Finishing his meal, Kezner put out his white G.B card towards Raphael, however Gareth did the same.

“Let me pay for it.”, Gareth offered as he held his white G.B. card with his index and middle fingers.

Kezner only shook his head as he was adamant about paying for his own meal, he was stubborn and wasn’t knowledgeable on social etiquette. Gareth knew that Kezner behaved pretty weird and guessed it was because he was an orphan or something along that line, so he caved in first and paid his own meal.

After paying and saying goodbye to Raphael, they both walked towards the bus stop as the sun silently dropped in the background. Gareth was a little uncomfortable with Kezner’s silence and deadpan face so he struck up a conversation, “So, uhh… what’re you doing in that forge?”

“I’m forging a halberd.”

“What’s that?”, Gareth had never heard of such an object before. Keep in mind, this is an age where such weapons hadn’t even been touched in war for about 2,500 years, the most he knew about such ancient weapons was a sword and bow and arrow, and even that was limited to a pointy metal stick and a stick flinger.

“Well… think of a stick with an axe and spike at the end. It has some weight to it but can still be swift in a one on one fight. It can sweep and it can thrust, there’s also a hook in case it’s forced down. It’s a pretty cool weapon.” Kezner roughly explained the basics of the halberd.

“Why are you making it? I mean, against a gun, it would instantly lose, wouldn’t it?” Gareth was curious about the weapon, such an ancient weapon was outdated and couldn’t beat a modern gun… right?

“It depends on the kind of gun you’re referring to, if it’s an energy weapon, it could be easily deflected if the haft is made out of metal, remember, regular laser guns have no real piercing value, their main purpose is to shoot through an exposed area. A physical weapon wouldn’t be able to break it or do much damage, especially if it hits a metal haft, but if we’re talking about a Natural Energy weapon, then the halberd would be screwed.” The usually quiet Kezner was talking up a storm, giving a general explanation in different scenarios, while Gareth was having trouble keeping up.

“If it’s better than a gun, why don’t we still use these weapons?”

“Look at it like this, for a gun of any kind, you just need to learn how to aim and handle it, it’s faster and easier to teach while giving the wielder convenience in the distance they can shoot it from. Distance is the key word, as halberds and swords aren’t able to reach farther than a few feet, while depending on the gun you use, you could kill someone from a few hundred feet. If you were being sent off to war and didn’t know the first thing about fighting, do you think they would waste time and resources on cannon fodder to learn how to use such a traditional weapon or a gun? I’m not saying a halberd is necessarily better than a gun, but it has its perks.” His breakdown for Gareth basically fell on deaf ears as he had stopped paying attention midway through.

By the time Kezner finished his explanation, they had reached the bus stop with the bus a stop or two away. Since Gareth lived a block down the road, he wasn’t going to take the bus home.

“Well, I’ll catch ya tomorrow, good night.” Gareth bid farewell as he walked away.

“Good night.” Kezner said as he stood by the bus stop’s bench and kept his deadpan face.

“What an odd fella…” Gareth thought as he glanced back and scratched the back of his blonde head.

---

Kezner finally made it home and was fatigued as the burst of energy from earlier faded throughout his trip back home. Seeing as how his life was currently in dire straits if he didn’t resolve his ability and cultivation problem, Kezner didn’t sleep just yet, he wanted to cultivate.

He only cultivated once in a blue moon, but when he did, he always broke through. That was due to the fact that he only cultivated when the energy in his Energy Aperture was on the verge of overflowing, so it was more like he had to cultivate. He didn’t enjoy sitting in the same spot for hours on end and paying attention to his energy flow, it seemed like more of a chore. However, times had changed and now he had to blitz through his cultivation.

Actually, though he was lazy and slacked off in his cultivation, his foundation was firm and deeply rooted. Most people would have a passable foundation as they attempted to rush through the minor stages, not knowing that they were slowly burning up their potential for breaking through major stages. This form of thinking was the reason many people on Zeklon couldn’t break through to the Avatar Stage.

Now that he had his life on the line, he needed to see what he could do in a night, though what exactly could a single night achieve especially after breaking through that morning?

After having everything settled, he changed his clothes, Kezner took a cushion from the couch and put it tossed it to the center of his room. He sat on the cushion in a lotus position, it took him a minute as he felt it was slightly uncomfortable at first but quickly adjusted to it. Kezner was never taught why he had to be in this position or the dos and don'ts of cultivation, he was just told he had to.

Steadying his breathing, Kezner felt the movement and circulation of all three energies in his body as they travelled through his three sets of Energy Routes and connected to the Energy Aperture. Usually he could only feel the movement of energy throughout his body, similar to how someone would feel cold water travel down their throat when thirsty, but now it was as if he was looking at it without seeing. It couldn’t be easily explained, as it wasn’t like seeing with his eyes, but seeing with his mind.

