"System, why are you doing this to me?" Sky muttered through clenched teeth.
To Sky's surprise, a system prompt appeared. "Trust me."
"Fine," Sky said before he lost focus and the nature attribute dispersed. He collapsed on the ground, exhausted. His body was trembling, and his vision was blacking out. The pain was still there, but it was manageable. He took deep breaths and tried to calm himself down. His heart thumped out of rhythm, making him a little anxious, but overall he was okay.
"I... need a break," Sky said between panting breaths. He lay there for a while, resting and trying to gather his strength. He ate a flower petal from the saturation plant and sat back up. Before beginning the process again, he looked at the massive tree. A quick sigh later, he continued.
This time, rather than the nature attribute having its own pathway, he thought it would be worth trying to swirl it around the ether pathways. He felt that if the nature attribute is derived from ether, then why not combine the both? When he looked at his pathways, the nature attribute was like a faint green cloud. It was tough to see, but it was there.
He took a deep breath and started guiding the natural attribute around his pathways. He grunted and began to squeeze the nature attribute. The faint green light he visualised within him condensed and became more focused. It was still too diffused, so he kept compressing it until it became a solid stream, swirling around the purple ether. It took longer this time, and he felt the strain on his body. The nature attribute still resisted but not as much. He felt like there was a change.
'Could it be the nature attribute swirling around the ether pathways that made it easier?' he thought.
He wasn't sure, but he kept going. This time he tightened the swirl and compressed it. The stream coiled around the ether paths; soon enough, Sky didn't feel resistance. He wasn't sure whether it was because it resisted less or stopped resisting at all. Either way, he felt in control. He let go of the nature attribute, and to his surprise, it continued the spiral without his supervision.
"So this is how it works?" he muttered. The system remained silent, but he knew it was watching.
He was happy with the result and decided to take a break. He wanted to experiment more and see if he could do anything else with the nature attribute. However, he had a quest to finish, and the sooner he completed it, the sooner he was out of this forest.
Sky wasn't sure why the system was making him do this, but he trusted it. He felt that it would all be worth it in the end. After all, what can the system do other than threaten to kill him after failing a quest? Sky didn't even think for a second that it was serious. If he dies, so does the system, even Avis, for that matter.
Avis floated in the distance and continued to watch Sky. He was ordered by the system to stay away from him while he worked on controlling the dark attribute. Although Avis was familiar with the system, he still didn't know what it was doing. He could guess what it was doing, such as scaring the tree to death with the dark attribute. 'Will it give a blessing by threatening it?'. He sighed and watched Sky silently celebrate his minor achievements. 'I'm sure telling him a kid could do what he did wouldn't help. What a kid can't do is simply manipulate ether or even the nature attribute without using it within them.'. Avis may have disliked Sky when they first met. Sky was a blank slate. Someone who didn't have memories of his previous life, and Avis couldn't help but be a little envious. All the wrongdoings that haunted him, all the blood he spilt. If he could start over, he would do things differently.
Avis was dragged out of his thoughts as he watched Sky sit back down in his meditative position. He was still a ways away, but he could see the black wisps of ether coming out of Sky. 'What is he doing now?' he wondered. Avis observed for a while longer and soon realised that Sky was trying to compress the dark attribute within him.
"What?!" he blurted out.
Sky sat there admiring his fine work. The coiled nature attribute settled around the ether pathways perfectly. It completed coated his pathways and gave him a feeling of warmth. He was content and relaxed. It was then that he felt the beat within his heart. It was off rhythm and unstable. He didn't just feel his heart; he could see it. The black pulsating blob that was his heart. He focused on it, and the lump became more defined. He could see the black wisps emanating from it with every heartbeat. 'Why is it doing this now?' he thought. He was sure the sensation he was feeling had never happened before. The delicate wisps it emanated would always get blocked by the nature attribute. But this time, it was different. He used most of the nature attribute within him to construct the pathways he was so proud of, leaving him almost defenceless. Before he could react, the black wisps slowly started to seep out of his pores.
"Crap..." he muttered.
He didn't know what to do. He tried to force the black wisps back into his body, but it was too chaotic and didn't heed to his calling. He knew he could manipulate ether, and the nature attribute, but the dark attribute within him had always been uncontrollable. He needed a way to contain the attribute again. But how?
He was so preoccupied with his thoughts that he didn't notice the figure looming over him. It wasn't until he felt a nudge on his shoulder that he snapped back to reality.
"What did you do?" Avis asked with a hint of anger in his voice.
"I-I don't know. I was trying to compress the nature attribute, and then my heart started beating funny, and the black wisps escaped my heart, and I don't know how to make it stop!" Sky rambled.
"Calm down-" Avis was cut off and immediately disappeared as if he was never there.
"What the-?" Sky exclaimed. He looked around and didn't see Avis anywhere. He tried to sense him with his ether, but he was nowhere to be seen. Finally, a system prompt displayed itself where Avis was with a warning.
"Restriction: Complete this task alone."
"What?! Are you kidding me?!" Sky was frantic, trying to think of a solution. He could feel his heart tear through the remains of the container the nature attribute acted as. The black wisps were steadily increasing, and he was losing control.
He tried to use his ether to forcefully compress the attribute, but it only made it more chaotic. The black wisps crawled around his skin like snakes slithering around his body. He bit his lips and tried to hold on, but he could feel himself slipping. The darkness was engulfing him, and blackness followed.
"This is the last time I'll help you. Don't be so naive to think there isn't a price to pay... system." A soft feminine voice spoke. Her words echoed through Sky's mind for what felt like an eternity. He didn't know how much time had passed, but when he came, he was lying on the grass with a tree root wrapped around his arm. He looked down and saw that his left arm had black swirls, like stains where the wisps were crawling. On his right arm were the same swirling lines but a deep green colour. Both sides had whirlpool-like patterns reaching all the way up to his shoulders and towards his heart. He could see where they both met, clashing against each other. A heart of life and death.
Something more alarming and humiliating than anything else was the state of his clothing. It was in tatters, and his underwear was on display for everyone to see.
He slowly sat up, feeling a little bit better. The pain in his chest was still there but mostly subsided, and the darkness... what happened to it? He looked inward at his pathways and saw the black wisps spiralling with the nature attribute along the fine etherical pathways. It looked like they were in a tug of war, with the black wisps trying to consume the nature attribute and the nature attribute resisting the black wisps.
He experimentally tried to use his ether and was surprised when he found that he couldn't. It was as if something was blocking him. He also tried to use his nature attribute and was surprised when he found out it didn't budge. It was like it was frozen in place.
"What's going on?" He muttered to himself.