It was sundown.

  Eclipse and Chael were kneeling in front of Celestia, completely drenched in perspiration and in a pool of their own sweat. Other than a few scratches from blows she voluntarily took from Eclipse and Chael, Celestia looked completely fine.

  The landscape around them was torn apart, as if a vicious storm had shredded through it.

  "Bravo!" Celestia clapped, "Looks like you've gotten a lot better at using your weapons. At this rate, you’re on your path to creating your own styles!"

  Eclipse and Chael slowly got to their feet. Chael looked around and smiled bitterly, “Man, we’ve completely messed up the landscape.”

  "Is... is this it? For our training?"

  Eclipse panted as he shot her a sharp look, his eyes sharp and focused. Celestia raised an eyebrow, "Hm? I guess you’re more than halfway there."

  "There's more...? Aren't we strong enough already?" Chael asked. "I'm sure if those same guys from the Dracoferus Tribe crossed us again, we’d have no trouble whatsoever.”

  "Kahaha!" Celestia laughed, "That may be true, but do you really think I've spent the past years training you runts just so you can defeat a few goons from the Dracoferus Tribe? The world outside is a huge, huge place..."

  "Now then..." Celestia sat down with her legs crossed. "Let me teach you about Qi and anima."

  "Qi? Anima, huh?" Chael thoughtfully said, "So you're going to teach us to use those powers next?"

  "Yes." Celestia affirmed, "Buckle up, you stinkin’ brats. So, Qi is the energy force produced by the living body, and it originates from your abdominal region. And once a person learns how to release it, it will flow through a path in the body known as the Qi pathway and act as an energy force that gives them more stamina. It’s super amazing, right?!”

  Eclipse yawned in response.

  “So, can you teach us how to use it?” Chael asked diligently, clearly not caring about the mechanics of it at all.

  “I’m not finished yet. It seems that fight has fried your brats’ attention span.” Celestia pinched the bridge of her nose, “You need to know how it works, y’know? Anyway, the more qi you have, the faster and stronger you’ll be! Qi allows one’s body to produce incredible feats!”

  The duo listened.

  Celestia continued, “Qi not only gives you more stamina but it also takes the form of a visible aura that surrounds your body in a colour that’s unique to everyone! And once you're able to coat yourself with this Qi, you’ll be able to punch through mountains… or if you’re able to coat your weapons with qi, then you’ll be able to cut mountains."

  “But of course, only the strongest of the strong can punch or cut mountains, even among Qi users. Kehehehe, ahem, that would, of course, be someone like me.” Celestia closed her eyes and rubbed her upper lip with an index finger.

  “Isn’t she so full of herself?” Eclipse muttered sleepily.

  “I really want to toss a boulder at her again to test her hypothesis,” Chael responded, unimpressed

  “I can hear you brats loud and clear, y’know!” Celestia fumed and whacked a stick against her palm.

  Eclipse and Chael immediately straightened, as if they were enthusiastic students.

  “Hmph, that’s better.” She snorted, “So yeah, that’s Qi for ya’. It basically turns men into super-men.”

  Chael raised a hand then asked, “So, how much qi do we need to be much, much stronger?”

  "Kaha. That depends on you. There really isn’t a limit! The more Qi that you can harness, the stronger you’ll be. One's Qi storage can increase, and one can have more Qi."

  “Oh, shouldn’t you have taught us this from the start?” Chael said with a raised eyebrow.

  “You kids wouldn’t have been able to use Qi unless you’re as physically fit as you are now; it would’ve been pretty dangerous. The average body cannot handle Qi well, y’know? Don’t even get me started on Anima,” Celestia shrugged matter-of-factly.

  “Anima?”

  The two raised their brows simultaneously. They were strangely adamant to learn, now.

  "To put it simply, Anima is a peculiar... force, or you can just say it’s an extension of your soul, that flows through all of our bodies. It does a lot of things, but it exists only for a primary purpose.” Celestia said, and paused, adding suspense for no reason at all, “To protect the body and the soul from anything that may threaten their existence!”

