“You done yet?” Sofia asks as she stares down over Kiyan’s languid body. “ If you are ,just stay down so I can get to my actual training.”
“Why would.. I stop.. when I’m.... wearing you down?” Kiyan replies through strained breathing
“It’s been 10 minutes and you’re breathing so hard your lung is about to pop,” Sofia turns to Danae and Eren, “why are we still doing this? He’s gonna get hurt if this goes on.”
“You’re right, how about you and Eren start your combat training while I have a word with Kiyan?” Danae walks over to Sofia and places her hand on her shoulder, “once you two are done, we will begin the next phase of your training.” Sofia nods affirmingly and leaps off the edge of the cliff without making a sound.
“She’s gotten better, I might need to go harder on her so she doesn’t get an ego” Eren says before he blasts off the ground, kicking dust in the air.
“ So tell me, what happened?” Danae asks Kiyan
“What do you mean? You saw what happened. I couldn’t touch her at all” Kiyan answers as he sits up.
“Yes, but why couldn’t you touch her? Think back to what happened, what you felt.”
Kiyan tilts his head back and closes his eyes.
“I leapt at her trying to take her down but as I got closer I felt, I dunno, slower? Like my body got heavy and I couldn’t move like I wanted.”
“So you picked up on that, you have good senses. Yes, you were being slowed down by Sofia...do you know why?” Danae asks slyly.
“It’s that divine force stuff right? What is it?”
Danae takes a seat in front of Kiyan and raises her right hand in the air before slamming it quickly into the ground. As she raises her hand again to strike, Kiyan begins to feel a strange pressure exuding from her palm. She strikes the ground again, causing rocks and dirt to erupt.
“So, what do you think it is?” Danae asks and she removes her hand from the hand sized crater she made.
Kiyan wracks his brain trying to comprehend what it was he just witnessed. Was it some sort of technique that allows the body to tap into strength like when someone experiences an adrenal spike? But if that were true, then how did Zariah make a sword out of thin air? He takes a moment to collect himself before calmly answering Danae.
“ I think it’s a power source, something that lets you do things like creating weapons or making your body stronger.”
Danae smiles widely, unable to hide her enthusiasm.
“Your understanding of the applications of divine force is impressive for just discovering it not too long ago. It can be used to do exactly that you said and also so much more.”
“Ok so how does it work? Do I have to scream real loud or something?” Kiyan asks.
“Do you remember what you felt when you were at the warehouse?”
“Yeah, it was a warm feeling in my gut and then I suddenly felt like I could punch through a wall.”
“That was you gathering Shenli into your Ku”
“Into my what? Why are they called these things?” Kiyan asks as he stands up from the ground. “ So my Shenli was put in a Ku and that made me stronger?”
“Ku means storehouse. These words are from the teachings. A long time ago a man from ShenGuo discovered these principles. Shenli means divine force, it was a name given by those who witnessed his abilities. He was revered to the point where they renamed their country to ShenGuo which means God Kingdom.”
“Oh I get it, we use divine force to do cool stuff. How do I use it?”
Danae lets out a deep sigh and laughs.
“I suppose it’s a bit boring to just talk about its history and you have been patient. Here, close your eyes and call up the feeling from the warehouse.”
Kiyan closes his eyes and draws in a deep breath.
“Ok...I feel the burning, now what?”
“Visualize it moving throughout your body.”
“Is it supposed to look like something? How do I visualize energy?”
“Just imagine something that you can make move in your mind.”
Kiyan thinks back to his time in the ocean where the movement of the water gently rocked the ship. The sensation of power slowly fills his stomach and surges throughout his body.
“Very good Kiyan, now move that sensation towards your forehead and tell me what you see” Danae commands.
“I don’t see any-wait somethings happening!” White ethereal smoke begins to fill in the void, creating an overlay of his immediate surroundings. “I can..see you? Not like see you but like an outline of you...and you’re covered in white smoke.”
“That is Divine Sight, it lets you see divine force.”
