Akino tightened the hug as she crawled on the bed Leo was lying on. Her golden eyes had tears in them. Leo returned the hug and patted her back comfortingly. Is this still a part of his scheme? Bringing Akino to me to make me trust him unconsciously? I might be overthinking this but I’d rather be prepared than not. The little girl looked up at Leo, the tears were making little rivers on her cheeks. “How have you been Akino?”, Leo’s voice was calm and controlled even though he felt a burst of emotions. “I-I’m okay. They didn’t do anything weird to me. I just had to stay in a room b-but I heard some guards talking about you having to fight in a cage. Was that… true?” She whispered the last part with a sad expression. Without saying a word Leo nodded his head in confirmation.
Akino buried her head in Leo’s shoulder and went quiet. Not being used to scenario’s like this Leo just patted her head softly trying to comfort her. “I’m alright though, only a few more scars. It’s not like I died.” The girl pinched his arm and murmured words while still hugging Leo. “That doesn’t make it better.” The boy couldn’t help but smile a tiny bit.
The two of them hadn’t known one another for more than a month yet they were as close as people who had known each other for years. It made him realize how much the surroundings influenced him. If nothing happened and my life would’ve been normal. If I was a student by now, would I have made a friend like this? Someone I can actually trust and trusts me? Akino slowly began to fall asleep on top of Leo’s chest.
It didn’t take long before she started drooling on his chest. The boy closed his eyes as well but he wasn’t tired, he had just slept for a couple of days and felt the need to improve himself. Thinking about what had happened made him realize how much he cared for Akino. She was the little bit of attachment Leo had left for this world, the only thing that made him think he was just unlucky and that there was still good in the world.His thoughts wandered for a while, thinking about how he would fulfill the conditions given to him.
Finish the dream, it has no time limit. Complete the trial without any deep wounds, I can’t do anything for now. Awaken aura and mana before the trial, I only have a few days to do that. Is that even possible? Only a few humans manage to do that before the trial, that’s normal if you think about the nickname of the trial of catastrophes which is the awakening ceremony. What did uncle say again about aura and mana…
“Both of them are an energy source. Mana and aura are stored in every cell in the world. If you want to awaken them you’ll have to understand what they are and call upon it. This might sound stupid but you can see it like this: if a stranger were to hand you a bottle of a liquid and you can’t see what it is, would you drink it while you still have water? No right? Because it might be poison. You’ll just throw it away or keep it in your bag just in case. Your body also works this way. We all have a little bit of mana and or aura but our body doesn’t know what it is yet. It hasn’t identified it. That’s why it stores it away in our cells and doesn’t use it.”
Leo felt empty recalling the memory. His uncle was a very smart man who studied most of his life. Leo once heard he had received an invitation to become a teacher at one of the biggest schools in the human empire. Although his uncle wasn’t very strong he was acknowledged as a teacher who helped the kids talk and read. The boy thought about the comparison for a while. It was indeed silly but very helpful.
When would I drink the drink that the stranger gives me? If I run out of water and I’m on the verge of death because of dehydration? So… if I want to activate my aura and mana I have to force my body to use it? But what does it do? The drink would make me lose my thirst but what would the energy do? It’s stored in every cell… It’s energy… What function can it have?
The boy got a vague idea about it but he couldn’t completely place it yet. He knew that both energies get forcefully awakened if you complete the trial of catastrophes. What is aura or mana to me? A tool to get revenge, a natural power that’s capable of destroying… natural? That’s it, a natural energy stored everywhere, even in every body cell. It’s the source of being alive. When would my body have to utilize my life essence? Wait can’t Akino see it? Doesn’t that mean she can help me awaken it? Leo looked at Akino, who was still sleeping on his chest and sighed softly. “It’ll have to wait until tomorrow I guess”, he muttered to himself before closing his eyes as well and going to sleep.
The first warps went by in a flash. He felt a bit of disgust towards himself for not feeling anything anymore for the first warps. When he got to the ninth one he endured with all his might. The person who was tortured with heated metal poles screamed his lounges out for forgiveness but it kept going until his eyes went dim. Leo moved on for the first time to the tenth warp.
He found himself in the middle of the battlefield surrounded by corpses and living enemies. The moon was at its highest point and reflected on the pools of blood around him. There wasn’t even a single ally alive nearby the body that Leo possessed. The head of the man went down making Leo, who was watching through the man’s eyes , see an old skin with a lightning tattoo which had a familiar logo in the bolt on the old man’s right arm. There were only two men in the tribe who had a tattoo with that logo. The same logo that was only used on all the official documents. One of them was his father who was the tribe head at the time and the other was his predecessor, Leo’s grandfather. I-Is that grandfather? No, please, don’t let me see this. Stop it, p-please!
The old man was surrounded by over 60 enemies which only one of them Leo could recognize, their leader who wore golden armor. Leo’s grandfather spoke: “####, so you have finally betrayed us. To think #### who I gave everything would come after my entire bloodline by sending his troops. Tell me, was he scared? Of us? Of the things we knew? Of what was to come? It doesn’t matter, you’re here to kill us, no excuses. I might be old but that doesn’t mean I gave my son the leading position because I became weak.”
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Leo’s grandfather grabbed his big two handed sword and pierced his own stomach without showing any signs of hesitation. Leo could feel immense pain. It felt more real than any of the previous warps. It was as if the body Leo watched through was his own. His grandfather bowed his head towards the skies. “Oh Father Of Storms, allow me to yield your blessing one last time as I repent for my sins…”, as the old man began chanting the man in the golden armor seemed to panic and shouted for his soldiers to kill the man quickly. Leo couldn’t see anything but the night sky where his grandfather was looking at. “… may even the worst devils, buried in the deepest hell hear this thunder after my final strike hits this god cursed valley. Let us regret together in the endless light and bath in the seas of hell.”
