SLAP!
"More focus, boy!" Howrah yelled, saliva flying out of his mouth as he stared at a lone skeleton covered in a brown, ragged cloak. This lone skeleton was Damien, and he was currently sitting in a cross-legged position inside the Cathedral.
Howrah held his staff over Damien's head, preparing to strike him again, "How could you possibly tap into the soul energy inside that soul core I gave you!?"
Damien's face twitched at Howrah's reprimanding. He then sighed deeply before relaxing his tense body and focusing on the stationary orb inside his skull.
"Do you see it yet?"
Damien gave a brief nod before feeling Howrah strike him over the head once again, "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!?" Damien yelled.
"USE YOUR WORDS DON'T JUST NOD!" Howrah roared back. Damien shrunk back a bit before huffing and getting into the state again. After being able to see the orb, he gave a grudging confirmation.
"Alright... Now, I want you to feel its contents."
'Easier said than do.' Damien thought as he tried to sense its contents. What he found was something fluid and almost water-like, resting inside the core.
"What you're seeing right now, I assume, is the soul energy within that core of yours." Howrah strutted around Damien in circles while pointing out a few things.
"Consider the core as a glass container and soul energy as water. The more at peace your mind is—"
SLAP!
"THERE WASN'T EVEN A REASON FOR THAT!" Damien yelled as he glared at the old man's staff. Howrah just smirked in response, "Everything has a purpose in the grand scheme, even if it's not so obvious. And that comes to the purpose of that strike."
"Tell me... What does the energy look like inside that mind of yours?"
"Hm?" Damien raised a brow before shutting his eyes and focusing inside his core. He saw that the liquid was now forming waves. "It began to form waves, father."
Howrah nodded and even smiled a bit at how Damien referred to him, "Do you perhaps know the reason why such a thing happened?" He asked the skeleton that gazed up at him with a clueless expression.
"Is it when I get hit?"
"It can lead to it when one doesn't train to control it."
"Could it be because of something I did?"
"Yes."
Howrah unhurriedly answered Damien's questions with an amused look on his face as he saw him clutching his chin in a pondering manner.
'Why does it happen... When I get hit, it can lead to it... It's also something I did...' All Damien remembered was his outburst towards Howrah, hitting him again.
A look of realisation then passed through his mind, "My emotions..." Howrah nodded with an impressed look, "Good, good—!"
"Why should that be a problem?" Damien interrupted him. "Why does it matter if my emotions are chaotic? How would that affect my energy?"
"Because it would affect your grasp over it." Howrah answered, "How can we possibly use something if we don't have even the slightest bit of control over it?"
'He's not wrong...' Damien thought about it and knew what Howrah said made sense, "So the more emotional I get, the more likely I am to lose control of it?"
Howrah nodded, "Yes, yes! And that's why, try your best to keep your emotional level to a minimum!" He warned Damien, who once again raised another question afterwards.
"Are there any other methods for using soul energy when it has waves?"
Howrah's wrinkly face twitched in disgust—turning away from Damien to prevent him from seeing this expression of his. "You could also take the more barbaric option and just use it in its rawest form."
"Are there any benefits in using it when you're angry?" Howrah turned back and looked into Damien's eyes, "The only benefit it can give you is the minuscule amount of increase in potency, but that's about it..."
"And how would these use raw soul energy?"
"They would just crudely blast it out into the surroundings and flatten the poor nature around them!" Howrah slowly shook his head with his eyes closed, "Those Blackmoorian bastards are always so rough in their methods."
"Black... Moorians...?"
"Hm? Oh, right, I forgot you didn't regain some parts of your memories." Howrah sighed before sitting down in front of Damien, "Where we currently are located is the Blackmoorian Empire."
"More specifically, the Cathedral of the bastard God they worship."
"Bastard... God...?" Damien tilted his head to the word God. "Do you mean the one depicted in the painting?" Damien pointed upwards with his index finger, followed by a raise in his gaze towards it.
He was able to catch a glimpse of it before feeling the world spin.
"DON'T LOOK UP, YOU FOOL!"
BAM!
Damien's skull was suddenly slammed down into the Cathedral's marbled flooring. Howrah, who had slammed his face against the ground, heaved heavily with fear.
He slowly let go of Damien and quickly sat back down on the ground and watched Damien get up—once again, without any signs of injury. "What was that for?!" He yelled at Howrah while caressing his face with an irritated look.
Howrah ignored his outburst and softly spoke, "You must never look at anything related to Story."
"Story?"
Howrah nodded grimly, "That is the god they worshipped..." Howrah stared, his eyes trembling, "You must, no matter what, look at its face—"
"But why not—"
"YOU MUST NOT! DO YOU UNDERSTAND, BOY!?" Howrah grabbed onto Damien's skull with an iron grip, madness running in his eyes as he held a serious expression.
Damien pulled off the old man's sickly pale hands off his face with a sigh, "Very well, I won't... Could you at least tell me why, though?"
"There is no need for you to, just know that he is watching." Howrah said before hurriedly getting up from his place and dusting off whatever was on his cloak, "We shall be moving on to actually utilising this soul energy of yours and after that..."
Howrah gave a short dramatic pause, which Damien found annoying, "After that..." He urged the old man to hurry.
"Don't rush me, boy!" Howrah huffed before finishing his sentence, "You'll be going out to get some experience in using it..." He smiled with a toothy grin.