The sunlight crept over the horizon like a flower blooming. Rays of light scattering through the polluted air cast a purple and orange hue into the sky, and a beam fell through the window of the pizzeria that Domison, Mel, and Pabu had sheltered for the night. Domison felt the warmth of the morning light touch his skin and drifted back into consciousness. Without opening his eyes he spread out his aura, carefully unfurling it as far as he could manage. He wasn’t sure if other living creatures could detect the touch of his aura, so he tried to imagine it spreading like a shadow, the only mark of its passing being cool relief from the harsh sunlight.

He could immediately feel Pabu, his dog’s body wrapping around his own and positioned to face the door. A sense of warmth spread through him, and he realized that it was Pabu’s emotions flowing across their connection. His big pup was very happy that he was awake, but he sensed Domison’s weariness and thus stayed unmoving. A moment later and the man felt his aura pass over Mel’s form, probing slightly allowing him to conclude she was still asleep. After thirty seconds of this slow creep, he had reached the current limit of his aura’s range. He was able to stretch his senses out to the street, which lay thirty feet away. After only a minute, Domison was able to determine, through his aura senses, that there was no other living creature within their shelter or out on the street waiting in ambush.

It was at that time Domison opened his eyes, his green iris almost glowing in the ray of light splashing across his face. The first view greeting him was that of two glowing golden orbs, staring down at him from above.

“Well good morning, buddy,” Domison said with a smile as he reached up and scratched the underside of Pabu’s jaw, whose tongue promptly dropped out of the side of his mouth. His tail raised to begin pounding at the ground, but it promptly froze in midair as Domison raised a finger to his lips, throwing a glance sideways at Mel. His mind flashed back to the image of her horrified expression as he had killed his two captors, and a fist of guilt wrapped around his stomach, “Let’s try to be quiet. She deserves her rest.” Pabu’s head dipped slightly, and he rose to all four paws, dropping into a deep forward stretch. “You’ve got the right idea. Let’s get a good workout in.”

Domison spent the next hour running through a routine of various calisthenic exercises focused on building stamina and strength. A sheen of sweat started to work its way over his brow and the salty liquid stung every time it ran over the semi-healed burns running along the left side of his body. Ever since he had removed the suppression collar and restored his connection to natural mana, he had regained his unnatural rate of healing. The burns caused by Grimfur’s previously infernal flames, however, were taking much longer to heal than he had come to be used to. While the injured skin was no longer charred and pitted, it was still highly sensitive and cracked in places. Luckily he had regained the use of his left hand by the morning, which allowed him to move through his exercise routine unimpeded, despite the pain.

Throughout his physical training, Domison attempted to hold his aura at its full range, doing his best to split his focus between the surrounding flow of energy and the various repetitions. With sweat dripping from his form, Domison settled into a lotus position, stretching his legs and preparing to meditate. Once he was settled in, the man closed his eyes and started to actively speed the circulation of mana within his core, imagining a whirlpool pulling in all the natural energies surrounding him. He fell into a trance-like state as the flood of mana entered his core, and every subsequent circulation of mana within his body worked to process the natural energy he took in, steadily converting it to his own affinities.

It was a fairly pleasant feeling, the mana circulating throughout his pathways and filtering through his abyssal heart. Domison could almost feel the unused essence of the mana left over being sprinkled throughout his body with each passing, infusing itself throughout his flesh and bones. It felt as though he was being refined, though very slightly with each full circulation. The cultivation of energy created a pull so strong that the air began to stir slightly around Domison, and the light dimmed around his form. It became a relaxing routine in his mind. Breathe in and pull in mana. Spread the raw mana through his pathways, then filter it through his hollow heart. Rotate the filtered mana through his core, breathe out, and repeat.

Domison wasn’t sure exactly how much time had passed, but eventually, he sensed Mel awaken within his aura. It was almost like a warm flame suddenly becoming a bit more bright and more intense. Slowing the rotations of his core, which had become surprisingly accelerated after the extended session of cultivation, Domison opened his eyes and rotated to face Mel. She was perched on one elbow and staring at him intensely. The moment she noticed his attention a red blush spread across her face and she turned away.

“Good morning!” Domison said with a smile.

Mel looked at him sideways and nodded slightly, replying with a timid, “Morning…”

After a moment she seemed to muster up more courage and she turned back to face Domison, who was still smiling at her warmly and rising to his feet.

“Sorry for staring, it's just…” She motioned at his noticeably bulkier form, “You seem to have put on a lot of muscle, which is weird considering you were basically a walking skeleton the whole time I’ve known you.”

Domisons warm smile turned into a slightly embarrassed one, and he reached a hand up to scratch at his head, “Yeah, I’m not entirely sure about that either. One of my abilities that I have been getting a grasp on is some sort of energy absorption.” He looked down at his hand and clenched it into a fist before looking back at Mel, “It’s like I can take somebody's energy… At least I think.”

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Mel looked at him with a confused expression for a moment, “Like, you can steal mana that people use to cast spells and power abilities…?”

“I think it’s more than that.” Domison said, hesitantly, “I take their mana, yes. But like you saw yesterday with the Knox guy,” Mel looked confused again, “The big one,” Domison clarified and she nodded, understanding dawning on her face, “Anyways, as you saw with him, it seems like I can take more than just mana.”

