For the past month Mane had been meditating every afternoon, trying to sense the power of Edict which he had been so familiar with ever since he started wielding. And for an entire month, he had failed. At first he thought that was because this planet was devoid of the unique energy, but then his thoughts changed as he started to look at things from a different perspective: What if there was Edict on this planet but he just couldn't feel it?
As he started thinking along these lines, he felt that it was increasingly possible that this was the truth. Finally he came to the conclusion that it really wasn't that this planet was lacking in Edict, but the bodies of the inhabitants of this planet that was the actual problem. These bodies were almost like defective products compared to Mane's actual body in the real universe, and Mane reckoned that the reason he couldn't feel edict was because he was in one of these bodies. Just a day before he had been wondering how he would be able to break the defective nature of this body and access Edict, but today a solution had presented itself.
"Although this body can't tell, my soul knows Edict. I don't need to feel it to know." Mane mumbled slowly. As the fireball formed before the Two-Tailed Gunner Dog, Mane's soul screamed in joy. Although Mane couldn't feel its presence, his soul knew Edict by its smell, and he was positive that the energy he had grown accustomed to manipulating ever so precisely over his short life was what was being used right before his eyes.
"As for me I can feel it," Hildegarde stated proudly. Although the Edict of this planet wasn't as abundant as it was on Zandor, there was still Edict on the planet. And Hildegarde who hadn't lost her connection to the primordial energy could make it out with much ease. Her boastful words had Mane's eyebrows twitching in annoyance.
"Stop mumbling to yourself and get out of the way!" Dan screamed from afar. From the little he had seen of Mane so far, he would be stupid to think that the boy was frozen in fear by the strange nature of the attack. Mane had clearly shown that he had a lot of experience in fighting and killing. Of course he didn't bother to explain this to the gloating Banshees who thought that Mane was scared by the power of the Two-Tailed Gunner Dog. Even if he did, they wouldn't understand. But Dan was a bit frustrated seeing that his words had no effect on Mane. The boy was still standing in his place.
"What is he doing?" Dan wondered as he prepared to move into action should Mane be in any danger.
Indeed, what was Mane doing? Mane was actually trying to actively sense the energy of the fire ball. He was trying to create a link to Edict by focusing on the hovering fire ball.
"I still can't sense it," Mane grumbled frustratingly. Why couldn't he sense what was right in front of him. Why couldn't he feel the mass of Edict that was figuratively a gift from the heavens? Was this body so defective that even when Edict had been gathered into a ball and was presented right in front of him he still wasn't able to feel it? Or was he missing something?
"Mane!" Hildegarde's warning shout shook Mane out of his thoughts and back onto the task at hand. It was upon regaining his concentration that he realised that the beast had already launched the attack at him, and the fireball was flying towards him swiftly.
"Fast," Mane remarked as sent strength into his legs and prepared to move out of the way. Although the speed of the fireball was impressive, Mane was relatively far back and could easily get away without any harm. Once Mane actually made the attempt to move, he realised that he couldn't.
Seeing Mane regain his focus and prepare to get out of the way, Dan stopped worrying and grew relaxed. But he soon realised that something was wrong. Mane's body which was poised to dodge was stuck. The boy wasn't moving!
"What is happening?" Mane thought in shock as he tried to will his reluctant body to move. Yet the results were the same. This body which had accepted him for the past few weeks was refusing to listen to his commands. As he felt the fireball get increasingly closer, he wondered what exactly it was that was making a simple set of movements so difficult. Was it a quest? No. The mini status icon was not blinking to indicate the addition of a new quest and he had completed today's daily quest already. So what was it?
Soon he could hear the desperate scream of Dan and Hildegarde's muffled cry as the fireball finally reached him. As the fire engulfed him what crossed his mind wasn't that he had failed the test, but the annoyance he felt from the gloating faces of the Banshees.
"If this doesn't kill me I would pummel them into the ground," Mane thought. But the pain he was waiting for didn't come. The feeling of having one's flesh roasted like a twig in a bonfire didn't reach him. He didn't feel warm. He actually felt the opposite. For a piercing cold filled his entire being and he felt his vision descend into darkness.
