Chapter 204: Denial(29)

It’s been two whole days ever since Aether had mastered Soul Sense, and really, he’s been a mess. Not because of the ability, or a bad headache. But he hadn’t been able to decide if it was enough. Maybe it was just that he was scared. But was Soul Sense enough to beat Denial?

It was funny, since when he was getting Soul Sense, he couldn’t wait do challange that bastard, but now, he didn’t know if he should.

It made him wonder, had his will actually dimmed?

It was terrifying to think of it, really. Hope and will inside the Tides were something really important. He hoped he hadn’t found an anchor that would be stronger than the one he already had, and that made him challenge the trial.

But at the same time, he wasn’t fully wrong; he hadn’t tested soul sense on a human before. He didn’t know if it would work. After all, the description stated that it allowed him to see the souls of unliving things and shadows, not humans or other living things.

Denial was a living being, even if he didn’t have a physical body, so would he be able to see his soul?

That was why he had decided to ask Leo for help. They had gotten quite close in these past months, so they accepted. But there was one thing that worried Aether. He didn’t want to get close to people.

…Not when most of what he had gotten close to in his time as a reader died.

I mean, his master, Avrie, and Elpis, who maybe would have survived if he hadn’t come into their lives. Azel, who would maybe have actually taken after her mother and now be a Queen. But also people like the Jack… his brother, well, not actually, he was his brother in that book.

…But for some reason, he still considered him a brotherly figure….

Then his Rebellion… which he didn’t wish to speak of.

It was still a very personal subject that hurt him every time he thought of it… he knew they were dead, and that it was all his fault… and all that came over him was anger, so he wished to think as little of it as possible.

But that was why he wished not to get close to anyone inside the Tides. But not only has he become close to the people of the Inn, but also Leo and the others.

Yet, he was close to getting out of this place, so maybe… they were going to survive.

…

“So do I just stand here?” Leo asked, confused about how his ability worked.

Aether nooded, closing his eyes. After getting the skill, he didn’t need to get rid of his hearing, but his eyes being closed was still necessary; still, it was an improvement, since closing his eyes didn’t require anything, while getting rid of his hearing did, cotton, or something else to block the sound.

Even with his eyes closed, Aether still saw the world, but that wasn’t anything special, after all. Just after getting Soul Sense, he had decided to test it by navigating through the Tides with his eyes closed, and he was able to do so well without any close calls.

While it was still weird, he had gotten used to it.

To live and see in the world of the shadows, of the Forgotten…

The Abyss’s world.

Looking at where Leo was standing, he did see a figure, but by what he could tell, it wasn’t his, but his shadows. Which wasn’t bad, it just meant that while he couldn’t see humans, he could see humans, which was still great.

“Now attack me, but don’t use a lot of force just in case.”

“Uh, alright if you say so.”

Aether noticed how the shadows dashed forward to him, just like Leo was doing. It made him smile; it actually worked, and he could fight using this skill. He might actually be able to fight Denial.

He waited until the punch of the shadow was close, and then dodged to the right.

Or at least that was what he had wanted to do. Since before he could, he felt a strong force hit his face, catching him off guard, and knocking him to the floor.

Aether rubbed his back and blinked twice, confused by what had happened.

The shadow hadn’t touched him yet; it was close, but it should have been enough for him to dodge. So what had happened?

As Aether was about to get back up on his feet, he noticed his shadow. And it made him think of something. The shadow, it was positioned slightly behind him. While normally, it was bigger, since he saw the shadows of others as human beings instead of a reflection of the walls and floor, was that distance smaller?

And if so, let’s say the shadow was behind the human by around five centimeters, then would he see the shadow being five centimeters away from his face when the human reached his face?

…

It made sense and explained why he got hit even if the shadow wasn’t close…

“Again!”

…

…

Aether fell to the floor again.

’So it isn’t six either… damn!’ He ruffled his hair. This was getting annoying, trying to find the distance between the shadow and the human. Like, really annoying.

“Kid, are you sure this is okay, you are getting hur-”

“Yes!” Aether instantly blurred out before Leo even had time to finish. He was determined to get this done. To get the distance done. He had been right; if he had gone to challenge Denial, he would have lost quite badly, so he was glad he had made the right decision and prepared more.

If it were him from Frozen Crown, he would have challenged Denial without any preparation, as he did with the Knights… but I guess this was just how much he had changed. It was true that he still made so reckless decisions and plans, but he wasn’t the same boy he was two years ago…

’Damn.’ How had two whole years passed since he went inside Frozen Crown? Time flies, makes him wonder if he was still going to be inside this trial when he turned sixteen, maybe even seventeen.

Either way.

He got back on his feet.

’Lets try seven now.’

…

…

Aether found himself back on the floor again.

’Damn… eight.’

Getting back on his feet, Aether gestured to Leo to attack again, even if the man didn’t really want to.

…

And again he met the floor.

It was getting a lot more annoying than he had expected…

“Again!”

He was going to go for nine now.

…

And again… he was thrown on the floor.

’Damn it!’ This was getting on his nerves, getting thrown on the floor, but he couldn’t stop, not now.

He got back up on his feet and gestured for Leo to attack yet again. He didn’t want to attack again, but he knew that Aether wouldn’t let him stop.

’So what was it now? Ten?’

Aether waited until, and when the shadow was ten centimeters away from being right in front of his face, he dodged and braced himself for the fall yet again… but he didn’t fall.

He had acutally dodge the attack. Aether opened his eyes to see that Leo had been just in front of his face, just like he had calculated.

When doing the test, he didn’t calculate it using his face, like how much distance there was between the shadow and the human when he got hit in the face, but rather when he was about to, like almost touching his face.

If he had done it in the former way, ten centimeters would have also hit him.

So technically, was it twelve? Since the stop where he wanted the human attack to be was twocentemeter of his face.

Well no. That wasn’t how it worked.

It worked like this. His face was point one, and the shadow punch position was point two. The origin was where he wanted the punch to be, two centimeters of his face; the entire distance was in fact twelve, but that didn’t have anything to do with the distance between the shadow and the human. Since the punch of the human was at the origin, it was ten away from the shadow, which was point two.

Really, the distance between the shadow and the human was point two minus point one; it wasn’t that hard.

Aether smiled.

“Again!”

He was going to master this.

…

This went on for six whole hours… and he had gotten very good at dodging attacks.

…

And the Codex was on the same page as him.

…

[Your skill {Soul Sense} has evolved]

[You have gained a new skill {Rhythm}]

Aether grinned, opening his eyes as he heard the Codex… this was amazing.

He didn’t think that he would have a skill; he just evolved so quickly.

But… this also marked the end of his training.

…

Tomorrow, he was leaving to fight Denial.

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