He cried for another five minutes, the sobs shaking his whole body. Then, slowly, he wiped away his tears with the back of his hand. He took a deep, shaky breath, and something hardened inside him. No more tears. He had to be strong. He had to be a man.
He stood up, looking at the destruction around him. The Lizardmen were bad, yes. They enslaved people. But the dragons… the dragons destroyed everything. They wiped out whole villages, taking people, burning everything. He remembered the stories from his childhood, about dragons being simple hunting beasts, not monsters that came in swarms to destroy. Something had changed. He knew from the old village stories that dragons went out west, to hunt on the island, but they didn't live there. They came from somewhere else. The east, the land where his ancestors came from. He would figure out how to cross that ocean. He would find the root cause of this pain.
An idea sparked in his mind. If that book could give him the Meteoroid ability, maybe it had other abilities too. Maybe something that could help him. As if on cue, the air in front of him shimmered. The black book materialized from a swirl of purple dust, just as before. It floated silently in the air, and flipped open to a new page, titled: Nebula
Kai leaned closer with amazement, excitement, confusion, and many other emotions. He began to read the new spell's description:
This supernatural ability involves the manipulation of a self-contained exotic plasma cloud, which functions as a miniature, controllable nebula. A nebula, in astronomical terms, is a vast cloud of gas and dust in space, primarily composed of hydrogen and helium, along with traces of other elements, ionized particles, and heavier molecules.
The user can instantaneously alter this controlled nebula's phase state by influencing its internal kinetic energy and cohesion. When made solid, it's achieved through extreme densification and energetic compression, forming a hyper-compacted, pseudo-crystalline lattice of plasma. As a liquid, it's maintained by a finely tuned balance of inter-particle forces, allowing for viscous flow and adaptable forms. Finally, as a gas, it's created by increasing particle dispersion and kinetic energy, resulting in a diffuse, high-velocity cloud of ionized matter.
First of all, he had no idea what he just read. What is hydrogen? What is helium? Particles? Molecules? It was like a different language. He tapped his chin. Secondly, how was that going to help him get to the other continent? He re-read it multiple times to try and understand even a little more. It still made absolutely no sense, just like the last ability.
He looked at his hands, then at the book. If he could make a meteor from air, maybe he could make this "nebula" thing. He held out his hand, remembering the feeling of his eyes changing, the dark grey and purple sparkle. He tried to think of a cloud, a misty, glowing shape forming in front of him. He pushed.
Nothing really happened. A tiny wisp of purple smoke might have appeared for a second, but it was too faint to be sure.
He tried again, putting more power into it, imagining the cloud strongly. This time, a small spark appeared in his palm, a tiny flash of purple light. But it quickly faded, like a firefly dying.
He slowed down, thinking. The book talked about different forms: solid, liquid, gas. He wasn't thinking of a single form. He was just thinking of the general description of the ability. Maybe he had to pick one.
He decided to try for a solid form first. The book mentioned "extreme densification" and "energetic compression." He imagined squeezing the light, pushing it together, making it hard and heavy. He held out his hand again, focusing all his will.
Red and purple stardust shot from his hand. It swirled quickly, gathering into a small, glowing ball right in front of his hand. It pulsed with light, looking like a tiny, sparkling jewel. It was solid! He could feel its weight, and a strange high pitched buzz.
Then, just as quickly as it appeared, it dissipated. The ball exploded into a puff of purple dust, vanishing into the air.
Kai jumped, not from fear, but from pure joy. "It worked!" he yelled, a wide grin spreading across his face. He looked at his hands, then back at the empty space where the nebula had been. He had made something from nothing. This was amazing. This was powerful. This was going to help him. He could already see the possibilities.
He grinned, the excitement buzzing through him. If he could make it solid, what about the other forms? He looked at the book again. "Liquid," he muttered. The book said "finely tuned balance" and "viscous flow." He pictured a small, wavy orb, like a drop of water, but glowing.
He held out his hand, focused, and willed the purple stardust to appear. It swirled, gathering into a small, pulsing orb. It wobbled and undulated, like a clear bubble of thick, glowing syrup. It was liquid! He watched it for a second, amazed, before it too, vanished into a puff of dust.
"Okay! Solid, liquid!" he cheered. Now for gas. The book said "increasing particle dispersion" and "diffuse, high-velocity cloud." He imagined a burst of smoke, light and quick, spreading out fast. He tried.
Nothing. Not even a spark. He tried again. Still nothing. The gas form seemed much harder. Five minutes went by of him trying and yet again, he wat met with failure.
He decided to stick with what worked. He spent the next hour practicing the solid and liquid forms. He made solid balls of nebula, making them appear and disappear, trying to keep them stable for longer. He managed to keep a solid ball for almost ten seconds once. He even tried ramming one into a tree. It hit with a dull thud and left a clear gouge in the bark before dissipating. "Now way!" he gasped. This was strong.
Then, he had an idea. He made another solid ball of nebula, letting it float a few feet off the ground. He looked at it, then back at the book's description of a "controllable nebula." If it was solid, and he could control it, maybe…
He took a careful step toward the glowing ball. He touched it. It felt firm, almost rubbery, humming with that high-pitched buzz. He pictured himself jumping onto it, standing on it, and making it move. Maybe he could fly on it! He could fly to the other land, to the east, across the ocean!