“But it’s all over the place, does that mean everything has it?” Kiyan asks, still maintaining Divine Sight.
“All organic things do.”
“Then how can you see anything like this? It's all white stuff!”
“When you get better at it, you can control it to a much greater degree. Think of it like your thermal goggles you can turn on and off.”
“Oh wow, that’s actually a really good analogy Danae.”
“Why do you sound so surprised by that? Anyways, Divine Sight may take some time because you have to manage external stimuli, so for now we will practice with our eyes closed.”
Kiyan opens his eyes in shock. “ What? So how long will it take until I’m able to fight like Sofia does?”
“Sofia has been training for 2 years and is still a beginner so I can’t really say.”
“2 years?! But the Stewards Selection is in November, 2 years is too long!”
“They do the test every year so why rush it?”
“Because Sofia is going this year and she’s definitely gonna make it and I’m not gonna be left behind again!” Kiyan blurts out.
For a moment Danae is stunned at Kiyan’s outburst, but she lets out a deep sigh and places her hand on his right shoulder.
“Oh nieto, Mira didn’t leave you behind. She’s working hard, you know how much the Baron makes them work.”
“I,” Kiyan stops himself as if trying to choose his words carefully, “ I think I used divine force in her car. I was thinking about Sofia’s party and when I opened my eyes the door was 10 feet away. I also get headaches when I look at Eren sometimes, it happened at the base too.”
“Kiyan, I want to look at me closely and when your head starts to hurt, tell me immediately” Danae orders. Her rebozo begins to flutter violently as the dust from beneath her is pushed away.
“Ok yea, the pain is back” Kiyan replies grimacing.
“Good, now focus on moving it to your forehead, right in between your eyebrows.”
Kiyan’s vision goes white for a moment before slowly returning. He sees a refined flame of intense white surrounding Danae’s body. “ I see it! Your body is on fire”, he takes a moment and looks down at himself, “wait I also have the white smoke stuff, how come it doesn’t look like yours though?”
“Kiyan have you done this before? Besides the times your head hurt?Your body is reacting as if it’s already familiar with Divine Sight” Danae asks in astonishment.
“No, not at all.” Kiyan looks around and can see with unprecedented clarity; he can see everything within 100 ft of him as if he were standing directly in front of them. “ Ok this is weird, I’m looking at the back of my hands and I can see the individual hairs.”
“Yes and with practice you’ll be able to see much more than that, but at the moment you should stop using it, you don’t have enough divine force to maintain it.”
“Oh, is that why I’m feeling so tired? I’m just gonna take a nap….” Kiyan drops to the ground and immediately goes to sleep.
“Wake up!” Eren yells at Kiyan, jolting him awake. “ You gotta stop sleeping all the time man.”
“How long was I out for?”
“An hour” Sofia interjects, playing with two wooden daggers.
“ This is the second time I’ve passed out, why does that keep happening?”
“Because you aren’t rooting or conserving your divine force” Danae says as she walks over to Eren. “Make sure you teach him how to root before you start combat training, Eren. Sofia, it’s time.” Danae and Sofia sit down to the right of Kiyan and close their eyes.
“What are they doing?” Kiyan asks.
“Danae has been teaching Sofia her techniques that have been in her family for generations.” replies Eren. “ But those are techniques only they can use so no point in watching, we got our own stuff to do.”
“We do? Oh combat training! Finally I get to-wait please don't…”Eren grabs Kiyan before he finishes and jumps off the cliff, into the sea of green trees below. “...do that.”
“Ok, before we can start you gotta root so we can get your energy back up.”
Kiyan turns around and walks a few steps towards the base of the cliffside and cranes his neck up. “How far did we fall?”
“Only 1,000 feet. Alright, so how rooting works is-”
“1,000 feet?!”
“Look you gotta stop being surprised by the lil things, you saw me jump like a mile from a boat” Eren says calmly. “ Now rooting, this is a technique we use to restore our divine force and it also restores your physical stamina. Sit down so we can get started”
“Doing a lot of sitting today” Kiyan says to himself as he rests on the lush green grass. “By the way, where are we? I have never seen so much nature.”
