"So it seems your conversion stage has started too..." Jade said as he looked at the fire in my palm.
"Too?" seeing Jade's fire within his palms, its color has indeed changed a bit.
When in the conversion stage, many things could happen to the esper ability of the person. Not just in volume, it could also be in quality; for Jade, it was the quality.
However, we didn't delay much on the matter and got to work.
Our plan was this:
Jade will first apply his fire to the wooden puppet and when he was done, I would throw mine, resulting in an elemental reaction called - Double Fire.
It was because the type of fire Jade controlled - Igro was more of the support type fire and would usually boost other types of fire's capabilities. Since I had the offensive Troo fire, our fire when reacted with each other would result in more damage.
The plan went along and Jade's fire had already attached itself to the wooden puppet. It was currently burning it. However, since the puppet had been enhanced against elements, not much damage was dealt to it.
Just before the fire had attached itself to the puppet, Kirt prepared himself. Seen from the outside, he was seemingly aiming at the puppet as his arm was raised into the air with a ball of fire hovering in front of it.
And after a few seconds, he was ready as the ball of fire was released from his hands and was shot towards the puppet.
Upon collision, the fire made a tiny "Sk" sound before an elemental reaction began to happen.
The previous fire fired by Jade was directly changing colors and was mixing up with Kirt's fire, just as if it was alive!
During the mix up, Kirt's fire could be seen increasing both in size and power as the damage it dealt intensified and soon took over the whole puppet.
After a full ten seconds of burning, the fire finally went out and what was left of the wooden puppet were black marks everywhere. It looked miserable. However, it was only that; there were no major damages to it.
Only its surface had been burnt up so this could be said to be a bad result.
Still, this feat was already incredible for the two of them. Their results have improved from their previous attempt! It was now 30% nearer to what damage level 3 espers can attain.
This was definitely a thing for celebration.
"7 points" the teacher declared after seeing their performance.
Even the points he gave were relatively good too. In the past, they would've gotten 4 or 5 points.
"Isn't it great? We could basically be considered to be above average now haha." Jade laughed and said to me.
"We should get a few drinks for ourselves" I replied back while putting a smile on my face.
"Yeah, you're definitely right. Let me invite Kun and Lune too. We'll go to the arcade game station we went last week!"
...
"Shit, that was awfully long" thinking about how much time he has wasted, Kirt took a sigh and threw his bag onto his bed.
"Thunk" the bag made a noise hitting the bed, clearly showing its weight. It would be unhealthy for teenagers to wear it to school.
"Friends this and that. Fuck all that" closing his eyes, he once again took a sigh.
"At least it's Friday"
Then, he remained just there, still like a statue, unknown what was going on inside his mind.
...
Only after five minutes had passed that he slowly got up from his bed and stared into the distance.
"I lost control again"
His emotional state. As a person that was very sensitive to his emotional state and its stability, he constantly monitored and forced himself to remain calm.
'Calm in all situations, regardless of reason or situation.'
That was his motto and also the rule he followed all the time.
Then only after he had truly calmed down did he list the reasons for this time's control loss.
[Reason for Control Loss]
Page 75.
Date: -----/--/--
1. Start of the Conversion stage. Began one week ago.
2. System. Appeared yesterday.
That was the content of the page. Only 2 reasons. There could've been many other reasons like the weather, words of people and their attitudes but Kirt has already become accustomed to all of them.
He wasn't just tightly controlling them, he had developed resistance against developing an emotional reaction from trivial reason such as them; just like how the immune system does against certain sicknesses.
Through the course of his life - 14 years, starting from 10 years old, meaning that for 4 years, he had been controlling his emotion. With each loss of control - the act of doing something irrational, he would count the reasons and find a way to resist them in the future.
It might sound farfetched for a child such as myself to control my emotions and do something like this, even more so when it has started from 10 years old but it was true.
