6:00 IST, Seventeenth day, First month, 3079 PV | Lokan System / Lokan III / Random Forest
Ray and I are sitting in a clearing on an alien planet, which we are trapped on currently. For the past several hours I have been practicing my pure inae materialization skills. While Ray has been giving me fun prompts and encouraging my progress. Somehow, just having her nearby seems to make it so much easier to learn.
Over the past few minutes the clearing has started to get brighter. Lokan must be rising right about now. I notice that Initae is definitely still sitting on the opposite side of the clearing. Doing some form of meditation. Or perhaps she figures it is best to just leave us alone while I learn. It's sometimes hard to tell what she is thinking, she goes from ancient being to childlike god very quickly.
"Cmon Ko, you can definitely make a sword by now! Give it a try."
"Alright, fine, here I go."
Similarly to before, I channel the inae into a roughly katana-like shape and use my skier affinity to command it into corporeality. I focus intently, straining my slightly tired mind as much as I can. Speaking of my mind, I have noticed that I am getting far more tolerant with wielding inae recently, which if the past is any indication, is very good.
Surprisingly, the process succeeds and doesn't backfire. In my hands is now an awesome looking katana made out of pure inae. Strangely, it feels a lot different than any of the other objects I made. Almost as if it is saying that it can accept inae.
"See! I told you I could do it. You're a prodigy at this wielding thing after all." As she says this, she gives me a light punch/pat on the shoulder.
"Well, I guess I shouldn't have doubted myself. This thing feels awesome. Almost like it is asking me to fuel it up and create some chaos."
"Well, it looks awesome… Can I hold it?"
"Of course!" I hand her the katana, she looks absolutely ecstatic when she first holds it.
"You're right, I doubt it's quite the same, but it feels like it carries a great power."
At this moment, Initae suddenly appears nearby us, though she probably walked and we just didn't notice in our excitement.
"Great job Ko! It took you only about a day to go from barely materializing to creating a genuine weapon. This is a feat that would usually take around half a decade for a typical visionary.
Also, as you have commented on, pure inae weapons are different, so is armor. The intent that you imbue with your skier power can give them special effects and makes them far more powerful if used for their intention."
Ko:"Thats quite interesting, so its not simply a chunk of inae in the form of a katana, but specifically a pure inae weapon. What do you mean by used for their intention?"
"Hmm, it's a bit hard to explain. But for instance, if you make a shield and imbue it with the intention for defense, it will be very strong for defense. But if you then try to bash something with it offensively, it might instantly shatter. Similarly, if you make armor that is specifically imbued against, say, inae based attacks, it wont be as effective against non-inae based attacks.
It can be quite hard to control what the exact imbuement is though. So do be considerate of the weight you put in the command to form it."
Ray:"Thats so awesome! It's almost like they have some mind of their own in a way. If you use them for what they want to do, they are super strong, but otherwise they might be ineffective."
Initae:"That's about it. Now that you can form a weapon, Ko. It's time to learn how to actually use it. Make another for Ray and square up facing me."
I proceed to make another katana for Ray and we face off against Initae. It almost feels unfair, but then I remember that she casually tanked the energy of a massive antimatter explosion and can vaporize entire planets on a whim.
"Alright, now come at me, both of you."
Ray and I immediately attack Initae. We both try to slice her at the same time. However, before we even get close, she instantly materializes a sword in her hand and deflects our attacks.
She then orders us to try again. And again. And Again. Yadda yadda. We spend what must be eight hours practicing our skills. Throughout the entire thing she instructs us in various ways. However, it seems that Ray is far more proficient with the blade than I am. I suck with blades apparently.
"Enough for today. Ko, you suck. Ray, you're actually quite decent. Although, if either of you were actually attacked you'd near-instantly die. You are nowhere near good enough. Many of the opponents you might be facing will have been training for decades, if not centuries. Subpar will not be sufficient for my students."
Initae then proceeds to walk back to her spot and sits to meditate. Which, by the way, is not necessarily meditation. Apparently she is monitoring the hostile ships that are still in the system, likely searching for us. While also monitoring the stability of the interplanar barrier.
