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The next day, I dressed up and left to meet Zhou, my tutor.
"There are training grounds in the palace, so why are we going outside?"
I asked.
"Zhou's request. Besides, training in the real world is more fun."
He was already there, meditating mid-air, hovering as if gravity had forgotten him.
"Do I have to do that someday?"
I asked.
"I'd ask you to join me, but Nova Arts aren't the issue. Still, considering what we'll be learning today, you should."
He replied, eyes still closed.
"Right. No need for introductions then. I'll head back. Do your best, Anta-chan."
Ela ruffled my neatly combed hair before slipping away with a grin. She flew back to the palace, leaving us alone.
"So, I should just sit and close my eyes?"
"No. Sit—but keep them open."
I sat as he did.
A moment later, a grey, radiant light began to gather around his body, just like Entares's had been that day.
"Have you manifested your aura yet?"
"No. This is training so it's magical stuff right?"
"That's where most people get it wrong. Aura isn't just a magical force. It's your unique signature. Just like how two fingerprints can never be identical, an aura is unique to each being. It can also be one's manifested power which is common."
"How can I unlock it?"
"You can't..."
"What?"
"I wasn't done talking."
He frowned.
"Just listen for now."
I nodded, refusing to say 'no' and listen to whatever he has to say.
"You can't unlock your aura because it's already there waiting for you to conjure it. Take a deep breath, close your eyes and focus."
'Close your eyes.' I hesitated at those words. The last time I closed my eyes, destruction was set loose.
'It's alright. Ela and Zhou are here. There's nothing those tow can't handle.'
I reasure myself, closing my eyes as instructed. However, I couldn't feel anything. I took a deep breath and focused. Blurring any thoughts, waiting for his call.
"Our True Body doesn't have core, soul, life force and the like."
He began.
Normally, these things are factors used to draw an aura out, but we don't have them because we don't need them. You have to reach out to yourself, and you'll find it.
Once you've touched it, they will leak out, uncontrollable at first. You may not see it, but others will feel it. This is the ignition of your aura, raw and untamed.
"But raw power is nothing. You must learn to control it. Guide the leaking streams back to yourself. Shape them until they circle you in rhythm with your heartbeat, like a current that belongs to you alone. Only then does your aura obey.
When you have control, you can project it. Will it outward, and it will spill into the world. The ground will know your weight, and the weak will bend beneath your presence. Your aura becomes the space around you.
Only then will your aura ceases to be wild power and becomes you. It may glow, burn, but whatever form it takes, it will be unique. Keep these at the back of your head while you reach out to get you."
'That's weird, but it basically means attaining selfhood. That's a long and boring story by the way.'
People think attaining selfhood is about stripping away the layers of identity.
They believe that if you shed flesh, memory, emotion, and fear, one after another you will stand before your true self. Others go further, claiming it comes when you silence every reflection, when no gaze, not even your own, but what remains no witness exists.
'Wrong.'
I shook my head.
'Let them think all that they want and let reality not accept my choice. Pure selfhood isn't fueled by something else, it simply exists because I am.'
I reject people's choices and what definition reality holds on attaining selfhood and awakening conjuring one's aura.
Like it or not, reality must accept my own choice and definition. I felt a faint flame burning from within me.
'The road to Determinism has just begun.'
At Entares's words, the flames inside me ignited outward in a chaotic burst but I didn't open my eyes. It felt...cold. Somehow, it feels like I'm calm and relaxed in a mild cold environment.
'I like it. I'll, stay here for a while.'
I knew my aura was burning but I didn't extinguish it.
'Now that I've started training, I'll use what the world knows as a guide and forge my own truth.'
I drew it all in and the voices in the background became clear.
"Are you alright?"
Zhou asked.
"Yea..."
I looked around to find out that the environment around us was gone.
"Where are we?"
"Elyvra."
Ela answered and the world zoomed out giving us a bird's-eye view of the landscape. A huge void was carved in where we've just been.
"Oh... I never thought it'd be this damaging."
"Did you converse with your other half?"
Her voice was loud and clear but she isn't here physically.
"Entares. I named him after myself. E for evil."
"How cute, but you should abstain from visiting Entares often."
"I haven't talked to him today. This was all me."
I pointed at the void, accepting who I am.
"Don't worry. I was in total control. It felt good and I decided to enjoy it for a bit."
"What did you feel?"
"A cold breeze."
"Any colour but black. Regardless of the entity living inside him. His aura shouldn't be dark."
Zhou complained.
"His name is Entares."
I highlighted but he ignored me, my tantrum not worth his attention.
"His foundation is that of a Star..."
"He's an anomaly, don't forget it."
Elara intervened.
"Personally, I think his aura is representative of his current form. With time, I believe it'll lighten a bit. No more questions. Short breaks will interrupt the fun in training. Carry on."
