“Dad, teach me the Energy Force,” said Lucky energetically.

“Woah!” Indra said in surprise. “Relax, Lucky. You’ve already got the hang of Weapon Force. Don’t push yourself.”

Lucky shook his head and said, “No, dad. I want to learn the Energy Force as well!”

He looked at him with great determination on his face. When he saw that, Indra had no choice but to go along with his son’s wishes.

“Fine,” said his father, and nodded in agreement.

He sighed to relax his mind and smiled as he began speaking to his son again.

“The application of Weapon Force and Energy Force are pretty much the same; you feel your energy and then you channel it out. For Weapon Force, you channel it into a weapon of your choice. As for Energy Force, you create a raw energy, like a physical manifestation of the energy in your hands.”

“What?” Lucky asked, looking surprised. “Energy Force is the physical form of my energy?”

His father nodded and said. “Yes. Watch.”

He gestured for his son to move away and extended his hand out with his palm open. His eyebrows and facial expression became serious as he began concentrating on the palm of his hand. Lucky watched in anticipation, expecting something to happen even though he had no idea what that something was.

A moment later, particles of light began to gather in the centre of Indra’s palm as he continued to concentrate on it. As he channelled his energy towards it, the particles of light quickly increased and came together from all around them. The wind began to blow a little quicker around them as the energy gathered in the palm of his hand.

“Wow,” muttered Lucky, staring at his father’s hand in awe where the energy was gathering.

It took a few seconds for many particles of light to gather before they formed into a small ball of glowing yellow light. Once it was done, Indra sighed deeply and held it out for his son to see.

“See this?” He asked his son with a pleasant smile. “This is an example of the form an Energy Force can take.”

“Wow.”

Lucky said that and walked forward, looking very intently at the formed ball of energy. He thought he could see the energy swirling around in inside the spherical structure that had formed around it. Just as he raised his hand and was about to touch it, when his Indra snapped at him.

“Stop!”

Lucky froze on the spot and looked at him in confusion, whereas Indra was looked concerned.

“Don’t touch it, Lucky,” he said, withdrawing his hand away from his son. “It contains a large quantity of energy that could really burn you if you’re not careful.”

“But, dad, you look fine,” replied Lucky curiously.

“I am because I am in control, but it’s not the same for you. You’re a foreign existence to this energy ball, and it only knows to destroy whatever it is that I aim it at. Watch.”

With that, he threw the ball against the ground a few meters away. As soon as it touched the ground, a small explosion occurred and smoked drifted into the air. For a moment, the adult and kid covered their noses and narrowed their eyes while the smoke spread and quickly vanished. Once it cleared, they walked over to the spot and saw a burn mark on the ground where the grass had been destroyed by the energy ball.

“See what I mean?” Indra asked his son, looking very seriously at him. “Of the three force types, Energy Force is the most dangerous one because there’s no safety net, you’re in charge of I and you must stay in control, otherwise, the whiplash would be catastrophic.”

“What do you mean, dad?” Lucky asked in confusion.

“Let me tell you a story of a guy who thought he could control the Energy Force and decided to show off only to end up killing himself. How? Very simple. He lost control,” his father said with a serious look on his face.

“It was during my training days in the capital of our Rodfox Kingdom that I learnt my fighting skills and energy techniques. During that time, there was a student who was quite talented and did his best to show off his skills to others ion a spectacular fashion. My master disapproved of his mentality and scolded him numerous times to be disciplined and in control, but the guy just ignored him.

So, one day, we were all training to use the Energy Force, and guess what? He succeeding in creating the same energy ball quicker than the rest of us. That guy sure was gifted, but his brain was stupid as hell because he got so overconfident that when people started praising him, he decided to show off by creating as big of an energy ball as he could. Ultimately, he achieved in making the largest energy ball in our training centre at that time but at a heavy price.”

He paused as he thought about the events of that day with a sad look on his face.

“What happened?” Lucky asked, unable to contain his curiosity.

“He lost control. It was the size of a large tree, and it was beyond what he was capable of handling. It was pulsating energy wildly as if it was going to explode, but we thought he was just showing off. But then we saw him desperately trying to control the energy and that’s when we knew it was dangerous situation. Master had all of his students evacuated and remained behind to do something about the energy.

Unfortunately, he was too late and an enormous explosion occurred, destroying the training centre and causing nearby buildings to collapse. Luckily, the only casualty was that show off that got killed by his own attack and caused injures to several people as well as property damages to some of the residents in the city. Since then, master had been very strict with his students and made sure such an accident would never happen again.”

