Erik woke feeling well rested several hours before the sun rose. He decided to instead spend a few hours training in meditation. Leviathan was either sleeping or resting, and couldn’t be bothered to train with him however, and Cross was as antisocial as earlier.

  Sovereign was more than willing though, especially seeing Erik’s mess of a job at controlling his aura when training with Levvie. The two sat down in front of each other the exact same pce Lev and Erik trained.

  The isnd was sprouting grass and weeds, which was a new development. The isnd, which was some kind of huge rocky manifestation of Leviathan Caress, had earlier been pure stone, though somehow still floating on the ocean.

  Now, green dots and patches had started growing out of it, most of it where the stone met the sea, but also at Erik’s current location, which was close to the ke in the centre of the isnd. He looked around in wonder at his ever-evolving magical ndscape.

  “I will start by telling you three things, each one as important as the st. I hope you will take these words to heart, Master Titan… Erik,” Sovereign said, his orange and pink colours unduting slightly at every word he said.

  Erik nodded in agreement.“First, you need to stop trying to contain your aura. Even when fighting, you try so hard to keep it locked inside you.”

  “About that,” Erik interjected. “I’m scared it will hurt those around me, even my friends. I’ve seen the effect the aura has on three separate occasions, and two of them were on innocent people. It practically gave Jessie a stroke, and that Brad character had it coming, sure, but I shouldn’t have scared him shitless. It’s my responsibility to keep it in check.”

  “What you need is to control it, not lock it up. It should flow constantly. That, however, brings me to the second thing; your aura is deeply affected by your emotions. If your emotions are in turmoil, so too will your aura be. As such, what I would like to tell you to imprison, rather than your aura, is your emotions,” Sovereign expined.

  “I can’t do that. At best, that’d just make me evil,” he compined.

  “Quite right. So I won’t tell you that. I’ll instead tell you to learn to keep your emotions in check. Deflect. Ignore. I’m not telling you not to feel, but not to lose yourself in what you’re feeling. Do you understand?”

  “I think so. I’ll try. The way I see it, that’s probably the best thing to do, anyway.”

  “Quite.”

  “And the third thing?” Erik asked.

  “Practice. Never neglect it. While your aura might be weak now, it might be one of your most effective weapons down the line.”

  “It’s weak?” Erik asked, having the opposite opinion.

  “All of your abilities are quite weak, yes. You already know this by training with Leviathan Caress, do you not?”

  “I guess. But he’s crazy strong. Can you show me what a strong aura feels like?”

  “That might not be the best idea,” Sovereign said with worry in his voice.

  “Please?” Erik begged the spirit.

  Moments ter, the air grew thick and heavy. Erik struggled to get it all the way into his lungs as Sovereign seemed to grow infinitely bigger right in front of him. All around Sovereign’s growing form was a pink and orange radiant wave, expanding along with him.

  It showered Erik in a golden light and wrapped around him tightly. It squeezed him tightly, almost crushing him. Erik felt his feet rising from the ground as he looked up at Sovereign in horror. He gasped for air, his body on the verge of colpsing in on itself.

  Sovereign then moved for the first time in what felt like a long while. He lowered his head closer to Erik, and the giant head loomed over him. Erik felt his bones break. Between Erik’s pained and horrified face and Sovereign’s head, a golden pink and orange shape grew into existence, though its eventual form was impossible to see with his blurred vision and its glowing edges.

  The object moved towards Erik and stabbed right through him like a massive bde of energy made manifest. In fact, that was exactly what it was. Erik’s entire body felt like it was bloodlessly split apart from the middle. It was excruciating, and Erik couldn’t do a thing about it.

  The object penetrating his body vanished moments ter along with the crushing pressure, and Erik was released from the tight grip. Sovereign had returned to his usual size and the radiating energy around him had settled and was near-impossible to see anymore, though Erik could still slightly feel it.

