The Broken Halo

Chapter 981 - 980: Two Energies

[System Awakened]

The words remained before Rowan’s eyes as warmth spread through his chest.

It reached his shoulders, travelled down his arms, and gathered in his fingertips. He flexed them beneath Celeste’s hand. The sensation was faint but unmistakable, moving through places inside him he had never been able to feel before.

Aether.

His master had described his own awakening to him so that he could learn. Rowan had listened carefully, although hearing about energy moving inside a body hadn’t prepared him for experiencing it.

The screen changed.

[Scanning host...]

Aether spread down his legs and climbed through his neck. When it reached his head, he felt a prickling behind his ears. Every breath seemed to carry it farther.

Rowan closed his eyes.

”Pay attention during the first circulation,” Luke had told him. ”You’ll feel parts of your body you’ve never noticed. Remember those routes. It’ll make finding them again easier.”

He followed the warmth through his right arm, down to the wrist and back. Another branch passed beneath his ribs. He wanted to follow that one too, but his attention kept jumping whenever a new part of him responded.

Then something else moved.

It gathered without warning, deep inside him. The Aether approaching it recoiled.

Rowan frowned.

This felt nothing like the warmth he had been following. It was harsh and heavy, and recognising it brought back the sight of bodies scattered across the Northern Carpathian Front.

He also remembered Blackmoon.

’No. That can’t be right.’

The other energy pushed outward. Aether rushed to meet it.

Bang!

Their collision struck his head like a hammer.

Rowan tried to call for Sir Luke, but pain swallowed the words, and the world around him disappeared.

He found himself on his knees in a colourless space. He could see through his arms. Beneath their translucent outline, blue light surged along narrow routes, chasing a dark-red mass through his body.

Two rough balls of energy gathered in his chest. Neither held a proper shape as strands streamed from them, lashing around one another.

They collided.

Bang!

Rowan’s thoughts broke apart.

For a moment, he couldn’t remember whom he had been trying to call.

Then another impact drove him sideways.

Bang!

The pain from Sir Luke’s potions had been terrible.

This was worse.

Every collision tore through his mind. His thoughts became confused, and soon he could barely think about anything except the two energies fighting inside him.

———

A groan escaped Rowan in the real world.

Celeste’s smile vanished.

”Rowan?”

His fingers tightened around hers. She leaned closer, trying to see his face, and felt a dark surge spill from his body.

She stood abruptly.

”No... that can’t be.”

Adrian came forward, then stopped as he recognised it too.

”Sir Luke. Isn’t that...?”

”Yes,” Luke answered, his brow deeply furrowed. ”Demonic energy.”

He crouched in front of Rowan and steadied his shoulders.

”Rowan. Can you hear me?”

The boy’s head fell forward.

Celeste brought her free hand toward his chest. White light gathered around her fingers, but she paused before letting it enter him.

”The two energies are clashing,” Luke said quietly. ”Check his condition first.”

She nodded, shocked by what she could feel. Forcing more power into that struggle might make it worse.

Adrian moved to Rowan’s other side. None of them stepped away.

———

The two masses of energy plunged down Rowan’s right leg.

He watched it swell.

His calf stretched grotesquely as blue and dark-red light struck each other beneath its surface. He grabbed at his knee, certain the limb would burst.

Before it could, both energies surged upward.

His stomach bulged.

Rowan doubled over with a cry. The swelling eased only for another blow to strike inside his skull. His head felt too large for his neck. He could feel its distorted outline stretching, splitting at the edges.

”Stop!”

His voice sounded thin in that empty place.

The blue mass drove the red one toward his shoulder. It twisted free and slammed back into it.

”Please. Stop!”

Neither slowed.

He tried pressing his hands over the lights. They slipped beneath his palms and struck again.

Rowan couldn’t even crawl away. Wherever they went, he had to suffer it.

He was going to die.