From the age of 9, he understood himself as someone who wasn't meant to shine in this world. He had no talent, nor any skills he can take on to stand out from the crowd.
The only thing he had was his logical reasoning and his mindset. The mindset to do anything in order to get more for himself. That was just how greedy he was.
In an average world without any superpowers, he might have been able to succeed due to his logical thinking and mindset but in this accursed world where power ruled, it was no shit.
It was the understanding of this and several other external factors that allowed him to quickly understand his standing within this world. That led to the plan for the future.
The first step in his plan was understanding and taking control of his bodily responses and emotions. Now, ever since he started the plan, he had almost reached this state where he was unfazed by anything.
Well, unfazed by anything he had experienced to date.
He still didn't have any experience with the Conversion stage, so he wasn't able to control this one time's.
But he was sure it wouldn't take long before he understands it and then be free from its influence.
Everything should go according to his plan. Well, at least things he can decide or influence should head for the better result.
However, now there was this thing called 'System'.
'Infinity Sealing System'
This abnormal system that appeared out of nowhere. He had no knowledge about it nor knew about its authenticity.
"Why?"
"How?"
"Is it safe?"
But I wasn't concerned with these questions for now. I will think about them later. Even if it was dangerous and just a scam in order to get my soul, I didn't mind because I had already lived enough.
Let my existence be sacrificed if it means I have died with meaning.
However, on the basis that this system really was authentic, it could be my ticket to success.
I had been searching and hoping for a thing such as this to happen, so why hesitate even? It might be logical to other people but it was completely illogical for myself that had no regard for his own life.
'Let your actions be bold but your mind sharp'
______________________________
[Infinity Sealing System]
[Seals]
[Status]
[Missions]
______________________________
[Start Initiation?]
[Yes / No]
The system showed up, asking for approval for starting this 'initiation'.
"Yes" I obviously replied.
That instantly replaced my vision with darkness as I fainted once again. But this time, I was actually dreaming of something.
...
In a dark world, I could only see the void and nothing else. I myself was floating in space, looking at the eternal darkness. Everything was very clear to me as I felt the ticking of each second, minute and hour.
Soon, it wasn't just eternal darkness. Within the void, there was a new thing.
A shiny white dot within a circle.
The circle didn't have much information. Only that, just the white dot within a circle.
However, it soon turned into two dots. It began when the dot turned into two.
The two white dots were now making ways to each other from every possible path. It was just like the connection of lines between two dots. From every angle, the two dots had connected together with each other.
All of it happened within the circle.
And although it felt like a lot of time had passed, I wasn't bored at all. I could just look at the two dots connecting with each other for years.
Their fluid and unique movement drew in my attention.
Then after many tries and pathways, there came another dot.
It was also the same this time. Except that the shape was now a triangle instead of a line. This created much more possibilities than before.
But after countless pathways had been created, there was none left. Only then came the fourth date. It was a square this time. And after this one had also been similarly exhausted of its pathways, the fifth one came, the sixth one came...
Just like this, at a certain point of time, his entire vision had been covered by the white dots.
There was nowhere he couldn't see a white dot.
Everywhere were strange shapes one after another and countless combinations of squares, lines and circles.
I didn't even know if new dots were being created or not; but just watching all those possibilities be fulfilled had drawn me into a vortex.
Infinity that I can't escape.
...
After eternity.
All the dots have connected together with each other. And I may not have realized it, but this ginormous construction of dots had just returned to become one dot at one point.
The dot I witnessed before. The single brilliant dot shining within a white line of circle was now before me once again.
Unexpectedly, it moved from place this time. Although its speed was slow, I could clearly see that it was heading towards me; my head to be exact. Then, slowly yet surely, it made its way into my glabella, the place between my eyebrows.
I couldn't move when the dot entered my glabella, nor did I have the will to. I just floated there in space seemingly constricted in the void with a blank state of mind.
Only after it had fully entered me did I finally regain my clear consciousness.
That was also the time I woke up from this dream.