11 Nemea's Double-Edged Connection

The night before spring vacation ends and the new school year begins...

Ashley was fast asleep. During this time, he decided to get plenty of rest early because he knew that he would be issuing his challenge to Noriaki once the school year began. As far as he knew, challenges at his high school could only be issued the day after the first day of school, so he had at least one day to prepare fully before the big fight. In the mean time, Nemea was making plenty of analyses to gauge Ashley's future growth plans. If Ashley were conscious, he would be rather shocked by Nemea's current voice and demeanor.

[Current Synchronization Rate... 100%. 5% chance to transcend full synchro.]

[Current Growth Potential... Unable to Evaluate.]

[Calculating Growth Path... Calculation complete. Unlocking Ether Connection...]

Ashley was still fast asleep, but it was during this time Nemea concluded her preparations and began to help take his first steps towards properly utilizing the ether and making use of his Fairy Energy. The big advantage is that if he used Fairy Energy, he could conceal his ether controlling ability because the signature of Fairy Energy, as well as internal energy created via Ether Resonance, was vastly different from regular ether.

Nemea then began to disseminate the information pertaining to the ether connection. Ether Connection was the process of properly linking the consciousness obtained from the Edict with the person who had unlocked its secret. Essentially, it would be the same as forming a "magic contract," in the words of Nemea. Nemea would assist in guiding and empowering the contractor who would then be responsible for eventually helping the wishes of the Edict's consciousness. Since Ashley was asleep, he was forced to accept this whether he liked it or not.

By the time he woke up and managed to process this news, he was rather perturbed.

"I know I should be grateful to you for helping me unlock this power, but isn't this too extreme? I don't know what you want. How do I know you're not going to make me go on a suicide mission?" Ashley whined.

Nemea seemed prepared to face some resistance from Ashley. "I apologize for not being forthright with you, but I was afraid that if I told you about it beforehand, you wouldn't accept. Don't worry. I will help you grow first before I ask you to do anything. These pertain to matters that you are still far too inconsequential to know about."

Ashley felt a bit wronged about this, but she was right. He had just acquired the ability to control ether, and shouldn't have felt greedy to have some form of autonomy. He was preparing to go to school as Nemea continued to explain the processes she went through while he was asleep. Unfortunately, Ashley learned that Ether Connection was required in order to properly gain the ether powers from the Edict of the Yellow Emperor.

This was something the young man had to accept! He didn't like it, but at the moment, it was a symbiotic relationship with the remnant of an intelligent otherworldly race and himself. He couldn't afford to go against Nemea, who had allowed him to gain a new chance at life.

Finally, Nemea got to the point as Ashley finished getting dressed into his uniform. His hair was much longer than usual, so when he tied it up into a ponytail, the ponytail was long. Furthermore, the streaks of pink in his hair were more prominent. In a world where ether was an accepted science, unnatural hair colors became more widely tolerated and fortunately he wouldn't have gotten into trouble for it.

"Now that you have gotten <Goddess Weaving Technique> to the first level of mastery, we can put it aside for now. The next stage of this technique can only practiced at the pinnacle of Ether Aura Formation..." Nemea said. "The Jupiter Verses, as you know, are focused on the initial stages of development. Thus, most of the ether abilities are of the enhancement type." As Nemea was explaining everything to him, Ashley was already on his way to school with Rin while eating some bread.

This made it rather awkward as Ashley was too busy concentrated on Nemea's words to listen to Rin who was trying to engage in small talk with him. Ashley gently apologized to her and was forced to divert his attention to two things, which made it a bit more difficult for him to fully understand Nemea's explanations. "The essence of your ability comes from the legends of the fae," Nemea explained. "Western and Eastern kinds alike. I have determined your growth path while you were asleep and concluded the most appropriate first step for you is to quickly enhance your movement."

Nemea soon imprinted a set of ether enhancement procedures into Ashley's consciousness, this was known as <Qilin Step>. The qilin was a legendary creature that was not unique to the Chinese mythology. In Japan it was the kirin, in Korea it was the girin, and in Vietnamese it was kỳ lân. It was third in terms of importance in terms of ritual dances, only behind the dragon and the phoenix.

The <Qilin Step> was named for the qilin's propensity never to step on any living being, thus it often was depicted only to walk on clouds and water. The graceful and careful steps of such a mythical and auspicious being powered the concept behind the <Qilin Step>, allowing the user to gracefully bewitch opponents with mystifying and lightning fast movements. Nemea said that it was of utmost priority that Ashley practiced this movement because his physical body was enough to overpower anybody his age at this point. He simply needed a way to avoid attacks and avoid taking unnecessary damage.

Ashley soon snapped out of Nemea's explanations and was able to apologize to Rin for seemingly spacing out. The rest of the journey to school was rather uneventful.

...

The first day of school was also rather uneventful. The usual procedures were undergone and Ashley was now officially in his third year of high school. Unfortunately, Noriaki was still in his class. Every time they locked eyes on each other, it was as if invisible sparks and flames clashed between them. Even the spectators had to stop them from getting into a fight.

Noriaki forced a malicious grin. "I will await your challenge tomorrow, girly boy."

He didn't forget to take a jab at the fact Ashley now looked like a girl wearing boy's uniform. The peanut gallery went into an uproar. Some already knew about Ashley's intent to issue a battle challenge at the high school towards Noriaki the next day. It would be the opening spectacle to a very eventful year of high school...