The Ascension Age

Kymei Zafri. Aire knew him from back then at primary school. They had gone through classes together for an entire academic year. However, they weren't exactly friends or anything like that. They barely ever talked with each other during that time. Not that they hated each other, of course. They just didn't have that many things in common.

Kymei was the polar opposite of Aire. He was good at sports, which made him quite popular back then. He wasn't too bad at studies either. As for Aire, well...he was just your average student. Not good or bad at either of them, just normal. Of course, there was also the fact that Aire never tried to put effort into anything due to how lazy he was.

Aire and Kymei were then sent to different classes in the next year, so they stopped interacting with each other completely after that. Aire heard a thing or two about Kymei gaining a few titles in his junior years in sports. Then again, they were local competitions in their own city, so it wasn't anything that impressive either.

Eventually, Kymei received a scholarship, which required him to move to another city. That was the last thing Aire ever heard about Kymei. In a certain way, it was quite surprising that they even remembered each other. However, there was a reason for it, and it was linked to the 'something in Aire' that Stella mentioned some time ago.

"It seems like you really kept my secret, huh?"

Kymei scratched the back of his head, somewhat embarrassed as he replied, "That's obvious, no? If not for you, I would be done for. It was thanks to you that I even had the chance of getting that Future Riser's scholarship." Kymei then looked at Aire before asking, "Do you still have that power?"

Aire nodded in response as he raised his hand. There, a white light began to accumulate little by little. A few seconds later, Aire stopped doing that as he gasped for air as he muttered, "Shit, it's still hard as hell."

This was a secret that only he and Kymei knew about. Not even Aire's parents or sister ever heard about it.

Kymei then laughed after seeing Aire's condition. "Hahaha! Well, that ability of yours really saved all my efforts." Kymei's expression then turned serious before asking, "By the way, have you gone after an explanation for it?"

"No. I told you before, I just want a calm life. If I went out and showed this skill, many things could have happened. Perhaps, I would have even become a lab rat."

Kymei nodded, not finding it strange.

To understand the peculiarity of Aire's ability, we need to talk about Stellar Energy itself. Stellar Energy wasn't invisible. It's just that it's so spread in the surroundings that one couldn't see it with the naked eye.

However, for Stellar Risers at the Stellar Manipulation Level and above, they could gather Stellar Energy independently. The name of the level already said it. They could manipulate Stellar Energy. When that happens, the Stellar Energy that they gather around them was silver in color. The higher the level of the Riser, the more Stellar Energy they could manipulate, and the easier it became to see that silver color.

That was the point here. Aire's ability was definitely related to Stellar Energy. However, his energy was colored white! Not only that, Aire found out through his own tests that it had a ridiculously high healing capability. After researching on the internet about it, he soon found out that such an ability didn't exist. Not that Stellar Energy couldn't be used to heal that. In fact, many medical devices used Stellar Energy nowadays, which gave several times better results than old electrical machines.

Nevertheless, he didn't find anything about Stellar Risers using Stellar Energy to directly heal others. Well, information about high-level Risers was confidential, so perhaps they could do it at higher levels. Of course, Aire didn't want to risk it. After understanding that, Aire completely stopped using his healing ability. Aire already thought that the reason Stella chose him was most likely because of it as well.

"That's not bad either. However, you're now in the Ascension Age School. You can just practice some Stellar Energy skills and pretend you came up with this idea. Isn't that perfect?"

Aire sighed after hearing that. The reason Kymei even knew about it was because of an incident. Kymei had seriously injured his leg one time. To make things worse, it happened right before a decisive match. Kymei would eventually recover from it. Health care at this age had really advanced a lot that even a serious injury like that could be completely healed in just a few days...which Kymei didn't have at the time.

Don't misunderstand, though. Aire didn't try to help him because he felt pity for the guy or anything like that. It was basically a mutual agreement. Aire's family was at risk of losing their small shop because of a financial crisis. Aire might be lazy, but he wouldn't simply ignore his family. That being said, he found out about Kymei's problem and invited him for a private conversation.

Kymei's family wasn't rich, though they could be considered well off. That match where Kymei would take part was his chance to enter a better school dedicated to future Stellar Risers. It was something that only powerful people could buy their entrance into. If not that, one could only hope for a scholarship, which didn't come by easily. How could Kymei wait for a few days to recover? Unfortunately, no medicine or equipment would help him in that situation.

The deal was very straightforward. The first condition was that Kymei would never tell anyone about Aire's ability. Even if he did, Aire would deny it to the very end. Second, he had to transfer a certain quantity of money to his family's account after Aire healed him. It had to be anonymous. As for what reason would be given to the bank for the anonymous 'donation,' that was up to Kymei's family to decide.

Kymei immediately agreed and had his father and mother transfer the money. Just like Kymei, his parents were desperate for a solution to the point they didn't even ask how it would work. Besides, it might be a lot of money to Aire's family, but it wasn't that much for Kymei's. That being said, they thought it was worth a try even if they lost it.

Sure enough, Kymei met Aire in a hidden place in school. His parents tried to find out who would heal him, but Kymei was successful in deceiving them. He couldn't risk scaring Aire away just because his parents came together. Not to mention that he didn't think Aire was a bad person to start with.

In the end, Kymei came back to his home with his leg completely healed, much to his parents' delight. Once his parents asked who healed him to thank the person, Kymei didn't say a single word. He wasn't well acquainted with Aire, but he wouldn't break their deal. After all, he really got that scholarship because of that, which led him to get the necessary abilities to be accepted in the Ascencion Age School two years later.

Last but not least, there was Aire's ability itself. Suppose he tell others about Aire's power. The problem wasn't whether others would believe it or not, but that Aire would probably never use it on him again in case he needed it. For Kymei, that was an advantage that he simply didn't want to lose.

Now, these two acquaintances met up again as if fate was playing with them.