I Refuse To Be Fate’s Puppet - Chapter 45

The sun came through the window, causing through room to brighten up. The bright light woke caused Arata to stir. He moved slowly on his bed. He got up lazily and sat on the edge of his bed, eyes half closed. He was entirely awake as he sat there quietly for a few seconds before yawning. Mid yawn he paused. His eyes went wide open as he was instantly awake.

He crossed his legs in a hurry and closed his eyes and circulated his Energy, it naturally flowed in the pathway that King would use. The Void. He found that his Elemental Reservoir was extremely different now. It felt like his Energy had shifted from being held within his Elemental Reservoir and had replaced it instead.

The Elemental Reservoir was a container within the body that held one’s Energy. But now there was no container, as Arata’s Elemental Reservoir had become Energy in and of itself. His also felt that his Energy had thickened and was stronger. He had somehow solidified it. The Second Level of Refinement: Concretion. He had finally reached it.

Arata opened his eyes with excitement. He didn’t know how, but he had finally broken through his bottleneck. It felt like his Elemental Reservoir was on a completely different level to what it was before.

“You solidified your Energy while also expanding your Elemental Reservoir. Those two changes have given you access to the Void.”

Arata listened to King speak as he felt the changes within him.

“How do I use it?”

“Before that, you need to understand what is going on within you. Once you understand, how you use it will flow naturally as well.”

Arata nodded in acknowledgement. King continued to speak.

“Non-Elemental is believed to be impossible to condense and solidify, which is why no one tries to do it. But that is a lie. It is extremely difficult but it is possible. The biggest obstacle in condensing Non-Elemental Energy is it’s nature. It is impossible to condense nothing.”

Arata remembered. This was what he had encountered and felt that it was impossible to condense it as well.

“But that is only because of the Elemental Reservoir. Within it, there is nothing to condense. All more specifically, not enough nothing to condense.”

Arata had a look of confusion on his face.

“Not enough nothing? That doesn’t make sense, ya know?”

King’s voice echoed as he chuckled.

“No matter how large your Elemental Reservoir is, it will never have enough of nothing to condense it. But what about within the entire universe? The universe is infinitely expansive. And nothing is it’s opposite in every way. But in the same way, infinity and nothing are the same on some level. So to condense nothing within you, you must have enough nothing to condense. But there is never enough nothing, thus to condense nothing, you need an infinite amount of nothing to condense, creating a cycle. A paradox. The Void.”

Arata was silent as he contemplated what King said. At first glance, none of it made sense and King sounded like a crazy drunk ranting about something unbelievable. But then Arata analyzed it and began to understand what King was trying to teach within all his lessons.

“By becoming nothing, you can understand everything.”

“Precisely. By gaining access to the infinite universe, you can gather enough nothing and Non-Elemental Energy to condense within you.”

Arata asked in response to this.

“But that is impossible. As you said, the Elemental Reservoir can’t contain enough for nothing to be condensed.”

“But what if the barrier was broken?”

Arata went wide eyed. He suddenly recalled what had happened before he passed out. The feeling of his Energy pushing on his Elemental Reservoir’s walls. Like it was trying to get out. No, that’s wrong. It was trying to let what was outside in. The walls of his Elemental Reservoir was destroyed and the nothing within him connected with the nothing outside of him and became one. That was when he passed out.

“After you passed out, I forcefully channelled the Void within you. Circulating it through you. By doing this, I could keep you from being destroyed while your Elemental Reservoir and the Pure Non-Elemental Energy within you could connect with the universe. As it did, I gathered and began condensing the Energy, recreating your Elemental Reservoir. It has no barrier holding it in. Instead, your power freely flows in, through and out of you.”

Arata instantly knew what this meant. His Energy was more powerful as it had solidified to the point where it no longer needed to held in, but it could itself together by itself. But that wasn’t the part that he was excited about. He stood up as he walked over to the mechanism in the corner of his room. He activated it and adjusted it for a single fireball to be released.

A ball of fire came out and flew towards Arata. Arata channelled his Energy and tried to tap into the Energy around him, expanding his Energies area. Before the fire ball could reach him, it exploded, as if it hit an invisible wall. Arata was sweating and felt slightly dizzy.

“Smart, kid. You realized the true meaning of your new Elemental Reservoir.”

Arata was shocked to see that he was right, but was now buzzing at this discovery.

“By tearing away the container, my Elemental Reservoir is now connected with the area around me. In essence, my Elemental Reservoir has grown to become everything around me. I can gain access to the Energy around me as if it were my own Elemental Reservoir.”

King made a noise of approval.

“Mmmm, indeed. Of course, the amount you can access comes down to your Energy and Mental Control, also the strongest Energy will always be the Energy within you, but with practice and training, you will be able to take advantage of the Energy in the area around you. As your Energy and Mental Control increases, you will be able to grow the area that your Elemental Reservoir can affect.”

Arata processed what King was saying. There were a few things that Arata didn’t know, but he knew that if he could learn it from King and master it, his power would rise to new heights. It sounded like a lot of effort though. He was more interested in sleeping more.

“Stop being lazy. There are many things you need to learn and you don’t have the time to slack off.”

Arata frowned at this comment. What was wrong with slacking off? Rest was needed to perform at your best. He felt a sharp pain in his head. He groaned as he gripped his head.

“Anymore snarky comments?”

