Aurelion stood motionless in the middle of the street, the world around him blurring as the pieces of a puzzle clicked into place in his mind. He replayed every moment from the swamp.
"Was her goal really to communicate with me, to get inside my mind?" he thought, his fist clenching at his side. "Or was it simpler? Was the goal just to deliver materials containing its energy to someone intelligent enough to analyze and use them for evolution to Nylessa? Was I just a courier?"
The thought sent a jolt of fury through him but, he took a deep breath, forcing the anger down. "No, calm down," he commanded himself. "Her goal can't be that simple. If that were the case, She wouldn't need me. She could have ensured this was discovered long ago. And she must have known I would never drink a potion contaminated with its energy."
His brow furrowed in deep concentration. "Then... was the target Nylessa herself? Does she want everyone in the Compass Guild to start searching for her energy remnants?"
He stood a moment longer, lost in the web of possibilities. Then, he physically straightened his back and his expression hardening.
"Whatever her goal is, it can wait for now," he decided. "My priority is to get stronger."
With a clear purpose now guiding his steps, he turned and headed for home.
As Aurelion stepped through the door of Roric's home, Sigrid and Brynja rushed to meet him, their faces were etched with worry.
"Aurelion! You're back!" Sigrid began. "How are you? It's been four days, we only heard a little from Faelan..."
Brynja placed her hand on Sigrid's arm, her own gaze scanning Aurelion for any sign of injury.
"Not now," Aurelion said, his voice was flat, cutting them off. He walked past them, the book clutched in his hand, and headed directly for the training room.
Inside, he didn't bother with the training equipment. He simply sat cross legged in the center of the room, the book resting in his lap. He took a moment, centering himself. "My strength is already at a high level for someone my age," he thought. "So is my skill with energy manipulation. Right now, my priority is my vision." He opened the book.
He quickly read through the first chapter, "The Breath of the World". It detailed the philosophy he'd already heard in the preface. That everything, living or inanimate, was part of an ocean of energy called the Flow, and each object possessed its own unique energy signature.
Aurelion's lips curved into a slight smirk. His Void Focusing already allowed him to perceive the world in this way, albeit faintly. This chapter was merely a confirmation of what he had already discovered on his own. He was already at this stage.
He turned the page, his interest piqued. The next chapter was titled "Touching the Flow".
The text described the next step. Using one's own internal energy not as a weapon, but as a limb, to reach out and manipulate the energy of the world around it. It spoke of moving a pebble without touching it, of stirring the air in a silent room, of feeling the very texture of a distant wall. It was, in essence, like telekinesis.
Aurelion's eye glinted with focus. This was the next step. This was the true beginning. He placed the open book on the floor in front of him, and began to concentrate.
"My goal isn't just to sense the energy around me," he thought. "I can already do that. The goal is to do it with my eye open." He centered his attention on a training dummy across the room. After a few moments, the physical world began to blur slightly, as if seen through a heat haze. Faint, colorless gray waves of energy started to emanate from the objects around him, a silent, ghostly world superimposed over the physical one.
"This book isn't offering me a path to compensate for my vision," he realized with a flash of insight. "I already have that path. It's showing me what I can do with it." An image of Nylessa and her shimmering compass seal came to his mind. "Perhaps that was why she chose this book. Not because I needed a path for my vision, but so I could advance on the one I've already discovered."
He stopped his internal thoughts, forcing himself to maintain focus. He managed to hold the dual perception, but the physical world remained hazy, and the energy he perceived was faint and trembling. It was unstable. Then, a new idea sparked in his mind. He lifted his left palm and focused on the Libra Seal.
He channeled his energy into the Seal. As it glowed with a soft golden light, his vision plunged into darkness. The physical world vanished completely, replaced by the familiar, ghostly world of energy silhouettes he saw with his Void Focusing, only now it was far clearer and more stable.
