Sitting down cross-legged, Azz looked at me, his usual carefree manner gone, "Ok kid let's start, cross your legs and place the palm of your hands on your knees".
Following Azz instructions, I mimicked his position. He continued with his instructions, "Close your eyes and drown out all unnecessary noise, focus entirely on your body and feel every part of it".
I heard Azz stand then walk behind me. Placing both of his hands on my shoulders, I flinched instinctively.
"Calm down I'm just going to give your arms a shock of Celestial power and you'll need to feel the power inside you react to it", Azz whispered, his tone was relaxed which eased my body.
Calming myself down I braced for it. There was an intense pain on my shoulders. I felt heat from my entire body rush up toward Azz's hands.
So that's what it feels like, that wasn't anything like I was expecting.
Azz's voice cut through the silence again, "Ok, now remember that sensation you just felt and try to circulate it, begin by focusing all of your mind onto a specific body part, similar to how you reacted to the shock you just felt".
Focusing on my hands, I felt the heat drift towards that area. I felt a grin creep onto my face, until the heat suddenly dissipated and blood shot from my mouth. "What the hell! I thought I had it", I choked out.
Azz bent down, "I saw that smile on your face, you lost your focus that's why it happened. Using celestial power isn't natural for you yet. Keep doing that and your body will give out", Azz smiled despite his terrifying words.
"Why didn't you stop me then", I roared, climbing to my feet with anger flaring.
"Learning experience", Azz shot back, "Power will always come with consequences, you've now learnt what it means to fail, how to fail and what will happen when you fail, therefore you won't let the same mistake happen again. Congratulations, you're already stronger than 5 minutes ago".
I suppose he's right. Dropping back into the meditating pose, I closed my eyes and began focusing on my hand again. The heat came quickly this time, it lingered around my hand without vanishing. Shifting my focus to the centre of my chest, I felt a slight ripple in the stream of heat. Weird … must have made a mistake.
I heard Azz's chair screech, but still focused intently on the heat, "Good kid, hone in on that feeling and shift focus points more frequently, allow your body to get used to moving it around", Azz's instructions were crystal clear and easy to follow, it felt like we were passing checkpoints significantly fast.
Three days must have passed, at least that what it felt like, before Azz spoke again, "Ok, now try drawing on the celestial power from the outside".
How on earth do I do that? My mind started churning out all kinds of theories. Most of them seemed so unbelievably dumb it was almost laughable. The best I could conjure was some nonsense theory I had read in a comic book on one of my days off/
Like he was reading my mind, Azz stood up, "Your control has increased exponentially the past few days. To gather celestial power you have to feel it. First, use the power you already have and feel what it's like when it's pushed against your skin".
Right, push it up against my skin. I started circulating the power in my body throughout every inch. Straight away it felt like a magnet was pressing on the outside of my skin. So that's it, the power is quite literally drawn to me now.
"Now kid, take in breaths but focus on that heat you felt before, you'll feel a burning sensation but it's completely fine", Azz continued barking instructions that sounded more like warnings.
Exhaling a breath of air to prepare, I took in another huge breath at once but there was no sensation. I pressed my eyes shut. I need to remember that feeling of the power being drawn to me. Inhaling again, I focused on drawing the power in. My airways immediately felt clogged and like they had been torched by the immense heat.
Burning sensation my foot! this is complete torture! After spitting blood about five times, I'd learnt to stay calm so this didn't affect me, but man it hurts!
"Good kid, looks like you've got it, not consistently yet but you're getting there. Keep taking breaths like that until you can do it while breathing naturally", Azz said, sounding more surprised than anything.
Another three days passed and at this point I was just sat on the floor in the meditating pose, weirdly I'd felt like I was getting stronger gradually and my body had begun to subconsciously cycle the celestial power. As Azz said, when I started drawing on celestial power, it quickly became as natural as breathing to me. I hate to admit it, but the old geezer is an incredible teacher. I began to look forward to my training until a familiar voice sounded in my head.
'Looks like you're advancing quickly boy, the old mans a good teacher after all, just don't forget about your left hand though, ok?', The voice joked.
Trying not to disturb my meditating a thought came to me, if the voice is in my head, surely I can communicate the same way.
'Who are you?'.
'He-he-he you catch on quick boy, you don't need to know who I am just yet, we will meet eventually'. Again, the voice sounded more like he was mocking me than praising me.
'So, you're an actual person not just an inner thought?'.
'Yes, I am a person so we can only communicate when I try to. For now, I'll advise you to ask the old man about the dragons', Snickering, the voice faded out.
'Wait what? come back you can't just leave like that'.
With no response, I opened my eyes. The celestial power continued circulating in and out. Perfect I did it, now then. Walking over to Azz, he snapped out of his sleep when he heard me approaching.
I hesitated over what to ask Azz about, the idea that I should listen to that voice that kept prying into my mind was definitely feasible, and in all honesty, was probably my best bet for learning about this realm faster.
