The light at the end of a tunnel claimed Tetsu, or so he believed. Fireflies turning into said bright light are the last memories he could recall. The rest was just pitch blackness.

To enter a tunnel with light and then face darkness, yeah... he still roamed the accursed lands of the system. If Tetsu did cross a save point, he would still consider this Eternal Slumber 2.0, and Tetsu assumed he would get to sleep for once.

"What kind of eternal slumber doesn’t let you sleep? Kinda defeat the point of slumber, right?"

A bolt of electricity zaps Tetsu back to life if the tunnel is considered a place for the dead. He regained the sense of awareness, as in he was aware of being trapped in a box of some sort. Yet the mortar function of his mortal shell still had to awaken.

To be honest, Tetsu did not know if he really wanted to be alive. His last movements might be a dream or an altered memory, but the guilt still clung tight to his chest. Every single memory floated on the surface, fresh and oh-so painful.

His trusted eyes break into tears, a sharp pain accompanying it, wrenching his heart in two.

Memories of his guilt also carried the image of his punishment. Images of his mangled hands and severed legs flashed ever so dimly, while it shared a space with a larger, brighter image of RJ and his incompetence.

When it mattered most, four steps seemed like a mile. Four steps showed his weakness. He lost his friend by sheer stupidity and he had the audacity to call himself the intellectual one.

How fucking stupid of him!

"Why am I Not dead yet? Why is she dead instead?" Tetsu questioned fate and begged it to change the outcome.

Even Kile met with an accident because he wanted to go out and do something stupid. He didn’t even remember what he wanted to do and yet... He lost his friend.

"The damn fool smiling to make sure I wouldn’t curse myself."

Tetsu felt a light tingling prick crawling down his cheek. He was steadily regaining his senses.

Backlash and fatigue were Tetsu’s biggest fear if he won, and now, as he slowly regained each sense after a crushing defeat, fatigue still couldn’t claim him.

His mind had already claimed its superiority during the fight and even then Tetsu doubted himself as he pulled out a miracle at the last moment.

A subconscious idea acted on its own, using ‘Pave Paths’ over a mana-bubble on the other side of the veil.

He tugged and manipulated the mana with such force that even the flames got caught within the cyclone, circling and creating a small dome of fire.

The dome kept Tetsu hidden and safe before he fainted because of mana exhaustion.

The latter explosion did a number on him, but he overcame the first barrage with expert mana manipulation, and that too by controlling mana beyond his range of touch.

During the cyclone, Tetsu was rewarded with the fire and wind affinity which he gladly accepted and used to control the cyclone. His mind, one of the three basic powers, shone brighter and thought ahead of time during a crisis. Yet even at the most demanded moment, it had no way out.

"If you are so good, make me forget this pain... this..."

Tetsu wanted to ball up, but the confined space forced him to remain still and a gaping hole remained in place of his heart.

Tetsu somehow shrunk within himself and stood straight, facing a massive crater that had consumed his world whole. A pitch-black hole with no visible end and no visible hope.

"Can you end this pain?" Tetsu questions the darkness and it echoes his words back to him.

Without thinking twice, Tetsu took a step forward and let the fall be the end of him.

Moments become hours, and hours become days. Yet Tetsu kept falling and the darkness kept trying to claim Tetsu. He fell deeper and deeper and still never met his fate or the bottom. The guilt clung to him like a lifeline, pushing him to untie and resolve it, before he chose his own fate.

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An imaginary thread and an imaginary fall, both his creations and out of his hands. Tetsu had no choice but to fight, and he hated himself for it.

Even the system provoked Tetsu to rise and take his revenge. Luring Tetsu with an offer he oh-so-much desired. No, begged for all these days.

[Ding! Congratulations, the required XP earned to advance to the upper level. Level 01-->02.]

This notification drove deep, striking Tetsu deep within the massive abyss, causing him and it to crackle with fury.

"I don’t need it." Tetsu roared from within the abyss, tears gushing out. “I want my friend back... I want this nightmare to be over.” He commanded, forced, and pleaded for the system to decline his advancement, but it never went away.

While the heavens above didn’t shake, his tears consoled the furious abyss, damping it and filling it with water.

