Chapter 43: Grade 2
Zephyr muttered under his breath, "Just call and it would respond." He instinctively moved to enter a lotus position but was thwarted by the armrests of the chair. He scowled, shifting uncomfortably before glancing around.
"Hmm... does the position of the body matter?" he asked cautiously.
"Negative," Elden responded. "Staying in a comfortable position will suffice. However, do avoid excessive comfort, like lying on a bed, or you may drift into sleep."
Zephyr nodded, adjusting himself until he found a balance between comfort and alertness. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and focused inward. The soft sounds of the computer, the flickering of holographic screens—all of it faded away as he shut out his senses one by one.
There was silence. True silence.
For a long moment, he simply existed in that void, drifting between awareness and something deeper. Doubt flickered at the edge of his mind. Am I doing it right? The thought threatened to pull him back into consciousness, but then—he felt it.
It wasn’t like grasping at something physical. No, it was like leaning into a whisper, the soft call of something ancient and powerful that had always been there, just beneath the surface. His breath stilled, his heartbeat slowed, and then it happened.
A lullaby. Gentle, ethereal—a rhythm that resonated with his very being. It pulled him deeper, unraveling layers of perception until he slipped, falling—not into sleep, but into another state of awareness entirely.
He was awake. But not in the conventional sense.
He could feel his body, every pulse, every stretch of muscle and vein. His heart thrummed in his chest, each beat sending out waves that resonated with something gaseous and ethereal hovering just above his blood. He couldn’t see it, but he knew it was there—an instinctual understanding embedded in his bones.
"My Neutral Aether," he whispered, the words reverberating through his mind. His breath hitched at the realization. He could feel it—weighty, not with burden but with purpose. It was dense and potent, humming with latent power that pressed against his veins, almost like it was knocking, demanding entry.
It wasn’t idle. His Neutral Aether emitted a pressure—a tangible, rhythmic beat that pulsed along his blood vessels, reverberating through his tissues, bones, and organs. The sensation was surreal, as though his very essence was being tempered by its weight. His flesh and bone grew subtly stronger, fortified by each pulse. He felt more real, more connected to the world around him.