Chapter 13: A Painful Recovery

  Meliodas took a deep breath as Aurelius’ voice spoke.

  “We shall begin then. First, continue to steady your breathing. Just as you are doing now. Slow it down.”

  Meliodas inhaled again, then exhaled, focusing.

  Now,” Aurelius continued, “focus your mind on your nexus, do not search for it. Feel it, then visualize it.”

  Meliodas took another deep breath and let it out slowly as he shifted his focus inward, toward his chest where his nexus lay.

  Almost immediately, an image formed in his mind.

  A circular orb, it reminded him of the image he saw in a book once as a child, of a star.

  It glowed orange, surrounded by gentle, flickering flames. Within that glow, faint traces of bright green moved subtly through the fire. He noticed them, but chose not to dwell on them.

  “Remarkable,” Aurelius said quietly. “Truly remarkable.”

  He studied Meliodas closely as his aura began to manifest, a beautiful, controlled orange flame enveloping him.

  To visualize your internal realm with such clarity at such an early stage, Aurelius thought, is no small feat.

  Then he spoke aloud.

  “Have you done this before, student? Or is this your first time?”

  “As you probably know, sir,” Meliodas replied, “my Straum capacity is… rather lacking. Because of that, my father focused my training more on control and visualization than on actual combat or skill development.”

  Silence followed.

  Aurelius spoke after a moment.

  “I am surprised your father would take that approach at all. But it does clarify certain things.”

  “It wasn’t his idea,” Meliodas added. “It was my mother’s. My father wasn’t keen on it at first, but after seeing the results, he accepted it.”

  Meliodas thought for a moment, then added quietly,

  “Do you know my father, Professor?”

  “As a matter of fact, I do,” Aurelius replied. “It’s no surprise after all, most people across the three continents know your father. But yes, I have crossed paths with him personally.”

  Interesting, Meliodas thought. Then he spoke again.

  “You know my mother as well, Professor?”

  “Yes,” Aurelius answered. “I do. But now is not the time for questions. Let us focus on the task ahead, shall we?”

  Meliodas nodded and refocused.

  Only then did he realize the image of his nexus had faded, as he centered his thoughts once more, it reappeared, steady and clear.

  As you can already visualize your nexus clearly, this will shorten your recovery time,” Aurelius said. “Now, try to use your Straum. Only faintly use it to analyze your nexus, don’t force it.”

  Meliodas followed his instructions.

  The moment he tried using his Straum, pain surfaced, a sharp, burning sensation that made his body tremble, he clenched his jaw and endured it.

  Then he saw it.

  Thin strings of icy blue drifting around his core, faint but unmistakable, he focused on them, trying to understand their movement, then Darkness swallowed him.

  Meliodas jerked upright as his eyes flew open, his head throbbing violently. He sucked in a sharp breath and steadied himself, sweat clinging to his skin.

  He looked toward the professor.

  “How long was I out?” he asked softly.

  “About thirty minutes,” Aurelius replied calmly.

  The professor was seated nearby, munching on a crunchy peach, deep red in color. He took another from within his robes and casually tossed it toward Meliodas.

  Meliodas barely managed to catch it.

  “Eat it,” Aurelius said. “It will help you recover. It should ease the headache.”

  “Thanks,” Meliodas replied. He looked at the fruit, shrugged, and took a bite.

  It was crunchy, yet sweet, just like a peach should be. The familiar flavor spread across his tongue, and his thoughts drifted back to his homeland. Archypego had countless trees that produced them, crunchy peaches grew in abundance.

  As nostalgia washed over him, the headache dulled, fading into the background.

  “That’s it,” Aurelius said. “Remember that feeling, student. It will aid your recovery greatly.”

  Meliodas thought for a moment. Just as he was about to ask a question, the professor interrupted.

  “No questions,” Aurelius said calmly. “Let’s get right back to it.”

  He gestured toward the array, Meliodas stood and walked toward it.

  Meliodas woke up again. This was the fifth time he had passed out.

