The Ascension Age

Aire didn't know how long he had been out, but the deep pain in his head told him that some time had already passed. Unsurprisingly, he was right. He was hit by a Stellar Paths Stage Riser. Even if his body and talent had superbly increased, he was still just an ant in front of that girl.

Aire then struggled to open his eyes as the headache continued. He touched his head just to find out that it was wrapped in bandages. 'Sure enough, I hit my head quite hard.'

Eventually, he managed to endure the pain and opened his eyes. He was still in the clinic, but it was not full of students anymore. It turned out that three days had gone by, so the majority had already been treated and sent their own ways. Of course, there was quite a bit more movement than usual due to the Light Event, but it wasn't anything hard to handle.

It was then that Aire noticed someone sleeping on the side of his bed on a chair, which made him feel a chill on his back as he thought, 'Wh-What is she doing here?!'

As one could expect, that was none other than the girl who sent Aire flying the other day. Aire couldn't understand why she was beside him, let alone sleeping there.

'Could it be that she wants revenge but decided to wait for me to wake up first?'

Another thing that Aire found weird was that Stella wasn't saying anything at the moment. He couldn't even feel her presence anymore.

'Was everything from before just a dream?'

Naturally, he decided to play things safe. He slowly got up from the bed, trying to not make any sound. His idea was to disappear from the clinic before the girl woke up as he thought to himself, 'I'm going back home! I don't care anymore. If the government wants to punish me because I gave up, then so be it!'

Aire then opened the curtain around his bed again. Unfortunately, Aire lacked one more thing other than motivation to succeed. Luck! At the very moment he opened the curtain, he saw a doctor who came to check on his current condition stop right in front of him.

"Oh! You finally woke up. Boy, you really gave me a scare back then."

The doctor then looked at the girl sleeping and called out, "Hey, Altina! Wake up, your friend just woke up."

Aire felt like crying. Friend? The only memory he had about this girl was the kick she used to almost kill him... and the smell of a certain 'special place' on her body. Hey, Aire's a man too, you know? Don't judge him.

The girl then rubbed her eyes before looking at Aire. It was easy to see the bandage with a red spot due to his injury. After that, she remembered what happened and shot out of her chair in a flash.

"Ah! You're finally awake!"

Aire let out cold sweat as he remembered the girl's strength.

"Ahem... Before you say anything, know that it was all an accident. Also, I'm a poor guy from a small town, so I don't have much to give as compensation. I did my best to leave your side without waking you up, but you were just too strong, which ended up with me and you in that situation."

Altina couldn't help but feel embarrassed after hearing his words. It was obvious that he was talking about what happened three days ago. However, contrary to his expectation, Altina didn't seem angry, just flustered.

"Ju-just don't talk about that anymore, okay? I'm not here to take revenge or anything. Instead, I wanted to apologize for hitting you."

Aire was truly surprised this time. Which woman would apologize to a man who put his head between her legs while she slept? This thought made him ask her, "Errr...could it be that you liked it?"

The doctor and the girl froze for a moment. In an instant, the flustered expression on Altina's face changed into anger.

"What did you say?"

Aire quickly raised his hand, trying to explain himself.

"Wait, wait, wait! That's not what I meant. Trust me, I'm not a pervert or anything like that. It's just that I found it too hard to believe when you said that you wanted to apologize. Doesn't matter how one sees it. The one at fault was me, not you. Even though it was an accident, I should have considered that such a thing could happen."

After that, Altina's angry expression had relaxed a bit. At the very least, Aire's words made sense.

"Hmph! You better mean that." At the same time, the doctor was laughing out loud on the side, which annoyed Altina even more. "Doctor Zule, can you stop already?"

Zule did his best to hold it back since Altina began to reveal the reason for her apology.

"You see... all the clinic's rooms are filled with cameras, which records everyone all the time. I indeed felt like killing you after the kick I gave. However, the nurses held me back. Well, many things happened, and I got the record, which I planned to use against you... just to find out that it wasn't your fault."

