Hit Count for "The Path of the Aura: Intertwining Crossroads": 6,232

Hit Count for "The Path of the Aura II: Brothers in Arms": 315

Total Hit Count: 6,547

Hello! Here I am again this month, just like I had you all anticipate if you've kept track of me through my profile page.

I don't have too much in particular to say before this chapter, so I'll just keep them brief.

The whole battery and ac adapter issue with my laptop has been resolved, meaning that I don't have to limit myself with the use of another computer to make progress throughout my "The Path of the Aura" series. And hopefully, issues like that won't happen again.

I've already beaten Pokémon X! It only took me sixteen days to do so (rather long compared to those that beat it in a day or two), since I got the game at launch. The Champion's Mega Gardevoir wasn't particularly challenging. It did knock out two of my Pokémon, but it succumbed to Mega Lucario's Metal Claw attack in the end. And what Pokémon did I use to beat the game with? I used Aegislash, Charizard, Goodra, Greninja, Lucario, and Xerneas, their levels ranging from Lv.69 (hur hur...) to Lv.71.

The ending itself to Pokémon X (and Y) is, without spoiling it, distinct from the Pokémon norm. And I'll just leave it there.

What I've done already after beating the game is I've captured both Mewtwo and Zygarde. And right now, I'm just going through some of the post-game content, mostly the Battle Maison, though there are other things as well, such as the looker Bureau, Friend Safari, and that whole Mega Stone quest that occurs from 8PM-9PM each day.

...Anyway, that's all that I have to say about that.

For this chapter, even though it's one of my shorter chapters (by my standards anyway), it's rather packed with use of songs, especially when compared to some of my longer chapters. The reason for that is because I felt them most appropriate here, and would most likely not find a use for them later on.

And in terms of what's in store for this chapter, to keep it brief, it's the part two of the training session that I've conjured for the quartet of Eduardo, Xeno Lucario, Costas, and Ian.

As for what I have beyond that...well, you'll just have to read on first.


Chapter XXIV (24): Group Training Session (Part II (2))

Location: ?

Date: ?

Time: ?

"Xeno and its new friends are getting stronger by the day as they train alongside it."

"Yes they are, particular those two brothers Costas and Ian. By the viewpoints of the humans that hail in the Pokémon Earth, they're practically Aura Guardians now. I knew that they showed promising signs of growing potential, but I'm actually quite astounded at how drastic the awakening of their abilities has evolved them. They still pale in comparison to Eduardo and Xeno Lucario. Nevertheless, as I've stated before, no individual involved in our prevention of the Void of the Dark One can be overlooked, not even something that would be classified as a pawn in this elaborate and precarious game of chess."

"Do you think that the four of them will actually grow stronger on their own, and prove formidable enough to fulfill the prophecy?"

"On their own, they'll definitely grow as a team. However…"

"However…what?"

"The Dark One's 'Odraude' emissary… He's planning something substantial alongside the Roman human that calls himself Nero. They've assembled a team of soldiers, thirteen in number, with the intent of having them molded and trained through Odraude's malicious hands. They grow stronger by the day, on par with the party of four as they themselves grow stronger as well. Nonetheless, I fear that, at this rate of unsettling elevation in strength, the odds might go in the favor of the Dark One, and not for us."

"What will You do about it?"

"I have something in mind that I have to offer Eduardo and Xeno Lucario, something that could prove decisive and recalibrate our odds back in our favor."

"Really? Like what?"

"Patience, my little friend. I'll need some time to create it, to have it ready for them. And once I have it ready, you'll know."

"…Alright."

"And you will know, because when the time comes for Me to pass it on to them, I'll require you as the bridge to ensure My gift is bestowed upon them. In other words, what you've been patiently waiting for is coming soon, as I've promised you when we first met."

"…!"

"I know what this means for you, and I wouldn't want to have anybody else but you be this bridge."

"…It would be my pleasure to be your envoy, Original One."


32.1: A Remedy for the Cold

Location: The Himalayan Mountains

Date: January 17th, 60 A.D.

Time: 11:38 AM

Impressed with our rapidly growing progress on the aura-based technique that he had to offer us, Xeno Lucario saw it fitting to escalate our training.

Through my resources, the next location that he designated for the four of us to venture off to would be what time will eventually name as the Himalayan Mountains, the tallest mountain range in the world.

A day's flight via my dragon form and Mach 3 speed—alongside a food break between our departure and arrival—proved sufficient in reaching our location as fast as physically possible.

However, the bone-chilling cold and bellowing blizzards of the snow-cloaked Himalayas proved great to all four of us. To my brothers Costas and Ian—not particularly used to such weather—, the cold felt to them as though they were locked inside of a meat locker, causing them to embrace themselves and shiver heavily in order to stay warm. To both Xeno and I, it felt as though we had just taken a cold shower, slightly warmer than my brothers, but only significantly. The reason being our greater aura fields compared to the maturing aura fields of both of my brothers, both of which just recently have begun to sprout and have yet to blossom.

"Its-s s-s-s-so-o c-c-c-co-cold-d h-he-he-here-e…" Costas fought against his chattering teeth and stammering speech to speak meekly.

Ian could barely nod his head before Costas. "I-I k-k-know-w-w…"

I began to reach for my S1-GS device. "Do you b-both need a coat?" I suggested, contemplating getting one myself due to the harsh cold as well.

Just as I retrieved my S1-GS device, Xeno put his paw on it and looked at me in the eye.

"That won't be necessary," Xeno said, the cold stinging him but not influencing his physical being upon first glance, "especially with the aura technique that I have in mind to teach you three."

I stored my S1-GS device away once Xeno took his paw off of it. My brothers exhaled heavily and interruptedly into their hands, feeling the bitter cold quickly rob from them the ability to feel them.

