Two Sides of The Same coin.

'Become a god you say? That is absurd Nocturne, What I want is power to defend myself and power to make others move out of my way, but a god? You seem to have forgotten that I am at the end but an orphan…'

'You value yourself too lightly Basara, you have the blood of a god of death, don't you dare forget that… Now show me your will, show me that you can manage what I had just asked of you, split your mind and do the tasks'

I sighed audibly while thinking that this multitasking will be quite arduous.

Complaining about things before I do them is not in my nature so I sucked it up and tried my best.

Breathing in the energy I found it quite difficult to make it submit to my will, to both be assimilated within me and whatever remains to strenghten my joints, whatever megere energy that I was harvesting was not sufficient to do both tasks, I could barely manage to strenghten my right hand's and managing to assimilate a fraction of energy to refine my body and remove the impurities of the third stage.

To manage this on the whole body would be immensely difficult…

'It is only you who makes this task seem difficult Basara, you are beyond capable of doing this so persevere and find balance…'

Balance again…

Sigh

I drooped down stopping the exercise to ponder about the current situation

'Do you give up so easily Basara?' said Nocturne

'No, I need to think things through… it is something is missing, I just can't get my hands on it, forcing myself to do it this way is not going to prove useful…'

'Kekeke' laughed Nocturne saying 'Then think all you want, if it is you, then you might figure it out on your own' he said as he faded into the background.

The main problem why I can't do this task is probably due to the small intake of Qi that I can hold, my body is probably unable to contain much, however, that is wrong in itself. The last time Nocturne took over to show me how to Cultivate properly the amount of Qi that he harnassed was magnificent if I could copy that I might find it easier to circulate the energy…

How did he do that? Is the first question that popped into my head

A difference in experience is one reason however, I refuse to accept that. He used my body and the same resources I have now to do what he did, so why can't I?

Thinking about it, what is the origin of this Qi? I might as well find out.

I used monochrome vision, this time not to look at myself, but at the world itself, what composed everything, I ignored the weaknesses of the objects and tried to focus on the immaterial, I wanted to see where this energy is stemming from.

And I saw it, there and here and everywhere, minute changes, on a scale so small that it was absurd, small specs of energy encompassed the world and originated from… everywhere!

Literally everywhere, even I, who wanted to gather this energy was releasing some of it into the world…

This energy is not originated from all-powerful sources, the source was before me, it was the world itself that gave this energy and it was the world itself that took it in.

All beings would release these particles, for others to feed on. Like water that would vaporize into the sky, forme clouds then fall on earth to revive it. Then it would seep into the ground and would merge again with seas and rivers and circulate, again and again. Never stopping never halting, always moving in a circle of life. These particles were the same, they would go from a being to another, be consumed and once that being is dead, or still alive it would release this energy to the world for it to grow…

Looking at my body in a new light I discovered the reason behind why I was lacking.

My body was releasing more energy than it absorbed, simply due to the fact that it could not process it fast enough for it to be implemented in it. What nocturne have done was to force these particles to remain within the body without letting them escape.

He forced them to do what was needed of them before they would go out of their way and back into the world, he fused them to the body… However, understanding this is quite different than doing it, yet it is the mean for me to use this energy with more effectiveness…

Now the only way for me to do what Nocturne asked is if I gather enormous amounts of this energy as fast as I can, and use it as rapidly as I could. A hard task but a needed step.

Now how can I assimilate this energy the same way that Nocturne did?

Simply breathing it will not give me enough to fill my body.

As I was looking around within the monochrome world I was struck with an epiphany.

My body that absorbed Qi using that breathing method was not releasing the unprocessed through my breath 'only' it was my skin, my pores my hair and everything…

There was not just one way for the energy to be assimilated then! But probably breathing it was the simplest and most forward method… then what if I could revere this?

What if I could not only breath in the energy through my lung but also take it in with my whole body?

I sat down in the lotus position and began cultivating this time I didn't breath in the energy but I tried to 'feel' it with my body.

And just like that, the pores within my skin opened like ravenous beasts and began in taking the energy at an absurd rate. So much that I felt stifled as how much energy the human body could harness. Then something unexpected happened

The medal on my body glowed and just like that… I broke through the third level…

That insurmountable Sea of consciousness that I thought would only be filled in years to come was instantly filled and broke into another realm.

I opened my eyes to see the world in a different state…

The ground that I was sitting on, the grass and the tree behind my back withered and shrunk, dead and unresponsive, stones crumbled to dust and all signs of life that were surrounding me disappeared…

'KEKEKEEKEKEK! BASARA! YOU DID IT, YOUNG CHILD!'

'What the hell happened Nocturne!'

'THE BOOK! OPEN THE BOOK! RECORD THIS!'

I called upon the book and it instantly glowed in a dark sheen, the pages turned and a new line was written

'The path of death is open to you, lead the path of despair and may the rest follow.'

'What is the meaning of this Nocturne?'

'Once you broke through the book has acknowledged you as its 'true' owner, now one of its secrets has been revealed.'

A magic circle was written in the book

Before I could touch it however

'Don't! you are not strong enough yet to wield that. In due time child, in due time.'

'But tell me nocturne what the hell was this?'

'in the process of breaking through, your true magic was evoked. Your sea of consciousness evolved and took in your magic to a newer hight, the flame of creation gave its true presence and now you can feel it around you.'

'What do you mean by true nature? The only thing that I could feel around that is around me is… death' I said unable to believe the staggering change of the once animated garden

'Indeed…' said Nocturne, in a voice much clearer and more powerful than before.

So it seems, that creation and death go hand in hand, to those of lower minds they may seem different. to create is to give life. And to destroy is to Kill life, yet at the same time, these two are but different sides of the same coin.