Ryuzio pulled on a cheek of his pink-haired squadmate—who'd revealed her name to be Joysaleen—to check if the sharp rectangular pink strip on it was not just colored tape. He earned a slap for it.
"How many times are you going to do that?" she shouted. "I told you, they are not ON my skin, they ARE my skin."
"Strange," Hitryel said, equally fascinated by the rectangular markings on both of Joysaleen's cheeks. "Why would you do that to your face?"
Ryuzio laughed as he sat back up. "I think they're awesome. Where can I get one?"
"These are not something you can buy," Joysaleen said, pointing to her cheeks. "These are something you must earn."
"But what exactly are they?" Hitryel asked.
They were the only ones in the room. The Wavecrash duo was so relieved to find Hitryel back in good shape that they immediately fell asleep. But before that, they'd explained how just after seeing Hitryel get cuffed inside the Nonagon in Victor's Domain, they'd gotten into their car and sped to the arena to be by his side. But then they'd got themselves stuck in traffic as the vehicles ahead of them started going the wrong way—away from the intersection. Ryuzio and his squadmates knew that the real reason for it was their fight with the Payback Volants.
Joy got up from the bed opposite to the one on which Ryuzio and Hitryel were sitting. "These are Healmarks, a kind of Ethermarks that appear only on the bodies of Healing Artists." She picked up the ink and paper Rivbe had put on the table between the beds on her demand. "But we can talk about that later. Right now, let's find out what your Style is."
"Style?" Hitryel said, raising a brow. "As in 'fighting style'?"
"Nope," Joysaleen said, setting the small bottle of ink by the paper on the floor. "I knew you'd have no idea about Styles since you guys don't even know what Ascension Orbs are. That's why using this, we're going to find out."
"The little bubbles, huh," Hitryel said, looking at Ryuzio.
"They felt nice, yeah?" Ryuzio said, smiling. "But what were they?"
"Ascension Orbs help in Ascending to higher Ranks," Joysaleen explained, sitting on the floor, immediately joined by Ryuzio. "Put simply, when two Etherbrights clash, the Ether that is lost turns into Ascension Orbs. It is said that the Orbs pick the winner, but in reality, whichever Etherbright wins the fight—by lowering the opposing Etherbright's Lifeforce below 10% of their max Lifeforce or by knocking them out by dealing a damage of more than 25% of their max Lifeforce in a single hit—absorbs all the Ascension Orbs, regaining some of their Ether back, and getting closer to higher Ranks. However, you can only earn Ascension Orbs from someone of a higher Rank than you and…" She trailed off as she looked at Ryuzio.
Hitryel shook Ryuzio by the shoulder as steam erupted from his ears. "You good?"
Ryuzio nodded, his expression tightening. "I'm okay… I'm…" He fell to the side. "What even did you just say…? I didn't get even a single word…"
"Hm?" Joysaleen said, baffled. "But I didn't even talk about anything that's too secretive or difficult to understand. I only talked about Ascension Orbs, Etherbrights, Lifeforce and…" She trailed off as Hitryel put a palm up in front.
"You're literally hurting him physically," Hitryel said, referring to Ryuzio. "But the fault is not his. Even I don't know what any of that meant, and I've been in Sonas for years."
"You're serious?" she said loudly, but then sighed. "I might've done a big mistake in picking you two as allies."
"We're not allies," Ryuzio said in revolt after quickly getting back up and leaning toward Joysaleen. "We're squadmates, Joy! Okay?"
She blinked with wide eyes. But then she thinned them, pushing Ryuzio away with a finger on his headband. "You don't even know what you are, what your abilities are, and you want to go to the Higher Skies with your own squad?"
"Yeah!" Ryuzio said, raising a fist up high. "I'm tough as a drago—"
"I've heard that already, don't repeat yourself," Joysaleen said with an exhale. "But I'll have to repeat a lot of things to you since you don't have a single clue about anything."
Ryuzio tugged on Hitryel's sleeve, complaining, "She stopped me from saying my second favorite thing. Do something."
Hitryel sighed, turning toward Joysaleen. "How about you explain from the very start? These terms seem to be too advanced for the both of us."
"Traitor…" Ryuzio said under his breath, puffing his cheeks.
"Can't believe you fought Baru and Davith without even knowing a single thing about Ether," Joysaleen said. "Okay, first things first, do you at least know what it is?"
"Back in our village," Hitryel said thoughtfully, "we call it Flow. It allows us to tap into five states of physical peak. But other than that, I'd assume it is responsible for whatever Ryuzio is capable of and the reason why that Davith guy could spit fireballs."
"Someone was spitting fireballs?" Ryuzio said excitedly. "I want to do that too."
Joysaleen turned his head toward her, squeezing his cheeks together with the hand holding his face. "I won't repeat my question."
