My eyes were closed, but I could sense everything around me. Hyper-aware of my surroundings. I was brought here. Fully attuned to the room, but everything beyond was foggy, a haze too thick to see through. I could tell I was on the floor.
The cabinets along the walls were closed, but I was aware of every object within them. The large table in the centre of the room was overcrowded with parchments, and cups of coffee. Its smell was strong, the bitterness of it assaulted my nose. Coats were lined in a wardrobe, the contents of their pockets free for me to sense. It was snowing outside, a light snowfall. I knew it was far, but I could feel each vibration as they thudded against the roof. The chilly wind was calm, but the cold hit me as if I were standing outside bare.
The most noticeable presence, however, was that of a man. Pacing back and forth, mumbling something to himself. His voice came muffled when it reached my ears. He sounded stressed out and panicked, talking in a rushed voice. I quickly lost focus; the senses of my surroundings overwhelmed me.
My head spinning from the external senses, I shifted my focus within, searching for a sort of relief from the distractions. And like the flip of a switch, all external senses, vibrations, and noises ceased. All that was left was me. But, the switch was not one for relief, merely a change to perspective. I felt my body more clearly than ever before: the senses, vibrations, and noises it made were louder than ever.
I felt weightless, but also felt the pressure of walls surrounding me. Suspended, floating in a room perfectly fit for my body. As I moved, the pressure of the walls pressed against me painfully. The pain was exponential and rapid; until it grew agonizing.
My skin was burning as if I was being cooked in a boiling pot of oil. Blisters popped all over my body, and the sizzling from my skin threatened to break its thin layer. My blood, muscles, bones, organs, and nerves were engulfed in a sharp chill of coldness. Shards of ice were slicing my insides like a storm of knives. The tearing of my muscles, only to bind back together denser than before; the shifting and breaking of my bones, only to be mended again; the rewiring of my veins; and the pins and needles of my nerves, as a result of growing in sharpness and sensitivity.
The burning fire on the outside of my body and the chilling frost on my insides were excruciating, the two ferocious sensations trying to tear me apart. I wanted to writhe and squirm in pain, but I couldn't move. Instead, the only thing that swirled was my emotions. The fire became a heated anger, and the cold, a suppressed calmness. One wanted to yell out so everyone could hear. The other… the one taking over, wanted to hold everything back. To hide the pain behind a veil and act like it wasn't there.
A war was raging in my body, and the flames were fighting a losing battle. The calm and sharpness of the cold won over the anger of the flames. But, like all wars, they are not fought till eradication, and while the cold was most prominent, the fire burning within remained. Reduced and at ease. A more dormant emotion. In the end, all that remained was the cold numbness and my indifference towards it. The changes happening in my body were now unnoticeable, or more like imperceptible. I felt nothing at all. A floating conscience, stuck in a cage I didn't even know was there.
Giving a sense of consistency, the pacing man left a steady cadence of routine. A concept that escaped from me in my current state, time. When he left, all sense of time escaped me. Every so often, he would come back, but I lazily tracked his comings and goings.
After countless of his visits, pain surfaced from below my sternum. Which came as a shock, having been in my physical state of paralysis. My Will seemed to have finally awakened and reacted to the changes in my body. An imperceptible crack formed on it. Small and inconsequential, but there. The man seemed to have also noticed it, because after that moment, his visits became longer. The most vital result of the crack was that the change was noticeable, like its forming allowed some perspective of time and feeling to reach me.
As time progressed, the crack grew. After three of his visits, its influence grew enough that I could outwardly feel again. The inconceivable mass of my cages walls that surround me now held a description. These characteristics jumped out at me so suddenly my muscles tensed. They were cold, wet, and smooth.
On the sixth visit, the cracks surfaced the entirety of my Will. Sensing inward, there was an obvious distinction. My previous Will, the Low Will, which had no luster or glow, had a map of cracks all over it. With a shining radiance flowing from within. The cracks got bigger while increasing in quantity. When they grew too much, they burst. Chips of my old Will fell and crumbled away to make room for the new Will. Like a reptile shedding old skin, my Will shed its dispensable and weak older frame to make room for the more powerful and consequential force.