  Erik didn’t sense the ground with his again, but when he looked down heaving for air, he was already standing on the ground. He spent several minutes to calm himself after that ordeal, Sovereign simply watching him wordlessly.

  “That… was insane,” Erik said with deep gasps, having already inspected his body for wounds. While his bones had felt like they were crushed mere minutes earlier, they were now fine, and the wound from the energy bde that had stabbed him was nowhere to be found.

  “Any more and your soul might take unrecoverable damage,” Sovereign said.

  “You weren’t messing around when you called it a weapon. How did you shape your aura into a bde and stab me with it?” Erik asked.

  “Control. While I can’t permanently physically harm you in this pce, your aura can be used to do physical damage once you train enough. Normally, however, it is used to keep your enemies wondering what you are about to do next. Sometimes an aura can have an innate trait, like Authority. This can make it more difficult to control, as its effects can be stronger or weaker than intended at first. It is, however, simply a matter of how well you can control it. Now, are you ready to start?”

  “I am,” Erik said, nodding to Sovereign.

  “Excellent. Unlike Leviathan’s training, this will be mostly mentally exhausting. That means you’ll also be tired when you leave this pce. Keep that in mind when you have pns in the future,” Sovereign warned.

  Erik released his aura that he had kept pent up for quite some time. He wasn’t sure whether his real body would release it at the same time, or if he could only release it from his manifested body in his mental ndscape, but he’d find out soon enough.

  As the aura stretched out into the air around him, he let out a breath of relief. It felt amazing. He hadn’t realised how much energy he had spent keeping it bottled up.

  “Keep it in check. Try to make it swirl around your body, slowly and gently,” Sovereign expined.

  Erik tried to do so, but couldn’t rein the liberated aura in. It was like it was actively trying to get away from Erik, reaching as far away from his body as possible until it seemed to dissipate after seven or so metres.

  “What is it doing?” Erik asked, visibly straining to control the aura.

  “It does nothing. It is in a weak enough state to follow the flow of the air. It will grow denser over time, but that also means it will be harder to control.”

  “So it’s like a muscle?”

  “In a way. Though there is no need to try so hard. It is a mental muscle. You need to find your link to the aura.”

  Erik tried to rex himself. He took deep, lung-filling breaths, held it inside for a short while before expelling it slowly and repeating the process, all the while trying to find some mental connection between him and his aura. While there was no need for air, nor any actual air, this was just reflex for Erik, he found that it worked to calm him,

  If he understood what Sovereign was saying, it was something like a new limb he had to learn to control. When born, humans had no idea how to use their muscles, at least not with any precision. This was something one learned slowly, mostly gripping things at first, then shaking it. If it was food, one would also practise hand-eye coordination and sense of space. The first ten or so years was all about increasing the control of all motor functions.

  Now, Erik had a brand new limb. While it should be easier to learn to control one single limb instead of an entire body’s worth, his experience might be what made this difficult. He had already mastered his motor functions a long time ago, and some say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. That is, of course, horribly incorrect, but it was definitely more difficult.

  Erik thought of other limbs one might’ve grown, mostly in sci-fi or fantasy settings. There were some stories with more arms and some with wings, but he hadn’t seen or read much else. He tried imagining how he would try controlling wings. It would be with his back muscles, right? How would a limb much more ethereal be connected? It wasn’t like a tail or an arm, which were connected at a specific point.

  His aura was all over his body, much like his skin. Was that it? Could he mentally treat his skin as the muscles controlling his new auric limb? After a few seconds attempting this, he wondered how he would even do that. His skin was an organ, not a limb or a muscle. He couldn’t consciously control it. Still, Erik felt this was along the correct line of thought, and he stayed with it for the next while.

  Erik felt something click in his head, as if suddenly remembering that song or that actor’s name, just as a section of the aura surrounding him moved slightly out of sync with the rest of it.

