Chapter 44 - Akand and time

Under the moonless night. Akand, all alone, sat and drank and from time to time he spewed out intelligible words.

Around him the animals long scared away.

"I can't believe it! She dared to disappear for a decade without a single word! Not even a letter. What if she died like her? Fuck." He said as the alcohol long took effect.

Or rather, it didn't need to. In just a decade, he turned from the young lad who strived to be the calmest in the room to a shrewd man.

He might not explode at any moment. But when there's just him or a certain spirit.

Akand would take any decorum off his face. This decade hit him hard.

Unlike Blythe, who managed to go and fight for the frontlines, and later Talia, who disappeared.

What about him then? A supposed to be a man who's calm and collected, one that people should look up at from down below and see him with reverence inside their eyes.

That model that he should be. Would just be that. A dream that he wished to be one day.

They both took their step. And neither came back in one piece. Hell, he hadn't seen the corpse of Blythe's body and long came to the realisation that it no longer exists.

Like cycles. Each year became a torture for Akand. He didn't think of himself as sentimental, but that one day every single year broke him.

Contrary to what he thought. No one interfered with the place he, Blythe and Talia built up.

Thanks to it. He remained as the undisputed king of this place, raking uncountable amounts of benefits to the Lake family and his own.

This place gave him everything he dreamed of.

And made him realise. He's a human, and their hunger and thirst know no bounds.

He'd rather see the days where he didn't have to worry about everything alone without anyone's input and actual opinions.

The one thing he kept telling himself that kept him afloat became the existence of Liam.

A guarded secret of his no one knew. Akand didn't see Liam as a true companion when he first saw him.

While Blythe bonded with Liam and brought joy.

And Talia always managed to brighten up the mood, even with a few gestures. He saw himself as something greater.

A hidden ambition with controlling emotions being one of the steps to get there. To be the greatest.

Instead, a coward, he remained. Till the very end. Weak his resolve remained, and so did he.

After Talia left, he had nightmares. Not about losing her, but about being forced on the frontlines as well and dying there.

Since birth, everyone around him had great aspirations, dreams and goals. To fit in.

He became one of them as well. At least that's what he liked to think and wanted to think.

Like those he bonded with. The frontlines terrified him and made him too scared to even step near them.

Thus, the position of an unofficial elder didn't seem so bad and when he had the option to go to a pretty desolate place, that's underdeveloped to supervise it.

He didn't wait. Out of the hands of many talented, he used his family to grab one of the positions.

And then he met them. People like him who had no ambitions and feared to go and die like many others.

Liam, the great spirit, then became the binding tool. To keep this perfect paradise alive.

Where he didn't have to risk his life or the ones he grew to care about. A place in which he might master the control over his emotions.

There, he might grow. That's what he thought, at least.

His fantasy shattered.

Blythe, the one he thought would remain stuck in one place longer than he or Talia, went first.

And she never returned. In his mind, he berated her how his thoughts proved correct.

Surely, after Blythe went, then no one would be gone, and their fantasy might resume, right?

Talia gave him a great jab as a response to that. Gone and now hanging on a thread which might break at any time.

Many times over the long decade. Akand almost broke the decorum he created with Liam.

He did see Liam as someone dear. But humans and spirits would never become the same to him.

Aliens, weird vines that almost conquered this planet. Spirits belonged to that category.

Perhaps the thought came from his education, however he never questioned it till this day.

Talia and Blythe might be gone and Akand got left behind.

He saw it in a different light. They didn't prepare and ventured out too young and too immature to truly survive the hell that frontlines represented.

On the other hand. He just had to grasp that one thing. The control over his emotions.

That's what he told himself every day in front of a mirror. Maybe he didn't believe it at first, but now he resonated with those words.

It all made sense. After all, if they didn't need to fix their mistakes and flaws before they went onto an unforgiving battlefield, then they would have survived.

Things like luck couldn't have made such a big difference.

And a decade later, he didn't move at all. Trapped inside his own cocoon, ready to hatch.

Instead of hatching into a beautiful butterfly, he remained hidden underneath the thick layer of protection.

They didn't need him on the frontlines. Like many others, he would be just another cannon fodder ready to lose his life at any time.

He needed to control his emotions. Perfect, the power of the spirits and become ready for them.

Liam didn't disappoint him. The great breakthrough of those mana grains made him change his thoughts.

If he could be so powerful with controlling his emotions. He could wait a bit more to attain the great awakened realm before he went to the frontlines.

Furthermore, he might not even need to go there. The goal of attaining enough power he didn't see as urgent as controlling his emotions perfectly.

To a tea. Never bother or never forced to explode. Angry with a thought and calm with another.

He fell more and more inside his own play. Told Liam about the greatness he would achieve and how alcohol became the perfect training tool.

When he couldn't muster any mental defences and still managed to be calm, then he would master the ability.

Liam, on the sidelines, watched it all happen. The one remaining friend he thought he had left turned into a waste.

Or maybe something worse. He had ambition and fire inside his eyes, but kept quenching them with liquor and his thoughts of perfection.

At one point, Liam began to reconsider things. The mana grains and the revolution that came with it may turn more people into a waste than heroes.

He saw it firsthand. Akand, the one who had one goal before he went to prove himself correct, now just waited like a salted fish for Liam to develop a working method to get to the awakened realm.

In the mouth of that man remained excuses, and excuses alone. Liam no longer saw ambition, but delusion.

Nevertheless, he continued on with his experiments. After the creation of mana crystals, he went further and further.

Against his expectations. Mana crystals alone couldn't bring someone to a higher level lifeform.

Thanks to some information and experiences he knew.

Awakened elders held the power of their spirit in their own bodies and, depending on their direction, even fused with them or devoured them.

Pure energy alone couldn't do that. A tank of water couldn't get ejected dozens of meters into the air thanks to more water.

It would overflow. Thankfully, the overflowing didn't cause any damage.

What helped unawakened elders gain the power to become awakened lied in the ability they gained whilst fighting.

Each battle would squeeze out their potential. Hone their skills so they survive another day more.

In that kind of environment, they would learn to know their spirits the best. A reason why unawakened elders had to gain contribution points to advance further.

Unawakened elders weren't cannon fodder only. But assets that used the frontlines as a sieve.

Those with enough potential and luck would hold on to hone sufficient amount of skill and then use the energy gained from contribution points to take the last step.

What Liam introduced merely solved the second step. He reduced the needed resources for it to happen by a lot.

That didn't mean he solved the entire thing. Unless a person trained for a long time like a hermit every day.

To get such a level of experience and skill would always take some life and death experiences.

Those that they learn from. Mistakes that would engrave themselves in their bones, be it willingly or not.

Akand, his friend. He didn't dare take the first step and waited for the second to be finished.

A man who waited for a yacht, but never built a port that would let the ship land safely.