Arata stayed quiet. Both physically and mentally. Then Arata thought of a question.

“What is Energy and Mental Control?”

Arata felt his Energy circulate. It was going through the Void pathway, before veering off slightly. Arata felt his Energy flow out of the path before reentering. It happened again and again. Then it began flowing in a completely different path that Arata wasn’t familiar with. He felt his Energy split and began flowing in two completely different pathways through him. Arata was in awe at how his Energy was moving.

Although this didn’t seem like much, this was a powerful and useful ability to have when cultivating. By using different pathways, you can solidify and strengthen different parts of your Elemental Reservoir, empowering you to grow in areas that you previously were unable to, as well as the possibility of unlocking new abilities. Many people were restricted to certain style of fighting, Physical Tempering, Weapon Enhancing etc because if their cultivation pathways and what their Elemental Reservoir gave then access to.

But being able to control your Energy’s flow and pathways, you could essentially gain access to and use any method of Elemental Reservoir based techniques and fighting styles. King was impressed that Arata could reach this understanding from just him manipulating the Energy within the Elemental Reservoir.

“Energy Control is the degree of understanding of the Elemental Reservoir and your Energy. As you gain deeper enlightenment, you can manipulate and control it more. This is known as Energy Control. Not only will this help in cultivation, but also in battles. Being able to accurately use the right amount of Energy that is necessary can focus and concentrate the power of your attacks.

“Once you have a grasp on Energy Control, I will start to teach you about Mental Control. Although, judging from that little display you did with that fireball, I can see you have a bit of Mental Control already. But I will teach you that another time.”

Before Arata could ask him to explain what he meant, there was a knock at the door. Arata got off of his bed and opened the door to see Akari standing at the door. Akari was wearing casual clothes. A white top and white pants. Although it was casual wear, she seemed to be glowing. She looked at what Arata was wearing.

“I heard that you and Ryouma just got back. Today is a free day and I was wondering if you had any plans for today.”

Arata stared blankly at Akari. Akari made a face as she scrunched up her nose.

“Although maybe I should ask you after you have a shower. You smell awful.”

Arata frowned as he sniffed him. He did indeed. Akari walked away, clearly heading to the dorm entrance. Arata grabbed some clothes and went to have a shower. When he was finished, he went to the South Dorm entrance where Akari was standing. She saw him coming.

“So do you have plans for today?”

Arata replied simply, his arrogant demeanor on full display as he could feel the gazes of the students watching the two of them.

“Nothing.”

Akari nodded as she walked out.

“Good. Then you can help me with a problem.”

Akari walked out if the South Dorm. Arata stood in place for a second staring at her. His procrastinator instincts began screaming at him.

‘EFFORT AHEAD!! WARNING! EFFORT AHEAD! TURN AROUND NOW! ABORT!”

Arata was about to head back when Akari turned around.

“Hurry up, Vice-Class Rep.”

Arata gave a glare to Akari who smiled back. He sighed as he followed her. She walked over to a carriage with a man dressed in all white armor was standing. The man bowed courteously to Akari as she got into the carriage. The man gestured for Arata to follow suit, and he complied.

Arata sat down opposite Akari. The carriage was similar to his Clan’s carriage’s so he was quite comfortable. Akari grinned as they started moving.

“So how was the mission? What happened?”

Arata sensed that this was coming. The past week, Akari had been trying to get any bit of information she could out of Arata and Ryouma, but they wouldn’t tell her anything. They used the Sato Clan as an excuse, secret information and it was classified. When reality was that they didn’t want to talk about the mission because of how dark it was. Arata wanted to talk about it even less now that he had actually done it. He shook his head.

“I can’t say.”

Akari picked up on the flinch and the look in Arata’s eyes. She knew something had happened. She wanted to know but knew she shouldn’t push it. She changed the subject.

“Well today, I have another mission for you.”

Arata looked at her confused.

“A mission? What kind of mission?”

Akari’s face went serious.

“A dangerous mission. For me to complete it, I need someone that I can trust to back me up on it.”

Arata felt the atmosphere in the carriage change and there was a heavy, tense feeling coming off of Akari. This must be something important in the Ise Clan. She looked him dead in the eye with a strong stare.

“I need you to promise that you will do all you can to help me.”

Arata didn’t expect this from Akari. She was acting strange. But she was his friend, even if she was slightly annoying. Arata nodded his head.

“I will do all I can to help. What do you need from me?”

Akari’s eyes lit up at Arata’s response.

“Thank you, Arata.”

She took a deep breath.

“I have a battle today. There will be many competitors that will be specifically targeting me. I need some to help me fend off these attackers and come out victorious.”

A battle? Arata didn’t know what the battle was for, but he could help her in a battle. That wasn’t a problem. He nodded

“Easy.”

Akari nodded.

“Good. Here’s our first stop. We need some equipment and armor for the upcoming battle.”

Arata nodded as the carriage stopped. Arata followed Akari out if the carriage and was stunned at what he saw. A large store with large windows. But it was what was on display that stunned Arata. The manikins weren’t wearing armor or holding weapons. Instead, they were wearing tailor made suits and dresses. Formal attire. Arata was confused as he looked at Akari who had a fearful look on her face.

“Our first challenge; finding the right armor for this oncoming battle. Let’s do this.”

She walked into the store with a stride of a warrior walking into an enemy army. Arata had a look of disbelief.

‘What kind of battle was this?’