“Boy if you don’t focus...this is a training area my teacher made for me a long time ago, based on where she would train me.”
“So she put a whole area into a storage script? I guess you can put anything in these.”
“I guess so, ok no more questions unless it’s about the lesson. Rooting requires you to allow the divine force of nature to flow into it by connecting your Ku to it.”
“Ku? What does that mean?” Kiyan asks.
“It means storehouse, didn’t Danae tell you all this?” an annoyed Eren replies. “Close your eyes and…” Eren looks in amazement as Kiyan is seated on the ground gathering a large amount of divine force within his body. A stream of white vapor pours into the air from Kiyan’s body, forming a column 6 feet high.
“This feels weird, it feels like I’m half awake. I definitely have my energy back but it seems like it's not all of it?” Is that normal?” Kiyan asks, opening his eyes to a shocked Eren.
“How do you already know how to root?”
“What? You just told me how!”
“No, all I said is you have to connect you Ku to it.”
“Well that’s simple, you called it rooting so I just imagined roots coming from my body and into the ground. Visualization seems to be the key to gathering and using divine force.”
Eren folds his massive arms in an effort to regain his composure.
“Hey, use your Divine Sight right now.”
“I thought I wasn’t supposed to? Fine, gimme a minute.” The column dissipates as Kiyan closes his eyes momentarily. “ Ok so now what?”
“Now you show me what you can do!” Time slows down for Kiyan as he witnesses Eren firmly plant his right boot into the ground, shifting the blades of grass under his heel. Each step Eren takes feels as if he is moving at half speed as he begins his approach, his muscles rippling with each vibration generated from him striking the ground. Kiyan eyes shift to his left side where Eren crouches before propelling his right fist towards his head. Try as he might, Kiyan cannot get his body to move out of the fist’s path and reflexively closes his eyes. After a brief moment of darkness, Kiyan opens his eyes and sees Eren’s fist just short of his nose.
“So, what did you see?” Eren asks, pulling his fist away.
“I saw you moving at half speed, coming from my left. I tried to block but-”
“Your body wouldn’t move right? It’s impressive enough that you were able to see where I was going, but this confirms my hunch.”
“So this was another test….and I failed” Kiyan says dejectedly.
“Nah, you didn’t fail. Tell me this, how long do you think this took?”
“ I don't know, like a minute?
“It didn’t even take a second.”
“What?” a bewildered Kiyan shouts, “ That was less than a second? But it felt so long.”
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
“How do I put this in a way you’ll get?” Eren places his hand on his chin, “ You have amazing software but your hardware sucks.”
“Ok that makes-”
“You have great senses but your body is trash.”
“Yeah I-”
“ Ya brain smart but your body dumb”
“I GET IT! My body can’t keep up, that was very clear the first time” Kiyan blurts out.
“It’s all good though, I’m gonna upgrade your hardware” Eren replies after he finishes laughing. “ It’s important to make sure your body can handle divine force, otherwise you’ll break your arms again.
“Hey about that, I was using divine force then right? You said I reinforced, how do I actually do that?”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself, I’m gonna teach you all of that when you’re able to handle it.” Eren steps towards the base of the cliff and looks up. “ Okay, first training session, you have to make your way back up this cliff.”
“Uh..ok? Do I get equipment or?”
“You are the equipment. Have fun!” Eren bounds up the cliff effortlessly, disappearing from Kiyan’s view only after a few steps.
