20 The Beach Boy's Woes

I finally did it! Barely! But it still counts as a success, right? Right!?

...I'll count this as a success. I won't let anyone rob me of my hard work.

Still, it doesn't look very imposing or threatening in the slightest. I'd go as far as to say that looks like a child scribbled something in the air.

It's sort of...pathetic looking, to be honest. And it's already starting to vanish. My technique finally worked, but it's still way too incomplete to be used practically. This is at best on the level of a party trick...

Ahhhhhh, fuck!

Those were my initial impressions of my creation, but Violett had a different impression, it seemed. She looked nervous for some reason as she started at my piddling spatial tear.

Violett broke the silence with a question and said, "...You've only been shaping Anima since I've taught you, right?" She had a serious look on her face as she stared at the vanishing spatial tear with her bloodshot eyes.

"Well, yeah. Never heard about Anima and the like until I was sent over here if that's what you're asking."

"If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would have never believed that you created it. You really are....too much, Reed." The elegant princess rubbed her eyes as she secretly wished to be woken up. She wanted for all of this to be a dream.

"W-What? It's a bit small, but it's still the real deal. I bet even you had a time when you were still an amateur. I can't compare to geniuses like you, so cut me so slack..." Reed defensively barked back when he heard Violett's complaint. He wasn't going let his hard work be criticized by this super-genius of a woman.

Even the little guys had their own pride. I may be a worm in her eyes, but I gotta stand up for my achievements, no matter how small they may be.

"..."

It was like he wanted to piss her off on purpose; Violett struggled to keep her raging emotions in check as she mounted Reed and held him down.

"When I was an amateur? Did you just say that? Do you even understand the gravity of what you just did? I'm gonna strangle you! I'm really gonna strangle you!"

"Wait, stop! Mercy! What I have I done to deserve this unfair treatment!? This is domestic abuse!!"

"What you've accomplished in less than half a year took me fifty years of hard work!! Fifty! Years!"

"U-ugkh…"

"I've shed a sea's worth of tears and blood to reach my current level of skill over a half a century, only to see a brat do it in a half a year! And I'm the so-called genius!?"

As she shook him like a ragdoll, Reed felt his soul leave his body as he struggled to not pass out.

"You've already made it 'halfway to heaven', a stage of enlightenment typically attained by conquerors who've spent hundreds of years shaping and understanding the essence of Anima," she spat out. "If it took me half a century to do it and they called me a genius, then what would they call you? Hm? Godly genius? King of geniuses? What title would you like, bastard?"

"Oh."

'Oh'?

Violett felt a fire burning in her belly that she couldn't put out when she heard his plain response. What kind of goddamned reply was that supposed to be? This boy had a supernatural level of skill when it came to pissing her off sometimes.

"Listen carefully -- it's forbidden for you to ever reveal what you just did today. If news of this ever spilled out, the whole world would be set on fire. I'm positively certain that the empires would go to war against each other to claim ownership of you."

"If you ever reveal that you've reached this level of Anima mastery to the public, you'd start World War Reed," she warned. "You wanna see the world blow up in a single day?"

Reed felt a shiver run down his spine when he imagined Violett's apocalyptic scenario and immediately blurted out, "N-no ma'am! I want to live a slow and easy life! I don't need a world war on my doorstep!"

"That's a good enough answer, I suppose. Make sure you live up to what you just said because if you don't.....some real bad stuff may end up happening to you." She stood up and quietly left after she said her ominous piece.

Reed thought she worried too much like an overprotective mother; the kind of parent that'd purposefully give kids wrong information such as, "hold hands with a boy and you'll have a baby," or "the boogeyman kidnaps naughty children" and the like.

He felt like she was trying to scare him into being an obedient kid every time she brought up how dangerous the world was. Her act was a bit too over the top for him to buy into it, or so he thought.

Reed's days passed by rather slowly after he completed (albeit pathetic) feat of spatial manipulation. Violett no longer forced her insane sparring sessions upon him and instead ordered him to continue focusing on perfect his understanding of space manipulation.

She told him that he'd benefit way more from mastering spatial techniques and spent an afternoon lecturing him on the style of spatial manipulation that conquerors used in fights.

Everyone had their own preferred way of going about it from the way she described the major styles of manipulation. The most popular technique used by far was that of the warp; breaking space-time and traveling through the transitory void to another location back in real-space.

It involved departing the world for a brief moment as you entered the infinite void of imaginary space known as the 'Flux'. From there, you'd pinpoint where you wanted to exit and rip open another tear in the fabric of space and exit out at your destination.

