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Kael sat cross-legged at the center of the still lake, motionless as stone.
But the air around him… wasn't still at all.
Tiny specks of soft, blue light shimmered around his body like summer fireflies drifting weightlessly in the dark. They gathered and danced around him as if drawn to a quiet heartbeat only they could hear.
A faint pulse rippled outward, stirring the water's reflection of the night sky. Gentle waves rolled outward across the lake, breaking the perfectly calm surface.
Lucario froze mid-step.
Its pupils trembled.
Its paw sank deep into the sand without it even realizing.
Because Lucario knew exactly what it was seeing.
Those floating, blue motes weren't tricks of moonlight.
They were Aura made visible raw, living Aura.
Kael had done it.
He'd crossed the threshold.
He'd stepped into Aura.
Lucario's voice slipped out barely above a whisper.
"Why…?"
"That makes no sense…"
Everything it knew about Aura training, everything it lived, was being shattered in front of its eyes.
How could Kael, who just moments ago couldn't even keep his mind steady, suddenly break through the barrier that takes most Aura trainees months, sometimes years?
To understand, we rewind the clock three minutes.
At that time, Kael was stuck in a frustrating loop of choices. Should he keep his hearing blocked and risk falling asleep again, or open it and get overwhelmed by the surrounding noise?
After a moment of thought, he made the tougher choice:
He unsealed his hearing.
Lucario told him to feel everything around him.
Blocking his hearing was basically cheating himself out of the lesson.
And even though Lucario hadn't explained the details, mostly because it was the first class and he didn't expect Kael to master anything today, Kael pieced things together.
Between Lucario's behavior, the quiet lake, and the training method, he guessed this was about Aura.
His memories from his human life weren't clear anymore, but he remembered enough from the anime and the old Aura-focused movie to have a rough idea.
It wasn't much, but it was something.
So he did what he could:
He endured the noise.
He forced himself to settle, breath by breath, until the chaos faded to the background.
But Kael's current body wasn't a normal Machop.
It was an artificially created one engineered by the sinister organization that once owned it. Its lifespan had been short, but the raw potential was monstrous.
When Kael reincarnated into this body, that fatal flaw vanished, but the overwhelming talent remained.
Even then, mastering Aura should have taken months at least.
So why was he breaking through in minutes?
Because of the system.
After Kael's Ampharos' life ended, he'd earned massive points and bought powerful items before reincarnating.
Among them was Terrakion's Cragbreaker Pauldron.
Not as overwhelming as his other item, the "Incomplete Heart of Zamazenta," but still extremely potent.
And that pauldron had two traits Kael barely paid attention to.
He only remembered the "+20 Strength" and ignored the rest.
The two hidden traits were:
• Greatly increases the wearer's affinity with Fighting-type energy.
• A relic named after the Legendary Pokémon Terrakion. Those with insight may learn from it.
The second trait was vague.
The first one?
That was the key.
Aura, though special, is still tied to Fighting-type energy. Even the move Aura Sphere is classified as a Fighting-type attack.
By boosting his affinity with Fighting-type energy, the pauldron had quietly supercharged Kael's ability to sense Aura.
So when his will finally steadied and the noise faded… everything aligned.
Talent.
Exhaustion.
Environment.
The lake's silence.
Terrakion's relic.
His system's blessings.
And Lucario's perfectly chosen timing.
And then—
It clicked.
In the darkness behind his closed eyes, colors returned.
A deep, radiant blue.
Fish drifting through the water, plants swaying at the lakeside, Lucario watching over him… everything gave off faint, glowing ripples of Aura.
Kael felt like he had stepped into another world a world built entirely from these mysterious waves.
He didn't need anyone to explain.
He just knew.
This was Aura.
This was the power hidden in the heart of all living things.
And in that moment…
Kael passed through the doorway.
Aura light bloomed around him like a field of drifting fireflies.
Lucario stood frozen on the shore, each spark of blue light reflecting in its stunned eyes.
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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