you’re giving up already—”

“I’m not giving up. I just need a break. And a jacket,” Ike replied.

“Right now, you’ve never been exposed to aether before. Every time I pull you out of the Abyss and put you back in, your sensitivity to aether goes down. If I pull you out, you might lose a key level of sensitivity, and never be able to sense aether in your life. Do you still want me to pull you out?”

Ike hesitated. He looked at his hands. They were pale, but not purple. “I can still take it.”

“Good. If you’re really dying, I’ll pull you out. But until then, press on.”

Ike shook out his arms and legs. He settled in again, reaching out once more. Overhead, the sun rose, and the sun fell again. Ice cold sunk into him, all the way down to his bones. The shivering stopped. An absolute stillness came over him. He felt the world around him. Sensed the rocks around him with more clarity than he ever had with his full mana. The low-level of his mana meant he could feel the energy of the world. The tiny bits of energy given off by the rocks and the air around him were no longer drowned out by his own mana. They lit up all around him, bright as day.

Is that aether? I can sense it, but… Ike reached out. His hand passed right through that energy without contacting it. He frowned. I can’t touch it.

Abruptly, Ike jolted. He slapped his cheeks. I’m going about this all wrong. I’ve been trying to reach it like a human. Rationally. Intelligently. I should be reaching out to it like a beast. Intuitively. Thoughtlessly.

Ike closed his eyes again. This time, he pushed away his consciousness. Killed his thoughts. Destroyed every scrap of humanity within himself. Every time a thought welled up, he pushed it down. Like the Abyss all around him, removed everything and left only the void. The emptiness. The absence of thought.

Time passed. He grew colder and colder. His whole body stilled. Every inch of him. His heart slowed. All of him became like ice.

Wisp looked down. Her brows furrowed, and she bit her lip. “He can do it. Not yet.” She turned away.

Days rolled by. Night chased day, and day chased night. Ike hung there, barely breathing.

Empty.

Thoughtless.

Still.

There was no Ike. Only an empty hole where Ike had been.

And in that moment, he felt a spark of heat in his core.