Celeste had brought him back. Luke had spent days teaching him. He had finally reached his birthday, and now the energy he’d waited for was tearing him apart.

The two masses of energy struck inside his left arm.

His elbow swelled until he could barely recognise it.

Rowan stared at the bulging limb.

Then his expression changed.

His pleading stopped. He gripped his left upper arm with his right hand, digging his fingers into the translucent flesh around the struggling lights.

They tried to move.

He held harder.

”Enough.”

Rowan pulled.

Rip!

His shoulder tore apart.

He screamed through his teeth but kept pulling until the arm came free. Its outline broke into pale fragments, leaving the two masses trapped inside his right hand.

There was no blood but the pain was real enough to make him shake.

Rowan brought the lights closer to his face.

”I’ve had enough of this shit.”

Blue flashed between his fingers. Dark red pressed against his palm.

”Aether, demonic energy... I don’t care. I’ll crush both of you.”

He closed his fist.

The two powers strained against his fingers, and he forced them inward anyway. He had no technique for this, no instruction to remember. He wanted them to stop, and he no longer cared what he had to break to make that happen.

However, the resistance suddenly gave way.

Rowan almost stumbled.

Both lights had stopped moving.

He waited with his fist clenched, barely daring to breathe but there was no clash or collision between both energies.

A blue strand slipped between his fingers. He tightened his grip, but it didn’t attack the red light. It followed a route into his wrist.

The dark-red energy moved next.

It took a different route.

Rowan watched them return through the outline of his body. They passed close together beneath his ribs, and he braced for another collision.

Nothing happened.

The blue light continued upward. The dark red flowed down his side.

His torn shoulder re-formed as the distortion faded. He could feel both arms again, along with a warm hand around his fingers.

———

Rowan opened his eyes.

Celeste was bent over him. Luke held his shoulders, while Adrian stood beside the bench with a cloth clutched in one hand.

Rowan looked down quickly.

His left arm was there.

He moved it, then flexed the fingers. Both energies continued circulating, following separate routes without hurting him.

”How do you feel?” Luke asked.

Rowan swallowed.

”I’m fine, Master.”

”Are you sure?” Celeste asked anxiously. ”You were in so much pain a moment ago.”

He nodded.

”It’s stopped now. I’m better now.”

Luke loosened his hold without leaving his side. Celeste checked Rowan again, relief appearing on her face when she found his condition settling.

Rowan looked between them.

There was something he needed to say.

He had felt demonic energy inside himself.

Would they think he was turning into one of the creatures they hated?

His fingers curled against his knees.

Luke noticed.

”You have questions about the demonic energy inside of you.”

Rowan’s head came up.

”You know about it, Master?”

”We all did.”

He searched his master’s stern face, then nodded cautiously.

”I don’t understand. Why would I have that inside me?”

”Look at your status window first,” Luke told him. ”Let’s see what the System found before we start guessing.”

Rowan remembered the screen.

It had been scanning him when everything went wrong.

He turned his attention toward it, and the writing came into focus.

——-

[Host scan complete.]

[Status]

Name: Rowan Grey

Age: 16

Race: Human

Level: 1

Rank: F

Class: Unassigned

Affiliation: None

[Titles: Returned from Death]

[Blessing: Not selected]

[Talent: Peerless Martial Insight]

[Bloodline: Nil]

[Physique: Heavenly-Demonic Dual-Meridian Physique]

[Physical Attributes]

Strength: 7

Agility: 8

Dexterity: 6

Constitution: 8

[Mental Attributes]

Perception: 10

Intelligence: 20

Willpower: 10

[Affinities: Fire (B)]

[Skills: Swordsmanship, Combat Observation, Mental Rehearsal]

[Martial Art: Radiant Cross Art (High Grade, Expert)

[Energy: Aether / Demonic Energy]

——

Rowan barely registered the numbers.

His eyes stopped at the word Physique, then moved across the name beside it.

[Physique: Heavenly-Demonic Dual-Meridian Physique]