"This is the sign of an Ego Fighter of the second circle, Astral Weapon"
Aldo looks at the gauntlets made of red aura with starry eyes just like a kid seeing a toy that he wanted for so long, he's new to this kind of thing so it's reflected on his reaction.
In excitement, Aldo springs up from the ground and approaches Diane.
He stopped just beside Diane wanting to touch the gauntlets she created but the energy hurts him even before he manages to touch the gauntlets, but this still marvels Aldo. Upon closer inspection, Aldo saw that the gauntlets in the shape of claws are pulsating with a red aura.
There's a small red hole just on Diane's wrist that is the supply of red aura to the Astral Weapon, it constantly gives the Astral Weapon a steady stream of red aura just like flowing water.
"It's called the Purveyor Hole, this hole is the first thing you need to create in order to reach the second circle. After that, you're going to supply more energy by absorbing Beast Cores until it finally turns into this"
Diane focuses her aura even more making the gauntlets spark powerfully.
Slowly the gauntlets are starting to take a physical form turning into a real weapon made of red aura, the gauntlets starting to have color instead of only red aura. They turn black with red linings, and the claws look like they are made of steel.
With the red aura still cloaking the gauntlets, they have become more real and powerful.
Aldo widens his eyes even more while looking at this perfected Astral Weapon, the expression he's wearing makes Diane giggles, "This is the sign of a full-blown second circle Ego Fighter"
"Other than Astral Weapon, you can also do this if you train hard enough",
Diane signals Aldo to step back using her eyes. Aldo steps back but still keeps his eyes on Diane, he saw her going to her stance. Her eyes then glisten before she slashes the air.
But something weird happened right after she did that,
Swoosh!
A three pair of thin red arcs shot away from the Astral Weapon cutting all of the trees on the side, it's a long-range attack and also powerful. That nonchalant swipe from Diane alone cut through three or even four times the amount of trees Aldo did with his punch.
"Wow! That's awesome!", Aldo exclaimed while looking at the aftermath of the arcs.
Hearing this, Diane cracks a smile proudly. She even puffed out her chest feeling a surge confidence upon looking at Aldo's excited face, "You can also do this"
"But first... you got to make you Astral Weapon first", she added.
Instantly after that day, Aldo kept training and training under Diane's mentor. The days he spent training made Aldo remember how hard training under her was, everytime he thought that he was already training enough Diane always turn it up a notch.
Diane taught him an exercise to increase his control over the Ego Beast energy, it's some sort of stretching method but it's insanely straining on the mind.
From a glance, if seen by anyone that is not an Ego Fighter. They might think that it's not that much. The training only consists of focusing the Ego Beast's energy on the tip of the index finger, and after doing that the Ego Fighter needs to stretch out the energy as far as possible from their index finger.
Aldo tried this but he can only do it five or six times a day because of how tired his mind got every time he did it. One day he tried to do more, but he passed out in the middle of training.
Ever since that day, Diane has teased him numerous times because of the incident.
Sometimes when he's training using his all to stretch his red aura that only amounted to about one or two inches, Diane flexed how she can stretch her energy as far as ten feet! Ten freaking feet!
It's way longer than what Aldo can do which is two inches even after training for a week.
Two inches are very short, even the most normal Ego Fighter can stretch for at least 1 foot. But Aldo doesn't even near that number and this somehow riled his competitive spirit.
One night when Aldo is currently strength training per Diane's instruction.
Diane came back with a couple of fruit in her hands that looks like a coconut, but it was not. This fruit is called Aklaku, it's round just like coconut but has pinkish color instead the usual green.
Many years ago when the village has just been established, this fruit was thought to be poisonous because of its color and also how it makes people act after drinking.
But turns out Aklaku has the same effect as alcohol, natural booze from nature.
"Stop your training for today, it's better to relax once in a while so tomorrow you'll train even harder", Diane said before sitting beside the bonfire and putting the Aklaku by her side.
