~~~~~~~~(29:45 PM)~~~~~~~~

It was perfectly normal for people to break things or damage something when angry. However, taking down a full-blown concrete wall with inhumane force would not count as normal.

The resulting crash nearly gave everyone in Velysium Hall a heart attack. Most had been asleep, and apart from the people on watch, there were only a select few who were still awake, unable to sleep due to the day's events.

It didn’t take long for people to start rushing into both the Archery room and Martial arts room. Half asleep people ready to combat or at least try and survive beetles they thought had broken through the wall. What awaited them though was something they could not believe in the slightest.

Pure silence reigned as both room occupants and Zane stared in shock and fascination at the club wall in front of him. All eyes immediately went to Zane’s fist as the silver-Grey energy began to gradually diminish.

“What the actual Fuck happened here?” Asked Ranzer, obviously very confused at what was happening,” Either I’m dreaming right now, or I’ve finally gone insane with all shit we’ve been through.”

Troy, who had seen the whole thing, tried to speak, but he had completely lost his words at the unbelievable display of power Zane had just shown. The man in question was currently looking down at his hands trying to figure out just what the hell he had done to break down a whole wall.

“What's going on here?” Said a very stern and annoyed voice as Coach McConnel pushed through the crowds of students. He just about laid down for some shut-eye after trying his best to calm down some of the more unstable students and was not happy with the rude awakening. Looking around he knew just what to do,” Someone has exactly 7 seconds to tell me why there's a huge hole in the wall or else everyone here is going for 7 laps around Velysium Hall right now.”

Not wanting to deal with that as there were only 2 hours till midnight and they had not gotten any sleep, the Martial arts club members all pointed at Zane but said nothing.

The coach raised his brow before saying,” Ok, so what happened?”

It took a second but Angus, a member of the martial arts club, managed to put enough words together to talk about what had just happened,” well coach...um…. I think Zane got a little angry…. And we all kinda just saw some white light coming out of him and uh…. Gather on his hands….” He as more people started showing up,” so then…. well he broke the wall. I don't know how else to say this. He just broke it.”

“Right.” Began Coach McConnel,” So you're expecting me to believe, a 17-year boy, managed to somehow break a solid wall of concrete with his bare fists?” He asked as he started massaging his forehead. Angus thought about how insane what was just said was, but it was the god honest truth, thus he and the rest of the people in the room nodded hurriedly.

“Alright.” Said Coach McConnel,” Firstly, are you, kids, in there ok?” He said addressing the Archery kids.

“Eh.” Replied Emelia with confirmation

“W-Were good, nearly crushed us but we're ok.” Said Arran

“Great.” Said coach McConnel,” now, Zane, you have 5 minutes to do it again. Cause it an unbelievable story compared to someone just playing with explosive, if you can’t do it, you and your buddies are to get one hell of a night”

The only thing Zane could think about in times like this was --- “Shit.”

~~~~~~

Trying to recreate breaking a concrete wall in front of a crowd of sleepy teenagers, adults and a very angry Coach did not help Zane at all.

His knuckles were starting to hurt, no scratch that they were practically numb from all the attempts at punching the wall, even with the padding.

“Why don’t you try what you did before?” Suggested Troy desperately. He like much of the others was not too keen on a night of punishment with Coach McConnell. They had already been working out for a while now and were just about ready to go to sleep. Thus they didn’t want to remain here with him.

The problem was Zane was unsure what he had done. He had just been punching things and doing his best to keep his anger in check. However, that had been a major failure as he just let himself get caught by the flow of his emotion.

‘Flow….” Realized Zane,’ What if it was that!?’ he wondered in uncertainty. Testing out his idea, Zane Stopped trying to break the wall with his fist and instead leaned onto the wall to meditate. He calmed his breathing and did his best to let every thought go. Soon it didn’t take him long to feel the same cool feeling he’s been feeling for a long time now. ‘This can’t be normal’, though Zane, careful not to let the feeling go. He had meditated hundred or even thousands of times before, but each time hadn’t left him with this feeling. It was only ever since the apocalypse began that he’d begun feeling something. Plus it was also fairly warm in the clubroom, thus making Zane wonder where the cool feeling was coming from.

