Two blue fireballs formed in Chase’s hands and he threw them towards Ares with as much velocity as he could. But before they reached him, Ares made a circular motion with one of his palms, deflecting the fire back onto Chase so fast that all he could do to protect his upper body was raise his forearms before impact. There was a small explosion, and once again Chase was thrown into the dirt.
“Do you know what you did wrong?” Ares asked calmly.
Chase got back up, dusted himself off, and looked at his burned forearms.
“Besides getting up this morning?” he said sarcastically, trying to not let the pain leech into his tone. “Enlighten me.”
“Ah, the Fury pride. You feel hurt. You don’t need to hide it from me. I can sense everything you feel, so stop acting tough. We don’t have time to serve your own ego. Now let’s talk about your reaction. I taunted you, found the right words to make you lose control. That’s because your ego is too strong. You’re too young, not mature enough, and the things people tell you, you take too much to heart.
“Because you’re a Fury, these manifest in surges of power. But you can’t control this power as long as it’s guided by hate. Anger gives you only an illusion of control, but in fact, it’s blinding you. You need to use anger the right way, to channel it to your advantage. If you let it control you, the results will be catastrophic, not only for you, but for those around you.”
That last statement seemed to hit home, a regular bull’s-eye.
“Start with calming down right now. I know you want to hurt me at the moment, but try breathing slowly. Empty your head of thoughts instead. Quiet your mind, lower your ego. For just one moment try and forget I just hit you where it hurts.”
Chase didn’t like the way Ares talked to him. He thought it was condescending and rude, but a wiser part of him had to admit that perhaps he could learn something here. So he started to breathe slowly and deeply, and soon enough he felt anger go away little by little.
“Good, that’s better. Remember how you blew open that door after the building’s explosion yesterday?”
“Yes…?”
“You did that without any anger, yet you managed to bring your powers to the surface through nothing but instinct. The main problem you have at the moment is that your instinct is to seek revenge towards Argos and your ego is bruised by the fact that you didn’t manage to save every life on Earth. I can understand that you wanted things to turn out better; it’s human, but it’s not realistic. You are not responsible for the fate of the universe.”
“You guys should maybe consult one another on pep talks,” Chase smirked. “Aphroditis actually tried convincing me that I was all that stood between darkness and light.”
“If you are, in your current state, if that’s even a fraction of the truth, we’re all screwed. She needed to motivate you, and at the time it might have been good advice. But tell me, how did it make you feel knowing that?”
“Anxious, worried that I might fail.”
“Exactly. All of a sudden, the weight of the universe is on your shoulders. Do you like baring that responsibility?”
Chase shuddered. “Not at all. In fact, it makes me feel helpless sometimes.”
“And so it should.” Ares looked at him square on. “I am immensely more powerful than you are, at least at the moment, and I am not even entertaining the thought that the universe could actually depend on me and my actions. So you need to unload that burden. The sooner the better.”
Chase sighed. “I... I don’t know that I can. Whatever happens next is on my head. At the very least, I must make sure I do my absolute best; I feel responsible now.”
“You’re only responsible for your own actions. The sooner you embrace that, the better.”
“But the consequences?”
“Are you so arrogant to think that should you die, which is a very strong possibility from where I’m standing, all would be lost?”
“I don’t know,” Chase mumbled.
“Nobody knows, Chase. Nobody. Not me and certainly not you.”
Chase stayed quiet, reflecting on Ares’ words.
“Now try to empty your mind of all thoughts,” the war god commanded.
“That’s not going to happen, I’m afraid.”
“DO IT anyway!”
“Right, there is no try.”
Ares paused. “What do you mean? I do want you to try.”
“Never mind…” Chase said with a little smile.
He proceeded to empty his mind of all thoughts. It wasn’t an easy thing to do. For as long as he could remember, his head was filled with worries for the future, and the last few months had been so charged with heavy events, sometimes he felt like all he was doing was over-thinking everything. After no time at all, his mind focused on the explosions that had happened on Earth the day before.
Were they under attack? Were there going to be more explosions to follow? What could he—
“Is that emptying your mind?” Ares interrupted gravely.
“How would you know?” Chase bristled defensively. “Do you read minds?”
“I can read on your face, what you’re thinking.”
Chase grimaced but tried to get back into emptying his mind. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths, but it didn’t seem to help that much. Annoyed, he opened his eyes and threw up his hands in frustration. Ares seemed equally put out.
“Look, Chase, try and focus on a place or memory that brings you joy. Once you’re there, block out everything else, stay anchored in that moment. Stay there long enough without thinking of anything else and you should be able to lose yourself in that place; then you should start to feel differently.”
Chase summoned the morning when he woke up next to Sarah the first time they’d spent the night together. He remembered caressing her shoulder for a few minutes before she woke up. That moment was a powerful memory, one he wanted to last forever, so it wasn’t difficult to bring it back. His eyes closed without him realizing, and soon he was back there on the bed, smelling the intoxicating perfume of Sarah’s hair and naked skin. Before he knew it, a deep sensation of calm enveloped him like a warm blanket. It felt like present, past, and future were only foggy concepts, slowly fading into the void with every passing moment.
