Days passed without anything major happening. Khan went by lessons, parties, and enchanting nights with Liiza as his connection with the Niqols' society deepened.
An almost imperceptible pressure began to fall on the academy as the arrival of the daylight drew near. The parties lasted longer, the professors applied harsher exercises in their lessons, and more couples appeared. Even Doku and Azni spent more time together since they didn't know how Nitis would be once its long and safe night ended.
Those changes were gradual. They were even almost impossible to notice for the recruits who had never dived too deeply into the Niqols' social environment. Still, Khan saw everything clearly due to his three different lives. His almost complete pretense with the humans, his vague lies with the aliens, and his absolute honesty with Liiza gave him three different perspectives that allowed him to analyze every transformation in the world around him.
Khan felt actually surprised that the Niqols continued to behave so calmly. They were an emotional species, but the news of the impending apocalypse only reaffirmed their determination to keep control of their planet. They stretched their parties to vent their stress, but they were pretty peaceful otherwise.
The event that both Khan and Liiza were waiting for eventually arrived. Two weeks had to pass since Khan's first meeting with the hooded Niqols before seeing it again. The interaction happened in the same circumstances when he had entered the forest to reach one of the mountains and fly toward the marsh.
Khan couldn't feel anything coming out of the hooded figure in front of him. It seemed a black spot in a world otherwise filled with mana. His senses could still notice its arrival and departure if he paid enough attention, but it was easy to miss during a moment of distraction.
The Niqols didn't waste time. It took out two small books and a tiny casket from its robe and placed them to the ground before raising its head. It seemed to wait for Khan to show an opening, but he didn't move his gaze at all. His eyes remained fixed on the alien. He wanted to see where it went at that time.
The alien's glowing eyes remained on Khan for a few seconds before losing their focus. The hooded Niqols simply turned and walked among the trees until its figure became impossible to see.
Khan tried to keep track of that empty spot, but his senses soon lost it. His range allowed him to inspect areas farther away, but that didn't help with the Niqols' peculiar cloaking technique. It was too hard to notice that dead zone in the distance.
The books and the casket entered his vision at that point. Khan hurried toward the items and stored them inside his robe before resuming his march toward the mountain. The arrival of the techniques should have made him happy, but he couldn't dispel the worry for his girlfriend. He knew that the procedure had more chances to hurt him, but he couldn't care about himself when Liiza was willing to spill blood to help him.
It didn't take Khan much to reach the marsh. He had ended up relying on his Aduns more than many Niqols during those months. Snow grew faster after the frequent full-speed flights, so it slowly shortened the time required to bring Khan in each location.
Reaching the marsh used to take almost three hours, but Snow could save half an hour now. That gave Khan more time with Liiza, and it also helped him attend his training without taking multiple breaks.
"This is actually pretty hard," Liiza revealed while reading the book that described the [Blood Vortex]. "You need to adapt the mana to your surroundings and your body to make sure that they can build a connection. The marks act as vortexes and determine the position where the mana would eventually accumulate."
Liiza was sitting at the center of the bed, and Khan was glancing at the book from behind her shoulder. He was hugging her in one of their usual affectionate positions, but their attention was on the translated words on those yellowish pages.
"It's not a problem if you can't do it," Khan said in an emotionless tone.
"You won't get away so easily," Liiza laughed before leaving a kiss on his cheek. "I can do it. I only need to prepare a few things beforehand. Also, we can't do this when you have the lessons. You need to disperse the mana throughout your body once you exhaust the blood, and I believe you'll end up drained."
"I can't drink before the technique either," Khan read from the book. "I can ask Azni to help me skip the party in four days and add that time to the break from the lessons."
"Do you really want to spend less time with Doku and Azni?" Liiza asked while showing the affectionate smile that she had started to wear often in the last period. "They are already going among the trees earlier than usual."
"You are right," Khan sighed helplessly. "George is also spending a lot of time with Havaa, and I think I've seen Helen sneaking out to meet the guy from the meeting. You Niqols sure are something."
"The poor humans couldn't resist these exotic beauties," Liiza teased. "It would have been fun to drag you among the trees in front of everyone at least once."
"I wish we could have that," Khan said in a loving voice before tightening his embrace.
"I don't know if my mind could take so much happiness," Liiza whispered before snuggling closer.
The two remained in that position for a few seconds before moving to the next book. Their clothes would vanish in an instant if they lingered in that romantic moment any longer, and Liiza wanted to prioritize Khan's training.
The [Blood Shield] technique turned out to be easier than they had initially thought, and least when it came to the manipulation of mana since it always needed the same nature. Khan wouldn't need to adapt it to different environments or materials. The problem came from the other ingredients.
Khan needed to prepare materials that his body could digest so that their nutrients could reach his bloodstream. In theory, every substance could work. Some had an easier path to the circulatory system, especially when they went through enhancements with mana.