“ How the hell am I supposed to climb up a cliff!” Kiyan yells in frustration. “No, it’s ok, he said I’m the equipment so that means I am ready for this..right?” He places his right foot on the side of the cliff and looks up, unable to see the peak even using Divine Sight. “ There’s no way I can climb this, but Eren didn’t climb it either. No, he jumped. Maybe that’s how I do it?” Kiyan closes his eyes and takes a deep breath as he visualizes his divine force traveling throughout his lower body. “ Ok, it feels like my legs are lighter, but not stronger...oh what if I…” the flowing energy begins to slow down, solidifying into a hard block of ice. “ Yeah! I feel like I could kick a hole in this mountain now!” Kiyan gathers himself and leaps off the ground with tremendous force, rocketing up the cliff. In just 10 vertical strides he approaches the halfway mark and is met by a smiling Eren, who is standing perpendicular to the cliff.
“Not bad Kiyan, you were able to reinforce your legs after seeing me do it upclose; unfortunately, I told you to climb not run.” Eren extends his left hand and presses gently down on Kiyan’s chest with his two fingers, sending him hurtling back down the mountain. Eren leaps up and lands in front of Danae and Sofia.
“Que grosero Eren, using two fingers like that” Danae says as she sits on the ground drinking from a brown bottle.”
“He’ll be alright, I know you sense that his divine force hasn’t even dropped yet. Besides, you can’t call me mean while you have Sofia trapped in your Sostiene Tormenta.” Eren points to a small, swirling mass of dark-grey clouds centered on an obscured Sofia.
“It’s fine, I know you can sense her divine force isn’t gone” Danae replies in a mocking tone. “ If she’s going to use Paso Nublado, then she has to pass through these clouds.”
“I know you’re real proud of your pun, but maybe she’s not ready for it. She just learned Ignition not too long ago” Eren states as he gestures for Danae to throw him a bottle.
“ These two have potential,” she replies while lobbing a drink at Eren, “Sofia is already able to use Ignition only 2 years into her training and Kiyan’s grasp on divine force is frighteningly strong.”
“ I haven’t seen someone grow so quickly. In a strange way, he reminds me of Shaori and my teacher” Eren says wistfully.
“ Your sister I get, they both have that youthful exuberance, but how is he like Dyara?” Danae opens another bottle and downs it immediately, “ Kiyan is actually fun to be around.
“ Before we got here I gave him a gut check, and for a moment I felt like I was staring into the jaws of an animal” he says before finishing the bottle in one gulp. “It’s strange though, his divine force is already intense enough to break his arms without Ignition, but he can barely control it.”
“You know what you’ll have to do then.”
“ Yeah but where he is now there’s a high chance he’ll die. We better give it some time.”
“Speaking of which…” Danae glances behind Eren right before Kiyan’s battered, dirty hand emerges over the edge of the cliff.
“You...hit...me...off.... a mountain” Kiyan says, struggling to catch his breath as he drags his body across the dirt. “ My..everything...hurts...I can’t...even yell...so tired..” He rolls over onto his back, revealing his torn up shirt and pants.
“Hey you made it up, good job Kiy! Now start rooting so we can continue!”barks Eren.
“What do you think...I’ve been doing? I was...doing that the whole..time.”
“You need to be careful with rooting Kiyan, there’s a limit to how much energy you get back” Danae interjects, “ It’s diminishing returns; the more often you root, the less energy you get back. When you get better control of your divine force, you’ll need to root less and less.”
“Yeah..I’m seeing that. It’s taking forever to catch my breath.”
“If what you said was true, you’ve been rooting for an hour, this is as much energy as you’re going to have” replies Danae.
“Really? But my lungs aren’t burning as much and I can actually move a bit.” Kiyan sits up and notices the localized storm behind Danae. “Uh, what’s going on there?”
“That’s Sofia, she’s learning a technique is all. If you got the energy to ask questions, then let’s get back to it.” Eren walks towards Kiyan and props him up, dusting his clothes off and placing his hand on his shoulder. A surge of energy rushes throughout Kiyan’s body, revitalizing him.
“Wow, I feel amazing. Was that you?” He asks, gazing at his body in amazement.
“Transferring divine force is easy, just gotta have enough to donate is all! Now, give me 1,000 push ups” Eren says with a wide smile.
“I’m sorry I think I might be lightheaded from climbing, how many push ups?”
“1,000” Eren replies.
