When they woke up the next morning Astral would walk out into the woods, leaving a note for Anders. Once he got to the middle, he pulled out a book on nirvana and buddhism. He would spend an hour learning more about what he hasn't already. He quieted his mind and took a moment to relax.
The whistling wind, howling wolves, the branches of the trees flowing and cracking. All that was on his mind was the feeling of it all. He would take off his jacket. Being dressed in just his hoodie and pants. He would focus on one thing. That quiet voice from within.
The quiet voice would return again. "Embrace the desire to kill everything, starting with that little girl that you had brought home."
Astral would breathe in. Allowing the cold crisp air to travel through him. "No, I will not." Breathing out a wisp of black smoke would come from his nostrils. "You are an inner demon. I will starve you out." With each breath the smoke would become less.
"No matter what I will always be with you, you must learn to live with me." The voice would be a whisper.
Astral finally heard all of the stuff in the forest around him. From a mile away he heard his fireplace crackling into the night sky. The wind starting to become stronger from the south. The sounds of nature all around him. Flooding him with a positive feeling, one of reassurance as he just let his mind go blank.
The voice would try to speak to him, all Astral was feeling was the wind wrapping around him. Letting the cold consume him. This feeling was electric, all he felt was his mind running in circles and creating nothing. He was glad to have a break from his mind working.
The weather would become cooperative around him. The wind would wind down to a gentle breeze. The wolves wailing in the distance. Wood from the trees falling around him. Yet he felt like he was on fire, his soul staying warm. Despite the temperatures around him dropping slowly.
He would focus inward. The voice is quiet, he wanted to make a box to contain it. Thinking deep down, he wanted to make a place for it to stay locked away. His indomitable will would be enough of a chain to hold down the voice and stop it from speaking.
The inside of his soul would be bound by a chain, the ball of darkness would be enveloped with the golden chains. Wisps would leak out from between the chains and slowly form themselves around the chains to pull them loose. With them failing the wisps would just leak out of Astral as he sits in silence.
His mind would feel so light. It would make him feel so relaxed. Was this a state of zen he always had been missing. It felt unreal on how relaxing it was. His breaths were in sync with the waving of the trees. The peaceful and calming nature of the forest it would surround him in a positive aura.
Breathing in and out he would reach a place of inner peace after a full forty hours in the cold. Waking up from his meditation session, it would be dark, he was nearly freezing but warm enough to not be worried about any bad health effects. Walking back inside Anders smiled at him. "Seems like a successful past two days for you. You seem brighter than usual." She had tidied up his house a bit as well as made herself meals. She seemed to be liking the independent freedom away from the government.
"Well, I have realized that Overlord is a mirror image to the current Astral being. Which means he is closer to the taoist principle of yin and yang." he starts to make some tea for himself. "With that said, it means I need to stay as close to humanity. To keep some semblance of balance for the universe." His chipperness and happiness would only increase the longer he was around her.
Anders took a step closer to him. "What does that mean for you?" Leaning against the pillar of a man. Loving the ability to be a human rather than dedicating her life to one constant project in a cramped space underground. She missed the sun and the sky. The sounds that animals and wilderness create.
"Three things." He poured the boiling water into their cups, letting the tea bags do their things. His hand would be held up while pointing to each one of his fingers. "One, constant meditation, working towards an inner peace that can calm those dark thoughts when they pop up." He would put one of his fingers down on his hand.
"Two, training myself to the best of my capabilities. Being human limits my potential, but I can craft myself to be the best person, learning history and the arts. Martial arts, pottery, painting and calligraphy." He would drop another finger. Leaving his pointer finger up.
"Three, crafting my motive and keeping it strong. Which means each person I am to meet on this journey I must cherish like they are the last new person I will meet." taking the tea bags out of their cups he slides Anders her cup. He felt refreshed beyond demand. He had a reason to go forward now.
"As for now, we will relax here for another night before I train hard in the Canadian Rocky Mountains." He takes a sip of his tea. He had plans. His pocket dimension could work on weight training. Not extreme conditioning.
"So you're telling me that altitude training is going to be at the core of your workouts? Limiting your oxygen intake to work on your body. Gaining more temperate strength?" Anders spoke, taking a sip of her tea.
"Making my endurance to last a lot longer than what is physically thought possible." He would look over to her. "I wonder how far I can push the human body?" He would speak to her questioning his own abilities.
"If that is what you are looking for, you will need to be monitored closely and with caution. We don't know the full extent of the powers. Most of my research was spent to learn on how to contain you, not the physical limits you could hit." Anders would say sternly, all she wanted from him was to stay safe.
"What about the desert storm version. Reportedly he survived a volley of attacks that would finish off anything. Yet it stayed around until you showed up." Astral would think back to the paper. "What caused it to stay, the essence of the Astral symbiote or the human body?"
"It was rumored to be that the body took too much and lashed out to defend itself. The darkness remaining until I got there and talked to it for a brief period." She would point to the table where the pictures lie. "Remember, those are armed men firing five five six rounds. They are rifle rounds and it took a fifty caliber sniper to slow him down." Showing the sniper and his dead body.
Astral's mind would be hit with a flashbang, he is getting memories of this event, but why? He saw exactly the man cursing the human body for being weak. "He said during the fight the human body was weak, but deep down he knows it has the greatest potential. He knew it could be an exponential growth of power if he just stayed alive."
Anders would write it down on her notepad. "How did you figure this out?" Her wonder overwhelming the rest of her voice in curiosity.
"I felt deep down within me. Humans have a high ceiling. But what happens when it's amplified by five times, or fifty? How far can we push it?" Astral would smile as his dreams of being someone known are growing.
She would scribble something out off the paper. "You expect this to happen instantly?"
"No, that would be physically impossible. Even if I used the pocket dimension for thousands of years. It can't compare to the slow progression we want to test." He would be filled with workout ideas.
"This isn't the time for this, let us unwind and have it be tomorrow's adventure." Astral would take a sip of his tea.
"How would you want us to relax when you are this close to your potential?" Anders questions his drive to become better.
"Reading!" Picking her up and carrying her over to the roasting fire in the mantleplace. "The goal is to learn everything now that I have the time. I have ordered most of my college textbooks and have one of my colleagues in the college world sending me a list of the entire Harvard library. For me to study and learn."
"Wow, you are quite serious, how much time are you planning to give me a day?"
"As much as you desire." He leaned in to kiss her. Pinning her to the ground.
The night passed as the two slept on the ground.