  “Interesting,” Chael said. “I thought ‘soul’ was just an abstract word people threw around. It exists?”

  Celestia nodded, “Yup, without soul, we’d all be bags of meat and bones, kahaha!”

  Eclipse lingered for a few moments, then asked, “You said it does a lot of things. What else?”

  “I was just about to get to that.” Celestia grinned, “Once you have your Anima nodes open, Anima would flow continuously throughout your body, covering muscles, organs, bones, and nerves. This maintains physical durability, organ function, sensory awareness, and last but not least, the soul’s very connection to the body!”

  “So you guys probably understand the gist by now. The stronger your Anima becomes, the more powerful your defence, the stronger your senses, the healthier your organs, the faster you'll recover and as such the longer your lifespan! After all, unlike Qi, Anima isn’t measured by quantity, but the potency of it that the user possesses,” explained Celestia.

  “Longer lifespan?” Chael gaped.

  “Kehe, that’s right. Cool, isn’t it?” Celestia smiled at him, then carried on, “Another property of Anima is that it allows you to exert your emotions as a pressure, whether it’s hatred, sadness or even just the intensity of your presence. This is called Anima Pressure! Other living beings with souls instinctively sense it. Hmm, you might be wondering why. Well, no need to wonder any longer. This is because their souls react with fear, anxiety, or caution, and as a result, the pressure is recognised as a direct threat to both the soul and the physical body! Likewise, you can also do the reverse, and suppress your Anima if you're trying to go undetected,"

  Eclipse remembered the test that Celestia had put Chael and him through when they had to stand up under immense pressure.

  She must’ve used her Anima Pressure back then for the Test of Mental Endurance… Eclipse thought*.*

  Eclipse thought about bringing it up, but Celestia had already moved on.

  "And finally, the most practical quality of Anima is that in can directly help you in battle!” Celestia explained energetically, “For instance, once your body is naturally coated in anima, your body will harden to the point that neither blunt force nor sharp objects can hurt you… too much at least. Not only that, but the weapons you wield will also harden to the point that they won’t be destroyed easily while you use them."

  “Whoa, weapons too?” Chael gaped.

  Celestia nodded. Instead of replying, she simply pulled out a sharp knife from somewhere and attempted to stab her chest, but to the duo’s surprise, or rather, unsurprise, the knife shattered into splinters.

  "Cool, huh? That’s anima for you.” Celestia hummed, clearly proud of herself for appearing so cool in front of her students.

  “That’s amazing.” Chael beamed, then frowned a little, “But hold on, so what if my opponent is using their Anima? How would I be able to hurt them then?"

  "Well, that’s a good question,” Celestia said with a light smile playing across her lips, “but I believe the two of you already know the answer to that."

  "Qi," Eclipse answered, suddenly.

  "That’s right.” Celestia nodded, “If you can use Qi, then you’ll be able to inflict damage on your opponent depending on how much greater your Qi is relative to their anima! Curious, right?"

  The duo nodded with interest.

  “Back on track,” Celestia continued, “Anima exists in a spiritual layer behind the eleven anima nodes. But as long as this anima remains contained by the nodes, it simply surrounds the soul rather than flowing freely through your body. In this state, Anima remains passive and unexpressed, acting only to anchor the soul to the body and sustain life at a natural level. Because it does not pass through the nodes, it cannot form a barrier, heighten the senses, or be consciously manipulated.”

  “So that’s basically the state of a normal human?” Chael asked.

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

  Celestia nodded, “Correct.”

  “Tell us how to open these nodes, Granny,” Eclipse said with a deadpan expression.

  Celestia let out a defeated sigh, clearly too exhausted to scold the brat for his antics. “You’re going to be the death of me, you brat. Anyways, I was just about to get to that. You know the eleven nodes I mentioned earlier? They’re the Crown Node, Heart Node, Core Node, two Shoulder Nodes, two Hip Nodes, two Palm Nodes, two Foot Nodes. You’ll just have to open them, then you can release your anima!”

