Chương 8: Hard Pill to Swallow
That fact was a hard pill to swallow for them. One power, to conquer someone god-like, it was almost impossible for them to get out from this place alive. Ansel thought about a strategy, but his head was a mess, he couldn't figure out how to defeat or kill someone.
They need training, and it would be a long way to go. Not only years, they need centuries, or beyond. Ansel put both of his hand on his mouth, he stared at Thabit.
"Would you please explain to my dear apostles about their ability?"
Maven's helper stood up, he looks comical, round tummy, small build, like humpty dumpty. His long pointy ears twitched. "I am Nikanor pte Hannu, the head of Cephyx library. I want to explain you about the ability that has been granted to you. Apparently, you are now close to a deity, physically."
Deity? Shocked, Ansel eyes widened, he put his hands on the table, leaned closer.
"Once you are a deity, you will experience some changes to your body; some parts of your body will malfunction. Your body has produced an unlimited amount of telomere."
Maven cuts, "Excuse me? Telomere? If those are in abnormal amount it will trigger cancer…"
"As you know, some law in this realm was different from yours. You better discover the others soon as you slowly learn about this realm."
Nikanor opened the thick book on his arm, "The risk to put make a deity out of a commoner was too high, before you, there are also several subjects that we have tested on. They all failed since they are from our world. It was magical when you all made it here, safe and sound. Though there are some side effect after the ability was implanted. Brian Paays has difficulties to adjust his mental state after the implement of the power."
"How come this is possible?" Ansel asked.
"As far as I can see, the human beings in your realm are called the children of God or the servant of God is this correct?" Nikanor reverted back the question.
"Yes," said Maven, "it is a term taken from certain religions."
Nikanor flipped the pages of the book, "Exactly. And thus I began to collect some information of it. The rest were Her Eminence Thabit Melioratus business to have a bargain with Him. No wonder you are special."
Ansel was skeptical when Nikanor said that. Whether Thabit actually did that or she just randomly picked them up and made them as a lab rat.
Nikanor closed the book, "So, I'll start to introduce the one power system, from Elizabeth Maven Kalila, you have the ability to preserve memory by understanding things. Be careful, memories are something precious for us.
Mega Adrianna Perwitasari, the ability of trickster, you could transform to any that you desired, any living things or maybe beyond that. Feel free, use your creativity!
Lintang Byantara, you will control air and weather.
Last but not least, Ansel Cakara, free will. Dream manipulation and … I cannot describe much about your power, dreams are something complicated to understand. You will discover it through your helper, or find it yourself.
You will have some training with your helper; I wish you all aid some help for us."
Free will? Ansel questioned his power; so far, his power was already 'spoiled' by Thabit. Yet he didn't understand what and how to use it.
"Any question?" Nikanor looked at the new apostles eyes.
"Do we have an alter name?" Mega shyly asked, "I mean, I can't go around with that—"
"You gained it through people's trust, state yourself first, help them, and you will have your new identity." Ashura proudly shoved himself, "As I gained my new identity as Her Eminence apostle."
"Or, you could search the reference from the library about cosmogony of this realms, there are a lot of options," Nikanor added.
Mega's mouth shaped an O's.
"I have another question," Lintang stood up and raised his hand, "Regarding to the quest, what if we are not ready to face them?"
Thabit stepped down from the throne, she walked to Lintang, "you are filled with doubt, my dear apostle; try to clear the gloomy cloud on your head. And you shall see the light. You are always ready for everything."
Lintang gulped, cold sweat running through. He nodded slowly with eyes closed, murmuring "yes, Her Eminence."
Thabit smiled, "good." She strolled back to her throne, stood on the right side. "You may leave now."
All stood and bowed to Thabit. One by one, they leave the hall.
"That's crazy, one? One was never enough. And my ability was ridiculous," Mega ranted along the way.
"One is enough, it's better than nothing at all." Lintang retorted.
Ansel walked across them, "Also, if we complains a lot, we don't know that Thabit would do for us. Please remain calm, maybe we need a time to think about it."
Mega ran away, her helper chased her. Lintang only looked when she leave, his helper patted his back, "it's hard to deal with girls."
"Thanks," Lintang nodded, "Anyway show us the training field, please."
Ansel looked back; Maven was missing on the crowd with her helper. Ashura leaned to Ansel, "I believe that everyone was at the state of confusion. Maybe bit training for your ability will help you to relieve the stress?"
"Yes," Ansel answered, "show us the way."
Ansel's mind was filled with uncertainties, like a black cloud covering the sky. He couldn't pay attention to where he heading, he just followed Ashura along the way. The district that they inhibited was a gigantic building. There were almost no open places; this place was covered in glass dome.
They finally arrived in front of white circular door. Ashura and Lintang's helper put their hands on the scanner. When Ansel passed it, there was a screen that halted him. Ansel put his hand on the scanner; he could pass the screen after that.
The training room was 30 x 30 meters; its height reached the outer dome, around 100 meters. It was a plain white room, its tile cracked; some of the walls have been plastered.
"Once it was used to test weapons. Since there was no war, it has been empty for years," Ashura explained.
"So… how do we start?" Ansel put his hand on his hips, "and your name?"
"Yana pte Hannu."