While talking, the old man was pierced with countless arrows, swords and daggers from the surrounding soldiers when he finished his chant. Leo put in everything he had to bear with the pain. He was about to faint when he became numb and time seemed to slow down. A silence that could normally only be found in the void was present as Leo’s grandfather fell to his knees. Only a second after the man had lost his life a crack in the sky appeared and began to shape into a circle.
Millions of lightning bolts concentrated together and hit the old man’s sword that was pierced inside of his stomach. He had used himself as a conductor to attract the summoned lightning. A power which the man couldn’t wield. A blast with the force of a god lit the skies into a white light. The surrounding 10 kilometers of woods were erased from existence in a matter of seconds. 59 soldiers were evaporated into ashes yet a single one remained standing. The last thing Leo saw was a golden helmet bow over his grandfather’s corpse which was laying in a crater and kick it while laughing. “Useless fool. Making me use that here.”
Leo awoke coughing up blood. Although he made it through the warp on the first try he felt worse than he had ever felt after the dream. The boy was dizzy and shivering intensely. He didn’t know if the effects were because of what he saw or just a drawback from the dream curse the being inside his mind placed upon him. Flashes of memories the child had spent with his grandfather passed by in front of him, making the shivers increase in force.
Akino, who was still laying on his chest seemed to wake up from Leo’s coughs and looked at him while rubbing her eyelids. “What’s going on?”, she stared at him with concern. “Leo?! Are you okay?” She got of him and bowed over him. Leo’s eyes tried to cry but no tears rolled by, instead two thick droplets of dark red blood formed in the corners of his eyes. “I-I’m fine, it could be worse.”
The child wiped the blood away and balled his hand into a fist not knowing how to live with what he felt or what he saw. Although he would have never admitted it, there had been a little bit of hope left inside of him. A little flame that maybe, just maybe, one of his tribe members had escaped what happened that day. He had seen most of their bodies on that day but not all corpses were present. Yet now, he was faced with the harsh reality. There wasn’t any possibility that anyone survived that battlefield. That small flame was now put out and his body had to find something else to heat itself with.
Akino stayed silent for a while, still in shock from what was going on. She put her hand on his forehead but instantly pulled back and groaned in pain. “I don’t even know if I can call that a fever. You’re burning.” Akino helped him sit up right and removed his blanket and shirt. The young girl looked at him with a calculating expression. “Just rest here okay? I’ll go ask for a doctor and some food.” She got up with an elegant move and ran out of the room.
It took Leo a while to get his thoughts straight and focus. He still had mountains of thoughts and seas of emotions to process but he once again pushed them to the side. It was neither the time nor place to go through all of that. There would come a time where Leo could finally grieve. No matter how hard it would get on him, he just pushed it back a little bit more.
The boy, who was doing his best to hang on couldn’t help but curse the timing. I only have two days to properly awaken mana and aura but I’m laying in bed? My entire life is being held back by a fever, some nausea and coughs? Fuck this shit! The boy moved his legs out of the bed with a simple turn to the right and got up with shivering limbs.
He grabbed one of his blades which were leaning against the night table and used it to move round. The boy simply walked around the room as if it would help him control the shaking and miserable feelings. It didn’t take long before the door swung open again and Akino returned with a man covered in a black cape.
There wasn’t even a single spot of skin Leo could see on the man in front of him. Although Leo admitted it wasn’t very warm in the room it wasn’t to that extend. The covered man grabbed a little wooden board and carved words in it. After a minute or two he turned it towards his patient who read it aloud: “I can either heal you in peace and leave behind small internal wounds or I can completely heal you but it’ll be painful.”
Leo looked at the hooded man and gave him a nod. “Make sure to heal it completely.” There is no time for wounds. I’ll just have to endure, nothing new. The man walked forward and pointed to the bed without saying a word. The boy sat on the verge of the bed and looked at the mysterious doctor in front of him.
He didn’t care why it was covered in black cloth or why it didn’t talk, as long as it could make him able to train today. The doctor kneeled down in front of him and reached out both of his hands which were covered by black gloves to Leo’s chest.
Akino who had been standing near the door the entire time with a worried expression now got an amazed touch to her eyes. It was as if she saw something beautiful for the first time. It didn’t take long before Leo realized the man in front of him was gathering mana to heal him which Akino could probably see.
This is the only chance I’ll get to see mana before I go to the trial. I have to focus. Leo stared at the man in front of him as if his life depended on it. He tried to feel some sort energy. Although there was nothing to be felt he could see a very dim light forming in the hands of the man. Even though it was always like this, Leo now saw how the energy developed. It began with a single tread of light which develops into a ball.
The boy was so focused on the light that he didn’t expect the healing process to already start. A burning feeling took over his body making him flinch. Fuck, I can’t show any signs of weakness. Leo straightened his back and bit on his teeth. It felt as if he was being boiled in hot water but he had felt worse before. It didn’t take long before the light in the man’s hand disappeared and the pain ebbed away.
The man stood up and walked off as if nothing happened. As the last feelings of struggle faded Leo felt better than he had these last weeks. He stood up and stretched out. “Wow, that feels a lot better.” Akino who seemed to be lost in thoughts again looked up and smiled. “You better not get hurt like that again. What even happened?” Leo sat back down on the bed and patted the spot next to him. “I don’t know,” he lied, “but you can help me so that it won’t happen again.” The girl ran to the bed and looked at Leo with big golden eyes. “How?”