  Several seconds passed in silence.

  Chael’s right eye twitched, “That’s… cool, Granny. But how do we do that?”

  Celestia closed her eyes and nodded like a wise sage contemplating the most profound existential questions, “That’s… uhhh… its been so long I’ve forgotten. How do you open them again?”

  “You’re… supposed to be teaching us,” Eclipse said dryly.

  “Hmm… indeed.” Celestia briefly opened her eyes, then closed them once more, crossing her arms.

  Time slowly passed.

  Finally, Celestia’s face lit up, as if she remembered something important, but before she could say anything, Eclipse spoke first, “I think we just have to get into a meditative state for a long period of time… and feel those balls.”

  “Feel… who’s balls?” Chael asked in stupor.

  “When we were resisting that weird pressure from Granny, I think I felt the anima nodes or whatever it was. We just have to get back into that state to see the nodes and open them, right?”

  Celestia hummed with interest, “Well, if you’ve figured out that much, then there are a few instructions I can give you. Go on then, get to it. Chael, you heard Eclipse. Look within yourself with the same level of focus you had during the test of mental endurance, and if I remember correctly, to open them, you have to sit still with your eyes open and conciously force your souls to act as a threat to itself and as a result, the soul pushes your anima violently against the nodes, attempting to break them open,”

  “Use our souls… to make it a threat to itself? How does this open the Anima Nodes?” Chael asked quizzically.

  “You see, the soul only releases Anima when it believes it is under threat. This is one of the three ways of awakening the nodes, known as the Forced Awakening method. It works by tricking the soul into believing it is being attacked by itself,” She then smiled warmly, “The process will be a little painful and even dangerous, but you could say all this training you’ve undergone over the past few years is to prepare you for this moment - amongst other things, of course!”

  The duo nodded in determination.

  Before they began, Chael asked cautiously, “How are we supposed to control our soul though?”

  “You’ll figure it out once you get into that meditative state.” Celestia smiled.

  Soon, Eclipse and Chael both went into a deep focus, their bodies going still as they sat with their eyes open. Their eyes were open, and their breaths slowed. One by one, they turned their awareness inside themselves and searched for the anima nodes.

  Time dragged on in silence.

  Hours passed with nothing but the faint sound of breathing and the wind brushing past them. Celestia watched silently without interrupting, her expression calm. When it finally happened, she smiled. There was no surprise left in her eyes.

  A faint pressure rippled outward from both of them, almost at the same time.

  Anima leaked from their opened nodes like a restrained presence, pressing softly against the air around them.

  First, they opened the Heart Node, and once they did, the others opened smoothly and without much resistance. From the Crown Node, Core Node, two Shoulder Nodes, two Hip Nodes, two Palm Nodes and finally, the two Foot Nodes.

  Eventually, the air around them rippled with an intangible, invisible force. Eclipse’s pressure, or rather, Anima Pressure, was cold and sharp while Chael’s was rougher, unrefined, but very dense and potent.

  Chael’s eyes widened as he basked in the new feeling.

  “Wow…” he muttered, then gaped, clenching his fist as the sensation settled into his body. “I feel impenetrable.”

  Celestia’s smile deepened just a little.

  Eclipse, too, inspected his body, a lazy expression on his face. With his nodes open, his instincts felt sharper, and he could also sense Chael’s presence through his anima. Its force felt rough and dense, but no stronger than his own.

  “Kahahah! Of course, of course,” Celestia beamed and clasped her hands, “That’s your anima in action. You’ve just taken a huge step in your training! Releasing your anima is no easy feat, you know?!”

  “I feel like I can skewer ten blood beasts at a time,” Chael grinned and bounced off the ground.

  Eclipse sat lazily beside him, picking his nose.