It emitted a light blue radiance as it surfaced, like a glamorous first impression, before dimming and going dull entirely. My Will's presence now carried a light-blue tinge that was smooth and refractive like ice.
I waited for more to happen, to awaken from my slumber, for the walls to crack and burst, following suit after my Will. The man in the room waited with anticipation for the same, but nothing happened. He was mumbling about something that I couldn't hear. His grumbles reached me like someone speaking underwater. He seemed to be trying to tell me something, but it all came on deaf ears. All forms of communication were intangible.
It wasn't until I focused on my surroundings again, not the man, and not the room, but my immediate surroundings.
The walls! Everything was ready for me, I just had to move the walls. I reached for them with my Will, probing them with intention. My eyes were still closed, but the composition of the walls was clear. The prison of ice became obvious, and I felt dumb for not realizing it sooner.
Or… did I forget?
Upon my recognition of the material, I sensed a connection with it that was so strong I could feel the power at my fingertips. Ready to be controlled and manipulated by my will.
A grin spread across my face, and for once, the power my Will gave me felt invigorating. Without conscious effort, the intent of my Will passed over the ice. In reaction, the ice became charged. It shook and quaked. The ground vibrated, cracks formed along the ice, followed by sounds of snapping and popping. The man in the background backed away in a panic and erupted a wall of stone from the ground, between him and the ice.
Like my Will, the prison of ice chipped and crumbled. The reaction grew in speed from the force, exploding in a loud boom that sent shards of ice and mist flying in all directions. I slumped onto the floor, uninjured by the explosion.
As I slowly lifted myself off the floor, my body felt great like never before. It was light, every limb carrying the same weight as a feather, but with the power to punch a hole through a wall. I felt loose and flexible. The Integration brought exponential changes to my body compared to my previous Will.
So, I'm a… Lord, now.
I looked down at my body. I still had my clothes on, but my coat now bore a giant hole. Underneath, however, my stomach was uninjured, though now exhibiting a large oval scar. I shuddered at the thought of the spike protruding through me. Like my body was reminded of the lifelessness of being impaled. Despite being indoors and in full winter clothing, the shiver brought a perpetual feeling of coldness.
"I feel gre–"
"Holy Monarchs! What did you do to my cafe!" A voice full of anger erupted from behind the wall of stone. Barely audible over the lingering explosion and crumbling ceiling and walls.
"Huh?" I looked towards the stone wall.
Asher peered his head out from behind it.
"Look what you did, boy!"
I looked around. The place was a total mess. From the remnants of the room, I could tell we were in the staff room of the cafe. "Sorry, but I had to get out of the ice prison." A slight hint of remorse in my voice.
"Ice-what! Boy, that ain't no prison! That was yur damn cocoon! You know, like the thing powering yur Integration!" Asher scoldingly yelled out, building up more anger with each word.
"Why'd you keep me in the shop? I had to get out of it!" I yelled back.
"So why didn't'ch'a melt the damn thing?!" He threw up his arms in a show of befuddlement, finally stepping out from behind his stone wall.
I scratched the back of my head, looking between him and the floor, but never meeting his eyes. He had a point, making it hard for me to look at him." Cause, I… felt the… power…" My voice trailed off.
"Power! What power! Boy, yur Will is brimming with about half the strength o'va Mid-Will Holder. It's so pathetic, I'd be laughing if you hadn't pissed me off so much."
"What! That doesn't make any sense! My Will is that of a Lord Beast. I killed that damn thing!"
He turned around to face the door. "Yeah, well. Forget allat for right now. Follow me. And you better not piss me off by breaking more stuff. Damn brat." He walked past his stone wall and through the doorframe.
I went to follow behind him, but before that, I wanted to test my strength. It felt like I could punch down a wall, so why not put that to the test? I readied myself for a punch against Asher's stone wall. Bringing my arm up, then down with all my strength, my fist crashed into the wall and… my fist recoiled against it, sending tremors up my arm and down my legs. My body shook with pain, but there was no lasting damage. Not even a scratch or crack on the stone.
Without looking back, Asher called out in disappointment, "That's the wall of an Elite-Will Holder. What about 'Mid-Will' didja not understand? And that form was crap."
A frown creased my face. My ego broken, I shuffled behind him. "How did you find me anyway?"
"Sheer, dumb luck."