The light rain pattered steadily on the jagged stones of the basin as Kael stood there quietly. He felt oddly at peace with the rain pouring down on him, drenching his clothes.
His eyes slowly regained their light blue color, but they were now silvering at the edges.
His hair, which was usually a dark black color, gained a silver sheen, mostly to the strands on the surface of his head; the strands underneath mostly kept their black color, or the silver hue was just covered.
Even though he would not be able to see the change in his appearance without taking a look in the mirror, Kael could feel the changes in his body.
He could immediately feel that there was something different about his body. It felt sturdier, stronger, and his perception of the world felt different.
If before, looking at these raindrops and all he could see was a blur of falling water, now, it was as if he was staring at the raindrops falling in slow motion.
Every raindrop seemed to whisper to him as it hit the ground in a Pat! Pat! sound, it was like looking at fragments of something bigger, a whole piece that had dissolved into droplets.
Maybe that is why he felt at peace, because he was looking at the world from a different perspective.
The world around lay hushed, the only sound was the falling rain, the ground was drenched in a gray palette, pierced only by the erratic flickers of storm-lit shapes overhead.
Kael pressed a hand to his chest, feeling the steady pulse beneath his ribs, "The core is now synced to the rhythm of my heart. Does that mean I have successfully awakened as an ascender? Is ascender even the right word for someone like me?"
He exhaled casually, and the world responded.
The rain recoiled, pulling away in taut rivulets, vertical, like curtains drawn aside. A ring of dry ground circled him, kind of like a domain of his control, where even moisture dared not intrude.
"Wow, I can get drunk in this power, if I'm not careful, this feeling, it's intoxicating."
Standing there, Kael understood two things clearly: first, this power was more than something foreign; it was now an extension of himself, like a fifth limb added to his body.
"Perfecting my control will probably take time, but I have always been very patient in all that I do. I will dedicate myself to mastering this power I have gained."
He stepped forward, and the ground beneath him rippled like water. Each footfall shaped reality, furrowing indents in the soil. He focused, heart pounding with exhilarating force.
Kael frowned, visibly annoyed by the effect his power seemed to have on the environment.
You would think that causing this much change in the external environment would be a sign of the kind of raw strength contained in his body, but he knew better: " A clear lack of control." He muttered, "I need to at least tone it down, or contain it."
Closing his eyes, Kael calmed his raging heart and, visually reaching out to his core.
He imagined the energy leaking into his body from the core, no, he felt it, and then, using his willpower, he compressed it back into the core, putting a seal on it.
Next, he calmly let the energy slowly filter out in a stream from the core, to every corner of his body, using his understanding of anatomy, kind of like replicating the flow of blood in his veins.
He immediately felt the change in his body; it was no longer overflowing with power; instead, it felt controlled, regulated, and restrained, under his control.
And in response, Kael smiled, or rather, his face loosened from its tense stillness to something truer, something unmoored.
"Much better, "Kael nodded, clearly satisfied with the results. He was sure his method was far from perfect, but it worked well for what he wanted to achieve.
"What should I try next? Let's do a test run, for actually using my ability to do something." Kael was already imagining all the ways in which he could utilise his anti-dream energy.
Kael frowned again. "Anti-dream energy, that sounds wrong. Void energy." The words just popped up in his mind. "That's weird." It just sounded right to him.
Almost like someone had put a suggestion in his mind. Or maybe someone had.
Kael shook his head. "Focus." He took a deep breath.
"I can channel it to my palm and compress it into some sort of form like I did with my core. I easily figured out channelling it. I wonder if it works the same for using it externally?
And if I want to strengthen my body, I can let it run amok like before, or I can release a sturdy output of energy over time for efficiency.
Oh wait, I can actually try gathering it in a particular part of my body to use that for attacking, okay, I'll try that."
Applying his theory, Kael released a small burst of void energy towards his arm. It took him only a couple of seconds, unlike last time.
He slammed an open palm to the ground, releasing the energy in a pulse as soon as he made contact with the ground.
Boooom!!!
The pulse thundered, rock fracturing, like distant drums answered by the earth itself.
"That was easy, worked better than I thought. Let's create a ball of energy next."
Huuuuu!
He let out a loud sigh to calm himself and closed his eyes to focus.
He channelled his energy from the core once more; this time, instead of imbuing it in his arm, he focused on expelling it from his palm and gathering it in a single point.
When he felt the ball forming, he opened his eyes, and the sight brought a smile to his face.
A black, foggy sphere had formed, growing larger each second. He continued to channel energy into the sphere.
"It's getting even bigger. Let's fix that, size is not power." Using the same principle, Kael compressed the ball of energy, making it smaller even as more energy was streaming into it.
And instead of growing bigger, the sphere became darker and darker each second. When he felt that he had supplied enough energy to the sphere, Kael stopped channeling energy.
He studied the sphere for a few seconds. It now had a solid pitch black color to it. With no wispy fog around it. It looked more like a black hole than a sphere now.
"Hmmm... What should I do with this? Throw it away?" As soon as the thought came, Kael decided to throw it, and so he did.
He extended his palm outwards and released the energy ball. It sort of bounced off his hand, but then he noticed how it expanded as soon as he released it.
What came next was unexpected, but also to be expected.
Tsiuuu!!!
The sphere exploded in size, and then...
BOOOOM!!!
An earth-shuddering explosion followed.
Kael was blasted back by the shockwave. He rose back to his feet quickly, staring at the centre of the explosion.
The sheer magnitude of the explosion that ensued, Kael was not expecting, the visual effect, though, was beautiful.
"What an oddly beautiful sight." He muttered.