The First Step

30 advance chapters in my Pat.reon. Pat.reon.com/Saintbarbido.

Please gimme 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 Your Powerstones People.

Sorry no update for tomorrow. So I sent this in earlier.

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(Aden's P.O.V)

"I mean I understand the excitement but did you two have to destroy the house during your fight?"

I sulked, looking below to see 4 or 5 of the residential area was burning with a white flame that softly danced in the air, uncontrolled and free.

The battle had moved on from the mental realm to the physical once Vaatu had started being overwhelmed.

I was about to wave my hand and return it all back to the way it was when Gaea interrupted in me.

"Please master Aden, let me."

Left with nothing to do, I watched the whole set of events play out. Construction drones appeared abd begun taking care of the problem. Luckily no life had been lost.

"Did you have to hit me so hard?"

Vaatu annoyingly complained. He could heal any injury like he wished, blows and magic performed by just about anyone. Things changed if he was up against his complete opposite.

Dove went silent.

She was armed with completely glowing white hair, a beautiful face and a pale blue pair of eyes that seemed to see everything. She was also dressed in a long flowing dress and looked out into the realm with an indecipherable look on her face.

"So beautiful. I can sense the boundaries between us even more clearly, brother. Your dominion surrounds this world from every side. A true film of chaos with no beginning or end."

She commented in a soft and mellow voice, different from the double voice she used before.

I could feel Vaatu's gaze on me, wondering how I was taking this new change. He knew. I could tell he knew that his sister was different.

The realm had separated into two distinct realities upon it's evolution to the next stage. It was now the set up of a star system with planets revolving around the supermassive sun in the middle. I said set up and not size because in sheer size terms, the Realm's Star System was roughly 30 times bigger than the Solar system. The main dimension alone was bigger than an average star system all by itself.

"Could you excuse us for a minute Vaatu? I'll be over to introduce your sister to the rest of the family soon. Just need to have a quick chat before that."

I calmly asked him. Vaatu bowed without hesitation, happy to leave this headache with me.

"As you wish Master Aden." He straightened up, hands on his ribs. He had a black eye and a split lip that was beginning to heal. In comparison Dove/Raava looked spic and span. Meaning nothing was too out of place. No visible changes or injuries.

He sank into a purple portal with a salute, leaving the two of us floating in the air.

"Hold on."

I advised and then warped us to a cliff a distance away from civilization. This place was untouched by humans. The cliff overlooked a lake where animals enjoyed a drink under the sunny glare of the sky.

Dove/Raava blinked.

"So...natural. Untainted. A perfect Paradise."

She commented.

"Thanks for the high praise. I'm sure Gaea appreciates it."

I responded politely.

There was a brief silence between us.

"You're not really Dove or Raava, are you?"

I asked, a question that had been plaguing me for some time. Ever since the fight had begun.

"I mean I can simply call you Raava because her traits lingered around the most from the combination of both of your personalities."

Her body started shivering with nervousness.

"Don't do anything stupid. We both know I could never hurt you. I would rather die first."

I shook my head. Fear was alright but I never felt comfortable using it to intimidate others. Having your enemies fear you would most likely lead to them revolting in a way that at the very least assured mutual destruction. It was better to have them respect you.

For a family member to fear me left a bad taste in my mouth. Her tense shoulders relaxed.

"I guess, I couldn't hide it away from you." The dread ended and she turned to me with a nervous expression.

"How...how did you know?"

I sat cross legged on the flat ground of the cliff, patting the space beside me to have her join me. She folded her feet over each other like mine and sat calmly waiting for my answer.

"I started suspecting something was different when Raava established a link to Dove over the past few days. Her spirit was voluntarily leaving Vaatu and settling into Dove's soul and body. It was too fast. Rushed. As if she didn't have much choice."

"Then I understood from examining you when you were lying on the bed. The accident that had seen Dove hurt and in a coma had had a very huge impact on her brain chemistry. That's why the drones could not wake her up. Her soul was injured. There wasn't much left of her essence, it had been bleeding out into the earth and later on my realm. She would never have woken up."

"So Raava resulted to doing something reckless, she used her essence to reinforce part of Dove's soul, patching the 'leak' but the process took a different turn. Instead of replacing her soul's energy field without much impact on her own essence, therefore healing Dove back to health, the mixing of both of their essences and spirits gave rise to an entirely different being. You are not the Raava that I sensed everytime I looked at Vaatu."

"The light that was the antithesis to his darkness. Neither are you the scared little girl that ventured her way into an entirely different world. Somewhere along the line, the both of their melded spirits gave rise to you. A god that understands mortals due to being mortal. We are both different from anyone else."

Her shoulders shook. I placed a hand around her and pulled her close to my embrace. We stayed like that for a few more minutes before I spoke up again.

"So, what do you want to be called?"

She sniffed a little before detaching herself from the hug.

She wiped her tears before looking up. Eyes blazing with confidence, she answered.

"I am Raava."

My smile was blinding.

