Multiple worn-down pieces of equipment ranging training from sandbag to monkey bar surrounded a huge mattress area for sparing. In that room, the gang assembled for their first training session.
Rem was wearing in white cotton training cloth, common toward practitioners of martial art. Next, to him, Cytortia dressed in a similar style but in a yellow and green theme instead of white and black. Today her hair was tied up to a ponytail enchanted with a hint of eucalyptus perfume.
The honey badger strolled between them as she gave the lecture.
"Normally, I will grind the basic into your brain and break you down before building you back up correctly. However, time is a luxury we don't have. I happen to love my windpipe so we will have to be creative."
Rem looked up. He could already see disaster looming in the distance. The air of foreboding breathing down his neck was anything but reassuring. This situation was as bad as the dark days when Justin planned his concert. Rem nodded with nostalgia. It'd only been a day, but he already missed the time his worse fear was the class president ear-raping YMCA.
Beside him, the young goddess felt a different type of dread entirely.
"Wait! Is this the reason you asked me about my awakening circle last night?"
Oh no.
Rem finally worked out the badger's plan. It'd been transparently clear when he looked closer. Their little group had the deck stacked against them as high as Mt. Fuji, but they still got one advantage to play.
"You plan to ask Satholia for a cheat code," Rem stated, trying not to bolt out of the room. He believed he should, given that he was the lab rat for this project. Lab rat, as a rule, existed to die for the experiment.
Cytortia looked at Scathach disappointingly before giving her a Cheshire smirk.
The badger didn't like that smirk one bit.
"Don't look at me like that!" Scathach tore off her hair. "Training you two for this type of mission in a week is ridiculous. The only conceivable method to move forward is getting someone who was experienced and powerful enough to kick the shit out of an entire pantheon to do it!"
"How do you do that?" Cytortia said. "Do you even have her address?"
"No," the badger admitted. "But I have this."
Scathach drew a magic circle in front of the two and began her explanation.
"The awakening process was designed to jump-start your body into a mana generator. Mana was energy produce by life-force contain in every living creature. It fuels our spell, and its quantity had to do with race and lineage. At least that was the rule."
Rem's head perked up with interest, while Cytortia's eyebrows scrunched in a frown.
"Was?" Rem said. "Past tense?"
"Your goddess's trashing of Olympus broke the fundamental theory of mana capacity. She shouldn't be able to contact you under the Awakening procedure unless she erased the law of magic. The only guess I have is she knew something about the Mana Core most researcher didn't. They theorized that the awakening process awakened the mana generator or the Mana Core. But right now, I suspected there is something more."
Scathach drew a star within a hexagon and added several runic letters around the diagram.
"This circle was a modified version of your awakening circle. It's designed to send your consciousness into your Mana Core. If your boss is listening maybe she would..."
Rem stood up and walked into the middle of the circle.
"Let do it." Rem said softly. "It's worth the risk."
Scathach and Cy charged the circle. The shadow of doubt veiled over the room like a cloud during the storm.
With that, the blue light filled the gym.
..
Rem landed on another strange world.
The soil beneath his feet was crumbly white chalk. Blood-color poppies grew on top of that crumbling soil like an insult to agriculture. The starless black sky contrasted with this silent world. To Rem's ear, this pace was a funeral.
But even in that pit, one source of light still stood proudly.
It was a white tower floating in the air. Multicolor aura radiated from the window of the celestial spire like morning light. Strands of unidentifiable ceramic spun into a spiraling needle to building the tower. Capping at both ends of the spires was a point as sharp as a spear's tip. At its midpoint, a band of light of light encircled the tower as its own Saturn's ring.
'Beautiful isn't?' Said a familiar voice.
Rem turned to see a boy with his gray eyes and brown hair waving at him in the distance.
"You..."
'Yes me,' the younger Rem Breaker who'd handed him his Status ID gave a sweet smile. He strutted to meet Rem, kicking up the blood-red flowers with childlike innocence during his leisure walk.
Rem instinctively knew something was different this time. His younger image looked too real, more competent and, most of all, more powerful. A sense of conflict began to press on his skin; a disaster was coming.
It began in an instant.
The boy drew a blade of rainbow light and leaped at Rem in a burst of red petals. His sword's form angled for an overhead blow.
Rem managed to catch up to him despite his speed. Rem instinctively intercepted the boy's sword-hand during the midswing. The younger boy grunted, his sword crackled into nothingness.
'Are you going to punch me in the face now?' The younger boy sneered. 'We supposed to hate each--.'
