Guilty Crown: ROB's Wheel c74

“This is going long enough! This is the fourth time they have attacked us in two days! They made GHQ a laughing stock!”

“Thankfully, the news of us losing so many resources has not reached the United Nations yet.” 

The commanders of GHQ have been discussing recent failures in trying to apprehend the pair of aliens.

“I do not care what you all do. All I need is that girl.” A grey-haired man in a lab coat showed them the third person in the group and the one who had been taken from his lab.

“She is imperative to harnessing and controlling the virus. Not only is she immune to its effects, but she can control it at will. If we want to get over the hurdle of Apolocalyse Virus, I need her in my lab as soon as possible.”

He said with an authoritative voice.

Not that what he said is true, his… personal plans are far different… not that anyone needs to know; all these fools need to know that they are ‘helping’ in curing and controlling the virus.

“Understood, Dr Keido.” 

As the officers from the United Nations were discussing, the grey-haired scientist looked at the pictures of a white armoured individual with wings and absurd speeds. 

He controls lightning like it's second nature. Just looking at this, he could see countless applications for harnessing such power and using it as a resource.

Not that he cared that much beyond basic curiosity. He spent too much time trying to harness and control the virus.

The reason for his unnatural obsession is that he figured out how to control the virus; to some degree, the virus is conscious. It became like this after Mana Ouma got infected with it.

After her self-destruction, he tried to recreate her. What he ended up with was the girl on the screen. It's just a shell, but after a specific experiment with sounds, he could allow Mana to awaken in a shell he had prepared.

‘The issue is that these fools are in my way. I suppose I need to use that thing…’

‘The Power of Kings…’

~~~~~~Meanwhile~~~~~~

Alex and the two girls were walking back after spending several hours practising their powers. Inori and Julis noticed that the Vanishing Dragon’s Host had become quite twitchy to outside stimuli. 

From simple noise to wind, he would stiffen and then relax. Julis, who was already used to the changes in her boyfriend, quickly relaxed.

But not Inori, who was new to all of this. Seeing how the girl was reacting, Julis decided to make her pay attention somewhere else.

“Hey, Inori, why don’t we go shopping? You need clothes of your own. I can help you with all of that.” The pinkette poked her head and got between Alex and Inori.

“...Hnnn…”

“You should go after we eat dinner. I need some stuff to do anyway so you can have the rest of the day for yourself.”

He said to poker-faced Inori, who slowly nodded at him.

“Since it’s Alex’s request, I will do it.”

Julis pouted when she heard that!

“...I was the one who rescued you from that thing…” the pink Princess mumbled under her breath. This is getting out of hand! Why is she so attached to him? Shouldn’t it be her!?

‘Oh, of course! That lizard! Damn, that fake Heavenly Dragon!’

There is no way Julis will acknowledge Albion’s might, not after the initial meeting when she saw him the size of a cat.

“...Hnnn…”

Inori heard the complaint, and all she thought about it was her poker face reply. 

Alex chuckled after seeing the interaction between them.

After walking a bit, the pair passed the deserted checkpoint and walked to their flat. They realised that there were fewer GHQ soldiers in the area; before this, they used to see some of them.

But now they are nowhere to be seen. It's VERY doubtful that they left the country; what is most likely and most likely is that they are regrouping and fortifying their positions.

Or that they are leaving this area alone, as this is where Alex attacked them twice.

As they returned to their flat, the pair went to cook their dinner while Inori watched TV.

~~~~~~After Dinner~~~~~~

With Julis and Inori away at the supermarket, Alex summoned the manual and was ready to practise, but at that moment, his phone started to ring.

It's not his lottery phone but the one he got from Gai.

“For love of…” The teen White Dragon Emperor swore under his breath he wanted to read the manual already!

“Yes.” After pressing and pushing the green icon, he answered the phone.

[It's me. I need your help with something. At midnight, antibodies will be transporting precious cargo from one of their research facilities. I want you to attack it.] Gai spoke with a serious, no-nonsense voice.

Alex's eyebrow perked up when he heard that.

‘Wait a second.’

‘Yes, I think it's the Power of the Kings, too.’

Albion confirmed that he had the same hunch.

[We need to make sure that thing never ends up in the hands of certain someone.]

“Why are they transporting it in the first place? Can’t they just travel to the research facility on their own, in secret?” Alex asked. The last time he checked, the genome was stolen from a research facility, not a convoy.

[That’s because of you. There will be a bunch of decoys as well. We will hit them all at once.]

“So you saying they are so afraid that they can’t leave their hiding holes?” The Host of Vanishing Dragon scoffed at this.

[Precisely, they are looking for a weapon to even out the playing field.]

‘The Power of the Kings, well, I do wonder what kind of boost it could give.’

Alex thought to himself, with how strong he is now, how much of a boost he would get on top of that?

Honestly, he is itching to figure it out.

“Sure, I will help.”

[Good, I will contact you later, when it's time.]