She left. She wasn't here to begin with.
"Ok. We'll start with the most basic Nova Art. Gravity manipulation."
Instead of staying in space, he teleported us to a new environment. It was just a plain grassland with hills. No trees, no buildings, just these two things.
" After learning it, you won't have to activate it. When in need, your body will instinctively react and ignore gravity. Levitation is part of said Art. Here."
He opened his palm and a red orb appeared. He released it and it fell down.
"See that? That's a gravitational pull. Gravity is an attractive force between masses. The bigger the mass, the stronger the pull. The smaller the mass, the less effect it has on the bigger one."
Just like this orb and the planet we're residing in. Both attract each other, but this planet is so massive that the orb moves noticeably, while the planet barely budges.
In short, gravity is mutual, every object attracts every other. But when the mass difference is huge, the smaller object's motion is what we notice.
"We're standing on this surface due to gravitational pull."
He swiped his finger and the orb flew upwards.
"It goes up and eventually falls towards the bigger mass."
The orb did fall down.
"Do you have good eyesight?"
He asked.
"I don't think so."
"Ok."
All of a sudden, a cloth wrapped around my eye. At first, I was blindfolded, but I regained sight after few seconds.
"It's alright. Just watch through the blindfold."
It was a blindfold yet it has a magnifying feature.
"You can adjust the magnifying effect by straining your eyes to zoom in, wide to zoom out and neutral for natural view. Are you ready?"
I didn't answer right away. I tested it's special effects, which worked exactly as he stated. Ready for the test, I answered.
"Yes."
He snapped his fingers and something vast swallowed the sky.
It happened so suddenly my eyes widened, the blindfold shifting with the movement. In that brief instant, I caught sight of it, the surface of another structure hanging overhead. It carried forests, oceans, mountains… an entire world spread across its shell.
"This is..."
"A planet bigger than this one. You can't see nor feel it yet, but we're moving towards it. Look."
My eyes settled, and the world returned to normal.
"Eyes on the orb."
He said, drawing my attention to the red orb within his grasp.
The red orb flared, its glow sharpening. He tossed it into the sky. I tracked it by the crimson light as it climbed, slowing at the edge of the atmosphere.
At some point, it was locked in place, caught between the centre of two gravitational forces. Then, instead of falling, it rose again.
I followed it all the way up to that massive planet overhead. Eventually, the orb touched down on the surface of that other world, rolling on the earth before going still.
"You see that?"
He asked.
"Yes. It was drawn to the big planet."
"Exactly. That point where it shifted? That was us drifting closer to the larger one. Its pull stopped being within our radius, so the trajectory flipped. That's physics for you."
He held out his hand, and the red orb dropped neatly into his palm.
"Huh?"
I looked up. The massive planet was drawing closer, close enough to swallow the sky. Then, without warning, it vanished. Gone, as if he'd simply removed it from the system.
"We'll be breaking those laws today."
He said, almost casually.
"What was that just now?"
"I became the centre of gravity and the planet reacted. You're close to me so you were also part of it."
"The smaller body pulls the bigger one towards it. That's indeed law-breaking."
"I'm gonna teach you how."
The orb dimmed and was no longer glowing. His grey aura wrapped around him and he channels it onto the orb.
"Can you do this?"
"Give me an orb."
I said. I wouldn't know unless I tried.
A similar one appeared, this time it was blue. The moment it touched my palm, my aura flared. It caught fire and burned to cinders before I could even react.
"Oops."
I let out a dry chuckle.
"There's more where that came from."
He said, another blue orb forming out of thin air.
"I know you did that on purpose. Stop playing around. You're only prolonging this easy training. Channel your aura with the intention of cloaking not burning. What you think and feel affects the physical outcome. I was in your shoes so trust me, your mind is your limitations."
"Ok."
I nodded.I let my body give off a faint, dark glow. The orb rested on my palm. All I did was picture my aura wrapping around it, and without any physical effort, the darkness warped over its surface, cladding it in a thin veil.
"Like this?"
I asked, drawing the faint glow back into myself.
"Good. Remember how I said, one's aura is their signature?"
"Yes."
"Since it's your unique signature, it's an extension of you."
He said.
"Now lift the orb with your aura."
His own orb rose from his palm and hovered above it.
'Lift it without touching it. Move the aura, prove you can control it without contact.'
I picked up a small stone instead and cloaked it in my aura. All my focus narrowed onto that single piece of rock.
'I need to feel it. Feel my external aura before I can control it. It's part of me... an invincible limb.'
A spike stretched out from the aura-clad stone, my aura shaped upwards. I did it again, creating spikes all over the stone.
'I can feel it now, it's alive. Just like I am.'
The stone lay still on my palm, but the aura around it moved. It rippled like liquid shadow as though it were alive. I can feel the external extension of myself. Now then...
To be continued...