A punch cracked the youth in the teeth. With a grunt, he summoned another sword of light with his free hand and slashed, forcing Rem to drop him.
'Oww,' the boy rubbed his tooth. 'Of course, you punch my face. You retarded bastard are fanboying too hard on Superman. Come on both of us knew the truth!"
The youth charged at Rem. In return, Rem waited for him peacefully, evading his bow and ignoring his aggressive rage-fueled ranting.
'The truth was that you are nothing but mama Satholia's attack dog," The boy jumped up and launched a blurring kick that Rem barely dodged.
'You try to forget the cousin who thinks you are an incomprehensible weirdo!" The boy charged for a slash and failed. "You try to ignore father who demanded you to be a prick and the mother who expected too much. Just how much of Rem Breaker is dead on his feet? That ghost should die a long time ago!"
Crash!
The swinging light blade was blocked by another. A nutty aroma of blasted into the air from the force detonated from the colliding of the sword. Poppies petal flew into the air in a storm of confetti.
The ten-year-old boys with sunken eyes looked into the empty gaze of his older self. Those eyes were devoided of anger, of pain, and of joy. Only the permanent scar of disappointments existed in those gazes. No, there was something far worse: acceptance. Those pair of eyes belong to a man who killed so many pieces of himself that he had attained the state of total calmness.
"So what if I am a fanboy," Rem put more weight into his bade and started pushing his ground. "What if Rem Breaker is dead? Did the world stop moving when that happened? No...it will continue. Both of our lives are meaningless in the scale of the universe. You should accept it already."
The younger version of Rem was sent sprawling on the ground his blade dissipating. He flew up with a roar, conjured a new sword and started pouring slashes after slashes on Rem. It was a randomize rage-fill storms of swordplay.
'Accept it!" The younger boy yelled as he assailed like a berserker. He laughed madly, his arm stayed in motion, piling up attack after attack. 'Look at me! I am the part of yourself who hated humanity so much! The real you who want to burn society down for being the shitstain of a race! I am the proof you didn't accept that stupid money worshipping and power hungry glory hound. The fact I existed proves you are just a hypocrite!"
That was the moment his sword dissipated in a crackle of the rainbow in midswing.
The boy looked surprised for a second when his hand went weightless.
Cracked!
A fist coated in an unstable rainbow light smashed his fingers. The boy gulped as a hand reached out to his neck and choked him.
"I see," Rem emotionlessly narrated as he slowly tightened his fingers. "Given the fact that I have access to your ability the moment you used it, I guess we are linked in some way. If I have to hypothesize, you must be the resentment and hatred I suppressed in my subconscious. As a part of me, I had to give you a lesson on your mistakes."
Rem let go of the boy to punch him in the stomach. The kid was sent flying like he was strapped to a bus.
"Firstly, you forget to take into the account your weapon instability and fail to recast it regularly," Rem said, leaping after his prey.
The younger boy slammed into the white tower. His voice muffled in pain, but a flying kick in the gut forced him to swallow any words he could release.
"Secondly, your temper is out of control. Your attacks are wild and predictable. But given how much I hate myself, and what a disappointment I was in the past, that was understandable."
The winded youth started to fall to the floor until Rem's kicked him into the tower's wall with a force that sent the kid coughing up blood.
"Let me taught you a word of wisdom: lashing at what was in the past was impractical. If you hated yourself for your failure to do what is right, then try to change for the better. There is no point in hating the world that never understands you. The world is stupid, and life was too short for that hammy baggage."
'You should notice that you are talking to your...'
A kick slammed into the boy's face, cutting his sentence short.
"I know," Rem started grinding. "That's why instead of venting my hatred in inefficient shouting, I empty it by giving you a kick in the face. If you have time to prove humanity sucks, then spent that time dragging it screaming and kicking to the better future. You see, hatred can be a motivation if it is properly direct. I simply decide to direct mine to spite evil of humanity, and the winner speaks for itself."
The boy stared in terror as Rem Breaker leaned closer, looking into his hate-filled eyes with total emptiness.
"The basis of humanity's evil was the fact that all the human race was a selfish bastard. What a sweet revenge it will be if one human sacrifice himself for another just to prove that true selflessness could exist. If evil can result in good then good will be eternal like evil isn't it?"
'You...you are insane,' the younger Rem managed through his bleeding lip and a broken nose. For that, he has mercilessly slammed head first into the wall again.
"That notion is why you lost despite having an advantage," Rem rubbed the boy's face with the sole of his foot and completely ignored the boy's pain. "Think about it, if you don't show me the rainbow blade or that speed, I would never have an ability to beat the hell out of you like this. That is one of your mistakes by the way. You reveal your card too early."
