67 The Second Stage
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Lowen ran through the forest with determination. In order to enter the aura body stage, first Lowen had to make his way to a certain location, a certain spot that he knew could help him. The first time he had found the spot, he had taken both Nia and Ben to play there numerous times, this time, however, there would be no playing whatsoever, instead, Lowen would have to push his body past his upper limit. As the stars shined down on the world below, Lowen finally came to a clearing. What first entered his sight was a gushing waterfall, its height reached at least two hundred feet up and was connected into the mountain. Down below the waterfall, it's water flowed violently and came crashing down on top of a boulder. With its powerful force and continuous downpour, the top of this boulder had become a flat platform with a surface that had been smoothed over long ago. Lowen would use this waterfall to help him break into the Aura Body Stage. What surrounded the waterfall was miles and miles of forest as far as the eye can see but Lowen needed this forest as well. Lowen looked at this great force of nature and thought to himself.
( First things first.)
Lowen dropped his hammer to the ground and a large thud followed it, after that, with a thought, Lowen uncoiled his sword and slice down a dozen or so trees. Then with his family sword, he began shaping them. Cutting off excess branches, he then cut the trees even smaller into a size that he could manage to carry. Lowen sharpened each of these long logs so the end was a spike. After that, he began transporting each and every one of them to the top of the waterfall. Using his strength as well as his ki, Lowen managed to get these logs weighing around a thousand pounds each where he needed them. Climbing back down the side of the mountain Lowen grabbed his wolf hammer and once more climb back to the top. Lowen carried 1 spiked log in to into the water, standing it up so the spike pointed down. Lowen then took his hammer and with one mighty blow he nailed it in 2 the water, blocking off a bit of its flow. In this way, he began to dam up the flow of the water. With the work done, Lowen had made a temporary Dam. This dam was not fully closed though, right in the middle, Lowen had not placed the last spiked log, allowing the water to continue to flow and in this way, the water would be pressurized. At the bottom of the waterfall, its power had increased a few folds. The weight one would feel underneath this waterfall went from about a thousand pounds to nearly 4 times that. A normal human sitting under waterfall would instantly be crushed before their remains would be quickly washed away downstream.
Lowen once more climbed down to the bottom of the waterfall but instead of immediately sitting under it, he once again held his heavy silver battle hammer and using his body alone, he raced full speed at a tree. As Lowen came upon this tree, with one mighty swing, his hammer crashed into it breaking it apart into a few big wooden chunks. As the tree began to fall, Lowen turned and raced towards the nearest tree and once again he smashed the tree before him. Like this, Lowen began to rampage throughout the forest, running with all his might and swinging his heavy hammer with all of his force. From a great distance, all you could hear was a continuous boom followed by loud crashes.
* Boom Crash Boom Crash Boom Crash Boom Crush*
Again and again and again, the ground continuously shook as though an earthquake was ongoing. This went on for hours until finally, Lowen stood there exhausted. Panting and breathing heavily, his sweat poured from his face, soaking his entire body as well as his clothes.
*Thud*
Lowen dropped his hammer and a few chunks of dirt flew up into the air before they crashed back down. After exhausting all of his physical strength and stamina, Lowen was ready. Lowen walked over to that huge boulder with a nearly flat platform on top and stood next to the high pressured waterfall. Activating his ki, Lowen circulated it all over his body and walked underneath the waterfall but even with his ki protecting him, this weight of over 4000 lbs came crashing upon him so abruptly, that Lowen collapsed and crashed to his hands and knees, causing him to kneel in pain. The water was so painful, that Lowen had to immediately shut his eyes or else his eyelids would tear away from his face, from the force alone. Pushing his ki to his limit, Lowen just managed to struggle and sit with his legs crossed underneath the waterfall. Lowen, with his body settled, eased his ki back ever-so-slightly and immediately he could feel the crushing force of the water increase battering him repeatedly. If he didn't have his ki protecting him, at this moment, even with his incredibly tough body, this water would have broken several bones in his body if not all of them. Lowen with all of his physical strength exhausted, could not use a single muscle to resist the weight of this waterfall and instead relied solely on his ki, in this way he began to concentrate, focusing his energy, protecting his body with ki, as well as focusing on his ki seed. This is how he would begin to enter the aura body stage, the second stage of ki manipulators. In order to even begin entering the aura body stage, you first had to have an outside pressure concentrated on your body that was greater than your own strength, greater than what your body could handle. This was one way to push past your limits. If Lowen did truly wait and allowed his body to develop into becoming something monstrous, then maybe at that time when he wanted to enter the aura body stage, the amount of ki he might have needed, would be equivalent to the pressure of an entire mountain crashing down on him. Feeling this crushing force, Lowen would manipulate his ki to exude this exact same crushing power onto his own ki seed. In doing so, it would force his ki seed to condense down to about a hundred of its current size, thus turning the ki within, into a more pure, powerful force.
