Awakening: I Ascend Alone-Chapter 41: Infinity

Melvin moved without thinking, Aftertick firm in his left hand as he dashed across the snow to cover his distance with Keth.

Keth, on the other hand, had tightened her grip on her rapier sword and was now ready for that precise attack she hoped to deliver to her opponent.

However, across from them, Aurex was staring enthusiastically. Who was going to win between the school’s most talented and that unlucky silver-haired boy? Honestly, for Aurex, a straightforward answer without experiment was unsupposed.

Why?

He had fully witnessed Melvin in a fight, although not against truly strong and smart-witted creatures, but for someone tagged "unlucky," fighting with his much skill was unfathomable. Not only that, he now had a guess of what his ability could be.

’Time Stop? Time Dilation? It should definitely be the latter.’

When he watched Melvin fight with the wolves, he had seen him move through them in a teleportation form and thought the boy’s ability was tied to teleportation. However, it turns out that he was entirely wrong.

Melvin’s ability was only tied to being able to make time pass differently for onlookers in different frames of reference, due to his speed or agility. No, it’s simpler to say that he had slowed time around him and then moved indefinitely. However, onlookers will perceive it as flashes of movement.

That was the same thing he had done with the winged lycan.

On the thought of the winged lycan, Aurex looked down where he stood and saw the massive creature writhing on the snow floor with no upper and lower limbs. Hopeless, the winged creature stopped moving and remained still. And at that moment, it snapped in Aurex’s mind.

He recalled what had truly happened.

Unlike when Melvin fought with the wolves, thereby making him perceive time around him as that which passed in flashes, the situation with the winged lycan was different. As the observer, he had perceived time as something that passed even slower than a snail’s crawl, for only Melvin and the lycan.

But why didn’t he use that initiative to save himself since he was the controller? Why did he have to wait for Keth to save him?

’What is his ability really?’

Well, that aside. There was Keth, the known and popular genius among all.

Ordinarily, flux carriers were believed to awaken their magical affinities just as the flux in them begins to manifest. However, there was one thing that had never been recorded to be awakened among Flux Awakeners.

An Origin.

That girl had awakened an Origin directly; hence, she remained the only one in the history of Flux Awakeners to gain an upper hand in virtually many things. Could Melvin be able to stand against her?

More to that, after spending a brief time with the girl outside the cave while Melvin was inside to check things out, he had learned beforehand that the winged lycan was never killed. It had been lured to its state then, all thanks to Keth’s ability. However, he still didn’t know why she decided to let the wolf creature live despite the huge opportunity.

After a thoughtful second, with eyes fixed on the unmoving lycan, Aurex concluded in a mutter, "Her ability is clear and very powerful during application. Does that make Melvin fated to defeat? Or does he, too, have more cockroaches up his sleeve?"

A sudden implosion across the snow that carried with it a burst of outward air caused him to raise his eyes immediately to see what had happened between the two fighters. However, he instinctively covered his eyes as the wind cut across sharply, carrying icy flakes that perched on the fur of his cloak.

"Seriously, what happened just now?" he slurred in between fur fabric.

***

Melvin slid backwards into a halt, then immediately firmed his stand on the snow with sharp purple eyes, gazing at his opponent who stood opposite him.

’I should have thought of the situation better,’ he thought. ’But what was that just now?’

He had taken the initiative to lock into a close-range assault. Never had he thought that it was going to be the worst decision ever made when fighting with a whip. With his level of practice in the use of whips, he had thought that shortening its length and using it against Keth more closely was going to make him more formidable.

For all he knew, he was supposed to have the upper hand in that situation, given the fact that she was in possession of a rapier.

’That sword is only more effective when piercing; how can she cut with it?’

Melvin judged what had just happened with confusion. Not only had she cut with the blade, but somehow, the connection between the blade and his whip had caused an explosion that pushed both of them far back.

’I’m sure she didn’t apply her ability. Or did she?’ he thought.

Before they began fighting, Melvin had suddenly come to his senses and halted midway. His reason had been to assess the situation with clarity and create more chances for his victory.

He didn’t think Keth was going to underestimate his capability. After all, she had been there with him while he rehearsed his skill with Aftertick day after day. Hence, he had decided to use an unknown to defeat her by using a shortened whip, especially since he understood the application of a rapier.