  Sadly, as Erik felt this sensation, he completely lost the connection to his aura, and wasn’t able to move it anymore. What was it he had been thinking about? What was the right association? He’d been thinking of sweat, of all things. Perspiration. Or had he moved on to… he moved part of his aura again. Steam.

  He visualised his skin as something releasing steam. That triggered a connection with his aura, and allowed him slight control by visualising small vents rotating and changing direction and angle. It wasn’t a perfect system, but at least he got a small sense of control. Now all he had to do was the mental exercise of visualising this all over his body and managing to control all of his aura, not just part of it.

  The next few hours went by fast, and Erik had managed slight control of his entire aura. He had gotten to a point that he could slowly, and with a bit too much effort, swirl it around him. Erik had gotten used to quickly reactivating the connection, however, and whenever he lost his focus, he could go back to controlling his aura in just a few moments.

  Everyone should be getting up by now, and so Erik took his leave, saying his goodbyes to Sovereign before opening his eyes in his hotel room. He hadn’t noticed how messy his room was, and by no fault of his own. He was alone, meaning that either the rest hadn’t risen from bed yet, or had been in his room, but went down for breakfast or something since he was meditating.

  He was getting rather hungry himself, having been without food since breakfast the day earlier. His wounds were healing rapidly, which likely consumed a great deal of energy as well. He was amazed at how little pain he was feeling, despite his wound being fresh as of the day earlier.

  He was far from his best condition, but he was feeling rather okay, all things considered. Erik dressed himself, tossing on a shirt over his bandaged torso, and went down for breakfast.

  Arriving in the mostly empty breakfast area of the hotel, Erik was slightly surprised to see only Emma sitting at a table. Erik quickly gathered a few breakfastables and sat down at the same table as her, greeting her a good morning.

  “Hey. You’re up early,” she greeted him back with slightly reddened eyes. Was it earlier than Erik had thought? He’d only glimpsed at the clock when he woke up, and it was about six in the morning. That should’ve been a few hours ago.

  “What time is it?” Erik asked, then looked around the room for a clock, noticing it was just after seven. “Oh, I thought it would be ter. I woke up early and meditated for a little while,” he expined.

  “I see,” she said with a deadpan look at her own food.

  “Where’s everyone else?” Erik asked.

  “I haven’t woken them up yet. I usually eat first.”

  “All alone? Isn’t it more fun with more people?” Erik asked. He used to like being alone himself, so he wasn’t the right person to ask.

  “I don’t mind. Since the monsters arrived, it’s been all action all day. Since you arrived at Bridgefort, it’s settled a bit, but it feels like it’s just the build-up phase right now. We’re knee deep in the training montage about now. It won’t be long til we’re in the third part, and I’m sure that’ll be the worst time for me personally since the war started. I’m just trying to mentally prepare myself before then,” she expined, twirling a spoonful of yoghurt with her hand as she spoke.

  “I get that. I’m more worried about the climax myself, but that might be because I haven’t considered how the next days or weeks might turn out.”

  “Well, you’re the side protagonist, so the climax will be your greatest trial for sure. I’m just a grunt, I won’t be in that part,” Emma said with a slight grin.

  “Woah, hey! Side protagonist? Aren’t I the main character?”

  “No, that’s Jessie. It’s the twenty twenties, everything is all female empowerment these days. Maybe the book is written by an old man stuck in the 1900s, but the movie will definitely alter the content to fit more female-oriented audiences. The patriarchy is dead, Erik, get with it.”

  “Sorry, but I’ve been dead for a while, so I’m a bit te to the party. At least I’m the mysterious wizard in the story,” Erik joked.

  “Not a chance, that’s Jessie as well,” Emma ughed.

  “I guess she is, yeah,” Erik said, and an awkward silence filled the space between them. They both ate some more.

  “Thank you, Emma. For being here here, I mean,” Erik said when she was done eating her breakfast.

