~The peace and security experienced by the humans during this period would soon be discovered to be a façade. A dream that never was, hope that wasn't real, truth that never existed. They lived, fed, and slept like crops, awaiting HARVEST~
YEAR: UNKNOWN
LOCATION: UNKNOWN
The eerie silence, chilly atmosphere, dark surroundings, all these things were being processed by Tenny's already saturated brain. "I can't believe I'm actually on a friggin alien planet!" His thoughts screamed aloud as his mind raced.
As though he read through his mind, Michael smiled in response.
"Don't get too excited, this is nothing. Just stay focused... Like I said earlier, the Harbingers don't know that the Gate is fully operational, however as wild creatures of habit and persistence, they would be checking on the Gate occasionally so it shouldn't take them long."
They had snuck in when the guard of the beasts was down, so that they could catch them by surprise and finish them off. Tenny had thought it madness when Michael declared they were venturing into the Gate, but he reassured himself that with his brother taking the lead along with his newfound powers, he'd be fine.
Michael, however, was not too sure of himself. Since traveling to the past, he had lost almost all his extracted abilities. Even at the moment, he had only regained barely 1 percent of the abilities he had in the ruined world. This made him uncertain of the outcome of annihilating every single Harbinger in the nest, should they be aware of his presence. The only way he could secure total victory was to be cautious, avoid rash moves and catch them off guard, though he didn't like it.
"Stick close to me. I can't guarantee your safety if you stray too far from my location" Michael spoke to Tenny who was slowing down while taking in the view of the world they were in.
The skies were gray and black, no source of moonlight or celestial radiation could be seen, making everywhere dark. The only thing that prevented complete loss of sight for Tenny was the sensory aspect of his Ability. As for Michael, when Tenny had asked how he was faring in the darkness he had said, while smiling;
"Don't worry, I can see clear as day, no, even better."
Tenny reasoned that his vision must have indeed been extraordinary as he was able to notice every detail in his fight with the Harbinger a while back.
He also seemed pretty comfortable and confident of his sight. So far Tenny had seen Michael use three different abilities, one for healing Tenny's serious wounds, one for forcefully activating his abilities, and the Night vision ability he was displaying at the moment.
"How many more abilities does he possess?" Tenny found himself asking in awe.
Though he reasoned it couldn't be much at present since he only had 1 percent of his cumulative abilities at the moment.
Suddenly Michael stopped moving and signaled Tenny to halt. Instantly, the latter halted, looking around in slight fear. However, the moment Tenny looked at Michael's seemingly broad back, the nervousness that was enveloping him suddenly faded away.
Michael looked back at Tenny, and suddenly words began to enter his mind.
"Don't be startled, this is one of my abilities." Tenny could hear his brother's voice in his head, and his tensed self calmed down.
"Up ahead, 30 meters from us are a group of eleven VampCyclops. They have a good sense of sight, as you have noticed. If we move from here, we'll be exposed and one might alert the others." Michael continued, giving a grave tone in his telepathic voice.
Tenny had lots of things going on in his mind.
"VampCyclops?"
That was the name of the type of Harbinger that attacked him, and now eleven of them were approaching them. Tenny wasn't certain he could defeat one, especially in their home turf.
"Relax" Michael's voice appeared in his mind again.
"This ability works as a one-way channel, so I can't read your mind, though I have a pretty good guess what your thoughts are. I'll handle those guys. Immediately I move from my location, move to where I'm staying now, and lay low."
Before Tenny could think, Michael was no longer in sight. Noticing this, he hurried to Michael's previous location... but Tenny didn't stop there. He kept moving forward. He wasn't going to miss his chance to see his brother fight.
Quickly blinking, he teleported to just 7 meters away from the enemy, enough to stay out of sight and hide. He saw Michael approach the group casually, and then they noticed him.
"GURRUUUUKKKKHHH!" The Harbingers growled.
The startled group, taken by surprise, made a preemptive attempt to react. Lunging at Michael's small gait in comparison to theirs, their claws and jaws were ready to devour their prey.
However... before they could succeed, Michael suddenly snapped his thumb and middle fingers, Instantly creating a mild vibration which caused all eleven of them to cease movement.
Even Tenny couldn't move as he felt a numb feeling coursing through his body and his brain thudding as though on the verge of collapse.
"W-what is...." He couldn't complete his thoughts as the overwhelming sensation seemed to grow more unbearable.
That was when he heard Michael's voice clearly from his lips.
