The Academy's Time Looper-Chapter 51: Taming

How could he tame something he couldn’t see, though?

Taking a deep breath, Athen closed and opened his eyes, seeing Professor Caldris now readily approaching him.

Athen’s self-stabbing had gained him some time as Caldris was shocked, but now his end seemed inevitable.

The professor wasn’t stupid.

He knew time was decreasing and that, within fifteen seconds, Athen would officially win the challenge.

Yet, despite all of that, he slowly marched towards Athen with no signs of urgency.

Refocusing on his body, Athen took countless deep breaths, sensing his heartbeat and his stomach’s rising and falling feeling.

The heart’s function is to pump blood throughout the body, delivering oxygen and nutrients to all organs.

But... what comes with blood?

If the heart could pump blood, then it had to be able to pump mana.

It wasn’t by sheer coincidence that whenever Athen wanted to activate his time-stopping ability, he had to concentrate on his heartbeat.

In Athen’s eyes, his confidence in his ability to control mana was justified.

Because...he had already done it.

Athen believed he was already using mana whenever he activated his time-stopping ability.

Focusing on the sound of his heart beating, Athen sighed before placing his hands around his ears, muting the sound of Professor Caldris’s approaching footsteps.

He did not want to activate his time-stopping ability...he wanted to control the mana concentrated within his body.

Whenever he tried to activate his time-stopping ability, Athen would close his eyes, mute all other sounds, focus on his heartbeat, and wait until the wind blew into his face.

However, there was one additional step.

He would also clear and empty his mind...leaving only a blank slate.

However, this time, as Athen stood still with his eyes closed and hands over his ears, one thought appeared in his head.

Blood.

At that moment, the crimson-red color of blood suddenly flashed before Athen’s vision, instantly disappearing and leaving his vision pitch-black again.

Then, his heart vibrated.

That was all he needed.

He felt it.

That 70 milliliters of blood that his heart had just pumped.

But...there was something else.

Mana.

Was it...1 milliliter or maybe less?

However, despite its small size, Athen could visualize it.

As the 70 milliliters of blood exited his heart, allowing another batch to enter, the small particle of mana followed.

Simply sensing the blood and mana, not doing anything, Athen felt it slowly travel throughout his bloodstream.

Within two seconds, the blood had arrived in a very familiar place.

Athen’s bleeding hand.

However, unlike the other mana that he could only sense in his hand, Athen...had control of that one mana particle that arrived with the blood his heart had just pumped.

As the one mana particle that he could control remained directly under his wound, sadly watching the blood it desperately wanted to follow flow out of the wound, Athen grinned.

Like a military commander sending his soldiers into a battle that they were destined to lose, Athen... burst the mana particle as if popping a balloon.

Unlike the others, this mana particle directly responded to Athen’s will, so when he told it to explode, it obediently did so.

Like a chain reaction, the countless mana particles hovering under the wound... suddenly combusted as well.

A moment later, Athen’s entire body suddenly started shivering, overcome with an intense feeling of coldness.

His hand felt as if it had just been plunged straight into a gigantic ice cube.

And...it looked so as well.

Staring down at his hand, Athen slowly opened his eyes, immediately seeing his wounded hand surrounded by a light-blue hue.

However, despite the light-blue hue, lumps of blood continued flowing out of Athen’s wound, and his skin remained colored crimson-red.

If Professor Caldris, with his pure light blue around his body, was considered an angel, then Athen would be the devil with his mix of blood-red and light blue.

Tainted by the blood flowing out of his wound, the light-blue hue surrounding his hand became more and more polluted by the blood-red color...until it morphed into something familiar.

Looking down in utter confusion, Athen gazed at the familiar purple hue surrounding his hand.

"..."

However, there was one benefit that came with the scenario that Athen did not expect.

The pain in Athen’s hand had completely disappeared, allowing his nerves and body to calm down.

Unfortunately, Professor Caldris didn’t seem to notice Athen’s special moment as he mercilessly swung his sword forward.

Starting from his waist and swinging straight horizontally, Caldris elegantly slashed his mana sword, aiming to sever Athen’s waist.

Not even daring to dream about trying to catch the sword with his hand, Athen immediately dived to the right.

Tumbling on the red carpet and hitting the brick wall straight on with his head, Athen threw his right hand, which was outlined in purple, at the wall to stabilize himself.

But, to his surprise, his hand... simply slammed against the wall before immediately bouncing off.

"...?"

In fact...his purple-surrounded hand didn’t seem to be any stronger or faster than his regular left hand.

Unbeknownst to Athen, while he had managed to control mana for the first time, he was still far from being able to enhance his body with mana.

Yet...as Athen gazed down at his purple-covered hand, his grin didn’t crack.

All he had aimed to do was make something capable of breaking through Caldris’s mana body.

Not even glancing at Athen’s body to the side, Caldris simply looked down at his gold-plated watch and muttered.

"Ten seconds...guess, I’ll end it here."

Seeing the teacher not looking at him, Athen chuckled before closing his eyes.

This time, however, not a single thought circulated through his head.

As a gust of wind suddenly rushed against Athen’s face, he immediately stood back up and opened his eyes.

Taking a single moment, Athen glanced downward at his body...and his hand was the exact same as it had looked before, surrounded by the same purple hue.

However, not only was his hand surrounded by a purple hue, but his entire body was.

His hypothesis was correct.

Whenever he used his time-stopping ability, he was, indeed, using mana.