The Truth About Being Strong

Admin walked closer to Axel as he lay on the ground fuming his frustrations.

"Something wrong, Axel?" Admin asked him. She peered again at his bracelet and saw that his vitals appeared fine, but his heart rate was very high and his system connection percentage had dropped yet another 1% to 16%.

Axel chuckled. "That's a rich question to ask. I mean, where do I begin?" He slammed his fist into the ground. "How about when I defeated scores of angels and even some archangels, to only be outsmarted by some stupid beast that one of the contracteds was able to beat. Or, or, how about when I cut down a God for the first time? A moment I had dreamed about since coming back to Earth. Only to have it sullied by this twisted idea of a joke and have my power stripped from me."

Admin stared at him and his pity party. For someone like her, his words gleaned no sympathy. "You're pathetic."

Axel's eyes grew wider as he looked up from the ground. "You wanna try that one again?"

"I honestly don't know what the Queen sees in you. You're immature and weak-minded. One setback and you just fall apart like a child who misses his mommy."

Axel rushed up from the ground and jumped right in Admin's face. Admin didn't budge a step. His eyes shook with rage as her words cut deeper than they probably should've.

"I don't give two fucks who sent you here or how hot you are, you'd better-"

"I'm going to cut you off there, Axel. I'm not human so I don't share the same emotions as you all. But what I can do is factually put you in your place. Have you taken a look at your system sync connection?"

"Yeah and it's low because of this blessing-"

"Incorrect. Your system synchronization has never been above 30%. Don't forget I monitor all of your system connections. Aside from Iris who almost purposefully had a low connection, you have the lowest out of everyone."

"Y-you're...lying. There's no way." Axel said in denial. "How would you explain all the times I've showed them up then? Or did you forget I saved their butts from that first archangel that showed?"

"That is because you had more power. You just used it inefficiently and foolishly, which is why you never utilized it fully. Do you see anyone else wielding 2 story sized blades around like an imbecile? Be glad that Conquest was the first God you came across - anyone else would've quickly made you realize that weakness. You lack the proper guidance to use real power to last in a true God fight."

Admin glanced over in Jun's direction. "For instance. Jun has over double your highest recorded connection score. If he had the power your accumulated, he would have no issue defeating you even when you were at your strongest. Because he knows how to wield the power he has correctly." She looked back to a seething Axel. "You do not. You only look to the power you've yet to grab."

"You don't know anything! I KNOW I can...I..." Axel could feel the truth that had been closing in on him finally take hold of him. Ever since arriving he knew he had been flying blindly into fight after fight, not caring how it looked as long as he won.

I'm not an idiot, thought Axel. I know that I had my chances against that rampaging hydra but I was careless. And Conquest was only half a God.

She let Axel breathe for a moment before speaking again. "Your biggest weakness and also one of your biggest strengths has always been your rash abandon - you use your energy and body like a disposable tool to whatever end. In light of that, your bracelet only does one thing, Axel. It's acting like a distributor for your energy - it will only allow you to use a certain percentage of your energy for any action you do."

Axel looked over the bracelet as he tried to process what Admin was saying.

"This will condition you to control your energy as second nature once you realize how much you've been overusing. You must learn to be more effective with the energy you have. To crave power without being blinded by it. How to use those around you to your advantage."

"That's not me and you know it." Axel spat. "My power is meant to be one that overwhelms...alone. Someone aiming for the King can't be saddled with allies."

"Tell me. Do you just want to be strong? Or do you want to be the absolute power?

"Come on, you know what makes me sleep at night."

"Then use what's at your disposal to get what you want. I can almost guarantee that the Heavens will be assigning a new God to this world soon and I can't have you fizzling out before the finish due to you overusing your divine energy. Right now you're basically raw material. But if built back up correctly, your former power will seem like a joke to you."

Divine energy is what fuels all divine beings - Gods, angels, slayers, etc. Whether it be holy or unholy energy, it works in very similar ways. For a slayer divine energy is their very source of life - since they were once mortal beings that had their soul cursed/blessed with divine energy after death, that energy is what keeps them going. If they were ever to lose that energy that would be game over for them.

Divine energy can be replenished over time as well as increased by consuming cores. The issue with Axel, was that he used way too much divine energy in his battles in order to quickly overwhelm his opponents and rush to the next one. This tactic was fine against weaker enemies, but in higher level battles he would exhaust himself and if he were to face a God like that....he could end up killing himself.

Raw material, huh? Axel thought to himself. He stared into her eyes in silence for a few moments. He could see no waiver and knew that she spoke with conviction and wasn't just building his ego up.

Axel had ignored the feeling, but the reason it took him so long to get up after flubbing the attack against the Beast of Apocalypse was not only because he was embarrassed. He walked over to his sword and kicked it up with his foot so he could quickly snatch it out of the air.

"I'll tell you two things, Addy?"

"Please don't call me that."

"One, I don't like how you insinuated that Jun is stronger than me."

"That's not the point-"

"Two, I'll train anyway you want me to if it means getting this blessing off. But lemme tell you one more thing, Addy."

Axel turned around as he looked frustrated and excited at the same time, but couldn't quite figure out the combination between the two. So he just looked constipated.

"I'm not going to quit any of the shit I did before. I'm me for a reason. Until I land a sky scraper size sword on the King of the Heavens, I'm going to keep being fucking ridiculous. I'm just going to be better at it."

Admin looked down and could see that the system connection had rose 2%.

"Hm. We shall see then." She replied as she walked past Axel. While doing so, she took one last look at his bracelet. For reasons unknown to Axel, she had also included the stat for 'mental stability' like she had with Iris. She just told him that they all had it which he instantly believed at face value.

The two instances where Axel claimed to hear a voice in his head made her question if there was more to Conquest's final move than they originally thought. For reference, a normal healthy person with little to no mental handicap would range between 90-100% on average. Someone with high anxiety or depression would fall a bit lower to a range of 70-90%. Prior to the fight with Conquest, Axel was always in that 90-100% range.

Admin looked at the number reflected on the bracelet:

[ Mental Stability: 84% ]

Odd, Admin thought. But...still no cause for alarm. Not yet anyways.