'Just... huff... a bit... huff... more...'
Alex sat in the same meditative position, sweat covering every nook and crevice of his body.
It had been an hour since he had started practising his Heart of the Phoenix technique, a drastic improvement since the first time he had learned it.
And now, he was nearing in on breaking through to stage 1.
He had already moved the chaotic energy from his head down to his neck, and now all he had to do was move all of the accumulated energy in his neck down to his heart, and then the breakthrough should be completed.
On the side, Mira was still watching intently, like she had been doing the whole time, waiting to see if Alex made any slip ups.
She was hoping he wouldn't, but he had already gotten past the most concerning part of moving the energy away from his brain, so the likelihood of turning into a vegetable was drastically weakened.
But it was still a small possibility, so she stayed focused.
After another 10 minutes, Alex was at the final stretch.
He could feel the intense feeling of all his energy pooling up inside his chest, specifically inside his heart.
And he was just about to finish moving the last strand of energy, completing the process.
'And.... Complete!'
He let out a deep breath of exhaustion as a smile plastered across his face.
The feeling of accomplishing something you set out to do was always a blissful feeling.
However, just as he was about to stand up and announce the good news to Mira, he felt something strange.
Specifically, he felt something strange inside his body.
Something... hot.
'What is this? What's happening??'
On its own, the newly created ball of energy in his heart started revolving, increasing in its acceleration with each revolution.
It only took it a few seconds before it reached incredible speeds, but this wasn't good news for Alex.
The ball of energy was situated in his heart, the second most delicate organ in his body.
It was already under a lot of strain after he had just completed the first stage of the technique, and it hadn't had enough time to stabilise and recuperate before this strange phenomenon started.
But there was nothing she could do.
"P-Please don't die!"
Tears started streaming down her face as she watched the horrific scene going on before her eyes.
But there was still a tiny little bit of hope left in her heart.
She pulled out her communicator, and called a number in her list of contacts.
Ring....
Ring....
Ring....
It took her four attempts at calling to get through to the person on the other side.
"M-Mr Principal, please help! It's Alex... Please help.... Please...."
She had called the Principal of Capital Prime, one of the most esteemed figures in the entire federation.
Nobody knew this, not even Alex, but the Principal had given her his own private number to call after the announcements surrounding the new war plans had been made.
After the emergency meeting regarding the declaration of war by the Alien race, everyone had dispersed.
But when Mira arrived back at her dorm, she found the Principal sitting on her couch, eating a bag of chips.
She couldn't process what was happening at first, but the Principal explained it to her as simply and vaguely as he could.
He told her that her talent, Call of the Void, would become extremely vital at some point in the war, but he didn't tell her the reasons for it.
He only ended the short conversation between them with that, and he handed her the half eaten bag of chips, before disappearing from her sight completely just a moment later.
The Principal didn't give her a reason or any instructions about calling him, and she didn't care anything about that at the moment, as she just wanted Alex to live.
And when the Principal saw the state Alex was in through the holographic video on the other side, even he was shocked.
The other important figures in the meeting he was in all looked on at him with annoyance, as his communicator rang four times, disturbing them, and now he had just taken a call while they were in an important meeting regarding the plans for dealing with this Alien race.
But they couldn't speak up, as the Principal was the most forefront authority in that room, and they could only sigh in resignation when they saw him disappear from his seat.
"I guess we'll end the meeting here. Let's reconvene tomorrow, when the Principal deals with whatever this is that's come up."