Chapter 3436 Be the Water (Part 1) I'm sorry, dear.' Salaark and Leegaain, the "gods" Aran had just invoked, replied in unison. 'We can't help you but know that we believe in you. Don't give up.' Were you listening to me the whole time?' Aran blushed up to his ears in embarrassment. 'No, but if you call our names from so close, we can't help but hear you.' The Guardians replied. 'Don't worry. We won't tell your parents of all the swear words you've learned.' 'Dammit! I had forgotten that Grandma and Grandpa are gods. Guardians. The thing people pray to.' Aran inwardly whined. 'More training, less whining, young man.' Leegaain said. 'You are wasting precious time. Tomorrow waits for no one.' 'Yes, Grandpa.'Aran nodded, still freaked out someone had actually answered his prayers. After he managed to calm down, he started to study the problem instead of blindly tackling it. At this point, all the things I've done to achieve the first and second steps are no longer useful. I need something new. Something I'm missing. The problem is I have no idea what it is.' Aran thought. He studied the blazing fire and then tried to make contact with it with his mana. This time it was just contact, not control. Nothing happened anyway. After snack time and exhausting all theories he could come up with, he moved on to manipulating his own light, the one shining where his mana core was supposed to be. Aran weaved spells, moved them around, and spread the elements throughout his body but to no avail. During one of his many attempts, however, he discovered something new. 'Wait a second. Even though I can't alter the intensity of my light nor can I make it budge by a hair's breadth, it's not immutable. My blue light's position is fixed but when I conjure a spell, any spell, it beats like a heart.' Aran put his observation to the test, casting spells in rapid succession. The blue light's intensity and position remained the same yet its size expanded and contracted slightly. After careful study, Aran confirmed that the burning in his abdomen was caused by those pulsations. 'Okay, this is definitely new yet useless. What did Lith say about the secret of Awakening? The steps are as follows: one, feeling your own mana. Check. Two, feeling the world energy. Check. Three: merge them together to form a mana flow. "The question is: how do I merge them if both of them seem to be immutable and unmoving?" Aran studied his blue light one more time and failed to find a clue. Strong with his new understanding of the conundrum, he went back to observing the blazing blue flame that burned so close yet remained untouchable. As he examined the blue flame, Aran noticed that it too wasn't immutable. During the first days of his practice, he had missed it because his perception was too poor. Later, instead, he had missed it because his improved perception made the flame blinding. Only now could Aran notice that just like his mana core, the world energy beat at his own rhythm like a living heart. After the realization hit him, the rest came easy. 'Breathing. I must breathe not at random, but following the pulse of the world energy. Big Brother was right all along but I was too narrow-minded to understand. When it comes to my spells, I'm the river that carries the mana of my spells. 'When it comes to Awakening, the world energy is the river and I'm the water' Unbeknownst to Aran, the flaming energy in front of him wasn't the world energy coming from the mana geyser but Salaark's essence. She had done nothing to help him but her mere presence was more overwhelming than any mana geyser. As soon as Aran had managed to heighten his perception, her power had shone on him like a lighthouse. As he breathed in and out the world energy while following the rhythm of the burning flame, the beat of his mana core changed its frequency to synch with his breathing rhythm. When the mana core and the world energy synchronized, Aran's mana burst through the dams of the impurities in his body and flowed freely through every fiber of his being. "What in Mogar's name is happening?" Salaark noticed the phenomenon even before Aran did. Her eyes went wide in surprise as she watched Aran's mana core break through the shackles of the bright yellow and turn to a deep green Awakened core. "I did it Grandma!" Aran opened his eyes only when he got so used to the breathing rhythm that maintaining it required him no focus. "I have Awak-" His enthusiasm was drowned in pain as the burning of his abdomen spread to the rest of his body. Aran tried to call for help but the only thing that came out was the gurgling sounds of frothing impurities. A black tar-like substance seeped out of his ears, mouth, eyes, and pores. Aran felt like someone was squeezing him like a wet rag soaked in oil before setting it on fire. "He-Gah!" The retching cut his cry for help short but Salaark had no need for words. "I'm here, Featherling." She said, kneeling down on the floor. "I'm sorry but I can't help you. No one can. Yet you don't have to worry. As long as you don't lose consciousness everything will be fine. Can you do it for Grandma, Featherling?" Aran managed to nod in between fits of puking and pain. That day the Overlord of the Blood Desert faced one of the greatest challenges of her long life. Standing there while someone she loved suffered and doing nothing. *** The breakthrough lasted less than a minute. Aran was young, had no excess impurities, and his body was tempered from the daily practice of magic. Nonetheless, it seemed to last hours to both him and the Guardian. "Are you alright, baby? Talk to me." A wave of Salaark's hand cleansed the black pool below Aran's body and his clothes. "I'm fine, Grandma." His voice was slurred and his eyes droopy. "I'm just tired and hungry," "Do you want me to call you father? Your mother? Lith?" She rocked the boy in her arms, checking with her breathing technique that his life force and mana core were intact. "Please, no. There's nothing they can do. I just need to-" Aran went limp, his body too tired for him to remain awake one more moment. "Fine. We'll do things your way, young man, but only because you are right. This is nothing that a bit of rest can't cure." Salaark went back to her desk but didn't put the young boy down. She conjured hard-light constructs shaped like hands to keep working while holding Aran to her chest. A deep green core didn't take long to refill. Eight hours under normal circumstance, less than four when recovering over a mana geyser, and just the time before lunchtime while resting on a Guardian's lap. *** A few minutes before lunch and Aran's awakening, Salaark called everyone to give them the good news. "Yes, he has self-Awakened. Yes, he's fine. No, I didn't help him. Thank you for the vote of confidence!" Salaark answered the same questions over and over while keeping a perfect composure.