"What I will teach you is how to use your aura in such a way as to help regulate your body temperature under extreme conditions, such as within a scorching desert, in the middle of an ocean, or—in our case—during a blizzard."

"W-w-w-we-well-l, w-wh-what a-are y-y-you-u w-w-w-wa-a-wait-t-ting f-f-or?" Ian struggled to speak through his settling hypothermia.

"T-t-teach-ch u-us-s a-al-al-ready-dy!" Costas feebly added.

The cold began to creep up on me as well, alongside my escalating concern for the wellbeing of my brothers. "You s-should do so a-already, before my b-brothers lose t-their fingers and t-toes to f-frostbite."

Xeno mentally assed the weight of the situation and understood the dangers involved if we fail.

"Be sure to retrieve a few Spelon Berries in case of any possible complications," Xeno told me.

I nod in response to him, and then listened for his words of wisdom.

Xeno wastes no time in explaining his next technique to us, because he had a vague time limit at the moment.

Unpreparedness is One's Greatest Foe/Final Fantasy Tactics A2 - The Sealed Grimoire Original Soundtrack/Hitoshi Sakimoto

(Song Begins)

"In order to brace this merciless cold with your aura, the actually process involved is relatively simple to perform and master. You must concentrate on your inner energy and intensify your entire aura field. In doing so, your aura fields will become visible and more prominent if done successfully. And once flaring, they will suffice enough for you as a repellant against the outside weather."

Thinking to myself, I agree to the mechanics involved in this technique, for I use them whenever I engage in high-speed flight. I apply this concept whenever I fly at Mach 3 through my reptilian opposite, resorting to the Aero Sphere Twister technique that my Light Green (Wind) Aura grants me. Only instead of using it to shield me from either the heat or the cold, I use it to shield me from the dragging wind and simultaneously slice clean through it. Otherwise, I would never reach such high speeds of flight, or potentially break apart if I ever did reach such speeds without formidable protection.

Costas and Ian nod in understanding of what must be done, and then they hold out their trembling hands to me.

"M-m-may w-w-we-we g-get-t X-x-xeno-no's-s p-p-piece-pieces-s o-of b-b-ba-battle a-arm-armor f-f-first?" Costas asked frigidly.

Instead of retrieving my S1-GS device, I actually choose not to, with a fitting reason why. "That's n-not a good i-idea. I w-wouldn't recommend-d it."

"W-w-w-wh-why n-n-not-t?" Ian stammered.

"Because at t-these temperatures, metal tends t-to stick o-onto anything f-fleshy or m-moist."

"It's better this way as well," Xeno added. "You're already able to manipulate your aura. And as of now, it would be better of you two to learn how to do so on your own, without any external aid or artificial amplification. You'll grow more disciplined in strengthening yourselves in the process."

Both of my brothers felt as though they should argue against this, but knew otherwise against the aura acumen that Xeno possessed and was willing to teach them. Besides, even if they wanted to argue about it, they would waste precious time stammering and only make it harder for themselves to concentrate. Also, under the supervision of both the Aura Pokémon and the Man of Bulwark, they wouldn't freeze to death, even if it felt as though they were already doing so under our direct supervision.

They nodded one last time to Xeno and breathed deeply and rapidly at first, attempting to shake off their shivering and stifle it long enough to concentrate.

I did so as well, once I saw my brothers practicing Xeno's words into their actions.

Once we hyperventilated for a few seconds, the shivering within us calmed enough for us to concentrate on amplifying our aura fields. For me, it only took me a few seconds for my aura to flare and become visible, where I quickly felt it block off the harsh cold and contain my natural body heat in ways that work better than clothing or blankets.

In about thirty seconds, the aura fields of my brothers became more prominent as well, quickly blocking out the cold for them, just as it did with me. The uncontrollable urge to shiver mollified at first, and then disappeared as their bodies regained their normal temperature, now fortified and bulwarked from the outside environment.

Once Costas and Ian felt as though they were resting in the sunlight shining down on a tropical beach, they took a moment to reflect on their respective aura fields, astonished at how their bodies illuminated brightly in the middle of this blizzard, and how pleasant it felt on every square inch on their bodies.

"Wow…" Costas admired this present phenomenon of his. "I feel invigorated underneath a layer of my own aura."

Xeno smiled slightly at their prolonged attention to their present states of body. "Where I come from, when the body of an individual begins to glow similarly to that, it's usually a sign of growing power, and it often leads to a decisive action."

"I can believe that," I said, knowing that it also applies to my Elemental Aura power on multiple occasions.

With my brothers and me no longer feeling the harshness of the weather here, Xeno scanned ahead of his surroundings, using his Aura Vision ability temporarily, in order to see past the snow cloak that the blizzard was causing. In doing so, he saw, not too far off from our present location, the tallest mountain within the Himalayas, one that proved valuable to his next technique to teach us.

"Follow me," Xeno told us. "I have the next location in mind where I'll teach you the next aura technique in my arsenal."

My brothers and I proceed directly and closely behind Xeno and continued to climb alongside the heights of the Himalayan Mountains. And as we progressed, I retrieved four compacted oxygen masks—with foam rubber surrounding the mouthpiece so as to prevent painful sticking of metal onto skin—from the inventory of my S1-GS device, knowing that they'll be vital for us as we continue to climb. I passed one on to each of my comrades, and we all strapped them onto our faces, the effects of the thinning environmental oxygen no longer a concern for us, just as the cold was minutes ago.

(Song Fades to an End)


32.2: Empyrean Climb

Location: Mt. Everest

Time: 2:21 PM

The hike over towards Mt. Everest proved to be nothing more than a cakewalk to the four of us, now that we were properly fortified against the two greatest physical threats of this area. The oxygen masks that I gave the four of us contained enough oxygen within their pressurized capsules to last each of us a few hours. And if they were to run out, I carried enough spares to last us each days. Also, the aura fields that we were generating and maintaining provided us with better insulation than a winter coat, and added the bonus of not having to cope with a larger bulk in the process.