Lowen surrounded his ki seed with ki and then while trying to imitate that same crushing force that came from the waterfall, he began putting pressure on his own ki seed. And with his powerful ki pressuring the ki seed that was about the size of an adults fist, it slowly began to shrink. As it began to shrink, Lowen could feel an intense burden upon his body. Not only was the waterfall crushing him but he literally had his energy inside crushing his ki seed. This was a very dangerous task, because, with all the pressure surrounding his ki seed, his ki seed itself began to crack and Lowen had to immediately add more ki into his ki seed in order for it to repair itself. The trouble with that though was the fact that it would split his focus. He had to protect his body from the waterfall as well as pressure his ki seed all the while constantly repairing it. If he lost focus for even a second, then the waterfall could crush his body into paste. If worst came to worst and he couldn't repair enough of it in time and his ki seed exploded, then that would simply be sudden death. That much energy exploding from the inside of Lowen's body, there wouldn't be a shred of flesh left.
Lowen continued to concentrate and push his ki to his limit, protecting himself in the waterfall, pressuring his own ki seed, as well as repairing it, in this way, Lowen's ki seed continued to shrink at a visible rate. To enter the aura body stage took an extreme amount of resilience and endurance. Most people, even if their body could handle such a terrifying force, would not be able to last long just from the excruciating pain alone. Every muscle of Lowen's body ached in agony. His body felt as though someone took a thousand-pound sledgehammer and continuously hit him in every spot all over. Most people would have broken down by now but Lowen continued to endure. 5 minutes 10, 30, it had now been over an hour and Lowen's entire body was covered in bruises. If one were to discover him right now, they would see a small boy with black hair, purple eyes, as well as bluish-purple skin from the beating he's taken.
(Damn, this is taking way too long, I have to speed it up.)
The ki seed within Lowen was now about half of its previous size but to Lowen, this was literally painfully slow. Lowen cursed repeatedly in his mind, at this rate he would be an old man before his ki seed was fully condensed. Lowen needed to make his ki 's crushing force even stronger and the best way to do that, was for him to feel the natural forces of the waterfall and imitate it with his ki. Lowen pulled back his protective ki a little more and allowed the waterfall to hammer his body even more. Even just the slightest decrease in protection caused his bones to start to creek and his organs start to squeeze as though they were in the jaws of a beast.
Lowen's arm that had begun to mend and fuse, had now begun showing signs of refracturing. Lowen grit his teeth as he sat there feeling this tyrannical force upon him, with it, he began to mold his ki into a similar force and continued the crush his ki seed. The speed at which his ki seed condensed had suddenly increased by manyfold and the cracks upon his seed began to stretch and spread like a spider's web. Lowen was now repairing his seed at an extraordinary rate but still, it wasn't fast enough for him. Once more Lowen decreased his protection and the waterfall now hammered at him even harder. The pressure was so great that Lowen could feel pieces of his hair being pulled from his scalp, as well as bits of skin peeling away. Having one's skin peeled like this was more torturous than a flame to the feet but Lowen could only clench his jaw and bear it. Lowen's self-torture, however, did not go unrewarded. His ki seed was nearly there and with it, his ki seed slowly began to rotate. This rotation was a natural process that would allow his ki seed to act like a never-ending power source. The energy within his ki would become so pure and powerful that it would act almost like a whirlpool and would continuously absorb ki automatically, even without Lowen doing anything. After breaking into the aura body stage, this would allow his power to continuously grow at a slow yet steady rate throughout his life.