Zule tried to control himself and continued in Altina's place.

"You know? Altina has a few sleeping issues. Simply put, she was the one who entangled herself with you. I'm surprised you could even breathe in that situation. Hahaha!"

"Anyways, the record showed how you tried your best to leave Altina's grasp, which miserably failed when she pressed your head between her legs. Simply put, she didn't want to let you go while she was half sleeping. That's how much she loves your... embrace."

Altina went bright red again as she shouted, "Zule, do you wanna die?!"

Zule laughed even more and quickly ran out of the room. As one could see, Zule and Altina obviously knew each other quite well for him to treat her like that.

Well, Aire was still a little lost in the middle of all of that.

"Well...it's a good thing that my integrity was confirmed through the cameras. In any case, sorry for what I made you pass. As a girl, I understand that the event was a lot more traumatizing for you than for me."

Altina looked away, trying to not think about what happened anymore. She then replied, "That's fine. The fact that it was my fault doesn't change. That's because I always slept with my plushies, so I got used to embracing them while sleeping. So, I'm also sorry."

Aire and Altina smiled at each other after that before Aire changed the topic.

"Ahem...leaving that love comedy scene behind, why did you pass out? From what doctor...errr...Zule, right? Anyway, from what he said, it seems like you also were brought here unconscious."

Altina nodded as she replied, "I was. The problem was that I already finished opening all my meridians. That means I'm at the peak of the Stellar Body Level with all stages completed. When the Roaming Stellar Light arrived, I was trying to break through into the Stellar Manipulation Level. Do you know about the Roaming Stellar Light?"

Aire nodded in affirmation. How could he not know? Stella was the Roaming Stellar Light herself, and she was living inside his body. Nevertheless, he waited for Altina to finish talking.

"It's good that you know. The Roaming Stellar Light was known for having an enormous amount of Stellar Energy inside itself. That was all that was known anyway. From now on, I'll tell you what has been shared with the public through the media."

Aire's interest was piqued. He still had no idea what happened after Stella's appearance.

"According to the report of the Stellar Scientists of the Baulmu Alliance, the Roaming Stellar Light exploded when it touched Earth. However, instead of causing damage, the whole energy disappeared after engulfing the planet for a few seconds. The scientists already tried to find where it went by using the same method as before, but they couldn't anymore."

Aire sighed after hearing that. Of course, they couldn't find it after that. Stella's power was mostly sealed, after all. There's no way they can use the Fourth Dimension to find her location anymore.

Altina continued with her explanation, "In any case, those few seconds after the explosion made all the Stellar Energy go chaotic in our planet. That deeply affected my breakthrough. I lost control of the energy, and it greatly affected my mind. I'm still feeling some headache because of that. That's why I passed out."

Altina then looked at Aire before asking, "What about you? Why did you lose your consciousness?"

"Oh! That's because the Roaming Stellar Light has sentience. It entered my body and improved it so that I could hold its presence like a vessel. It was that improvement that made me lose consciousness. I tried to get rid of her, but it seems like our lives are connected now. If she leaves, both of us die. By the way, I gave her a name. It's Stella. It's a good name, right? She said she was sent by Gigol to help me with the Ascension Age."

"..."

'AS IF I COULD SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT!'

Obviously, those words only played inside Aire's mind. He would never say that aloud. After all, he didn't wish to become a lab rat anytime soon.

"Ahem...I'm not too sure either. I think it's probably because of the chaotic Stellar Energy as well. Perhaps I'm a little more sensitive to it."

Altina nodded, not doubting it. With the number of people who went through the same situation, no one would doubt either.

"Alright, Aire. Now that I've confirmed you are okay, I need to take my leave. By the way, the entrance ceremony will start in a few hours, so you should quickly head back to your room and change."

Aire was taken aback as he heard that. That's right! He arrived at the school three days prior to the ceremony. Naturally, it was about time!

'It seems like everything had ended well. Fortunately, I didn't catch much attention,' he thought to himself.

Little did Aire know, but he was already a hot topic of this entire gigantic school!