The moment Alleluia got home today he immediately dropped his bag on the kitchen bench and moved to the living room, pushing the single person couch and small radio to the corner of the room.
The fourteen year old removed his school uniform and changed it into a loose fitting shirt and pants and sat down in the center of his living room, legs crossed and arms placed in his lap.
This posture, was the basic form for most Life Techniques. The [Vigorous Thunder, Flowing Water] was slightly different in that his head was abnormally facing straight upward instead forward.
After examining countless other Life Techniques, Alleluia could safely say that this was a specific action that only this particular Life Technique possessed. Others also had subtle nuances which separated them from others, but this Life Technique was special.
".... Let's begin....", he let out a deep breath as he spoke.
Alleluia's posturing never let up as he continuously breathed in and out in a strange and fluctuating manner. This breathing pattern was written down in the [Vigorous Thunder, Flowing Water] Life Technique and tried to emulate the breathing pattern of the legendary Qilin.
After ten or so minutes had passed the fourteen year old stood up and punched out with enough force to shatter someones spine. The sensation of life essence awakening in the outstretched arm caused a slight pain to Alleluia, but his facial expressions showed no sign of it, only shifting his center of gravity lower to perform a series of punches and kicks.
At its very essence, a Life Technique was only a breathing technique combined with a series of martial arts.
Individually, one could reach the pinnacle of the mortal body and become invincible under the realm of Knights. But together, they could push the body beyond its limits and awaken the Life Power within them, causing them to break through the shackles of their mortality.
The sound of air being cut through at a high speed echoed throughout the apartment. Alleluia's legs became like whips crackling through the air and his arms become like maces, with an overpowering kinetic energy behind them.
This set of actions continued for another hour or so before Alleluia sat down once more in his initial position, his head facing forward instead of upwards.
His body was drenched in sweat and a very noticeable scent had come from his body. To put it lightly, not matter how pretty or good-looking he was, no-one would want to go near him if he smelt like that.
Dumping his clothes into his basin and filling it up with hot water, Alleluia left his dirty shirt and pants to soak and entered his own bath, laying down in the hot water with a satisfied smile.
"I can feel the bottleneck starting to loosen. The first Primary Life Passage will be opened soon and I will become a Knight. My life essence has already started to transform into Life Power and the subtle hints of movement in my Life Passages can be seen....".
The pretty boy leaned his head back against the porcelain tub and let the soft embrace of warm water softly brush up against his body. His eyes grew heavier and heavier and he slowly dipped into the tub underneath the waters surface....
*Thump*Thump*!
An echoing sound reverberated within Alleluia's ears....
*Thump*Thump*!
It was soft, yet so loud. A unerring combination of both life and death vibrated in Alleluia's ears. This small sound resonated with something deep within him. Something primal, something instinctive....
His eyes were closed and his body felt weightless. He wanted to raise his arm in hopes of reaching out to touch whatever was making that noise but found his body completely unresponsive.
*Thump*Thump*!
He tried breathing according to the [Vigorous Thunder, Flowing Water] in hopes of stimulating his life essence once more and felt his eyes flicker open when he did.
*Thump*Thump*!
What engulfed him was no longer the warm embrace of a hot bath, but a literal sea of red as far as the eye could see. Everything around him, in every direction imaginable, was red, with the single exception of below him, in which the red had gotten do deep, and so unfathomable that it had turned black.
*Thump*Thump*!
Alleluia felt he could breath in this substance and felt it resonate with him as he circulated the [Vigorous Thunder, Flowing Water]. As if a sense of kinship had been created between Alleluia and the strange red liquid.
Every time he breathed in the bond became stronger. Every time he repeated the physical motions of the [Vigorous Thunder, Flowing Water] the connection grew deeper. This strange red liquid was like a catalyst that the [Vigorous Thunder, Flowing Water] needed in order to operate. With unending world of red, every action needed less than half the energy, with double the results.
Despite the seemingly unending amount of red liquid and breathing techniques their was no changes from life essence into Life Power with Alleluia's body. The life essence within his body was undergoing an subtle and progressive transformation, being refined and condensed within his Life Passages.
The quality of his life essence was increasing steadily as time went by. If one were to compare the Alleluia from before to the present one, a drastic increase in all qualities had occurred. His skin seemed to become even more clear than before and his soft wavy black hair seemed to grow several inches.
His muscles constantly contracted become stronger and more tensile. The bones with his body became like ivory and his organs seemed to have release all the impurities within them.
The red liquid both cleansed his body and transformed it. The almost unending stream of power suddenly slowed down and Alleluia's gaze was drawn to the black abyss beneath him.
".....!".
A pair of scarlet red eyes gleamed from the bottomless ocean of red liquid. A strange mixture of anger and curiosity evident within them.
*Thump*Thump*!
The scarlet red eyes stared right into the very depths of Alleluia's soul causing his mind and body to shake violently. A surge of bubbles rose up from the depths of the red sea and pushed Alleluia towards the surface.
The fourteen year old felt a small object collide with his forehead before vanishing, the torrent of bubbles becoming too much as he burst through the waters surface.
With a massive splash of cold water the pretty boy cut through the dirty waters surface emerging like a carp that leaped through the dragons gate. The surface of the bath water was covered in the black impurities from his body and Alleluia had to steady himself as he rose up and out of the bath.
He leaned up against the bathroom wall and let out several heavy breaths as he looked down at his body in confusion.
"..... Was it just a dream?", he muttered.
The feeling of being cradled by the unfathomable red ocean. The connection he felt with the strange red liquid. The affect it had on his life essence. The overpowering scarlet eyes that stared at him with such anger and curiosity....
He let out a single deep breath before throwing those notions to the back of his mind. Any thought that was substantiated by evidence couldn't possibly be true.
Alleluia just sighed before pulling the plug to the tub and letting all the dirty water get washed down into the drain. Some part of him let any thought of that strange dream flow away with it, and he exited the bathroom without even brushing his teeth.
If he did brush his teeth, he would've undoubtedly seen such evidence.
For a single second, those pitch black eyes that shone like the night sky, seemed incomparably red, as if the final vestiges of Heaven and Earth were contained within....