Upon inevitably reaching the tallest mountain in the world, the four of us quickly realized that the only way to continue forward before Mt. Everest was to ascend its treacherous paths through a grueling climb.

Xeno, after staring at the mountains peak that resided a few miles overhead from our present position, felt it most appropriate to set down and show us the next card in his hand.

Crossing Over the Hill/Final Fantasy Tactics A2 - The Sealed Grimoire Original Soundtrack/Hitoshi Sakimoto

(Song Begins)

"Here is where I'll teach the three of you the next aura technique in my arsenal," Xeno said, facing the three of us and eyeing us each in the eyes. "This technique will allow you to be able to scale virtually any wall that crosses your path, by clinging onto the designated surface with your very aura."

My brothers and I listened attentively to his words of wisdom, and awaited his instructions, as we've already admirably done so before.

"In order to utilize and practice this technique, you must concentrate your aura on the select areas of your body that you intend to use to grasp the surface that you wish to climb." Xeno explained. "Basically, for the three of you, you must emanate aura on your hands and feet."

Xeno demonstrated by concentrating briefly on his aura and having it emanate strongly all around his left paw. And then, after walking a few feet towards the rocky wall of Mt. Everest, he placed the palm of his left paw on the wall's surface, keeping it there.

"And then, with enough concentration of your power through your mind, you must 'magnetize' your aura, allowing your hands and feet to cling onto the surface that you wish to clamber."

My brothers, sensing some danger in using this technique, decided to get those questions asked and have their anxiety suppressed.

"How strong is that 'aura cling' technique?" Ian inquired the Aura Pokémon, his speech only mildly muffled by the oxygen mask over his face.

Naturally, there'd be some fear of falling great heights when first utilizing this technique. And luckily for them, Xeno knew how to calm their trepidation.

"It's all in how much you choose to concentrate in using this technique," Xeno said.

Xeno attempted to pull his arm off of the wall, gently at first, but to no avail, demonstrating to us how firmly "magnetized" his aura is to that of the rock wall. Then, with a bit more force, his paw came off of the wall, but only briefly before he placed it back onto the wall's surface.

"You can choose to have your aura feel as though it is composed of Velcro and you won't fall as long as your mental focus and aura holds firm. In doing so, you can 'magnetize' yourself properly onto the climbing surface, requiring mild physical strength to remove yourself in order to continue escalating upward."

After finishing his sentence, the aura surrounding his left paw increased considerably. And then, with all of his might, he attempted to pull his arm away from the wall. In doing so, the aura of his paw clung hard enough to the wall to cause it to surrender to his astonishing physical strength. The end result was Xeno Lucario holding onto a large chunk of the wall with his left paw, a sheet of rock as large as himself…and just as heavy.

Xeno held onto it effortlessly.

All three of us grew wide-eyed, surprised at how Xeno could hold onto such a large slab of rock with relative ease, and even more so at how he was able to tear it off of the wall in the first place.

"(Your strength never ceases to astound me,)" I thought to myself.

"However, if you concentrate too much on this technique, the only way you'll remove yourself from whatever you're climbing on is to forcibly tear off a chunk of it with you."

With a casual swing of his arm, and through disengaging his aura at the last second, he casually tossed the chunk of rock he pulled off of the wall, away from us, and flying into the snow cloak of the blizzard, where it crashed into the ground after a few seconds of aerial hang time.

"And that's assuming your arm doesn't pop out of its socket first." Xeno concluded before gesturing us towards the rock wall.

(Song Ends)

With Xeno's explanation finished, the three of us did as we were ordered and calmly walked towards the rock wall of Mt. Everest, doing our best to disregard the imposing and gaping hole that Xeno left on it.

Beyond the Wasteland/Final Fantasy Tactics A2 - The Sealed Grimoire Original Soundtrack/Hitoshi Sakimoto

(Song Begins)

Putting Xeno's words into effect, the three of us concentrated on the aura surrounding our hands and amplified it, having our aura there become more pronounced, more so than the aura field that we have surrounding us and have kept active throughout our hike over here. Thankfully, for both of my brothers, maintaining their aura without any external aid proved relatively effortless now, and manipulating it at this very moment required nothing more than a mental order in their part.

With our hands now glowing bright against this unforgiving blizzard, the three of us placed both of our hands as high up on the wall as we were physically able to, and then concentrated on our auras to make it "stick" onto the wall, as Xeno instructed.

Naturally, because the three of us have never performed this technique before, it took the three of us a couple of minutes to properly calibrate the energy flow surrounding our hands, to get a comfortable feel with how much aura we each should be emanating. We each had to emanate the perfect amount of aura, enough to latch onto the wall and support our entire weight, but not firmly enough so that we could still remove our hands from the wall in order to climb unabatedly.

Once we gauged how much concentration of our aura was necessary before being wasteful or encumbering, our hands remained firmly in place onto the rocky wall, and then we bring up our feet in tandem, having them each emanate a greater amount of aura, to our exact specifications.

With Costas, Ian, and I now defying gravity and completely latched onto Mt. Everest by the strength of our focus on our aura, Xeno looked at the three of us, sensing our aura to make sure we were using suitable amounts, and nodded proudly at the success of our initial step.

"Alright, now make your way up to the summit." Xeno commanded us.

The three of us tilted our heads high and stared at the summit that resided a few miles overhead. And with confidence brimming as brightly as our aura, we each took one step forward in tandem.

Left hand…right leg…right arm…left leg… Repeat…repeat…repeat.

From Xeno's earthbound perspective, he tilted his head further and further up as he saw us continue to rise, foot by foot in height within each and every second. He continued to sense our aura, making sure that we were constant with our aura output and not fatigued with using our aura. He never disengaged his Aura Vision ability either because to the naked eye, at the height that we've achieved in such a short period of time, we would be perfectly cloaked under the blizzard blowing by us.

