Chapter 26 : Baptism
"Just so you know… this will make your last breakthrough seem like child's play. I estimate it might take you well over half a day to take this energy under your control, Young Jade."
"Will you be able to stay awake that long?" Young asked.
"Yes. When I perform the 'baptism', my strain should decrease significantly. The release of that earlier attack gave me a lot of extra time. Also, I used a portion of the energy to heal your wounds, further decreasing the strain on the seal."
"I meant to ask about that! Can you show me how to heal myself?" Young inquired.
"I could, but truthfully it requires a great deal of knowledge about the body and how it works. Repairing something so intricate requires tons of steps and processes which --"
"So.. basically I wouldn't understand. I got it. I'll leave the healing to you." Young said.
"Right. Well then, are you ready?" Spark asked.
"Let's do it." Young said as he receded into his soul sea and once more came face to face with the pure lightning mass and Spark's lightning seal.
"Make yourself comfortable, once the flow of energy begins you won't be able to stop. Start by using your qi to create a container, sphere or cube shaped works best. Whichever you use, you will need to create a small opening to allow the energy to flow out of. Capture it when this happens and continue the process until you've successfully accumulated all of the energy within, Young Jade."
Young nodded in understanding, signaling Spark to begin the process of the baptism. Spark's blue flame grew larger several times over until it was almost as large as Young's body. He then began the process as a stream of blue flame issued forth and formed a blade of fire. This blade positioned itself and fell, cutting off a mass off the pure energy source which then formed into a sphere itself.
Young quickly captured the energy, encapsulating it within a qi sphere of his own creation. This required him to set aside roughly 75% of his qi in order to maintain the sphere. He then guided the mass of captured energy over to him and began the work.
The second the energy flowed into Young a familiar sensation of discomfort overcame him. Seeing instantly that the small opening which controlled the amount of energy overflow was too large, Young halved its size. This made the flow more manageable, but overall still uncomfortable.
"I'm going to do it. I have to!" Young told himself as he summoned all of his determination and set it towards the task at hand. It was at this time that Young truly began to understand how Spark was protecting him from the true power of the energy within his soul sea. The smallest spark of pure lightning was enough to make his finger tingle, yet he was now guiding unhampered, pure energy into his body with each passing second. He could only allow the energy to flow, attempting to assimilate as much of it as possible during this process.
Ultimately he closed the opening to the size of a marble and occasionally he would completely seal the opening to give himself a break. It had only been ten minutes and Young felt his limits clearly.
"This is going to take quite a while.." He whispered as he gritted his teeth and continued the slow, dangerous process of the baptism.
-- 10 Hours later--
"That was too much." Young said as he fell backwards onto his shoulders. His body was drenched in sweat and he was finally able to breathe comfortably. More than anything, the Baptism proved to be a testament to willpower -- a battle of attrition more than anything.
"And that was how much of the Pure Mass energy?" Young asked Spark, who was now floating near him.
"2%."
"And how much do I need to absorb to prevent my body from exploding?"
"Mmm. Ideally, all of it. But, I would say at least 70%."
"Ha! That much hmm?"
"Yes. That much. Unfortunately, that's impossible given your current state. The most you could take in at this point without doing yourself permanent harm is roughly 5%."
"How much have I assimilated so far then?" Young asked as he sat up.
" 3.2%."
"I'm not so good with percentages. Can you use some kind of unit to express it?"
"Yes. Let's see. Imagine that the pure lightning mass was 1,000,000 units of energy. You've currently managed to absorb 32,000 or so."
"Ugh. T-that much huh? And I need to reach how much to prevent my body from exploding?"
"700,000 units. In other words, your progress towards avoiding a grisly, painful death is a little less than 4%. Even if you did daily baptisms, assimilating 2% of the pure lightning every single day for the next 49 days, you still would not have enough time to prevent your body from--"
"Let's stop talking about numbers now, Spark." Young whispered as he realized just how far he still needed to go in order to truly save himself.
"You're right. Let's discuss some good news. I estimate that as long as I don't exert myself, I will be able to function for another fifty six hours or so. This amount of time should be perfect for allowing me to teach you some proper techniques."
"I hate to break it to you Spark, but I already have quite a few techniques." Young said as he rubbed his finger against his nostril.
"Right...that's why I said...proper techniques…" Spark said.