Ray:"Ko, you up for more?"
"Always."
Ray and I continue our practice, we spar late into the night, so much so that it gets dark and I have to create a light so that we can see. Ray is definitely far superior to me, but it's not as though I am useless either.
After about six hours, we give it a rest and collapse next to each other on the ground. The kits do increase our physical stamina to near unlimited levels, but our minds can still get exhausted quite easily. We sit up and start leaning against each other, underneath one of the trees on the outskirts of the clearing.
"We are getting better, I can feel it. Before long we might actually be useful."
"Yeah, but you are still far better than I am."
"Well, that's to be expected right. I'm the light, you're the moon. Plus I'm sure once you start adding inae to the katana, you'll far surpass me in strength, even if not raw skill.
Also, I won't even have a weapon if you don't make it for me!"
"True enough. I wonder if it would be possible for me to augment your power as well as mine during mid-combat."
"Dont push yourself too hard trying. We can't have you constantly being inae exhausted." She seems to have a bit of worry in her eyes.
I place my hand on hers, hoping to ease her worry. "Dont worry, I'll be super careful. Though, your tending makes it not that bad."
"Oh, um.. If you want to rest, you can at any time. I'm happy to help ease the troubles of a weary mind."
"Hmm, that is a very intriguing offer I suppose. Don't blame me if I just happen to take advantage of it occasionally."
"Feel free. You even could right now if you wanted to!"
"I have something else I'd rather show you. Come over into the clearing."
We stand up and she follows me into the center of the clearing. I begin concentrating my inae and form a bunch of small particles of pure inae. I then telekinetically (using my gesir affinity) scatter all the different particles into the air.
"Woah, so pretty. It's like we are in a cloud of snow."
"Wait a moment, you haven't seen the best part yet!" I gather a bunch of raw inae into my palms. With a bunch of effort, I slowly radiate some of it out in waves over the entire cloud.
"Amazing! It's like we are surrounded by thousands of twinkling stars in the sky. It's so pretty, I wish I could take a picture."
"I don't think a picture could do this justice, it's just too pretty."
"I guess so. But Cmon, we definitely gotta show something like this to the universe, imagine how popular we would be!"
"But, what if we just kept this beautiful scene between us, and Initae who is probably observing us at this very moment."
Over in the distance, Initae shouts "Don't mind me, just pretend I am a part of the forest. Just continue on with your totally-not-flirting that you seem to do constantly."
Ray & Ko:"Its definitely not flirting! Just casual conversation!"
Initae:"Uh huh. Sure."
Ko:"How many times will we have to tell her that it's not flirting!"
"I know, right. It's like she doesn't seem to get it somehow."
"One day we will convince her, for sure."
"Thats a promise."
"We should probably head to sleep, Initae is likely to train us super hard tomorrow too."
"Yeah."
We then proceed to head to sleep. However, even though we go to sleep on separate parts of the shelter, we somehow end up only a meter or so away from each other when we wake up.
19:00 IST, Nineteenth day, First month, 3079 PV | Lokan System / Lokan III / Random Forest
"Cmon whippersnappers. You can hit harder than that. Faster. More precisely. This isn't a daycare, I'll whip you two into combat readiness even if it takes a century."
We have been relentlessly trained by Initae for the past couple days. Every time we think we make a bit of improvement, she only redoubles the difficulty of our training. Currently, she is shooting veritable missiles at us and expects us to knock them out of the air. Which is super hard by the way, we get hit with about 95% of them currently. They hurt quite a lot.
She hurtles missile after missile at us. Without relent. Yesterday she had us practice blocking attacks from her. Even with her holding back immensely, we still could barely manage to block one in four attacks. Though, we have been improving. Quite rapidly in fact. Still according to her metric (which uses the same scale as inae wielders) we are barely at a low power level. With Ray being a chunk higher than I am.