Lucky remained silent and stared at his father in shock because of what he just heard.

“Wow,” said the Decisive Player in his mind. “That person must’ve been a real idiot or something.”

The kid nodded and asked, “So, dad, can I try it now?”

Indra looked hesitantly at his son and said, “I… I don’t know, Lucky. It might be dangerous for you right now.”

He was looking nervous at the thought of having his son try it out for the first time after remembering the nasty events of the past. Lucky saw this, and he knitted his eyebrows and spoke sharply to him.

“Dad!” He said, causing Indra to become startled. “You don’t want me to do it today, but I would have to eventually, so why delay it when I can do it now under your guidance instead of trying it on my own? What’s so wrong about that?”

Indra looked hesitant for a moment longer, unwilling to let his son do something dangerous, but at the same time, he wanted to give him a chance. When he looked into his son’s eyes and saw pure determination in them, he sighed and nodded in agreement.

“Okay, but be extra careful,” he warned his son anxiously.

Lucky nodded and smiled excitedly, ready to try the Energy Force out.

“Okay. So, hold out your hand and focus your on mind into thinking of gathering your energy in the middle of your palm.”

Following his father’s explanation, Lucky held his hand out and closed his eyes momentarily to feel his energy. Once he did, he reopened his eyes and knitted his eyebrows in seriousness as he focused on making the energy channel into the palm of his hand.

For a moment, nothing happened, but he was undeterred as he continued focusing on his hand. A moment later, he noticed that many particles of light began to gather around in the palm of his hand to form the energy ball like they did for his father.

As he smiled happily, he heard the Decisive Player say warningly, “Stay focused. You can smile once this is over.”

“I know, but I’m succeeding, right?” Lucky thought back happily.

However, the Decisive Player did not share his emotion and warned, “Don’t celebrate too soon because anything could happen. Stay focused, keep concentrating, and do it slowly. No rush. This isn’t an exam.”

Lucky nodded wordlessly and focused his mind entirely on the control of the energy ball that was slowly forming in his hand. It took a few seconds longer than it did for his father before the gathered particles of energy took on the shape of a sphere.

“Yes!” Lucky shouted in triumph at succeeding on his first try. He looked at his father and said, “See, dad! I did it!”

Indra was stunned to see his son succeed on his first attempt before a broad smile appeared on his face.

“That’s awesome, Lucky! You’re awesome!” Indra shouted happily.

As the father and son cheered, Lucky suddenly heard the Decisive Player say sharply, “Lucky! Watch out!”

At his exclamation, Lucky looked at his hand and was shocked to see the energy ball was pulsating dangerously as if it was going to explode. He could hear a small whistling sound coming emanating from it as if something was happening to it.

“It’s going to explode!” The Decisive Player shouted inside his mind. When Lucky frozen in shock, the Decisive Player instructed him, “Quickly! Throw it into the air as far as you can, Lucky! Do it now!”

At those words, Lucky snapped out of his shock and gripped the energy ball tightly before launching it high into the air with all his might. It flew high into the air and appeared to travel several meters away before a large explosion occurred, causing a loud thunder to occur and made them brace themselves against the gust of wind that buffeted against them.

The explosion alerted everyone in the house, and it was much louder than the explosion when his father dropped his ball of energy on the grass. Thus, this alerted Lakshmi, Mariana, and Sumara and caused them to hurry outside with anxious looks on their faces.

“What happened?!” Lakshmi exclaimed, looking shocked and very worried.

Sumara did not react immediately, she simply looked up at the cloud drifting several meters away and understood what had happened. Then she shifted her gaze at her student, who was eying the smoke with a look of amazement on his face.

“Is that the Energy Force? Was that your doing, Lucky?” She asked him in a cool voice.

At her question, he turned to look at her in surprise before he meekly replied, “Yes.”

His reply made his mother become very concerned and made her turn angrily to face Indra.

“What do you think you’re doing teaching my son something so dangerous?!”

“It was just the Energy Force!” Indra replied, trying to defend himself while looking worriedly at his son. “It was fine just moments ago, but then it suddenly started going out of control.”

“He could’ve been killed!” His wife shouted at him.