Hearing this, Aldo hesitated but he eventually agrees.
'Might as well accompany her, she looks a little bit down today', Aldo thought before he rubs his body off from sweat, he then sat down beside Diane while looking at the Aklaku fruit.
Using her hand, Diane karate chopped the fruit cutting the edge of the fruit cleanly.
She gave one to Aldo before she also open up one fruit for herself.
"Cheers!"
Both of them cheered their fruits before starting to gulp the content of the fruit, the taste of the fruit is very sweet and also very sour. It makes Aldo close one of his eyes in reflex feeling the burn in his throat because of the fruit.
Diane finished the fruit without stop surprising Aldo, she then opened another one instantly.
Although Diane is usually very strict and cheerful, the air she gave today is completely different. She occasionally dazed off in the mid of drinking the Aklaku, and this was caught by Aldo.
Looking at her reddened face, Aldo then asks, "So, Is there any special occasion today?"
"Huh...? No, nothing in particular", Diane replied before she suddenly hiccuped, she already downed about four Aklaku while Aldo is still on his second one so it's obvious why her face is already red like this.
Hearing this, Aldo chuckles while looking at Diane. He doesn't believe her words at all.
About an hour has passed,
The night sky is actually very beautiful today without any clouds and stars shining brightly around the big moon in the middle, even the night air today is very calming making Aldo yawn as he too already felt dizzy.
But while he was looking at the sky, he suddenly felt a bump on his shoulder.
Aldo looks to the side and finds Diane is already out from drinking the rest of the Aklaku Fruits to the last one she brought, there are a dozen of them and Diane drink eight.
Seeing this, Aldo smiles lightly before positioning Diane's head so she can lean on his shoulder better, 'This brings back memories...', Aldo thought remembering the first time he brought home ale for Laziah to try. It's one of the happier memories in his life.
~
"Laziah!! Happy sixteenth birthday!"
The door suddenly pushed open revealing Aldo holding a bottle of ale in his hand, Laziah jumped in surprise as she was just trying to nap but her brother ruined it.
With lazy eyes, Laziah glanced at Aldo, "Brother... I'm trying to sleep"
Hearing this, Aldo takes off his shoes and jumped onto the bed rocking Laziah's body so she won't go back to sleep, "Look what I brought! Let's celebrate your birthday!"
"What do you buy anyway?", Laziah lazily replied before she glanced at Aldo.
But upon seeing the bottle of ale in Aldo's hand makes Laziah widens her eyes in surprise, she grabs the bottle of ale before she glared at Aldo, "Brother... How much did this cost?"
Aldo smiles wryly with a bead of cold sweat flowing down the side of his face.
"Why are you asking for that, that's not important!", he replied before grabbing the bottle of ale from Laziah's hand, Aldo then gets up and takes two glasses before opening the bottle of ale.
After doing that, Aldo turns around with a bright smile, "Let's drink!"
~
That day was one of the happiest days of Aldo's life when he saw Laziah drink to her heart's content until drunk, she kept ranting about how he was wasting money for buying a bottle of ale for her birthday.
But she kept drinking anyway, and after exerting herself she falls asleep just like Diane did.
While thinking about the good old days, Aldo can't help but smile but he suddenly hears a slight mumble coming from Diane's mouth. It's barely audible as it's very light.
Aldo puts his head closer just beside Diane's mouth to hear what she's saying.
It's the curiosity in him that a young and beautiful Cleric like Diane is willing to teach him, a nobody coming from a small village. She even risks her life just to find out about Laziah's whereabouts resulting in her being kicked out of Arkney Village.
Putting his head closer, Aldo slowly hears what she's saying.
"Hap... Brother"
".... iss you"
'Brother? Does she have a brother or something?', Aldo thought, he's trying to keep listening to Diane's mumble out of curiosity.
But then suddenly, "What are you doing?"
