Chapter 12 - Control

"I… I did it!"

A smile appeared on Ashe's face.

A small orb of crimson liquid was floating above his palm, spinning around its own orbit.

Unfortunately for Ashe, the orb dropped to the ground and splattered all over the floor shortly after being created.

Ashe just sat beside the small puddle and started absorbing the liquid back into his body by converting it into energy.

'Good enough for now.' He thought as he started laying on the ground.

Ashe was tired from the process of training demon energy control as it was no different from training at the gym. He felt as if he just spent 3 hours lifting dumbbells.

While laying Ashe was struggling with his own eyes to stay open. He was mentally drained and the fact that he was relying on sleeping pills to keep him asleep wasn't helping.

*Thud*

A loud sound shook the room, Ashe instantly snapped out of his tired state and looked towards the source of the sound.

Sap was now standing in the middle of the room as if nothing happened.

"How is your training?" The deep voice said with an unusual tension.

Sap usually talked in a monotone voice and sometimes added a hint of sarcasm but never had it expressed any other emotions.

"I managed to make a small orb float," Ashe said while standing back up, responding to Sap as if it was some type of officer.

"Show me." Sap said louder while bending its tall column-like body down towards Ashe's eye level.

The piercing gaze from Sap's eyes was now concentrated on Ashe awaiting his display.

Once again Ashe pulled out his hands and started forming a crimson liquid in his palms before slowly making a sphere of liquid float slightly above his palms.

"Is that all?" Sap said without moving its eyes.

The sphere was around the size of a golf ball and was incredibly messy, you could barely call it a sphere from the number of random ripples and blobs leaving and entering the sphere.

"N-No," Ashe said nervously

"I'm just tired from the training."

"Is that so? Well, you better take a break from entering Hevell. You can still practice back on earth but your abnormal sleep schedule must be affecting your performance." Sap's voice was now back to its monotonous tone.

"Your grace period is coming to a close. Your life will get very hectic soon so enjoy the calm while it lasts." As Sap said those words it flew up the library leaving behind a very confused Ashe.

'What's that things problem? It's acting stranger than usual. Well, I guess it never really acted normally anyway.' While contemplating the strange actions of his guide, Ashe lied back on the floor and closed his eyes.

An instant feeling of drowsiness possessed him and a strange warmth followed suit.

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Before he knew it Ashe woke up back in his bed.

As soon as he woke up he checked the time on his phone. It was 9 am meaning that in around 24 hours Ashe's mom would arrive back home.

Ashe just laid in bed for a couple of minutes before starting another day.

Even though Ashe had been technically sleeping a lot and he felt no signs of physical fatigue, he was mentally exhausted as he hadn't actually rested.

With that in mind, Ashe just made himself a basic breakfast and started watching tv.

'What to do? I still need to clean up the house but then I'll have a lot of free time. Should I just train?'

Lately, Ashe has been struggling with making decisions and this one was no different. In the end, he just decided to clean up and worry about it later.

Ashe cleaned up the things he used or misplaced in the last couple of days which took a lot less time than he had anticipated. This just lead him back to his earlier conundrum.

'I guess I can train for a bit, but what then? Maybe I'll... Go for a walk! Yes, that's a great idea.'

Ashe proceeded to pull out a small ball of solid demon energy from his body. He then started tossing it from one hand to the other while trying to change its course mid-flight.

This was mildly successful as he was able to slightly curve the ball's flight. With each throw, his control got better, and at the end of his session, he was able to make the ball do a 90-degree curve.

Happy with his progress Ashe decided to reward himself with a walk. Storing his energy back inside him, he exited his apartment.

The city wasn't busy as it was the middle of the week and past rush hour. This made Ashe's walk a lot more enjoyable and he decided to go to the nearest park, which still wasn't very close.

While walking Ashe got a chance to think clearly. For the past couple of days, he hadn't had the opportunity to think about what was happening.

'Now that I'm a stage 2 mutant I don't need to care about school, neat. Wait, what do I tell the registrars? Maybe I'll just mention the demon energy and call it something else. Is Hevell even real? It could just exist inside my head. Does it even matter if it is real?'

Ashe was lost in thought, and before he knew it he had reached the park. It was almost empty as everyone was at work or school right now. Ashe walked around while looking at the trees. Parks in the city weren't the grandest. Most of them only had small trees, grass, and maybe some bushes, this was to reduce the chances of beasts secretly living inside of them.

A sudden idea came to Ashe's mind.

