Alabaster P.O.V

Even knowing that this is an opportunity that many would never have in their entire lives. While standing on the edge of this pond of purple liquid I hesitate a little and start to think about my circumstances.

I know that the chances of me getting an ability are slim, after all, both my parents and grandparents lack the aptitude to become an conductor, but even if I lack the qualification I know that this is far from being the worst outcome, aside from the embarrassment of having my attendant posses this qualification that I lack, I would still be able to live very comfortably as a lord.

Having this powers could even attract the attention of the wrong people and many problems down the line, even if I have been training diligently and acquiring knowledge as fast as I could, in the end, it was all for the sake of having an easy and peaceful life.

In order to be able to live a long and fulfilling life I have been working non stop in order to have enough strength to deal with any calamities that may come in the horizon.

There is any point to obtaining this power witch may in itself bring unwanted attention towards me? I should be hoping with all my heart that I ends up as a failure.

But why can I feel deep in my chest this excitement at the thought of what I could do with all that power? Why do I think about all the dangers and can't help but crave for all the adventure and trill it would come with it? Why does every time I think about my former dream of staying at our territory and just avoiding any conflict our any other troublesome matters it sounds so off, as this life was not meant for me?

He does not know how it happened, but since his mother has exposed the meaning behind the rare omen upon his birth and his supposed destiny to unite humanity, a tiny flame has been growing inside him. And before he knew it that flame Which was his ambition has grown very big, to the point that his previous lofty dreams started to seem inadequate.

If it goes on, eventually just the territory that the von Graad holds will not be enough and he will fight and struggle to increase his influence and finally he will have plans for the whole of humanity.

Honestly, the thought has been harrowing, and he is worried about the changes that are occurring within himself.

But he quickly puts all those doubts aside for now.

There is no guarantee that he will indeed possess the aptitude, so he decided to just go inside the pond with low expectations and take whatever is given to him.

If he doesn't have the aptitude, that means that all that 'chosen one' talk his mother gave to him is just a myth and he will live in an low key manner. But if he indeed has a destiny and is blessed by the stars, he will embrace it and accept this new path that was presented to him.

Having already made his resolve, he takes of his clothing except for his underwear and enters the pond.

Even if he has to become almost naked amongst an audience, His training as an noble along with the fact that only his family and closest servants are present prevents him from feeling any embarrassment.

Although amongst the audience, a certain girl turned away her head very flustered despite her attempts to hide it behind an poker face, though since everyone is focused on Alabaster and he is only focused on the pond, no one is able to notice it.

One step at a time he gradually goes deeper into the pond 

After submerging the lower half of his body, the first thing he feels is cold...

An bone chilling cold...

Not just because he is only on his underwear on the middle of the night but as if the concoction that he is surrounded by is sapping all the heat off his body.

Going further and reaching a point Which he is almost completely submerged he uses a few seconds to get used to it, he then takes his breath and submerged completely into the liquid.

Everyone that is watching can only wait in apprehension for his exit.

While completely submerged in the pond, the cold that he was feeling only increased before it started entering his body and reaching his bones and internal organs.

After an undetermined amount of time, the effects of the liquid he is submerged in starts to be noticed.

His perception and focus becomes extremely acute, he can very clearly and vividly feel the liquid in his whole body and the bone chilling cold that comes with it. His heartbeat, the pores of his skin opening, the most miniscule movements of his body it all became extremely clear on his mind.

Besides that, he also starts to notice that it has been a while since he submerged himself and he is not suffering from lack of air or drowning while submerged in the viscous purple liquid. 

That is the effect of the special 'dew' He is currently in. This liquid is made by alchemists and its purpose is to increase one's perception to the extreme while the liquid itself is imbued with energy making it very energy rich the  so that it becomes much easier for someone to be able to detect void energy and absorb it into it's body. Without it, even with talent, it would take months if not years of meditation in order to be able to sense it.

This 'dew' is normally ingested and the person spends the next month slowly trying to detect this energy, that was the way that Beatrice has awakened her powers. Only nobility can be so ostentatious as to fill an pond or pool with it and completely submerge themselves in it. Although it does make the process faster and easier by giving the person an much more energy rich environment, it also is considered an big waste considering the price of the alchemical product.

Not long before the effects of the product start to show themselves, he starts to fill his pores all over his body becoming completely open and an sudden wave of an warm felling starts to envelop him. And shortly it also starts to permeate his skin and sink deep within his body completely washing away the previous cold and uncomfortable feeling.

When it enters his body, it does so in an very organized way, forming various 'paths' going through his entire body

Even if the temperature is scalding hot, he doesn't feel the slightest discomfort and concentrates on the feeling while carefully observing the paths it takes to enter his body.

'This feeling must be void energy, there is no doubt about it. That pretty much confirms that I have an compatibility with void energy. Now, I must carefully guide it in order to proceed to the next step.'

After more or less grasping the feeling and path of the void energy, he tries to aid the flow of energy through the canals of his body, which for his delight was surprisingly easy to do. It felt as if all he had to do is wish for the energy to flow a certain way and it would do so without any resistance. 