"This is pretty easy." Ian said through the circulating flow of his oxygen mask, seeing both Costas and I on equal levels as him.

"It's almost like crawling on the floor." Costas compared.

"It certainly is defying the laws of gravity, isn't it?" I responded, smiling underneath my oxygen mask. "It almost makes us want to flip off the ground, huh."

"Yeah," Ian responded in agreement.

"Though we shouldn't, or else we might fall," Costas added. "And you know how I am with falling."

Ian and I merely snickered and shook our heads when we recalled the countless head injuries that Costas endured during our childhood.

As we continued to climb hundreds of feet upward through snow-encrusted rock and thin layers of ice, Xeno followed closely behind the three of us. However, instead of climbing alongside the three of us, he used TELEKINESIS on himself and hovered upward at the same rate as the three of us were rising. Costas, Ian, and I looked at Xeno from the corners of our eyes, noticing his choice of action in mental levitation rather than physical elevation.

"Even though I'm sensing no struggles in your part, I'd rather follow behind you by hovering in the air rather than climbing alongside you. That way, for your safety, if any one of you or all three of you fall, I can instantly snatch you out of the air."

Knowing that Xeno was our safety net, we nodded in confirmation of his choice of actions, and continued climbing towards the summit. The four of us continued rising up Mt. Everest, covering ground quickly in a short amount of time.

As we progressed upward, even though none of us fell off of the cliff and had to have Xeno rescue us, we all knew and respected our own natural limits, as well as those of our companions. So whenever one of the three of us felt even the slightest of fatigue, we found a small ledge for the four of us to rest on for about ten minutes at a time before continuing upward. Thankfully, this was only done a few times, once in each of our parts.

And after a few hours of near-vertical climbing, all four of us successfully reached the summit of Mt. Everest.

(Song Fades to an End)

Unable to climb any higher than we already are, the four of us stood tall, four shining stars clustered together on the tallest point on Earth, staring down at the wide open world below, just as the blizzard receded.

Up here, the world below appeared small and broad. Up here, the entire Himalayan Mountain Range could be viewed, stretching across the horizon in every single direction. Up here, the four of us could admire its pallid beauty and frozen majesty, with our own eyes.

Companions/Naruto Shippuden Original Soundtrack/Toshiro Masuda

(Song Begins)

"Personally, I could view this section of the world by using my S3-OSS devices and having their gathered information viewed through my Different System," I explained. "But in seeing something like this in person, there's just a level of mysticism present that technology can never properly substitute."

All three of my friends were in total agreement of what I had just said, and Xeno had something in his mind to say in continuation of that.

"There are only a few Pokémon in the world that I reside from that view the world in this way on a daily basis."

"Can you name a few?" I requested, knowing that Costas, Ian, or I were still highly unfamiliar with the Pokémon race.

"Deoxys and Rayquaza, two Pokémon capable of high-altitude flight…" Xeno recalled. "As well as Arceus…though It probably stares down at the whole world from Its particular perch, observing its activity all the time."

"Their height over the world must reflect their status as Legendary Pokémon," Ian believed.

"Indeed."

"As does our own," Costas said, staring down at the mountains below, admiring the view.

"Though it depends on the path that the four of us choose," I added.

"The Path of the Aura…" Xeno concluded, "...leading us four to prevent the Void of the Dark One."

Once our time here was finished, I channeled the entirety of my Elemental Aura and transmogrified into a dragon once again. And after storing away the oxygen masks that I loaned them, I carried my three friends on me as my passengers, and flew away from here at Mach 3.

Unsurprisingly, the sonic boom that resulted from this caused a chain of avalanches in my wake as the four of us left the Himalayas, my passengers barely catching a glimpse of this as the world gave the illusion of revolving below our feet.

(Song Ends)


32.3: Tellurian Descent

Location: Grand Canyon

Date: January 18th, 60 A.D.

Time: 4:42 PM

For our next destination as to where the Aura Pokémon felt it most appropriate for us to learn what he has to offer to us, Xeno selected the Grand Canyon, where rivers that once existed millions of years ago within the area have carved mile deep channels into the earth that stretch for hundreds of miles across the landscape.

Upon our arrival there, much like before when the four of us were at the Himalayas, Xeno and the three of us walked over towards one of the many towering walls that the Grand Canyon possesses, where staring directly at the sky still doesn't shake off its towering presence over us. We stopped there and assumed our positions as teacher and students once more.

"So which technique within your repertoire did you have in mind to teach us this time?" Ian asked the Aura Pokémon.

Xeno faced the three of us, resuming his role to us as our trainer.

"I'll be teaching the three of you a technique that I've literally known all my life, ever since the day that I was born. It has been eternally reliable to me and has saved my life on more than one occasion. It's a technique that, just like the other techniques that I've taught you already, I'm confident in your capability of mastering it. Put simply, I'll be teaching you three how to use the eminent AURA SPHERE."

Both of my brothers and I grew wide-eyed upon hearing Xeno's next technique to pass on to us, and both of my brothers showed signs of mild excitement seeping forth from their bodies.

"Normally, as is the case with my particular breed of Pokémon, AURA SPHERE can't be learned until a Riolu has evolved into a Lucario. However, as the three of you already know, I'm not necessarily 'normal', especially not by my species' standards. I learned the technique within hours of my birth, utilizing it firstly on a formerly hostile Absol that I've now considered to be a good friend of mine."

After giving a brief history of how this technique has been used in his life, he moved on to what was more important about it.

"In order to master this technique, you must perfectly manipulate your respective aura energy into the center of your palm, concentrating the energy into a tightly-packed sphere."

As he was instructing us, Xeno outstretched his left arm before us and had the palm of his paw point upward. And then, with very little effort involved, a marble-sized orb of aura light began to emerge before Xeno's paw and hover just slightly overhead. With a bit more concentration in Xeno's part, the sphere slowly grew in size, deliberately slowly for training and explanatory purposes.

