“Alone and faced with impossible odds, the Warrior made his last stand at the portal. While the Expeditionary Shock Force from the Resplendent Suns retreated from the Far Horizon, the lone Eclipse held the portal against a host of Locust Court warriors for seventy-three hours before reinforcements arrived. Though the name of the heroine of the Dire Portal battle has been lost, her deeds will never be forgotten.”
I tried to imagine that battle and couldn’t see it. Even with a fusion blade and serpents, one Eclipse Warrior would have been torn apart by so many enemies. There had to have been some technique known only to those with an Eclipse core. Something that would allow them to survive a horde. I made a note to look for that, later, and went on with my research.
After the Dire Portal conflict, the handful of Eclipse Warriors that had remained on Earth were kept on military bases or in research labs. And then they’d been betrayed by the people they’d saved.
Frustrated by what little I’d been able to unravel of my real clan’s past, I headed to the bed. I sat cross-legged on the mattress, the Manual in my lap, my hands on its cover, and began focused breathing to initiate my meditation.
The process was difficult at first. My Eclipse nature was built for action and didn’t like the quiet introspection of meditation. Even with the Manual nearby, it took me most of an hour to settle into the calm rhythms that pushed jinsei through my core in steady pulses that cleansed my aura and emptied my thoughts of worries and fears. In the darkness behind my closed eyelids, I filled my core a little more with each inhale-and-exhale cycle. The sacred energy pushed against the walls of my core, swelling it, pushing it to capacity.
My Eclipse nature roused itself and demanded I do something with all that power. It wanted to hunt and kill. There were enemies out there that needed to be destroyed.
Rafael.
Professor Ishigara.
Hagar.
The jinsei I’d gathered during meditation fueled the urge to lash out at those who’d wronged me. Before I could stop myself, I shoved the Manual off my lap and lurched to my feet next to the bed. I made it halfway to the stairs before I regained control of my body and froze in my tracks.
“No,” I said, loud and clear. “I’m in charge here, not you.”
My Eclipse nature raged at the words and nearly broke free again. The jinsei at its disposal made it so strong.
With a shout of frustration, I forced the jinsei out of my core and into my body’s channels. I poured it through my aura and into powerful serpents. My fusion blade consumed more of the sacred energy, leaving my core only half full.
That was better. My Eclipse nature receded into the shadows at the back of my thoughts. Satisfied my darker self wasn’t going to rip free of my control and go on a rampage, I banished my serpents and blade and flopped back down on the bed, frustrated and worried.
I’d struggled with this all summer. To advance my core, I had to fill it with jinsei beyond its limits. But when I tried to do that, my Eclipse nature forced its way to the surface. Every time I thought I was close to a breakthrough, I had to break off my meditation and fight back the urge to do something horrible. It was a frustrating cycle that I didn’t know how to break free from.
The problem tumbled through my thoughts as the light of the afternoon sun faded from golden red to the velvet purple of dusk. I was still no closer to an answer and closed my eyes to rest them. Just for a moment...
A shrill bleating exploded next to my head. The sound jolted me upright, and I bounced off the mattress and onto the floor in a fighting stance. My Eclipse core churned inside me, eager to fight off whatever had surprised it. Serpents burst from my core, and my fusion blade appeared in my hand unbidden.
The alarm clock on the nightstand next to the bed unleashed another shrill tone, and I groaned. I’d fallen asleep.
It took me a few moments to figure out how to shut off the alarm clock, by which time I was ready to kill the thing. At least I’d never have to worry about oversleeping and missing class with that obnoxious noise blasting in my ear.
“Five in the morning?” I groaned. Who had set my alarm clock for such an ungodly hour?
A dull booming echoed through the cottage. I went to the front window of the second floor and peered out through the glass. The booming repeated, and a faint flash of yellow-green light washed across the terrain outside my cozy little home. I couldn’t see through the trees, but I instinctively understood the origin of the noise came from someone banging on my door.
“Ugh,” I growled. The rich meal from the day before had left me feeling sluggish. I wanted to crawl back into bed and sleep off the meat hangover.
The booming came again.
“I’m coming,” I grumbled.
I shrugged out of the robe I’d fallen asleep in and crossed to the closet. There were a dozen robes inside, and I flicked through them to find something suitable.
Three of the robes were long and formal, my name scrivened down the left lapel in glowing thread and the words “School Champion” embroidered down the right lapel. A double string of glossy black buttons ran from the high-collared throat all the way down to the hemline. Fancy, but impractical.
The next three robes were still long, but the buttons only went down to the waist, and they had a pair of matching black pants, perfect for more casual occasions.
The next group of three robes
