It took far too long for Chase to actually accomplish anything, as far as he knew he had been walking forward for ages.
He tried many different things, including pressing even harder into what only could have been the ground, swinging his arms as he continued forward, and even tried using muscle memory to summon a blade.
None of which worked as far as he knew.
After countless hours of treading forward, Chase eventually came to an astonishing realization.
'Tame it...'
Physically he was nearing the eye of the storm, although he didn't know it yet. But mentally, he was standing before the manticore outside of Phoenix Academy once more.
He needed to fight it first, he needed to battle the ambient energy surrounding him.
Then he needed to earn its trust, he found no use in manipulating it.
After all, he needed to be able to trust the energy, he needed it.
Reaching into his catalyst, he began to summon all of the energy he had ever been able to store within it, and more...
Forcing it out of his body like a shield, he probably screamed in agony, but wouldn't know because he couldn't even feel the muscles and organs in his body.
But he could feel his energy...
Was this what Luna was trying to teach him?
Was this what Cloudy meant when he said he should learn to tame it?
Enraged, Chase summoned even more energy, forcing it into the air around him.
Feeling warmth within where he assumed was his chest, he forced even more out, until the energy around him began to magnetize towards it.
Interconnecting the particles of energy like the constellations themselves, the large swarm of energy formed into an even bigger swarm of energy, until the entire radius of the storm had become an eternal flux of energy signatures that all would soon belong to Chase.
It was truly chaotic...
Chase could feel colors, he could see colors, he could see...
Although it wasn't pretty, he could see the energy signatures forming around him.
He could see everything and nothing at the exact same time.
Outlines of the world surrounding him, forming into colored lines.
It was like the stars had aligned themselves for him.
The energy had begun to trust him.
Stopping his catalyst from emitting more energy, Chase tried something new.
Without the feel of his own body, it was quite easy to learn how to control an entirely new function of his body.
After all, when stripped of everything you have, the human mind is quite more capable of learning a new way of functioning.
If you blind a man, he learns to function through hearing.
If you take a man's taste, his nose becomes his central function for food.
Take a man's hearing, and he learns to feel the vibrations in the air.
Take everything... And the human body is forced into adaptation, it is forced into a state of premature evolution.
Which is why it was so easy for Chase to turn his entire being into a magnet for energy.
Sucking in everything around him like a vacuum, his pores began to open, swallowing and welcoming the energy into his limbs.
Chase could see it...
His body had returned.
Although it was vastly different, he had achieved a perfect state of harmony in his body.
The energy had become him, giving him access to his own movements once more.
And better yet, the energy had forced its way into the eye of the storm, taking over what stood at its center.
It was simply chaos...
Chaos stood at the center of the storm.
Nevertheless, Chase in his perfected body continued forward, his mind at ease as he realized that he had come to an amazing revelation within this never ending hell.
He had learned how to control energy on a molecular level, conjoining everything around with ambient energy, turning everything into his own interconnected web on consciousness.
He could feel the ground, feel everything around him, as the energy had become a part of his mind.
The area was all visible to Chase, the cracks in the ground, the gusts of the wind, even the vibrations that shot through the air with every step he took.
He had learned it.
He had become something more than himself.
He knew without a shred of doubt...
That he was ready to face Rider.
...
Feeling his body return to its original state, his hearing spike with noise, almost shattering his very eardrums.
The taste in his mouth, filling with lead and dryness.
Feeling his scent smell only that of dirt and body odor.
He deeply inhaled, feeling his body be reinvigorated with life itself.
His body jolted awake, only to smack his head against a cold slab of stone.
"Son of a-"
His voice was like a crackly croak, as he probably hadn't spoken in a week, let alone drank water.
However, he had realized something terrible when he had awakened.
His eyesight had not returned, although it could have been because he was buried in some sort of coffin, but when he reached out and lit his hand aflame, he couldn't see anything still.
"Luna! What is this?!"
He screamed, thrashing his body around within the coffin.
'You must learn to rely on this new sense of yours. Sorry! I couldn't think of any other way where you wouldn't try to kill me!'
She yelped within his thoughts.
He frowned, and shut his eyes, trying to feel the ambient energy around him.
It was strange, like the energy was a dark green and some browns everywhere he looked.
'Earth Primis...'
He thought, stretching his senses outward, feeling just how deep underground he was.
'Probably... ten feet?'
Why had he been buried so damn deep? He wondered, pondering whether or not he should find a way to trap Luna inside of that damned death cycle just as she had him.
Then he set his hand against the slab of stone above him, letting the energy flow into his palm.
Beginning to push to the side, the entirety of the ground above him began to vibrate as the energy of the earth answered to his beckon.
The slab started to shake, and the ground above him started to move.
Taking a deep breath of what little air remained in the coffin, then the dirt piled on top of his body like a powerful wave.
...
Zephyr sat next to an unmarked grave in the ground, sitting atop a small chair he had brought out the other day.
It was getting far too late, as he began to worry for the boy.
The odds of him actually surviving a mental imprisonment at this stage of his life were nearly zero.
But Zephyr couldn't help but feel only hope for the boy.
Although he had become quite a pain in the ass, Zephyr found his presence almost reassuring, no matter how dire the situation was.
He was much like his mother in that regard.
Zephyr sighed, checking the time on the crappy Vox he had recently purchased from Dorian...
It was almost time, and he had to prepare the troops, whether Chase lived or not.
But just as Zephyr had begun to stand up, the ground started to shake violently.
He turned quickly towards the unmarked grave, and grabbed the closest shovel he could find.
"By the gods!"
He yelled, picking up the shovel and was just about to start digging when...
"NGRAHHHHH!"
A hand shot from the dirt, ripping apart the very earth above him, Chase had somehow dug himself out from the very earth itself...