Last night came to pass. 

Finally, after so many debacles, Rem was ready to receive some real training. It only took him one peeping accusation, a truth serum, a goddess's self-esteem, and one honey badger on a week of cleaning chores to get here. Keep this up, and Rem might find himself destroying Spain's economy to save the world.

But let leave such possibilities tomorrow, he had another problem now.

Both Rem and the goddess sat fully dressed in a traditional cotton gi. However, unlike Rem's white traditional uniform, Cytortia went for a green cotton jacket and yellow drawstring trouser. The depressed goddess even put on a Eucalyptus perfume and tied her hair back into a ponytail.

But no matter what she tried, the emotional bruises remained.

Unperturbed by all opinions, the honey badger strolled between them as she gave the lecture.

"Normally, I will break the basics in your brain before reconstructing it back correctly. However, time is a luxury we don't have. I love my windpipe unstrangled. so we will have to get creative."

Rem looked up. He sensed a disaster looming in the distance. That air of foreboding down his neck was anything but reassuring. This situation was as bad as the dark days of Justin's concert. Rem nodded with nostalgia. It'd only been a day, but he already missed the time his worse fear was the class president ear-raping YMCA. 

Meanwhile, the young goddess beside him felt a distinct type of dread entirely.

"Is this the reason you asked me about my awakening circle last night?"

Oh no.

Rem finally worked out the badger's plan. It'd been transparently clear when he fleshed it out. Their little group faced the deck stacked taller than Mt. Fuji with only one advantage to play.

"You plan to ask Satholia for cheat code," Rem stated, trying not to bolt out of the room. He believed he should. He was a genuine pig for this project, and lab animals, as a rule, existed to die for the experiment.

"Am I hearing this right or the Queen of Shadow finally ran out of egos?" Cytortia smirked.

The badger didn't like that smirk one bit.

"Don't look at me like that!" Scathach tore off her hair. "Training you two for this type of mission in a week is ridiculous. The only conceivable method to move forward is asking someone good enough to kick the shit out of an entire pantheon to do it!"

"How do you do that?" Cytortia asked in confusion. "Do you even have her address?"

"No," the badger admitted, "but I have this."

Scathach drew a magic circle in front of the two and started her explanation.

"This awakening process is designed to jump-start your mana generator. Mana is the energy produced by the life-force of living creatures.  It fuels our spell, and its quantity had to do with race and lineage. That was what we know about it."

Rem's head perked up with interest, while Cytortia's eyebrows scrunched in a frown.

"Was?" Cytortia asked. "Past tense?"

"Satholia's battle on Olympus broke the fundamental theory on Mana Capacity. She shouldn't be able to contact during the awakening procedure without breaking the law of magic. These points to the conclusion that the long-held fact that the awakening process activated the mana generator, namely Mana Core, is incorrect."

Scathach showed them the diagram of an articulate hexagon.

"This sigil is a modified version of your awakening circle, designed to link your consciousness with your Mana Core. If your boss is listening, maybe she would..."

Rem walked into the middle of the circle with no hesitation.

"Let do it." Rem whispered. "It's worth the risk."

Scathach hesitantly charged the circle as the shadow of doubt veiled over the room like a dusk light.

The blue glow filled the gym.

..

Once the glow faded, Rem founded himself in a strange world.

The soil beneath his feet was crumbly white chalk. From the bleached sand grew the carpet of blood-color poppies, contrasting against the starless black sky of this silent world. A funeral was more lively than this place.

But even in that pit, one source of light still stood proudly.

A white tower floated in the air, radiating multicolor morning light from the window at the celestial spire. It was a shining spiraling needle of ceramic with sharp spear tips on both ends. At its midpoint, the circlet of shining aurora encircled the spires like a crown of an overlord.

"Beautiful isn't?" said a familiar voice.

Rem turned to see a boy with his gray eyes and brown hair waving at him in the distance.

"You..."

"Yes, me," the child-age Rem Breaker smiled sweetly. He strutted toward Rem, kicking up the blood-red poppies with childish innocence.

Rem instinctively knew something was different this time. A sense of conflict pressed his skin; a disaster was coming. The younger version of himself looked too real, more competent, and — most of all — more powerful. 

It began in an instant.

The younger Rem drew a blade of rainbow light and rushed at Rem in a burst of red petals. His sword fell in an overhead blow. Unperturbed, Rem caught the child despite his speed, intercepting the boy's sword-hand mid-swing and held him in place.

The younger Rem struggled, grunting as his sword crackled to nothingness. After this failure, he only had resentment left. 

