===== 15 - Zero Point ==========
He only wanted peace... Yong was an amazing guy who, throughout his entire life, was simply not allowed to do what he truly wanted. Kioshi, spirits, they all prevented him from pursuing his dream, and I couldn't help but feel a connection with him — as if failure was pulling him back, forcing him to abandon his favourite activities. Did I mention that I learned from the mistakes of others? Yoon showed me that even after reaching the sixth chakra, even after gaining power beyond mortal limits, you won't get a peaceful life; you have to adapt the world to yourself. But in order to change something, you first had to open your eyes.
The status quo established between Yoon and me allowed me to receive instruction on the sixth chakra. To be honest, until that day, I stubbornly believed that, like Guru Patika's teachings, I would dispel the illusion about peoples, somehow gain a deeper understanding of the essence of the common world, and other narrow-minded nonsense. The problem with this idea is that I never believed in it in the first place, I had no illusions about it, my mind would never exclaim "EUREKA". This is why many Avatars, even those who managed to renounce their earthly attachments, still consider the idea of a common world to be nonsense. Each of them broke their unique mental frameworks and went beyond narrow-minded thinking in their own way.
Unfortunately, Yun did not break my mind with some incredible magnum opus about spirits, because, as he himself said, you need a little more life experience and a foundation, and in my case, this foundation could be provided by the teachings of Lakhima, which my mind will soon begin to ponder. But what did he talk about? Well, literally the same thing I once thought about, only his thoughts went far beyond jokes and kitchen talk:
What are the amplifying factors for magicians? Why is a lunar eclipse capable of giving water magicians a lot of power, while fire magicians, on the contrary, lose it? Why, when the sun goes to illuminate another part of the planet, does one people not lose all their power? The answer is simple: mentality and belief in the higher purposes of spirits, which, incidentally, did exist. Using Kioshi as an example, Yoon saw that the power of all people comes from spirits, that tsunamis occur at their will and maintain balance, and that others cannot even cast spells if the higher beings forbid them. But not all magic exists by their will! Energy still exists in all living beings, it is not subject to external factors, and it is still capable of acting in the spirit world, unlike the elements.
The illusion of the mind begins to break down when you realise that your power does not depend on external factors, that you are only imagining these limitations yourself, and that you can fix them. And what did Laghima say in the only piece of text I read? Energy can merge with the elements, giving them new forms and possibilities. The three-eyed mercenary gave a number of examples of how this happens, but he missed the main point: you are no longer limited — even in the spirit world, you can use your element, which is what Yoon did when he talked about the sad Non-Life.
But the most interesting part is yet to come. Realising that you can no longer be held back, you can use energy magic to try to limit the very spirits that previously limited you, turning the tables and beginning to dominate the game. I would compare this to Aang's energy magic when he managed to strip Ozai of his abilities in the canon — that image is still vivid in my mind, as if I had watched the canon just recently. Only he received information about this, I would say, zero magic from the still-living lion-turtle, while Yoon developed it himself, discovering it through enlightenment.
However, unlike the lion-turtles, he cannot grant others, or even himself, the ability to control other elements.
So, does Magic Zero have no drawbacks? In fact, there was one, and it was very significant: if your opponent's spirit is stronger than your own, then at best they will deprive you of your magic, and at worst, your will. This is Yoon's little secret, which keeps him sane. He suppresses his opponent's will to live in advance and keeps it in a consistently low state.
Well, knowing all this, my desire to follow this path grew even stronger. Since Laghima's teachings contained an easy way to master this very energy, with clear explanations and examples, I needed to quickly master this new knowledge so that I could also subjugate someone and be ready for terrible battles. And here it was worth mentioning that Yoon had tricked me... It was no coincidence that he sat there nicely and talked about his abilities; he also took something from me in return. Knowledge of a new magic.
During his stories, he was just analysing our previous battle and, due to his weaker senses, slowly analysing how I controlled magma, sand and even iron.
"Thank you, now I'm one step closer to my goal," he said as we were about to part ways. Unexpectedly, he picked up a piece of rock, which turned into magma due to rapid acceleration and formed a lava shuriken. "Who would have thought that our meeting would be so significant and that I would be one step closer to my dream thanks to you. I don't think we should kill everyone who tries to find me. Let's just get all the information about the magic system out of them first.