Zane decided to go deeper, holding on to that feeling and focusing only on that. That was when he suddenly cut from his body, finding himself in a place, somewhere that could both be perceived as dark and bright at the same time, which seemed impossible. In his perceivable surrounding strands of silver-grey energy, the same he had seen fading into his hands, flowed everywhere. No, that wasn’t the right way to describe it, it was everywhere, encompassing everything the strands just seemed to be greater concentrations of it.

Looking down at himself, Zane found that he was transparent and just a very vague figure of a human being. ‘Cool!’ he thought as the place he found himself in wavered a second before he purge the excitement he felt at whatever he had just discovered.

Zane then tried to move towards one of the strands but found that, much like a vacuum, it was impossible to move around in this space. Thus he tried a different approach, he focused on where he wanted to go, trying to somehow move to that strand. Instead, a piece of a silver-grey strand detached itself from the main flow slowly and, at an even slower pace, attempted to make its way towards him. Though it progressed, Zane soon lost grip of the strand as it was too mentally draining to drag it back. The Dark and Bright place wavered horribly again, twisting and swirling, it was then that he heard the voice of multiple people calling out to him at once.

As soon as Zane entered the strange realm, his body had collapsed, freaking everyone, with Coach McConnell even losing his world-renown stoic expression. Everyone was gathered around him with the nurse trying to figure out what was wrong. It seemed like Zane was sleeping, his breathing was slow and very far in between, yet even after getting knocked on the head by his friends, still did not wake up.

Eventually, Zane managed to regain control and not get kicked out of the strange realm. Zane then thought back to how he’d done it the first time. Though he hadn’t done it in an exact way, Zane eventually concluded that he had gathered the energy while he was breathing. To which he realized he hadn’t been doing while in this realm.

Thus Zane focused the less concentrated energy that was everywhere and took a breath. And was surprised as he felt the energy pour into him going directly to his chest. Soon, it didn’t take long for the realm to start wavering again, Zane himself was getting kind of dizzy and losing focus. Long-honed instincts from martial arts competitions kicked in as Zane immediately pulled out of the realm and back into the real world gasping for air. It felt like he had been underwater for an extended period of time. The only thing on his mind was getting air into his lungs.

Eventually, he registered the voices of the people surrounding him out of worry, many of them looking like they had been crying.

“Zane.”

Hearing the Coach’s Voice, Zane turned to the side to see the man kneeling next to him, one hand on his shoulder as he laid, supported by the nurse and the principal,” You ok?” Asked Coach McConnell,” you stopped breathing for a while there what happened?”

Remembering what had just happened, Zane turned his attention to his body again, as he felt the energy he had gathered squirming chaotically in his chest causing some slight discomfort. Yet somehow, he knew he could somewhat control it.

Lifting his right hand up slowly, he sent every ounce of the every to it and grinned as everyone looked on in surprise, confusion, and amazement as the silver-Grey energy gathered around his hand: glowing with power.

However, it didn’t take long for Zane to pass out from the mental strain of this night’s endeavor.

[Day 26 {week 3}] - Saturday - January 26, 0000 A.A

By now everyone knew their sleep schedule was fricked.

Since the days were a lot longer, they had tried to offset it by sleeping some near noon. But with recent disasters that schedule was out of whack and everyone knew it.

Still the mood today was much better than the prior day. Coach McConnell and the other faculty used Zane’s discovery as a way to get things moving again. If chores and assignments were not completed, no one would even attempt to try what Zane had done. Being teenagers who would not want to become a superhero able to tear down a concrete wall with ease.

Thus many of the previous sulking teens were rushing about getting things that should have been done the day prior with a lot more drive. Though there was still a bit of depression going about everyone was on a much better note than before.

