[Checkpointer20: I'm sorry we couldn't tell you. Tactical advantage and all of that, you know…]
[GreatGadfly30: You're lucky you figured it out in a somewhat friendly space. Anywhere else and you'd have been dead meat.]
Sure. Frost was inclined to agree. He'd had time to sort through his thoughts and decided that Lex had made the correct decision. Not only that, but he'd gotten considerably lucky up to this point. If Belleram Medeara had learned his name, the shindig at the Realmguard headquarters might've turned out differently. In other words, if he signed that contract, he'd have screwed himself over in more ways than one. Klein clearly hadn't told her anything other than maybe his first name while he was sleeping, as well. Lucky. Very lucky. This was the main thing he'd been thanking his lucky stars for since learning of his heritage.
His next decision was a different one. If Drake Direshard was alive and he truly was the Headmaster of the Realmguard… He was an enemy to freedom. He'd need to die like the rest of them. That was, if the things he'd continued to hear about the Realmguard were true. Oppressive, self-righteous, and hell-bent on censorship enough to burn the original records. This was against everything Frost stood for. Not to mention that the bastard abandoned him with his last name, almost like a challenge… I have a new target.
But the situation in the Void wasn't cut and dry. The Realmguard were oppressive, sure, but even the Realm Liberation Front – the rebels – were forced to admit that the universe would've lost many planets by now if they didn't work tirelessly to stop it. Despite all of their qualms with the Realmguard, they were still unable to propose a solution to this issue. It was something undoubtedly in need of an organized initiative. If the Realmguard was destroyed like they wished, the Void may be free and the truth may be released, but the universe would suffer.
Clay seemed to think that things would be better if he was in charge. Frost doubted the truth of that as any logical person would. Regardless, placing him on the Realmguard's throne was nigh impossible so long as the so-called invincible Belleram Medeara was guarding it. No one had ever won in a one-on-one fight against her, and she was the only one to survive a direct confrontation with the being that Clay described at the Great Divide five years prior.
All of this history was muddled in Frost's head. The Battle of The Great Divide. What exactly had happened there? Did the books tell the true story? It seemed to be a touchy subject for Clay.
"I won't talk about it. It's all ancient history now. Focus on today. Right now. Get to work." He crossed his arms to give weight to the finality of this statement. Frost noticed that the soldiers got a little scared while he was around.
He had a lot of thoughts running through his head since starting to train about two hours ago. Frost didn't like being bossed around, especially by a guy like this. Even so, he knew that his new powers needed to be honed if he ever wished to not be bossed around. For now, he'd stomach it.
Frost was sitting perfectly still in a whimsical and meditative pose, eyes closed, focusing on the feeling of the world around him.
"He's actually kind of adorable when he focuses," Lana said from somewhere to Frost's left.
"Shut up," Frost and Clay said in unison. "You should only speak when spoken to," Clay added.
"Calm down," Frost said. "Say what you want to your own people. She's with me."
Lana blushed a little. She was grateful that Frost couldn't see it. Frost, of course, had only said it because he was already starting to get sick of Clay's bullshit. He still found her presence to be an annoyance, and yet he had standards. If anyone was going to be rude to her, it would be him. She was still a teammate and someone valuable whether he liked it or not.
"I understand," Clay said. "I apologize to your lady."
"Not his lady," Lana said immediately. "But you still need an attitude change."
Clay smiled. "So she talks back too? Let me tell you though, lass, that's certainly not the first time I've heard that line."
"We've noticed," Frost growled. He aggressively swatted a firefly out of his face.
"Focus, Direshard," Clay said, falling back into program.
He was supposed to feel the essence of the Void. Learning this would allow him to control it within his own body, being able to enhance himself at will and activate the attributes under his belt. He felt it just at the corner of his sensation and moved past all of the noise around him to focus on it.
While he did, he lamented upon the plan Clay had laid out.
The archive transfer would happen in three days at the end of the rain cycle. The books would be wheeled through the town and then burned. This was meant as a temptation to the Liberation Front, and a stupid one indeed. Belleram Medeara would be waiting, and that meant that anyone who tried to attack would be dead meat. Frost had no willingness to participate in that.