"Once you have enough energy concentrated…"

Xeno looked overhead at the cliff peak that loomed overhead and launched the AURA SPHERE at his target, thrusting his arm forward and firing the energy sphere in his paw, rather than throwing it as though he were pitching a baseball.

"You launch your attack and watch the fireworks that result!"

The four of us watch on as Xeno's AURA SPHERE flew straight and true towards the apex of the Grand Canyon cliff, where it only took a few seconds of airborne flight for it to perfectly strike the intended target. The immediate result before our eyes and ears was an audible explosion that mimicked that of a grenade in terms of both sound and potency, engraving an impact site on the cliff's peak, as well as causing a shower of rubble to rain down.

The three of us, upon seeing the rubble rain down, quickly took evasive maneuvers and stepped back hastily, leaving Xeno to brave the rubble. Xeno, not sensing any danger from the aftereffects of his own attack, simply stayed put. He endured the rubble downpour as it collided on his head and shoulders in the same way that a human being would endure descending raindrops. And once again, the three of us found ourselves staring in awe at his physical superiority.

Once the falling debris subsided, my brothers and I stepped back to our anterior posts before Xeno, just as the Aura Pokémon was calmly brushing off the rock dust from the fur of his shoulders and head.

"That's just one of the many advantages of being a Steel-Type Pokémon," Xeno digressed before eyeing my brothers. "Now it's your turn. Costas, Ian, show me just how capable you are in wielding aura for battle."

And then Xeno faced me and stared straight into my naked right eye.

"And even though I'm more than familiar with your abilities in aura, go ahead and make me proud. Demonstrate to me how worthy you are in learning the trademark technique of my race."

A Grand Spell/Final Fantasy Tactics A2 - The Sealed Grimoire Original Soundtrack/Hitoshi Sakimoto

(Song Begins)

The three of us, understanding the importance of Xeno's AURA SPHERE, nodded before him and took to heart his telepathic instructions. In unison, the three of us held out and ogled our right hands, the palms of our hands facing upward, and beginning to sparkle sparks of aura as we concentrated our energy and molded it into the shape of a sphere.

For me, manipulating my aura in the ways that are new to me, in ways that Xeno demonstrated to me, took only a few moments of my time to understand properly and quickly master to near perfection. For my brothers, they quickly realized how easy manipulating their innate auras was beginning to become, and followed closely behind my progress.

Before Xeno's eyes, the three of us each began to form budding AURA SPHEREs on our right palms. And as the seconds ticked by, those same AURA SPHEREs grew, retaining their spherical shape as their surface volume steadily increased alongside further concentration of our innate power.

Once Xeno saw that my AURA SPHERE was the size of a grapefruit, and that those of my brothers were nearing that size, Xeno decided to speak up, disrupting our focus.

"That's enough. They're large enough to be fired now."

The concentration of my brothers and I ceased, causing our respective AURA SPHEREs to cease growing, yet still being maintained long enough to be fired. We looked back at Xeno, just as he was pointing to where he fired his AURA SPHERE earlier for demonstrative purposes.

"Aim for the crater that I left with my earlier AURA SPHERE. Aim as closely to its center as you three can. Fire your AURA SPHEREs with a forward thrust of your arm, as though you were striking your enemy with an arm thrust, to ensure its straightness in flight."

The three of us complied with Xeno's advice and faced the crater that Xeno left high above our heads. In unison, the three of us cocked our arms back, and then outstretched them towards our target in the form of a single forward thrust. The momentum in doing so was more than enough to launch our respective AURA SPHEREs in the direction that we faced.

Unsurprisingly though, as our three AURA SPHEREs flew towards the crater on the climax of the cliff, we missed our targets outright. The AURA SPHEREs that my brothers launched flew too high, and faded away into the air a hundred feet further out. Mine—most likely from the substandard depth perception resulting from the use of only one eye instead of two—flew too low and too far right, missing the cliff entirely and fading away into the air, just like those of my brothers.

Knowing well enough that accuracy was just as vital to this technique as power, Xeno understood our lack of it at the moment, and wished to help us improve on it.

"Once more."

The three of us, knowing where we need to improve, did as Xeno ordered, and conjured another AURA SPHERE within our right palms, faster this time because of our growing familiarity in using this technique. And once our second AURA SPHEREs were ready, we fired them in the same method as before, with more focus on our accuracy this time, hoping it would be enough to recalibrate our earlier aim.

But much like before, our AURA SPHEREs missed the target. However, unlike before, our aim had improved, and the three of us merely grazed the cliff peak with our AURA SPHEREs, before all three of them flew further out and fading away once more.

Xeno became mildly impressed with our growing accuracy. "One more time," he said, confident that our third time would prove successful.

Once again, the three of us each generated another AURA SPHERE on our right palms. Though, it was at this point that Xeno noticed signs of straining concentration and fatigue from Costas and Ian, in the form of somewhat heavy breathing and mild perspiration, while noticing nothing abnormal in my part. He kept his mouth closed at the moment, choosing not to say anything on the matter until he saw significant results from the three of us.

With our third set of AURA SPHEREs now fully charged, we fired them at our target. And with the incremental experience that we acquired from our previous two failures, the three of us not only finally struck the cliff's apex, but we also nearly struck the crater that Xeno formed with his initial AURA SPHERE, each of us only a couple of feet off from the bull's-eye.

This resulted in a few more craters in our part, formed by the cumulative explosions that our AURA SPHEREs caused, as well as a much larger rain of earth that we once again stepped away from.

…Except for Xeno, who felt no pain whatsoever from this bizarre weather as it rained down once again onto his head and shoulders. Not even when one particularly large stone fell on the crown of his head did he flinch. because, instead of cracking Xeno's skull open, the rock itself split into two equal halves, upon colliding with steel-like skin and bone.