After saying that, he hung up. Alex placed the phone on the table and went to read his new manual.

‘Finally, some peace and quiet.’

A relieved sigh escaped from his lips as he opened the book and started to read.

…

…

…

‘To start accessing Chi, one needs to perform something called Chi Breathing, which has 18 stages of breathing. The higher the stage, the more organs and meridians open to Chi.’

Alex read through the opening segments of the book.

‘Sounds like a legit cultivation stuff.’

He commented to his dragon partner.

‘Shhh, continue, this is fascinating.’ The dragon was very interested in this as Ki or Chi is closest to what kind of power is being used by real dragons.

‘First is breathing from mouth to the gut, the opening breathing or what is called ‘Losing Self’ state.’

‘In this state, one can begin accessing his Chi and accumulate it.’

After basic instructions, there was an elegant drawing of a guy sitting in a lotus position and meditating.

There is a chant about performing the whole thing and triggering the Chi Breathing.

Alex moved from his comfortable couch, sat down on the floor, and copied the way the picture showed.

Once in position, he proceeded with the mantra.

A mantra needs to be said according to how one takes in air. It's similar to powering the breath; the powered breath starts impacting the organs.

But since Alex was not a simple human being but a hybrid of a human and dragon, his breathing was literally electrified. 

He only needed a couple of tries to make him trigger Chi Breathing, as before he knew it, a warm energy started to blow into his gut and start gathering there.

It was a different feeling from his usual energy use. His thunder, which is a mix of energies, gives a different vibe to this Chi.

This Chi was life itself. While what he used before was lightning-based mana, which he forcefully pulled with his Electrokinesis and mind, he added dragon energy on top of that. However, dragon energy comes from blood, so there was always a ‘gap’ in his energies that he could have accessed, and that is Chi.

Chi is the weaponisation of life itself, something he has in abundance as a Dragon and human hybrid.

It didn’t take him much to swell with Chi, which meant he needed to use the next stage of breathing.

For that, he needed to go through pages and see how to ‘expand’.

As expected, the next stage started to touch vital organs. To reach them, he needed to follow blood flow and remove certain blocks.

Not that Alex had that kind of stuff, as upon acquiring Albion’s blood, his body was purified from whatever dirt one could have.

In a mere couple of minutes, he reached the second breathing stage, ‘Opening Chi’. His body was ready for this, and he didn’t need long to fill up with energy.

The third stage was ‘Revolving Chakra,’ as the name indicates, where Chi circulates through the whole body, or more accurately, a pathway is created. 

The Vanishing Dragon Host finished this in a flash and started gathering Chi quickly.

This was where he finally noticed that he couldn’t simply fly through the stage.

He needed to gather more energy.

“Well, you are having fun.” Julis, with several bags in her hands, looked at him with curiosity.

“I do. You should practise this at some point, too.” He said with an assured look. He was certain that this stuff would make one powerful from the very foundations.

“Maybe after getting the hang on the grimoire making.” She sighed. The amount of stuff she wants to learn is growing by the day.

“Do that.” He nodded before looking at what they got.

“Besides that, look at this!” Julis changed the theme of the conversation, grabbed Inori, and pulled her over.

“Look at her! Just the cutest little thing!”

Julis happily said as she showed him a fellow pinkette in a pink dress. 

“Not bad, but isn’t it too cold for a dress like that?” He asked her.

“Don’t worry. I doubt she gets cold that easily.” Julis replied while looking at Inori, who didn’t look bothered by naked shoulders.

“...Hnnn, it’s okay.” The fellow pinkette reassured him.

“If that is the case, then it’s fine.” He slowly stood up. The way he moved, he felt that he had springs for bones. The teen needed to reel back the amount of movement he was doing.

“Are you okay?” Julis looked at him weirdly. She saw him almost lose control over his body!

“Yeah… I think…” He replied while looking around. This was far too weird!

The Vanishing Dragon’s Host clenched his fist, feeling a surge of energy rising from his gut like waves that erupted and spread through his body.

There was a small white glow around him like a flaming wave surged from his gut through his body to the outside, but Alex could feel resistance in parts of his body, making him realise what the breathing technique does. It ‘refines’ his body and makes it more adaptable to his Chi.

The higher the ‘cultivation’ of his breathing method, the better the flow of Chi.

“...What…”  His Pink Princess looked at him from different angles, and she could see the white aura and crackles of lightning around him.

“We've only been gone for less than two hours. How quickly did you improve yourself?” Julis asked with a cute pout. She doesn’t like the fact that the power gap between them is increasing like this!

“Well, this whole thing depends on my body’s lifeforce. Since I have the blood of a dragon and I am a level 2, it makes my ‘cultivation’ that much faster.” He explained to her as he enjoyed this new feeling of ‘inner power’. Now that he has Chi, he can tell that the magic and the energy he used to use in his mind can be considered external as they don’t beef him up like Chi does.