"I'm falling? That strange experience from earlier caused me to fall?" With a confused expression, Astra asked herself as she now stared at the balcony that was slowly drifting away from her.
It looked as if the Cyberpunk-esque world was turning in on her as she rapidly was drawn to the ground.
With a sigh, she recollected herself and rubbed her eyes.
"I have to think about such things later. I'm not in a good situation right now…"
"How do I get out of this? If I hit the ground, what exactly do I say to the bystanders? That I was sleepwalking and fell out of the balcony?"
"Despite how accurate it is, it's still pretty embarrassing…"
While thinking such thoughts, Astra positioned her body and arms so that she could fall into a nearby bush, one where there weren't a lot of people around.
This maneuvering of her body is what she had learnt from the training at the construction company.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, Astra had felt that the direction of the winds that battered her body had reversed completely.
In fact, in a peculiar motion, she had flown upwards towards the crescent-shaped balcony!
It was as if she was flying upwards, her body flailing through the air—the spherical blue light following her like it was attached to her body.
"Huh?" Baffled, Astra let out a sound of confusion as she noticed that she was now level with her balcony.
Not even a second later, she began to plummet again.
"I see…so that's how it is." The moment she fell, she immediately had an understanding of her situation.
Perfectly mimicking the same movements she did before, she allowed herself to plummet.
As she did, her body jumped up through the air again as if someone had suddenly thrown her upwards.
This time, she was at a level higher than her balcony.
Controlling her body, she tucked her knees in as she rolled through the air like she was performing a front flip.
Pa!
With a slight gust of wind, she gracefully landed on her crystalline balcony. Standing upright, she turned around and walked to the edge of the railing and looked down—the spherical blue light finally resting at an angle above her head.
The wind still blew softly, slightly ruffling her starry purple pajamas and swaying her curled golden strands.
"It was as I expected. The breaking of the seal gave me powers from the First Dimension. For that specific ability, it appeared to be a reversal of the direction of motion, almost like a negative transformation of a vector." Astra muttered to herself as she stared at the visibly confused people on the ground near the trees.
Shortly after she said those words, Astra felt as if a migraine had ruptured through her head.
It was similar to the pain she felt when she first was transported to this world, where an influx of information about the Dreamurian language entered her head.
"Oh!" Holding her head with her hand, her eyes suddenly widened as information about strange concepts and powers entered her head.
These powers were:
1. The ability to change the direction of anything in motion as long as they were in contact with the user.
2. The ability to manipulate the inertia of oneself to increase/decrease the speed or mass of the user by up to fifty percent.
3. The ability to see the world as a three-dimensional grid, and to see the effects on the grid of all objects in the grid. This can be activated by any means, as per the user's choice.
4. Enhanced physical capabilities by over one hundred percent, and enhanced senses by over thirty percent. Balance and bodily control are enhanced by sixty percent.
5. Enhanced memory and analytical skills along with fundamental knowledge of physics and mathematical concepts.
Narrowing her eyes, Astra chuckled.
"These powers sure are interesting. I guess this means that I am a Celestial now, despite the fact that I failed that ritual…" She almost silently said to herself with a tone of amusement.
"As for the powers themselves, while they are definitely extraordinary, they aren't anything too crazy compared to what I've seen. This seems to correspond to the abilities of an Awakened from the First Dimension."
Astra then placed her hand to her chin as she thought about the ability to see the world as a mathematical grid.
"Activated by any means through the user's choice…does that mean that I can choose how to activate it?"
"This is consistent with what James had told me about the application of the powers of these dimensions."
"Speaking of James, I think it's best to hide this information from them for now, at least until they decide to begin the ritual again."
"No. I'm pretty sure those guys have some way of figuring such things out. Hiding it from them won't do any good. As for how they'll react…"
"They wouldn't be too surprised, given what happened with me earlier. They won't start an investigation, but they will keep an eye on me. Ah well." Astra sulked inwardly.
"Anywho. As for right now, I'll try to understand my abilities and how they work." While lifting her head from the edge of the translucent railing, she turned around and began to walk to go inside of her apartment as the spherical blue light continued to follow her.
"Strangely, the information given to me doesn't mention the unease I've been feeling whenever I'm in some sort of danger. I had expected that it was related to the First Dimension somehow…"
"No." Astra corrected herself, finally walking into the futuristic yet dreamy living room of her apartment. A barrier of violet light slid down, closing off the apartment from the balcony.
"I'm guessing that the unease is related to the First Dimension, but it's in some other way…"
Astra sighed as she moved her head to the side in an exaggerated motion.
"I'm not too surprised though. I always knew that the heavens would involve extremely complex matters."
Lifting her head up, she intensified her gaze onto the sofa as she approached it. She then allowed herself to drop on the soft surface, her back and lower body sinking into the absorbent leather.
"The heavens, and complex matters…" Taking in the dreamy ambiance and the faint fog of air conditioning, she reflected on what happened in her subconscious space.
"Why did those objects react that way? If that place is supposed to be a safe haven in my subconscious, why was my body rapidly dissipating…? Better yet, if my physical body was inside that space, what would've happened if I never left…?" Without forming a mental image in her head, Astra asked herself a series of reasonable questions.
"No…I can't be thinking about such things in the real world. I'd have to wait until I ask Kayla. I would assume she'd know the most about things like this, even if she's not fully aware of the seals."
