Spherea let out an exaggerated sigh inside Koji's mind.
"You basically awakened your external energy, you idiot!" Spherea revealed, slightly impatient. "When you started running intensely, you naturally projected energy and awakened your external energy. What you did was nothing less than an energy projection!"
Koji paused for a moment, processing Spherea's words. He had never used external energy before, nor did he know it was possible for him.
"External energy… What is that? I've never trained for it. Didn't even know it could be awakened like this, out of nowhere."
"No need to worry, Koji… What you just did is good for us," commented Saik, leaning forward with his hands on his knees.
In her typical arrogant tone, Spherea explained.
"External energy is basically the next level of energy control that every bearer must master. But unlike your internal energy, which is solely used for techniques, external energy is focused entirely on enhancing your physical abilities. In other words, strength, speed, endurance, agility… all of that skyrockets when you use external energy!"
"And how exactly does it work? I mean, I didn't even know I could use or awaken this external energy."
Spherea chuckled briefly.
"External energy is essentially your physical strength at its peak. It's like unlocking your body's maximum potential. But unlike internal energy, which relies on control and intimacy with your technique, external energy is instinctive. It flows when your body reaches extreme limits and needs to surpass them. It's no wonder you awakened it when you were running to save your skin and Saik's. It was pure survival instinct!"
"And how much does it improve my abilities?" Koji was intrigued.
"It depends on the bearer's class. External energy elevates each physical attribute to the extreme of human capability, but how extreme it gets depends on your level. You're relatively new to this, so the boost you felt was only a fraction of what's possible. The more you train and develop, the stronger you'll get. Have you seen those elite bearers who are as fast as the wind and as strong as bulls? That's what I'm talking about."
"So… when I was running, I awakened it, and my speed increased drastically because of this external energy?"
"Exactly! And trust me, this is just the beginning. But you have to be careful. External energy drains quickly, and if you push too hard, you might collapse. Also, it's not always easy to control at first. You need to learn how to channel it precisely, or you'll waste more than you use."
A sudden attack interrupted the conversation between Spherea and Koji. A violent impact hit him from the side, throwing him to the ground.
"Koji!" Saik yelled, panicking as Koji vanished from his side.
Alaric had reappeared, his rage emanating like a storm, his body moving with the same external energy that Koji had just awakened.
Now far from Saik due to Alaric's absurdly fast attack, Koji and Alaric rolled across the ground. Alaric pinned Koji down, attempting several punches, which Koji dodged with quick movements. Each missed punch from Alaric struck the ground, leaving a crater behind.
However, in an agile move, Alaric threw a left punch aimed at Koji's chin. Koji swiftly blocked it by catching the punch with his open right hand.
"Gotcha!" Koji thought to himself.
But unexpectedly, Alaric opened his left hand and, in milliseconds, grabbed Koji's right hand, pulling him aside. He lifted Koji off the ground and then delivered a brutal headbutt to Koji's forehead.
"YOU THINK YOU CAN PLAY WITH ME, BRAT?!" Alaric roared, launching a flurry of punches at Koji's face after the headbutt.
"Spherea, where are the spheres?" Koji mentally asked his demon.
"You're still a low-class bearer. Your spheres, while highly efficient, are also at a lower level like you," Spherea clarified.
"What are you trying to say? Just tell me!"
"What I'm saying is that your spheres can't keep up efficiently with the speed and agility of external energy."
"They're slow? But you said I awakened external energy, and they followed my speed away from the vortex. How are they slow?"
"Of course, they could follow you! Even though external energy enhances your physical abilities to the max, including speed, your external energy is still low-class because you're a low-class bearer. So, you, your spheres, and your external energy are all at the lowest class, which is why they can keep up with you. Now, Alaric's external energy is far superior to yours because he's a higher-class bearer than you."
Spherea completed the explanation.
"Don't you realize that even with your external energy awakened, your enhanced speed and agility still aren't enough to dodge Alaric's punches, which are faster and more agile due to his higher class? If his class is higher than yours, it's only natural that his external energy is much more developed than yours."
"So how do I get out of this alive?"
"Don't panic, you coward. Call me out loud, not through your mind, and I'll try something."
Amidst Alaric's punches, which bloodied his face, Koji opened his mouth.
"Spherea!"
Suddenly, a three-meter-tall, humanoid being of pure darkness, Spherea, appeared beside Koji with a grin stretching from ear to ear.
"Huh?" Alaric noticed Spherea's presence out of the corner of his eye and stepped away from Koji in slight surprise.
"Oh, it feels good to be back in the flesh at such a perfect moment," Spherea remarked with her usual sarcasm.
Before anything else could happen, the mysterious woman who had previously observed the fight between Alaric and Saik reappeared, this time making herself known to Alaric and the others.
Walking slowly with a calm demeanor, she looked at Alaric and spoke in a reprimanding tone.
"Alaric, look at the mess you made in the city!" she said coldly and authoritatively. "You've disorganized everything! How do you expect to complete our mission like this?"
"Give me a break! We don't need to leave the cities intact, and look at the situation I'm in. This is a fight."
As Koji wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, Spherea noticed something strange about the woman and spoke to Koji.
"This woman has no energy," she stated.
"What do you mean?"
"Even when a bearer is at a very high level and can suppress their aura's perception, we demons still feel something. But this woman… there's nothing. That leaves two possibilities: either she has the ability to hide her energy sensitivity, or she's using a technique borrowed from a real bearer."
"Wait, it's possible to use a borrowed technique?"
"It's not exactly appropriate, but there are desperate ones… She could be an example of that."
"She doesn't seem desperate, though… more like angry."
Lyanna spoke again to Alaric, who was approaching her.
"Alaric, stop playing around. You shouldn't waste so much time. Look at the city… there's nothing left of my organization," she said, casting a brief cold and impatient glance at Koji.
"How about you stop complaining and help me out? It would be better so we can kill this guy faster," Alaric suggested, eager to end the prolonged fight.