Call of the Void (4)

"Try to copy what I'm doing okay son?"

"Okay."

Hawke sat down on the green grass with his legs folded and he rested his palms on the side of his knees.

[Are we meditating?]

[I think that's called the lotus position?]

Berkah thought, copying Hawke's posture.

*Crackle!*

Hawke closed his eyes as wrapped his mana around his being.

*Crackle!*

Berkah did the same.

"Now, without releasing anymore mana, I want you to try expanding it outside of your body."

Hawke's mana crackled and formed a one meter dome around him.

[... Give a better explanation than that!]

Berkah furrowed his brow in frustration, he had no idea that mana could separate from his body.

[How am I supposed to control it if it's disconnected from my body?!]

Berkah spat inwardly, struggling to expand the range of his mana without tapping into his mana pool.

Hawke noticed Berkah's visible confusion and spoke.

"Imagine you want to protect not only yourself but someone who is in close proximity with you."

"Remember to do it without using the mana inside your body."

[Ah... sort of like a barrier?]

"Do you understand Berkah?"

"Yup, I think so."

*Crackle*, *Crackle*

Berkah's mana slowly expanded outside of his body, like a balloon being filled with air.

"I'm doing it, hehe!"

"Good job, now keep expanding it until you feel like it's about to explode and maintain it."

"Ugh..."

[The more I expand it, the less control I have over it.]

[I can feel the pressure building up, it'll explode!]

"Ugh!"

Berkah struggled with maintaining control over the mana dome around his being, it was akin to attempting to put a thread through a needle whilst underwater.

[Ugh! This is so hard! It feels much worse than holding back deadly diarrhea when I'm already at the bathroom door!]

...That's one way to put it...

*POP!*

Berkah was unable to maintain the mana dome and it burst.

"*huff*,*huff*... This is hard!"

Berkah exclaimed in an exasperated tone.

"That's okay son, let's try it again. "

[To think he was able to create the dome on his first try...]

Hawke mused, a cold sweat cascading down his temple.

Berkah took a deep breath and fixed his posture to try again.

[This is harder than I thought... from what I've experienced mana is like an extension of the body, so how do I control it if I separate it from my body?]

Berkah mused, his eyebrows distorting in discomfort as the dome grew larger.

[Come on... Come on... Come on...]

Berkah encouraged himself, gritting his teeth and clenching his fist, pushing through the uncomfortable sensation that came with maintaining the dome.

*POP!*

"Argh!"

[He managed to maintain it for longer?!]

Hawke screamed inwardly, his jaw on the ground.

[I think I'm starting to get the gist of it... I should do it a few more times.]

Berkah expanded his mana once more.

Hawke barely had to say anything, his blue eyes trembled with awe at the sight of his son rapidly learning things on his own.

///

[It's been three hours and he's still going at it...]

[He's so focused that he's barely even moved from that spot.]

Hawke continued watching over his son with awe, he dared not to disturb him.

In the past three hours Berkah had been completely immersed in maintain his mana dome, he was now capable of maintaing it for 5 minutes without it bursting.

But that still wasn't enough.

He had to maintain it without it ever bursting in order to gain full control of his mana.

*POP!*

"*huff*,*huff*..."

[Fuck...]

[...Mana is an extension of the body...]

[It's not that this technique requires me to control mana outside of my body...]

[This mana dome feels more like... forcibly stretching my limbs...]

[...increasing my reach?...]

[!!]

[Ah...]

[I've been thinking about it the wrong way...]

*Crackle!*

Berkah drew his mana once more and began expanding it.

[This entire dome is... Me...]

[My body is merely the center from which I expand...]

[No... depending on how much energy I can expand, I can even consider my body to be a miniature singularity.]

[Nah... That's a reach, keke.]

*Uwoong!*

Berkah's dome shone brightly and expanded rapidly, having a radius of around 400 meters.

[I can sense everything within this dome... The plants, the insects beneath the ground, the blades of grass and how many there are.]

[Hawke too, I can sense him... and what he's... feeling? He's in shock... why though? is this not what he wanted to teach me?]

[... This is awesome!]

[Now... In order to hide my mana presence... I have to do the opposite right?]

*Uwoong!*

Berkah's dome rapidly receded, deflating like a balloon, until it was as small as a pebble and seeped into Berkah's tiny frame.

And with it, his mana presence vapourised.

"Yeah! I did it!~"

Berkah raised his body from the ground and jumped up and down joyfully.

Hawke remained silent, with his mouth agape and his piercing blue eyes trembling.

[I have never seen a mana dome that large before!!]

