“Close. Remember, there’s no need to release the lightning energy stored within your body to the outside world. Even though it’s lightning based, the energy is better kept inside your body. Use the flash of your sword to act as the lightning rather than your mana. Your mana is the fuel to keep you going.” Shiro lectured as Glen nodded his head.
He was mentally exhausted to the point where he didn’t even want to say anything but his body felt better than ever. With life fire constantly relieving his fatigue and soreness, he felt like he was in a trance.
Each step felt clear and a path revealed itself. The sound seemed to fade from his ears as all he could hear was his own breathing through his body.
Breath in, breath out.
Taking a step forward on the path that was shown to him, he felt his body fall forward.
A gentle descent as his perception of his surroundings seemed to slow down.
He could see the sweat drip down from his face to the sword before being split in half. Eventually, landing on the floor.
A single instant, a tiny droplet of sweat, exploded apart as water covered the area.
His eyes focused.
Adjusting his centre of gravity, he took the second step towards the dummy.
Slow.
His motions seemed slow, but his speed continued to increase.
Bringing his sword in front of him to act as both defence and offence, he closed his eyes and entrusted his body to his senses that he refined.
The brushing of the wind, the arc of his sword.
Appearing in front of the dummy, his eyes opened once more.
Like a droplet, scatter and expand.
*BANG!!!!!!!
Flashing behind the dummy, sword slashes appeared all over its body as Shiro could see everything that happened with extreme clarity.
That first taste of reaching beyond the 80% threshold in body control made one feel like they were at the height of their performance. An epiphany.
Ideas would enter one’s mind as this was how many techniques were formed.
Just like what Glen had demonstrated, it was a technique he had created at the height of his focus but that was not what they were going after.
They were going after the threshold of 90%. The state where every moment was the peak of their performance. The flash of inspiration becomes a constant.
Every movement is refined and technique after technique are sown together into fluid movements, eventually hiding themselves in mundane actions.
Right now, she had to stop Glen from focusing on the technique he had just created since more are going to come to his mind. What she needed him to do is disregard the ‘bait’ and instead pursue a higher goal.
Regardless, he still deserved praise.
“Well done. That was quite impressive.” Shiro smiled as she crouched down next to him. Offering him a tower, she watched as he shook his head.
“It wasn’t impressive. It was too weak, too scattered. A bad technique. It’s superficial and flashy. If I refine something like this, it’s like cutting off my legs just because I ran a somewhat good time on a track.” Glen clenched his fist as his gaze was strong.
Hearing this, Shiro grinned since he knew that the technique was a bait. There was no need for her to tell him to begin with.
“Indeed. You need to keep refining your body. Techniques will appear in your mind like a snap of a finger but that’s not what we’re going for. However, you did good. You tasted the first feeling of surpassing 80% body control and your average is around 75% right now. Don’t charge towards that feeling you just felt since body control over 80% is never rigid. It’s free flowing so you need to let your body guide you rather than forcing it on a set path.” Shiro smiled as Glen nodded his head.
Taking the towel, he wiped his sweat away before stepping away from the dummy once more.
However, just as he wanted to take a step forward, he found himself on the verge of collapsing.
Seeing this, Shiro furrowed her brows.
“Get some sleep. That last performance and pushed you over the edge now. Plus, it’s already been four days since you’ve last slept. Take this time to rest well and we’ll continue the training later.” Shiro ordered as she snapped her fingers, creating a bed for Glen as he nodded and face planted into the pillow, falling asleep almost immediately.
Chuckling softly, Shiro teleported out of the chamber and appeared in Training Hall 1 where most of the pilots are currently trying to project their Throne World.
“How is he?” Nan Tian asked as she had been informing him of Glen’s performance every time she teleported here.
“It’s going good. He’s just broken past the 80% body control threshold. Even if it’s in a single moment, it’s impressive. The fact that he was able to accomplish this in just 100 hours is frankly worthy of jealousy.” Shiro laughed as Nan Tian nodded.
“True. Even I needed to train my body for years before I even got a taste of the realm beyond 80%. Even now, I’m probably only around 85% since I started to focus on magic more.” Nan Tian admitted with a smile.
“That’s true. His deficiency in mana is offset by his talent with body control and the sword. His path will be hard since there are always things that magic can do which the sword can’t but I’ll say this. If he continues and levels up, even if he can’t use high tier magic, he can still defeat most people and protect himself.” Shiro smiled as she sat next to Nan Tian.
“Would you look at that, the world is somewhat fair in the end. Though looking at your accomplishments that’s still up to debate.”
“I am known as the breaker of balance.” Shiro replied with a shrug.
“And asses.” Nan Tian corrected as Shiro coughed lightly.
“True but I haven’t got much chance to do it for a while now. Though I still have a spike with Aekari’s name on it.” Shiro laughed.
Talking for a little while, Shiro helped out with the training for the Throne World since Glen was resting right now.
Out of everyone, it seemed like Shiina and Akhess were the ones closest to succeeding with Celeste not too hard behind in terms of progress.
She would have wanted them to join the chamber in training room 4 but that would hinder Glen by a lot since it’ll be too distracting for them.
Plus, she wasn’t sure what would happen if they opened a second isolated space (Throne World) inside another isolated space (Chamber of Time) and she wasn’t too keen to find out just yet.
But seeing their progress, Shiro understood that there probably wasn’t a need to do that in the first place.
###
Gritting her teeth, the space distorted around Shiina as ice started to form. Her surroundings seemed to twist and turn but she was unable to hold it for long before it snapped itself back into place.
Panting heavily, Shiina fell back and sat on the ground while sweat dripped off her face.
“You seem to be having a bit of trouble.” Shiro smiled as she approached Shiina.
“Your highness.” Shiina widened her eyes as she wanted to stand up but Shiro shook her head.
“It’s fine, you can just rest for now. Tell me, what are you having difficulties with?” Shiro asked as Shiina scratched her head.
“Well… it’s just that I tried to activate the Throne World using the module you gave me but it refused to appear. The steps I’ve taken should be accurate.” Shiina sighed as Shiro thought about it for a moment and understood what was going wrong.
“You’re trying to deploy the full Throne World aren’t you? As you are right now, it is impossible. I have mentioned that your Throne World was incomplete and the only reason it ‘looked complete’ when we demonstrated was due to my interference. For you, you’re trying to imprint something onto reality but you don’t have the power.
“My tip for you is to ‘nudge’ reality for now. Have it manifest parts of your Throne World but don’t wrestle it into submission since that will obviously fail. Just take it step by step for now. I’ll give you a quick demonstration.” Shiro smiled as she took a step back.
Snapping her fingers, the space around her started to distort as an icy landscape started to form around her. However, it was not quite an isolated space.
“Try to achieve this for now. It’s not quite a Throne World but it’s the beginning of one. You still have your buffs in this stage. This is the first step and once you have completed this, you’ll be on track to form the isolated space using the module.” Shiro smiled, dismissing the incomplete Throne World as Shiina nodded her head.
However, just as Shiro was walking back to Nan Tian, she noticed a pillar of fire erupting out from just outside the city.
“The f*ck?” Shiro couldn’t help but mutter as she sensed both Attie’s energy along with Yin’s.
