The Circulation starts with my outer extremities, in this case, my fingertips, so naturally, that is where I needed to move the energy I had absorbed from the Particle Stones.
As I’ve said before, being forceful with your Particles isn’t efficient or smart. Sure, you can get the job done by pushing them around your body, but you would face a lot of internal resistance, which could cause you to suffer backlash.
Horror stories flooded the internet in the first year of Arkadia’s descent, and it didn’t take long for the world’s most powerful organizations to release an official statement about Particle Control and its inner workings.
’Coax it into moving; allow them to flow with your will gently,’ I thought while feeling the strange and itchy feeling welling up in my palms.
’It doesn’t hurt…I guess that’s a perk of being 6C…I remember back when I first dealt with Particles; I felt like my body was being ripped to shreds; tsk, man, Basic Humans really are the bottom of the totem pole.’
Seeing as I have a wealth of experience pertaining to and revolving around Particle Control, so much so that I could even be considered a master, I had no difficulty in getting the energy split up evenly and distributed to each of my fingertips.
’Now comes the hard part, Step 2, Circulation; like blood, Particles swim freely in your body once you’ve acclimated, and can even be considered symbiotic; the Skill dictates that like blood, I must begin the Circulation within my bones.’
’Heh, this is probably going to hurt like a b***h…’ Gulping down a mouthful of saliva, I relaxed my body, took one final deep breath, and willed the energy to seep in through the peak of my finger bones simultaneously.
The reaction from my nervous system was instant; the moment the Particles breached the tip of my finger bones, it was like fire, and lightning had stabbed into my arms, causing me to grimace in pain.
However, the intense pain didn’t inhibit my focus or concentration. I continued to flood the energy through each of the interconnected bones, moving through the fingers, into my hands, then wrists, up until the splitting in the road, which was my Radius and Ulna.
’Ulna…’ using my imagination to build a mental image of the fluidlike golden energy washing over my bones, I followed the strict directions of my Hidden Vestiges of Physicality. I allowed the energy to flow through my Ulna to my elbow, up my humerus, and toward my shoulder, where the next split would happen.
From here, things would be tricky, as I needed to divide my attention away from the bones and allow the energy to expand outward into my muscular structure. To do this, I would first need to separate the energy into two channels further; one portion would move toward my clavicle, the other into my scapula.
By the time I finished splitting the energy, both of my arms felt as if they had been put through a meat grinder; still, I persisted.
Ignoring the pain to the best of my abilities, I continued the cycle until the diverted energy came together again, half circulating inside my bones, the other half flowing through my muscles as I moved it.
Read lat𝙚st chapters at fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓ Only.
Now came the tricky part: coaxing the particles into action, I began circulating through my ribs, from the midpoint toward my sternum, with my primary focus being on the front of my body, and by this point, my face was completely twisted in agony.
It hurt…more than just about any pain I had ever experienced till this point, More than being dismembered or blown up by a long shot.
’Down…’ Avoiding the back of my body or spine, I covered my chest before moving down to my abdomen…hips…legs until finally I reached my toes.
Even though it felt as if I had been working for hours, I had only reached the halfway point of the Circulation process, and I knew the hard part was only beginning.
Although I had navigated a good portion of my body and muscular system, I had completely ignored any of my organs, and that was the second part of the circulation technique.
Bringing up a mental map of my nervous and skeletal systems, I pushed forward with the most complex part of the Circulation Skill, coaxing the energy to flow upward along the back of my body.
Back up through my legs, nourishing my calves, glutes, upward into my asscheeks, passing my bladder, into my gut, then splitting off and trailing up my spine.
When the golden energy touched the base of my tailbone, I temporarily lost feeling in my legs, yet I pushed on, going one vertebra at a time while working through my intestines.
The pain was immense, and at some point, my breaths had ceased being measured and calm; instead, each breath was pained, shakey, and agonizing, yet still, I didn’t stop.
Time ticked by extremely slowly; seconds felt like minutes and, in turn, felt like hours as I manipulated the two channels of Particles, one coursing through my bones, the other through the fleshy bits of my body until I finally reached the base of my neck.
Images flashed through my mind of complete three-dimensional renderings of the human brain. I thought back to all the different medical shows I had watched in the past, and using them as a reference along with the knowledge from the Technique Space, I went to work tracing out the predetermined channels of my brain.
Finally, I felt my body awash with calming, soothing sensations, and that was my signal to enter the final step of the Skill.
’Step three, Exhaust….fooooooooo’ With those thoughts, I exhaled a long, deep breath and snapped my eyes open only to see a faint golden haze emitting from my nose and mouth.
Three more times, I enacted this until the last of the golden mist exited my lungs…and that was when the unbearable stench hit me.
Unknown to me, but along with the golden vapors leaving my mouth and nose, an inky grey substance had been expelled from the pores of my skin, slicking my body with oil-like sweat.