"What next?" The child sneered. "Let me guess: a punch in the f--.”

A punch cracked the youth in the teeth before he even finished. With another grunt, the child summoned another light sword with his free hand and slashed, forcing Rem to drop him.

"Oww," the boy rubbed his tooth. "You go for a haymaker as expected, as expect for a true Superman-fanboy. Father will be so disappointed in you!"

The reckless child charged. Rem peacefully waited, ignoring his aggressive rage-fueled ranting and reckless flurries.

"The truth is you are nothing but Satholia's attack dog," the boy jumped, launching a spin kick that hit nothing.

"Your cousin thinks you are an incomprehensible weirdo!" The boy charged for a slash and failed. "Your mother expects too much from you, while your father is a profiteering glory hound. Let be honest here! They prefer Jule more than you. Your parent pick an easily manipulatable junior activist over you!"

Crash!

Another light blade batted away the child's swing. A nutty scent of poppy detonated into the air, as the sword clashed and locked. Confetti of red-petals danced as the two personalities struggled for dominance.

The desperate child looked into the empty gaze of his older self. Those eyes were devoid of anger, pain, and joy. In those gazes, only permanent void of disappointments existed. No, it was something far worse: acceptance. Acceptance belonging to a man who killed so many pieces of himself that he had attained the state of apathetic tranquility.

"What if I am an unloved fanboy?" Rem replied, shoving his weight to break the blade lock. "Do the world stop moving when that happened? Nothing will change. Our lives are a meaningless blip of the universe. Complaining won't change anything."

The younger Rem sprawled on to the ground, his light-blade dissipating. Undeterred, he flew up with a roar, conjured an extra sword, and poured in slashes after slashes. It was a randomize rage-fill storms of swordplay.

"Accept it!?” The child laughed madly, his body stayed in motion, piling up attack after attack. "I know you recognize what I am! The fact that I exist proves that you never get over the fact that your parents preferred controllable puppets over their son. In the end, you are just a hypocrite who wants to burn society down for being the shit-stain of the earth."

That was the moment the child's blade dissipated in a crackle of the rainbow mid-swing.

The weightlessness of his hand caught the boy by surprise, and punch followed.

Crack!

A fist coated in an unstable aurora smashed his fingers. The child gulped as a hand snatched his neck in a grasp.

"I see," Rem emotionlessly narrated as he slowly tightened his fingers. "Given that I have access to your ability the moment you used it, I guess you are what I expect you to be. And as expect, you are much more stupid than I am. So here are some lessons."

Rem dropped the boy and punched him in the stomach. The impact sent the child flying at a speed of a rag-doll tied to a bus and slammed him into the white tower in a grunt of pain.

"First, you forgot about your weapon's instability and failed to refresh it regularly," Rem said, leaping after his prey and delivering a flying stomp in the child's gut. The boy promptly vomited, but Rem wasn't done yet.

"Second, your emotion is out of control. Your attacks are wild and predictable. But given how much I hate myself, and what a disappointment I am, that is understandable."

Rem kicked the child into the tower's wall before he could finish falling to the ground. Unlike last time, it was blood instead of vomit that coughed out.

"Let me teach you a word of wisdom: lashing the past is impractical. Our self-hate won't undo our failures. There is no point in resenting the idiots who preferred Claire's grade over her moral or Justin's dad's money over his spinelessness. Use that high energy to do something more productive."

"You should notice who you are talking to."

A stomp slammed into the boy's face, shutting him up.

"I know," Rem grounded his boot. "That is why I am grinding your face instead of making noises. Action matter more than words, and your action doesn't bring humanity kicking and screaming to a fairer future. Hatred can be a powerful motivation if properly direct. I only channel mine to spite humanity's evil, and the winner speaks for itself."

The boy stared in terror as Rem Breaker leaned closer, looking into his hate-filled eyes with total emptiness.

"The basis of humanity’s evil is the fact that most humans are a selfish moron. What a sweet revenge it will be if one human sacrifice himself for the good of all to prove that true selflessness could exist. If evil can create good, then good will be eternal like evil, isn't it?"

'You... you are insane,' the younger Rem stuttered through his busted lip and a broken nose. The older Rem replied by slamming him headfirst into the wall.

"That notion is why you lost despite your advantage," Rem ground the child's face with the sole of his foot without caring about the boy's pain.

"Think about it. If you didn't show me the rainbow blade or your speed, I would never have the ability to beat the hell out of you like this. By the way, that is one of your mistakes; you reveal the card too early.”

Rem lifted his hand, which started glowing in a dangerous shade of rainbow. Tornado of ruby-color petal rage as the power built. 

