C187 - Smile
The announcement took everyone by surprise. Khan was standing among the crowd of students gathered in front of the Chiefs, but everyone turned to look at him nonetheless. He had become the representative of the human species in those months, at least for the younger generations, so hearing about the Global Army made the Niqols inspect him.
Khan shook his head to express his ignorance about the whole matter. Many knew that he had no contact with the Global Army, but some needed that reminder. Also, the students wanted to see if he had information to share later on at the party, but he had to disappoint them.
Khan glanced at George, who was nearby. The boy was holding hands with Havaa, but his gaze was far from relaxed. Khan could actually read awkwardness in his eyes. His mind wasn't thinking about the political meaning behind that meeting. George felt conflicted at the idea of seeing Natalie again.
'He is hopeless,' Khan sneered in his mind before searching the other recruits with his eyes.
Helen was somewhere among the crowd, surrounded by other Niqols girls, and she shook her head when she met Khan's gaze. Brandon and the others were near the group's edges, and they also gestured their ignorance about the whole situation.
None of the humans seemed to know what the Global Army had in mind, but that felt normal after the long period without communication. Khan was merely hoping that one of the recruits could guess something due to eventual knowledge of the protocols, but his companions disappointed him.
Rodney sounded like a recruit who could know something about the topic, but Khan couldn't even begin to imagine where an eventual interrogation would even lead to. The boy was smart enough to trade information with his freedom, and that decision wasn't up to Khan. He had chosen to leave everything in the hands of the Niqols, and he preferred it that way.
"[The human troops have probably taken care of a different quadrant]," Doku explained when he noticed Khan's confusion. "[They must have protected the teleport and the areas nearby]."
The Niqols had turned after confirming that Khan didn't know anything about the matter, but Doku and Azni had continued to pay attention to him. They were even next to him in that gathering, so they didn't hesitate to start a conversation.
"[Some Niqols must have been with them to check everything passing through the teleport]," Khan commented.
"[I bet they forced them to deactivate the device]," Doku announced.
"[Can we even do that]?" Azni asked.
"[The humans would have probably refused during normal times]," Doku uttered, "[But everything has been pretty tense after the solar wind. I bet our superiors are making use of that event to ignore part of the Padlyn's deal]."
"[Some deals might even not apply during wartime]," Khan added.
"[Exactly]," Doku agreed. "[We would have never let you stay on Nitis if we weren't confident in our ability to suppress you. No offense, of course]."
"[None taken]," Khan smiled.
The sunlight had gone on for more than three weeks by then. Everyone knew that the second spike in the crisis' dangerousness was close, so the timing of the meeting sounded too perfect to be a coincidence.
The Niqols were probably trying to gather their forces and prepare for the imminent worsening of the crisis, which included adding humans to the fray. Khan didn't mind that development, but he inevitably considered how facing Paul and the Captain would affect his life.
Khan almost forgot how he wasn't a Niqols at times, but the meeting would surely require him to behave as a human. The sole idea of meeting his superiors made him feel as if everything he was experiencing was nothing more than the dream of a delusional kid.
Khan's face didn't reveal his profound mental state, but his mask shook when Liiza appeared in his eyes. Everyone had started to leave, so he had managed to find her among the crowd. She was alone as usual, but she turned toward him when she felt his gaze on her.
Liiza was wearing the usual cold expression that she showed in public, but her eyes quickly inspected her surroundings to make sure that no one was looking at her. She lowered her head at that point, and a warm smile appeared behind the white hair that had fallen on her face.
Khan felt warm when he saw Liiza going through all that trouble just to show that simple gesture. The crowd of students moving back to the tents eventually blocked his vision, and she wasn't in her previous spot anymore when he managed to gaze in that direction again. Still, the warmth remained and made him stand still to focus on appreciating that feeling.
"[Is everything okay]?" Doku asked when he noticed that Khan had yet to start moving back to the encampment.
"[Are you going to start right away]?" Khan asked after snapping back to reality.
"[I think we'll join the party later than usual today]," Azni commented while wrapping her arms around Doku's torso and shooting a meaningful glance at him.
Doku initially frowned in confusion, but everything became clear in his mind when he looked at this girlfriend. He almost fell in a daze before recalling that his friend still needed an answer. "[What she said]."
