Chapter 39: bonus chapter: focus
a simple river, freezing in the winter air... unto sub-zero, with nothing to thaw, killing everything it touches. an icy path that will neither slip nor break. sticking into everything and bites everything that it takes, creating statues of ice and freezing air. a simple river with the nothing to gain, nothing to give, taking every life and discarding it...
"Naoya? are you done yet? we're about to do our exhibition right?"
ahh... "right, I'll be there soon"
a pathway of ice, thaw it with yourself, extinguish the air and destroy it... control it... use it to your will
"Alright! Are you ready? I'll start off with this"
pink and white petals engulfed Liliya that she's not even visible anymore... her art is one of the easiest but her ability is the hardest to control, even giving each and every petal a composition, what I heard is harder than controlling bone mutations
"Alright... alright, you've improved... well then? shall we start?"
"umu! let's go!"
release the blood from your skin, envelope your hand in the flowing liquid...
"ooh~ never seen it that prominent! it's even bolder than before!"
"P-please Liliya... don't"
she bonks her head... this girl...
"well then? why don't you ever use your bone manipulation? you used it before but it's quite astonishing seeing you ignore it for about half a year"
ahh... that...
"I've been controlling it but I only use it to strengthen my muscles and bones in case I get a fatal injury. I still remember the time I had to use a bandage around my chest... it exerts all of my consciousness so I only use it as an emergency"
"like when Juren was still mad about us? ahh, those days... you were going all out there and I had to stop you from berserking and killing yourself, your emotionless face finally had some emotion there and it was the first time for me seeing it and now look at you!"
"I'd like you to stop teasing me whenever you want..."
"now now, it's all good right? plus, I don't do it when we're fighting. so anyway, have you finally controlled it? it's honestly been 40 or so years and I'd say even longer than that! I already lost count... probably a hundred?"
I put Liliya's comments aside and began focusing on my bone mutation...
with iron as strong as steel, turn it and expand, break through the barrier and ignore all the heat that it delivers... break the earth's crust and let it bleed with the lava it so covers... turn it all into one and transform it to your liking
"ooh~ it's taking its shape! ahh! ehh... sorry, but from looking at it again... it certainly dos look painful... I heard from your soldiers that they choose blood manipulation more than bone... it's like your whole platoon is the suicide squad of the military, no wonder Mei always calls for me or Arie when it comes to scouting..."
while she's true that we are the suicide squad, the pain is heavily underestimated by many, the sole reason why my people chooses blood manipulation more and the others that has no choice chooses to use bones that are not even theirs, the pain is way above the line of unbearable, mutating your bone breaks your body and, while it looks like nothing, even the shortest of growth can make one unable to move. the mutated bone is unlike the other types of fallen manipulations... the bone manipulation are turns your body into a living weapon. if a person's too sensitive then they will squirm and groan in pain for shortest of one month or 90 days. a Fallen's body or every living being in general needs to train themselves into pain, it melds into your skin and pierces it, if used continuously, without a blood manipulator or if you yourself don't have blood manipulating techniques, the dangers of using it skyrockets into suicide, the blood loss is just too much.
"thankfully Kirin made you into a blood art user too huh? if not, you wouldn't even be able to go one hundred percent without killing yourself"
I smile and respond with- "yes... I sure am glad..."
we finish our exhibition and continue back to our fieldwork
"ahh, right. we'll be going to a country called Indonesia right? you think we'll find something like another world there like in the Philippines? wonder if there's one in every country here!"
"I think there is... I heard that one year for the people here is long... they might've created a few... but I do wonder, if they were capable of doing that... couldn't this world be a home of strong people that can probably fight back?"
"even if they do, they'd need a hundred or so years to fully oppose and kill us off. harsh training, understanding over the surroundings, and immediate reactions, those are the needed requirements to join our military and all of them fulfilled it with flying colors, besides the scientist of course"
the training was harsh, if no one fulfilled a every single task they would've been kicked out immediately without question
"oh, by the way, what do you think of Osiria? if she were to j- no... nevermind... I keep forgetting that she has a weak stamina, even holding a weapon tires her..."
Osiria's a special case, while being prominent in supporting an entire population, her control and self-defense are below average...
"Should we let her enroll in an academy when we finally return? I think she'll be old enough by the time we return... probably"
"and let her go alone? I don't think so, I'm not leaving letting you, her fragile body wouldn't even survive the outside world"
"and do you think she'll be happy with that kind of response? don't worry, I'll let Arie be her guardian and plus, we can just visit her occasionally."
she gives an optimistic smile... I can't say no to that... I give in to her and she jumps for joy, honestly... this girl...
we continue our exploration and travel west to the place called Indonesia without any interruptions so far
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Kirin_Aiha
Kirin_Aiha I've been quite a while... I've been setting up the main storyline so these sub-chapters are inserted in the middle some of them explains how the world of Laplace use Ether/magic by visualizing while I still need to think of the human side on earth... anyway, I hope it's to your liking, I'll be practicing singing again soon so I might not publish as much (and watch that what I said turned into the opposite)