The moment the Throm family appeared in their mansion’s training grounds, they bombarded Aldon with questions, “What happened inside the Tower of Gods?” “Why did you take so long to emerge from the Tower?” “Is that longbow even a weapon? It doesn’t look to be in a working condition, though!”

Aldon sorted his thoughts and narrated what had happened inside the Tower without missing a single event. He even disclosed the information the Black Sun had accidentally revealed.

The entire family was dazed and, at the same time, enraptured by the new information which they were previously not privy to. While his family was engrossed with their thoughts, Aldon took his chance and sneakily slipped past them.

He quickly arrived at a luscious area in the training grounds. This area was used by Luthien as a garden of sorts as she had planted various plants and trees in it. A tree stump was noticeably present in the middle of the greenery. The culprit who was responsible for it was Elrohir five years earlier. He was passionately training his combat arts in the garden when he accidentally threw a punch at a tree. The punch, carrying all his might, tore apart the tree easily. This had pissed off Luthien so much that she had literally chased Elrohir throughout the mansion and given him a sound beating.

Aldon laughed lightly while recalling the incident. Exhausted by the events inside the Tower of Gods, Aldon gripped the longbow by his hand and snuggled against a tree slightly away from the stump, and fell asleep.

After sleeping for some time, Aldon woke up refreshed. He held the longbow and gave it a good look before biting his thumb and drawing some blood. He sprinkled some of it on the longbow and waited for the transformation that the Black Sun had spoken of.

After a while, Aldon felt a strong urge to draw the bow. His iris turned silver as he drew the bow to the maximum and cast the Mana Arrow Spell. A dark-blue arrow materialized beside the bow and perfectly docked itself in it. The arrow was nocked properly on the bow and was ready to be released.

The atmospheric Mana surrounding Aldon surged and went wild. Noticing this phenomenon, Haldir quickly came to his senses and cast the Impregnable Barrier Spell. The entire training ground was enveloped in a light-green dome. The Mana fluctuations happening inside the dome were now hidden from prying eyes. Haldir quickly rushed towards the direction of the disturbance the moment he finished casting the Impregnable Barrier.

One by one, the other members of the Throm family came to their senses and followed Haldir. All of them arrived at the garden almost simultaneously and saw Aldon about to release the dark-blue arrow. They were surprised to see the almost worn-out bowstring holding up when stretched to such an extent. They all wondered whether the string would break before Aldon could release the arrow.

Not noticing his family, Aldon blankly released the arrow towards the tree under which he was sleeping earlier. The instant the arrow left the bow, the bowstring snapped with a loud, harsh twang. The released arrow sped towards the tree and decimated it completely. Elrohir’s face changed dramatically as he remembered what he had experienced when he had accidentally done the same thing. He looked at his son pitifully, knowing that the same thing was in store for him.

Suddenly, a silver cocoon began forming around Aldon as he stood blankly staring at the bow. Thinking that it was something bad, Elrohir tried to rush towards Aldon but was blocked by Haldir, “Elrohir, don’t. This phenomenon might be the transformation the Black Sun was talking about. It’s certainly not something malicious since I don’t sense any hostility from it. Let’s just wait patiently.” Elrohir argued, “But how can you trust the words of that unknown figure blindly, Father?! The mere memory-erasing process shows that It can’t be trusted!”

Haldir proudly replied, “I’m not trusting anything blindly! I’m just trusting the decision of my grandson! I’m sure he considered everything before deciding on his action. It’s time you started seeing him as what he is: a responsible elf, and not some baby that needs constant coddling.” Elrohir became silent as he was reprimanded.

***

After a while, Aldon broke through the cocoon and walked towards them. His iris had reverted to its original black luster. The family was confused as he approached them empty-handed. Aerin asked curiously, “Where did that longbow go?”

Aldon answered with a smile, “It’s right here, Aunt Aerin!” He showed his left wrist, where a tattoo was now present. A long silver band curled along his wrist. No one understood what he meant by it.

Noticing their confusion, Aldon poured some Mana into the tattoo. Suddenly, the tattoo shined brightly, and an elegant, silver staff with a golden thread tied at the top end appeared near Aldon. He gripped it, and it hummed lightly.

All the elves’ mouths hit the ground as they had never seen such a phenomenon. Aerin, noticing something, questioned, “Wait, where is the longbow? This is clearly a staff.” Aldon chuckled and pulled on the golden thread. The thread unraveled and amazingly was almost the same length as the staff. Aldon took the other end of the thread, bent the staff, and tied it to its bottom end. In an instant, the staff shone brightly and turned into a simple yet exquisite silver longbow. He lightly plucked the bowstring, and to the surprise of the elves, it rang with a pleasant twang, rather than a harsh one as they had previously heard.

