Chapter 12: The heart

Cyan was very tired, but very happy of his own achievements, he could feel the mana around him now, even more he could control it at will, it was a very weird feeling, he thought that from the very beginning the mana was there, how did he not notice it before, it was a part of him, he did not know how to explain it, it was like passing from watching black and white TV to a color TV, the colors where always there it is just that the TV was incapable of showing it.

Actually since Cyan has arrived to the world of Athem, the colors were fading away, little by little, but inside a dark Cave with poor illumination he did not notice it until now.

Now, every color was plastered in his vision, even inside the cave it was clear as day, everything was clear now, it was more than only his vision, it was the same as Arlom has told him.

´if you don’t know that there are colors, how can you miss then?’ it sounded like some cheese lines you would read over the internet.

Cyan let out another mental sigh, what ‘I am lacking?’ How can he knows that? Should not his master tell him that?

By this point, his mind was just going in circles so he just stopped thinking about it, he got no answers to those questions right now, but he will keep asking himself until he get the answers he need it, but right now he just wanted to rest.

Arlom was looking over Cyan that was in the floor right now.

‘He is not dead right? No, he manage to avoid a lot of rocks this time’.

Arlom was thinking what will be the next step now, he thought that Cyan would take a whole week to reach a stage where he can avoid at least two consecutive rocks, but now those expectations were blown out by the window, because the mountain of rocks that was at the side of Arlom at the beginning was now empty.

The training for the morning has suddenly come to a stop early than expected, even before the poison inside Cyan body has the chance to take effect, and actually Arlom was running out of rocks mid-way so he started to thrown fire balls into the mix too.

Cyan has avoid them beautifully, and only got hit with mostly rocks, even if he got hit with those fire balls they were very weak, it was more a light show to scared him than anything else, but near the end he was avoiding almost half the throws.

Cyan has now broken the shackles that were restraining him, no, he has overcome them, but the end result was… scary.

When Arlom run out of rocks he stopped, even if it was a little early, Cyan was near his limit anyway, Cyan body was on the ground as soon Arlom stopped throwing rocks at him.

[Arlom]: “Not bad, let’s end the morning training for now, go and take a shower, I will go out and hunt something tasty for the lunch”.

Arlom was smiling obviously very pleased now.

Cyan was unable to stand up but he still wanted to say something to Arlom.

[Cyan]: “Master i… mana, I understand it now, it was always there, even in my previous world there was mana too, but… I could not feel it before even if it was there, no I have forgotten about it too”

Cyan breath was very raged but he still managed to say what he wanted.

Arlom nodded his head

Actually Arlom has deduce that Cyan planet must have mana for other reasons beyond him absorbing it like an sponge, that could be explained in other ways, maybe he has mutated after arriving here, maybe the one that has transported him here molded his a new body to allocated the mana, but in that case, it would be just to hold more mana, if there is not recipient from the beginning, then you need to be a god to create it.

It would be too much of a hassle to do what no human could do, and even so, why a god will bother to put such big recipient inside a human, Arlom could not dream to follow the thoughts of a god, but, the universe itself moves with logic, pros and cons, gain and lost, it was very linear and… quite predictable

After you thought about it, even the gods must move like this too, because if they are truly omnipotent and omniscient, then how the gods let… his wife die in the end.

The logic answer was that, Cyan was chosen from the beginning because how much mana he could hold, Arlom did not ruled out other impossibilities too, but those chances are too low.

But thinking like that was actually quite contradictory, if there is an impossibility then, that means that there a being outside the laws, logic or reason right?, but so far he has not found a trace of it, even in this hell with no apparent rules, logic ruled over everything, like the law of gravity, not even the gods can escape that, even the crazed of monsters would follow some invisible guide like the law of chaos.

If you could find the laws then you can predict ahead, but maybe it was wrong from the beginning to try and find a being of impossibility by following logic and reason.

And the law that ruled the universe the most was the law of mana.

After 25 years of being inside the Deathmatch Forest, and with no one to talk to, Arlom was force to make his own answers, his own predictions, to stay alive brute force was never enough, and the best proof that he was right, is that, he was still alive, as out now, Arlom was the holder of another title apart from being a king, he was the longest living king.

And the only one that could theorized things like impossibilities, that mind of his, was something he earned after so many years of struggles and suffering, it allowed him to reach the conclusion that, there must be another gate, another exit, it has allowed him to find the key for the gate, what it was to find Cyan, the only thing left will be how to open it, the other gates need it the medallion, but what about the seventh gate? He did not have the answer for that... yet, he just need it to find it first, his answers will be arrive then too.

If only he could use that brain of his in his youth days, when his wife was alive, he would not have so many regrets, but that has made him wiser, and this was biggest reason why he keep calling Cyan stupid, ‘grow that stupid brain of yours before your muscles stupid child’.