The first ingestion would unlock the ability to clot blood, which would require mana like every other technique. Meanwhile, the method's actual power came from how much the user nurtured it since the body would eventually expel the foreign substances.
The ability wouldn't disappear completely once those substances left the bloodstream. The technique had checkpoints that worked like levels. The ability's power couldn't go under the checkpoint after reaching it.
Curiosity filled Khan and Liiza when they read that the first level only needed the activation of the ability. Their eyes instinctively moved toward the tiny casket, and Khan didn't hesitate to pick it from the ground.
A bloody chunk of flesh appeared in the two's vision when Khan lifted the lid. The tiny piece of meat had a series of black lines running through its red structure. It seemed pretty fresh, but a strange smell came out of it.
"Do you think I can cook it?" Khan asked.
"I think you might incur the wrath of my ancestors if you did," Liiza replied.
Both of them had an acute sensitivity to mana. Khan and Liiza could quickly sense the modifications that the energy had applied to the chunk of flesh. They could even confirm that its nature matched the requirements described in the book.
"Your mother is so nice. She has even prepared the material for the first level," Khan commented.
"You are incurring my wrath now," Liiza scoffed.
"So," Khan exclaimed while picking the tiny chunk of flesh and taking it out of the casket, "Do I get a new ability if I eat this?"
"That's what the technique says," Liiza responded.
"I've eaten worse," Khan sighed before throwing the piece of meat in his mouth.
The flesh felt disgusting and squishy. There seemed to be something solid at its center, but Khan threw his head back and gulped before more sensations could spread from his mouth.
"How is it?" Liiza asked when she saw Khan showing a disgusted expression. "Do you feel anything?"
"I don't feel anything at all," Khan explained. "I bet this taste will remain in my mouth for an entire day."
Liiza gigged before laying her head on his shoulder. "That won't stop me from kissing you."
The two exchanged a loving gaze, but Khan suddenly felt unable to breathe. Pain spread from his belly and forced him to crouch, and a heavy sensation landed at the center of his chest.
Liiza called Khan's name, but she didn't dare to move him around. Backlashes could happen with the old methods, and painful sensations usually appeared during the most invasive procedures. Khan was trying to unlock a completely different technique, so it felt almost normal for him to have that reaction.
Air eventually managed to flow inside his lungs, but his belly and chest continued to hurt. Khan felt as if he had something dense clogging his blood vessels and organs. A foreign substance was invading him. He wanted to puke, but his stomach appeared sealed.
It took a few minutes, but his muscles slowly began to relax. His pain waned, and the heaviness that afflicted his chest grew lighter. He started to feel better, but he felt something off in his abdomen even after he managed to straighten his torso.
Liiza remained silent at his side while wearing a worried expression. She relaxed only when Khan took her hand, but she didn't dare to smile yet. Meanwhile, Khan closed his eyes to enter his meditative state and check what had happened to his insides.
Mana flowed normally. The recent procedure didn't change anything. Still, he found something off under his abdomen. He sensed a mass made of strange energy that was slowly adapting to his body.
Khan continued to meditate until the mass attuned to his body completely. It didn't feel solid, but it was dense enough to appear like that. Also, Khan found out that he could move it if he made mana flow inside it.
A tremor ran through Liiza when she saw Khan opening his eyes. She wanted to smile, but a frown appeared on her face before she could express her relief. Khan opened his robe and uncovered his chest without even glancing at her, and the sudden action made her wonder whether something was affecting his mind.
However, her frown transformed into a surprised expression when the blood vessels on the right side of Khan's chest became more visible and created a red spiderweb over his clear skin.Â
Khan touched that spot and remained surprised at its firmness. Those blood vessels appeared sturdier than his rib cage and activating that protection had taken nothing more than a thought. It wasn't hard at all to use the [Blood Shield].
"Why did you even abandon the old methods?" Khan couldn't help but ask while glancing at Liiza.
Liiza wore a condescending expression before raising her arm. Ice spread on her skin and created a beautiful, almost transparent shield that covered her forearm. She even showed how she could stretch or shrink that defense at will.
The [Blood Shield] felt obsolete in front of that flawless display of Liiza's manipulation ability. Her spell only required training and mana. It didn't involve any strange rituals and additional material. Moreover, it was safe, and her body accepted it easily since it matched her element.
Khan revealed a bright smile at that scene. He had understood what Liiza wanted to show him, but that almost lost meaning when he noticed that her manipulation ability had improved. She had managed to create that defense with basically no preparation.
"You have improved!" Khan shouted happily.
"Even faster than I expected," Liiza revealed while inspecting her shield shattering into a series of shards. "I think you are to blame for that. My mind has never been clearer."
"This poor Niqols couldn't resist my exotic beauty," Khan joked while taking a deep breath to inflate his chest.
"[I didn't even try]," Liiza said, and Khan stopped joking when he saw her biting her lower lip.