It was 8 in the morning when Zane woke up. He sat from the bumble of sheets he had been sleeping on within the classroom he and a few people had taken as their own. A few people were in here as well, all currently sleeping from a night of guarding the area in the case of unlikely beetle attacks.

Stretching for a second, Zane stood up and gathered the same silvery-Grey energy from before to his hands and watched with satisfaction as it gathered without much effort. He had woken up hours ago and had just to experiment with it for a while. He’s discovered why he had fainted the night before. While in the Strange realm, he had to force himself to breathe to gather energy. In doing so, he stopped the breathing of his physical body with essential cut airflow which caused him to lose consciousness. After he discovered that he began sectioning how long he gathered energy with short breaths for every perceivable second and then stopped when the realm began to weaver. But that proved less efficient than a long continuous inhale and then some rest to allow his body time to breathe.

Retracting the energy, he felt that a lot had dissipated from him and hoped there would be a way to keep more of it within him. Either way, it was time for some food, he was really hungry.

~~~~

“They are way too excited for this.” Said Mr.Val at most of the faculty members currently gathered around for a meeting. Not wanting a repeat of last time, one of them was outside the door making sure none of the students eavesdropped on their conversation.

“I know,” replied Mrs.Stillwater in exasperation. She, like everyone, had become a mess, her ginger hair was a tangled mess, she had dark circles under her eyes, with cuts and bruises from battles with beetles that were still healing,” and it’s not like we can stop them or anything.”

“That’s true, all we can do is try to ease them into it.” Said Mr.Glenn.

“That’s the thing though.” began Officer Fitzpatrick” we don’t know what we’re leading them into. We don’t even know if it’s helpful or dangerous. I mean, Zane could very well have died or something.”

“She has a point. All of them want to try the same thing as Zane, and there is really no way of stopping apart from controlling who Zane shares the information too and so on.” Said the principal.

“That would be true if we were in another situation.” Started Coach McConnell,” Seeing that we are at risk of getting attacked by beetles and that no help would likely make its way here anytime soon it would be best if everyone could use this to maximize our survival.”

“I agree with that.” Said Officer wheeler,” we need as many hands helping to fend off the beetles and any other monsters we might encounter after this mess. The best course of action now is making sure they don’t kill themselves doing something stupid.”

To their words, it seemed like all the faculty currently in the room were in agreement at what was to be done with Zane’s ability which they hoped could be taught, to increase their chance of survival. Plus the prospect of venturing into the depths of a Mysthically-mythical force they’ve only dreamed about was something the adults were very intrigued by. At the very least. some of them.

The door to their meeting room swung open, as the janitor who had been watching the students outside came in,” Zane’s awake.” He said queuing an end to the meeting.

Meanwhile, Zane was having a hard time trying to enjoy his morning beetle gruel with nearly everyone either watching in excitement or trying to pry the secrets of his power out of him.

“ How’d you do It!” One asked

“ How did it feel like?” Another asked

“You a wizard now man?” Asked Loe as he too slurped up on his beetle gruel, gagging afterward.

“Teach MEEE!!” Went Troy, careful not to shout too loud, as he shook a very irritated Zane as he felt the incoming stomach ache from his food.

The only people that were giving him space were the more patient people, quietly waiting off to the side for Zane to finish eating or busy completing their assigned chores.

In the end, the adults managed to drag everyone away and leave Zane some space to finish his food, and deal with the stomach ache it generated.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

It was no to question that once the stomach ache had dissipated away, everyone assaulted him again to try on have him teach them what he had done last night.

“Ok, can yall calm down!” Shout Zane, hand outstretched defensibly,” I’ll show y’all how to do it soon.”

“But when’s soon?” asked Leo.

Zane thought about it for a second before responding,” why don’t we do it after training with coach McConnell? I need my morning exercise.

“Oh. I like the sound of that.” Said Coach McConnell, startling the students due to his unannounced arrival,” I think from now on, those who do not train, do not get to experience magic or whatever it is.” Groans could be heard all-around at the prospect of more training and exercise. Most of them still didn’t like the physical challenges they were put through every day, but in the end, they reasoned it was worth it to learn what they believed was magic.

“Great. Looks like we’re in agreement.” Said Coach McConnell,” 10 laps around Velysium Hall! go!”

Lots of people stood there in confusion,” Now?” asked one of them.”No!” Screamed Coach McConnell,” Yesterday! Move it all you! I’ll start running in 30 seconds and whoever I catch does not get to work with magic today!”

That got a lot of people moving as they all scampered away from the coach as he started his warm-up.