"AH! Nothing...", Aldo exclaimed before instantly going back to his neutral expression trying to hide the fact that he's listening to her mumbles, his heart almost jumped out in surprise.
Diane slowly sits down while rubbing her eyes, "I've had too many drinks...", she mutters.
Just after she said that the sky started to rumble which makes Aldo confused. The night sky is clear just a moment ago but it suddenly rains, "Let's go inside!", Diane said before running inside followed by Aldo.
In just a few minutes, the rain becomes heavier with lightning occasionally blinking.
Aldo just changes his wet clothes preparing himself to sleep. With respect to Diane as the owner of the house, he slept on a wooden couch just near the kitchen so Diane can sleep in the bedroom.
He's used to sleeping on a hard floor so sleeping on a wooden couch is not that much.
Back then Diane told him that he should've just slept in the bedroom, he can sleep on the floor there with a couple of pillows but Aldo refused, 'My mother hardly teach me a thing, but I remember her saying that a woman and a man can't be in the same room if they're not a couple'
'Bad things happened if a man and a woman slept in the same room, especially in the same bed', Aldo thought.
A moment later,
'Why the heck am I doing it right now if I know that I'm not supposed to?', Aldo thought lying on the bed beside Diane, not only does he fail his mother but he also slept on the bed with Diane.
Aldo glanced to the side and finds that Diane is hugging his arm, 'Urgh... What did I get myself into'
Just a couple of minutes ago,
When Aldo got into his comfortable position and was about to close his eyes to sleep, Diane suddenly came out with an embarrassed look on her face. This makes Aldo confused but she suddenly asks if he's willing to sleep inside with her.
Of course, as a normal man, Aldo's mind is traveling to the sacred place.
But his thought was quickly denied when Diane suddenly said that she can't stand the lightning, she's scared of lightning very much. Aldo thought that she was just joking but when a thundering sound that reverberated in the sky rumbled, Diane suddenly hugged Aldo.
Aldo wanted to push her away but her body is truly trembling, she's not kidding.
This is why now Aldo is lying beside Diane who is hugging his arm while still trembling, there's so much about Diane that he doesn't know and bit by bit they all started to leak.
Diane who saw Aldo looking at her suddenly said, "Don't ask me why I'm scared of lightning"
"Let's just sleep...", Aldo replied before looking back at the ceiling.
He's still in disbelief that the strong Diane, his teacher is scared of lightning. But his train of thoughts was disturbed once again, "Promise me you won't leave the room until there's no more lightning"
"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere", Aldo said with a reassuring smile.
After saying that, both of them try to sleep. Diane seems to succeed in sleeping but Aldo is far from it, he's constantly disturbed by Diane's warm breath and her body that doesn't want to let go of his arm, 'How can I sleep like this...'
A couple of hours later, Aldo opens his eyes when he hears a distant sob.
This woke him up from his sleep, he looks at the window and finds that it was still dark. His eyes then traverse the room before she finds Diane sobbing in the corner in fear.
Looking at this, Aldo rubs his eyes making sure what he's seeing is right.
But just as he wanted to ask Diane what happened, his eyes suddenly were attracted to voices coming from the front of the house. Aldo carefully woke up from the bed ducking, he kept silent and finds that there really is voices coming from the front of the house.
'Is there someone coming here? Is that why Diane is scared?', Aldo thought.
Keeping his body low to avoid the windows where a couple of people are heading into the house, Aldo approach Diane and whispers, "Who are they? and Why are you scared?"
Since Diane is his teacher, seeing her like this makes him worry.
If his teacher is scared of these people then what can he do? Probably nothing.
Peeking through the window, Aldo finds a group of five wearing identical outfits before he ducks down again when one of them glances in his direction, "Are they from the Astral Rose Church coming for you?"
"No... they're not from the Astral Rose Church", Diane replied while still sobbing.
This makes a frown appear on Aldo's forehead, he looks back at the window, "Then who are they...?"