"Good. Now how about we go say hi to the rest of the family?"

(General P.O.V)

Martial arts are more than a discipline of the body, it is also the discipline of the mind and more than that a culmination of both. Two disciplines working in tandem. A true warrior. Each strike executed with maximum efficiency achieved through control of their body that bordered on the supernatural.

That was the line separating expert martial artists from Masters of the art. But what's next after that? It wasn't known to most but The vaunted grandmaster level where one could access their internal life force in the form of Chi and use it for various effects was real.

Unfortunately the number of people who could use Chi was astronomically low, to the point of it being possible to count them by hand. These figures had honed their bodies to the limit. They had naturally broken the limiters in their bodies which enabled them to tap into the energy contained inside their body cells.

Two such figures were meditating on separate but close to one another rooftops.

The first was shirtless and dressed in a pure white loose sparring pants. His body was toned, rippling with cords of muscles that emphasized, strength, speed and stamina. Perfect musculature. He breathed in slowly, letting the hot breath he breathed out, dissipate in the air.

On the building opposite to him was another such figure. He was even bigger than the first man. He hard dark skin and where it looked like the first figure fought by relying on speed, this other man was pure power. You could tell just by looking at him that you didn't want to be hit by one of his blows.

His eyes were also closed like the first figure. The difference was the soft golden glow under his ebony skin. Bronze Tiger allowed his chi to flow smoothly through his blood vessels. The heat from the energy inside him was not let out as with the case in Richard Dragons. Bronze Tiger used the energy to further temper his flesh.

Even the undesirable and tainted filth inside him was turned into thick carbon chains underneath his skin for increased durability. Each of them followed different methods of meditation and Qigong manipulation. Each of them were at the height of power that the human body could exert without biological cheat codes like metahuman abilities and outside help.

Yet there was another level above that. A level that had been an impossible goal to reach in the old earth but here? Here...they could finally cast off the final layer of mortality and become true martial arts.

Here, they could fly.

Gaea noted the swirling energy around the two of them as they absorbed the spiritual energy in the air. The Aether formed into an invisible vortex of power that was getting sucked into their bodies. She monitored the process intensely, careful not to miss a single thing.

Her scans went further than skin deep. She probed their spirits and souls, body cells and even the effects the energy had on the microbes in their bodies. And once she was done, she realized something.

This made no absolute sense.

It was a different matter if the spirit energy was absorbed, either enhancing existing abilities as was the case with an energy manipulation heavy race such as a Martian. Or the other likely option of a flat, permanent connection to the spirit energy in the air, providing the subject with a wide range of Abilities.

What the two martial artists were doing was different. They did not use the energy to enhance their strength, nor were they tapping into the Aether to power their abilities. They were effectively stealing the spirit energy produced by Gaea and changing it into their own life force through a mysterious process of conversion.

The energy was then used to endlessly refine their bodies through both of their different methods. Richard Dragons used the energy to remove the persistent waste and toxins from his body while Bronze Tiger used the energy to forcefully refine that same waste and turn it towards enhancing his body.

It was something new. Something Gaea did not have in her database. Something that was a great first step into creating the perfect race. Aden had been right. This was truly the way to go. Wanting to see more, learn more and understand it all, Gaea directed most of the pure energy in the densest part of the realm towards the two grandmaster Martial artists' endeavors.

And from that she was able to learn more from their actions. For example, the rate with which they absorbed the energy did not increase, but their breathing method somehow emphasized on taking in the more purer energy as opposed to the energy around the residential area,tainted by human emotions. It was like they were somehow managing to separate the pure spring water from a murky river.

Secondly she was going to have to need to see more of the same process in different subjects to come up with more results. An analysis of only two individuals would not be enough. Before that though, she used the similarities in both of their biology to scan for more exceptional individuals like them.

(Aden's P.O.V)

"Well crap."

I said, looking at the list of potential candidates most likely to have it easy in manipulating Spirit energy. Right behind, Bronze Tiger, Richard Dragons, Lady Shiva and O-Sensei was one very familiar name, Bruce Wayne. And knowing Bruce, if he was pushed into learning this new skill to stand a chance at opposing me, then he would be the very best at it.

All of them were exceptional martial artists. Formidable opponents who had mastered their bodies and minds, honed their skills to the point where every body part could be used to destroy someone.

The strangest thing was the fact that Bane's name was among the list of 12 potential individuals.

"How long do you estimate it will take to complete the objective of enhancing the potential of the Quintes D.N.A using this data?"

"Can't really say. I have nothing in my database to compare and contrast with this...strange process. It will probably take even more time."

I heard her sigh.

"Mmh." I hummed.

"In any case, we're not in any hurry. Focus on scanning and monitoring the process like before."

"As you wish Master Aden."

Gaea answered with finality. I looked to my front, seeing how my family was receiving Raava with open hearts. My gaze landed on Kori, who similarly looked at me and nodded towards the cottage. It was time to have a talk with my baby mama. Finally.