~~~~~~~~(12:32 PM)~~~~~~~~

True to his words, after the intensive training session, the people that coach McConnell had caught during the chase around Velysium Hall were sent to take over for the people guarding the corpse-filled hallways while they left to rest; though most of them joined in to learn magic from Zane. A fourth of the survivors were there, which included about half of the faculty; the principal, Malcolm, Mr.Val, Ms.Stillwater, Coach McConnell, Officer Wheeler, the nurse, and a few others.

Sweaty and fairly exhausted teens struggled to hold back their excitement as they sat on the floor waiting for Zane to start explaining what he had done to tap into the power.

“Ok so.” Started Zane,” First things first, I kinda didn’t realize I was doing it until I...well broke the wall between the Archery club and Martial art club rooms. I basically started off just meditating, and then I felt a strange cool flow watching over me. I thought it was just the air from the air conditioning, but I guess we all know it wasn’t now.”

“So by meditating, do you mean clearing your mind kind of deal? As in, don't think of anything?” Asked Leo, interrupting Zane before he could continue.

“Sure.” Replied Zane,” Once I focused on the feeling, it had to be the only thing on my mind at the time, or else I lost it again. Once you get that down, you get dragged to like this weird place where it’s both bright and dark at the same time and their strands of silver-Gary energy flowing about and you can’t really move there much like a vacuum.”

“So how’d you get the power?” Asked a student wanting Zane to get to the point.

“Can you elaborate more on the place you were in?”

“What do you mean by both bright and Dark?”

Multiple questions came all at once before Zane finally said.” Ok, I don’t know what that place is or how it functions. How I'm supposed to know why it's bright and both dark at the same time. If y’all want me to tell you how I broke the wall, shut up for a second, and let me explain!”

With the new and very much welcome silence, Zane continued explaining what to do.” Although you can try to get one of the strands to you, I don’t recommend it since you’ll be mentally drained before you can have it close enough. It's a good thing you don’t have to since the space seems to be covered with the same energy, just maybe in far less concentration. I don’t know. Then I guess you start breathing to absorb the energy.”

“That's it?” Asked Neo as Zane nodded,” It seems a little too straightforward.”

“I guess it I---Hey! Don’t try it yet! I haven’t finished telling you what not to do!” Said Zane alerting the adults to go and stop some of the students who had begun to meditate, thankfully, none had been cut from their bodies yet. “ As I was saying, when you enter the place you lose control of your body and I guess it just remains unmoving until you come back.” To his words, a lot of people related what he was explaining to why he collapsed the night before and hadn’t been responding when they were calling him.

” This leads me to the most dangerous factor.” that got everyone to listen, mainly the adults at the prospect of danger. “ Your body isn’t completely cut off from you while in that place, you just can’t feel or move it while there. When you start breathing to gather energy I suggest you inhale deeply for a while and then stop when you start feeling slightly uncomfortable, because when gathering energy your body will stop breathing for the duration of it. So stop before you pass out, because I have no idea what happens if you do without pulling out, probably nothing, but I don't wanna try.”

After Zane’s explanation Coach McConnell stressed the importance that they do not overdo things, and pull out if they feel any pain, headaches, or anything extensive. After making sure everyone knew what to and not to do, they finally allowed them to go through with it.

Niko followed Zane's instructions. He cleared his mind of all his thoughts as best as he could but it was fairly easy to get distracted and mess everything up. Just when he got it and began to feel something strange, likely what Zane was talking about, his excitement broke his concentration and he lost focus again. Cursing at himself, he tried again.