It was also during that short moment of respite that they came to an agreement. To fight with just strength, without the use of their abilities. Besides, neither of them knew the other’s ability.

Melvin was still in shocking thoughts when Keth’s voice cut across his mind from the other end.

"From Infinity came Nothing, and from Nothing came Everything."

Melvin’s mind snapped into confusion. "Huh?"

However, before he could fully process what was indeed currently happening, Keth had advanced. She miraculously closed the distance between them within the blink of an eye.

Very close to Melvin, the tip of her blade stabbed forward in line with his head, then suddenly spun into a slight arc... in such a way it seemed accidental. But in that moment, Melvin was caught up with instinct, and in a flash, he ducked with his face upward, narrowly escaping a clean slice from the blade. Shockingly too, that very slight cut had carried with it a fierce whistle of the air that brushed past Melvin’s face.

Without further hesitation, he leaped backward, creating a mid-range distance between him and his opponent. At that same moment, Aftertick extended once again into its original long strength.

’That’s it. As a whip user, it’s better to maintain a mid-range attack against her,’ he thought satisfiably. ’But how was I careless?’

"That slight cut could have sliced your head in half," Keth interrupted his thoughts again, flourishing her blade at her side.

Melvin’s eyes widened. A rapier was well known for thrusting and so, piercing. Although it can perform cuts and slashes, it was never believed to affect a significant deal when used in such a way. It was more effective when used in the former.

"Tch. You’re the type to talk," Melvin said, his expression now turning grim as he asked, "If I hadn’t evaded that attack, you are telling me I would have been as good as dead? Is that what you want?"

Keth stared at him for a bit, then wondered, ’Why is there regret in his tone?’

She didn’t seem to care, though. She, instead, continued speaking.

"Infinity produces nothing... and everything begins from nothing. Hence, you can simply agree with me that everything in existence was created from Infinity."

Melvin went against his initial plan and calmed a bit now as he listened to the words from Keth. He didn’t understand why she had suddenly begun to speak freely now; whether it was a form of distraction or not, he simply thought he should listen.

However, unlike before, he was no longer going to create that opening for her once again. He was fully prepared should she launch another surprise attack, with the long whip firm in his left hand, flowing down to the snow.

"Being able to align your body movements with your surroundings—air, plants, the elements, and, overall, nature—allows one to perform things that could be called impossible," she continued. "Balancing your mentality with opposite interactions, like weakness and strength... possibilities and impossibilities, would bring the body and soul to a form of true alignment."

She paused for a while, then added. "However, impossibilities do not exist. Things regarded as such only have just never been tried out."

Then she squatted and began scribbling things on the snow.

Melvin watched her act carelessly. Was she truly acting that way? Or was she tempting him to come closer to his defeat? What has truly come into her?

Seeing that Melvin was not making any move to advance, Keth sighed. "Imagine never knowing there was such a thing as a billion count. And suddenly began to merge random discrete numbers that gave you something so long that it is unimaginable. Without a suitable name for such an infinite cluster of numbers, a rational mind can call it Nothing, you see. Something that is impossible."

"That same cluster of numbers was then called billion by an insane mind and was known as such henceforth. See, you created nothing from an infinite number, but then, that same nothing has become something."

While she said all these things, she was busy illustrating them on the snow, making counts with the tip of her rapier. When she was done, she rose to her feet and looked across the other end, as if expecting a question from her momentary student.

Well... her student did ask a question.

"How does all you have said have anything to do with the consecutive cuts you made with a rapier?" Melvin asked, then added. "And how does true alignment have a connection to all these?"

Keth’s eyes widened, then dimmed as if she blamed herself for not explaining that part.

"Melvin," she called his name for the first time ever since they both knew each other. "Infinity is possibility without boundary. Nothing is possibility without manifestation. Two misjudged opposites but in fact, the same."

She slashed her sword to the left, then back to the right, and concluded.

"By truly aligning my body with the air, I created a momentum from nothing, and a cut from Infinity, then balanced both. Thrust, then slash."

Melvin expected more words on that but received none. However, it somehow explained that powerful consecutive bursts of the air.

Keth positioned herself into a battle-ready stance and said, "You might need to think about all I have said and put it into practice. Then, you can surpass your current limits if you truly understand."

After saying that and seeing Melvin had also readied himself for a true clash between both of them, she almost dashed forward.

However, something was currently stopping both of their movements forward.