[Arlom]: “As I guessed, let me tell you something Cyan, mana is the law of the universe, how there can be a planet with no mana? If there is such planet then… how is that you arrived here?”

This last sentence was an answer and also a question for Cyan.

‘Be smart boy, don’t be dumb like me, and use that brain of yours at one hundred, no, at one thousand percentage to get the answers you need’

Cyan was shocked now, he wanted to stop and think really hard, how did he arrived to this planet, he did not had any clues before, he arrived here after feeling a sick and going to sleep, maybe someone from this world has summoned him here, or some intricate plot like that, but that did not answered why he could use mana, and so freely on top of that, he knew mana and mana knew him, he has realized this now, this was long before he arrived to this planet too.

The true answer must be even simpler, more elemental, how did he ended in another planet altogether?

‘To transport someone from place A to place B, there must a medium, a road, and something to take you there, be a car or your own legs, if we say the road was constructed by someone or even a natural occurring phenomenon then… no, wait how I can differentiated between the road and the car, if the road is made of mana, or it is the car… what if both are?, what if both are one and the same, then if I moved using my own legs… I am not? The road and the car? ‘.

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Maybe Cyan did have a jump on logic there, he was literally calling himself mana, but what he meant was he was part mana and mana was a part of him.

Cyan closed his eyes, and started to ‘communicating’ with the mana around him, if mana was the law of the universe, then the answers must be in there right?, this was the same as cheating in a test, it was the same like asking someone at the side for the answers, but… not just any body would or could do just that.

Arlom watched over Cyan for few more minutes, Cyan was now…

‘Talking? No he is not quite there yet but, he is trying to talk with the mana around and inside him’

Is this for real? That took him years and years of practice just to notice that he could talk with the mana around him not to mention the one inside him, mana was not as simple as it looks, it was not just a mindless puppet that served anyone.

Actually much of his answers were coming from the mana around him, Arlom was a cheater too, and ‘sue me’ is the thing he would reply if someone were to ask him about that.

‘But if I am a cheater, then what about Cyan? With only 3 days in this planet, he should be called the King of Cheaters, no God of Cheaters, hahahah, Good’

Arlom nodded his head.

Turning around he exited the cave with an actual smile in his face, leaving behind a dark violet pill at the side of Cyan for the poison inside his body, this one will neutralized all the poison and not half way like the others, the training regimen will change from now on, it would become harder this was just a little reward for today.

‘It seems that I will have to teach him how to use mana before the scheduled, I can’t wait to see how you will impress me next this time Cyan’

Back inside Cyan body

[Brain]: “sigh that was hard but we made it, good work every one you can all rest now, especially you Mana, we couldn’t handle so well without you, we will be in your care for now on”

Mana was blushing away with triumphant pose and a smile that said ‘praise, praise me more’

[Mana]: “It was nothing”.

Mana was waving his hand making signals for the brain not to make a big deal of it, but at the same time, that she still like it the compliments a lot, so keep them coming.

[Body]: “Mana I am so sorry, I behaved like an idiot before, please forgive”

Body was bowing down in front of mana. Now that everything was over and Cyan was ‘sleeping’, the body could now apology properly with Mana for being such a dumbass before.

[Mana]: “heyyaaa!”

Mana answered the body apologies with, a judo chop, but actually it did not have any strength behind it what so ever.

[Mana]: “What are you apologizing for? Are we not friends now? Friends forgive other friends for being idiots, if you want to give me something, you can say just thanks”

[Body]: “I understand, thank you very much Mana, I could not have avoided all those rocks without you, please I am counting with you for the future”

When the body finished his bow he could see the metaphoric face of Mana in front of him, with her eyes close, and it was actually awfully close, so close that they could actually…. K…ii.

Immediately the metaphoric face of body was red like a tomato, this was a new level of red, even redder than an apple. The body lost control over his legs and staggered falling over his butt.

[Body]: “Wh-what are you doing”.

[Mana]: “Tsk, nothing nothing, hey what is that”.

The body turned his metaphoric head around to where Mana was point at, only to see the brain trying to hold back his laughter only to fail miserly at that”

[Brain]: “HAHAHAHAHA you should take a look to your face right now”

[Body]: “Yoooouuuuu”.

The body was making a metaphoric fist with his metaphoric hand, ok everything in here is metaphoric, and it is inside Cyan after all.

Turing his head around to Mana she has…. disappeared

[Brain]: “You stupid body, you let her get away, fast go and find her”

Mana was running away from the body now, she was a little shameful for trying something out and fail, and she didn’t wanted to explain herself, so she ran away.

The body started look after her, not because it was a command from the brain, he was in charge of looking after his friends after all, he could not leave her wandering alone in Cyan body, who knows what she will do to it, after looking for her for a good 5 minutes the body found her just before she would do something stupid.