The 4th try proved to be a success as he finally got a hold of the feeling and found himself in the space Zane had been talking about. A strange Area, place, Realm, whatever it was, it was hard to describe. It could be both perceived as too bright or pitch black, with the silvery strands of energy flowing in all directions, coiling with one another to form a very complex and tangled web of energy.

Niko didn’t try to move the strand towards him and instead, began inhaling to take in the less concentrated energy around him. After a while, he felt like he was suffocating and immediately stopped as the strange space began to weaver a bit. Having caught the gist of it all Niko continued on this way.

4 hours had passed since Niko started until the point he decided he should stop due to feeling full on the energy. He did not want to overexert himself and regret it later. Still, he was surprised 4 hours passed since to him it only felt like 30 minutes had gone by since he went in and came out. As soon as he came out he had to wait before he could try to gain control of the energy since it was his turn to go guard the area with others on his shift.

~~~~~~~~(24:02 PM)~~~~~~~~

To everyone's surprise, Neo, Leo, Ria, Ranzer, Coach McConnell, the principal, Officer Wheeler, Ms.Stillwater, and a bunch of members from both the Archery and Martial arts club were just about the only ones who managed to do it once everyone of the survivors had a go.

Turns out the hardest part was clearing your mind. A lot of people would get bored and distracted too easily to remove any and all distractions from themselves, Some even falling asleep. Even if they were able to completely calm their minds, a lot of them couldn’t feel the energy Zane had talked about.

This put a lot of people on edge, as they began to wonder if the power was only for people who had the talent for it. The notion of a divide happening because of this, with those with powered getting all the control, began to destabilize the atmosphere in Velysium Hall.

“Why?” Screamed Dale at Lin,” Cause I’m better than you!”

“Better how!? Just because you just learned some new fancy trick doesn’t mean squat! You were just as miserable as everyone else a day ago!” Countered Lin.

“You're just jealous I can do it and you can’t!” Dale Snapped back.

It was evening and dinner had been served a bit ago as the teens split off into their respective groups to eat. One such group, eating in a classroom on the second floor, pushed jokes a little too far and a full-blown argument erupted between Dale and Lin. The 2 of them had always been known to hate each other's guts. They were always glaring at each other if they were in the same room. Even in the situation, the survivors found themselves in, nothing had changed between them.

Their friends were desperately trying to calm them down but so far nothing seemed to work. Thus someone had run to find an adult for help.

“Of course, I want to be able to do it too, Everyone Does! That doesn’t mean you have to belittle everyone because you got a little stronger,” replied Lin in anger

“What’s the problem with that? I’m just playing with them!” Said Dale

“No you're not, you're deliberately bullying people!”

“ I’m the one bulling people? You bully me every day!”

“ In which imagination of yours did that happen!”

“B*tch you know it’s true, don’t try to deny it.” Said Dale with a smirk.

“Don’t call me a B*tch.” Said Lin as she kicked Dale right in between the leg.

Dale went down hard, grouting in pain, the teens in the room were not frantically holding Lin back to beating the Sh*t out of Dale.

“Let go of me!” Scream Lin as her friends held her back,” let me kick this F*ck*rs face in!”

“F*ck!” Said Dale in pain as he stood up and punched at Lin, completely missing the silver-grey energy that was swirly over his hands.

Time seemed slow as the people in the room started shouting in horror or trying to push dale back. Then out of nowhere Officer wheeler tackled Dale to the floor as Dale’s fist narrowly missed one of Lin’s friends' head.

The people that had been holding Lin, and the person herself, were screaming in horror at what had just happened, their hearts pounding audibling in their chest. The commotion brought many people rushing over to see what was happening.

“The fuck were you thinking!” Said Officer Wheeler as he picked up Dale held him on the wall face first, his hands locked behind him.

Dale in question was in a daze and shocked by what he had just tried to do” I - I - I wa--” Unable to find the words stayed there for a bit as the adults that had arrived began pushing people back out into the hallways as Officer Wheeler dealt with the problem.

“I- I’m S-Sorry!” Dale managed to say as Coach McConnel walked in.

“You're sorry? What were you going to do when her head exploded?” Said Officer wheeler.” Say sorry to her corpse?!” To that Dale started tearing up.

Coach McConnell, having gotten the gist of what had happened from some of the teens in the room, walked over and placed a hand on Officer Wheelers, indicating for the officer to let him go. Due to his respect for McConnell, Wheeler did just that.

Coach McConnell turned the crying Dale forward and looked him in the eye,” you ok.” he asked, to which Dale nodded slowly,” Good. good.” said Coach McConnell Nodding as well.

Silence as mostly everyone not preoccupied with guarding the area contemplated what was happening, just as a shout of anger erupted from Coach McConnell startling everyone,” YOU FUCKING DUMBASS!” as Dale Shrunk under Coach McConnell’s glare.

“I don’t care how angry you were, nor what she said or did. That! Should not have been the first thing you resort to!” Then he turned and looked at all the teens that were around and started lecturing them too, ”This stands for all of you! We have beasts and creatures out there killing people we love, Haron just murdered practically half the school, and not even a day after we learn of something that can, Possibly, change this situation, one of you tries to kill the other!”

Silence

“You want to know what this tells me?” He says with restraint,” It tells me this was a bad idea. That you all, or at least some of you, lack the self-control to use this new ability.” he said looking in disappointment at Dale, “ I can stop all of this now, keep all of you from continuing to learn this...limiting it to just the adults”

“But--”

“SILENCE WHILE I AM TALKING!” shouted Coach McConnell before Leo could continue.

“There are just under 200 of you. And there are 17 of us.” Said Coach McConnell, after calming down a bit. “Usually this would not be a problem, but this situation is hard on us too, since we have to worry about you all as well as how we are going to get you out of here preferably to your families in one piece. Not only that, we have our families: wives, husbands, children out there that we are worried about too. That's a lot of stress on all of us. And Haron’s Stupidity and the suicide a few days ago didn’t make things any better. So what we need from all of you now is not to act like children at every instance. We need y’all to be rational and have some self-control. You don’t have to be adults, we all saw Haron, but at least act like you're supposed to. You all know what that means so don’t even think you don’t.”

“So I’m not going to stop the use of the magic of whatever. But if something else like this happens again, you best believe I will.” Said McConnell as he picked up both Dale and Lin off the floor,” Go eat your food, and sleep, I don’t want a peep tonight.” And with that, he left with both students with him.