Lowen could feel his ki seed becoming infinitely closer to the aura body stage but it had now completely stalled at about the width of a hair away. He now needed one more powerful push, otherwise, he would remain stuck forever. Lowen decided to try something. Sitting underneath the waterfall, the pain from having hair ripped out, his body bruised and battered and his skin peeling away till he bled. If he can handle all that then the next move, he could handle as well. Taking calm steady breaths, Lowen breathed nice and slow and when he felt he was prepared, he began a small countdown.
(Three, two, one, now!!)
Lowen immediately removed all of his ki protection and forced it onto his ki seed, crushing it from every angle with his full power. With the full force of nature crashing down upon him Lowen could feel his muscles rending into putty and his bones were on the verge of breaking, the tattered skin that had hung on by threads of flesh, now tore away, leaving a disgusting bloody figure in its wake. As Lowen felt his immenit death, his ki seed in return gave a loud response.
*BOOM!*
A powerful aura exploded outward cracking the boulder all the way through, as well as splitting the waterfall momentarily and after another second, the waterfall once again came crashing back down. Lowen underneath it, however, did not mind in the least. With a calm expression, Lowen opened his eyes underneath this pressuring waterfall, as he did, a large smile formed across his face and he slowly stood up. Standing there, Lowen looked around for a second before he slowly took a step out. Sensing his ki seed, he could feel it rotating within, it's power multiplied and it's pureness seemingly holy. Lowen inhaled and exhaled slowly, even without him trying, his body was automatically absorbing ki. Lowen's strength and speed had now skyrocketed. That was not the best part though. One of the main benefits of entering the aura body stage was the aura itself. Now that Lowen had entered the aura body stage, his large purple eyes seemed even brighter. Looking at the world around him, many smaller auras started to fill his vision. The world itself seemed to have grown even more beautiful as Lowen's vision had now completely changed. Now within a hundred or so feet, Lowen could both see and sense any living creatures aura, therefore, he knew exactly where every living creature was within, that hundred feet.
Not only that, he could even track an aura up to a certain distance. Every living creature had an aura and every aura was different. If Lowen encountered a creature, it's aura would be forever embedded in his memory.
Lowen sat down and started healing himself. With his ki energy even stronger and pure, combined with his earth energy, Lowen's body healed in a matter of minutes. The flesh that had been torn from his body now grew back becoming smooth and supple to the touch, the hair that had been pulled out in clumps was once more full and lush. The muscles that were basically mush, now became dense and tough, filled with power yet lean in tone. His innards and organs, like a sponge soaked in water, were back to their former shape and were filled with vitality. His bones that had cracked in several places, had fused themselves back, becoming almost as tough as metal. Lowen could feel power coursing through his body. He felt as though he could fight Rize's entire army alone now.
Lowen sensed his ki seed and shook his head. The only real downside to condensing his ki seed was that it meant there was less ki stored within. Smaller size means a smaller storage container. So although his ki was purer and stronger, he did not have a lot of it but with his body constantly absorbing it, there wasn't much need for a bigger ki seed at the moment. Later on, when he grew, even more, he would need to increase its size or his body would run out of energy the ki techniques in the later stages required an immense amount of energy and Lowen currently had no way of meeting that requirement. After everything was said and done, increasing the size of his ki seed would be one of Lowen's sole focuses but for now, he had business to attend to. Standing up, with his sword coiled around his arm, Lowen walked over and grabbed his hammer and with his shadow steps, his body blurred and disappeared, the direction, of course, was back to Roland....back to Rize.