However, part of me still felt like if I just listened to the voice, I wouldn't be able to fully grasp the concepts, creatures and people that inhabited these realms. Whether it was just my own selfishness, I wasn't sure, but for some reason I was desperate to learn about the ins and outs of these realms.
It was laughable, someone like me actually deciding to take the initiative to learn something new. After all that complaining I used to do back on Earth, all it took was actually being slightly interested and this was the final outcome. What a joke of a person I was.
But now I had established a solid foundation after learning the basics, or at least, what I assumed were the basics. I didn't want to get ahead of myself and try to rush things, instead I wanted to build atop the foundation and develop my strength.
I can't sit here and lie to Azz by suggesting I have some kind of noble cause that I need strength for. In fact, it's not even close to being noble, I'm doing it for my own approval. I want something that's my own, something when I look in the mirror I can see and think, you know what, I did this.
I glanced down at Azz who stared back at me, seemingly aware that something was on my mind, although he didn't ask about it. He pressed his lips to the side and slumped even further back into his chair, a look of disappointment etched onto his features.
"You know kid, if you try to rush through things I don't think you'll get very far in this world".
I shook my head in response to his claim, "No it's not that … It's just that, someone told me to ask you about something, but I'm not entirely sure why they did".
He cocked his head to the side in confusion, "How could someone speak to you? I'm the only one here?".
I held out my left hand where the emblem was, "Someone keeps probing my mind, they left a mark on my hand if you can see it".
Azz clasped my hand in between his. He rubbed the back of my hand between his thumbs and muttered under his breath, "That little …".
He dropped my hand and rolled his neck. I watched him carefully, realising that he had spotted something but was keeping quiet, "If you know something can you tell me? I don't mind it because it isn't harming me, but I would like to know if it's something that does have potential to be harmful".
"It's not that big of a deal, just a seal to say that you arrived in the celestial realm from another realm", he gave a response which was fairly straightforward. But it was an answer that didn't match the annoyed look on his face.
I bit back any complaints that I had and chose to remain silent, unsure myself if it was the right choice. From what I had learned about Azz so far, he seemed to be fairly secretive but at the same time, brutally honest. His entire personality was a massive contradiction, not to mention he appeared to be stupidly powerful on top of all of that.
Azz let out an exhausted sigh, "Alright then, let's hear what he wants you to know".
Again, I hesitated, I didn't want to ask outright about dragons, so I thought that I should probably try to disguise that by asking another question first, "He wanted me to ask about how external and internal celestial power intertwine".
It was something that I wished to understand properly anyway, and using this opportunity I was able to ask without any suspicion arising. I was thirsty for knowledge, and if anything could help me grow my power faster, I wanted to understand it as soon as humanly possible.
A slight glimpse of perplexion crossed Azz's features before responding, "That's quite the complicated idea kid, I'm surprised you even asked me something like that".
He ruffled the back of his hair, "Well, I suppose I can simplify it for a beginner. The external and internal celestial power are opposing elements in a sense, they clash with one another whenever they meet but they are also drawn to one another. When a person cycles their internal power, they draw upon the external power and make it into their own".
"By doing so, the powers combine with one another creating a reaction. You have experienced this reaction firsthand already, remember when your body was burning up, even the time you collapsed on Earth was a result of this phenomenon".
I rubbed my chin, falling into deep thought, "I see, so it kind of makes a miniature explosion and that propels power around our bodies, which enables us to release bursts of power?".
Azz looked up towards the ceiling, rolling his eyes around their sockets, "I suppose, but that isn't quite the connotation I would use. It's more like the celestial power feeds your cells".
I let the power surge throughout my body, feeling for a change. To my surprise, Azz was absolutely correct, it felt as if even my skin cells were being imbued with and cycling the power throughout my body. I ran my finger down my forearm, noticing that it felt much sturdier and rougher than before.
Azz smirked back at me, as if he already knew what I was attempting to do, "I told you didn't I. How dare you doubt your teacher?".
I waved him away sarcastically, "yes, yes, I am so very sorry for doubting you".
I swallowed nervously, "Actually I've been curious about this for some time now. Can you tell me a little bit about dragons?".
Azz's face dropped and his expression visibly darkened. He remained deathly still and eerily silent. His once lively gaze, now cold, without a single trace of emotion behind them.
His brows twitched, "Oh! Well, that's a long story!".
I watched on carefully, taking mental notes of the slight changes that became apparent whenever he spoke. He may have thought he was disguising it well, but I was able to notice something slight that proved to be something major.
When he broke his silence, his voice cracked ever so slightly, a slight trace of an emotion creeping in. I wasn't sure what it was, however, I had a vague idea. Fear, anger or sorrow, those were the three I suspected.
"I can tell you all about dragons brat, take a seat", he pointed towards the hard floor, the room became draped in darkness as the sun slowly set outside.