"This…" Mane exclaimed in shock.
He knew this feeling. It had been about five years, but he remembered this feeling all too well. This piercing cold and consuming darkness had appeared only once in his life, but he still remembered it. This was the darkness that had threatened to consume him when he was 6 and he had to be rescued by his masters – 3rd and 8th. The all too surreal feeling of having one's mind descend into chaotic sentiments assaulted him once again. But this time Mane didn't fall easily. This time he didn't despair. This time he wasn't taken over and he didn't need his masters' help.
A lot had changed since then. He was no longer the weak 6 year old who knew nothing about wielding. He was different now. He was a fully-fledged wielder of inner and outer energy. But that wasn't enough to spare him of the power of the darkness. What truly made the difference was his identity as a Scholar and a Spiritualist. Because of these new identities, he could actually feel his body in the darkness. And as he stood within the darkness, he opened his eyes. His piercing blue eyes were not what greeted the darkness when he opened them; neither were they blank with despair.
His eyes were different. The formerly white sclera was deep blue, like turquoise shells. His iris was red as crimson and his pupil was golden yellow; its color rivalling that of the sun itself. These were the eyes that gave the First Supreme her power and talent, and the eyes that Ananse recognized as the True Eyes!
*Bang*
Once Mane's eyes were opened the space around him shattered, and the rolling darkness retreated like a tide. As though confronted by an oppressively powerful enemy, the blanket of darkness that tried to consume Mane hurriedly retreated, and a powerful voice exclaimed with a hint of pride
"You are truly my descendent"
Mane peered through the darkness, and made out the figure of a man seated on a throne. The man's features were vague and impossible to make out but his presence was majestic, rivalling that of the gods he had met so far and even exceeding them. Mane tried to make out his features, yet even with the True Eyes that could see through Ananse's disguise, Mane still couldn't see past the man's masking.
"Interesting," the majestic being seated upon the throne remarked and suddenly the retreating darkness seemed to come alive. As though receiving newfound strength and becoming infused with boundless courage, the darkness confronted what it feared and had retreated from before.
"You want to Edict? I would give it to you." Mane heard the majestic voice of the man seated upon the throne one last time before he was engulfed in a tsunami of darkness.
"What was that?" Mane mumbled as he opened his eyes. He wasn't surrounded by darkness and the frightening aura that threatened to engulf him was no more. He was back on the battlefield, engulfed in flames yet fine nonetheless. His True Eyes that had manifested itself in the soul realm had revealed itself in the current world, and he could see things differently from before.
From within the flames he could see the specks of light that made up the fire. He knew instantly what these specks were.
"Edict," Mane mumbled. As he wondered how to get them within himself, the specks of lights took the initiative and suddenly flew towards him.
"This…" Mane mumbled in shock as Edict filled his body and nourished his soul. Like a thirst deprived beast, Mane's soul welcomed the intrusion of Edict and his body bathed in the glow of inner and outer energy. Mane recalled the words of the noble man within his soul space as this body, which was unaccustomed to Edict, greedily devoured it.
"You want to Edict? I would give it to you."
Those were the strange man's words. And although Mane's True Eyes had awakened momentarily, he knew it didn't have the power to devour. So this was clearly a gift from the mysterious entity in his soul space; an entity Mane suspected was the one his master, 1st, told him about all those years ago.
Although this entity had given him the ability to draw Edict from this world, he didn't feel warmed by the gesture at all. That cold feeling he got from the noble figure on the throne wasn't an illusion. Someone so cold couldn't possibly do something like that out of the goodness of his heart. Especially after learning about him from 1st and understanding just what sort of person he was when he was alive. Mane still remembered his title and the name that held it as clearly as the events of yesterday. As the fire that engulfed him was withdrawn into his body under the gob smacked expressions of both Hildegarde and Dan, the name of the Selfish Titan who was his ancestor rang in his head.
"The bearer of the Clock of Eternity and the Selfish Titan King – Cronos!"