[And it felt different from what I'm used to!]

[... Just what... was that?...]

Hawke snapped himself out of his daze and approached his son.

*pat*

"That was amazing son! You did a great job!"

Hawke exclaimed, patting his son on the head, though he was proud of him, a part was scared.

"Hehe... thanks dude!"

Berkah said, smiling brightly.

[Dude? What is "Dude"?]

Hawke wondered.

"Ah! Did you mean to say Dad? Hahaha you've never called me that before!"

Hawke lifted his son up in the air, smiling from ear to ear.

[...Put me down man...]

"Say it like this: D-A-D"

[I'd rather eat sand...]

"DUDE."

"HAHAHA! That's okay, you'll learn!"

[Nope, I won't.]

"Anyway, let's go to your mother now."

[Finally! I was getting sick of hanging out with you old man!]

[Plus... I haven't really seen this world since I've reincarnated... I'm curios!]

Berkah mused excitedly.

*FLAP!*,*FLAP!*

Hawke carried Berkah in his arms and flew into the sky.

//

They flew for around 20 minutes, during their trip Berkah saw animals and trees he'd never seen before, his eyes shone brightly with excitement, his curiosity gnawing at him to jump off his Harpy father's arms to investigate.

Five more minutes passed and they landed in the village which was located in a dense Forrest with tall trees.

All the tiny houses made of wood were built on top of the multiple large tree branches, though it was a village the unique architectural designs of the houses were top notch.

Berkah couldn't help but think about how expensive it would be to rent such beautiful houses, it was better than most tourist attractions he'd seen.

The roads were neat and paved with stone.

[How is this a village?? If this is a village then what does the city look like?!]

Berkah shouted inwardly, his eyes filled with awe.

"This the first time you've been outside of the nest huh... What do you think? Do you like it?"

[Shut up dude! Why was I couped up in a cave at the top of that mountain if there was a place like this huh?! Do you know how cold it is up there?!]

[Somebody call child services!!!]

Berkah spat inwardly, annoyed that they had him live in a cave when there were was such housing.

Hawke beat his wings and flew to a house on a tree at the corner of the village.

*knock!*,*knock!*

He extended his knuckle and knocked on the door.

A very beautiful woman with long curly black hair and emerald green eyes grabbed the doorknob with her talons and opened the door.

"Ah! You're back!"

Anaise shouted in a warm tone.

"I was getting worried since the sun is already setting!"

[Ah mom... You're a sight for sore eyes...]

Anaise kissed Hawke on the cheek and extended her feathers to grab Berkah from Hawke's arms.

"Yes, it took longer than I expected, but we accomplished it!"

Hawke declared proudly.

"That's good! Come inside, I prepared dinner!"

[!!], [!!]

Both Hawke and Berkah flinched upon hearing Anaise's words.

"I'm just kidding, I bought food from the inn since I was so tired."

"But..."

She narrowed her eyes and frowned at Hawke.

"...Do you hate my cooking that much?"

[Woah! Mom is scary!]

"Wh-what?! Of course not! Haha! I was just worried about your health, you shouldn't cook when you're still recovering!"

"...Really?"

"Y-yeah! Besides Berkah also reacted like me you know!"

[Wha — look at this deadbeat throwing me under the bus!]

"*sigh*... Berkah is just a baby, he's probably been influenced by you."

She said in a soft tone, cradling Berkah in her wings.

[Haha! You hear that you deadbeat? I hope she chases you out!]

"Hahahaha!"

Berkah couldn't contain himself and burst out in an adorable laughter.

Anaise and Hawke's eyes went wide at the sight, to them, Berkah was always serious and would barely laugh so this was a welcome surprise.

"Fufu!"

"Haha!"

Both Anaise and Hawke burst out in laughter and went inside the house to enjoy their meal.

///

"Did you put Berkah to sleep?"

Hawke asked his wife, sitting outside on a tree branch.

"Yes, he passed right out after eating."

"I hope you didn't overwork him today, his mana was so feint I could barely sense it."

Anaise said, approaching Hawke and sitting next to him.

"No actually.... *sigh*"

Hawke spoke hesitantly.

In truth, Hawke's intentions were not to teach Berkah how to hide his mana in just one day, his real plan was to exhaust his mana reserves to a point where it would've been hard for anyone to sense it.

He planned to do this everyday until he eventually learned the technique.

He also put into consideration that Berkah was a genius, so he predicted that it would take him atleast a week to learn it.

Hawke explained the situation to Anaise who was in disbelief.

"Anaise... We've given birth to a monster."

Hawke said, nervously rubbing his palms together.