Did I mention that it's extremely dangerous staying in the Flux for longer than a few seconds? Entering that accursed void puts your entire being at risk as you shift between existence and non-existence. You have to get in and get out as quickly as possible, or else you run the risk of being deleted from reality. Yeah, real fun shit, am I right?

Stories exist of some particularly unfortunate conquerors who had barely started comprehending the secrets of manipulating space-time. These poor idiots got cocky and attempted a warp despite only being fledglings at shaping space; I shouldn't have to tell you what happened to them, right?

Masters of spatial manipulation had full control over the word called 'distance.' They were a hundred million miles away and a couple of inches away from their opponents during fights. If they wanted to get up close and personal, they'd be next to you in a heartbeat and be gone by the time you realized that'd you've been attacked.

These experts would stretch space-time so their enemy attacks would never reach them, no matter how long their attacks flew towards them. At the same time, they'd warp space so their attacks would always reach their opponents instantly. It was an actual nightmare trying to catch these bastards because they were nigh-impossible to follow as they erratically phased in out of existence like madmen.

The only way to fight these assholes was to immediately lock down the surrounding space before they started their madness; that, or become sufficiently skilled at spatial techniques like them.

As a result, conquerors who specialized in spatial techniques were always in high demand. They were perfect assassins, thieves, rogues, and most importantly -- spies and observers for the four empires.

Not that I care about getting a cushy job or anything, I just wanna be able to run away to the beach when the time is right...

The only other major change in Reed's life was the fact that he now had a disproportionately large amount of free time to spare, unlike his peers who were busily trained to death by Violett. Most of the time he was lounging around the beach as he slept on his favorite hammock.

Because Reed had been tasked with increasing his comprehension, he spent most of his time relaxing as he meditated by the sea. Since this part of his training was all internal, he decided that he would make himself comfortable and enjoy life for once.

After all, enlightenment couldn't be rushed; he would simply have to wait and reflect on his trials and errors.

There weren't any cute girls to chase here, but it didn't matter to him. The peacefulness he found was worth more than that in his eyes.

Astor and the group would often come and visit him after they finished their training, berating him for his lazy attitude and lack of will.

Of course, they were completely mistaken. They thought that Reed was wasting away his time instead of training diligently. A troubling misunderstanding indeed.

He sighed, but in the end, chose to keep silent. It wasn't as if he could tell them the truth even if they were his dear friends.

If they knew the truth...what would happen? Reed did not dare think too hard about the hypothetical situation out of the fear of the dark thoughts that it brought up.

Alas, some secrets were too precious to be shared.

"You really will waste away if you keep this up, Reed. It'd be a genuine shame to see you rot away in that hammock," said Astrid. She was slightly concerned about how lazy Reed had become over the past two weeks.

"She's right, Reed. You're starting to get a bad reputation among the rest of the class, you know. They're calling you the 'beach bum' of the island. It's not really cool have lazy you've been as of late," said Horatio as he shook his head in disappointment.

Everyone seemed to have friendly words of criticism as they battered Reed with their sharp tongues. At first, Reed kept an open heart and told himself he'd tolerate their insults out of understanding...or so he planned.

Eventually, their words finally got through to Reed's poor soul and a hateful flame had been lit. He decided that he would no longer allow this nonsense to continue anymore. These bullies needed to be taught a lesson.

He lifted a single finger and pointed it at the sea as he began concentrating. The temperature around the beach dropped as a stifling pressure sprung up around Reed.

Everyone was rendered speechless as they felt the suffocating presence of the highly concentrated Anima that gathered around Reed. It felt they had awoken some ancient horror from its slumber.

The pressure continued to mount and a disturbing creaking sound was heard as if something was breaking under the pressure of Reed's will...

Once Reed heard the creaking sound of the space-time that was about to break, he released his attack.

A beam of brilliant light instantaneously flew out his finger and disappeared into the boundless sea in the span of a single breath.

Suddenly, an enormous flash of radiance blinded everyone on the beach. It felt like the sun had descended upon the earth as they felt an infernal heat swallow them up.

For the briefest of moments, they thought they'd been sent to the deepest layer of hell as the scorching heat and light oppressed them.

When they finally opened their eyes, what they saw shocked them beyond words. The sea had been evenly split and even artificial seabed had been exposed as an enormous plume of steam rose over the island.

"....."

"....."

"....."

That should be enough to shut them up for a while, I think. Hopefully, they'll think twice about badmouthing me now.

Reed lazily picked up his coconut drink and stared at the beach.

"So, what'd ya think? I think I can improve on it a bit more, but it should be good enough for fights."

What do we think? What? Hello, Mom?

Improve on it more!? Good enough for fights!?

Who the hell are you trying to kill!!?