Then, the Seal on his palm pulsed again. The world of energy vanished, and the physical world snapped back into focus with an impossible clarity. He could even see the individual fibers in the wood of the training dummy, the minute cracks in the stone walls, the very dust motes dancing in the air.
A slow smirk spread across his face. "I need more practice," he thought. "I can't see the energy around me perfectly with my eye open yet. But with my Seal... when one side of the scale is lowered, the other rises. I can use my Seal to push my physical vision or my energy vision to a much higher level."
He turned his head, his gaze settling on the iron balls that hung in the training room, each containing a low tier monster core.
The glow from his left Seal faded. With his good eye open, he tried the Void Focusing technique again, looking at the balls. The physical world blurred, and he could see the faint, colorless gray energy of the iron mixed with the pale, colored energies emanating from the cores within.
"Now, let's try what's written in the second chapter," he thought. The Seal on his left palm pulsed with light again, and the world of energy silhouettes returned, sharp and clear. This time, Aurelion could distinctly see the vibrant energies of the iron balls and the cores nestled within them.
He raised his right hand, extending it toward a ball that emitted a faint green energy. The Libra Seal on his right palm began to glow.
A thin thread of golden energy emerged from his palm. Even with the Seal working to tame his wild energy, the thread trembled, unstable and volatile. It snaked through the air toward the iron ball.
He touched the thread to the lifeless gray energy of the ball itself. A shower of tiny golden sparks erupted at the point of contact.
He then pulled his arm back slightly, tugging at the connection he had made. A larger burst of golden sparks erupted, and the connection snapped, but Aurelion saw the iron ball sway, a minute back and forth motion. A genuine smile touched his lips.
"It works. I just need practice," he thought. His gaze then shifted, drawn to the green energy radiating from the core inside the ball.
"That was the reaction with an inanimate energy. What about a living one?" This time, he extended the golden thread of energy past the iron and toward the green glow of the core and the two energies made contact.
There was no reaction. Aurelion frowned slightly in surprise. He pushed his focus, trying to get a better look. He saw his golden energy, after touching the green, not pushing or pulling, but being drawn into the core?
"Shit."
As soon as the word left his mouth, the core shattered with a sharp crack, and the green energy of the core flashed violently.
A small explosion ripped through the air, sending Aurelion stumbling back as he lost his focus. When he opened his eye again, the iron ball was gone. A few twisted shards of metal lay scattered on the floor, and a faint wisp of green energy was vaporizing into the air.
Aurelion pushed himself to his feet, unfazed by the debris. He waved a hand dismissively at the lingering green vapor, and a current of his own golden energy washed through the air, dispersing it completely. He then walked to the center of the destruction, calmly looking at the twisted shards of metal on the floor.
He turned and picked up one of the remaining, undamaged iron balls, holding it in his hands and examining it closely.
"The Captain had these balls coated in Tier 3 steel to protect the Tier 1 and 2 cores inside," he thought. "They should barely be damaged by my strongest attacks, and even then, they should be able to protect the cores within." He turned the heavy ball in his hands, then looked back at the fragmented metal on the floor.
This time, a wide, genuine smirk spread across his face. "So this is what Touching the Flow means. In short, it means I can interfere with and destroy any energy I can see, no matter how it's protected... and perhaps, even the energy in other people and living things."
He let the iron ball off and he open his good eye, and the Seal on his right palm glowed faintly. Once again, he entered the Void Focusing state. A sudden burst of his energy pulsed outwards, setting the remaining balls swinging wildly.
With a smile on his face, he began to move. Switching seamlessly between his energy vision and his hyper aware physical sight with a pulse of his Seal, he weaved between the heavy, swinging projectiles, dodging them with an effortless grace.
"Ahh, the Talent Tests..." he thought while his movements becoming like a dance. "Only a week left... and then, the fools who will challenge me."
A final, thought crossed his mind as he sidestepped a swinging ball without even looking.
"I wonder what happens if I kill one by accident."