“ So soon? Why not start him off with 500?” Danae asks.
“Abuela that’s too much, just make him do 10” suggests Sofia as she materializes out the storm with deep cuts all over her partially formed body. She walks towards Kiyan, grey particles flowing from her reforming body, and glares at him before squatting down. “ Maybe 5.”
“ Hey I don’t know if you notice, but your left arm is totally gone. Also you absolutely have way too many gashes to not be in pain” Kiyan remarks as he points to her missing limb.
“It’ll come back, reformation takes a bit of time when you first do it. Speaking of first times, how was your climb?”
“ So you did it too? It took me an hr to do it but only because Eren hit me back down!” Kiyan shifts his gaze towards Eren, “and now I gotta do like a million push ups!”
“1,000 not a million, you’re not there yet” Eren interjects. “Anyways now that Sofia is out, she can take over. I’ll be back in a bit.” He gets up and walks to Danae, giving her a head nod.
“Sofia, you do yours too and then come eat dinner” Danae states as she takes her storage script out and opens the door.
“Ok abuela, but I’m gonna wait a little bit after I finish, is that ok?”
Danae smiles gently before heading through the door with Eren following suit. As the door closes, Sofia gets in a push up stance and within moments completes 100 one pushups before resuming the stance.
“Are you gonna start or are you gonna just watch?” Sofia asks.
“ That doesn’t hurt? You look you’ve been cut pretty deep” Kiyan replies, looking over the myriad of gashes all over her body. “How did you get all of those? The storm thingy?”
“ Yeah but it’s fine really, it’s all part of my training. If I can’t use Ignition during combat then it’s worthless anyways.”
“Ignition...is that why your arm was missing? You ignited it?” Kiyan asks as Sofia’s body once again solidifies. “That is probably the weirdest thing I’ve seen today and I saw a worm create an underwater vortex.”
“W-What?” Sofia says with a look of pure confusion on her face.
“It was like a worm and it was huge and it hand human limbs and-”
“If you’re gonna try to give me nightmares at least work while you do it. Eren is serious about the push ups and they won’t let you eat until you’ve done them all.”
“Fine, but you gotta tell me what Ignition is all about” Kiyan bemoans as he unenthusiastically gets into the pushup position.
“Ignition happens when you ignite your divine force” Sofia says flatly before starting one arm pushups.
“That’s not very helpful. How do you ignite it? Does it hurt?” Kiyan drops to his knees after completing 10 pushups.
“It’s kinda hard to explain but once you use Ignition you can do all sorts of stuff. That’s the training level I’m at anyways, you clearly are still in the conditioning stage.” She assumes a static handstand position, “why aren’t you circulating your divine force with rooting?”
“I thought...you get less energy back..each time?” Kiyan replies, struggling to complete 3 push ups.
“You get less, but you don’t get zero back. At the level you’re at, even a minimal amount should be enough. Think about it, if you have the energy to do at least ten, what do you think will happen if you continuously maintain that energy level?”
“Oh...I didn’t think about that, good looking out Sof.” Kiyan exhales deeply and begins rooting, visualizing his divine force flowing into the earth as he lowers his body to the ground. As he presses off the ground, the energy of the earth flows into him, creating a cycle of energy leaving and returning to his body. The burning sensation in his muscles begin to dull until there’s only a slight feeling of warmth cascading through his body.
“You catch on surprisingly fast” Sofia remarks as she begins balancing on her index fingers.
“ I’ve been hearing that a ton today, maybe I’m just a genius” he replies while approaching 100 pushups.
“Well genius, you better make sure you take a break. Your physical body is already past its limit and this fix is temporary.”
“My what?” As Kiyan attempts to push himself off the ground, his entire body locks in place.
“ So your body is completely tapped out right now since it’s not used to working this hard, plus you’ve been using divine force a ton in a short period of time. Essentially, you’ve used up all of your physical energy so you literally don’t have the energy to move” Sofia says flatly. “ Don’t worry, as long as you get a bit of energy you’ll be fine, but if you don’t get any soon you’ll totally die.”
