I looked around and that grey city was familiar for some reason but did not think too much about it because of that sense of hunger, which was becoming stronger and stronger.

The devil looked at me

"Sit down."

I didn’t like her tone and tried to say "I'm not a dog-"

She suddenly shouted, "I SAID SIT DOWN!"

I obeyed and sat down on my knees and it almost looked like I was going to bow.

"Good boy." she patted my head to reward me for my obedience, but I was feeling uncomfortable.

"Will you treat me like this from now on?" 

"Don't you like it?" she genuinely asked.

"No." I moved her hand away from my head.

She sighed "You are seriously no fun…"

While looking at her I noticed she was higher than yesterday, her white dress was longer to match the new height and overall she looked more like someone of 18 years old. The other changes were the eyes, now slightly grey instead of the usual full black, and the hair, still black but longer, that reached down her butt.

'Was she like this before in that lunchroom?' I thought while still looking at her.

While looking at the city she said "Remember, we are linked. I can hear your thoughts."

"...right…" I looked away to not think about her appearance again.

After some seconds of silence, she spoke again

"Even if I hate answering questions, especially about me, I'll make an exception for you if you give your 100% at this first training session. Just for today." she turned towards me "Deal?"

I thought about that offer for a moment and asked 

"There must be a catch. What is it?"

“Your life will be at stake constantly.”

“...Can I say no?” I asked cowardly.

She slowly shook her head, there was something menacing about it and I sighed

“Deal…”

She smiled slightly, it was really small but sincere.

"Good, let's not waste any more time then. The first phase is reinforcing your soul and aura."

-Aura-

I thought about that word over and over again and then remembered something

"That man from yesterday said I didn't have a strong one. Is that something important?”

The girl nodded "Yes, but let me explain from the first point. Starting from the soul, it's where your identity with powers and memories are stored, the aura is an extension of it and thanks to that, you can use your powers. Plus since the body is constantly in touch with the aura, you can just eat the flesh or drink the blood of someone to absorb it and gain their “Knowledge”. That’s how it’s called a set of two or more powers within a person."

She stopped for a moment and yawned.

"I'm already getting bored. To make it quick, the more powerful you are the bigger your aura becomes and others can sense that. Obviously, you can get tired if you use your powers too much and there are serious consequences depending on the power you are using. For example, if you use too many times your fire or ice-based powers, you will start getting severe burns or risk freezing to death. Weaklings like you are more at risk. Questions?" she looked at me, probably hoping I wasn't going to ask anything.

I could not complain about the fact she called me a weakling, since it was the truth and asked

"I already know this is a stupid question-"

She interrupted me

"Just say it, it can't be more stupid than what you are right now."

"...you surely love to bully me…" At this point, I was trying so hard to not say anything because I wouldn’t like my head to be detached from my body, so I went on with the question.

"My question was, how can someone become more strong?"

Weirdly enough, she didn’t look at me like I was stupid and answered

"Two things are essential." she raised her index finger on her left hand "The first one is physical training, where you train your body and powers, simple enough no?" Then she raised her middle finger too "Second and most important, meditation. Your powers are like individual beasts, once you gain one you have to gain their trust through meditation, if you don't do that they'll be like a bad influence on your soul and it will start a slow process of "self-destruction", where you'll start losing your mind, wanting for more power until you go in a complete state of insanity."

Gulp "So, this hunger I have…it’s a sign that I’m going to become a monster?"

She nodded "You should have started meditating sooner because of the power I already gave you, and in the end, the power of the old man was like a drop that overflowed the vase. Now you are ok because I'm holding off that hunger through our link, otherwise, you would have been in real danger."

"Then, why didn't you help me sooner? I couldn't have known all of this without some help. Someone innocent could have died!" I clenched my fist.

"...you are right" she looked away "I'm sorry, I had something else to do and I thought it was all under control."

'Did she just apologise?' I was in disbelief, she actually looked sorry for something she did, maybe there was some humanity left in her.

I sighed and scratched my head "Nobody was hurt and you'll help today so it's ok I guess. I forgive you."

She instantly looked at me, really happy like we talked about nothing serious

My jaw dropped 'That was fast! She changed her mood already-'

She clapped her hands two times and sat in front of me.