Filled with a sudden burst of hope, he went forward and jumped, trying to land softly on top of the glowing orb.
As soon as his foot touched it, the ball of nebula exploded into purple dust, vanishing instantly. He landed clumsily on the ground, disappointed. "No!"
He tried again, making another solid ball, being more gentle this time. He just put one foot on it. Again, it dissipated. No matter how careful he was, the solid form seemed to break apart the moment he put his weight on it. Am I losing concentration that easily? He thought to himself.
He kept practicing for another hour, trying to make the solid ball last longer, trying to make it stronger. And re-shaping it which didn't go very well. He hadn't made much improvement. The ball of this nebula material still only lasted a few seconds, and it still disappeared when he tried to touch it with any force. He couldn't fly on this. Not yet.
By then, the sun was mid-way through the sky. Kai decided to take a break from practicing his new abilities and find some more food. He was too weak right now to hunt anything, but he knew he could still forage. He was grateful that no truly large predators had stumbled upon the village ruins since the dragons had left. He knew he wouldn't stand a chance if they did.
He walked behind the broken house, picking his way through the rubble, until he reached what used to be the orchard. To his relief, some of the fruit trees had survived the fire and destruction, and there were still dark, teardrop-shaped fruits clinging to their branches as well as on the ground. He pulled a few down from the branches, their weight familiar in his hands. He was even more surprised to see that some of the crude baskets he had woven were still standing, untouched by the destruction.
He smiled. "Oh yeah!" said to himself. "My baskets survived! It's like leaving a legacy." A symbol of his defiance, of his work, of his promise to fight back. Then, a little voice in his head reminded him that the slave market stall, the place where he had been caged and sold, was also still mostly standing. That bittered him a bit. "Ugh, fine," he muttered, arguing with himself. "But my baskets are completely untouched. That place is broken. That means my baskets are better!" He nodded, satisfied with this line of thinking. It was a small comfort.
He picked more fruit, eating until his stomach felt full. He noticed that the riper fruit had lots of juice, which helped quench his thirst. He felt hydrated and fed, much better than he had in days really. He decided he would stay in this ruined village for a while. Some of the fruit trees still looked alive, their leaves green despite the fire. There was nothing else to do, and at least here he had food and water.
So, he began practicing the Nebula ability. He would hold out his hand, focus, and make the sparkling ball of solid nebula appear. He paid closer attention to the words in the book, thinking about them harder. Extreme densification and energetic compression. He imagined pushing the energy tighter, making it more compact. He tried to think of it like squeezing a sponge, but making it hard instead of just wet. He tried to subtly change its shape, to flatten it, to stretch it. It was difficult, but sometimes, for a brief second, the ball would flatten a little or lengthen. He noticed a small improvement while the sun was up; he could hold the solid ball for about fifteen seconds now, and sometimes it would shift shape slightly, or move a tiny bit when he willed it. He realized the book would appear whenever he thought about it appearing, which was very useful. It floated in front of him, so he turned the page to the Nebula spell, ignoring the other creepier pages about his journey. He even took a quick peek at the page after Nebula, but it was blank.
He read the Nebula description again, trying to trick his mind into understanding the words. Primarily composed of hydrogen and helium, along with traces of other elements, ionized particles, and heavier molecules. He pretended he knew what "hydrogen" and "helium" were. He just pictured gas and dust, but special, magic gas and dust. He focused on the idea of "ionized particles" maybe it was what the glow was from, and "cohesion" holding it together. And it surprisingly worked. He pushed his time to 18 seconds at it was much easier to control.
But when it became night, something strange happened. As the moon, now normal and silver, rose above the charred trees, Kai felt a surge of energy. He felt more awake, more alive. And his nebula ability was suddenly even easier to control than before. The solid balls lasted longer, around twenty-five seconds now. He could reshape them more easily, making them flat like a disk, or long like a stick. He even managed to transfer a solid ball into a liquid orb before it quickly dissipated again. "Holy cow," he whispered, his eyes wide. "What's happening?"
He looked up at the moon. "Is it because it's night?"
He decided to try the flying idea again, now that the power felt so much stronger. He focused all his energy on making a solid, flat shape, like a small, glowing platform. Red and purple stardust shot from his hand, swirling into a sturdy, relatively flat disk that hovered a few feet off the ground. It hummed with a low buzz, pulsing with light.
"Okay," he breathed, his heart pounding with excitement. "This is it."
He took a cautious step forward and gently placed one foot on the disk. It held. He put his other foot on it. It was quite stable. "No way," he whispered, amazed. He was standing on a floating piece of pure magic.
He held out his hands, picturing the disk moving forward, just a little. Slowly, subtly, the disk began to glide. He was moving! He was actually moving, floating above the ground. A thrill shot through him, stronger than any fear he had felt. "I'm flying!" he almost screamed, but caught himself.
He tried to make it go a little higher, picturing the disk rising. Immediately, the glowing platform began to shake violently. The buzzing sound grew louder, strained. The light flickered, and the disk started to dissipate around his feet. He lost his balance, tumbling off it and landing with a small thud on the ground as the last of the material vanished. He let out a disappointed grunt. "Man, almost." He looked at his hands. "I can make this work."