[Body]: “Here you are Mana, don’t go wandering around alone like that, i... i... said that I would take responsibility for you... I meant not like responsibility, I am in charge to looking after you… so if you want to look around... I can escort you”

The more the body talked the more red his face went, he did not know how to act in front of mana after all.

Mana in the other hand was just satisfying her curiosity looking around the body of Cyan, and chose not keep messing out with the body.

[Mana]: “Alright I understand, hey what is that thing that goes thump thump thump, like a tambour”

[Body]: “sigh how do you know what a tambour is, but not what the heart is, listen well, the heart is one of the principal organ of the body, without it, Cyan would not last 1 minute, I keep a watch over the heart of 24/7, and this fellow has never stopped beating under my watch, but he doesn’t talk at all, so it very lonely in here, see the heart is like a pump that spread the blood all over the place, and in the blood is the vehicle that goes all throughout the body carrying things the body needs to function like sugars and nutrients”

Mana was not understanding anything that the body was saying, it was too complex for her, but her instinct were acting up again.

[Body]: “…. And then the blood goes to the brain where… and then the muscles use…. Of course I command over the muscle… and then there is the Stomach that is….”

[Mana]: “Humm can I touch it?”

The body was immersing himself in his on explication about the heart, and then he side tracked to how the body worked so he was too late to stop Mana.

[Body]: “What? Touch it of course not!”

But it was too late, when he understood what Mana was asking she was already touching it”.

[Body]: “Hey do go touching things without a reply”

[Mana]: “You did not reply back and I was getting bored sooo”

[Body]: “Don’t sooo me, and stop touching the heart already”

Mana was refusing to comply, something was telling her to… help it?

[Mana]: “Alright I understand”.

Mana nodded his head.

[Body]: “it is good if you understand”

The body was nodding too but he has misunderstood why Mana was nodding, she was now closing her eyes, and the mana around her was moving to the inside of the heart.

[Body]: “Hey wait what are you doing stoooppp”

But Mana did not listen to him and keep pouring mana inside the heart.

thump… thump... thump… thump……………

Just as the body was panicking the heart… stopped beating.

The body froze, the heart just has stopped, and this is the end, the apocalypse, no heart no Cyan, the heart has never stopped before.

The first one to notice it, was… of course the brain.

[Brain]: “BODYYYYYYYYY THE HEART, DO SOMETHING FAST”

The body staggered almost falling to the floor, he never had heard the brain scream so loud, this was truly an emergency that has never happen before, this was the body worst nightmare, but because this never has happen before he did not know what to do, ergo he froze, and the scream of the brain brought him back to reality.

[Body]: “Move”

Moving Mana away from the heart, the body did the only thing he could thought of, he started to beat the heart to make it work again, following the same melody he was o so familiar with.

[Body]: “Come on…, come on… come on…”

Not long after, thump… thump… thump, the hearth started to beat again, like normal.

Letting a sigh of relief the body turned to look over Mana, she was… smiling and looking over the heart with a caring face, she was not worry at all, no a little bit for the stopping heart, like if she know it would beat again.

This was too much to handle ‘what are you doing? Are you trying to kill us?’ that was he wanted to ask but… looking over the smiling Mana that did not has a hint of malice and was truly happy for the heart, like she has done… a good work, he hold himself back.

Turning around and looking over the heart again, it was now… blue, before it was light red, but now, it is light blue inside it, and it was glowing, body closed his eyes, he could feel it, the changes in the heart, it was… stronger, incomparably stronger than before, if before was minivan now it was a truck.

The heart can handle a huge load now, and it was not only the heart that has change, it was just the beginning, the heart was connected to everything in Cyan body, everything was becoming stronger, it was like night and day.

Soon Brain was there with them.

The body stood up very fast in defense of Mana.

[Body]: “Brain, she… she did not meant it, she had made us (me) stronger, please don’t get mad at her, I am the one that allowed her to touch the heart, if you want to hit someone hit me instead”.

[Mana]: “Body you…”

Mana was moved by how the body was protecting her, she did not know of what, because for her she did nothing wrong but even so, and the body was so caring of her, so she could not help but to be moved by his actions.

Looking over the love struck Mana, and the all protecting body, the brain let a sigh.

[Brain]: “I know, I know, I am not here for anything like that”

The brain was very, very mad at both of them at the beginning, but he too took notice of the changes in Cyan body, and the changes in the brain itself, his capability were also enchanted too.

[Body]: “Then?”

[Brain]: “Body, you need to take a good care of Mana and protect her, she is very important and a special existence for us (you)… never let her out of your sight, that’s all”.

Turning around the Brain left just like that, leaving a shocked body and a smiling Mana.

His only thought ‘Those two will be my end, sigh’.

While for Arlom, Cyan was progressing magnificently, for the brain of Cyan it was just a big headache.