  Seeing Chael jump around in newfound vigour, Celestia folded her arms, “Now, now. Before you go terrorising poor blood beasts, there’s still more I need to teach you.”

  Her gaze lifted to the dim, red sky, which was starting to show a faint outline of the blood moon, “When the blood moon ****rises, the world changes. Its crimson light releases a unique kind of energy that seeps into everything. Humans, beasts, even the soil itself.”

  Chael stopped jumping and tilted his head, intrigued. “Changes how?”

  “For one, your senses and courage will heighten. Humans become braver - sometimes recklessly so. It’s the moon’s gift, or curse, for that matter.” Celestia then addressed Chael with amusement, “I mean, look at you, kahahaha!”

  Chael returned her smile.

  She then crouched and brushed her fingers over a small patch of dark moss by her feet. “Anyways, even the plants respond to this strange anima pressure released by our blood moon. Some bloom only during those hours, and their properties are enhanced under the red moonlight. Many Healers and alchemists covet some of them, y’know?”

  “And the blood beasts? Are they called that because the moon makes them stronger?” Eclipse asked.

  “Yup, that’s about right. Blood beasts are a powerful category of beasts that get their power enhanced when the sky turns red.” She then begrudgingly pointed to a small wolf resting atop a tree branch peacefully, “Which is why SOME doggies are hyperactive all night and trample on my face after he’s walked through mud!”

  Shadow opened a red eye lazily, then drowsed back to sleep

  Chael’s jaw dropped. “Wait - Shadow’s a blood beast?!”

  Celestia let out a dramatic sigh, “Unfortunately, yes. Like all blood beasts, when the blood moon’s out, he turns into a menace.”

  Shadow flicked an ear, still half-asleep, and gave a small huff before curling tighter into a ball.

  Eclipse barely glanced up, “He’s fine.”

  Celestia rolled her eyes but couldn’t help a smirk. “Of course you’d say that.”

  Then, with a stretch of her arms, she lowered herself to the ground, crossing her legs into a lotus position. The faint red glow from the sky shimmered over her hair.

  She then grinned with determination, “Anyway, since you brats have released your anima, then let’s not delay Qi.”

  Chael’s eyes widened, “Oh, Qi? Nice, let’s get to it.”

  “Kaha, I’ll explain Qi a bit more clearly first,” Celestia explained, “Again, Qi is the energy force produced by the living body. Unlike the anima, it is not an extension of the soul, or even linked to it, for that matter. All it is is the power generated by the body while it is kept alive by Anima. Qi allows your body to exceed its natural limits in strength, speed, endurance, and destructive force. To put it simply, it makes you able to do things that normal humans will never be capable of.”

  Able to do things normal humans will never be capable of…

  These words resonated in Eclipse’s mind. So far, he’s only seen two people like this.

  They were, of course, Thorn and Celestia herself.

  Wait… was there a third?

  Suddenly, he winced at a slight headache that assaulted him. No, there was, indeed, someone else. His memory of the encounter was extremely fragmented for some reason, but from what he could barely remember, a girl had wielded a mesmerising control of cherry blossoms. For some reason, her face was a complete blur in his memories…

  That person’s strength was nothing to scoff at. He faintly remembered her small and lithe figure, smaller than even he was, yet that person went toe to toe and even managed to defeat the frightening Inferno Bear?

  Eclipse shook off his headache and bought his focus back to Celestia.

  Soon after Celestia finished her explanation, her immediate vicinity began to glow with a red hue, and a potent, thick crimson aura encased her.

  Eclipse’s eyes widened at this spectacle. Sure, he had seen Qi being used before by the girl from back then, but the Qi Celestia presented was far more powerful and brimming with pure energy. It was at least a few dozen times stronger than what the girl’s Qi had been. And this was merely supposed to be a demonstration.

  How would it look if Celestia were to go all out?

  “Whoa! So this is it, so fire…” Chael beamed. “Teach us already!"