"Or, at the very least, I can wait until I break enough seals where I'm able to clearly see those things to figure out what's up with them. Of course, it has to be done with utmost caution."
Turning her head to the right side, she looked at the TV that took up half of the wall.
With a thought, she made the TV turn on as its light instantly pierced through the faint fog of her space—outshining the holographic projections.
The TV showed the dark silhouettes of a forest under the embrace of the night sky and the Milly Way Galaxy. The violet moon was clearly visible, but it was intertwined with the time, which was 9:02 PM.
"So time moves normally in that space also…" Astra muttered as her pupils reflected the display of the TV screen.
"Now that I think about it," She looked towards the starry, shifting ceiling. "What would happen exactly if I entered that space in a dire situation?"
"Nope, I'm not sure that can work." She instantly dismissed the thought. "Even though my body is corporeal in there, it doesn't mean that my physical body isn't there in the real world."
After staring at the ceiling for some time, she decided to get up to test her new abilities as an Awakened.
To do this, she went to her bedroom to pick up the bruised purple sweater which still had many marks—including traces of hardened blood—on it.
She went back to her spacious living room and stood in the middle of the sunken area as she turned the purple sweater into a ball.
With an apathetic expression, she cocked her arm back and threw the sweater at the TV.
Whoosh!
It swished through the air, violently parting away the faint traces of fog that were present in the room.
The moment it was about to hit the television screen, it immediately moved in the opposite direction without stopping.
It was now heading straight towards Astra!
Still staring at the purple sweater, she allowed it to pierce through the air to reach her—to the point where she could've even felt the wind blow her hair back.
In that instant, it had turned to the right in a strange manner, as if an invisible hand had pushed it in that direction.
"Exactly as described. It's pretty straightforward. An invisible force is applied to change the direction of the vector…" Astra kept changing the direction of the purple sweater as her mind analyzed her observations.
"Since there's no name given to me for this, I'll call it Direction Manipulation!"
As she finished that thought, she allowed the purple sweater ball to be sent into her hands, as if she had summoned it.
"Next."
Taking a somewhat deep breath, she used her second ability to decrease the inertia of her body.
As she did so, she felt a lot lighter—as if the smallest breeze would be able to knock her over.
As if she was expecting such a reaction, she slowly moved her leg in a normal stepping motion.
"Woah!" The moment she had done that, her body had moved peculiarly, as if it was losing its balance.
This was because she had moved a few meters in a single step!
"Okay, so that's a bit hard to control. Maybe decreasing my inertia at the limit isn't a good idea right now…" Astra said as she made her body return back to normal.
Afterwards, she increased her inertia by fifty percent. Her body felt like the air had suddenly turned into liquid, and that every movement now needed a lot more effort.
"It's not as exaggerated as the decrease." She said as she allowed her inertia to go back to its normal state.
"In a battle situation, I can see the applications for both an increase and a decrease. A decrease can be used for speed and agility, while an increase can be used for primarily defensive purposes. Maybe even for offensive purposes in some cases…"
"In any case, I think a good name for this ability is Inertial Surge."
Astra then had her mind on the third ability.
Already having an idea of "this can be activated by any means, as per the user's choice", she pinched one of the strands that were at her side, twirling them in the process.
This was because Astra had made this pinching movement the activation method for this ability.
As Astra twirled her hair, she immediately saw the living room—no, the world—get covered by a three dimensional grid.
Lines representing the x,y and z axis inundated the space, piercing through each and every object—which had geometrical faces which were also made out of these lines.
It had looked as if the entire world was now a game, a simulation.
Not only that, but the subtle effects of the objects had also shown itself on this grid. For example, the faint movements of air had made the lines on the grid look wavy.
Because of this, Astra could see and discern even the smallest details and changes from the surroundings.
It didn't take too long for her to get used to this, since her usual vision was already enhanced.
She chuckled, twirling her hair strand again to turn the ability off.
"Hehe, I guess I'll call this ability Geometrical Vision."
With a smile, she began talking to herself about the second to last change to her body.
"There's no real way for me to test my physical and sensory enhancements currently. I'll have to wait until I eventually do training."
As for the fifth change, she didn't feel any difference. This was natural, since her memory and analytical skills were already perfect. She also didn't gain any new knowledge about math or physics concepts, since her expertise in both subjects are far above even the college professor level.
Now that she was done testing her abilities, she took another deep breath. However this time, it was more exaggerated, like she had been tired after running a marathon around the world.
After all, in her eyes, she might as well have been running a marathon.
Her memories flashed back to the time where she saved Mia, where she had almost died to Omar…
The time where she saw the darkness shift, revealing monsters inside her own house…
The time where she failed the ritual, and where she felt an indescribable amount of pain due to it…
Even then, Astra had felt like she had only just started this marathon.
Her lips curled up regardless. Smiling, she stared at the television as it showed the beautiful scenery of the night sky. The pale, blue dot of light still stood slightly above her like it was a part of the audience.
Despite her lips being curled up, she had felt a strange feeling in her stomach; it was as if butterflies were in it.
At the same time, a wave of relief was continuously crashing onto her mind.
These conflicting emotions amalgamated, making Astra say the words:
"I'm finally a Celestial."
"One step closer…"
She said with no hesitation, as if she had already completely digested the weight of her proclamation.