"Heh… No…" Ryuzio said, sweat forming under his headband. "My grandma used to tell us about a lot of things like that. But I forgot most of it. The words you said sound similar to what she told us…I think…"
She let go with a sigh. "Ether, or Energy of the Skies, if you will, is the source we draw our power from. It is all around us, even inside of us. But due to its nature, it cannot be trapped. It is free."
"Simple language…" Ryuzio said, nodding to himself. "I like it…"
"So how can WE use it?" Hitryel asked. "We were taught that Flow puts motion to the energy that we already have inside our bodies. So…"
"Because we are the exceptions," Joysaleen said, putting up three fingers. "We are called Etherbrights or simply Brights. Anyone who can naturally utilize Ether is an Etherbright. However, there is more than one kind of Etherbright. Broadly speaking, we have: Fullbrights, Halfbrights, and Truebrights.
"There are different kinds of Etherbrights!" Ryuzio said, leaning in interest. "Tell us the difference, tell us the difference!"
"Yes, yes," Joysaleen said, putting up two fingers. "There are two Principles of Ether for all Etherbrights: Amassing and Harnessing. Amassing is known as the First Principle. It includes the process of absorbing and storing Ether inside of our bodies—or Ethershell. And Harnessing is the Second Principle. It includes the process of utilizing the Amassed Ether.
"Etherbrights diverge based on which Principle they are capable of expressing. A Fullbright can not only Amass Ether, but can also Harness it directly through their own body. Halfbrights can only do one of these—either Amass of Harness Ether—but since one depends on the other, Halfbrights have to rely on tools and stuff if they want to utilize Ether in any meaningful way.
"And lastly, there are Truebrights. They are simply Etherbrights—Fullbrights or Halfbrights—who have absorbed a Trueshard."
"Wait!" Ryuzio said loudly, brows jumping. "I think you're talking about me!"
She met eyes with him, slightly tilting her head. "Hm…did you absorb a Trueshard?"
Ryuzio nodded with a smile. "I did. That is why I can do this." He clenched his right fist. "Dragon Cloak!" The Scalemark on the side of his right shoulder burned brightly, and he pointed it out to his squadmates as a single hexagonal Scale came out of it.
"I can make these things," Ryuzio explained. "I call them Scales. I can arrange them in many shapes to get whatever kind of punch I want." He held his fist up. "Dragon Gauntlet!" Ten or so Scalemarks spiraled down to his fist, even though he'd called for more. It seemed he lacked the required amount of Amassed Ether for more Scales to appear. "If I punch with this, my fist extends. It's a ranged punch! Isn't it awesome?" He called back the Ether going to his arm, the Scales turning into red wisps of energy, fading into the air.
"Are you sure you're human?" Hitryel said, wincing at the fading fiery glove of Ether. "That's not something humans should be capable of."
"A Trueshard can grant even bizarre powers than this," Joysaleen said, putting a sheet of paper in between Ryuzio and her, drawing a "star" on it. "But I can't tell what kind of a Trueshard you absorbed."
"There's more than one kind?" Ryuzio said, fascinated. "That's so awesome!"
"Why's that 'awesome'?" Hitryel said, still wincing. "I think even the existence of a single one is too strange. Now you're telling me there are not only more than one of these Trueshards, but also that there are more than one TYPE of these?"
"And I haven't even touched on the advanced subjects," Joysaleen said, shrugging. "But positively, there are three kinds of Trueshards: Altershards, which affects the Ethercrux, Adaptshards, which affects the Amassed Ether, and Augmentshards, which affects the Ethershell. Baru had absorbed the Augmentshard of Impact Trade, if you remember. He was an Augmentshard Truebright or Augmentbright."
"Oh, yeah," Ryuzio said, then turned to Hitryel with a chuckle. "The guy I fought could turn himself into a balloon. He was a punching bag that could hit back."
Hitryel grimaced at the thought of it. "I'm telling you, these things shouldn't exist. All you Truebrights are cursed."
"It's funny because it's kinda true," Joysaleen said. "If an Etherbeast enters the Etherdome of a Truebright, their Rank gets temporarily lowered, making them weaker."
Ryuzio fell again. "Words…"
Joysaleen sighed. "The range within which you can freely use your Amassed Ether is called your Etherdome. It is not fixed and can vary from situation to situation. Same goes for its tangibility."
"What about Ranks?" Hitryel asked.
Ryuzio got off again, turning to Joysaleen. "Balloonru also mentioned that. He said I have a lower Rank than him."
"Well…" Joysaleen said, this explanation of hers coming out slower than the previous ones. "Ranks are used to measure the strength of…pretty much anything with Ether, I assume. Honestly, this is not something I know a whole lot about. I don't even know how they are measured."
"Heh?" Ryuzio said, picking his nose with a pinky, pointing at her with the index of the other. "You are dumb, after all—!"
Joysaleen smacked him on the head. "You say this after I explain everything to you!"
"Why do you have to say everything that comes to your mind, Ryuzio?" Hitryel said with a sigh. Then his eyes fell upon the paper with a pentagram drawn on it. "What's this?"