~The future looked bright, as the system put in place took root, and as the noise died down, everyone accepted the new change... Forgetting the pains of the past, and ignoring the flaws of the present~
YEAR: 2161
LOCATION: The Gate
Tenny couldn't make sense of what Michael was telling him. He had just Awakened his ability, and he was not even sure how it worked. The fact that he had killed the Grade 4 Cultivator was still a shock to him.
"How am I going to do that? I don't even know how my ability works... Or how I was even able to Awaken in the first place" Tenny asked perplexed.
Michael, who could read Tenny like a book, and understood his brother's apprehension decided to answer some of his doubts.
"It's time I told you more about abilities, and how they work..." He began.
"As I told you earlier, abilities are innate in every living human, no.. every living being on this planet, ever since the Rip's appearance."
Plants, animals... every organism changed at a cellular level.
"Only a few Awaken these abilities, however, because they require certain conditions before they can surface. Conditions for Awakening differ according to the kind of abilities one has, however, a general rule that applies to all is 'Danger!" Michael paused to see if Tenny was paying attention.
"But, a lot of people have been killed, robbed, and harmed, without surfacing any form of ability" Tenny managed to say, not entirely sure what to make of his brother's claim.
Michael was pleased that Tenny was following up on what he was saying pretty well.
"Yes, that's true. However, in times of severe distress, also known as The Moment of Truth, two innate choices surface. Fight, or Flight. The first condition for an ability's activation is to pick the former, and the second is to fulfill the Ability Nature test. In the moment of truth, especially when you were blacking out, did you see letters float in your head and voices matching them?" Michael looked at Tenny expectantly.
Tenny, who had experienced exactly this replied "Yes, yes I did"
Michael smiled and said "Your thoughts at that time aligned with the name and nature of your abilities and so you Awakened. It was a process I couldn't walk you through and that's why I left you to yourself. I was even surprised you chose to fight and didn't chicken out."
There was an awkward laugh that filled the dark room since both brothers knew how cowardly Tenny was.
"The decision a person makes in moments of truth reflects the true nature of that person. This means that deep down, you have courage in cowardice."
Tenny felt relieved to hear that but was still curious about something.
"What if my thoughts hadn't aligned with my ability's name and nature?"
"You would have most definitely died. It's rare enough that anyone would be in such a dangerous situation as yours... and it's even rarer that one chooses to fight. Then for those who fight, it's rarest for their thoughts to align with their abilities, that's why the ability users known to the world at present are only around 2.34 percent."
"There is a system that activates upon your awakening, it gives notifications and updates concerning your abilities," Michael concluded.
Tenny felt amazed, as he had just been told a mystery behind abilities, and took pride in the fact that he was privileged to know what everyone else didn't.
"Wow! Imagine if the world knew of this?" Tenny wondered aloud.
"No, that must never happen. The world will be thrown into another state of chaos. The unknown has always scared humankind, and this will just light up the pent-up and ignored emotions in the current system. Besides... we don't have time for that. The priority is way more urgent. Understood?"
"Got it" Tenny found himself saying before realizing it.
"Good," Michael said, temporarily satisfied with that answer. "Now as for how your abilities work, I know a fair amount about it."
Tenny, now remembering that Michael had been observing him, realized that he most definitely knew about his ability more than even he did.
"So what do you know?"
"Your ability has various aspects. Your most basic ability is teleportation, but that's just the start. You can perceive your surrounding space and anything within it. That's probably how you were able to survive the Cultivator in such a dark terrain."
Tenny was amazed by his ability's potential, but he was still confused about something. "But that doesn't explain how I can remove the barrier on the Gate" he stated.
Michael was not finished though.
"The last aspect of your ability which I noticed, is the ability to warp space. That was how you ripped off the arm of that Cultivator, and how you finished it off. Your ability to do that will enable us to tear open the stabilizer of the Gate, breaking open the door, giving us access to it"
Tenny was awestruck at this point.
"You mean, I had such an OP ability? Sweet! Oh my goodness, that's so cool." Tenny was so happy.
He thought his ability only enabled him to evade danger and leap toward or away from something. But this was something else.