"Ko, you better pick it up. I'm not training you to use inae with it until you are at least a great level in basic skill. Our entrapment here is almost over. We've only got about three hours before the interplanar barriers should stabilize. Let's make sure to make the most of this time."
She seems to further increase her attacks. As if that will somehow help us improve faster. Which, to be fair, I think it is. I can feel my focus and concentration ability increasing. It is also starting to become far easier to move the katana around. Not that it was ever physically hard, but the mental energy required seems to be decreasing.
"Ko, don't you dare start faltering. I can see your steps are slowing. In actual combat you won't be given any mercy. One single mistake and you'll find yourself without a head."
The worst part is, she is right. Even if I had some form of retort, she doesn't give any breaks for me to give such a retort. I must simply get stronger. Faster. More agile. This training has highlighted something very important.
The augmentation and PsiKits might give instant power far surpassing that of any human. But every other sovereign being also has at least an augmentation kit. Those that choose to fight will be trained. Which means that the natural advantage is lost. Thus, Ray and I must become stronger, otherwise we will simply be outmatched.
After about two hours more of training, Initae finally calls us to a stop. "Get some rest. We shift outa here in forty minutes."
Ray and I collapse against a nearby tree.
Ray:"I bet without these kits we would be completely soaked in sweat and unable to physically move."
"Yeah, they are amazing, no wonder the universe is so prosperous."
"We sure have come a long way from Earth, huh."
"We have indeed. I wonder what the rest of humanity thinks of us. I mean, to them we must've transformed into some form of god. Are we even human anymore?"
"I think whether we are still humans is up to whether or not we wish to define ourselves as such. After all, we are the most powerful of the species, we could just as easily say that everyone else is not a human, just as much as we are a human."
"You really did learn something at lawyer school didn't ya."
"Well, I never got to complete it, but I would hope I gained some insight from all that work. Not that it matters all that much considering our situation."
I shift around and lay my head in Ray's lap, taking her up on her offer from a couple days ago. Without hesitation, she begins to stroke my hair. It's somehow strange that after all that has happened, we still end up in some variation of this position. Almost as if it is a natural state for the pair of us.
Ray:"This whole, being trapped on an alien planet actually hasn't been that bad has it?"
"Not really, I guess with food, water and shelter it's not so bad. I wonder what's been happening with our disappearance and all. I mean, we were, and still are presumably, in the middle of a trial."
"Ive got no idea. I bet the IEC is having a massive headache right now. Two of their seven contestants just randomly disappeared, along with the most powerful being in the universe."
"Well, if anything's good news, we will be even more popular after our magical return, I'd bet."
"For sure."
"No matter what happens, we will get through it together."
"Luce lunae per aspera et ultra."
"I'm the light, you're the moon. Together we can endure anything and soar beyond everyone's expectations."
"That's for klacking sure."
Boom
Ko:"What the klack was that?!"
Ray:"Id guess something for us to endure."
Intiae:"Ko! Ray! Get up, we've gotta run. They've somehow tracked us down. We've still got ten minutes before we can shift out. I'd rather not risk fighting and destroying this beautiful ecosystem."
Without any hesitation, we stood up and ran in the direction of Initae's voice. We meet up with her, she is looking somewhat panicked. This is a bad situation indeed. The ones that interdicted us and obliterated our ship know where we are. And they are almost certainly ready to kill us.
Initae, Ray and I rush off into the forest, trying to get as far away from our pursers as possible. Initae says they will probably start searching at our camp, so we just have to run as fast as possible. So, that is exactly what we will do.
No matter what. With Ray and I together, we will survive, and reach beyond the stars themselves. So, bring it on.
End of Chapter 34
A/N: Hiya dear reader. Author here. I know you probably hate cliffhangers, but they do help to keep you coming back, right? So be sure to stay tuned. We are still only 34 chapters in. There is still plenty more to come!
As always, if you are enjoying this epic (am I allowed to complement my own work? I'm doing it anyways) story, be sure to follow/favourite/leave a nice joke in the comments, it is always appreciated! See ya next time, dear reader.
Cathrix