Another chapter for you gys to enjoy. Chapter size from now on will be varying, it could very well be 500 words, or 5000 but I seriously don't want to hear "that was short" ever again. Also there is redundant information because there seems to be a misunderstanding about Demia and why she became a thief. So I wrote it in once again hoping people would read it for what it is and understand where she's coming from. Anyways although people hate her right now that's to be honest perfectly understandable cause 'Bitch stole Owen's Cinder how rude' amright? So the way I look at it is you, the fans, really like Owen and want him to succeed. This obviously doesn't apply to everyone and are enjoying that Demia so far as a character.

Now for a little information about the characters I'm hoping to create. Please for the love of god, get rid of the cliches trapped in your minds. Take the characters for what they are in MY story, and not others. These characters are quite original so applying stereotypes to them is the last thing I want for you guys to do. Anyways I hope this chapter clears some misunderstandings or changes the way you look at my characters in depth. People have said that I rushed the interactions with Owen, Rauf, and Kovinth. Although I feel the subtle actions of Owen is what makes him so approachable and easy to get along with. Like Owen giving his master to Osena for marriag (which might I add was quite funny) or the caressing of the tree to make Rauf feel bad when he kicked it. These were attempts to greatly shorten the distance of character interactions, and for some it didn't quite get there. But this is why I need those opinions that directly speak about those things. Not rage typing~

Anyways this was only to ask for your guys opinions and clear up misunderstandings of some things. I hope you guys continue to enjoy the story!~ There might be another chapter tonight, but should be daily here again depending on the days~

PS: Thanks for reading that long authors note but I felt it was important to clear up some stuff Ciao~

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“Urgh, I better hurry… I can’t keep this up for much longer..”

Even though Owen would always stand back up during his spars with his fellow warriors, the damage was never life threatening. Nor was he in such a serious state as he was now. If he was to stop for just a few minutes he could apply some herbs to his broken arm and maybe eat the honey he obtained earlier. But now wasn’t the time to stop moving. Once he did it was possible he would forever lose sight of the distorted figure. The only thing he could be glad about was that the figure wasn’t outrunning him.

He could only think it was due to the fact that the figure had already thought it was going to escape and never looked back once in their arrogance. Even though this wasn’t the truth as Dimia had clearly known about Owen following her and was purposely letting Owen follow her, he didn’t know such things. He didn’t even notice when she turned back to look at him. For Owen who always noticed the finer details of things, that alone was enough to show how tired he was. How much pain he was going through. Yet even through all of this he was willing to take the pain, to overcome the loss of Essence with every step.

The amount of Essence that was stored within the body changed depending on how much was channeled before hand. In the case for Pathwalkers with the breathing technique they could continuously have Essence to utilize, but what if the Essence they used was more than they could breathe back in? Naturally the result would be that Owen wouldn’t be able to keep up with the usage. Because Owen was always utilizing the Blind Motion technique, even if it was only for a single eye, it was still using his Essence. Not to mention his Essence was also flowing through his body to heal it at the same time. With these two things alone was already equal to the amount he could breathe in at once. And now he needed to use more Essence just to keep his body from falling.

Whether it was lucky or not, Owen had one thing that could allow him to gain a sudden boost of Essence. Although under normal circumstances this was something that Owen would never use until he was making a breakthrough into the next rank. It was the Sky Essence Crystal he received from the Pavilion by being the first arrive to the Ice Pillar. Owen fidgeted roughly into his pocket as his arm twitched, failing to move how he wished.

“I really didn’t want to use this…”

Owen gave a wry smile. He was in pain not only physically but now he was mentally in pain. Losing a Sky Essence Crystal to gain an Awakened Artifact was still something Owen felt a tinge of pain thinking about. But he understood the value of the Cinder greatly more than any other Pathwalker from this planet. Although the distorted figure obviously knew of its importance due to the fight and following Owen. He knew much more. And with some “persuasive” actions it might be possible to reclaim it. To dull his hesitation Owen bit his lip which caused a trickle of blood to flow how his chin. At this moment he quite unhappy at the development. But Owen knew better to believe that everything would go his way, and sometimes sacrifices needed to be made for the greater good.

As his hesitation disappiated with the new pain in his lip, he clenched the slightly red crystal with a bunch of impure colours twirling inside. Suddenly as if a path was opening from the crystal to Owen, the Essence immediately rushed into Owen’s arteries and veins, which travelled throughout his body giving him a sudden boost in energy. The amount that could go to healing him, using for his Blind Motion technique, and finally to move forward exponentially rose. Unfortunately this Essence was fully being used by these three actions and only a miniscule amount was left to rush into his subconscious to be used for his Path Blocks.