(Song Fades to an End)

All three of us stepped back to his side, showing particular attention to the fact as to why he doesn't step back from a hazardous shower of rocks, as well as how the rocks themselves don't harm him.

"That cliff can shit all of the bricks it wants on me. I barely feel a thing, thanks to my natural resistance to rock." Xeno said, taking note of our astonishment to his behavior.

"I still find it surprising that there are hundreds of Pokémon that are just as powerful as you." I said.

"As far as I'm aware, there are only a few Pokémon that are as equally powerful—if not more powerful—as I am. But we're digressing from my lessons onto you three."

With a prideful smile on his face, Xeno looked at the three of us on equal terms.

"Based on what I've presently seen from the three of you, it is clear to me how compatible and adaptable you three are in learning the techniques that I have in my repertoire. You make me proud to acknowledge you three as proper wielders of the aura."

"Thank you…" Costas said, fatigue present in his voice.

Feeling as though now would be the best time to speak up on Costas's and Ian's present condition, Xeno faced my two brothers.

"I believe that it's best if you two rest for the moment. Until your stamina increases with further training, you must respect your limits as they are right now."

"Thank you," Ian said, before he and Costas stepped back to a rocky platform nearby and sat down to relax.

"And as for you," Xeno said, facing me. "While we wait for your brothers to recharge, do you wish to improve your abilities with the AURA SPHERE?"

Responding "No" to Xeno's request was far outweighed by the knowledge that we had of the looming crisis that we're presently training to strengthen ourselves against.

"Of course," I said without hesitation. "I don't feel fatigued at all and whatever time we have to train before the Void of the Dark One becomes apparent, we must maximize for ourselves."

"Well spoken."

"So, what did you have in mind?" I wondered.

Without thinking any further on the subject, Xeno looked up towards the cliff's apex, at another point of it that was still pristine, rather than the point where the four of us fired a few AURA SPHEREs at.

"Oh, I have a good idea," Xeno smiled to himself.


32.4: "The Aura is Strong with This One"

Time: 5:09 PM

What Xeno had in mind for me, in order to improve my overall capabilities with the new AURA SPHERE technique that I've learned, was for him to stand on the summit of one of the mile-high cliffs of the Grand Canyon. From this high perch, he would rain down large chunks of rock down upon me. And down below, where I was, I had to blast away all of the falling rocks with an AURA SPHERE.

…Or else risk being crushed under their weight.

My brothers, watching on from a safe distance, were regaining their strength as they were relaxing and enjoying themselves a small snack that they requested from me.

From the zenith of this cliff, I could hear Xeno's telepathic voice within my head, as though he were standing right beside me and speaking into my ear.

"Eduardo! Are you ready?!"

"I'm ready!" I cupped my hands around my mouth and shouted up to him.

That Which Stands in the Way/Final Fantasy Tactics A2 - The Sealed Grimoire Original Soundtrack/Hitoshi Sakimoto

(Song Begins)

Upon hearing my readiness, Xeno wasted no time in creating a rock avalanche to rain down upon me. Merely with his physical strength to suffice for this training session, Xeno punched the ground in front of him repeatedly and rhythmically, using ROCK SMASH to tear off considerably-sized slabs of rock from the cliff.

I could hear Xeno's punches faintly echo across this tellurian chasm and then see the results of his actions seconds after, when I begin to notice half a dozen chunks of rock fall towards me.

Readying myself, I hold out my right hand and conjure an AURA SPHERE in only a few seconds, and then I hold out my left hand, forming a second AURA SPHERE just like the first, knowing that I'll be working on my rapidity in creating AURA SPHEREs, as well as my accuracy in launching them.

Once the slabs of sedimentary rock were halfway down, I judged the closest ones to me, and fired both AURA SPHEREs from my hands through forward and upward-pointing thrusts. And just as I had launched them, I quickly formed two new AURA SPHEREs to take their place.

My two attacks wasted no time in closing the distance with the falling boulders. The first AURA SPHERE narrowly missed my target, flying off into the sky until it disappeared. The second AURA SPHERE perfectly contacted my target, and through a small explosion, rendered it down to dust.

Without time to waste, I fired off more AURA SPHEREs at my targets, already beginning to develop a rhythm in firing them. As I launched one AURA SPHERE and retracted my arm back so that I could fire the next one, my palms would formulate a new AURA SPHERE to take its place, and then the cycle would repeat itself.

The barrage of AURA SPHEREs that I fired, in under a minute's time, rendered all six large chunks of rock into dust and fist-sized pieces of rock. And knowing that this would also rain down upon me, I held my arms above my head to guard myself, and created a brief "umbrella" of aura energy to dissuade the rocks raining down upon me.

"(Hmm… In order to destroy all six targets, he fired a total of nine AURA SPHEREs, all in the time frame of approximately one minute.)"

Xeno stepped forward so that I could just barely see him on the peak of his perch.

"So, how did I do?!" I shouted up to him, my voice bouncing off the broad walls of this oversized trench and reaching his sensitive and pointed ears.

"Your accuracy and firing rate are improving!" Xeno commented. "However, you still have a long ways to go if you hope to reach my level of experience with this technique!"

I suspected a response such as this from him, and only took it as a motivating challenge.

"Well, what are you waiting for?! Make it rain again! I'm more than ready!"

"(Getting somewhat brash, aren't we?)" Xeno pondered to himself with a satisfied smile, before commencing round two for me.

Instead of punching the ground in front of him like before, he struck at it concurrently, using his palms instead of his knuckles this time. And with ARM THRUST, the rocks that he had fall down before me increased by a multiple of four, causing a steady cascade of rocks to rain down upon me, much more uniform than before.

