"Don't leave your mouth too wide open" Stein said with such unnecessary vigor.
I couldn't even take in the scenery properly, it was overwhelming.
I was unsure if it was the feeling of being so close to freedom or if it was the feeling that made me think that I wanted to stay here.
Either way, it was overwhelming.
Then Stein spoke. His raspy voice abruptly shook me out of my ecstasy.
"You should have gotten a small bit of understanding of what I want from you. Well, even if you haven't, I'll explain it to you."
He then abruptly made the tentacle-like appendages lower him onto the floor rather quickly and I felt obliged to do the same and Stein carried on.
"I…"
Stein dragged on as if he was thinking of the best way to put his sentence.
"I want to be responsible for creating, or at least engineering a being with enough potential to rival Deities and Divinities. You may go out into the world, but you must remember that if you die prematurely, whether because of my genetic changes or because of your own carelessness, either way, it's not my fault. But if you do get to a reasonable point then the glory is mine. It's easy to understand."
This was the single vaguest sentence that had ever graced my ears, it only seemed to serve to further confuse me.
Then he continued while still smoking and picking at his fingers.
"Someone once told me that 'the one under the star of stolen dreams has no right to have his ideals realized', I still don't understand this till this day. But if I was able to steal and achieve others dreams, why can't I have mine realized. That's the true Unfairness that's behind this Natural Law, and it pisses me off."
[A/N: I forgot where I got that quote from. Please comment if you know.]
The phrase he just quoted was quite understandable to say the least and I was almost sure that Stein understood what it meant but he chose to avoid it because he didn't like it.
I only thought of what Stein said for less than a few seconds then the outside world came back to mind, I was extremely excited.
I saw the Minotaur goon of Stein running onto the field with what seemed to be a sun yellow cloth, screaming at the top of his lungs.
"Sire, Sire!!"
Stein was visibly disturbed by this, and he rubbed his forehead.
Once Yagi reached us, he knelt on one knee and breathed heavily while Stein interrogated him in a rather calm manner.
"Did a Catastrophe class Chimera or Beast escape?" Stein asked sarcastically.
I didn't know what a Catastrophe class Chimera was, but it sounded dangerous.
Yagi then replied while breathing heavily and holding onto the yellow material in his palms.
"N-No, Sire. I just thought, since you didn't kill the Dragon Lady then you would give her the attire that was made for her."
"Did I ask for that attire to be brought?" Stein simply interrogated.
He continued exhaling smoke and looking toward me and away from Yagi who was knelt down behind him.
"B-But you said-"
Stein then turned around before Yagi could finish his explanation.
"DID I ASK FOR IT!?"
In fear Yagi put his forehead to the ground and pleaded.
"No Sire. Please forgive me."
Stein proceeded to grab the yellow female battle attire and tossed it at my face abruptly.
"Since Yagi here so generously wasted his time to bring this here then give it to Anastasia when she awakens. In fact, I'm no longer in the mood. You may go. Try blasting flames from the soles of your feet."
Stein then used tentacle-like appendages and began steadily moving away and Yagi followed while sneering at me.
He probably never even got to leave.
I sat in the cross-legged meditation position, and I gathered Energy into my body.
I channeled it through what I understood to be my Core and throughout my entire body.
Constant Accumulation was a simple technique that allowed me to develop my Core and possibly get even more developed Brio.
My Core was where all my gathered Energy was stored and where it could be drawn from during battle.
By sending the energy outside into my Core I would be able to manipulate it for more dignified techniques and skills.
After Constant Accumulation I'll then proceed to the next step.
Constant Release. The Energy that I had Accumulated would then be forced out through my body.
This created an effect called Aura to be formed around the body.
Mine was quite unique and was oddly colorless. It also weirdly distorted my ambient surroundings.
By Releasing the Accumulated Energy in steady but frequently increasing bursts I would be able to increase the amount of energy I can release at a time and hence I'd be able to invest more Energy into a Technique. Or in this case, Put more power into my step.
What Stein said piqued my interest to its highest point. I just had to try it, even if it was at least once.
Athena didn't even speak up once and after my experience with Bezeth I didn't want to dive into my psyche without her giving me her permission. Even though it was my own body.
I finally felt like I was ready.
