I Shall Evolve Everything

As dawn broke and the morning sunlight shone upon my face, I woke up. I felt more powerful, like the things that once took considerable effort were now trivial.

I went to my unread notifications and looked.

[Congratulations, you have advanced to tier/level 7/8]

I had leveled up, I was so close to the peak of tier 7 that I could feel it. My elation was soon dropped when I felt next to me Aoif, who was still as unfathomable in power as ever. Even with my recent increase in power I could feel that I would not be able to make a scratch on her if she was focused.

I might be able to do some damage if Aoif was unprepared but nothing substantial.

"Let's go" impassively Aoif dragged me out of my thoughts and towards some unknown place.

Behind me Naomi followed, the sleep in her eyes still there.

"Ugh, did you have to wake me so early?" Naomi was complaining behind me, the early morning not helping with her attitude.

…

It didn't take long before Aoif was satisfied with the place that we had arrived at. All around us was a field of grass, no trees were in sight except the ones that we had come out from. I could see for miles from where I stood.

However I didn't see any veiled guards which was weird, I had assumed that the whole reason we had moved here was because Aoif wanted to hunt enough guards so that she could complete the fragment of the veil.

Looking at the surroundings, with no enemies in sight it seemed like there was a different reason for us to be here.

Is Aoif going to train us or something. The thought of that made me frown, my brain going through scenario after scenario of why she would want to train us. The frown that she had on her face this morning led to the thought that maybe she just wanted to take her frustrations out on us but no that wouldn't make sense. If she wanted to take her frustrations out on us then why not do that to the veiled guards.

Soon after that thought left me another soon filled in, what if s-

My thoughts were interrupted by Aoif throwing an ice shard into the ground before me.

"Pick it up" With those words Aoif remained silent again waiting for me to follow her instructions.

I looked at the ground where what I had thought to be an ice fragment from what I had felt was but was instead greeted to the sight of an some roughly shaped weapon, I couldn't quite make out what it was supposed to be from just the sight of it but once I picked it up I instinctively knew what it was.

In my hand I was holding a saber. A shoddy one that might as well have been carved out of ice with how rough it was. Wait, it actually was carved out of ice. Looking closer I could see patches where a knife had been run down it, sharpening the tip.

I tried flexing it and surprisingly enough the blade of the saber was flexible but sharp, good that meant that it would not break too easily. I poked myself with the edge and despite my natural defenses it cut through my flesh like it was nothing more than dirt.

"Nothing for me?" Naomi pouted out in a cute manner.

"You already have a sword and shield, that's all you need." Aoif answered a sharp glare being pointed to her.

"B- But it's too dull to use." Naomi was thoroughly chastised the youthful energy that she had brought to the conversation cut through like a knife through paper.

"Then you'll be learning something useful, I can't have my helpers be so inept"

With that said purple energy flew out of Aoif's hand and coalesced into the dagger she was holding.

"Imitate"

That was all she said before Aoif charged at Naomi and I. Instinctually I brought the saber I held up but that did nothing as soon after I could feel something cold on my neck.

Looking down I could see Aoif crouched with her dagger poised to cut my neck.

I backed off and tried to imitate what Aoif had done while she was busy attacking the shield of Naomi.

I didn't have much time as I could see Naomi's hand, the one holding the shield started to give out. Quickly I focused my tail wagging behind me as I brought my aether out of my body and into the saber that I held in my hand.

It was then that I could feel it, the saber that I was holding felt heavier, like its weight had suddenly tripled.

"Good" A smile graced Aoif's face as she saw what I had done, "Now apply it to your body."

With that said she charged at me. Frantically I applied aether the way I had to the saber onto my body.

"GAHHH"

Something had gone horribly wrong, the leg that I had been trying to reinforce was broken. The bone being visible. It was not only that but the bone was broken into countless shards each poking out of different places.

All I could feel was pain, the broken leg felt like I had been punched in the face, cut, then had acid poured on it all over. That wasn't the worst part, the worst was that I could see the bone, the meal that I had just eaten threatening to come out as I tried to look anywhere but my leg.

I wasn't squeamish like other people, I could handle seeing my own blood but the combination of seeing my bone sticking out of my leg and the pain that threatened to kill me was overwhelming.

I twisted my neck to the side and out came my breakfast and probably last night's dinner.

It was then that I heard a shout.

"Gabriel!" With no regard for anything else Naomi rushed over to my leg and started to apply her own aether frantically.

A white glow enveloped my leg as the pain slowly faded away, the bones going back to the places that they were supposed to be. However the pain was still there except instead of feeling like I would die it felt like I was being constantly cut, it was better but it was still terrible.

"What did you do?" There was a pleading look on Naomi's face that I just could not lie to.

"I…"