With a harder challenge presented above me, I didn't waste any time in waiting for them to fall down enough so that I could accurately fragment them. I launched AURA SPHERE after AURA SPHERE just seconds after Xeno ceased his attack, knowing that their brief concentration together would improve my likelihood in striking them down.

As I continued my earthbound onslaught, for the most part, over 80% of the AURA SPHEREs that I fired did hit their mark, eradicating all but seven rocks, which were within a thousand feet of me, and closing the gap between us quickly. Without a moment to lose, I made quick work of the remaining rocks, firing AURA SPHERE after AURA SPHERE, crumbling them with each explosive attack with near perfect accuracy.

All of the rocks were obliterated except for one, which was now only a hundred feet above me.

Acting almost reflexively at the rock now falling at terminal velocity, I conjured one last AURA SPHERE on my right hand, and immediately aimed it at the falling rock.

At the last second where it appeared that the large slab of rock would crush me, I fired my AURA SPHERE and destroyed the hazardous object at near pointblank range. The result of this gave me success at passing Xeno's second round. The consequence of this was the falling dust cloud from my last target, which the gusts here managed to carry it into my face and irritate my right eye.

Almost immediately, I could feel an obnoxious, irritating feeling dig into my right eye, causing me to instinctively close it shut and attempt to wipe off the foreign debris.

(Song Ends)

From his tall perch, Xeno saw the mild discomfort that I was presently in and responded to it.

"Are you all right, Eduardo?!"

"I'm fine! It's just a little dust in my eye!" I said, rubbing off most of the dust and opening my eye to see Xeno on his present placement.

"Do you wish to continue?!" Xeno said uneasily, attentive of the fact that I was narrowly crushed earlier.

With my right eye still red and teary from Xeno's second round of AURA SPHERE training on me, I decided to switch over my eye patch to it. Now my right eye was given a chance to recover, and my Aura Vision empowered left eye was going to be used.

Emergence of Talents/Naruto Shippuden Original Soundtrack/Toshiro Masuda

(Song Begins)

"I don't know! You tell me!" I shouted smugly.

The concern that Xeno had for me earlier was now replaced with admiration at my continuation desire. And without saying anything more on the matter, he decided to hold nothing back on me for his next wave. He crouched down and jumped high into the sky faster than the human eye could blink. And then, he fell back down onto his perch, fists first, creating a ROCK SLIDE of large proportions. The rocks lining the walls of the cliff to now shed twice as many rocks as they did earlier, each of them varying in sizes, from the size of a bowling ball, to that of a compact car.

Upon seeing this third wave of falling rocks, my battle instincts flared simultaneously with my aura, granting me a visible aura field that stretched out from my body by two feet at the most. With this surge of necessary power, my hands generated an AURA SPHERE each, in roughly the same time that it would take someone to snap their fingers.

Sensing such a steep climb in my power, Xeno merely sat down at the very edge of his destroyed rock perch, letting his legs dangle in the air, and watched on at what I would do.

Through my recently-acquired Aura Vision ability, I was able to focus on the aura signatures of anything nearby within my vicinity, from the puny candles of aura emanating out of billions upon billions of tons of rock from the Grand Canyon, to the fluorescing light bulbs of aura that my brothers were emanating just behind me, to the sun of aura that Xeno Lucario emanated above me. And with my head already tilted up and staring at my falling targets, I locked onto the aura that all forty-eight falling rocks were dimply emanating and zoomed in onto the rocks that were about a dozen feet ahead of the originals.

With my accuracy now reinforced through my acquired Aura Vision ability, I fired AURA SPHERE after AURA SPHERE with great rapidity, at the rate of three per second, making quick work of the falling debris, even before they were a quarter through their mile-high descent.

Only one of the AURA SPHEREs that I fired missed, albeit narrowly, which continued to zoom upward and pass a perched Xeno. He eyed it briefly before seeing it disappear into the air, and then stared down to see me in opposition to four closely-concentrated falling boulders.

With plenty of time to spare, and with a build-up of both aura energy and adrenaline within me, I clasped the ends of my hands together and focused on one last AURA SPHERE, a massive one this time.

The ends of my hands slowly began to spread apart as an AURA SPHERE came between them, through my doing. This orb of energy continued to grow and grow, perfectly retaining its spherical shape as it expanded to the point where, if I wanted to, I could enter it and even have enough room to stretch inside of it.

"(What tremendous concentration of such a large sphere of aura,)" Xeno commented mentally, watching on at my training from his perch.

Both of my brothers, seeing this held typhoon of energy swirling over my head, felt it appropriate to step back somewhat, to avoid any possible knockback from what they knew what was to inevitably occur.

Once I began to feel a strain in merely holding such a massive AURA SPHERE, I channeled Orange (Melee) Aura into my arms to give me the strength needed to launch this AURA SPHERE far upward. The veins within and all across my arms swelled with blood, just as I bent my arms back and then launched the AURA SPHERE with all of my might. With this necessary monstrous thrust of both of my arms, the massive AURA SPHERE I had in my palms left me and went flying straight into my remaining targets, just as they reached the halfway point of their descent.

During mid-flight, accuracy was immaterial with this herculean AURA SPHERE. It collided with the remaining rocks that reached the remaining third of their descent, assimilating them all in one single gulp. And then, with the perfect high-speed rotation of aura energy disrupted by the boulders it had swallowed, it detonated with the outward force of a half-ton explosive. The explosion blew a gale of wind that reached the four of us, shuffling Xeno's fur and dreadlock-like appendages upward, as well as ruffling the clothing on the backs of my brothers and me. And once the explosion subsided, a globular chunk from the cliff was scooped out of it, no longer in existence.

(Song Ends)

Unsurprisingly, with the structure of this cliff now fatally compromised by both Xeno's actions as well as my own, the rock perch that Xeno sat on top of could no support its own weight. It crumbled under the strain of its own fractured structure and created a massive rockslide, one that my brothers and I stepped far back from, once we saw chunks of rocks begin to fall.

