While the Academy and the network were thrown into mayhem yet again with a single portrait, Felix wasn't even paying attention to any of that.
Instead, he was sweating buckets on a snowy peak in Thor's UVR room.
It was just as big as Jörmungandr's room but was completely different environmentally.
Thunderclouds and toppling snow mountains took most of the space, unlike Jörmungandr's room that was filled with poison swamps.
"Not fast enough!"
Smack!
A thin long bamboo stick smacked Felix's back, leaving behind a long red mark. Felix's back could be seen covered by plenty of them already.
He wasn't bleeding or anything but getting hit sharply like that in such cold weather would make anyone shiver in their places.
"Again!"
Felix sucked in the pain and took a deep breath. Then, he focused on all those tiny holes in his body at the same time and forced them to close without using his mental energy!!
Unfortunately, it took him half a second to achieve so. Thor's displeased expression showed that he didn't like it one bit.
Smack!
"Again!"
Felix gritted his teeth to hold himself from protesting against his abuse. It's been more than three hours since Thor started training him to control his mutation much better.
In the beginning, he was happy that he could finally close those tiny holes and open them up by his will instead of wasting his mental energy.
Alas, his happiness was short-lived as Thor's training regime was more brutal and crude than Jörmungandr's.
While Jörmungandr believed that patience and observation were key to training, Thor was a supporter of a strict iron training system.
His motto was pain meant progress!
Smack!
"Not good enough! Heal up and try again!" Thor yelled with a displeased tone, "It's been three hours already. I managed to do it in my first attempt and even my most retarded descendent did it after a couple of minutes."
"I am not your descendent am I?" Peeved, Felix mumbled to himself but ended up only getting whipped again in his lips!
'F*ck!!'
"Enough bitching around and try again!"
Felix closed his bleeding mouth shut and started concentrating on those tiny holes.
He was told by Thor that the moment he inherited this mutation, he also inherited the ability to control them just like his limbs.
The only reason he didn't figure it out was because he never found access to controlling them.
It was like some people were capable of moving their ears, noses, or bouncing their chest, while others couldn't do so in their lifetimes.
Thor showed Felix the way to access it but the speed wasn't up there.
"If you can't close and open them in less than a millisecond, they will get you killed!" Thor shouted as he whipped Felix again.
Felix knew that he was right.
In his upcoming game, he would be placed against real platinum players, who were stronger than even Krialder, The Talisman User in his previous game.
Adding to the uniqueness of each race and abilities, and it would be tougher to survive a fight against them without proper speed.
But, he couldn't achieve his supersonic mode quickly if he didn't control the Avion's mutation perfectly.
So, under this brutal weather and lightning bolts striking nearby, Felix kept trying to perfect his control without voicing a single complaint against Thor's abuse.
Through the pain and repetition, he could see that he was progressing towards his ideal target at a respectable pace.
….
Later that day…
Felix was currently lying on his bed, feeling mentally exhausted after spending half a day getting whipped in a freezing temperature.
Fortunately, Thor's method had forced his mind to adapt quickly to avoid the pain. Right now, he could close and open those tiny holes in less than a quarter of a second!
Still, it wasn't enough, so Felix had to repeat this training two days later.
Tomorrow was booked by Jörmungandr and the following day by Lady Sphinx.
That's how they divided the week. Two days for each of them and the last one for Felix to freely train any course he desired or simply to take a break.
While he was melting in bed, Lady Sphinx and the others were discussing their bet in the upcoming game if they ended up against a primogenitor's champion.
"I believe that with the upcoming yearly primogenitors' games, m…"
Lady Sphinx suddenly went quiet during her sentence and started nodding her head calmly.
Before the others could react, she smiled faintly at them and announced, "The Void Primogenitor had just contacted me and set up a meeting this evening with all of us."
"Really?!" Felix jumped from his bed with newfound energy at the sound of this good news.
Meanwhile, Jörmungandr immediately smiled smugly while eying Thor, who was clearly irked by the news.
