To Move a Mountain

When Uncle and I last trained together, he was trying to teach me how to fly. Thanks to the crisis in Urnan, we put a checkmark in that box and prepared for another big step.

Or should I say…another big leap!

*Fwoosh* went my wings as I excitedly jumped off the boat.

Catching the sea breeze, I was able to glide with the wind, letting the air keep me moving along with the vessel. I hardly needed to flap my wings at all to keep airborne!

The only downside was that I was instructed to carry my spear with me. I pouted and fussed over bringing it along, but Uncle was adamant about it being on me while I learned to glide a gale, which meant this was part of my training and I had no say otherwise. That weight I was talking about before? It somehow doubled now.

“Gah!” I squeaked out as I fought the agony within my arms.

As for Uncle, he had it far worse than me. His longsword was taller than I was and made of pure metal to boot. If I thought stardust was heavy, that sword he had was solid steel, maybe even ferronium. An atom of ferronium weighed about 1/2 more than an atom of iron. It must have been BRUTAL on his arms, but he inspired me as he glided up here, clutching the blade's handle with determination.

“No pain… No gain!” he grunted out. “We can do this!”

I tried to be cool like him and hold my spear like it was nothing, but my stressed out facial expressions made him chuckle.

“The more you use your weapon, the more it will become an extension of your body,” he claimed. “Carry it with you as you train. Let your muscles account for its extra weight.”

His words momentarily renewed my strength, but then soreness proved it was a worthy foe. Pain scattered across my whole body, even into my wings, no longer confined to my arms. My little muscles strained as far as they could go holding this thing mid air.

“Uncle, I can summon it up whenever I need though. Why would I want to carry it around all the time?”

“Summoning it takes time and stardust. It's better to have it available at all times, if possible.”

That was a good point. Especially if we were going into another demon controlled zone, I'd need to be ready to defend or attack at a moment's notice. So, I guess that meant I was just going to have to get used to this.

“It hurts now, but consider the pain an investment.”

It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to get a sheath or something. With all the books and games I've played, surely one of the characters in those stories had a convenient way of transporting a spear wherever they went?

If memory serves, and it should, because my mind was a computer, the characters I saw usually had some sort of rope or sling to keep it in place on their backs, at least when some invisible gameplay force wasn't holding it there unnaturally. A sling wouldn't be terrible, but the problem was I'd have to tie something to it every time I used stardust to spawn it out. Not very practical.

Could I put a clamp on the back of my battle dress? That might work. Oh! What if the clamp could close in on the spear and release it all at the press of a button? I could even have it release my spear with something as easy as a signal from my head. Both might be a good idea to have in case of an emergency.

"Uncle, I have an idea!"

When I told him about the clamp idea, he said it was “promising.” Maybe Miss Emily could make it for me if I asked real nicely. If we were at The Hive, the bees could probably whip something up real quick, but right now I had to rely on human engineering.

All that being said, it was time to take a break. I felt like a pego minifigure with loose arms about to fall off.

I dematerialized my spear and began to slowly lose altitude from fatigue. Uncle caught me and brought me back down to the boat. “Push yourself too hard all at once and you’ll burn out,” he said.

I always seemed to end up like that–pushing myself and having someone carry me to safety. That’s no way for a hero angel to be, especially when I’m the one who needs to protect humanity from demons.

But if I didn’t push myself, I wouldn't be strong enough to save everyone.

“You need to learn to pace your strength, which comes from serious discipline,” he said.

"But, I need to be super strong now. You saw the Reaper. I couldn't beat him on my own."

I had a feeling enemies were only going to get stronger from here. And now we had those golden seeds and demon lords to worry about? This was going to be a nightmare I had to be ready for.

“You’re looking at the endgame rather than the checkpoints along the way.”

“Huh?”

“What would you say your goal is?” he asked.

That was a question that Anima asked me last year. Daddy made me to protect humanity from darkness. But according to Anima, I was supposed to battle some very powerful being, who arrogantly claimed himself to be God.

The church gave me a similar purpose. But they said I was supposed to defeat the Devil.

I don’t think things could have been more polar opposites than that…

Personally, I figured that whoever Anima was talking about might have actually been the Devil, since she said that humans were made evil, and the Devil did supposedly make mankind, according to the Ecclysian scriptures.

Taking all that into consideration, my purpose was clear as day…

“I have to defeat the Devil,” I said, proudly pumping my fist with newfound courage. “He's the most evil thing out there. Stopping him will stop the darkness, I just know it!”

Uncle nodded at my eagerness.

“Defeating the Devil is a pretty big goal, but if that’s what you're after, how do you plan on doing it?”

That was a great question, and this answer was also pretty clear.

“I need to get stronger,” I answered.

“Is all that strength just going to appear in you, all at once? Moving a mountain takes time. You need to get stronger in increments, always looking to merely outdo your previous expectations, pushing the goal post each time. Then you need to learn to wield that strength appropriately.”

He made me realize that I actually had that same ideology in mind. Each time I trained and unlocked higher limits for my powers, it incrementally pushed me into new heights of strength. Like I figured though, this was a very long-term system, so expecting immediate results wouldn’t do me much good.

If we didn't have a grave battle ahead of us, I'd say there was plenty of time to build myself up. But we were facing a demon lord in a few hours. No matter what I did, no amount of training could prepare me that quickly. Even the copycat powers wouldn’t be much of a shortcut, because I still had to train what I copied up.

“Uncle, what about the demon lord?” I asked.

“You aren't fighting alone, you know? You have all of us here backing you up. Those who fight together are stronger.” He kneeled down and put an encouraging hand on my shoulder. “You're not ready for the Devil, but as long as we're here, we'll buy you time.”

In other words, I'd need to take my training a lot more seriously. This was borrowed time I was working with.

But we didn't even know when the Devil would show up. Apparently he was sealed away somewhere, and I didn’t see any scriptures that talked about where that was. That wasn't an excuse for me to get lazy. In a way, it was more scary not knowing when he'd show up.

“Uncle, do we know when I'll need to be ready?” I asked.

"Only God knows now," he replied. "So if your fate is to battle the greatest evil of all, you'll have to trust you'll be prepared."

"Are you sure?" I tilted my head, curiously.

“Positive. Just don't ignore the call to action when it comes.”

His advice made me feel focused. Tension was building in my heart as I knew what he was saying would be a game changer. I wanted to keep training tonight, but he suggested I take a rest after working my body so hard.

My soreness seemed to agree with him, persuading my eyes to flutter with exhaustion.

Bed time!