Xeno, seeing the earth crumble under his feet, anticipated that this would occur and promptly used TELEPORT to escape away before it was too late.

The foremost portion of the cliff, within minutes, was now a pile of rubble and dust. Costas, Ian, and I, sensing that the danger has passed, stepped forward and stopped within kicking distance of this rock mound. Xeno Lucario warped back to us and stood by our side, eyeing the mountain of pebbles temporarily before turning his attention over to me.

"The aura is strong with this one," Xeno said in amazement of my growing abilities.

"Tell us something that we don't know." I said as I repositioned my eye patch back to its original placement over my left eye, my right eye having recovered now after this time had passed.

My brothers, after seeing the scale of damage that I caused here, faced Xeno in order to inquire him.

"You know, we're feeling quite refreshed after that brief break of ours," Costas said.

"Do you think that we can have a turn at shooting rocks from the sky?" Ian asked, eager to attempt what I just did.

"Just…take it easy on us at first," Costas added, "until we're at Eduardo's level of expertise."

Felling as strong as ever, even after his training earlier with me, Xeno couldn't deny to their request. "I'd be my genuine pleasure, so that I could see how you all progress."

"You three are going to need a new cliff though," I said, staring at the massive heap of rocks before us, smiling somewhat from the results of this training exercise. "Xeno and I conquered this one…by a landslide."

And with that, the four of us walked further onward across the Grand Canyon, stopping a few hundred feet from our anterior location when Xeno saw another tall cliff similar to the one that he used to help refine my AURA SPHERE skills. Just like before, he placed himself on the peak edge of the cliff, and rained rocks down to my earthbound brothers below. They fired AURA SPHEREs in tandem of each other, utilizing teamwork to compensate for their budding strength and reinforce their stamina, allowing them to maximize their training while minimizing their strain and improving their overall aura output by exercising and further expanding their limits.

As they were training, it was my turn to relax for the moment. Though my idea of relaxation wasn't just sitting around and doing virtually nothing. My idea of relaxation was getting hands on with my hobbies, one of them being technology.

With my hands emanating Purple (Psychic) Aura and my mind utilizing Psycho Control, I retrieved my S1-GS, S2-PTSDOv.2, and S3-OSS.A device from their respective holsters on my body and had all three "S-Rank" inventions hover before my face.

"(I think it's time to give you three a much-needed upgrade,)" I pondered to myself, before setting up a makeshift work bench to begin my work.


32.5: What Lies in Wait for Us

Time: 6:04 PM

Nervous/Naruto Original Soundtrack/Toshiro Masuda

(Song Begins)

High up on the Grand Canyon and over half a mile off from our present location, the hooded figure—or "Odraude" as Costas, Ian, and Xeno outvoted me in referring to him by—watched our growing progress in the ways of the aura.

He remained perched on his present location, the winds of this location blowing by his sable robe, as well as the hair of his exposed face. His eyes were presently closed at the moment and his hair was standing on end and waving in the air, signs that he was concentrating his aura as he used his respective aura abilities to zoom in on our location.

He could identify our four respective aura signatures, two bright aura readings emanating from both Costas and Ian, as well as two blazing aura signatures emanating from Xeno Lucario and me. He identified everybody but me training at the moment, while I was simply working on my "S-Rank" technology.

After seeing enough on the subject, "Odraude" disengaged his Aura Vision ability from use, and then couldn't help himself but smile devilishly to himself at our training efforts.

"(Go ahead, you four. Train as much as you have time for.)" Odraude pondered to himself. "(Hopefully, you'll make yourself slightly formidable against the forces that I'm preparing to slaughter you all with.)"

No longer needing to spy on the four of us, Odraude conjured a black rift directly behind his backside and then did an about-face to face it. He reapplied the hood from his sable robe back over his head and then entered the rift, returning to more pressing matters that require his presence. The rift itself faded away into the air, leaving no detectable trace of it behind for anybody to notice.

Anybody…but not anything.

What Odraude could never see overhead was one of my twenty-six S3-OSS devices looming miles above the surface of the Grand Canyon, scanning the entirety of the land, mapping it out for me and transmitting the optical information to my S2-PTSDOv.2 device punctually, within every single nanosecond.

And as I was working on my "S-Rank" devices, my Different System reported to me what one of my overhead S3-OSS devices had surveyed.

"('Odraude'…)" I pondered to myself, seeing the recorded and replayed information with a somber countenance. "(What exactly are you up to right now?)"

(Song Ends)


"The things I told you just now aren't because I despair. I said all that because these things are possible. And because they're possible we have to think of them so they don't surprise us later. We have to think of them so that if the worst does come, we'll already know how to live in that universe." —Orson Scott Card (36) ("Xenocide")


(Once again, I'm aware of the slightly different names of the songs that I referenced. So long as you know which song I'm referring to, I'll settle with that.)

Quote clearly, for this particular group, what will come to them in the distant future won't be anything particularly pleasant. It'll be hostile, and it should be a lot of fun for me to write up.

And at this point in "The Path of the Aura II: Brothers in Arms", I'll bet that there's some questions that you all have that you're just itching to know the answers to.

My guess is that the biggest question that some of you have in mind is this: Just who exactly is the individual that Arceus is speaking to?

While I won't spoil that surprise (and it'll most definitely be a surprise), I will say that the day where I pull the shroud off of that particular character is impending.

"Chapter XXVI (26)", which is my 34th chapter ever written, will heavily center around that mystery character, by revealing its identity and connecting it to the overall story.

But until then, the focus should be on the next chapter on my list: "Chapter XXV (25)".

For that chapter, all I can say is that it continues the search for Arceus' elemental plates, and that "Chapter XXV (25)" focuses the spotlight on "Aqua" Lapras.

I'll see you in the middle of November.

Happy Halloween!