Yoel looked at his bowl of water intensely.
After the Professor's speech, he surrounded himself with an aura of concentration as he went over numerous different beliefs he had heard the man say, with a few he had found out himself through searching for tips on the cube.
But the reason he hadn't been able to control his avon was due to the fact that those methods he had searched up did not work.
He was revisiting each one of them right now, in hopes of them working right now, and even adding the few theories the professor gave.
Differing opinions, but they all achieved the same result, huh…
Maybe Yoel simply wasn't cut out to progress further than this. He felt stuck for the first time ever since he awakened as a Blessed.
Maybe I'm not meant to progress further? Or is it the fact that my memories are sealed that I can't come up with a way myself?
His concentration broke for a moment, and he looked around to observe how his classmates were doing; maybe he could steal some of their ways and mesh them into his own.
He looked at Cole, who had a weird light blue mist floating around his body. Yoel looked at his bowl of water, and as far as he could see none of it remained within the the bowl.
The mist floated like water, acting as an impenetrable shield and feeling as if it would break with the slightest touch.
Next to him was Vasil, who still even without an ability, could control avon as if it was something he had been born to do. Even without an ability, it looked like he had been able to do it without really trying.
Even Loki had been able to move the water, albeit a bit stiffly.
Connor, Brandon, and Silenus had managed to do it as well. Yoel didn't even want to look at the rest of the class, afraid he'd see them all succeeding.
Damn it! How do they all do it?
Beads of sweat began to roll down Yoel's face, dripping down and barely missing the crystal-clear water.
I am a vase, and the avon is the water inside me.
Yoel stuck his hand out to the water, and it didn't move aside for the slight gust of air Yoel had made with his sudden palm thrust.
He imagined himself controlling a third limb, a third leg so to say.
The water once again showed no signs of movement, only a faint wind managed to disturb it.
Obey me, water! I declare it!
Yoel yelled inwardly, this time he had felt some unknown power surge within him, but it wasn't enough to move his current obstacle; the water.
Not to mention, Yoel had also felt embarrassed. Even though he didn't shout that to everyone else, he felt as if they all heard him.
Next, he thought of himself as an ocean, and he tried to bring the calm water into motion within himself.
After a few minutes of trying, he realized that no matter what he did, he had no "authority" over the ocean that he imagined himself to be.
His concentration cracked for a moment, due to the victory yells of the rest of the class. He was running out of time.
I need to break this down into simple steps. Why did that man tell us all those theories? Why had he told us that no matter what belief we had, the result was the same?
The answer was actually simple.
Imagination.
Imagination served as the catalyst that we would use to control the avon within us. Depending on how we use it, we would be able to control it differently.
This proved why Cole's water had turned to mist, how Vasil's had been so smooth, and why Loki's sometimes stiffly fell or rose.
Each of them had discovered their own ways of creating an imagination that would serve as a catalyst to controlling avon.
This means that up til now, none of those examples, or rather, scenes did not match my imagination. I can't succeed if I use those, because no matter what I won't be able to properly imagine them. At least, not at my current level.
Think, Yoel. What are you at your core?
Instinctively, his thoughts went to his enigma; the shadows he had unleashed on the gorilla, the ability to steal the sight of shadows and use it for himself.
That's right. I command the shadows.
A very distinct picture flashed through Yoel's mind; his own shadow, swallowing other shadows, growing larger with each victim that fell at its hands. Its gluttonous reign knew no end.
He tried his hardest to hold onto that image and thrust his palm towards the water once again.
This time, the water showed a reaction.
As if the water had come to life at the feeling of his touch, it hurriedly opened a hole for his hand, trying to avoid where his palm would fall if Yoel believed that it should.
Yoel blinked a few times, and a victorious smile rose to his face. He had shown genuine happiness at his feat.
But, his avon was not done.
After it opened a small hole for Yoel's hand to pass through, black spots began appearing on it. At first, there had been too little to notice, but slowly they grew in number, making it almost impossible to not notice.
As the spots began coloring the water, the water began to yield to their cruelness, slowly falling unresponsive and once again covering the hole it had made for Yoel.
Uh, that WAS my avon, right?
Yoel was not aware that the water moved on its own to make way for his palm– he solely believed that it had been his own avon creating some kind of invisible cylinder or sphere of some kind.
Once the water had completely fallen against the black spots, Yoel felt something strange.
When he moved his hand close to what had been water, he felt a strange tingle pirouette his fingertips.
While further observing the water, he had realized that while it had not been water, the blackness that filled the bowl was still liquid; what kind of liquid though, Yoel did not know.
Without knowing what to do, he tried to push out his avon again, in hopes of seeing something change, but no change happened to the water.
And then, Yoel suddenly had a very weird thought.
This black smudge, it feels kind of.. familiar?
That's right. It felt like a shadow to him.
Ever since he had gotten better control over his shadow sight, Yoel had developed a kind of sixth sense for shadows. At first, he could only sense them if he really put his mind to it, but over time it became an ordinary thing to him.
So once again, he tried something new. Something that would send the professor roaring if he saw what had happened.
He stuck his hand out once again, but instead of trying to extract avon from his reserves, he tried to manipulate the blackness that occupied the bowl.
Obey me, shadow.
The blackness stood unmoving for but a single moment, and then as if it was boiling, it began to shake intensely.
Yoel lifted his palm up, and slowly, the blackness followed his lead.
So this blackness classifies as a shadow now? If I can control this, why can't I control pure shadows like before, then?
Yoel's breakthrough only served as a basis to ask more questions, truly his enigma had been a mystery.
I hate how reaching goals only creates new questions for me. I hope the future won't be like this.
Suddenly, he felt incredibly tired. He felt as if he had been out of breath, and he could barely reach for more.
The blackness that was stirring in the bowl and moving in accordance to his instructions splashed back into the bowl as if its strings had been cut and it had returned to being a lifeless liquid.
It didn't even last for a few seconds before the professor had been in front of him. Yoel realized through his labored breaths that the class had all turned their attention to him.
"Avon burnout, eh? It's common when you're just beginning, but if it happens constantly, it can disrupt your growth."
Yoel thought he was hearing gunshots every time the professor spoke, what he said sounded almost inaudible to him.
"I guess you can't hear me right now."
He clicked his tongue, and at that gesture several of the inky-black shapes manifested into reality and vanished once again into Yoel's body.
From the outside, they could only be observed for a split second before they had vanished.
But for Yoel, it felt as if something unknown and powerful entered his bloodstream.
Wh..What is inside me?!
At the sudden thought, panic began to spread over his body, while the man's living tattoos began to fuel him with avon so that he wouldn't fall into a coma.
No… no, leave my body! I command it! Now!
A single drop of sweat fell from the professor's head, his eyes were as calm as ever, with only a slight disturbance in their grey depths.
Inwardly, however, things were not as simple.