But there was good news. That being that the Acting Headmaster was away at the moment, supposedly taking care of a massive distortion on a planet called Mirris V. Clay seemed to think she'd be there until the time of the transfer, which gave them three days to pull off something that seemed to be far more possible than a direct attack on the convoy.
A heist. But luckily, Frost Direshard was extremely good at stealing things.
They'd take advantage of this window to somehow sneak into the archive and steal the books. A preemptive strike. The Realmguard was attempting to force the rebels' hands with the transfer, but attacking early presented a way to reclaim the advantage. This plan wasn't without its own caveats, of course. For example, it was highly unlikely that the Realmguard hadn't considered this possibility. It would be heavily guarded. Clay estimated that they had about a hundred guards in the lower levels at any given time. If the Realmguard was anticipating an attack, that number could be double or even triple.
If only they'd found out about this archive's existence before it was coming down to the wire, this job might've been a lot easier. Still, Frost got really excited thinking about it. An impossible job to steal something invaluable, and to fuck over the organization once headed up by his deadbeat dad? One was something he was good at, and the other was something he now wanted more than anything. Frost felt that, at the very least, these rebels shared his spirit.
[TheConquerer356: Much to think about, yes? I am not used to conquering in this sneaky way. It is uncivilized.]
"Me neither," Frost muttered. Once again, this chatter whose identity he'd maybe ascertained was speaking his mind perfectly. Frost was a little worried to think that he related heavily to a guy like that.
"Stop muttering. Focus," Clay said.
"I feel it, but it's like it doesn't want to respond to me," Frost said.
"Limiting factors. The Void doesn't respond to a muddled brain. Quit… Thinking." Clay let out a loud frustrated sigh. "But I admit, I don't think that's the problem. It almost seems to be running away from you."
"What?"
Clay let out a worried sigh from somewhere directly in front of Frost. "I can see the energy. Your mind is clogged, sure, but the energy is running from more than that. As a naturally positive force… I think it's afraid."
"The Void must be a woman," Lana said.
"Grr." Frost opened his eyes and climbed to his feet. "This is ridiculous! How is this achieving anything at all? We've only got two days. Isn't this just wasting time?"
Lana was sitting off to the right, also performing the same meditation and looking quite smug having gotten her comment off without punishment. There was also a look of agitation as the conversation between Clay and Frost escalated, totally breaking her focus.
"Well it's certainly better than sending you in there with a limp dick and a dream innit!?" Clay asked. "Bear with me. Anything you can do between now and then will give us a better chance."
"I guess you're right." Frost put a hand on both of his hips. They'd discussed the plan for about half an hour. Since then, he'd been here for an hour already and basically nothing had come of it. In the underground it was impossible to tell if it was day or night, but he knew for a fact that he was tired. This was enough to make anyone frustrated, he thought.
"I see that look in your eye. No tiring. No quitting. Not yet." Clay turned to Lana, who was falling into a deeper meditation. "We'll have to try this the violent way," he said. "Recount to me how you accessed the Void every other time. I'm told you used it with shocking efficiency against Lex."
Frost had a mental flashback to that moment in the hallway and inside of the classroom. "I was… Angry." He thought back to the wyvern. "Adrenaline. Pure rage."
"That checks out." He pointed to a stool. "Sit for a moment."
Frost obliged. Even a hard stool felt like a water bed compared to the cold hard ground that his buttocks had made home for the last hour.
"There are two ways to access the Void. Either you can find peace and have it choose you… Or, my preferred method, you can just make it your bitch."
Lana opened her eyes. "What?"
"The Void is attracted to people with strong personalities. It creates, but sometimes even the fabric of reality itself is scared of what it creates. If you as a person are a net negative, then it runs from you. The only choice is to dominate the power if you wish to make it your own." He looked down, slightly sad. It was an unusual expression on the man's face. "This method is… Inefficient, energy wise. But we make do."
Frost took all of this in stride. There were a lot of things to remember about Void energy. Attributes and skills accessible by different methods he hadn't discovered yet. The reputation of a person granting them power. Now, this new way of accessing energy.
"So I just have to be angry?" Frost asked.
"Convince yourself that you're mightier than the thing you're trying to control. Fuel yourself with your emotions and use the power of chaos to take control of it. It will try to run, but with power, you can catch it."
Frost smiled. He stood up from the chair with renewed confidence. "Well now, you bastard! Why didn't you just start with that?"