“Oh, is that all?” Kiyan replies. “ I don’t feel like this is fine, I can’t feel my body and it is taking all that I have to even talk.”
“Then don’t talk, just take in a bit of energy and rest.”
“Actually Sofia, I’ll take over from here” Eren announces, appearing out of nowhere.
“Was he always there? Is this a side effect of divine force? Did I go blind?”
“Didn’t she tell you to stop talking? You didn’t go blind, I just hid myself.” Eren reaches into his pocket and pulls out a clear, tube shaped bracelet. “ I got you a gift so you better like it.” He walks to Kiyan and places the bracelet on his right wrist. A white smoke fills the tube, slowly solidifying into a viscous fluid.
“What’s with the accessory? It’s so old school.”
“Again with the talking, just shut up and root” Eren commands.
“Sure thing” Kiyan replies begrudgingly. The bracelet slowly shifts to a pale green hue before transitioning fully to a green fluid. A small amount of energy flows into Kiyan’s body, giving him the ability to once again move.
“Oh, this thing is like an automatic rooter, Autoroot!”
“Don’t give it that name, but yeah it’s like that” Eren replies. “Sofia, why don’t you go and eat dinner?, it’s already past 10pm.”
“ Ok, are you guys gonna eat too or can I go crazy?”
“ Danae made you an entire five-course post training meal.”
“Those are my favorite!” Sofia hastily pulls out her script and creates a door, leaving without saying another word.
“Well...that just happened” Kiyan remarks, “I didn’t finish my push ups yet but if you give me more time I will.”
“Kiy, did you really think I expected you to do 1,000 push ups on day one of training?”
“Um considering that you hit me off of a mountain? Yes. Absolutely.”
“Fair point. The goal wasn’t to get you to do push ups, the goal was to put your body in this state.”
“You want me to feel like death?” Kiyan asks incredulously.
“Near death. I know it doesn’t make sense to you now but me and Danae both came to the conclusion that you need to rebuild your body in order for you to use divine force effectively.”
“How does putting me near death improve my body? I’m getting lightheaded just talking to you!”
“The fact that you’re lightheaded is why we are doing this. You’re gonna train like this and keep that bracelet on 24/7. There’s enough energy in there so you won’t lock up but you’ll never have more energy than this so you’ll need to be careful.” Eren sits down next to Kiyan and looks up at the clear, blue sky. “ You know, my teacher trained me this exact same way before I became a Steward.”
“You had a teacher? So then this isn’t Steward training?” Kiyan asks as he turns over onto his back.
“It’s gonna help you get through the exams for sure and yes I had a teacher. She was wild and ridiculously strong. My first time meeting her? She cleared out a room of 50 wardens at a bar, without spilling her beer.”
“Wow 50 Wardens? You were a Warden at that time right? So she beat you up too.”
“I was a Warden but she didn’t beat me up because I was the only one who could tell we didn’t stand a chance against her.”
“So she’s someone you’re even too scared to fight, that’s something...but why bring her up?”
“Oh, this just took me back is all. I was laid out just like you after my first day, even with my Warden training.”
“So you’re saying I’m as good as you were even though I haven’t had the training?”
“That’s not even close to-”
“Alright! I think I’ve had enough of a rest.” Kiyan kips onto his feet with surprising agility and looks directly at Eren. “ I want to keep going, gotta catch up to Sofia.”
“You’re not hungry? You’ve been here for over 8 hours, let’s go to bed.”
“ I don’t know if it’s because of the sun never going down in this place, which is strange, but I’m not tired at all! I feel like I could run 100 miles” Kiyan says as he bounces up and down.
“You were barely able to do push ups and now you can run that far?” Eren focuses on Kiyan for a moment before lifting his large frame off the ground. “Looks like you’re not bluffing, your divine force is flowing like crazy throughout your body.”
“I wanna fight you Eren” Kiyan announces as he assumes a fighting stance.
