The Demon Queen's Royal Consort

Sitting on the central platform, one meter high, I was sweating profusely. My skin was pale, and the sound of my teeth grinding echoed louder than the flowing water of the lake.

"Concentrate!" shouted Lesley.

The sound of her voice prevented me from interrupting the flow of prana and mana that raced frantically through my energy pathways.

I had been there for over two hours, and the first of the ten pillars had not lit up beyond seventy centimeters of its three meters.

Let me explain properly what was happening. Inside the mage training room, this was a specific area for controlling the internal energy that circulates through the energy pathways.

As soon as I sat on the central pillar, Lesley ordered me to circulate my energy, as in the earlier training. The moment my prana and mana began to flow like a waterfall, the central pillar shone intensely in red and blue.

"When the pillar you're sitting on glows... In the case of demons, it should only glow red, because of the prana. But your case is special. This indicates that your energy is leaking," explained Lesley.

"Energy leaking means little control over the fine processes of body reinforcement. This place will refine precisely that."

"Here, you will realize how efficient your control is. The first step is to circulate energy without it leaking out of your body."

"But Lesley?" I asked. "Having thick energy pathways shouldn't prevent that? Shouldn't that be a problem for mages?"

"You're right. Although your energy pathways can perform both functions, the problem of energy leaking isn't in the pathways, but in your blood, muscles, bones, and skin," she explained calmly.

"Now tell me, are you deliberately expelling energy out of your body?"

"No!" I answered sincerely. All I was doing was accelerating the flow within my energy pathways.

"Well, open the pores of your pathways, as a mage would."

Following her advice, with some difficulty, I opened the pores of my energy pathways. Instantly, the pillar I was sitting on shone dozens of times brighter, painting the entire room red and blue, from one end to the other.

"You can stop!" ordered Lesley.

I closed the pores of my energy pathways, returning to what I was practicing before.

"This is the result that would occur with a mage. This place is important for both classes. Even if you don't realize it, every time your energy feeds your blood, bones, muscles, and skin, these parts haven't yet learned to retain the energy."

"So, it's my body that's leaking energy, not my pathways?"

"Exactly. You need to learn to control the energy within these parts. The most important thing for a warrior is body awareness. Awareness of how the speed of internal energy flow affects you completely."

"You mean my flow is too fast for what my body can retain? That's why it's leaking?"

"Yes. When we are inert, without physical effort, our internal energy moves slowly. But when we accelerate the flow, our physical capabilities expand."

"The faster the flow, the stronger the energy user?" I asked curiously.

"In theory, yes. In practice, it's more complex," she replied, sitting on the grass beside the platform.

"You can't just supercharge your internal energy if your body can't retain and use it as reinforcement. You'll just be wasting your reserves."

"I see. If my body can only use ten, it's no use generating fifty," I argued.

"Something like that," she replied, shrugging.

"And how do we adapt our body to use the full potential of our internal energy?"

"Lots of training and constant evolution."

"Of course," I agreed.

"But this is just the beginning. Your first duty on this platform is to harmonize your internal energy flow with your body. When the platform goes out, you've found the balance."

"The first duty?"

"Yes. When that happens, the first three pillars will activate. They will subject your body to different stressful sensations, starting with the blood."

"I don't understand."

"Your training won't just be about control and harmony, but also about how to use energy for body reinforcement. The first three levels are linked to blood. But enough talk. Focus on stabilizing your energy flow."

**

Two hours passed.

It took a whole hour just to find the flow speed that harmonized with my body. I was terrible at internal control.

The first thirty minutes were failure after failure.

"What if I synchronize the flow with my breathing?" I thought, eyes closed, observing my energy pathways.

Nothing.

'Damn it! Lesley said she just commands her energy! Why doesn't it work for me?'

I had already tried everything: synchronizing with my heartbeat, vocal commands like "Go, web!", "It's showtime!", "Glenn, smash!", "Up, up, and away!", "On the brightest day, in the darkest night, evil...", you get the idea.

Then an idea came to mind. Or rather, a trauma. A memory so intense that my body destabilized just by recalling it. My breathing faltered, my heart raced.

The image of a goddess with white hair, sitting on a polished jade throne, with a look of absolute disdain saying; "1%."

A shiver ran through my body. But before I could get lost in fear, an idea emerged.

"What if I could imprint that sensation? What if it were me sitting on that throne, exuding authority, despising everything and everyone, with enough power that, with two words, everyone would fall dead at my feet?

I took a deep breath and released all that sensation, all that trauma and anguish, directing them into my energy.

"10%."

My energy pathways trembled. But prana and mana finally obeyed.

The platform still glowed, but I knew.

"That's it, damn it!" I celebrated internally.

Obediently and submissively, prana and mana had finally behaved.

The pillar beneath me still glowed faintly, indicating that some energy continued to leak from my body.

'It's not perfect, but it's a start. Maybe there's a margin of error of about ten percent...' I analyzed the current flow compared to the previous uncontrolled flow.

'It may not be ideal, but it has potential. If I can exert control over my internal energy using numbers, I'll have a bright future ahead.'

It didn't even take a minute to harmonize my internal energy flow with my body.

Before I could celebrate, golden runes glowed on the first pillar, and suddenly, I felt my blood boil, as if a fireball had been poured into my veins.

"30%!" I ordered, disoriented.

The first pillar extinguished its light and took on a completely black color, indicating that I was still far from achieving the correct harmony between the internal energy flow and what was needed to calm the reactions in my blood.

"55%!"

The pillar radiated a faint yellowish light. I continued the intricate game of trial and error.

**

Unlike the physical training in the morning, the energy control training engrossed me so much that I didn't even notice time passing. And much time had passed.

Suddenly, a tingling sensation rose through my legs, and my vision blurred. A high-pitched ringing invaded my ears, and my heart raced uncontrollably. Before I could react, my muscles contracted violently, and my body began to convulse uncontrollably.

I felt my jaw clench tightly, the taste of blood filling my mouth, and a sharp pain coursing through every fiber of my being.

It was as if I were trapped inside myself, unable to move or scream, while the world around me disappeared into a confusing void.

Gradually, the convulsions subsided, but the fatigue and pain remained. My vision returned, though blurry, and I could hear a distant voice.

I was confused, not quite remembering what had happened, and my body still trembled, weak and exhausted. The feeling was of having gone through an intense battle, and all I could do was take deep breaths, trying to recover as reality slowly returned to normal.

My vision finally stabilized, and I saw Lesley kneeling beside me, holding my head in her lap while pouring a hot liquid into my mouth.

"You suffered a shock from draining all the innate energy from your body," she explained softly.

There was no emotion on her face or in her words, but I felt good being treated like a person, at least once on that damn day.

I nodded, confirming, while waiting for the liquid to take effect.