"Now, let's not waste time and start with meditation. Close your eyes, slowly breathe in the abdomen, stop for some seconds and then slowly exhale. Continue like this and remain concentrated until you start seeing something."

I nodded and closed my eyes.

'seems simple enough...'

…it wasn't. At first, I could not fully concentrate because of the silence around me, not even a bird chirping, nothing. It was giving me a bit of anxiety for how unnatural that place seemed.

'Maybe I can listen to my breathing.'

As I started to listen to that, my concentration was slowly improving and began to hear my heart beating too. I was feeling like floating in absolute darkness.

Seconds or even minutes passed and I started seeing something, what looked like a red orb.

I slowly said "I see something…it looks like a red orb"

Doing this made me lose concentration and the orb disappeared.

The god said with a calm voice "That's the visual representation of your soul, the colour of it’s a matter we'll discuss later."

I opened my eyes.

"I thought meditation was easier than this."

She said "You wish it was easier, now comes the hardest part. Concentrate again and try to look inside the orb, this time I'll speak in your mind and give you instructions, ok?"

I nodded and started meditating again.

In a few minutes I started seeing the orb again but seeing inside it took even more time and concentration as it rejected me multiple times.

She said that was normal since it was my first time doing this and it takes a lot of time to master.

———

Hours passed and after many tries, I got inside my soul and around me everything was red. I could see two flames, one blue and small that could fit in the palm of my hand and the other was black and 10 times bigger than the first one.

The god started speaking in my mind.

"What you see are the two powers you have, the small flame represents the old man's power and the big one represents the powers I gave you." she said with a bit of pride at the end and continued speaking.

"Now, concentrate all your energy on the blue flame. You have to visualise it like you are trying to grab it and extinguish it with your hands. Before you ask, yes it will burn a lot but you must do it."

I took huge breaths and started visualising my hands trying to grab the flame, the closer they were to it, the more a slight burning feeling was forming in my chest.

As I touched it slightly the small flame emitted a huge amount of energy and heat, trying to stop me and the burning feeling got even worse.

I gritted my teeth and brought my hands closer to it, but after grabbing it the burning feeling in my chest became pure pain and I was having a hard time breathing while I was choking the flame with all my strength. It slowly became smaller and after what seemed an eternity it eventually got small enough to fit in between my hands but even at that size the pain was still immeasurable.

I kept my hands closed until I couldn't feel any more heat and when I opened them the flame was no more.

I instantly opened my eyes, still on my knees and now with hands against the ground, I was sweating a lot and took huge breaths, even if the pain was gone I could still feel that something was burning inside me.

The girl got up and lend me her hand to help me get up.

I looked at her and there was something happy in her expression, but it was slight and could not figure out what it was. I grabbed her hand and got up.

She said "I must say, you surprised me. Usually, for new people, it takes days to take control of a new power, but you got it in a few hours. You did well…"

I smiled "Thank you-"

She interrupted me "But it was probably just luck or because of our link. A weakling like you could never pull it off in such a short time."

And again, she started bullying me and I could simply sigh. I didn't want to give her the satisfaction of making me mad…and I didn’t want to die.

She gave me a light and friendly punch in the chest and said "You are no fun at all."

With that, I noticed we were getting close already. Was this an effect of that city?

She clapped her hands in front of my face to bring my attention.

"How are you feeling now?"

"Pretty good. I feel like having more energy than before and that burning feeling in my chest stopped."

"Good." A wooden katana appeared in her hands and she handed it to me, then she walked backwards and after going to the other half of the roof, she stopped.

I looked at the katana and then at her "Ehm…what is this for?"

She grinned "Time to start the second phase of your training." She raised her left arm 90 degrees. A cut opened all along her forearm and litres of blood started pouring out, a normal person would have died but she was fine.

"What the-" I was in disbelief and I was even less ready for what was coming next.

From that puddle of blood, something started raising and taking shape and colour. A familiar shape to be precise.

When it finished forming I couldn't believe what I was seeing; the old man from yesterday was standing there close to the girl.

She talked again "Time to start the physical training."