Khan smiled while shaking his head. He directly turned and waved his hand to salute the couple, and the two Niqols imitated him without diverting their gazes from each other.
Khan took one of the first empty tents that he found and sealed its entrance. The warmth in his chest was almost about to vanish, and he couldn't do anything about that. Yet, he could train until his power allowed him to keep that feeling close.
The Niqols began to set the cauldron and prepare the materials needed to concoct the booze. Groups started to chant and test instruments. Everyone was getting ready for the usual celebrations that would last until morning, but Khan didn't want to join them right away. He felt the need to train a bit more that day. He almost feared that he would lose chances to see that smile otherwise.
Khan drew his first-grade knife and scrutinized it. He had picked up the habit to check its edges and surface carefully every night to make sure that his failures in the techniques of the Divine Reaper didn't affect its structure.
The weapon turned out to be fine. Marks had yet to appear on its dark surfaces. It was as perfect as the day Khan received it.
The next step in his training saw him performing a few tests with the Wave spell. He had yet to succeed in getting close to something that resembled a decent execution. Still, he slowly understood what the training program meant when it explained the chaos element's need for a personal approach.
Some of the things described in the training program didn't work for Khan. Instead, a few parts that the lessons advised against helped his execution of the spell. He had continued to fail without producing any effect, but the red-purple color of his mana had intensified as he kept testing the procedure.
That day wasn't any different. Khan sat, stretched his hand, thought about the Second Impact, and failed to achieve anything close to decent. A few curses ended up leaving his mouth when he stopped, but he quickly went back to the other part of his training afterward.
His meditation began as usual. Khan forced his mana to spread through his unwilling flesh. His body didn't want to change and sent waves of pain to express that feeling, but Khan barely felt them anymore. He pushed everything into spots that the energy had yet to touch, and everything proceeded as usual. However, something different happened after he spent a few hours immersed in that partial trance.
Khan's mana suddenly failed to cover the same amount of flesh as before. It stopped halfway through before the areas affected by the mana became slightly brighter.
The azure halo generated by that new radiance expanded throughout the rest of his body. It filled every corner of his insides and applied to his flesh a weaker version of what Khan usually did during the mediations.
'What is happening?' Khan wondered before understanding what that glow would cause.
The glow generated by the mana inside his body carried weaker effects of the actual energy, but it still affected everything it illuminated.
The parts of the body that Khan had yet to reach during his regular meditations suddenly experienced the influence of mana and began to improve. The event generated painful sensations everywhere, and they piled up until he felt forced to lay on the ground.
Khan tried to stretch his limbs as if he were dealing with normal cramps, but that couldn't solve his problem when the source of his pain came from inside him. He even stopped the flow of energy from his mana core, but that also didn't help. The glow was already in place, and nothing appeared able to stop it.
Sweat covered Khan's skin as he wriggled on the ground and waited for the process to end. He had slowly understood what was happening, so he knew that everything would be over once his flesh adapted to the new state that the glow was enforcing.
The flesh that Khan's mana had yet to affect improved without developing sharp changes in its structure. That energy didn't fuse with his tissues, but it elevated their nature to a state close to what mixing with actual mana would create.
The painful sensations filling Khan's mind slowly quieted down until they completely disappeared. The sweat that had accumulated on his face, hands, ankles, and opening of his robe evaporated to leave a cold sensation on his bare skin. He felt comfort in that coldness, but a lot more reached his mind after he calmed down completely.
A wave of power filled his body as the halo became unable to affect his flesh any further. Khan felt that his base power had increased after that unexpected event. He had initially thought that something had gone wrong with his meditation due to the sudden interruption of his growth, but he understood what had happened afterward.
'Did my attunement with mana reach fifty percent?' Khan shouted in his mind as he straightened his back to sit on the ground and check his body.
There didn't seem to be anything different in him. His muscles had remained identical, and the same went for everything else outside his skin. However, his insides had changed in ways that he couldn't completely describe.
Khan promptly stood up with the idea of testing his techniques, but he almost lost his balance during the process. He had felt too light. The force released by his legs had also made him jump.
Khan immediately accepted that he would require some time to grow used to his status as a first-level warrior.
To be continued