  Again and again he tried to visualize and focus on the ambient Straum within him. Each attempt ended the same way, either vomiting or losing consciousness entirely. Frustration began to build as he pushed himself upright, irritation creeping in despite the exhaustion.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  He looked toward the professor.

  Aurelius was calmly sipping tea while reading a book written in a language Meliodas couldn’t recognize. Without looking up, he simply pointed toward the circle and said one word.

  “Again.”

  Meliodas clenched his jaw and tried once more.

  This time, he didn’t pass out.

  Instead, he doubled over and vomited onto the stone floor.

  Meliodas barely had time to steady himself before he noticed movement. A cloak was drifting toward him.

  It was… wrong.

  The fabric was ash-colored, but there was no fabric at all. Ash flowed within it, shifting and folding as if alive, held together in the vague shape of a cloak worn by something unseen. The particles moved constantly, never settling, never falling.

  Meliodas struggled to make sense of it.

  From the drifting mass of ash, a shape gathered. A thin, unsteady arm took form and lowered itself toward the floor, the ash condensing just enough to brush the stone, sweeping away the mess in slow, deliberate motions before loosening again into a restless haze.

  The first time Meliodas had seen the construct, creature, familiar, whatever it was he had nearly blacked out from shock alone. Aurelius had calmly explained that it was his familiar and that Meliodas shouldn’t concern himself with it.

  That did little help.

  Even now, every time the familiar manifested, unease crawled through him, as it drifted closer, he felt it again, not pain, but distortion, as if something inside his head was being lightly disturbed, his senses momentarily failing him and his vision becoming a blur.

  Meliodas shook his head as annoyance crept in once more. The ash-like creature had already disappeared, leaving the air strangely still.

  He steadied himself, drawing a slow breath.

  I must be doing something wrong, he thought. This can’t be the right way.

  His jaw tightened.

  This has to be a test. The professor is watching, waiting to see if I can figure it out on my own.

  With that resolve, Meliodas lowered himself back into position and began to meditate again, forcing his breathing to steady despite the frustration he was feeling.

  This time, he focused harder on the strings, as he did darkness pressed in at the edges of his vision, his body was on the verge of collapse. Just before he blacked out, he pushed himself, a headache starting to form as the world outside became completely quiet.

  He focused for a moment, Aurelius had told him to pull the strings inward so he could absorb them and begin replenishing his Straum, comparing it to a kind of boost that would help him recover.

  But it wasn’t working.

  What if, instead of pulling the strings into his core, he forced them out?

  Meliodas concentrated hard on them, pushing against the foreign strands and trying to expel them from his core space.

  The strings vanished. For a brief moment, nothing happened.

  Then pain hit him all at once, like a tsunami crashing over his body.

  Sweat poured down his skin as his nexus began to shake violently. He realized, with growing horror, that it was becoming unstable.

  Meliodas panicked, not knowing what to do.

  His vision blurred as his nexus flared brighter than ever. This time, it wasn’t the icy blue strands fading away, but orange threads ripping loose from his own core.

  Meliodas stared in shock, instinctively understanding that he had made a terrible mistake.

  Then he felt it.

  A hand settled firmly against his back.

  A voice followed, not aloud, but inside his mind.

  Focus, Meliodas, he recognized it instantly. Professor Aurelius.

  As Aurelius’ aura flowed into him, steady and precise, it guided his own. Meliodas latched onto it, focusing fully on his nexus. With Aurelius’ presence anchoring him, he forced the orange threads back into his core, pressing against it, molding it whole again. Slowly, the violent shaking began to subside.

  His eyes flew open.

  He collapsed forward, hitting the stone floor as nausea surged up violently. He vomited again, but this time it wasn’t the usual green stuff.

  Something darker spilled out.

  Thick, black, almost glue-like, streaked with faint icy-blue patterns.

  The substance smoked faintly against the stone.

  Before he could even process what he was seeing, his body began to shake violently. A rush of cold tore through him, as if he had been dropped into the middle of a snowstorm. Chills spread across his skin.

  Heavy footsteps rushed toward him.

  Meliodas fell onto his back, his vision blurring.

  This is it, he thought. This is how I die.