'Well, if no one's here then I could test out my powers, no?'

Ashe looked around to make sure that no one was around before pumping demon energy into his legs. Then he walked up to a tree and jumped.

The jump was higher than normal, around 3 times larger than usual. Ashe could easily jump on top of someone's head but nothing more than that.

With this jump, he managed to grab a branch and hang on with his arms. Ashe quickly moved his energy from his legs to his arms before climbing up the rest of the tree.

With the increased arm strength, this task was barely a challenge and Ashe found himself on top of the tree in no time.

'Using powers on earth feels so much better!'

Even though the tree wasn't particularly tall it was still an inhuman achievement, especially considering the fact it took less than a minute.

'Now how do I get down?'

Ashe didn't want to just jump off the tree as it would probably hurt and he didn't want to test his endurance this way.

A genius idea came to Ashe's head. He remembered that the first time he liquefied demon energy it was sticky so what if he made some type of glue from it?

Ashe started by covering his hand in liquid energy and slowly condensing it.

The total volume of the liquid veil was shrinking and it became becoming muddier.

After the liquid turned into more of a paste it only covered Ashe's palm. He placed it on the side of the tree and he started hanging from his hand.

However, Ashe started to slowly slide down the tree leaving behind a trail of red paste following his hand.

'I guess that works for me.' He thought after landing back on the ground.

Then Ashe started turning the trail of paste back into a liquid and as it trickled down he collected it back into his body.

'This energy is surprisingly versatile.'

Ashe continued walking through the park. He eventually reached the other end of it and he decided to exit through this side. This was because he was tired from using his energy and it would be quicker to go to the train station that was on this end than to walk back home.

He was walking down the street when something caught his attention. One of the larger market streets was taped off with police tape.

His curiosity took the better of him and he went to check it out from up close.

The street would usually be filled with cafes or small shops, but they were all smashed this time. Pieces of glass littered the floor and any decorations were torn to shreds.

As Ashe was looking on from behind the tape an officer came up to him.

"Hey! What are you doing kid." They said with an angry tone.

"I'm just watching," Ashe said confidently

"What happened here anyway?" He followed up.

"That's none of your business, and why aren't you in school anyway?" The officer said, this time with a small smug grin.

Ashe's face turned a sour note, not because he was annoyed at the officer but because the reason he wasn't at school wasn't exactly a pleasant memory. The entire time Ashe had just pushed it back and focused on training instead of grieving.

"None of your business!" Ashe shouted angrily with just a bit of subtle sadness in his tone.

Before Ashe could walk off the officer grabbed his shoulder.

"I'm going to need your full name and the school you go to." The officer commanded.

Ashe was livid. Subconsciously he started building up demon energy throughout his body.

"Ashe Warten!" He shouted while shrugging off the officer's hand with ease before storming off. Ashe wasn't in the mood to talk but didn't want to get into too much trouble.

The officer was too shocked to act and before he realized it, Ashe was gone

'Warten?! Isn't that one of the…' the officer pulled out a small notepad and after looking around for a bit he sighed.

'Poor kid, Fuck I messed up huh.'

Ashe was overwhelmed with emotions. In a blind sprint, he made it to a train station.

'Stay calm, don't think, don't think.'

While repeating this mantra a small tear formed in his eye.

Ashe was feeling incredibly hot as if he was under a severe fever. His heart was beating fast and his skin was turning red.

Ashe quickly got onto the first train that took him home. After taking a seat in the almost empty cart a single tear fell from his face onto his hand.

'What the…?!'

The tear was crimson red which took Ashe out of his trance. While looking around he noticed that his senses were heightened too.

He closed his eyes and began looking into himself. As expected he was overflowing with demon energy.

'What do I do?! I can't use up the energy in public!'

Ashe looked up at the notice board. The train was going to arrive at his home station in 2 more stops.

'Just a little longer, I can do it.' As he thought those words, more red tears started swelling up in his eyes.

__________________

After arriving before his doorstep Ashe was almost throwing up. The pain in his stomach made it hard to even take out the keys from his pockets.

When he made it inside he slammed the door behind him and ran toward the bathroom. He didn't even make it past the living room before he fell to the floor from the pain.

Laying on the floor, he couldn't hold it anymore. Ashe began throwing up red liquid all over the floor. The pain didn't stop, it just got worse.

After Ashe finished throwing up he was left with a burning pain inside his stomach. His mind just couldn't take it and slowly he began losing consciousness.

'Brother…'