It's a good thing he's not a psychopath, I was even happy for him. Well, Afka and I had to go back to the capital and think about a lot of things. It's funny that when I returned, I found the city in chaos, with residents sincerely believing that a volcanic eruption had begun, as evidenced by a recent fiery flash with black smoke and a powerful earthquake. "Whoa, calm down," I said, meeting a gloomy Azula in the palace corridor, who was standing near my room and trying to figure out where I had disappeared to at such an important moment, and slapped her on the shoulder with a yawn. "I got into a fight with someone. Calm everyone down before they start evacuating.
"Did you go somewhere without me?"
For the first time, Azula's face showed hesitation. While she was thinking about the question — who could be fighting SO loudly — I closed the door in her face and went about my undoubtedly important business. Reading Laghim.
The next few days I did nothing but fill myself up. Some people were pestering me because of recent events, but I managed to scare them all away quickly, at least with Azula's help. She was bored too, because, as it turned out, Mei had run off to her Zuko, apparently their love couldn't stand being apart. The princess's euphoria, which had risen to the heavens after the battle with the dragon, had already faded back to normal, and the girl was lost in thoughts about eternity, even about how much she wanted to see something new. I talked to my Tai Li every day and never forgot to ask her about various events, although once I received a very strange question: did I have any romantic, or even perhaps loving, feelings for Tof.
For a second, the thought flashed through my mind that this was the famous female distrust... but everything quickly became clear when I realised that Tof had said something. She showed me the ring I had given her and said that she would always respect me. How good it is that the sound chakra allows you to get away with such things with just one word — I said that nothing had happened, and the person who is attached to you immediately understands that it's true.
Although she did catch me out once...
"Dagoth, you seem tense. Is something wrong?" She asked me a question that hit me right in the heart, just as I was thinking about how Aang would react to my actions. It would have been logical to come up with a way to get him to take my side in advance, as my best friend, but I couldn't think of anything. Aang would not accept an attack on the traditions and customs of an entire civilisation, as Anubis had confirmed with his silence. This issue would be resolved after the fact, at the negotiating table, and for that I had to be the stronger party.
To make Tai Li understand me, I calmly and clearly explained everything to her from the beginning. Why the existence of spirits and Koha could lead to misunderstandings on both sides, and she accepted me calmly. She herself knew the story of Kuruk and didn't even want to think about the same situation happening to us. Promising to just keep an eye on things and help me if necessary, she restored my faith in the rightness of my path.
And only at the end did she say that they were all already heading towards Omasu, together with Tof. I was even curious how they managed to take her away from her parents, but instead of answering, Tai Li just smiled VERY awkwardly. Apparently, something interesting had happened.
"The path I have chosen is the right one by definition... a convenient position with Oza. Very, very arrogant," - on my way to saying this even to the Avatar's face, I immersed myself in the changes in the properties of my matter, because it was in it that the secret of Zero Magic lay.
As strange as it may sound, part of my abilities were already imbued with this power. By changing the polarity of the soil, I was already ten steps closer to my cherished goal, but this energy was flowing in passively. I couldn't compress and change the properties of coal because I had always just copied the abilities of other people, such as Yangchen. Yes, I could explain in my head how these abilities worked, but I couldn't create them myself... until recently. Improving electrical conductivity is my own development, and, so to speak, I began to move from passive observation to active use.
I think that in order to master control itself, I need to come up with a few more diverse abilities, including higher-level ones, to consolidate my understanding. And that wasn't difficult.
Finding Azula bored and delighting her with the news that we were going for a walk, we set off for an important place in the Fire Nation.
"The most industrial city in the country!" I stopped in front of the gates of the large industrial city, which we had been driving to for just over an hour, and a happy smile spread across my face. Where else but in the most technologically advanced city would I need to learn to control matter itself?
"Oh..." Azula responded to the familiar place, "This is where the royal academy building is, where I studied. So many old memories and teachers I used to bully..."
Yes, we'll all find something interesting here...