“Nothing happened, alright?!” He retorted, becoming angry with her shouting at him unfairly. “I was going to make my move and throw it away, but Lucky is a smart kid! He reacted before me, which goes to show he’s pretty good! So, instead of scolding us, praise him, okay? He’s done a good job of controlling his energy so far.”

Lakshmi realised what she was doing and quickly turned to look worriedly at her son. Sure enough, Lucky was looking nervously at her because this was his first time witnessing his mother become so angry to the point that she was shouting at his father. Seeing the look of fear in his eyes, Lakshmi felt distraught and cursed herself for losing her cool and showing such emotions in front of her son, leading to him getting scared of her.

“Lucky,” she said gently, moving hesitantly towards him.

She was worried that because of his fear for her, he might reject her. However, he stood there and watched her come closer with the same look of fear in his eyes. Once she reached him, the mother knelt down and placed both of her hands on his shoulders, which shook slightly as if he was expecting her to hit him or something.

“Lucky,” she said again, speaking in a gentle voice. “I’m sorry for hurting you.”

“Huh?” He said, reacting in surprise to her sudden apology. Nervously, he asked her, “Y-You’re not angry at me, mom?”

“Of course not!” She replied in an instant. “I was worried about you. I got worried that you might’ve been hurt because of your stupid dad.”

While Indra looked aghast at the blame being put on him, Lucky was surprised before he shook his head to deny his mother’s claim.

“It’s not dad’s fault, mom. I forced him to teach me,” he said to his mother bravely.

Since he knew his mother was not really angry at him, he felt he could speak truthfully to her. Sure enough, she looked surprised and looked as if she would get angry at him. However, her expression slowly changed as she sighed and decided to not scold her son because of something like this.

“Didn’t your dad try and stop you?” She asked curiously.

Lucky nodded and said, “He did, but I said I have to learn it someday, so it’s better I learn it now under his guidance since he told me how dangerous it was. Dad told me what happened to a student training at the same centre as him.”

This surprised his mother, because she had assumed that he did it without knowing the consequences.

“You still wanted to learn it even after knowing what happened to that student? Why?”

Lucky hesitated for a second before stating firmly, “I wanted to become strong, mom, and be an independent warrior. Yesterday, I found out that I was very weak and couldn’t defend myself, and I realised I can’t always have father protecting me. Dad was right. One day, I will grow and be an independent man, so what should I do then if I don’t put all of my efforts now to grow and be the best that I could possibly become?”

Lakshmi was stunned to hear the emotional words of her son and understood the reasoning behind it. As a mother of a single son, she was worried for her only son’s safety and did not want him to face any kind of trouble. However, she also knew the world they lived in was a cruel one, where monsters existed and people did horrible things to each other.

They lived in an unpredictable society, and the only way for someone to survive against such a wild reality was to be strong and brave. That was the sole reason that she and her husband were able to afford their home and live peacefully without having to come in contact with others on a regular basis. That was why they had Lucky study at home so he would not get mixed up in the muddy schooling system that was run in the town.

As everyone fell silence, Sumara looked at her student and asked, “Do you truly want to become as strong as you could possibly get? So strong that no one can defeat you and that you wouldn’t be a burden to anyone?”

“Yes!”

Lucky had replied with a firm look on his face and also nodded in assent.

The Demon woman looked him for a moment in silence before she turned to his father.

“Sir, when you decide to teach him this technique, do please call me as well since I may be able to provide extra support in case something like this were to happen again.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” she said and smiled confidently at him. “If it gets dangerous, I can simply use my wind magic to carry the ball out of the way, shield him from harm's way. There are many options once you start looking at them,” and she winked at him.

He was amazed by her suggestion and realised it was for the best. So, he nodded and accepted her assistance in future training sessions with his son. Nodding in agreement, Sumara turned and smiled at her student before she headed back inside.

A while later, Lucky finished his morning training and went upstairs get a change of clothes from his room to wear after having his bath. While he was in his room rummaging through his clothes, he heard the Decisive Player speak to him.

“Your teacher is a wonderful person, isn’t it?”

“She is.”

“She was worried about you, but since your mother took on that role, she was calm and decided to do something about the situation. So, she decided to help you out even though it was not part of her agreement as your magic tutor.”

“Well, she is a nice person,” said Lucky with a light chuckle. Then he added, “Plus, she is my teacher so she would be worried about my safety and help me along with my growth, right?”

To that question, the Decisive Player fell silent for a few seconds before responding with, “Yes, but she is more than that; she’s one of the Nine Destiny Queens.”