The child clenched his eyes shut for the killing blow.

"Anger didn't give you power," Rem apathetically said. "Humanity is evil. No need to pretend otherwise, but we can recognize our nature and grow from it. The world is not utopia. It can't be one because perfection shouldn't exist. You lost because you can't accept that notion like I have. You are resenting something that couldn't be changed, deal with it."

Rem lifted the helplessly struggling boy and prepared an uppercut.

"You are right. I am a hypocrite, but that doesn't matter as long as a good triumph. I might not be Superman, but as long as my sacrifice makes them believe in one, I will die happy."

Rem swung his fist.

'Stop!'

Rem stopped.

The air shimmered as a girl materialized from the sky. She had rainbow-color hair, sharp feature, and the dress made of white fires. The girl surveyed the damage dejectedly; her voice rang like a spring season sun.

'By the authority of Queen Satholia, I order you to release the boy.'

Rem hesitated.

"Can you restrain him?"

The girl nodded. Her sky-blue eyes looked at him with concern.

Rem dropped the younger Rem to the floor. The child gasped and glared at the girl.

"I don't need your help," he said ungratefully,

'You do,' the girl said. 'This is worse than I realize.'

"Please learn to be more grateful?" Rem kicked the boy face-first into the tower with enough magical force to create an airburst.

The younger Rem slid down powerlessly, dissipating into petals of poppies and golden like he never existed.

"Now, that the trash is taken out," Rem turned toward the girl. "How bad is it?"

'You can't use [Arrival of Dream],' the girl stated her worse fear.

"Explanation please," Rem stated. "What is it, and why can't I use it?"

The girl began her explanation.

'[Arrival of Dream] is your natural ability. It is one of the strongest of its kind. This ability allows you to bring forth any artifacts, creatures, or feats as long as you provide it with weakness, strength, and lore. The spiral tower behind us acts as a channel to summon these artifacts to reality by using your True Magic as a fuel. Moreover, the replica creates by this power is technically a real deal to the effect of [Reality Breaker (Ex)].'

Rem's brain spun into high-gear. He could already think of a thousand different uses for this ability. [Arrival of Dream] was an endless arsenal that could adapt to any situation with his imagination being the only limit.

But nothing in this world was free.

"Is it had to do with this?" Rem summoned an unstable rainbow blade that dissipated away in a crack of lighting.

'Yes,' the girl sadly confirmed. 'That blade is your True Magic.  Unlike Skill, a person True Magic is something he received as a seed when he was born and mature into a mighty tree along with his world-view. Your Magic. It'd grown into a fragment of what it could be. I couldn't even name it. It possesses insane versatility and volatility. But despite the spitefulness, it is benevolent. These attributes result in unstable energy that couldn't be used to fuel the tower of at all.'

Rem nodded. It appeared magical power reflected the user, and his mirror image was so oxymoronic that it couldn't function.

"Are there any ways to fix the problem?"

'There is a way...' The girl looked at Rem guiltily. 'But you won't like it.'

The girl told him and let us say he didn't like it at all.

...

Rem woke up and shared his discovery of his closest allies.

The three promptly concluded that the ritual transported Rem into the manifestation of his Mana Core. Cytortia was grinning ear to ear with this discovery. Rem expected he would see some new and improves the diagram soon.

Although the quest to find Satholia ended in vain, Rem left with some benefit. First, the battle between him and his suppressed emotion taught him two fighting styles. First was an ability to enhance his body with his unique power. Although the unstable, and weren't as versatile as [Arrival of Dream], the technique was still an instinct ingrain into Rem's subconscious. A few practices later, and he would use it like he had trained for years.

Then there was the sword skill used by younger Rem. It was neat, simple footwork built on deflection and slashes. Admittedly, those styles seemed to anchor with his magic enhancement. Like the reinforcement, he took to the blade-work like fishes in the water.

Curious about this experiment, Cytortia also underwent the same subconscious ritual while Scathach honed Rem skilled through intense coaching. 

So far, the goddess had no luck or progress with her training, much to her chagrin. At last, after six long days. The party arrived at the looming, spiritually lit forest of the elves.

...

Rem Breaker

Messenger

Stat

Str: 100 [E]

End: 148 [E]

Mag: 182 [D]

Wis: 385 [C]

Dex: 185 [D]

Skill

Active

Arrival of Dream [N/A]

Calm mind [A]

Simplicity Blade [C]

Magic Charge [B]

Knife Throwing [D]

Passive

Territory [E]

Reality Breaker [Ex]

The Way of Optimism [N/A]