He saw the blue and red of his Soul and Body Energies moving throughout the Energy Routes of his body and was caught by surprise but didn’t stop as he was afraid this state would vanish if he stopped it. Not even nano-bots would allow a person to view the movement of energy in their Energy Routes, it would only give a very vague image but nothing all too detailed as the energy would obstruct any image created.

Seeing how he subconsciously separated the blue Soul and red Body Energies with his transparent Spirit Energy, he suddenly had a stupid idea, an idea so stupid it might work. If Body Energy was red and Soul Energy was blue, what if he mixed them, would he get a weird frankenstein purple energy? He hadn’t thought about it like this since he was never able to visualize the energies in colors like he was able to now.

Somehow moving the view of his body towards the Energy Aperture, he decided on using his third of Spirit Energy to encompass the walls of his Energy Aperture while having the two touch. This also meant blocking off the extra energy that could intrude while doing this or else he was in for one hell of a reckoning.

After having his Spirit Energy surround instead of separating the two blobs of red and blue, they diffused into each other, creating a violent ball of red and blue, with no signs of peace. Kezner was in horrible pain as his face cringed and his body trembled, while his brain was buzzing with ideas to undo whatever the hell he just did. Thankfully the Spirit Energy protected his Energy Aperture from getting punctured.

“Okay, wait. It seems like they both will keep fighting each other unless I separate them again but…”, It seemed like a voice of reason had hit him for a second until an even dumber idea struck him harder, “...what if I pushed them together? Though they are fighting they seem to have made some space, meaning I could still press down on them… Here goes everything.”

He had a firm resolve to attempt such a daring experiment, he wouldn’t make it anywhere if he kept holding back such daring thoughts. Who dares, wins.

Kezner started to take the ball of Spirit Energy that was surrounding the two battling energies and slowly enclosed it, pushing the red and blue energies together, causing this fight to start getting even more heated. While in pain, the black crystal pendant on his chest started glowing in its contradictory bright black light, and started enlightening Kezner’s raging mind.

Still keeping his eyes tightly shut out of pain, Kezner was able to think clearly, and was struck with an epiphany. Maybe this random stupid idea of his had some backing to it, instead of looking at them as opposite energies, he decided to think of them as complementary energies in a middle of a dispute, and his Spirit Energy was the mediator.

Without the body, there is no capsule for the soul. Without the soul, the body is an empty shell. Without the spirit, the body and soul were useless. You needed all three of them, so why were two of the three of his energies disputing? Thinking about the root of the problem, he saw it as a land dispute as they were both vying for complete dominance of his body and soul. He was a man with a body, soul, and spirit, he wasn’t three separate entities, he was one. The body, soul, and spirit were one, while being three parts of a whole, they just had different jobs, there was no need for one to occupy the entire body if they could all do their jobs without interfering with one another.

With this train of thought, Kezner stopped pressing the energies so aggressively with his Spirit Energy, but let both energies figure it out themselves. Although the three energies weren’t conscious beings, they could still naturally make things fall into place themselves, the basis of nature was finding the equilibrium for everything to coexist. He slowly progressively pressed the two settling energies together into a ball, this time, there was less pain involved. Soon, however, he didn’t feel like he was pressing the energies with his Spirit Energy but that the Spirit Energy was joining them as well.

Suddenly, since the Spirit Energy was absorbed into the swirling red and blue energies, the blockades he put on his Energy Routes to his Energy Aperture vanished, causing Spirit, Soul, and Body Energy to equally pour in at once into the swirling mess. His body felt bloated like he just ate an entire cow, and that was putting it lightly.

Kezner’s heart dropped as this mess was now out of his control, he couldn’t get a proper grasp of his energies as they started acting on their own. He could possibly die because of his conditions if this continued, but he couldn’t do anything to change it, leaving him resigned as he stared into the swirling red and blue with regret. The anticipation of imploding due to a collapsed Energy Aperture didn’t happen, instead, the energies just kept uniformly swirling into a whirlpool as he stared at it in a hypnotized daze.

He didn’t know how much time had passed, just that his butt was aching a little from sitting in the same place for a while, however he wasn’t paying attention to that. As he continued to look at his swirling energies, he noticed a slight tinge of light purple.

“It’s working!”

As the small trace of light purple appeared, the calm whirlpool of red and blue sped up to an unholy speed, causing Kezner even more pain.

“It’s not working!”

However, this mass produced even more purple-colored energy, until his entire Energy Aperture was full of purple-colored energy. Even the influx of the three energies turned purple the second they entered into his Energy Aperture. This lasted for a few minutes until the whirlpool instantly came to a halt.

“Oh shi-” The poor lad didn’t even get to finish his thought until all of the purple-colored energy instantly moved into the center of his Energy Aperture, causing his entire body to tremble. It was as if someone was continuously hitting his entire body with a hot giant hammer, the pain almost caused him to screech in pain. His face was flushed red as he held back the screams and shouts of agony, he almost started praying to the high heavens to just strike him down now.