"I noticed that some uses pte on their names, what are actually those?"
"It means 'blessed by' and then followed by the name of the deity that you followed. Pte for male, Sti for female. You don't need those, since you are the—"
"Enough for the explanation," Ashura put a stance, "now let's start the business. I'll teach you how to ignite the power within you. In this world, there are limitations. Your body still has to adapt to those point, and then you are free to break them after you know the basics."
Ansel suddenly remembered such kind of power from a game. "Mana point?"
"Actually we have another name for those, but, to make you understand, I'll call it mana point then?" Yana asked.
"Yes," said Ansel, "explain to us."
"Basically, our body has a power granted by the universe, at first, we have a small storage of power inside us. Through some training, the storage grew bigger; some has trained for years to make their storage for power, bigger. In some rare cases, some people have big storage equal to an adult when they were children."
"Talent granted from the gods?" Lintang sneered, "at least in our realm everyone has the same."
"The ones who were born rich have more privilege," Ansel countered.
"Oh right, I forgot that."
"Rich?" Yana nodded, "so the rich people trained themselves by bless or privilege from the gods—"
Ansel and Lintang looked at each other, Lintang cut, "hold it, you don't have to take our words to explain something, just explain it plainly."
"I'm afraid that there are some words that haven't been implanted in your memory system. As you know that our world has many different laws. So let me finish explaining first, any question?"
"Omit the rich and privilege word, it's just sickening," Ansel requested.
"As you wish, Ansel. The rare case usually called the apostles of the deities, and when they discover their power, they being named after the gods that has granted the ability to them. While the others, just called blessed, thus the name.
Usually these apostles being trained until they reached their limit, because their storage is bigger than anyone else, they have to restrain themselves, not to go beyond their limit. But since you are not the apostle, you are the one who granted the power, it is free for you to go beyond. I could say, beyond the sky."
"Wait, if we are the deities, who gives us the power?" Lintang asked.
Yana said with a serious expression, "The Great Void, Phanes, and The First of Great Deities. It is the main source of your energy, the sun, and Her Eminence Thabit Melioratus was the catalyst of that power, so that you could absorb it well, although some of you might receive the catalyst from The Great Keeper, Navii Deneb Magnus."
The revolution was an apocalypse for this realm, no wonder they are displeased, Ansel thought.
"How do we receive the power? I'm afraid they won't give us enough," Lintang rubbed his chin.
"What we're trying to do is just to introduce you the basic method on how we make our storage bigger. The rest is for you to discover," Yana walked to the middle of the room, "and don't ever doubt! Follow the light! Come here Lintang!"
Lintang skipped to Yana's position. Yana choose the one where the 'sun' shade cascading on him, the weather was cold, he bathed on the sunlight to make his body warm. Ashura walked away from Yana, closer to the edge of the room, where the floor hasn't cracked and the walls still plain. Ansel followed, sometimes he slipped on the rocky road, and some of the paths were broken.
Lintang and Ansel position were back to back, and so does Yana and Ashura. No one faces each other.
Ashura readied a stance, "Now, close your eyes, and take a deep breath according to my steps." Ashura tapped his boots.
Tap! Take
Tap! Take slowly
Tap! Ansel's lung couldn't contain anymore.
"Hold it, one, two, three, four," Ashura commanded, "release it slowly, same as when you take your breath."
Puff.
Puff.
Puff.
"Now repeat until you feel your body warmer, close your eyes."
Ansel repeated the process several times, slowly his body got warmer, from the head to the tip of his toe. The warmth flow on his body, from top to bottom, and then from bottom floated to the top. His chest was the warmest part.
"How do you feel?" Ashura asked.
"My chest is warmer," Ansel described, "My heartbeat went steady."
"That's where you feel your storage filled with the power from the deities; you have done a good job."
Gradually, Ansel felt a change on his body, his head felt lighter. The tension in his mind released to the thin air, Ansel felt at peace, cuddled with the energy that he received. "Bizarre, yet comforting it is."
"That's the mana flow on your body. Now close your eyes slowly, tell me what you see."
Ansel followed Ashura's instructions, from the corner of his eyes; there was something that he noticed, "A mist, grey, floated around," but the mist has gone when Ansel opened his eyes completely, "it's gone."
"For first timer, its good, actually your body began to channel the power that you collected. It's overwhelming through your body, I could see it."
Ansel tipped his head, "ah what it is look like?"
"Coiling purple smoke emanating from your heart, its wave flow from your heart to your head," Ashura paused, he touched Ansel's forehead on the center, near the eye brows, "here is where the coiling smoke of mana ended."
Ansel felt that spot burn as hot as the sun, "stop," he cries.
Ashura still touched it, "it wasn't supposed to hurt when I touch the others," he took his hand back, it was flaming red hot, "Ansel open your eyes now!"
Quickly, Ansel opened his eyes. He fell on his knees, losing his powers in an instant, his head was spinning hard. His vision was all blurry with blue and green sparks, the edge of his vision was still pitch black. His forehead felt like being shot with Thabit's needle for the second time. Ansel blinked his eyes several times, regained his vision slowly.
"I can't do this," Ansel murmured under his breath, "I want to run away, get someone else for the candidate, please."
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