In time, the abyss filled to its brim and Tetsu floated midst a pool of never-ending darkness. Nor he or the heaven above would grant him the relief he desired. And Tetsu cursed his very existence and the heavens above for being doomed to carry this burden for life.

Tetsu flayed his arms viciously, but his hands only met water, cushioning the blow.

The pool of tears soothes the very soul, drowning away Tetsu’s anger and protecting him from himself.

In an attempt to drown, Tetsu dove deeper into the pool. Days pass by and the deeper he goes, the more familiar he becomes with the pool.

Intricate tunnels formed a web with the abyss lying in the epicenter. Tetsu could access and power any part of the body by directing the energy within the abyss into said tunnel.

The gaping hole in place of the… Heart! The powerhouse, where the primary source of life force is accumulated, or converted? Tetsu did not understand any aspect of it, but this bottomless pit was where the life force originated from.

“Near the heart, or either the heart itself creates the life force?”

So many questions.

By willing and pushing the energy within the abyss into the intricate channels, they powered various sections of Tetsu’s body. One channel allowed him to sense a tiny pinch below the ankle, while the other helped to move his lower lip.

All of this made sense and Tetsu, fearing for his life, never stabbed himself in the chest or brain to figure out the life force origin. Based on how a quick healing orb mended a piece of cloth and booger flesh onto him, Tetsu was glad he didn’t follow through with the experiment.

Suicide was a foreign word in his dictionary until...

"I’ve understood vital energy finally... when I want to die." A chuckle slips out.

Kile, his mom, dad, second mom and dad, grandma. One by one, his family fills his vision. All of them stared, waiting, judging him. He promised, but... they should understand too, right? Family should, must… Tetsu floats within a bottomless abyss, channeling energy to flow throughout his body. “... Understand me too.”

His finger twitches and his lungs bulge out by a sudden force of wind, snapping his eyes open. Tetsu either lost his vision or he actually entered the imaginary pit.

Still lost in the darkness, Tetsu moves his limbs around to better assess his situation. Thankful for finding four walls, he sighed in relief. His smile flips to a frown when he realizes the grave situation.

“That damn tree.”

Tetsu raised his arm to smash through the coffin, but a string of roots held him back. On closer inspection, he found the roots lodged into the arms, legs, and into his whole freaking body. They were like tiny needles that entered through every pore of his body.

"What the actual fuck."

Acupuncture sounded much better than this and yet Tetsu remained calm. After ordering the tooth… tooths, the second one sprouted during his blackout, to shut up. Some part of Tetsu assured him that these tiny threads were harmless and helped with the recuperation process. While his gut screamed that these were his literal lifelines keeping him alive.

Diving deeper to test this assuring sense, Tetsu channels his inner energy, the life force, and confirms the hunch.

The threads did transmit some form of vital energy, and to hit the iron when it was hot, Tetsu began analyzing the vital energy within him, the threads, the coffin, and his surroundings.

The ability to sense and control vital energy is one of RJ’s gifts and Tetsu planned on using the devil’s book if it can strengthen him.

Yes, he already started training for revenge. The notion still made his insides churn, yet his resolve never wavered. Also, being a step away from death opens up vital energy's floodgates. This is by far the best and only shot Tetsu had in decoding the Intricate and complicated channels of vital energy. To find all the answers, to the usual questions of why, who, and how?

While Tetsu drew blanks, unable to decode the wisps of white energy within the transparent colorless hues of vital energy, or the spots of black, he concentrated on different aspects of the power. For one, condensing large amounts of vital energy in a spot can give vital energy an ethereal green shade. The more you condense the greener the spot shines.

While playing with a dense green ball, Tetsu casually bumps it against an impure wisp of white, pushing it farther away. And after a certain distance, the wisp vanished from within the abyss. The process drained Tetsu and increased those black spots, but except for these visual cues, Tetsu had no clue as to what the actual fuck happened.

The same bumping technique failed over the black spots as the condensed vital energy harmlessly passed through. Tetsu tried condensing more vital energy and still got the same result.

“Every solved puzzle comes with more mysteries. Solve one and three plot holes take its spot.”

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