"Why would you keep this from me!". Elsa shouted at Qweri as she ran towards the study.
"I was merely following young master's orders". Qweri was running after her, cursing both himself and Xenon silently.
"What... are... if anything happens to Xenon, I swear I'll kill you myself". She controlled her anger to the best of her ability as she didn't want to disrespect the old butler.
She accelerated, leaving Qweri behind at the foot of the bridge while she sprinted across, through the field of flowers and came to stop at the doorway to the study. Elsa stood by the door for a while, calming her heavy breathing.
She placed her hand on the doorknob, turned it and opened the door slowly, fearing the worst.
— — —
Xenon screamed a few seconds after consuming the contents of the bottle. The heat he felt in his chest became scorching and spread all over his body, inflicting blinding pain all over him. He screamed at the top of his lungs and thrashed all over the floor. The veins all over his body bulged and he became paralyzed for a few seconds, he struggled to breathe and almost fainted from suffocation before he felt a sudden jolt run all over his body, he overcame the paralysis and sat up suddenly just before he vomited a blue liquid onto the floor. The same blue liquid streamed out of the pores in his body along with sweat. He tried to stand up but fell back down onto the floor, a system message popped up.
_________________
There is a more than moderate amount of spiritual energy in your vicinity, use this chance this chance to build your Ousia.
ONE TIME GIFT: Accelerated Spiritual Energy Absorption
•Duration, 10 minutes [One time use].
|Use | |Expires in; 23: 59: 52|
_________________
Xenon sat up immediately and crossed his legs over each other, placing his upturned palms on his knees. He selected the use option and immediately felt the presence of a strange kind of invisible but volatile energy all around him, he presumed it to be the spiritual energy the system spoke of and instinctively focused on the energy and tried to draw it towards himself.
'This stupid system didn't even tell me what I'm supposed to do with this stuff'. He muttered.
He opened his eyes and saw his chest glowing faintly, he closed his eyes and realised that the spiritual energy he was gathering was flowing into that glowing spot in his chest. He concentrated on the flow of energy and focused the path of the energy flow. He was like that for a few seconds before everything changed.
His eyes were still closed, but now he could see a very faintly glowing, colourless, scattered, mist-like mass.
The scattered mist were alone in a vast, pitch black space, devoid of light except for tiny white spots that were placed randomly in the black background and the one given off by the glowing mass. A stream of colourful steam-like substance flowed into the centre of the colourless mist in waves, drawing the scattered mist together, at snail's pace.
He was so focused on the events going on in his Ousia that he didn't notice Elsa enter the study.
— — —
Elsa entered the study, and saw Xenon sitting in a meditating pose. There was blue vomit on the floor a few feet from where he sat and an empty bottle with the remains of a red liquid in it a few centimetres in front of him.
She outstretched her arm towards the vomit and chilling steam flowed from the palm of her left arm onto the vomit, freezing it. She walked towards him and almost grabbed his shoulder but stopped when she noticed something strange. She was so focused on ensuring Xenon was safe when she walked in, that she didn't notice the cluster of àse in the room, and they were all converging at one point.
Her eyes widened, they were converging on Xenon and his chest was glowing slightly. She would have liked to check on his ousia but she wasn't at that level where she could see the ousia of others yet. She has been at the mid second stage for a long time, stopping her meditation because she didn't want Xenon's frustration of being unable to command spiritual energy to grow further, and here he was meditating, spiritual energy flowing into him.
"Qweri was alarmed for no reason, he's probably thinking he's killed Xenon". Elsa sighed in relief. She grabbed the chair by the desk and sat, facing Xenon, watching him in deep concentration. "I hope everything goes well. I wonder what ability or set of abilities he'll get". She mused.
— — —
Qweri who was sitting at the foot of the bridge stood up immediately as he noticed someone approaching him. It was Gael, Elsa's biological elder brother and... he was barefoot. Qweri stood up to meet him.
"I arrived at the mansion a while ago but I saw no one, where is everybody?". Gael said in his thick, gruff voice as the wind played with his long blonde hair. He scratched the stubble on his perfectly shaped chin as he awaited a response from the butler.
"A complicated situation developed". Qweri replied as he gazed upon Gael's handsome face, his eyes were brilliantly blue, just like his sister's, and he was clad in black, fitting trousers and a loose white shirt.
"What situation?... just tell me where Elsa is first". Gael demanded.
Qweri simply pointed at the study on the other side of the bridge. Gael nodded slightly, he walked barefoot over the bridge towards the study. He got to the door and pushed it open gently.
Elsa flinched as the door opened, she stared at the doorway and saw her brother walk in.
"Gael, welcome, you're here earlier than I expected". Elsa said
"What is going on here?". Gael surveyed the room. He saw Xenon meditating, a frozen blue liquid some distance beside him, and his sister was seated in front of him a little bit to his right, holding an empty glass bottle.
"I... I think Xenon um... he apparently cured himself". Elsa fumbled with words.
"Yeah right". Gael replied sarcastically, he chuckled and shook his head slightly, not appreciating the joke he presumed his sister cracked.
"Now would you get up and explain what in the world is going on here". Gael said as he took a large stride into the room and grabbed Xenon firmly by his shoulder.
"Gael, no!". Elsa shouted but it was too late, The deed has been done.
Gael flinched, surprised by Elsa's alarm. He look at Xenon who has turned his head to face him, Xenon eyes opened, his eyeballs glowing slightly white looked directly into Gael's, he quickly let go of Xenon and stepped back, but he stepped on the frozen vomit and slipped, falling hard unto the wooden floor.