They were headed towards the sa abandoned stretch of rusted warehouses and cracked asphalt where everything had changed yesterday.
"You didn’t cause any incidents at ho?" West asked.
Jax coughed.
"...Define incident."
West stopped walking.
"Jax."
"Okay maybe I frosted the floor a little."
West pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Can you regulate it?"
"I think so?"
West stared at him.
"That’s not confidence."
Jax inhaled and focused, reaching inward.
He found the three branches.
The first felt thick, heavy and cold while the second was thinner but sharper... the third on the other hand, seed sowhat unstable.
He concentrated and soon the chill radiating from him, receded.
West nodded.
"Better."
They reached the abandoned industrial lot.
Steel beams jutted from broken concrete while rusted containers were stacked haphazardly.
Just as desired, there were no witnesses.
West turned to him.
"Show ."
Jax blinked.
"Show you what?"
"Anything."
Jax swallowed.
He extended his hand awkwardly.
"Okay uh... frost thing?"
He focused on the thickest branch, imagining cold, containnt and then release.
The air around his palm distorted a bit as a thin spiral of icy vapor ford, condensed and shot forward in a narrow blast.
It hit a tal drum.
CRACK~
The drum frosted over instantly as a spiderweb of ice raced across its surface.
Then—
BOOM!
The drum split down the middle as expanding ice forced it apart.
Jax stared at the ruined tal silently while West’s eyes narrowed.
"Again."
Jax grinned wildly.
"Oh hell yes."
This ti he pulled from the second branch and the sensation felt different...
He stomped the ground and ice erupted outward in rough spikes from beneath the asphalt, ripping through concrete in a five-ter radius.
He stumbled back.
"WOAH—okay that one’s aggressive."
West stepped forward, examining the ice formation.
It was dense and very solid.
He looked back at Jax.
"You awakened a frost-based bloodline."
Jax’s grin nearly split his face.
"Say that again."
West ignored him and stepped closer, placing a hand near Jax’s abdon.
A text flickered across his vision.
West’s brows lifted slightly. "Glacial Sovereign? Interesting."
He looked at Jax again.
"How many abilities can you access?"
"I don’t know! How do I check that?!"
"Feel for imprints. Techniques that don’t feel like yours."
Jax closed his eyes and dove inward once more.
He could feel the three branches and behind them were... patterns...
Like frozen sigils carved into the core of each branch.
"I see... sothing," he murmured.
He focused on the first imprint and his body temperature dropped sharply.
The air around him crystallized.
A faint armor of translucent ice ford over his forearms.
West’s eyes sharpened.
"Defense type."
Jax swung his arm around but the ice didn’t crack.
"Oh that’s clean."
He shifted to the second imprint.
The ground beneath him trembled slightly.
A circular field of frost expanded outward, lowering temperature in a steady radius.
It was a suppression field that raised his capabilities and reduced the mobility of everyone else around him.
Jax hesitated at the third imprint.
"This one feels... heavy."
West stepped back instinctively.
"Careful."
Jax nodded as he tapped into it lightly.
The sky above them seed to dim for a split second.
A thin shard of concentrated ice ford above Jax’s palm... like a glacial crystal.
West’s instincts warned him of danger...
"Stop."
But his yell ca too late.
Thoooommm~
The Glacial crystal shot forward with intensity and slamd into the other end of the wall, burrowing cleanly through it and leaving a burst of ice that spread across the east walls of the abandoned industrial site.
A scream was heard on the other end, causing Jax’s face contort a bit.
"Oooof..."
They both stepped towards the hole on the other end and through the gap, they could see that the Glacial Crystal had burrowed its way into another building about twenty feet away.
A large chunk of the building was now covered in ice.
"Yeah we’re just gonna have to pretend like that we had nothing to do with that..." Jax voiced with a high pitched panicky tone.
"Be careful with that," West warned.
"You don’t gotta tell twice," Jax voiced while tip toeing away.
"You have three branches so it automatically makes you more powerful than regular tier 1 awakened," West stated.
"Huh... tell more about this,"
Jax stood in the middle of the industrial lot, staring at the cracked asphalt and split tal drum like he had just unlocked a cheat code in reality.
West stood opposite him with his arms folded, analyzing.
"Let’s break it down properly," West said calmly.
Jax wiped his hands on his jeans even though they weren’t dirty.
"Okay professor, hit ."
"At Tier 1, with a bloodline awakening, one branch grants access to two abilities connected to that bloodline."
Jax nodded.
"That tracks."
"With two branches, you’d have access to four abilities at Tier 1."
"Which sounds illegal."
"With three branches..."
West paused slightly.
"It should be spectacular."
Jax’s grin widened.
"Spectacular is my brand."
West gave him a flat look.
"Yet you can only access three abilities right now."
Jax’s grin faded a little.
"Yeah... I can feel more. It’s like they’re there. Just... locked... my third branch especially feels very thin... unlike the other two..."
"Your mastery is insufficient," West said. "The branches exist, but you don’t fully control them yet. You’ll need to deepen your resonance with the bloodline before the remaining abilities unlock."
Jax flexed his fingers again and a faint mist ford.
"So I basically speedran awakening and now I have to grind."
"Yes."
"Okay. I can grind."
West nodded.
This was already more than he had hoped for...
Not only had he confird that he could awaken others, he had created his first mber...
The first pillar of what would beco sothing larger.
But to officially establish a gang under awakened law, there needed to be at least three registered awakeners.
Two wasn’t enough.
He needed a third.
Soone trustworthy... and that was a much harder problem.
West turned.
"Let’s go. We’re already late."
Jax blinked.
"Oh yeah. School."
They walked toward the bus stop, both unusually quiet.
Jax eventually broke it.
"So... we’re actually doing this?"
"Yes."
"You’re building your own gang."
"Yes."
"And I’m like... Vice President of Frost?"
West didn’t respond.
Jax grinned.
"Okay but I’m definitely designing the logo."
"You are not."
---
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