***
An hour before.
In the Academy's training chamber. Vinny sat cross-legged on the ground, and about 20 steps away from him stood Jiwoo, Katharine, Katline, and Violet.
"Vinny, I seriously don't know why you called us here, if you just want to train.... And that to in the middle of night!" Jiwoo furrowed his brows at Vinny.
'My blissful sleep got wasted!!' Jiwoo grumbled inwardly.
"Hhhhyyyyaaaammm...." Katharine yawned loudly.
"Katline, do you know what's wrong with him?" Jiwoo asked teasingly but got a cold shoulder as a response.
"Um, I thin- no, I definitely know that what I'm about to do will be dangerous, so I called for help." Vinny replied in Katline's stead.
"Huh? I have never heard anything about mana training being dangerous (?)." Violet mumbled.
'Exactly!' Jiwoo nodded in agreement.
"Alright, I'll buy you guys a meal, so stay here, at least, to satisfy my paranoia." Vinny sighed and shook his head.
"Hmm... Alright." Jiwoo agreed and the others reluctantly agreed with a nod.
"I'll show you why I think it's dangerous." Vinny held out his right hand and concentrated on his arm.
His arm turned black, as if it were devouring light, and his fingers gradually transformed into claws that grew to be 5 inches long.
KRRK-KT-KRRRKT
Suddenly, black lightning cruised on his arm, snapping all over, and slowly, black flame lit on his arm, which seemed to drip with a dense jelly-like black goo with black flame covering it.
"Whoa!!! But ewww." Katharine exclaimed.
".....What are you?" Violet mumbled in a low tone which they could barely hear.
"This is what Eshwar taught you that day?" Jiwoo asked.
"Yeah....But when ever I try to do the same, this happens." Vinny nodded in confirmation and pointed at his claws.
"Right, you didn't have any of that, that day. Or else, Eshwar's chest would have been pierced by those." Jiwoo remembered Vinny's hands being near Eshwar's heart area when he demonstrated how to use mana to Vinny.
"I don't know why Eshwar trusts you so much to offer his heart literally, but there is definitely mana cruising through your arm." Katline said.
"Really?" Katharine asked in amazement and received a nod in reply.
"I don't know what kind of power this is, so I want you guys to help me master it." Vinny said firmly.
"..... If anything goes wrong, call Eshwar immediately! Cause I have a ominous feeling every time I mess with this power." Vinny continued while looking at his demon like arm in fear.
"Don't worry!" Jiwoo patted Vinny's shoulder to assure him.
'F**k! I'm scared sh*tless! How can I assure him when I'm this scared?' Jiwoo asked himself.
***
They talked for a while before Vinny began to feel the source of the 'demonic' power he was experiencing. He took a deep breath and concentrated on his core, assuming it even existed in the first place.
'I read in theory that it's somewhere around my sacrum.' Vinny thought and focused.
"Ukh!?" Vinny groaned.
Suddenly, his consciousness was dragged somewhere clouded.
'Why do I feel like I'm drowning? I, somehow, know I'm going down, deep down..... Like into the abyss(?)' Vinny knew what he was thinking is just absurd, but it didn't sound absurd to him in the least.
He seemed like an ant in his(?) void like consciousness, he sunk and continued to do so, until he thought that something was wrong.
'Something is going wrong. Where am I? Where is this?' Vinny started to doubt the process.
"Hello!" He yelled out loud, and his voice echoed throughout the void before returning to him 10 times louder.
"Ghaaa!!" He covered his ears and screamed in agony, but the reverberated voice abruptly stopped; instead, his scream travelled throughout the black void and returned to him 10 times louder.
'F**k!!!' he understood what was going on and clenched his teeth to not scream again.
"Ukh." He groaned in muffled voices.
He clenched his teeth and head so tightly that they began to bleed, and blood flowed from his mouth, ears, nose, and eyes as a result of the tremendous force he was exerting.
Suddenly, he suddenly felt a strong pull on his hands, but the scream continued, so he tried to resist the pull, but when he couldn't, he abruptly loosened his hands, and the pull completely loosened, he used that opening to cover his ears again until the scream stopped.
'Huu.... It finally stopped!' Vinny sighed in relief, inwardly.
'.... Is this really my consciousness? I'm in pain inside my mind?' he asked himself as his head hurt as if it was splitting apart.
He found himself in a place where he felt very comfortable, but he shook it off and focused because he remembered that he was in his consciousness and was certain that he shouldn't be comfortable there or he, too, would be stuck in his consciousness like in the novels he read.
'I won't fall into the trap because I'm not dumb like the main characters from the novels I read!' he snorted, proudly.
WOOOMMMHH
He soon found himself in front of a pitch-black planet-like thing(?) that he considered to be his core; it appeared to be a black, void-like nebula covered in dense dark clouds (?).
'is this my core? If it is, then it's goddamn huge!' he thought.
He made a swimming motion to move forward, but instead of moving forward, he spun in place.
'the f**k!? What's this, Interstellar?' he grumbled.
"You are here, my lovely and pitiful host." Vinny instinctively covered his ears as a hoarse demonic voice that was too sweet and soothing rang around him.
'Host?!!' He furrowed his brows at the planet-sized void as the voice seemed to emanate from it.
"Hahaha! Don't worry my 'host!' I will never hurt what's mine!" the demonic voice chuckled.
'His? What's his? Me? Is it gay? If he speaks one more time then he definitely is one!' Vinny furrowed his brows at the planet sized void.
"Come here." The voice said.
'F**k!'
Suddenly, pitch black hands erupted from every corner of the black nebula, shooting at Vinny at the speed of sound, wrapping around him and dragging him into the nebula while he struggled to fight them off with everything he had.
'Ok! I'm sorry! I won't think like that again!' he thought.
"We shall have a sweet talk after you wake up from your 'slumber' hehehehahaha!!" the voice laughed hysterically and dragged Vinny deep into the black void like nebula.
"If you ever manage to wake up again, that is!"
***