  “There’s no need to thank me. I want to be here. It’s an honour, actually. It might be more egotistical of me than you realise, though,” Emma responded, her expression unreadable.

  “How is that?”

  “In one way, it’s a dream come true. I’m a bit of a fantasy and sci-fi nerd, so joining an adventuring party alongside my magical friends is kind of at the top of my unrealistic wish list.” Emma started, a slight smile growing back.

  “Really? I didn’t take you for the type. What’s your favourite archetype, then? Considering you’re both a marksman and close quarters expert, you’re hard to pinpoint.”

  “Warrior, actually. Never were one for magic, and archers or rangers are often too static for me. It’s not the same when in the field in real life. Wind, moisture, sounds, adrenaline - no game can get that feeling right,” Emma expined. “There’s few things in combat as complex and exciting as hitting a target over the 1k mark.”

  “I think I understand. What’s the other reason?”

  “Do you understand that if we can win this, I’m basically set for life? It’s shallow, I know, but I could go to work anywhere in the world just by reputation alone. I’m not after fame, don’t get me wrong. I’m after opportunities. That’s why I wanted to go to Bridgefort. That’s why I wanted to stay in Bridgefort. It’s not like I would settle down and retire even if I could, but no one would refuse me wanting a post anywhere after saving the world.”

  “That isn’t shallow at all, Emma,” Erik started, her eyes meeting his. “It seems like what you’re after is sort of like job security, in a sense. But have you considered that the state of the world after we win might not be what it was before the invasion? I mean, most of the Empire, our nation, is already in ruins.

  We don’t know how much destruction they will have wrought when we manage to beat them. Most militaries will probably be helping rebuild the next year, unless another war happens for whatever scraps are left of the Empire or something, which I’m sure is a real possibility.”

  “I’ve thought about it a little. Of course I want to help rebuild the Empire. It’s not like I want the luxuries of being posted in a tropical paradise or anything, but after the rebuilding, when some sembnce of normalcy has been recovered, I can choose between battlefields or sandy beaches however I wish.”

  “I’d want that for you as well,” Erik said as he emptied his pte for the st piece of breakfast.

  Emma smiled in return, and got up from her seat. The two of them then climbed the stairs back up to their floor together, splitting up to let Emma wake the rest up.

  Before separating, Emma asked to check on his bandages, and promptly told him to go check in with the medics before they left to change them to fresh ones. Despite his rapid healing, the bandages from yesterday were covered in blood, and keeping them wouldn’t be comfortable for long.

  Erik climbed another floor, knocking on the door with the number Emma had given him. A familiar face opened the door moments ter, the man’s face more red than its usual brown.

  “Amir! I thought this was the medics’ room?” Erik asked with surprise at the sight of the man.

  “We changed. I originally got the two-bed room and they got a one-bed. I’m surprised to see you up and walking, considering the state of you when I recovered you,” Amir said, violently rubbing his eyes in the beginning.

  “I wanted to thank you for that, by the way. Thank you, really. I would’ve probably died if it weren’t for you.”

  “Not like I want to leave anyone behind to die, but leaving half of the world’s only hope for dead would have bothered me even worse,” Amir joked uncomfortably. “The medics are just across the hall, there,” Amir continued, pointing at one of the doors pced diagonally from his.

  “Thanks. We’ll talk ter?”

  “You’ll see a lot of me over the next while. Just got new orders, actually. You should talk to Colonel Ashleigh, she just got the same orders.”

  “She’s not a colonel anymore, she shouldn’t be receiving orders,” Erik said, the compint firmly stuck on his face.

  “Oh, I misspoke. She wasn’t really ordered like I was, but she was asked to talk something over with you. I’m sure she’s looking for you right now, as a matter of fact,” Amir expined, obviously worried he had said something wrong.

  “I’ll find her right after I’ve talked to the medics. Thanks, Amir,” Erik said, nodding to the man before knocking on the door behind him. Amir closed his own door after a nod in response.