After showing off the bow to his family, Aldon pushed the bowstring till it touched the riser[1] of the bow. Suddenly, the string tied to the bottom of the bow came undone, and the bow returned to being a staff. He again supplied some Mana to his tattoo, and the staff vanished into thin air.

Haldir was astonished by this phenomenon as he questioned, “The bow has its own dimension, right? I’ve heard of legends that speak of elves opening a dimension through brute force, but never have I heard of a weapon possessing its own dimension! It truly is a God-made weapon!”

Aldon nodded since Haldir was correct. He then explained, “The bow possesses its own dimension, where it is inherently located. This tattoo acts as a gate through which the bow can materialize in this world. When I supply some Mana to the tattoo, the gate is opened, and the bow materializes in my hands. The gate is then closed automatically to prevent the bow from accidentally returning to its dimension. When I want to send the bow back, I simply have to supply some Mana to the tattoo again to open the gate.”

Luthien questioned curiously, “Why do you refer to Alastair as a bow? Isn’t it primarily a staff which can become a bow?” Aldon smiled lovingly and answered, “No, Mother. Alastair is actually a longbow. It also has a secondary form of a staff.” He continued, embarrassedly, “Since I’m currently not capable of sustaining the power possessed by the bow for more than a minute, the bow takes on the form of a staff automatically.”

Neia asked inquisitively, “How did you get to know all this?” Aldon replied, “When I was in the cocoon, the information regarding Alastair appeared inside my mind, just like what happened inside the Tower!”

Haldir interrupted Aldon and spoke to the family, “Now, now. Let the boy rest. It’s been a hell of a day for him! Don’t pester him with your questions. Let us at least go inside the mansion!” The elves agreed and went inside the mansion.

***

Once inside the mansion, Aldon took his leave and retreated to his room to rest.

Elrohir, surprised by the lack of reaction to her beloved tree being decimated before her eyes, questioned Luthien complainingly, “Luthien... What about your tree? Aren’t you upset?” Luthien, remembering what Elrohir had done years back, flared up, “Like father, like son, Eh! Aldon’s mistake can be forgiven since it appeared that he wasn’t in control of himself. But, YOU, I still think what you did was intentional!”

Elrohir murmured in a very quiet voice, “Well, I did throw that punch intentionally, but I honestly didn’t expect it to do that much damage, though! I just wanted to shake it a bit and irritate you.” Unfortunately for Elrohir, Luthien’s hearing was very sensitive, and she heard what he had muttered under his breath. She went absolutely livid, “SO YOU DID DO IT INTENTIONALLY!” Haldir, Aerin, and Neia held their breath and looked at Elrohir pitifully as Luthien raged, knowing that he would be worse to wear after she was done with him.

Elrohir sweated heavily and dashed outside the mansion. Luthien was quick on his heels as she chased him. After a moment, all three of them started laughing uproariously. Haldir felt content with his family and looked forward to their future.

***

A few days after his Coming of Age ceremony, Aldon sat under a tree in Luthien’s garden and attempted to overcome the Hurdle of Awareness. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the Mana in his surroundings. He slowly started absorbing the atmospheric Mana through all his pores. He was enveloped in a greyish fog as a result.

It took a while for Aldon’s body to reach its limit. His whole body started to pulsate wildly as he tried to retain the Mana imbued in his body. After quite a struggle, he was successful in calming down the agitated Mana infused inside his body. His entire body now stably contained Mana to its capacity. This itself marked the successful crossing of the Hurdle of Awareness!

Aldon had now stepped into the Realm of Awareness! This Realm eluded him in his previous life, and he had achieved it in a mere 18 years in this life!

Aldon quickly repressed his elation as he had yet another goal in his mind today other than crossing the Hurdle of Awareness. He wanted to find a way to temper his body without sitting down to meditate every single time. He tried to absorb more Mana from the atmosphere but failed since his body had already reached its saturation level. He tried to forcefully absorb the Mana but was met with great resistance and pain. Just as he was about to brute force the Mana into his body through the immense pain, he felt his vision clearing to something. He was confused since he had closed his eyes and shouldn’t have been able to see anything!

***

Aldon opened his eyes in confusion and found himself in a grey dimension similar to the Black Sun’s White Palace. But, in contrast to the White Palace’s barren surroundings, this grey dimension had a small, white chair in front of him. He looked around in confusion, not comprehending how he had appeared inside this dimension.

He noticed a ball of White Light floating above his head. It was similar to the Black Sun in appearance other than the fact that this ball was pure white. Aldon questioned it, “Who are you? And what is this place?” The ball of White Light couldn’t speak or didn’t want to, as It didn’t respond to his question and moved above the chair. Aldon tried to communicate with It for a while but eventually gave up after coming up with silence as an answer for every question of his.

