Monday morning came, and a new day started. Eric woke up to the sound of food cooking. When he got up from the bed, his gaze was hazy, and he looked like he was drunk.
"I have never had such a great sleep before."
That statement was in no way an exaggeration.
Eric's mind had been taxed a lot these past few days. Even though sleep helps to pacify his mind, it still isn't enough to get rid of all of the stress and worries. But this sleep? This was just magical. No words could describe it.
Getting off his bed, Eric stretched his whole body properly for a few minutes before his attention was pulled away by the sweet smell of the food from the kitchen. Ruby, as always, had woken up early and started to make food.
Eric now already knew clearly what he felt for her. There was no doubt in his mind anymore. He didn't love Ruby, but he did care for his wife. Seeing her happy and smiling would make him happy, but that was all. If he had to leave her and start a new life, he wouldn't regret anything.
This realization may seem small to others, but it was very important for Eric. Not only did it help him increase the rate of control of his Aura, but it also greatly improved his mental state. He had always been down and worried thinking about this, but now? He could finally put his mind on much more important matters.
Losing a relationship and the love of someone—especially if the person is of the opposite gender with whom they had an intimate relationship—would make any person sad and even depressed. But it didn't matter to Eric. In the past, the sole reason he had even chosen to marry Ruby was to use her as an anchor and figure himself out. Understanding, identification, and acceptance of oneself. These are the words that the three steps of the method of control on the Lysi Nova rank revolve around.
The first step is to understand your morality and make a list of morals that you have to follow. Even after advancing or completing this step, it remains the same. The second step is to ask yourself and figure out everything about you. What is your personality? What do you like, what don't you like? How do you feel about yourself? The people close to you? What do you feel for them, and what are your goals, among many other small things?
Eric had been stuck on the second step. Only after going to his domain of emotions and talking to his emotion persona had he finally been able to increase the rate of control of his aura from 60% to 65% after eight years. It had not been easy. Obviously, one of the many reasons was Eric's situation in the past, his mental state, and his reluctance to advance in the present. However, the current dangerous and unpredictable situation had made him realize the need to advance and become stronger. His life and death would be decided based on his strength. He may have the Divine Karma, Lumenia, or even the Church of Serenity as his allies, but can they compare to his own personal strength? They cannot!
In this world, one can rely only on oneself; everyone else is unreliable.
It is too bad that by the time Eric realized this, he was already in this situation. You could say that it was his own choice to come here, as he had listened to the voice in his head and come here on its hints—and that is indeed right. But he had been guided by this voice ever since he became an aura user. If the voice wanted to harm him, it would have done so long ago.
From what he had observed, the voice can control his body to an extent. It wouldn't be much harder to kill him if the voice could take over his mind, too.
Another point is that Eric had tried not to do what the voice instructed him to do or hinted at. The answer had always been disastrous for him. The incident during his advancement to Lysi Nova was a result of his own ignorance, immaturity, and not listening to the voice.
And lastly, he needs answers. He wants to know many things. What is this voice? What is its origin? What does it want? He wants to know it.
Even though he is in danger right now, there are opportunities present too.
Eric lightly shook his head as he stopped thinking and went to the bathroom, brushed his teeth, took a shower, and then got dressed. Today was Monday; he had to go to work as a police officer. But could he be bothered to? As if! He had more important things to do.
Today was the day he would help Voyage kill a healthy teenager for him to eat and make him grow faster. He had made a gang before to kidnap kids and supply them to him, but sadly, Eric got one of those cases. After rescuing the kids, he deduced and confronted Voyage, who accepted it all. Then, to stop him, Eric had to help him kill a healthy teenager for him to grow.
To Eric, he didn't care how many kids would get kidnapped or killed by Voyage, but the cases would definitely come back to him. Why is that? It was simple: normal police methods can never trace down Voyage. Seeing the success of Max and him on the first mission, they would have to go and rescue these kids again and again. So, it was better to help Voyage at once and settle this matter.
On top of that, he is gaining some Aura stones and contribution points from the Divine Karma organization. No matter how weak they seem, they are still one of the four great bodies. Their foundation is huge and stable. Who knows when he might need them?
For now, Eric has 53 Aura stones that have been collecting dust until now. The reason is mostly that there is no fight going on, and he doesn't need any forging materials right now. When he gains one hundred percent control of his aura, his aura would tell him the resources needed to advance. By then, what he would most need would be Aura stones. It is better to have a stock of them beforehand as preparation. It won't be cheap to buy or find the resources needed to advance to Hypernova, after all. Not only that, but he also has to go through a ritual. Who knows what it might be?
Sitting at the dining table, Ruby brought out some pancakes and gave them to him on a plate with a knife and a fork, happily. Eric smiled warmly at her and silently ate the pancakes. He complimented her often, which made her feel happy.
After eating, he kissed Ruby and went "to work" in his dark blue uniform, which the police of Paris wear. He went to Max's apartment door, which was just right next to his, and knocked. This was followed by some heavy breathing and the falling of stuff. Eric could clearly hear them due to the uniqueness of the energy pathway. It was Zoe screaming at Max to go out quickly.
"Bastard! Eric is here. Go quickly and don't act weird. Otherwise, he will know that we were—Never mind, quickly go!" She screamed as she kicked Max out the door, and waved at Eric with a smile. Her body was drenched in sweat, her breathing was ragged, and her cheeks were also red. After Max got out, she immediately closed the door.
Eric stared plainly at all this. He nodded at Max as they took the lift and went down. On the way, they talked through Meditation Aura. Eric told him about his progress, the state of his domain of emotions, the emotional persona, and the "him" that he saw when he was just about to leave the domain of emotions. On the outside, they were just silently walking side by side.
