Melody of the Holoverse

Episode 31: Ascension

Contrary to what others may think, I really don't believe I was born to fight. I wasn't meant to spill blood, nor to have someone spill mine. My grandfather once told me the first thing I did when I left my mother's womb was give her the biggest hug. See? Heart of a ladybug.

But just because you're meant to lay in daisies doesn't mean you'll be given a meadow. In fact, you may even have to watch as those placid petals burn away to a crisp.

I know that better than anyone.

Fates change.

With the right guidance, however, one can learn to fly with the wind, not against it.

Having saved me from the abyss, my mentor gave me the tools she believed I would need to thrive.

But again, I wasn't meant for bullets and battlegrounds, so my sense of it all was elementary at best. I didn't even know how to properly throw a punch in the beginning.

Nonetheless, I had to push onward, in spite of my glaring incompetence. Lots of bruises. A couple bone fractures. I even had my arm ripped off once. (That one was an illusion, but it still hurt like heck.)

Yet, despite all that experience, I couldn't find my voice—my battle cry forged for the mountaintops. I tried to use my mentor's gifts as best I could, tried to elevate them higher and higher, but my stumbling never slowed.

The evolution I hungered for just wouldn't come.

That is, until a certain trip to the home of mythicality. Don't get me wrong; I got dropped like a fly over there.

But the message I received made the pieces line up perfectly.

"That's the problem with you kids: You don't know how to think outside the box."

Those words wove my understanding, or at least, commenced the process. After a heated argument with a giant ape, I finally figured out what I was doing wrong.

I took my failures as ends, when in actuality, they were turning points. Inadequacy into opportunity.

My mentor gave me the foundation, but I was always free to carve whatever dream I pleased.

Instead of polishing her gifted gold,

I should've been transforming it into breathtaking diamonds.

*  *  *

Thoo-thoom!

Thoo-thoom!

Remember the feeling.

Thoo-thoom!

Thoo-thoom!

Remember the frustration.

Thoo-thoom!

Remember how you became more.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Then,

everything.

Like rust crumbling off a statue, my existence felt refreshed—almost reborn—the weightlessness profound. Yet, it also felt full, as if leaden ink flooded my bloodstream. So much vigor. So much passion. My mind trembled at the overwhelming sensations, but my body embraced them without question, embraced the platinum now glimmering in my soul.