A rigid mind
Flora once again pushes against the wall of vines attempting to go through. Her feet dig into the ground, and she, pushes harder and harder, but no progress is made.
"Why is it not working?" "Why can't I pass through?" Flora thought, her mind stuck in frustration. Crito shakes his head, watching his student frustrated. "Stop!" Crito yells, seen enough.
Flora, while panting, dispels her wall. She can't afford to waste mana. There is still training to be done. "Your mind is rigid." "you need to have a flexible mind to use Rule correctly." "so let's try something else," Crito explains. He takes a few steps away and makes an X on the ground.
"Throw a seed here," Crito said. Flora, tossed a seed on the X. "good, now make it a vine," Crito continues. The seed glows and transforms into a giant vine, at least thirty centimeters wide. Along the vine are thorns long and sharp.
"This will do," Crito says with a nod. He now walks towards Flora and stands to her left. "That vine bring it down upon me." Crito orders, much to Flora's confusion. "you want me to hurt you?" Flora asks with a shake in her voice.
"No, I will be fine." "But perhaps changing your focus to hitting someone instead of just passing through might help your mind adapt." "By bringing it down from the right and me standing at your left, it might pass through you and strike me," Crito explains. Flora prepares her mind to do it right this time. "Okay, just don't worry about him," Flora thought, not wishing for her worry to get in the way.
The vine swings towards Flora's right, but as it gets closer to her, it slows down and hits Flora gently. "Why?" Flora thought. Flora tried again with the same result. "why?" Again same result. "Why?" Same result. "Why!?" she tried over. And over again with the same question in her mind.
"Just hit!" Flora, frustrated by her continuous failure, was bringing down the vine faster and faster over and over again. The vine is brought down at high speed. But it doesn't slow down. It makes contact with Flora, her body bends as it makes contact, and her face distorts in pain. Crito noticing something going wrong, makes a move quickly and slashes the vine with a blade made of light. Despite this, Flora is flung into a bed of flowers not that far away.
"what the hell was that!?" Crito yelled. Flora puts an arm around her side. She broke nothing but was lying in pain. Crito extends his hand and pulls Flora out of the flower bed. "Training is over for today!" "Go back inside!" Crito yells.
Having failed again, Flora with heavy steps. Makes her way inside. Leo lies on the couch. Hearing Flora enter, he pushes himself up to greet her with a smile. His smile, however, disappears as he sees that Flora is holding her side, and her eyes are wet with tears. Leo grits his teeth in anger. "What did he do!" Leo said, frustrated.
Flora shakes her head, explaining the situation. "so you hurt yourself, and he got angry with you." Leo says. Flora nods while sniffling. "I messed up so bad." she cries. Leo grabs Flora's arm to sit her down next to him. "He wasn't truly, angry." "He was scared," Leo tried to explain that Crito being worried meant that he cared for her. "Please go back out there and apologize. I'm sure he is sorry as well." Apologize? He shouldn't apologize. I messed up she thought. She did decide to follow his advice and made her way outside again. She dries her eyes using her sleeve.
Crito took care of the flowers that Flora squished. "I'm sorry!" Flora yells with a face that still shows her being noticeably upset. Crito lets out a big sigh. "Don't do that again. If you get frustrated, take a breather," Crito explains in a more calm voice. "we will find another way to teach you Rule." Crito makes a motion to the place where Flora had practiced Rule before. Flora nods and walks back to practice using the vine wall.
In the moonlight, a man was running away, tears down his cheeks and a face distorted in fear. The man screams for help, but no one comes to help, and no one is hunting him either. "Where is she," he thought, fearing for his life. The person he was scared of, Kali was walking in the opposite direction, talking in a walky-talky." Are you sure this is a good idea?" Her voice is soft and filled with doubt.
"This is part of the plan." "Just trust us," Martin said. Kali, however, did not seem convinced."You haven't even given us a reason why, just that it will help our ascension." Kali questions, but Matin yells, "It is all for your sake, just trust us all right!"
Kali gives up on getting an answer, "Can I return home now?" She asks in a defeated voice. "Of course, you did a good job." "I also made sure to clean Marybell for you." Kali's voice became happy after the news, "Thank you, Martin."
Martin gives a small chuckle, gone away from the aggressive tone he used just a minute before. "You are welcome, princes."
The man that had run away collapses to the ground, exhausted. He weeps for his teammates and curses the people behind their demise. "we were warned." "Why didn't we listen?" He pants and pushes himself back on his feet to keep walking. "I have to warn them." "There have to be some left." Despite the devastating loss, the only thing on his mind was to take down the people behind the defeat they suffered, The NewGods.