The sight of Sham hovering above the ground rooted me in place longer than I cared to admit. For a moment, my mind simply refused to process what my eyes were seeing. He wasn't jumping. There was no tension in his legs, no movement suggesting effort. He wasn't clinging to a branch or standing on some hidden support.
He was simply… suspended. As if the earth itself had loosened its hold on him.
A strange stillness filled the space between us, broken only by the faint rustle of leaves overhead. My thoughts scrambled for an explanation, but there was none that made sense.
"Arthur?"
His voice cut through the haze.
I blinked, forcing myself back into the present. My breathing had grown uneven without me noticing, so I drew in a slow breath and steadied it. "Yeah—sorry," I muttered, rubbing the back of my neck as I gathered my thoughts. "So… your ability is… flight?"
Even saying the word felt unreal.
A faint, satisfied smile curved his lips. Instead of answering directly, he shifted his weight and took a slow step forward, except his foot didn't touch the ground. He walked through the air as casually as if he were strolling along a solid path, rising another inch just to make sure I understood.
There was no mistaking it.
I felt something twist in my chest. A flicker of jealousy, sharp and unwelcome. While I was still struggling to confirm whether I even had an energy core, Sham was walking on air like it was the most natural thing in the world.
I swallowed the feeling down before it could surface on my face. There was no point in letting my jealousy show. Sham's ability was his own, just as mine, whatever it turned out to be... would be mine. I forced myself to nod, steadying my voice. "That's… impressive," I admitted honestly. It truly was. "Thanks for showing me. I'll take my leave now."
I turned before the bitterness tightening in my chest could betray me.
"Arthur…"
His voice stopped me mid-step. I paused and glanced back over my shoulder. The teasing glint from earlier had faded from his expression. He looked at me with a steadier gaze now, something more direct and unguarded in his eyes.
"Skra-fight again," he said. "When skra-ability awaken."
For a moment, I simply studied him. I understood what he meant. It wasn't mockery or arrogance. It was a challenge, one given without hostility. He wanted another duel, when my ability awakens.
A slow smile tugged at my lips despite everything swirling inside me. "Sure," I replied. "When it awakens."
He gave a single nod, satisfied.
I turned once more and walked away.
When I reached home, I didn't allow myself even a moment of idle thought. The image of Sham walking through the air still lingered in my mind, sharp and vivid, but instead of letting it gnaw at me, I forced it down and turned it into something useful.
I went straight to the great tree at the center of the house and lowered myself beneath it, crossing my legs and straightening my back. The bark pressed solidly against me, grounding my thoughts. I drew in a slow, steady breath, then another, letting the rhythm settle my racing pulse.
The jealousy I had felt earlier no longer burned wildly, it had hardened into resolve.
I began guiding the nature energy through the familiar pathways, moving carefully through the first step, then the second and the third. Each flow was deliberate and controlled. I refused to let my thoughts drift back to Sham's floating form or the uncertainty about my own core. All that mattered was the next breath, the next cycle and the next strand of energy I could draw in and refine.
Before I realized how much time had passed, sweat began to soak through my clothes. It slid down my spine and gathered at my temples. My breathing grew heavier, more labored, yet I did not stop. I endured the strain, forcing myself to complete each cycle properly, unwilling to cut corners.
By the time I finally neared the end of the session, my body trembled faintly from exhaustion, but my focus remained unbroken.
When the final circulation of energy settled, I slowly redirected my awareness upward.
Carefully, I guided the flow toward my forehead, narrowing my focus to that strange presence Elder Thryssa had sensed. The tiny black dot was there —unchanged, suspended in the darkness of my inner vision. It remained small, almost insignificant, yet impossible to ignore. The faint white specks within it were scattered like distant stars in a night sky, unmoving and silent.
I lingered there, observing it with patience.
I tried to sense even the slightest change, growth, movement, a tremor or a pulse... anything that would prove it was alive and progressing.
But there was nothing.
It simply remained there—silent, detached, and unnervingly mysterious, like a fragment of something vast that had no business existing inside my body.
After several long minutes, I let the energy disperse and slowly opened my eyes.
Disappointment settled over me, heavy and quiet.
I leaned back until my shoulders touched the cool ground beneath the tree and stared up at the canopy above. Leaves swayed gently overhead, sunlight filtering through in fractured patterns, indifferent to the frustration tightening in my chest.
When will I form a proper energy core? When will my ability awaken?
The questions circled my thoughts without answer. I lay there for a long while, listening to my own breathing gradually steady, the sweat on my skin cooling in the open air. Even after the exhaustion faded, the uncertainty remained, persistent and unyielding.
---
Another month slipped by in the same relentless rhythm.
Morning, afternoon, night—I cultivated whenever my body allowed it. When I wasn't seated beneath the tree guiding nature energy through my channels, I was strengthening my body, drilling my sword forms until my arms trembled and my lungs burned. The days blurred together into discipline and repetition.
We went on another hunt during that time. It was clean and controlled.
I improved.
But the black dot did not.
It remained exactly as it had been—small, dark and silent... untouched by all the effort I poured into it.
Until... one morning...
I was nearing the end of a cultivation cycle, guiding the final strands of nature energy through my body, when it happened.
Without warning, something tore through me.
It wasn't gradual or subtle. It was as if lightning had struck from inside my own body.
A violent surge shot upward from the base of my spine, racing along my nerves and exploding behind my eyes. Every muscle seized at once. My breath caught in my throat as my back arched involuntarily, fingers digging into the ground beneath me.
A strangled groan forced its way out of my chest.
My eyes flew open.
Air rushed into my lungs in uneven pulls, my heartbeat pounding so loudly it drowned out everything else. Sweat poured from me, far heavier than any normal cultivation strain, soaking my clothes and dripping down my jaw.
Then the pain came.
It gathered behind my forehead like a blade being driven inward. It felt as though something inside my skull was being forced to expand against bone that refused to yield. I clutched at my temples, teeth clenched, breath shuddering as wave after wave of stabbing agony pulsed through me.
For nearly a full minute, I couldn't think and couldn't move.
All I could do was endure it... dragging air into my lungs in ragged breaths while the storm raged inside my head.
And then, just as suddenly as it had begun… it stopped.
What… was that?
The lingering tremor in my limbs made it impossible to dismiss as imagination. It had felt real... like a surge of current tearing through every channel in my body and that pain in my head… it hadn't been ordinary strain from cultivation. It had been something else.
A realization struck me with sudden clarity.
I straightened at once and closed my eyes again, ignoring the lingering ache in my temples.
Carefully, I guided the nature energy upward, retracing the familiar pathways through my body. My breathing steadied. My focus sharpened.
Slowly, deliberately, I directed my awareness toward my forehead.
The moment my perception brushed against the black dot, I stilled.
It felt… different.
I focused harder, isolating the sensation, comparing it to how it had felt countless times before. The black sphere was still there, suspended in that strange inner darkness... but it was no longer exactly the same.
It was bigger, although not by much.
The difference was so slight that if I hadn't examined it obsessively every single day, I might have missed it. But I knew... the edges felt more defined now, less vague. Its presence pressed faintly against my awareness, no longer as distant as before. The tiny white specks within it seemed a fraction clearer, like stars coming into focus in a night sky.
My breath caught.
A slow grin spread across my face before I could stop it.
It had grown. The change was negligible, barely noticeable. But it was undeniable.
For the first time in months… there was proof of progress.