If other conductors knew of this they would cry in outrage, trying to control the energy to follow your will was about as hard as riding an angry bull, even those who had great affinity with it would have to put a significant amount of effort and willpower in order to have it obey them.

Meanwhile Alabaster who is unaware of that, now just thinks that the information he had recieved was greatly exaggerated.

As those 'pathways' start to grow and become more refined with the influx of energy they are receiving, an energy circuit starts to be formed inside his body. This channel that is being built inside his body serves to both store and transport the absorbed void energy through the body and into the body parts they need to be in order for abilities to be used.

Now those pathways can be compared to narrow dirt-roads that have never been used, and because of that the flow of energy is slow and weak. But through the constant circulation of energy they can be strengthened and expanded until it can be comparable to an large highway, but this process must occur over an large span of time so that someone's energy circuit doesn't get damaged due to extreme stress.

But something out of his expectations is happening right now.

'The circuits are not showing any sign of strain even with the outrageous flow of energy that is passing inside them. Should I continue to absorb at maximum potency or slow down and play it safe? I don't know if its supposed to expand this much in such an short period of time.' He thinks while feeling his very narrow and newly formed internal pathways expanding without seemingly any signs of strain or ruptures.

He is very nervous since damage to one's circuit is the most feared thing to an conductor and may impact his future growth or even prevent him from ever storing void energy again.

Suddenly he comes with an hypothesis of what may be happening.

'I learned that there are some individuals who are born with special constitutions that can make his circuits either very rigid and make the enlargement of the pathway very hard for them slowing their progression while also making the circuit harder to be damage, or have extremely elastic circuits that allow a greater flow of energy at the cost of being much more fragile. I seem to belong to the letter if my hypothesis is correct, so I don't need to be worried by the expansion of the pathway, but I must be very careful since it is so fragile. So I must stop the flow of energy on the first signs of over-exertion lest my path as an conductor ends before it even begins.'

So this time, with all his attention, he continues to watch over his circuits expansion while preparing to stop the process at the first sign of an issue. 

And the process continues until the circuit has seem to reach it's limit, with the pathways becoming bloated and their expansion screeches to a halt.

But it seemed that Alabaster would experience a second surprise, as just before he stopped since it seemed an limit had been reached, the circuit that has grown enormous started to shrink.

That has genuinely scared Alabaster, and so he started to brainstorm in order to find an solution.

'Damn it! Did something go wrong in the process? Has my circuit been damaged and the energy is currently leaking? No, it couldn't be. I can't detect any damage or energy leaking. Is it even something bad? The books told me that unpredictable events might happen mid awakening and you should aways follow your instincts in those situations. The shrinking doesn't cause pain or discomfort and I don't feel that its something bad so I'm just going to continue and hope for the best.'

So in a very short time the previous big and bloated circuit has shrieked until it returned to its original size. And at the end of the process, the pathways started to once again expand as they were before.

But Alabaster was able to feel that this process wasn't yielding no results. Even if his inexperience and lack of knowledge presented him from finding out what exactly was changing, he could in his gut feel that his circuit after shrinking became denser and stronger allowing him to absorb energy faster by an almost undetectable amount.

So discovering that this process is something beneficial he continued the absorption until he had already done this cycle a total of three times. Only then he started to feel some discomfort and an feeling of fullness that way announcing his limit.

He didn't hesitate to order the energy to stop entering his body and start to give an last check-up on his body before exiting. Since he is almost sure his pathways are the elastic and weak kind, it would be very easy for his previous stunt have left an damage that was undetectable by the current him.

With all that done he finally after having spent an uncertain amount of time on the aptitude test emerged from the lake. Immediately he bended down and regurgitated the liquid that was filling his lungs, after coughing in an fit he finally took an long and deep breath feeling his lungs with air once again. 

Many of the expectators heaved a huge sigh of relief seeing their son/master/young lord getting out in one piece, while also being curious if Alabaster had any aptitude as an conductor.

But for Alabaster what followed wasn't a very good experience.

The concoction that he had absorbed had one of his purposes elevating the potency and sensitivity to the limit. That allowed him to very quickly sense the void energy while his other 5 senses were dampened while submerged, but now that he left the lake with the effect still lingering the side-effect became apparent.  

The world became an melting pot of sensations and feelings that he could not distinguish. He could only let a few pitiful sounds from his throat while squirming in the ground. In his vision the lights and colors assaulted his eyes, trying to close them could offer only a slight relief, his nose was receiving many scents that were being carried by the wind, his ears were almost bleeding as the expectators shouted in worry and his skin that was feeling the night breeze and the grass that was touching it was also being assailed by strengthened sensations, luckily it was night, he didn't know if he would be able to remain conscious if it was day.

But someone quickly came close to him and said something very quietly and slowly seemingly aware of his state, while having him drink something, although he was still completely unable to understand his/her words he was nonetheless grateful for this person's tact, the expectators using loud voices were just tormenting him further rather than helping.

While not being able to open his eyelids or distinguish the persons voice, he can only muster enough energy to weakly and with an hoarse voice ask:

"W-Who are you?"