  "Kahaha, what do you think I'm doing, dumbass?” Celestia grinned, not yet dispelling her Qi. Right now, she looked like an ethereal goddess as she basked in her crimson aura. She touched her navel and then spoke, “Qi originates from your core as that is your body’s balance centre, and it reaches all over your body via Qi pathways, which are formed naturally by the body’s muscles, tendons, connective tissue, and nervous system. When untrained, as you brats are now, Qi Pathways are narrow and inconsistent, which causes Qi to remain trapped near the core and pretty much never be able to come out. And through repeated exertion and conscious circulation, these pathways gradually widen and stabilise. This allows your Qi to travel freely throughout your body regardless of stance or motion!”

  Eclipse nodded in understanding, but Chael scratched his head, “Oh… can you… Teach us how to use Qi now?”

  “…Of course. Anything that doesn’t involve bouncing around isn’t stimulating for you, is it?” An exasperated sigh left Celestia’s mouth, and she pinched the bridge of her nose, “Patience, first, brat! Take it as part of your training! You need to understand all the theory, especially if you want to learn how to use a Tenelux!”

  "Tenelux? What’s that?" Eclipse asked.

  “Heh, I’m glad you asked!” Celestia smirked, “A Tenelux is a unique soul expression born from contained Anima pressure and fueled through a Qi pathway anchored at the Heart Node! Amazing right? It manifests a power that reflects your desires, affinity and individuality. Each Tenelux is entirely personal, so that no other soul can replicate. To put it simply, it’s your own, specialised super power!”

  A… super power?

  Eclipse and Chael gaped for a while.

  Then Chael looked up at Celestia with a solemn expression, “There was a sickly looking guy called Thorn, one of those Dracoferus rats. He… was able to summon needles straight out of his body.”

  Eclipse nodded grimly. “Yeah… that must be a Tenelux.”

  Eclipse once again, tried to recall that fragmented memory of girl who could somehow wield the power of cherry blossoms through his headache…

  Was that person a Tenelux user too?

  Celestia sighed, “Yes… that sounds exactly like a Tenelux. Tenelux-users are very dangerous, and even among everyone who can control Qi, only the cream of the crop get as far as developing a Tenelux. And those who can utilise a Tenelux are called Phacers”

  “Wow, Phacers,” Chael repeated.

  Eclipse gritted his teeth as he recalled the bigger man.

  Dragos, was it?

  The harrowing torture he endured at the hands of that man still felt as vivid as salt on a wound in Eclipse’s mind. After all, he was much more domineering and higher up in the hierarchy than Thorn. Did that mean he also possessed a Tenelux?

  Just how strong was his?

  “The Dracoferus Tribe aren’t an easy bunch.” Celestia’s voice cut through his thoughts like she was reading his mind, “They’ve got at least a handful of strong phacers. You guys still need to become far stronger to fight those guys at the top.”

  “Do we have it?” Chael asked grimly, “Do we have a Tenelux?”

  “Well, you’ll be finding out today,” Celestia replied somberly. She was about to say something else when Eclipse’s voice cut her off.

  “You have one right?” Eclipse asked. He still recalled the painful memories of the giant sun she summoned during the Test of Physical Endurance.

  It was peculiar. Far too peculiar. Humans shouldn’t be capable of such things, but Celestia had done it, anyway. There was also the case of how she’d just materialise in and out of existence randomly, which got her called ‘ghost’ a few times from them.

  At any rate, Eclipse was pretty certain what her Tenelux must’ve been, but he wanted to hear it from her own mouth.

  Chael nodded in approval, his interest growing.

  Celestia stared at them. She lingered for a moment, then a wide grin cracked her disciplined demeanour, "I'm glad you asked, you runts! Of course I do! And I’ll show you mine, a second time!"

  With that, she closed her eyes briefly, the air around her humming with potential. Suddenly, the scenery around them shifted, morphing into a breath-taking landscape of flowers and fluttering butterflies.