He silently approached the chair and sat in it, interpreting the ball of White Light’s hover over it as an instruction for him to sit. The instant he sat in the chair, a similar chair appeared in front of him with a very familiar figure sitting in it. The figure’s features were eerily similar to his! The only thing that was different from himself was the eyes of the figure: they were both an eerie white void. It was very unsettling for Aldon to witness this sight, and he tried to get up. But, the ball of White Light hovering over him exerted quite a force that prevented him from moving.

Unable to get up, Aldon watched helplessly as the other figure eerily similar to him stood up. Suddenly, the shadows of the foes which he had vanquished in his previous life formed around the figure. They all started to attack the figure in tandem with each other. The figure dodged the initial attacks easily and then started to fight back using Aldon’s Techniques and Spells.

A strange black whirlpool began to form in front of the figure’s chest. To be specific, it began to form in front of the figure’s heart. Aldon observed this phenomenon and came to the conclusion that it was a Technique of some sort. He began to wonder what the function of that technique was.

Suddenly, he perceived that the Mana was being sucked from the surroundings at an alarming rate. He followed the flow of Mana and found out that it was being consumed by that black whirlpool and was being infused into the figure’s body. The figure, due to this technique, could cast spells with greater devastating power than normal and replenish the imbued Mana in its body. It blasted away the shadows easily with the help of this Technique.

Aldon felt like he was struck by a bolt of lightning as he suddenly gained clarity on what was happening inside the figure’s body and what he had been doing wrong under the tree.

He suddenly closed his eyes and concentrated on his body, not caring that he was still inside the mysterious grey dimension.

***

The moment Aldon closed his eyes, he was ejected out of the grey dimension. Not noticing this, Aldon focused on the situation inside his body. He noticed what he was doing wrong and slowly stopped trying to force the atmospheric Mana inside his body. Instead, he tried to move the Mana accumulated in his heart into the blood pumping from his heart.

Though the process provided a slight resistance, there was no pain involved as it was a safe procedure. After some time, he had completely drained the Mana from his heart to the blood flowing through his arteries. Every blood cell pushed through its limits of containing the excess Mana and distributed it evenly among all the cells in his body.

This slight increase of Mana in the cells tempered them, and their capacity to contain Mana increased ever so slightly. Satisfied with this outcome, Aldon tried to absorb more Mana from the atmosphere through his now Mana deficient heart. The process went smoothly as his heart reached Mana saturation. He then repeated the process of distributing the Mana in his heart evenly among his body. He then repeated the entire process, slowly tempering his cells and increasing their Mana capacity.

After a few cycles, he noticed a glaring problem. His entire body was being tempered evenly, but his heart wasn’t. Since his heart only acted as a supplier for the excess Mana and wasn’t being tempered in tandem with his body. He quickly panicked as it meant that if he continued down this path, his heart would become the weak link during a battle or a spar. He calmed his nerves and thought rapidly, trying to come up with a solution.

After a few breaths, he came to a realization. The only reason his heart wasn’t being tempered was that it wasn’t exceeding its capacity to contain Mana. He thought of a way to do that without putting his heart at risk by directly trying to absorb more than its capacity from the atmosphere.

He reversed what he had been doing until now. His cells gave back the excess Mana in them to the blood. The blood carried the excess Mana to the heart and slowly provided the excess Mana to it. His heart, after reaching its limit and slightly exceeding it, expelled the Mana to the atmosphere. Like this, he circulated the entire excess Mana in his body towards his heart and tempered it. When all the excess Mana was expelled through his heart, he breathed a sigh of relief as he discovered that his heart was also equally tempered as his body in the end.

He opened his eyes in delight and found himself back under the tree. He pondered over the origins of the grey dimension for a while before standing up. He stretched and went inside the mansion.

***

A few days after he broke through the Hurdle of Awareness, Aldon could be seen warming up in the training grounds of the Throm family. Haldir walked out of the mansion and also started warming up.

Haldir chuckled as he spoke, “So, the moment you stabilized your Realm, you itch for a spar, Eh?” He then drew an exquisite broadsword with a green blade from its sheath and brandished it, “Since you will be using Alastair, I thought it would not be a fair fight if I don’t use my weapon! Don’t worry, I’ve dulled the edges of my blade!”

Aldon finished his warm-up and was speechless at the old man’s shameless remark, “Grandpa... Just say that you want to exert some of your actual strength after a while. Don’t cook up ridiculous excuses!” Haldir laughed sheepishly as he was caught in a lie.