~~~~~~~

[Day 30 {week 4}] - Wednesday - January 30, 0000 A.A

Coach McConnell had simmered down a lot over the past 4 days.

During them, however, it had been pure hell for the students, especially Dale and Lin, since everyone was virtually punished with much harsher exercise and way stricter schedules to keep up with, and a single complaint could threaten to push the coach over the edge again.

So now the different chores that had to be completed, such as cleaning, cooking, washing clothes, sweeping the floors, and the like were completed without even a second thought. Those who were about to complain were immediately hushed by their friend or other people, who feared the coaches' retaliation afterward. One complaint and everyone was getting punished.

On the bright side, the issue that started the whole mess had been resolved. It turned out that everyone could use the grey energy, some people just needed some help to feel it or some more meditation practice. While someone is meditating, another person could control their own energy and let it flow into the meditating person's body to aid them in feeling it. It took some time and was mentally draining for the person helping, but eventually, everyone learned to gather energy on their own, which resolved the previous tensions and rifts that had appeared on that first day.

In addition to all of that, the survivors' understanding of how their new abilities worked grew over time. One of such discoveries was the formation of an energy center they deemed the Core.

Zainab Gonzalez was ecstatic to be able to use magic. When he had learned he might not be able to use it, he had been devastated and all his dreams were falling down the drain. But now, he was certain he could achieve, all he needed to do was push his limits.