Rem lifted his hand, which started glowing a dangerous shade rainbow. The force of his magic blew away the rubies field in a tornado of red petals.
The younger boy clenched his eyes shut for the killing blow.
"You think anger gave you power?" Rem said, smiling coldly and madly. "If hatred and anger are what you made out of, then I am truly your superior version. You see, this fist contained the impossible dream of humanity's utopia. It is a yearning way stronger than rage. The hope for a better morning that rise with every new day. Anger and hatred are such short-lived things. Humanity was evil. No need to pretend otherwise, but we fight our very nature to be the best version we can be, that why you lost. You already lost when I rejected you a long time ago."
Rem lifted the boy who was struggling helplessly upward and prepared an uppercut.
"You are right. I will never be understood, but I never need that understanding. I am just a ghost who's haunting you. Now...grit your teeth."
Rem swung his fist.
[Stop!]
Rem paused.
The air shimmered, and a girl materialized from the sky. She had rainbow-color hair, sharp feature, and the dress made out of white fires. She landed dejectedly and surveyed the damage. Her voice was rich like spring, but right now it was shrunk with fear.
[By the authority given to me by Queen Satholia, I order you to release the boy].
Rem looked back, hesitating.
"Can you restraint him?"
The girl nodded. Her sky blue eyes looked at him with concern.
Rem dropped the younger self to the floor. The younger boy coughed and glared at the girl.
'I don't need your help,' he said ungratefully,
[You do,] The girl said. [This is worse than I realize.]
"Please learn to be more grateful?" Rem kicked the boy face first into the tower with enough force to create another wave of wind.
The younger version of Rem slid down powerlessly, dissipating into petal of poppies and golden dust as if he had been but a dream.
"Now, that the trash is out of the way," Re talked to the girl in a steady tone. "How bad is it?"
[You can't use
"Explanation," Rem stated. "What is it and why can't I used it?"
The girl sighed and began her explanation.
[
Rem remained silent. The gear behind his gray eyes spun rapidly. He could already think of a thousand different used for this ability. In his mind, this ability was essentially an unlimited arsenal of weapons and tools that could adapt to any situation with the limit being his imagination.
But there was a problem...nothing in this world was free.
"Is it had to do with this?" Rem summoned a rainbow energy blade which flickered unstably before dissipating in a flash of lighting.
[Yes,] the girl said sadly. [That blade is your Magic. Unlike Skill, a person Magic is something he was given as a seed when he was born and mature into a mighty tree along with his world-view. Your magic... it'd grown into a fragment of what it could be. I couldn't even name it. It possesses insane versatility and hate-fill nature. But in spite of the spitefulness, it was benevolent. These attribute created unstable energy that couldn't be used to fuel the tower of at all.]
Rem nodded. It appeared magic power was a reflection of the person and his mirror image was so oxymoronic, that it couldn't function.
"Are there any ways to fix the problem?"
[There is a way...] The girl looked at Rem guiltily. [But you won't like it]
The girl told him and let say that he didn't like it at all.
...
Rem woke up and shared his discovery of his two closest friends.
The three drew the conclusion that the place Rem was transported to was a manifestation of his Mana Core. Cytortia was grinning ear to ear with this discovery. Rem expected he would be seeing some new and improves diagram soon.
Although the quest to find Satholia ended in vain, Rem left with some benefit. Firstly, the battle between him and his suppressed emotion taught him two fighting styles. First was an ability to enhance his body with his unique magic. Although the unstable magic couldn't be used to compensate for the
Then there was the sword skill employed by his subconscious. It was simple; simple footwork highly dependant on deflection and slashes. Admittedly, those styles seemed to be built to be used with his magic enhancement. Like the enhancement, he has taken the blade-work like fish in the water.
Curious about this experiment, Cytortia also underwent the same subconscious training, while Scathach honed Rem skilled through regular meditation and sparring. So far, the goddess had no luck.
At last the party arrived at the looming, and spiritually lit forest of the elves after six long days.
...
Rem Breaker
Messenger
Stat
Str: 100 [E]
End: 148 [D]
Mag: 182 [E]
Wis: 385 [C]
Dex: 185 [D]
Skill
Active
Arrival of Dream [N/A]
Calm mind [A]
Simplicity Blade [C]
Magic Charge [B]
Knife Throwing [D]
Passive
Territory [E]
Reality Breaker [Ex]
The Way of Optimism [N/A]