After Haldir finished warming up, Aldon summoned Alastair. The silver staff appeared in Aldon’s hands as he got into a combat stance. Haldir laughed lightly and closed in on Aldon with incredible speed. Aldon, instead of shying from close combat, readied himself and swung his staff down on Haldir’s head ferociously. Haldir easily parried Aldon’s swing with his sword and retaliated with a punch.

Aldon didn’t try to defend against it and instead braced himself. His chest was covered with a grey film, and though the punch was heavy, his body was only thrown back a few feet after it had connected. This was remarkable since he would have been blown away if he had still been in Realm 3.

The Realm of Awareness opened up a path to a Technique called Mana Armor. Using Mana Armor, one could project Mana present inside their body to act as a physical barrier against any attack. The strength and durability of the Mana Armor entirely depended on the purity and the quantity of Mana inside one’s body. Hence, the Mana Armor was considered a Technique and not a Spell.

Haldir laughed as he asked, “How was the defense of the Mana Armor? Isn’t it the best?! That’s why I always urged you to quickly step into this Realm since we can now have real spars with almost nothing held back.”

Aldon wiped some blood from his mouth and replied, “Well, now I understand where I get this battle mania from! You, old geezer, are just as itchy as me to have a proper spar!”

Haldir laughed loudly and once again sprung towards Aldon. This time, he sheathed his sword and swung his fists rapidly. His fists were quicker and stronger than the last time. He didn’t give time for Aldon to react and started pummelling him. Aldon’s thin, grey Mana Armor began to crack under the pressure.

Speechless about the old geezer’s might, Aldon bent Alastair and swung it with the added momentum from its elasticity towards Haldir’s chest. Unfortunately, Haldir’s chest was covered in a thick, green Mana Armor, and Alastair, though pushed back Haldir, couldn’t even dent it. But it did allow him some respite from Haldir’s onslaught. He quickly replenished his body’s Mana through the technique he had witnessed in the grey dimension and repaired the cracks in his armor.

Aldon then started casting Explosive Matter in one hand to counter Haldir’s onslaught, which would surely continue in a moment. Unfortunately, his hurriedness in casting the Spell backfired as the already unstable matter became even more volatile. He couldn’t control the Spell properly, and it started to go wild. Noticing this before Aldon himself, Haldir shouted, “Aldon, quick, stop the Spell! It’s going berserk!”

Noticing it just when Haldir shouted, Aldon quickly stopped casting the Explosive Matter. The unstable matter forming in his hand quickly dispersed into the surroundings as the Spell was canceled. But, he experienced a horrible backlash since he stopped his spellcasting midway. He began bleeding from all seven orifices in his face.

Haldir abandoned the spar and quickly arrived near Aldon and started to heal him. He cast a Realm 6 Healing Spell, ‘Zone Heal’. The Zone Heal created a healing zone with Aldon inside it. Inside the zone, Aldon healed very rapidly. It took some mere seconds for him to return to his normal health. After making sure that Aldon was healed completely, Haldir stopped casting the Spell. The Zone Heal’s potency was such that the grass around Aldon had grown lush and vibrant, in stark contrast to the dull grass outside the zone.

Haldir advised Aldon, “It seems that my worries were valid. Aldon, I think you should shelve that Spell for a while, at least until you figure out what’s going wrong. A Unique Spell can only be corrected by its creator! You told me that you could cast it perfectly in your previous life! But, I have only seen you successfully cast it three times in this life! Perfect it before you can use it as your trump card. Till then, use this Spell only during a life or death situation! Promise me!” Aldon considered what Haldir advised and agreed, “I promise, Grandpa.”

Wanting to take his grandson’s mind off the Spell, he questioned, “What was that Technique you used to repair your armor during the spar? I’ve never heard of a Technique that could be used to replenish your body’s Mana during a battle!” Aldon remembered that he still hadn’t revealed what happened after he broke through to Realm 4. He slowly recounted what had occurred.

Haldir, stunned by his revelation, questioned with a slightly shaky voice, “Are you absolutely sure that you didn’t hallucinate it?” Aldon answered honestly, “I’m sure! The feeling inside that grey dimension was weird. I could see my body and touch everything, but it all felt so surreal!” Haldir breathed heavily as what Aldon spoke of confirmed his suspicion.

Aldon had never seen his grandpa in such a shaken-up state. He questioned curiously, “Do you know what the grey dimension is, Grandpa?” Haldir tried to calm his nerves but failed miserably as he replied shakily, “Yes... That dimension... is the ‘Plane of Ascension’.”

***(Footnote)***

[1] Riser: The bow's riser is the 'middle' portion of the bow, which contains the grip and is attached to the bow's limbs.