Prince of The Abyss

Entering his room, Aether quickly switched out of his clothes; he didn’t understand how people could wear this stuff all day; it was uncomfortable, but maybe it was just him, after all; for a while now, he had only worn his mantle.

Which is exactly what he was wearing now.

Outside of being great armor and being able to help keep him at a perfect temperature, it was more comfortable than you would think.

But enough of that; that wasn’t what was important at the moment.

’Abyssal Matter... how does it work exactly?’ Maybe a teacher would have been helpful, someone to help him. Though, if he looked at it, did he have someone to help him with all his other abilities? No, he had done everything alone; he had learned all of them from scratch.

And if he thought about it... this might not be as hard.

The Affinity is the essence running through our bodies... so wouldn’t it work a bit like a Will? And if so, hasn’t he already done something similar, with Eden? I mean, soul essence was harder to control than affinity essence, or at least that’s what he believes. Since when, with Eden, did he have to dive a lot deeper inside his threads to see it?

’So... just guide it to your hands... not that hard... I mean, with Eden I had to go outside my body.’

Aether lifted his arm, closing his eyes.

Taking a deep breath... he imagined a blacked-out body, one hollow, only filled with void... with only a small beating heart at the center. The heart in this case was the awakened Core. One filled with both soul and affinity. A complete heart.

Focusing on it, he slowly saw many pathways extend from it to all parts of the body, but he couldn’t see the end yet; he was going to have to see later. But more importantly, now he had to let the essence out.

Aether focused, frowning a bit, as a small drop of essence escaped the core and into the threads. It was weird... he wasn’t used to controlling it, and after so much time of using his soul, it was quite strange to go to the basics; for most, this should feel natural, but it wasn’t the case for him.

More and more drops started to come out, until, just like a barrier had broken, essence started to flow out; however, instead of going where he wanted, it went in all of the threads. Filling them all perfectly the same.

You would think this is a good thing, but you would be surprised; it wasn’t. To get to his goal of manifesting his Affinity, he had to find a way to let it out at one point; plus, this form, where essence was in all his threads and the same amount of essence in each, was just like he was right now, like any Awakened was.

He needed to move it towards his arm.

Aether frowned harder, as the essence coming from his soul slowly started to... divide, one part going like always to the whole body, while the other... slowly began its journey to his hand... yet this was where the hard part from earlier came.

He could see the essence going in all his body, but not to the ends; he didn’t know where his palm was, the point he wished to reach.

So what could he do?

...

’I’ll just have to find it.’

Suddenly, the essence in his arm started slowly, faster than ever, going down his arm endlessly, trying to find the end, and they continued for a while.

Until it finally stopped.

Yet Aether continued until the end broke.

Opening his eyes, Aether saw from his palm that Abyssal matter was falling...

It was... a bit anticlimactic.

Not only was it not much coming out, but it was in its liquid form, just falling down, without doing anything.

And this was where the hard part of having a formless Affinity came. If this had been some sort of fire element, it would have just come out as a fire, and he would have had to start to control it, its size, how hot it was, things like that.

But for the Abyss, he was going to have to control its form, shape, and so much more.

’And it’s definitely not easy.’

Aether put his hand on his chin, thinking.

’How do I control it?... And is it all about after it comes out? I can’t shape the essence inside me; it would block my threads, and either way, the essence inside and once it’s manifested is different. It doesn’t share the same properties.’

Aether looked at his hand, concentrating again to make his Affinity come out.

’The problem is here.’

He needed to find a way to... change the properties of the manifestation once it left his body, but how did he do that?

While thinking... an idea came up.

It wasn’t the first time... he controlled something outside his body; he had just said how Eden needed him to go outside his body... was it the same thing here?

In times like this, he really didn’t regret spending months learning this skill; it was now helping him more than he expected.

Aether took a deep breath, lifting his arm in front of him, watching as Abyssal Matter just ran from his palm and onto the floor... He stared, silent, no sound interrupting him. This was not easy, after all; control outside the body had never been something everyone could do out of the blue... it had taken him a lot of time with Eden, but... because of Eden, he was going to be able to do this.

Humans don’t question the thing outside their bodies; it’s what kept them from controlling their affinity’s manifestation.

Aether swam with the river of essence until he reached the point beyond the end, where the manifestation started to happen, yet even then, exiting his body, he couldn’t control the essence; he felt it run out of him, but to no avail; it just poured out of him...

...

Maybe his mentality was what was wrong.

This wasn’t Eden; he wasn’t trying to find the souls of others outside his body; no, he was trying to control something coming from his body, something that was part of him...

Who said that when the essence left his body and manifested, it still wasn’t him?

The Abyssal matter coming from his body was part of him, no matter if it wasn’t inside his body...

...

...

Aether smirked slightly as he concentrated, watching as the Abyssal Matter slowly turned into a chain, connected to his palm. It had gained a shape, but at the same time became a solid object.

”Yes! I did it.” He stared at the chain, happily, as he shook his hand, watching it stick to him.

What was wrong from the beginning was that he thought of it as something outside of him, when it wasn’t. It was still him, and now with that realization, shaping it was quite easy, just as if he was manipulating where the essence went inside his body,

Letting the chain dissolve back and fall onto the ground, Aether stopped his Affinity from leaving the ground. He couldn’t believe it; he had actually done it, and without anyone’s help.

’Seems I’m not that helpless.’ Though he had to say, it would have definitely taken a lot longer if he didn’t have his time with Eden; it had helped a lot, since he had already known how to control his essence and guide it, even if it had still taken a bit.

Taking a look at his clock, Aether noticed that some hours had passed... very interesting, when for him it had hardly felt like minutes had passed. But more importantly, school hours had ended, meaning he was going to have and meet Avius.

Changing back into his uniform, Aether took his pin out and stared in the mirror.

’I should probably get some hair ties.’ He let out a small chuckle. He said after summoning Voidpiercer and cutting it, only leaving enough for his pin to stay... it was a bit interesting, though, how no one knew what the pin was. And who it had belonged to, he would have thought something that was owned by his mother would be pretty well known, but I guess not. It was even stranger since, if it really was connected to the Abyss, how did Avius not know?

He was going to grow his hair back, but he had gotten a bit bored with it; maybe after he got hair ties, he would grow it again, since he could try more hairstyles. But for now, some medium-length hair was good enough. It did feel nice... feeling the wind on his sides again.

Though, at the moment, he had something else calling his name, something very important.

It was time for him to learn how this Academy worked.