All of the purple-colored energy converged into a ball shape in the center of his Energy Aperture as the pain was slowly wearing off and turned into a burning sensation. Looking at it now, it seemed like there was a floating purple ball in the center of his Energy Aperture, the normal gaseous look of energy was gone from the purple mass as it looked like a solid ball.

For some reason, his body felt as if his body was rejuvenated and the initial fatigue was washed away alongside his worried mind. He entered a complete state of relaxation and bliss. He didn’t let this get the better of him as he checked the changes to his body, which were jaw dropping. Well for starters, all of his Energy Routes were repositioned and refined.

He felt the crude and horribly positioned Energy Routes going up his spine were well refined and comfortable, and didn’t carry the same tension as he once felt. The other two sets of Energy Routes were also tweaked and shifted as it became smoother to circulate energy around his entire body and soul. Originally, the three sets of Energy Routes only intercepted each other in a few spots, but they were fixed using Spirit Energy. Now they were all webbed and interconnected while being able to circulate within his body, soul, and brain, they now truly acted like three parts of a whole rather than three separate sets.

Then he started looking at his Energy Aperture, and was taken aback to find a purple ball just floating there, it seemed like a solid ball compared to his energies’ gaseous states. It didn’t seem to be doing anything, so he investigated by using his Spirit Energy only to find that the transparent energy was now purple, the same was the case for the other two energies. When Natural Energy was refined, it was turned into Body, Soul, or Spirit Energy depending on where it was circulated, but now it seemed like this purple-colored energy could be formed by circulating any set.

Kezner frowned at the prospect that this change was permanent, thinking back to the purple ball in his Energy Aperture, “Could it be that purple ball is automatically changing the properties of my energies? Can I reverse this…?”

Just as he thought about switching back to his three separate energies, the purple ball separated into three different and smaller balls, the one in the center was transparent, while it had two other balls circling around it in a clockwise manner, one red and the other blue. His mind lit up as he “saw” this, so he tried circulating each separate energy and moved them throughout his Energy Routes and then his Energy Aperture, only for each energy to spin around to its corresponding ball. Though they were still separated by color, at least they wouldn’t attack each other.

With another thought, the three balls collided back into the center, recreating the purple ball in his Energy Aperture. When the three balls fused back together, so did their corresponding energies, now he wanted to test out this newfound purple-colored energy. He guessed that its properties must be all of the advantages of his other three energies… he hoped that much at least.

Refining a decent amount of this purple-colored energy, Kezner finally opened his eyes only to be met with darkness. “Huh? It’s only midnight?! I thought it would have been at least three hours until I had to stop. That gives me some more time…”

Getting up off the cushion, Kezner covered his arm with the purple-colored energy and gave a punch forward… “What the fuck?! I’m being scammed”

Even though the power of the punch doubled, it consumed three times as much of the purple-colored energy than it would with his regular Body Energy, the math wasn’t adding up, causing Kezner to feel wronged. He was expecting this to be an all-powerful power boost gifted to him by the heavens as a reward for the tribulations he faced the past few hours like in those novels! Raising his wronged and teary eyed face to face his ceiling, “My god-sent gift, you bastards better send it down!”

With a sigh, Kezner could only fall on his butt onto the cushion with a frown. He wasn’t in the mood for thinking about such annoying things so he gave up finding the reason why the purple-colored energy was reacting like this for now. He decided to test his ability with this kind of new energy. An ability user would usually want their ability to consume raw Natural Energy, and in this case Natural and Universal Energies, from the user’s surroundings, since there was no point in wasting the energy in your Energy Aperture during a fight. It was like trying to keep a fire alive using a small pile of wood while you have a hill-sized pile of coal next to you.

Summoning his gray flame, he found that using the purple-colored energy would lower the consumption rate by a large margin compared to using pure Natural Energy. He slightly nodded as he dissipated the flame in slight disappointment. It turned out that this purple-colored energy wasn’t as overpowered as he expected.

Switching back to his regular three energies, Kezner now had one final dilemma… the name for such an energy and ball, “Since the energy for each ball moves circles around it, I’ll refer to those balls as cores. I have three basic cores, Body, Soul, and Spirit Cores, cool. Now that, that’s been established… when do I call the purple stuff.

Alright, think. I want a cool name, an energy that stands above the rest, but doesn’t sound all too arrogant… Celestial Energy? Nah, that makes it sound otherworldly like space and stuff, not too interesting.

Heavenly Energy? Nope, the name sounds redundant and too benevolent, I want it to be neutral sounding yet advanced.

What about Supreme Energy? Eh, not bad, but I feel like there’s a word on the tip of my tongue… Think, think! Something that sounds ascended and above the mortal plane yet fights against gods and devils alike!

Divine Energy! Yes, yes. This’ll work, not too arrogant, yet holds enough pride. It’s a done deal!”

Kezner was… eccentric to say the least when it came to the naming process. At least he wasn’t naming it something like Heavenly Devil Purple Sun Energy.