"He didn't say that he agreed yet." Thor scoffed, "Maybe he just didn't want to reject Lady Sphinx over a call but face to face respectful.."
"No, he told me that he is interested and I should bring the little thief with me." Lady Sphinx broke his fantasy apart.
"He asked for me?" Felix pointed at his chest in bewilderment.
"Indeed."
Felix didn't know why exactly he asked for him and he honestly didn't feel too nervous about it.
He already hung out with primogenitors long enough to know the dos and don't.
"If he asked you anything just answer truthfully." Jörmungandr advised, "He won't care about your secrets even if you exposed all of them to him."
"Hell, I believe that Felix should go up and beyond to sell himself to the Void Primogenitor." Thor suggested, "After all, the Void Primogenitor had either few hidden descendants or non at all. So, Felix would be considered as a half-descendants if he inherited his abilities."
"Don't forget about his strongest ability." Asna joined the discussion, "We all know how precious it is to primogenitors. If Felix is going to use the Void Primogenitors, he simply couldn't give up on it as well."
Felix nodded his head in agreement. He already decided to compromise and give up on a slot for another perfect manipulation to go for this.
If he had to lose out on a peak active ability as well, his 3rd replacement stage would honestly be way too weak.
Even if the element was void.
"Enough guessing, we will find out his answer in the meeting." Lady Sphinx waved her hand and said, "For now, just dress up formally and learn how to talk properly. He absolutely abhors informality."
'Why can't they be normal?' Felix was a bit speechless by his antics, feeling like he was about to meet another weirdo primogenitor.
***
Later that day, Felix and the other primogenitors could be seen gathered in Lady Sphinx's UVR's cosmic pyramid.
All of them appeared neat, graceful, and dignified with their formal outfits. Felix went for a black tuxedo, Lady Sphinx for an amber-colored long dress, and the other two wore royal robes.
They were more comfortable in their own cultural formal clothing.
"Let's teleport, he dislikes nonpunctual guests." Lady Sphinx mentioned while pressing on an invitation link.
Soon, all of them disappeared at once.
When they opened their eyes, they found themselves in a small cozy living room that was made entirely from dark brown wood.
Even the furniture and decoration were wooden. Yet, that didn't take away the beauty of this room's simplicity.
As they looked around, they found that no one was inside. Yet, they kept remaining standing patiently.
In a few seconds, the living room door was opened up by a strange entity that made Felix question his eyes.
A floating pitch-black whirlpool with few brightened dots within it.
It appeared almost like a gate to the matter universe!
"Greetings."
Abruptly, a fathomless echoing voice emerged from within the center of the whirlpool.
"Greetings Lord Khaos." Lady Sphinx bowed her head respectfully and was followed by Thor and Jörmungandr.
When Felix saw this, he quickly broke out of his daze and copied their actions exactly.
"Please, sit." Lord Khaos requested.
All of them took a seat nearby.
Felix found out that the only seat left behind was the closest to Lord Khaos's host seat.
Knowing that it was bad manners to not accept, Felix sat down reluctantly.
All of that bullshit about not being nervous had gone by the wind after he saw Lord Khaos's appearance and respectful approach of his masters.
He knew that Lord Khaos must be a big deal even within the primogenitors' circle.
Lord Khaos floated to his seat and morphed into a humanoid figure.
Nothing much changed but the figure. He was still faceless and appeared gender-less.
"So, this is the human child you spoke about Sphinx?" Lord Khaos tilted his head as he faced Felix, making him sweat a little from his palms.
He didn't know why but he kept getting mentally exhausted each time Lord Khaos's voice was processed in his brain.
It was like each word was a code that needed to be solved for Felix to comprehend it.
"Don't bully him with your codex Lord Khaos." Lady Sphinx chuckled, "His mental defenses still require a lot of improvement."
"I barely used it. I don't know what you see in him." Lord Khaos's voice soon became echoless, making Felix understand each word almost immediately.
'Shit, I'm off to a bad start!' Felix knew that Lord Khaos wasn't pleased by his result from their interaction!