“Good,” Ares said with a soothing voice. “Now try to feel the current of energy flowing in your body.”
His voice was like an echo in a dream, and Chase obeyed without questioning, not even realizing he was probably in some sort of a trance. He focused on his inner self and could indeed feel something running inside him. A stream, a river, he didn’t know, but something was there.
“Alright, that energy you feel is your inner power. It’s a strong force that you can summon at will once you master this fully. Up until now, you have only been able to call it when the situation was dire, usually with your thoughts in turmoil. In doing so, you made that pool of energy very agitated, like a storm, and you could only summon a very small part of it, like the splashing water when a wave hits a cliff... If you manage to go to the source, you can use the entire ocean and bid it to do your will.”
The echoed words made sense to Chase even though he still didn’t know how to use this power. For now, he was just content to observe the inner flux, something he never even thought was there.
“Alright,” continued Ares’ calming voice, ever so soothing and more and more ethereal in nature, “the easiest way for you to grab hold of that power is to create a mental image of it. Try to visualize it as an aura of a specific color. Any color will do.”
Chase chose a radiant blue, like the fireballs he managed to create before. He liked that color very much.
“Good... Now focus on that bright light within yourself. Make it grow; try to double it in size.”
Chase doubled his aura in his mind. It was a great deal harder than he would have originally thought. Sometimes it grew, but sometimes it shrank as well. After what felt like a very long time, he had reached a volume of energy
about double what he had started with.
“Good. I’m actually impressed. Now, double it once more.”
Chase took much less time doubling the energy this time. He started to feel a very warm and powerful sensation within his body. Like it was vibrating in a whole new way altogether.
“Nice,” Ares congratulated. “Now for the next few minutes, you will double it again and again, without waiting for further instructions. Don’t worry how big it grows in your mental image; whether you feel like it’s as big as a planet or beyond, keep doubling it until I tell you differently.”
Chase did as instructed. After a while, doubling the energy was just a slight mental push. Then it became like a game to him and he did it effortlessly, feeling that warmth burn deeper within every fiber of his being. The size of the aura grew as big as a small moon, and kept going; as big as Earth, and going. He now radiated an aura the size of the entire solar system.
“Now, while staying in the exact frame of mind, slowly open your eyes.”
When Chase opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was blue.
It radiated from within his body, flowing in and out like solar flares of pure, blue light. It felt alive, and for the first time ever Chase felt like his mind could affect it. He kept looking at his arms and hands, the aura pulsating and vibrating in and out of himself. The sensation was intoxicating: both mindboggling and soothing at the same time.
“Very good, Chase. Now, you see that mountain behind me?”
Chase looked behind Ares, and, sure enough, a huge mountain stood there.
“I see it,” said Chase with a calm he barely recognized.
“Focus your energy in your right arm, then in your right hand. Let all the energy flow there naturally. Close your eyes if you need to do so to project your mental image. Once you’re ready, once you feel enough energy has been focused there, throw the resulting fireball at the mountain.”
It took a few seconds for Chase to manage to focus almost all the energy in his fist, but when he did, the resulting fireball was nothing short of extraordinary. It wasn’t much bigger than the ones he had managed to create before, but the energy contained in it felt so immensely superior that it felt more akin to holding a small sun within his palm.
He looked at the mountain with purpose, and, in a fluid motion, he threw the fireball at it.
It reached the mountain at a speed that dazzled Chase’s eyes and the result was just as blinding. The mountain literally exploded in ten million pieces, each of them burning out of existence as if they were never there. A few seconds later, a strong wind almost knocked him off of his feet. The shockwave of the impact, he thought in surprise.
Ares tilted his head in approval. “So how did that feel?”
Chase couldn’t help but smile. “It felt… very, very… insanely good.”
Ares chuckled. “Insane being the operative word here. I want you to remember that.”
“Why is that?” Chase asked with a frown.
“Because now I have helped you unlock the path to your inner power. It will take a bit more practice, but soon you will be able to summon this power at will.” Ares’ face grew serious. “But there is a warning attached. As I told you, before you were only using a fraction of that power, but now you have access to all or, at the very least, most of it. So when you threw that pathetic first attack towards me, you actually wouldn’t have done much damage.”
“There’s a door in a building I was in that would disagree with that statement,” Chase said with a smirk.
“Doors don’t fight back. To even wound someone as powerful as your twin brother, you will need to focus that energy and use it well. But be careful how much you use.”
“What do you mean how much? Shouldn’t I use all that I can muster every single time?”
“If you do that, you’ll be a dead man faster than you can say oops.”
“I don’t follow.”
“Right now, you managed to drain a lot of energy from your inner pool, but that pool depletes—it’s not infinite. You need rest, sustenance, and other things I won’t bore you with to replenish that energy every time you use it. Think of it as a battery, if that helps. Once it’s dead, it’s dead. Once it’s fully depleted, you will die.”