Max also told Eric about many other things: how he was close to reaching one hundred percent control of his aura, his nights with Zoe, and things that he had observed around the streets. Most of what he told Eric were casual and useless things, but Eric still listened attentively. He was used to Max's yapping. Not only that, he might hear something useful from his talks.
As they kept walking, Eric noticed a group of three grannies sitting around a round table in front of a café, drinking tea and having a rather interesting conversation.
"Hey, Caramel, speaking of which, have you heard about 'The Helping Beggars'?"
"Oh my! I was about to ask you two the same thing, too. These past two days, I have noticed many beggars going around and helping others. They are acting like it is a competition!"
"You two have also seen and heard about them? For the last few days, dirty beggars have been on the bus to help and offer their seats to me. They have often fought with each other. Do you know anything about them?"
"I have actually asked them. They are a group of beggars that have been brought together to help others. I inquired about their origin, and they told me that a man named Mike Jackson is their leader and pays them for helping others. The more they help, the more they earn. They don't know much about him, though."
"Wait… Mike Jackson? Hmm… I feel like I have heard this name somewhere. Do you know his appearance?"
"From what the beggars told me, that man is tall, has a very graceful demeanor and charming personality, has white skin, blue eyes, wears a cross-shaped silver earring, and tailor-made clothes."
The third granny's eyes widened as she blurted out, her jaw almost dropping out of her mouth.
"Wait, I know this person! He is that one handsome, charming son who helped me cross the road the other day! I remember him. Oh, to think that he has a whole organization. What a surprise."
Hearing their conversation from a distance, Eric couldn't help but laugh a little inwardly. "It seems that the little organization that I made after getting inspired by Voyage is quite famous."
Eric had realized the usefulness of having people to help him. He had spent a full day increasing the good deeds in the cross to go from 10% to 40% and had gained a lot of insights from repetitive use of the relic. However, he had understood the flaw long ago: he had to go around helping others himself. But he had also understood that he could farm good deeds even if it was indirect. Thus, from this understanding—and inspired by Voyage—he had made this small organization. It is simple: the more people you help, the more you earn.
All the workings of this are being handled by Uriel. This Lysi Nova-level angel spirit has been given the task of giving money according to the help that they had given to other people. They had all been given funds to make their own way to help others. Some had used this money to buy drugs or cigarettes at first, but they had all been killed by Uriel. These dozens of people were just a waste of time and resources. Eric was doing a good thing by killing these pests. People do not become poor because of others; they do it by indulging in their habits and addictions.
Obviously, these beggars were fighting each other and causing trouble for others, but Eric could do nothing about it. He had to waste his time, resources, and effort to train these people. It was not worth the investment. Though the rate at which the good deeds are being filled up is slow, quantity can make up for quality. In just two days, the good deeds had reached 42%. Eric will continue expanding this organization as long as he has this relic.
He could give huge donations to charity, but he would have to use his savings and turn his Aura stones into dollars, which he was not going to do, as he needed these funds later. He had achieved another thing through this: sending Uriel away so that he could not know deep things about himself and Max. Eric had never trusted these angel spirits or the church fully, but as time passed, he had to use this relic more and more to grow. Eric always had a bad feeling about it, but even if so, what?
"One cannot achieve great things until they take risks."
Finally, they reached the police station. Eric didn't go in and sent Max to meet Claude. The reason was that he had deduced that the fleshy orb in Claude is definitely connected to the Lysi Nova of the organization. Last time, he was careless and got too close, giving the enemy his location and allowing them to set up a trap for him. It was good that the enemy was lower-ranked. Otherwise, he would most likely have died.
Then why is he sending Max? Does he want Max to be targeted and killed? Obviously, that is not the case. The reason is confidence. Eric is sure that even if they get Max's location or see him goofing around and have a good opportunity, they won't dare target him.
"After all, he is the most special."
Max quickly got out of the police station and told them the places they would need to go patrol. In his hands were two body cams. When they had first joined, due to some problems, they had been unable to get them and were able to roam freely. But now, everything they do will be recorded, and they will lose their freedom.
This would have been a very easy problem to solve before, let alone now. These were just two simple cameras while they were Aura users! These can't stop them.
Eric took both cameras in his hand as they walked some distance away from the police station to the part they were supposed to patrol. Before Eric took out his Meditation Aura and contacted Mr. Clown, he teleported both cameras to him.
In the high school, Mr. Clown was running and getting chased by Adrian just when he got the message from Eric and the task he was supposed to do. He held both cameras in his hands as he injected his fooling aura into them and teleported them back to Eric and Max. He looked back and mocked Adrian.
"What happened, little boy? Tired? Hahahahah."
Adrian was annoyed after not being able to catch Mr. Clown. He had been given many chances to catch him, but this clown was so nimble and flexible and always escaped from him. This was truly infuriating, but Adrian continued the chase.
Seeing this, Mr. Clown's eyes shone as he turned around and released his aura behind him. Adrian stepped on his aura, which entered his body and made him see two Mr. Clowns. He chose a random one and ran towards the one who turned left.
Back on Eric and Max's part, they had gotten the face cams back in under a minute. These cameras can no longer capture Auras, and if they did, it will skip that part. Also, even if this camera were to be turned off, it will still record, and this recording will just be of normal patrolling.
Max was going to go patrol, so he didn't need to do this, but Eric turned on the face cam and turned it off before putting it in his pocket. He said his goodbyes to Max and ran to a narrow alley before teleporting to an abandoned house.
There, he opened a hidden box under the floor and took out the clothes of Mike Jackson. He changed his clothes and used Truth to become Mike Jackson. He put his police uniform and face cam in the box and hid them away again.
"Now, it is time to go and adopt Voyage."