“So…” Mel said, her chin pinched between her thumb and forefinger in intense thought before she snapped her fingers, “You used your power to steal his muscles!”

“Uh… Not exactly,” Domison replied with an exasperated expression, “Honestly, I got a bit back when I used my ability on him,” He shrugged, “but I’m still not quite back to how much I used to weigh.”

Mel laughed out loud at that, a look of incredulity on her face, “Back to what you used to weigh? When? You’ve been as skinny as death since I met you.”

Domison sighed and ran a hand through his raven hair, “It’s a long story. But I used to be pretty bulky, it looks like I might get there again eventually though.” Domison said as he flexed his hands open and closed. He admired the bands of muscle in his forearms with a beaming grin for a few seconds before shaking himself and returning his focus to Mel.

“Actually... I was hoping to talk to you.” Domison said.

She met his eyes, and smiled slightly, “Don’t worry, I’m not upset or afraid of you because of what happened. I’m sure you had a good reason to do what you did.” Domison was shocked enough to hear the words coming from her mouth, but it seemed she had more to say, “You wouldn’t have saved Mike and me, or Craig if you were a bad person Dom. I know we don’t have anything to worry about.”

Domison felt moisture in his eyes and he quickly looked away from his smiling friend, wiping a hand across his eye. He wasn’t sure where this flood of emotion had come from, but her sincerity took him almost completely off guard. For almost a minute he sat in silence, and Mel started to shift uncomfortably.

“Dom, I’m sorry if I made you un-”

“They sold me.” Domison cut her off.

Mel looked at him in shock, “What do you mean, they sold you?”

“Those men worked for the Twilight Market.” Domison said grimly, “Before the system came to Terra, the Twilight Market was a huge criminal organization in Old Town. They were also the sponsors of an auction.” The memories of a cold wooden stage flashed across Domison’s mind and he gritted his teeth before continuing, “They sold every illegal item you could think of at that auction, non-regulation cyber prosthetics, jailbroken neural implant firmware updates… People.”

Mel’s eyes had begun to wander as he started talking about the Twilight Market. She was lost in her thoughts, but her gaze snapped back to Domison when he spoke of the sale of people, “They sold you as a slave? How could that even be possible?”

“I was a child at the time,” Domison answered wearily, “No more than eight years old at the time. I had no father, and my mother had died in an accident. The Market had a fairly harsh reeducation program for their “merchandise”, as they call it, but luckily I was rescued on the day of my prospective sale.”

Mel’s eyes had started to become red and watery with Domison’s story surrounding his past, and she eagerly requested more information at the mention of his rescue. He gave a vague explanation, mentioning his late mentor Sam and his induction into their freedom fighter group at a young age.

“I’ve been training for live combat in almost every form since then, and for the past ten years I was working with Sam and our group to take down the Twilight Market.” He left out the part surrounding Proto Electrica for now, not wanting to alienate his companion by mentioning his contention with a company that had a fairly decent public image. “I wasn’t angry with you when you found me. I could tell that you were worried about that.” Mel nodded sheepishly and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “I was angry with myself because the whole situation made me realize something,” Domison said.

“And what would that be?” Mel asked after the silence stretched for a few moments.

“I don’t have to be subtle anymore,” Domison said as he looked into Mel’s eyes. “When I was working with Sam, we always had to plan everything out to a T. Never attracting too much attention, never doing anything too detrimental to operations to avoid their full ire… But I don’t have to do that anymore.”

Domison clenched his fists again and he shook his head in frustration. “Instead of trying to sneak my way in, pretending to be weak and trying to partake in some sort of subterfuge, which I was never great at in the first place by the way!” Mel giggled at that but Domison continued, “I can just move freely and punish those who deserve it. In this new world, I have the individual strength to start restoring some semblance of balance, in my own way.” He sighed heavily and cast his gaze toward the ground as he finished his lengthy proclamation. If he was being honest with himself, he was slightly anxious about how Mel and the others would react at hearing his history and subsequent plans, worried they would think he was a revenge-hungry murderer.

Mel touched his shoulder and his eyes snapped back up, only now noticing she had approached him. She had a gentle smile playing across her lips and he thought he saw a sense of sympathy in her eyes, “Don’t worry Dom, I understand and like I said, I trust you.” She squeezed his shoulder and added, “I’m sure the others will understand too, so don’t beat yourself up about what you have to do. We’ve decided that we’re by your side till the end in this crazy world.”

She smiled brightly at him then, and Domison felt the knot of worry he had developed over the last day melt away. Everything seemed like it might finally be moving in a good direction. For years Domison had felt like he was living his life on a loop, never quite able to accomplish his overarching goals but always steadily toiling away for his cause. Now, it felt like he would finally be able to make progress.

Domison smiled back and Mel released his shoulder with a laugh, “Now, I don’t know if you’re ready. But I for one would really like to get back home and shower.”

The pointed expression that accompanied her words made Domison shake with laughter. After a few seconds of wrangling in his laughing fit fueled by relieved anxiety and the sudden recognition of their own stench, he replied, “I think I would have to agree with you on that one. Let’s get back home.”