I stood. The wind blew into my attire and swung my long black hair.
I tapped Anastasia's shoulder lightly and when I saw she was regaining consciousness I swept her off the floor and unto my shoulder.
I wrapped my black cloak and Anastasia's attire on my hand and bent my knees at a ninety-degree angle.
"W-What do you think you are doing!? Put me down now!"
She screamed this out in rage.
She was so close to my ears that I could have sworn I felt a few books from 'Bibliotheca' falling off their shelves.
"Oh, I didn't know you liked living here. If you actually did, I could put you down now if you want." I replied sarcastically not having any intention of doing so even if she willed it.
"…"
I took her silence as a signal that she had no objections.
Soot began to be released from the soles of my feet as I began trying to utilize my Flame Sorcery.
Then as quickly and as powerfully as I could I busted all the flames I could muster from the soles of my feet.
At first it just released a bunch of hot flames that spread around and burnt all the grass surrounding me in a very wide radius.
Then I was shot up into the air like a bullet and following behind me was a long and bright orange streak of flames.
The feeling was exhilarating.
Soaring through the air like a shooting star.
I then had a weird feeling in my core.
I lost sight of the bright blue sky and then it was like I was inside my psyche again. I saw incense and candles burning all around me and there was a weird being.
This weird being sat outside a circle of candles and incense, with a mask over his face and a large cloak covering him up completely he uttered weird incantations.
"Who are you?" I asked.
-{ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED; QUESTION 1: "I AM YOU". ALL POTENTIAL STATS INCREASED BY THREE. UTILIZATION CONDITIONS NOT REACHED NOW}
The Recurring Word's stone plaque notification just appeared from nowhere out in front of me with a weird message.
"You are me?" I asked in confusion.
Then I quickly regained sight of my reality.
"What was that?"
…
"Wait, what was I thinking about again?" My mind went blank a couple of minutes ago and I can't even remember what I was thinking of.
"I guess it was nothing."
[A/N: He has no memory of what he just saw.]
"Hey!! What are you mumbling about, has the thin air left you dizzy!? We are just going up!!"
Turned out that I was only going upwards. The higher I got the harder it was to breathe although that didn't faze me as much as it should have but with the weird and eerie silence in my psyche, I had no idea what to be doing.
"Ugh! You are dumber than I thought."
Anastasia said this as she steadied herself while still in my grip.
she made sure her mouth was facing directly behind me and I instantly understood what she intended to do.
She blasted a Soundwave even stronger than the normal ones I was used to.
This one was as though it was shot out in a single concentrated ray.
It blasted a hole through the clouds behind us.
I realized that this was quite a good idea and then I moved my legs and put them in the same direction that Anastasia shot her Great Dragon Battle Cry
With the force from the flames from my feet we shot a great distance in the direction that I saw the sun rise once before and if I was correct, it was in the east.
Anastasia didn't expect me to do what I did, she was hardly even ready, she was struggling to keep her sack-like attire in place.
Air blew onto my hair like never before and sometimes I couldn't help but close my eyes.
The feeling was so fantastic that I hardly even noticed when my Energy levels began depleting and naturally that led to our rough descent.
Anastasia saw that we were about to crash and then I got one more surprise from her, she bore what seemed to be wings.
The skin on the frame was reddish and the parts attached to the bony frame were thin and ripped in various places.
I was unsure if these ripped parts were actually her skin or not, but it seemed like she couldn't attain flight with them and could hardly even glide with them.
She just swung them violently to try to reduce her impact.
Leaving me to be painfully taught a lesson by a good friend of humanity called Gravity.
I smashed into the ground so hard that I bore a nice crater into the soil.
"You could have tried to help."
I said as I picked myself up and dusted the stains on my clothing.
I was quite shocked that the ends of my slacks weren't burnt to ashes, but I guess that's Stein for you.
"As you can see my wings aren't exactly in the best shape. Care to hand me my attire. These rags are too Lewd. they disgust me."
Speaking of which, her sack cloth was indeed quite lewd despite her looking like quite the young child.
I tossed her sun yellow attire, and I went behind a tree to give her privacy.
We had so conveniently landed in what seemed to be a forest, but I wanted advice from Athena, because I had nowhere in mind to even go to.