In a lonely and lively mansion, in a certain room, there exists a warm pool. I was laying in it relaxing my body trying to feel the warmth of recovery. Maria had prepared a warm, petrified pool that released thick, medicinal steam—designed specifically to soothe muscles crushed by divine-tier pressure from Luka. I lay there, my body feeling light and soothing already recovering from the pains.
"So, he's Suki's fiancé, huh?" I let out a dry, raspy laugh and reached for a glass of ice resting on the pool's edge. I crunched on a shard of ice, the cold snap grounding me. "Sorry, but I got to her first, you over-gilded demi-god."
Despite the bravado, the memory of that pressure made my hands shake slightly. I was nowhere near him in strength, speed, or raw power. If he had actually struck me instead of just flexing his aura, I would be a stain on the academy pavement right now.
"Luka... whatever kind of monster you are, you're just a wall I haven't climbed yet," I muttered, rising from the pool. I grabbed a white towel to wipe the steam from my face, my eyes hardening. "First, I have to meet up with Sherach." I rounded up and set out to the academy.
-----
In a deserted plain feild, which was bordered by high cliffs where waterfalls cascaded down in a constant roar. The breeze was cool, whipping my hair across my face as I stood opposite Sherach. I had one hand tucked casually in my pocket, trying to look cooler than I felt.
"Alright, Oliver. Rule one, don't die," Sherach said with a playful wink. Suddenly, his body blurred, and an army of clones erupted from him, fanning out across the field.
"Clones? Seriously? You're like a one-man boy band," I muttered, dropping into a fighting stance.
The clones didn't wait for applause. They dashed forward, blades drawn, moving with a synchronized speed that blurred the grass. I stayed centered, refusing to look away from the real Sherach. Using fluid footwork and the Nebula heart's rhythm, I took them on. As the fights kept going on, each clone lunged into the air while some sprung to attack at all sides. My brain began to overclock, calculating the trajectory of every swing until the world seemed to move in slow motion.
I stepped inside the guard of the nearest clone, delivering a series of lightning-fast strikes that vaporized the afterimages. But just as I thought I was clearing the field, a punch caught me square in the jaw, followed immediately by a leg sweep.
"Crap!" I used the momentum of the fall, pinning one hand to the dirt and launching into a spinning butterfly kick that sent three clones crashing into the dirt.
I scrambled back up with a stunt, only to see more clones manifesting—some with katanas, others with bare fists. "They're well-organized... a little too well-organized." I scanned for the original Sherach, but he had vanished.
"Where did he—?"
A clone appeared inches from my chest, his palm glowing with a sphere of swirling purple energy.
"Nope!" My body blurred—a desperate burst of speed—reappearing behind him. I delivered a twisting kick that sent him flying into his comrades. The purple beam exploded on impact, carving a massive, smoking crater into the ground.
"If that had touched me, I'd be a memory," I breathed.
Suddenly, a heavy leg strike slammed into my shoulder. It was silent, lethal, and perfectly timed. I felt the bone groan under the impact. Before I could even gasp, a barrage of fists rained down on me. They were so fast I couldn't even see the punches, let alone block them. I was sent skidding across the dirt, spitting blood as my vision flickered.
Even at half-strength, Sherach's clones were absolute nightmares. I stood up, parrying what I could, tanking what I couldn't. I was at my limit, panting like a dog in the sun.
"Is there an end to you guys?" I wheezed.
The clones suddenly dissolved, merging back into the original Sherach. "You're worn out," he said, walking toward me with terrifying calm. "This is where the real game begins."
"Unfair... making me waste my stamina first," I grumbled, raising my fists.
He didn't answer. He simply moved.
His speed was beyond anything I had ever seen. I couldn't even blink before he was in my space. A relentless rain of palm strikes landed on every part of my body—chest, ribs, shoulders—until my consciousness simply checked out. I passed out mid-strike, my body hitting the floor with a heavy thud.
Sherach sighed, turning to walk toward a nearby rock. "Passed out already? Well, I expected that. It's up to you if you can grasp the concept now..."
He stopped. A dark, predatory chill crawled up behind his back.
Slowly, the figure on the ground rose. But it wasn't exactly the Oliver Sherach was expecting anymore. His hair was a messy nest, and his eyes—usually amber and full of life—had turned cold, hollow, and intense.
"That's new," Sherach whispered, his eyes widening. "Oliver ? Is that you ? Is this your version of Kaishi?"
There was no reply. Just an expressionless, hollow stare.
"Alright, let's see what this you can do in this new state!" Sherach lunged with a twisting kick at instant speed. The strike landed with a sickening crack against his shoulder—but he didn't flinch. He didn't skid back. He simply stood there, tilted his chin up, and stared at him with those void-like eyes.
Sherach froze, his foot still pressed against my shoulder. "He didn't even... feel it?" he muttered in disbelief, quickly back-stepping.
Before he could process the thought, Oliver was already behind him. He delivered a blade-kick that whistled through the air. Sherach dodged, but the second kick followed instantly. He blocked it, but the force made his bones ring, sending him skidding backwards.
"Okay, kid. I'm putting a little weight behind my strikes now!" Sherach began to move in a blur of athletic motion, launching a punch that I caught with a single hand. The shockwave fractured the ground beneath us, sending dust and stones into the sky.
We became a storm of parries, dodges, and counters, our fighting motions sending shockwaves echoing from cliff to cliff.
"I need to snap him out of this before things get really dangerous," Sherach thought. He began creating afterimages, trying to confuse his hollow state. "Got you!"
He attacked from the shadows of his own images, but a back spinning kick caught him square in the face, sending him rotating backward through the air. As he tried to regain his balance, Oliver appeared behind him, his hands open in a high-five gesture. A brilliant blue beam of mana—which was the Shidan technique—began to form.
"A Shidan technique? Where did he—?!"
Sherach blurred out of the way a millisecond before the beam erupted, vaporizing a large section of the field. While he was still in the follow-through, Sherach reappeared behind him and delivered a sharp, precise strike to the back of his neck.
His body went limp, the hollow light in his eyes fading as he slipped from the unconscious state into actual sleep.
"Phew," Sherach wiped his brow. "That was a little too close."
----
I woke up a while later, bolting upright with a gasp. "What happened? Did I pass out?"
I looked around and found Sherach sitting on a rock, lazily coiling his hair around his finger. "Look who's finally among the living," he teased.
"Did I... did I do it?" I asked, rubbing my aching neck.
"Yep. You tapped into it," Sherach said, his face turning serious. "But you're light-years from controlling it. You were a passenger in your own body, Oliver. That state is dangerous. You'll need to train your will and mind to remain yourself while in that void."
"I understand," I said, feeling the new depth of the Nebula heart.
"Alright, that's enough for today. I have someone to see," Sherach said, standing up. "See you at the exam entrance."
With a final grin, he vanished, leaving me alone in the settling dust of the broken field.