“You can’t even take Sofia and you think you’re ready for me?” Eren replies, grinning. “ Where are you getting this confidence from?”
“It’s not that, I have something I wanna try out and I figure you are strong enough that even if it worked it wouldn’t hurt you.”
“Ok Kiy, you’ve piqued my interest, what exactly do you want to try out?”
“It’s something I saw before, but I can’t do it up here so can we go down the cliff? I don’t think I’ll survive if I fall this time” he says, pointing towards the edge of the cliff. Eren grabs Kiyan and within moments they are both in a heavily wooded area.
“Alright, on solid ground now” Eren states. “ This move you wanna try, what is it?”
“I’m gonna show you in a moment, just give me a second.” Kiyan raises his right fist up to shoulder height and draws his right foot back. As he closes his eyes he visualizes his divine force hardening on his right side.
“So your big thing is just focusing divine force into your limbs? I admit that’s not something you pick up easily but it’s not much of a….” Eren’s eyes widen as he sees the structure of Kiyan’s divine force change. The pale white smoke shines with a brilliant intensity around Kiyan’s entire body, completely covering his right fist. A shimmer comes over Eren’s eyes and he sees Kiyan rooting while circulating his divine force. “ Kiy, who taught you how to do this?”.
Kiyan’s eyes remain closed, ignoring Eren’s question while he focuses on preparing his attack. “Ok, I’m ready!” He opens his eyes and explodes towards Eren with a strong right thrust, but is easily sidestepped. Kiyan’s fist buries itself into the thick brown trunk of the massive tree, leaving a fist shaped impression.
“After all that you just attacked me in a straight line?” Eren asks, clearly unimpressed with the results.
“It went better in my head! I saw Zariah do it and I thought I understood how it worked but I must not have enough divine force to do it.” Kiyan looks at his barely injured fist, “but I didn’t break my bones this time so that’s progress I guess.”
“ We are going, it’s late and you need to sleep even if you don’t think you do.” Eren pulls his script out from his pocket and creates another door leading to the hallway where Danae awaits.
“Are you two finished now? Good, it’s time for you to eat and then go shower up” Danae orders.
“I know, I know, but first thing tomorrow I’m gonna practice that move until it works!” Kiyan exclaims.
“You have deliveries in the morning” interjects Eren.
“Deliveries and then I’m gonna practice!” Kiyan walks through the door and enters Sofia’s room, only to be met with yelling as he shuts the door.
“So, how did it go?” Danae asks, staring at the fist in the tree.
“I might have to speed up the schedule, he’s progressing at an alarming rate. He was able to draw in divine force from the earth while circulating his own.”
Danae’s eyes widen for a moment. “ So he can already use two different divine force types already.”
“Yeah, and he copied Zariah’s Gale Strike but it’s not nearly as strong or polished” Eren says with the smallest hint of excitement.
“I know that tone” Danae interrupts, “ I take it you guys are going to be gone for a while then?”
Eren smiles widely at Danae. “ Yeah, he needs to be put through it, it’s the only way we can reset him.” He walks through the conjured door and looks back at her, “ besides, don’t act like you weren’t going to take Sofia away to train her too” he says coyly.
“Well it looks like I won’t have to, such a shame though she only had a sparring partner for one day.”
“In 5 months we’ll be back, then they will spar for the remaining time until the selection process.”
“Do you think it will be enough?” Danae asks, walking in front of Eren.
“ It’ll have to be, they need to get strong if they’re gonna be able to handle the life.”
“So then, shall we have one last drink?” Danae asks.
“Only if it’s the homemade stuff, you know I can’t stand that store bought crap.”
“It’s in the hidden fridge downstairs.”
“You’re the best” Eren states before taking a deep sigh, “ I’m gonna miss being able to hide things with divine force. Kiyan and Sofia are so nosey and Kiy is gonna be able to find my snacks now!” Eren walks down the stairs as Danae stares into the conjured door.
“Yes, I’m going to miss things too” she murmurs as she closes the door to the training grounds.