Kingdoms Fall

Chapter 22: Lotus

Chapter 22: "Lotus"

POV Zokoso Aragami "I want you all to look at the scroll in your hands right now,"  sensei says, so that's what I do. "By the way, good job everyone; the Vesh emperor got our message,"  he says, smiling proudly. "This scroll, like I was telling you all before is the lotus scroll, at some point I'll want all of you to master all of the different lotus styles... At some point.", he says, and pauses before then saying, "But today I will need you to at least develop three and master these quickly, I have perfect confidence that all of you would do perfectly fine without learning this technique, but I will remind you again that most of you will encounter many, different, and powerful beings and enemies that will be more that will be more than capable of hurting and even killing you, remember this, if you remember nothing else from me, although all of you may become strong and powerful God's, and yes you'll be almost invincible as God's, you'll still be very killable.", he says, and that was really good to know because maybe a few of us had the wrong idea about what it meant to be a God, like he said some major God's, or powerful God's, may seem as if they are invincible, or in killable, but that's not the case, which is why he wants us to learn as much of this lotus scroll as we can, yes these different lotus styles are pretty simple concepts, and still knowing and not knowing them may very well be the difference between life and death. "Danguzo, show them the first lotus style," sensei says, and Danguzo departs from our group and stands in front of us so we could all see him. He then holds out his right arm out in front of him with his palm open, and his left hand was resting on his chest. He inhaled sharply, and when he exhaled what looked like white mist came out of his mouth, both of his palms began to glow white. Then sensei looks at us and says, "If any of you have been reading, you'll know how the first lotus style operates." I look up from the scroll and say, "It slows down attacks, and it's effectiveness depends on how much the individual has actually mastered the style.". "Correct,"  he says, then he looks back at Danguzo and says, "Now show them that same style, mastered,"  and not even three seconds later after he says that, Danguzo begins smiling, and his eyes fully turn white, and a white circle appears in front of his right palm, with a lotus flower in the middle. "Watch,"  sensei says, and he quickly throws a deadly-looking punch at Danguzo's head, and Danguzo moves his right palm directly in front of sensei's fist, which couldn't get past the lotus flower. This was only the first style... For two weeks we spent most of our time training, which was just mostly us learning and beginning to master at least three of the lotus styles. The first style slowed down attacks, and when mastered, it stopped all attacks. Completely, the second style reflects all attacks with equal force; mastered it reflects all attacks with double the force; the third style turns the force of any attack into electricity; mastered that electrical energy can heal the user and others; the fourth style turns any attack into fire; when mastered the fire can be redirected with double the force; and etcetera. All the styles are very useful, and there's twelve in total. Understanding how all of the twelve lotus styles work, I can see how a human who'd mastered all twelve of the styles would actually be able to potentially defend themselves from a God or any supernatural being who are far more powerful than them in many different ways.

             

Me and Amilena were progressing the best; she'd already mastered seven of the twelve lotus styles, and I'd learned how to do nine of the twelve, but I'd only mastered six of them. Danguzo, who'd gotten the jump on all of us, had mastered eleven of the twelve styles, but it seemed like he wasn't that far from mastering that last one. "How are you feeling, Zoko?" Kazumo asked me. "I feel good; I've gotten six of them so far; what about you?" I asked him. "Not too bad, I've mastered four so far, but what I really wanted to ask was, What's up with you and the Goddess of Wind, huh?" he asks, smiling. "Oh God's, nothing... nothing yet, away,"  I tell him. "Nothing yet, huh, so you planning on making a move?" he asks me. "Something like that,"  I say. She was beautiful, and she was a goddess; we could potentially be together forever. Maybe I was being delusional, but I thought maybe, just maybe, that she liked me, and maybe she was thinking a sliver of what I thought about her, about me. That was when she looked back at me, as if she could hear my thoughts. We locked eyes, and she smiled at me before quickly facing forward again, focusing on what looked like the third lotus style. That made me break out into a huge smile, and that little smile quickly made me even more confident that she actually liked me too. A couple moments later Kazumo leaned toward me and said, "I saw that, oh, and by the way, I can hear her heart beating a little different when she looks at you, but that might just be because you scare her with your spooky and mysterious energy." I pushed him away from me. "Shut the hell up, Kazumo. Stupid,"  I say, and he laughs.