"You fools might be confused at this moment. You ask yourselves 'why won't our bodies do what we want'... And 'why do our brains feel like breaking apart?'. Poor insignificant souls, let me free you from your shackles of ignorance before sending you off to oblivion. It's my ability, 'NERVE CORROSION', and it forcefully ceases all voluntary action carried out throughout your body through your brain. Using the sound generated by snapping my fingers, and amplifying the vibrations, it forcefully severs your brain's communication with your auxiliary nerves and ultimately your entire bodily functions cease, overloading your brain with information it can't process. The most interesting aspect though... is that within a period of five minutes, any living being affected by it...will die."
The cyclops immediately fell, one after the other until none were left standing, unable to resist the compelling force that turned their brains to mush.
"Well, I guess for senseless animals like yourselves, it'll take merely a few seconds till death. My apologies for overestimating your capabilities. " He grinned in mockery as he displayed a sadistic look.
Tenny was still paralyzed and his brain kept screaming in pain. He was going to die in a few moments.
"The shortest range of this ability is 10 meters, and that's why I told my idiot brother to wait for me for his own safety, but instead he comes rushing in, and finds himself on the brink of death once again," Michael said smiling, looking towards Tenny's direction.
He snapped his fingers again, and Tenny's body went back to normal, though he still felt a lingering numbness and was a bit light-headed.
"Gahhh... ahhh!" The boy let out heavy breaths of relief.
"Those are side effects of being exposed to the ability... It'll wear off in no time." Michael added, already in front of Tenny.
Tenny instantly knew he was most definitely in trouble as he looked up and laughed nervously.
Next time, he wasn't going to disobey Michael's instructions.
The two boys kept journeying, silence dominating the tense atmosphere. Michael had not chastised him, instead just made a slight remark.
"Are you going to keep lying there? Let's keep going"
Tenny's tension reduced, and so he rose.
The brothers encountered many groups of VampCyclops but Michael swiftly took care of them with his nerve-wracking ability, while Tenny stayed out of range. Tenny was amazed as he saw his brother swiftly and masterfully subjugate the countless groups of Harbingers they encountered when he had barely survived against just one of them.
"With just one percent... He's this powerful" Tenny thought to himself.
They had kept heading straight for a few minutes with no encounter, and had even entered a strange tunnel that felt even darker than the outside, which was already blindingly dark. As they kept moving, Tenny sensed they were nearing their destination.
"Are we almost there?" He finally asked as his curiosity got the better of him.
Michael kept moving as he answered him. "Just about time..."
Suddenly, they met a strange wall in front of them. Tenny had not sensed the well at all until Michael signaled him to stop.
"How is this...?" He asked himself, obviously shocked.
"This wall is made of a special mineral which distorts special abilities," Michael said, answering his question.
Tenny was surprised. He had heard of certain minerals that tampered with special abilities, but he never would have imagined he'd be seeing one up close.
Michael suddenly punched the wall, and the impact generated a deafening sound, immediately sending rock particles flying as the wall crumbled to pieces.
"Doesn't do well against raw strength though" He added, smiling.
"H...How?" Tenny asked in complete amazement.
The wall must have been at least 10 centimeters thick, and about 7 meters wide. They had been walking in a tunnel for the past few minutes so that was their only exit, if they didn't want to turn back. How could Michael, without using any ability be that strong physically?
"Don't be surprised. This mineral distorts abilities from manifesting, but it can't cancel them out completely. My strength is a passive ability I obtained, it is always constant and doesn't require activation or voluntary use. The wall couldn't tamper with that." Michael explained.
As the pile of brick-like minerals stood at their feet, and dust hovering in the air, they saw a path before them beyond the already broken down wall.
Unlike the outside and even the tunnel before, it had a bit of light radiating from within. A strange echoing sound was emanating from inside the mysteriously carved out passage, and where it led to was anyone's guess.
The tunnel path's glow kept increasing and reducing in an ominous pattern that seemed to draw one's eyes deeper and deeper into it, and the attention of its spectator focused on it.
"The Grandmaster must be at the other side of this path." Michael suddenly spoke, which startled Tenny a bit as he yelped.
"Don't speak so suddenly, that scared me!" Tenny protested.
Michael's expression, however, showed his brother that he was in no mood for any of that.
"This path is filled with many like minerals that distort abilities, and beyond this must likely be hordes of VampCyclops awaiting us. We no longer have surprise on our side, as they must be expecting our arrival. My 'NERVE CORROSION' ability also has its limits, needless to say... it's going to be a bit dangerous from here on out." Michael stated bluntly.
Tenny felt a dark foreboding as the air felt heavier and the atmosphere tenser. His brother wasn't done with the news yet, though.
Staring at Tenny, Michael spoke without mincing words
"This time, I can't guarantee your safety. You have two options at this point... Will you come with me... Or NOT?"
TO BE CONTINUED...