As the Essence started to rejuvenate his body, Owen stared straight forward at the figure off in the distance. His face was calm, his heartbeat was back to normal, but his feelings at the moment were filled with determination to regain what he believed to be his. Even though he knew the distorted figure claimed it first, and was technically theirs by the laws of the world. This didn’t matter to Owen. He needed to have that Cinder. It wasn’t a want, it wasn’t something that his greed caused him to stop chasing after it. It was for his goal of gaining his vision. Owen wanted to become strong but, the defining reason was to gain his vision back. And he knew more than anyone that this Cinder was a huge step to gaining his vision. How could he let anyone else get it before him?!

Owen’s steps became stronger, faster, harder, and eventually his speed accelerated. And for Dimia who who hadn’t turned back to look again and was snickering to herself happily seeing how this would play out never once thought Owen would use the Essence Crystal for such a thing. This wasn’t because she underestimated his resolve. Instead she was directly doing this to test that so called resolve he had. At the same time she also didn’t know how important the Cinder in her hands was. If she did, who knows how the situation would change, maybe she would even kill Owen to defend the Cinder from Owen getting it. At the end of everything these were all situations that could have came to be. The truth however was much different from those and without noticing it, Dimia finally heard a sound that startled her.

“Wait!”

Owen stared at the distorted figure, when the figure heard Owen calmly call out to her, her steps immediately turned into a walk which led to her slowly stopping. As she turned around, both of them stared towards one another. Neither of them made a sound and as a gust of wind blew the dust around their heels. In fact Dimia was shocked that soon after she allowed Owen to chase after her he had already caught up to her. Likewise Owen was surprised by the sudden development of the Cinder being taken away by the figure who had followed him previously.

‘Even though I should have lost her earlier. This can only be said that I was too easy going. But even still I wouldn’t change my mind if I could do it again. After all even now she holds not hostility towards me.’

Regret? How could someone like Owen have regret? He made all his decisions fully supporting them regardless of what came next. And because he made them, he would back them up. If he ever did, it would only mean that his determination to follow things out was not enough. And that was something Owen never wanted to see happen.

After a few moments of silence, Owen didn’t take the initiative to speak again. He had only been thinking about how he knew of Demia's presence before hand. As for Dimia, because she was only interested in Owen’s resolve she never thought back to when she was following him previously and spoke up.

“How did you suddenly get faster? More so, aren’t you blind? How can you see me?!”

A small voice echoed in the air, which surprised Owen so much because originally he had no idea the figure was a girl. And now he was being bombarded by questions when he was the one who wanted to confront the girl, he felt like he was being confronted instead. This shook his balance and he looked blankly in front of him. His Blind Motion technique already recovered. His bleeding had stopped, and his body was no longer exhausted to the point of falling. He was startled by the sudden events that he momentarily forgot the reason he chased after her. Yet, with a few more seconds he calmly breathed in a fresh body of air. As he did he calmly returned another question to the young invisible girl in front of him.

“If I answer will you give me that?”

Owen pointed towards the Cinder in her hand and without hesitation the girl answered.

“Yes.”

“No, at least think about it I mean you don’t… Wait.”

Owen was once again startled. And thought to himself.

‘This is too easy. What is she planning? Is she trying to confuse me?’

Owen’s imagination ran wild, as Owen knew nothing about Dimia how could he know that Dimia’s decisions were greatly determined by her curiosity of things. Naturally she would keep the Cinder if Owen never caught her, and only if he managed to prove that his resolve was enough would she stop and speak to him. Even if his resolve was enough to pique her interest there was no guarantee that she would return the Cinder she grabbed. But now, instead of having to be chased for who knows how long she was caught soon after she slowed down just to match his pace.

‘How did he do that?’

Dimia herself hand no idea how Owen managed to do this, and she playfully bit her lip in anticipation to Owen’s answer. It was true she had every intention on returning the Cinder if he answered willingly. Because what led to becoming a thief was partially for survival but it was also true she did it out of curiosity. She would only steal things that sparked her interest. Was it right? Of course not, but why did she care? She was curious and needed to live some how. But now within the Boundary? She could live easily by trapping animals with his increase in strength. After being trained by her master it was no longer required of her to steal things and she left her mother with enough money to last a lifetime. With that she only took things she was curious about. Even though she felt there was something strange about the Cinder, that was because originally she was bored with Owen, but now she her interest had ignited again. And finally it looked like Owen was about to answer her, she waited anxiously.