Chase paled. “So the more I use my power, the quicker I will die?”
“Not exactly. Since it can replenish to its full potential with a few hours of rest, your chances of dying of use are very slim. That is—unless you really use absolutely all of it down to the last atom.”
“And chances of that happening?”
“Not great, depending on how you manage your energy. Argos is very well aware of that and he knows just how much to use to defeat his enemies. Never drawing more than he needs.”
“Yet I beat him.”
Ares let out a sigh of frustration. “Are you so arrogant as to think you really beat your brother last time the two of you fought?”
Chase looked down. “No… I agree, it felt too easy. I guess I managed to outsmart him and was just lucky.”
“I’m more inclined to think he let you think you won.” Ares frowned. “For what purpose, I don’t know, but he must have had one hell of a reason.”
“That was a pretty strong explosive that detonated on his back.”
“And I’m telling you that for someone of Argos’ power, it was little less than a mosquito bite.”
“You’re not serious?” Chase asked, trying to reconcile the two images in his mind.
“I am, Chase. I don’t know why he did it, but don’t ever think you managed to beat him then, and do not think you are ready now. I have given you the basics to gain access to your potential. Argos has a similar potential, except he knows it well, and has used it for so long he doesn’t even have to think about it. Right now, he is the most dangerous being in the entire universe. Please make no mistake about that.”
“More dangerous than you?”
Ares smirked automatically, before his face grew serious. “We Olympians have a few tricks up our sleeves. We don’t really age which allows us to live for eons, but we can be killed. And if there is someone who can do it, it’s certainly Argos. Perhaps it’s his end game.”
Chase didn’t understand. “Why would he want to kill the Olympians?”
“Well, we helped defeat your people a long time ago, so off the top of my head, I’d say revenge looks like a potential reason.”
“My people?” said Chase with a puzzled look.
“Furies...”
Of course—he kept having to remember that. “I’m only part Fury.”
“Perhaps...”
“What the hell do you mean perhaps? This is the second time you’ve alluded to the fact that I could be a pure Fury.” Chase raised an interrogating eyebrow.
Ares shrugged thoughtfully. “The amount of power you were able to conjure is staggering. That’s why you must be very careful; you could destroy entire solar systems if you don’t master it. And somehow I doubt a diluted Fury gene would be able to manage that.”
Chase’s heart froze in his chest. “Like in my vision.”
“Yes. Look, I’ve fought the Furies before. I even defeated a few in single combat, and they were pure born. But they held a fraction of your potential and that scares me.”
“Is this supposed to make me feel better? That you’re scared of me? What can you tell me that doesn’t involve Armageddon-scale, cataclysmic repercussions?” Chase exclaimed.
“Actually I’m not done warning you. We got sidetracked.”
Chase rubbed his eyes wearily. “Oh great.”
“Now your power is incredibly strong, but it has its limits.”
“Yeah, yeah, the battery thing.”
“Yes, Chase”—Ares was clearly a little annoyed—“the battery thing. Like a battery, you must be aware at every moment how much of it you have left, how much you drain it, and never ever go under ten percent.”
“Why ten percent?”
“Because un
der this threshold, you risk two things. One, depending on the damage you take at or under this level you can actually lose consciousness.”
“And the second?”
“If that happened while you were using your energy, you could drain the rest of it without realizing... and...”
“Yeah, I get the picture.” Chase’s voice was clipped. “I’d die.”
“Exactly.”
Chase absorbed this while Ares waited patiently for the questions sure to come.
“What about blocking attacks or even healing?”
Ares nodded. “All activity that forces you to drain your energy is part of the same pool, whether you do it instinctively or not.”
“What are my levels now? And how do I know how to recognize them?”
“Close your eyes and look at your aura from before. Now tell me, at which percentage do you think it is compared to when you opened your eyes prior to vaporizing that mountain?”
Chase closed his eyes and tried to evaluate. He opened them again and looked puzzled.
“So?”
“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “Maybe it’s a little over half?”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m sensing. About sixty percent; the rest got depleted in one attack.”
“But how can I sustain a fight if I lose forty percent with one blow?”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to explain to you this entire time, Chase. That blow was way too powerful. You could have seriously damaged Earth if you had sent it towards the ground at a ninety-degree angle."
“I doubt I will ever be in that position during a fight.”
“And I beg to differ. Once you learn to fly, it’s actually more than likely you will be.”
Chase stared at him blankly. “Learn to… what now?”
“Don’t play dumb with me,” Ares scoffed. “I have zero doubt you are able to use a ridiculously minimalistic amount of energy to lift yourself from the ground and fly.”
A flutter of excitement whipped about in his stomach. “Will you teach me that as well?”
“I will do my best, but not today.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t want to overwhelm you with too much information,” Ares explained. “I need to let your psyche integrate all these concepts you have learned first. Your subconscious needs to know you can access all of this… well… consciously.”
Fury to the Stars (Universe in Flames Book 2) Page 14