Michael cut his sweet thoughts short "That probably isn't all you can do, and you'll probably discover other aspects as time goes by. However, don't ever for even a single moment, consider yourself invincible. As is the case of all abilities, yours also has a limitation."
Tenny's bliss increased when he had said he would even unlock greater abilities, but it was mellowed out as Michael mentioned a limitation.
"What is... the limitation?" Tenny asked.
"It's a general rule that using one's abilities too much in succession wears the user out, but other than that, there are unique limitations for every ability user. My ability disables my movements and all my abilities for ten seconds upon activation, and I can't extract an ability from a body that isn't within five meters of my effective range. That is my limit. Your limit, which I noticed in your recent encounter with that Cultivator is your need to blink." Michael stated
"Blink? I'm not following" Tenny said, now clearly confused.
"Your ability is indeed formidable, but as I've just stated. To activate your ability, you need to blink. I noticed this when you were teleporting, you always blinked, but when you ran straight ahead toward the Grade 4 and tried to teleport directly to its front, you were unable to use it. I had initially thought it was exhaustion, but after further analysis, I realized you couldn't because you didn't blink. When ripping off its arms and ultimately its entire body, you blinked as well. Your ability hinges on you closing your eyes, and reopening them. There could be other limitations and conditions for activation, but we don't have time to focus on that for now."
Tenny grasped what Michael was saying and his mind flashed back to those scenarios and found his word true.
"So, what do I do now? Even though you've realized all this, there's no point if I don't know how to use my abilities and don't fully grasp them." Tenny spoke to Michael, as the latter smiled.
"You don't need to worry about that. Leave that to me. Normally, one takes months, years even to fully grasp and control their abilities, but we don't have that kind of time. That's why I'll have to temporarily bypass all that. To open up the Gate, I'll need to forcefully activate your abilities, temporarily granting you full access to them. But..." Michael said, with a bit of hesitation showing on his face.
"But what?" Tenny asked, curious as to what was going on in his brother's mind.
"It'll hurt a bit. You up for it?" Michael asked, expecting Tenny's answer.
Tenny was a little bit scared. He hated pain, who didn't? But he had decided to walk this path, and there was no turning back at this point.
"Bring it on," He said, with a resolute expression on his face.
"Very good, now let's not waste any time" Michael hurriedly spoke as he moved toward Tenny, touching him on his shoulder, not giving him an opportunity to change his mind "I need to have contact with you before activating this ability." He spoke, and after a sharp inhalation, he finally spoke.
"RESONANCE!"
Pain seared through Tenny's entire body. It was not a bit of pain at all. It was excruciating, however, he could not even scream. His body felt electrified, even though he had never experienced such.
The currents flowed from his brain, which felt overheated, to his entire body, to the tips of his fingers and toes, and finally back up, but focused on his eyes. He shut his eyes in the pain and the surging currents forcefully them once again.
Suddenly, the slowly humming portal began to hum louder, the atmosphere began to vibrate, and the dim purple light began to shine brighter and brighter till the light filled the whole area.
By the time the pain started dissipating, Tenny's body felt a numbing sensation as though his entire body had fallen asleep. He slowly opened back his eyes, which he had closed due to the radiant light which emanated from the portal. He looked at the Gate before him, it was now bright white, with swirling blue within the center. It looked like glass, but at the same time, a swirling pool of water.
"Amazing isn't it? This is a fully functional gate. But we don't have time for admiration. It's already time." Michael spoke to Tenny.
"The Harbingers are already coming?" Tenny wearily asked in fright.
"What do you mean by that? Those idiots are most likely on the other side and have long given up on coming through, though they'll most likely catch on soon. So this is our ideal moment, our window of opportunity to catch them off guard." Michael replied to Tenny's question.
"I'm still not following... You don't mean... We're actually going to..."Tenny started asking, not liking where this was headed.
"Yes, we're entering the Gate, we'll invade their world instead... And when we get there... We'll kill every last one of them!" Michael smiled menacingly, having a dark glow in his eyes.
TO BE CONTINUED.....