  “Student Meliodas…” A voice cut through the cold, distant and distorted. He couldn’t hear the rest. His body shook against the stone as his eyes began to close

  Then-

  Suddenly, he felt it, a small warmth pressing against his arm, pushing back against the cold. He instinctively focused on it, realizing something was feeding Straum into him, not the chaotic ambient kind, but something purified.

  He closed his eyes again, forcing himself to concentrate.

  Inside his core space, everything had grown cold. The light of his nexus was nearly gone.

  His gaze shifted as he saw it, a single current remained, the only thing keeping him alive.

  His focus shifted toward it, the current was small, orange, alive with heat.

  Fire.

  A current of fire he realized.

  Meliodas snapped into action, survival instincts taking over. He began meditating again, guiding the purified Straum the array the professor had prepared for him toward the point where the current began, as it passed through it, it changed refining itself further, becoming pure fire Straum.

  The cold began to recede, as warmth returned slowly.

  After a few minutes, his breathing steadied and the tension faded. Then, once again, Meliodas passed out.

  Meliodas floated in a calm, blank space. Nothing surrounded him.

  He felt calm, truly calm, as if all of his worries had simply vanished. He allowed himself to enjoy that emptiness for a moment.

  Meliodas looked around and saw nothing. The vast silence unsettled him, yet the peace it produced was intoxicating, almost like a drug.

  After a moment of pure relaxation, his senses tingled. He noticed that something disturbed the stillness.

  He looked around again and saw nothing, at first it was only the faintest sensation.

  “What was that?” he spoke aloud.

  He still saw nothing, but he felt the disturbance, barely noticeable. Meliodas focused on it, analyzing the sensation. Not an aura… more like a wavelength. It slowly grew stronger.

  He realized it was coming closer.

  What had begun as a distant disturbance gradually took shape, until suddenly a small flame flickered into existence before him.

  Meliodas didn’t move. He simply watched it approach.

  Instinctively, he felt it meant him no harm.

  The black flame began circling around Meliodas.

  He watched it, confused, Meliodas could tell that the flame was… excited.

  But how could a flame be excited? he wondered.

  Meliodas studied it for a moment longer, watching it dance around him with almost childlike enthusiasm. After a second, Meliodas shrugged and decided not to analyze it too deeply. It was one of those strange things that simply happened.

  The flame stopped directly in front of him, it started to glow brighter. Meliodas tilted his head in confusion.

  The flame began drifting from side to side.

  “What is it that you want, little buddy?” He asked.

  No response.

  The flame flared brighter again, almost… annoyed.

  Wait. What? Meliodas thought again. How can a flame be annoyed?

  He pressed a palm against his face.

  “Of course, you idiot. Don’t talk to it, feel it with your aura.”

  His aura manifested, faint orange fire glowing around his body. Surprisingly, there was no pain.

  Meliodas let out a quiet sigh of relief.

  He focused his aura toward the small black flame, but before he could extend his senses further, the flame rushed toward him.

  Meliodas couldn’t react.

  The instant it collided with his aura, it began merging with it.

  He panicked for a brief moment, but then he felt it, excitement, no hostility or harm.

  As the flame fused completely with his aura, its color shifted, orange and black intertwining before the darkness slowly faded. A deep sense of relief flooded through him.

  Meliodas closed his eyes, trying to analyze his core space again.

  There, the flame. It danced around his nexus, lively and restless.

  He followed its movement as it drifted closer and settled near the nexus.

  Without any warning-

  The flame began to glow brighter, and brighter, Its shape distorted. The fire collapsed inward, melting into a naked, glue-like substance.

  Meliodas stared in shock as it shaked violently, shifting, trying to reform.

  Then the pain returned, it spread through his entire body, nausea surged.

  “What is happening?” Meliodas said, his voice trembling as another wave of sickness hit him, the pain becoming unbearable as he tried to scream.

  He woke with a sharp gasp, his eyes snapping open. This time he didn’t shoot upright; he was too exhausted for that. Instead, he lay on the cold floor.

  “Seriously… again,” he muttered, voice heavy with fatigue. “How many times has it been today?”