Emory stood at the center of the familiar wide open space, it was the same box shaped room with no visible windows or doors that Michael had him train in, in order to be able to sense the Aether.
"In order for you to be able to have a fighting chance against Zalos, you have to tap into the records and utilise the greatest weapon we have against the gods" Gabriel said while pacing around, a bag of chips still in his hands
"And that is?" Asked Emory
"Information" replied Gabriel, pointing his index finger upwards in a lecturing manner "As it stands now, we have no intel on Zalos or any of the gods for that matter. The only thing I remember about Zalos, was that amongst the ranks of the angels, he was only a regular angel. The fact that he was able to get a hold of a throne piece can only be attributed to pure luck. As you can see that does not help us much does it? That's where you come in, you need to be able to get information from the record when needed, and if we're lucky we may even find the creator first and not have to deal with the gods" he continued. Gabriel took a handful of chips and stuffed his face, Emory watched the angel chew slowly, trying to swallow the greedy amount of chips he ate.
"The record must have tried to establish some sort of link between you two, afterall, it chose you. Think " Gabriel said, and the he stuffed his face with another handful of chips
"Well I did have this dream about…." Emory narrated his dream about the giant book and weird places to Gabriel and Gabriel listened…whilst stuffing his face of course
After finally swallowing the chips Gabriel said "Hmm…those places are interesting. But try to visualise where you met with the record while I try something. If that 'nothing' is truly where the record is then that should be the first step"
Gabriel pointed to Emory and said "Aether, you do it by using the Aether. The only way you can interact with the record is by using Aether as a medium of communication, the record holds information on everything but it is the Aether that is used to manifest those information into being" he explained
"And how do I do that? Ever since the whole book incident, I haven't felt or seen anything about the records. In fact the only proof the record is with me is the marking on my back and well as my apparent change in appearance" Emory explained
"I think I get it, so if the record is like a blueprint of everything then the Aether is the material used to build everything" Emory said
"Close enough, yes. That's why Michael wanted you to be able to use the Aether first before diving straight into tampering with the records."
"That makes sense" Emory said in agreement
"So what we'll be focusing on is your ability to commune with the heavenly record. Personally I would have wanted you to increase your aether proficiency to a certain level before trying to access the record but we don't have that time so instead we would just go straight into it" Gabriel declared
Gabriel tossed aside his bag of chips, dusted off his greasy and crumb filled fingers before walking closer to Emory.
"Sit, and cross your legs" Gabriel ordered gust tone getting more serious than his usual self. Sensing that Gabriel wasn't joking around, Emory immediately complied and sat cross-legged.
Gabriel made his way to Emory's rear, and placed his palms on his back. Emory felt Gabriel's greasy fingers press against his back, but as much as he would have liked to comment on the issue, he felt like this was not a good time to be worrying about such.
"What I am going to do now may be a little bit painful but just bear with it okay? I'm going to circulate your aether around your body for you while you try to commune with the record. If you want to pee or do anything else, do it now because this could take a while and it's a very delicate process, one wrong move and I could blow you up from within, nothing too serious" Gabriel said with a furrowed brow and an intense expression.
"Blow me up? " Emory asked nervously
"Don't worry about it, I've done this before" Gabriel reassured him as he flahsed a doubtful smile and threw his hand forward to show that it was not a big deal
Emory took a deep stabilizing breath, steeling his resolve and finally spoke, saying "I'm ready, we have to do this right? So let's do this"
Without wasting much time Gabriel began the process of pushing the aether around Emory's body, it was truly a delicate process that required absolute focus as well as an expert in aether manipulation, it was a two step process that's required one to first send an aether probe to check Emory's aether channels first and then and only then could he proceed to the next stage which was circulating the aether through the channels. It was definitely not an easy takd afterall he was controlling aether that was not his. So far Gabriel was doing a good job, you could tell how focused he was by his unblinking eyes as well as the beads of sweat that began to form on his face.
After an hour, Gabriel had gotten the layout of Emory's aether channels and now it was time to move on to the next stage.
"You still with me" Gabriel asked, his palm still pressed om Emory's back
"Yes, it's not as painful as I thought it would be. The hard part is sitting still for soo long" Emory said as he opened his eyes.
"But we haven't gotten to the painful part yet Emory. Brace yourself and you might want to close your eyes too. Remember, try to commune with the record. Communicate" Gabriel said
"Wait wha- Ah!!" Emory said before getting interrupted by the abrupt sharp pain rushing into his body, causing him to scream aloud. The pain still persisted, flowing through his body like an untamed wave of water at sea but substitute the water for tiny needles. The aether coursed through every part of his body, and it soon reached his eyes causing his vision to be limited to only a bright white light. Emory let out a final scream before passing out.
"Hang in there kid, I know you can do it" Gabriel said
Emory woke up to the same space of nothingness that he had once been in before, in his dream. This time his eyes adjusted to seeing the nothing quicker than the last time. And there it was, a colossal book suspended, directly in his front this time.
"Communicate" he muttered to himself before reaching out his hands to the huge book "Hello heavenly record? I'm Emory, the one you chose. I need something from you, I need to know about zalos' newfound abilities" Emory said but was replied by a deafening silence
"Look at me, talking to a book. There has to be a better way to do this" Emory thought for a while, before getting hit with an idea. Since its a book, why doesn't he just open it and read it?
Emory placed his hands on the giant edge of the bookcover and to his surprise, he lifted the enormous cover of the book easily. After opening the book, what was next was to read it's content, easy. But as soon as Emory laid eyes on the first page, he instantly became paralysed by an absurd amount of information rushing through his mind from the record. The information seemingly infinite kept on going through Emory's mind, trying to fit its endless content into Emory's limited mind.
"It's too much, it's endless. Make it stop please!!!" Emory screamed
Emory's real body began to twitch and convulse causing Gabriel to panic, not knowing what to do, he slowly started to cease the circulation of the aether around Emory's body in hopes that it would cause hum to wake up.
After a few minutes Emory jolted awake, screaming and flaring his arms around.
"It's too much, it's too much, I'm going to die mom, mom I'm sorry!" Emory rambled, tears flowing from his eyes as he curled up into a ball.
Gabriel in his bid to console and offer Emory help, rushed over to him "It's okay, it's okay kid. You're okay now, you're fine" he said.
Gabriel reached out his arms to hold Emory and hopefully make him calm down a bit, and immediately he touched Emory he felt a spark of what felt like electricity through out his body, this caused him to freeze up and throw his head backwards in an unnaturally quick manner.
His eyes rolled back till his pupils could not be seen anymore. Gabriel was blind for a moment, but he could see, he could see what all men wished to see but no man could ever see, he saw the future, a glimpse of it and in it was Emory, glowing eyes, drenched in blood, a massive corpse pile littered at his feet, flames all around him, flames as far as the eyes could see. Utter destruction and Emory was in the center of it all…a sadistic smile on his face.