In all the mangas, comics, and novels he had read over the years, pushing one's limits was by far the best way to get strong quickly and get your harem. Zainab aimed to be such a protagonist and get all the hotties in his class, especially Emilia.

Thus, he decided to get to work today.

During his break, he went to the room he was assigned to, on the first floor, and laid down to gather energy. Entering the strange realm, which had been named the Zone, Zainab began taking in energy and moving it to his energy center, essentially a non-physical area, where the heart should be. He filled it up until his very limit, and instead of stopping, decided to go further.

At this point, all the energy he absorbed didn’t seem to go into his core anymore. They sort of just stayed outside of it, covering the whole core. Zainab kept on absorbing more and more, but none of them went in. That was when he felt a sharp pain in his chest, that caused him to leave the Zone. Jolting up from where he was laying, Zainab couldn’t help but hold his chest and cried out in pain,” ARRGH!!”

Looking down at his chest, there was a sharp glow of Silvery-Grey energy escaping through his clothes. There was another pang of pain and a burning sensation in his heart, that began spreading all over his body, and he screamed once more,” ARRGGH!”

‘ It’s alright!’ he told himself,’ you can’t get powerful without some pain, all of the protagonists go through this!’. And with that Zainab sought to go through with the pain, right as the door to the room he was in swung open as Josiah walked in.

“Dude!” He shouted as he rushed to Zainab’s side,” What’s wrong are you? Are you okay!?” He asked in alarm.

Zainab barely registered his question as the pain began to overwhelm,” I-- I’m Go-0od..” He said with the best possible smile he could muster, only to groan again as pain rippled through his body, spreading further.

“Like Hell you are!” Said Josiah as he witnessed the Silvery-White energy spreading throughout his body quickly. Josiah at this point knew something was wrong, he wasn’t sure what, but he was sure Zainab was going to die if he didn’t do something to stop it.

As Zainab cried out in pain once more Josiah took hold of him and began trying to discern what was wrong with him. As soon as he touched Zainab however, the energy that could not be contained within his core began rapidly following over to him instead.

As the energy began to transfer over to Josiah, A bunch of people came rushing in with Coach McConnel and a few adults to assess the situation.

“What Happened Here?” Asked Coach McConnell and Zainab’s cry of pain started to lessen.

“Uh, I’m not sure.” Said Josiah, as the last of the excess energy, flowed into him,” I think he might have absorbed too much energy? Maybe?”

As it turned out, the overload of energy had damaged Zainab's heart, lungs, and veins. He now had trouble breathing and would sometimes cough up blood. When Zainab had finally caved in and told the teacher why he had done something so stupid (obviously not with the part about Emilia, that would be embarrassing), Coach McConnell had another field day and his cooling mood had revved back up again, causing further problems for the students as they cursed Zainab for his stupidity.

Though Zainab's predicament had cemented the fact that using this energy was extremely dangerous, people had still gone on with it, looking for new ways to use and better exploit it.

It was later found that due to the difficulty in holding the energy in one core after the gathering process, energy would leak out, unable to stay within the core for long. Though this leaked energy meant less energy to temporarily increase their strengths, it also had a much better alternative: increasing physical strength permanently.

As the energy from a core leaks out, it travels randomly through various parts of the body. If someone is training as this happens, the free-flowing energy seems to fuse with their bodies, strengthening that part of the body slightly.

It had been a welcome surprise when many of the teens and adults who hadn’t exercised much in their lives began drastically losing weight, becoming stronger and faster far too quickly to be natural processes at play. It was because of this, that energy gathering was switched to before physical training, maximizing the amount of time they can use to improve themselves and better survive.

Finally, it was also confirmed that the core does eventually begin generating energy on its own. This gave people peace of mind, as they would no longer need to worry about constantly gathering energy after every fight to refill their core.

All in all, lots have been learned about the energy and everyone hoped they could have an easier fighting the beetles, and overall surviving in this new apocalyptic world