Kiehra struggled to breathe, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she fought to reign in the sudden onset of strength surging through her entire being. It had barely been a minute, but she could already see and feel the changes to her body caused by the merging with Three. Her muscles were remade—larger, thicker, incredibly dense and pulsing with a degree of power she wasn't sure could be measured. Even her skin felt like it had been rejuvenated, now taut and constantly tingling with some kind of pressure. The air itself trembled in response to her sudden growth in might.
The small space of her old camper van seemed far more fragile than it was just moments ago. She wasn't just stronger, she was hyper aware of everything that went on around her, her senses driven into overdrive and picking up on every minute thing around her. The electricity running through the wires, every soft creak of the walls, the slightest changes in the breeze outside—she could sense it all. The weight of this new power made the slightest of movements dangerous.
Three's presence within her seemingly vanished, the strange spirit going quiet as he watched his new host adjust. Kiehra flexed her hands, the muscles in her forearms rippling and immediately tightening with strength that felt ready to burst. She clenched her fists in an effort to keep it all under control, but the energy only seemed to grow larger to the point of being almost uncontainable.
Her hand brushed against the edge of the small wooden table next to her, and all of a sudden, CRACK—the table splintered into a million pieces. Shards of wood flew in every direction, the structure practically disintegrating underneath the slightest pressure from her fingertips, like it was made from cheap glass. Kiehra stared down at the wreckage, her jaw slacked in utter disbelief.
She'd barely even touched it.
"What in the actual bloody hell…" she whispered, backing away suddenly while looking at her hands. The muscles in her arms vibrated and thrummed with the stress of something barely holding another thing back—in other words, barely restraining her strength. She clenched her fists harder till her knuckles turned white. Even with the most minimal movements, every part of her body felt like it was coiled and ready to rip through anything it came in contact with.
Three's presence finally made its return, his voice echoing in the back of her mind, low and calm. "You're a lot stronger than you realize. It isn't just your muscles, Kiehra. Your entire body is now a pure conduit of physical power and something even more potent—spectral energy."
"The table…my fingers…I barely even…" she muttered, voice unsteady. She took a step back, but the instant her boot touched the floor, the wooden planks groaned and fractured underneath it. There was a sharp crack as the boards beneath her splintered, a dent forming where she had stepped.
She froze, staring at the boot-shaped hole in her floor. Every action she took was becoming too much for the world around her. Her heart rate spiked, and as much as she was panicking, she couldn't help but feel a sense of awe.
"This is what happens when one merges souls in the absence of a Spectral Interface," Three spoke up again, sounding amused by the events that were currently unfolding. "We are directly connected, and thus we have become something ancient…something primal. This is how spirits and people bonded in the earliest days of Gehenna's existence. The Spectral Interfaces used now automatically adjust the physical augmentations and energy granted by the spirit to fit whoever their current host is. In other words, it's a safety device that prevents the person from biting off more than they can chew. It's also the reason why some people can break the bond with their spirit." Three chuckled, his voice tinged with barely concealed enjoyment. "But back then, soul bonds weren't regulated by technology. It was a pure process, infinitely more powerful than anything in Phantom Sentry or the city can even fathom."
Kiehra nodded slowly, his words sinking deep into her mind. "So this…this overwhelming power—my strength, all of it—it's because we merged like it was done back then?"
"Precisely," Three confirmed. "No restraints, no filter. My own strength, my own energy, both are now intertwined with your very soul. What you possess now is the full force of what I am…or to be honest…only the surface. My full strength right out of the gate will end with you doing irreparable damage. But what you hold now is more than just physical strength—you also carry a massive reservoir of spectral energy in its purest form."
She swallowed hard, mind spinning as she began to really understand what Three was telling her. Her arms felt like they could easily break apart steel, and every movement she made threatened to destroy something else. The dense and powerful muscles beneath her skin were scary enough, but the spectral energy flowing alongside it was what terrified her. The combination of both….she shuddered at the thought of the cataclysmic chaos she could cause with one wrong move.
Overwhelmed, she tried to sit in the nearest chair and take a moment to process it all. Slowly and carefully, she reached for the furniture, but the second she lowered herself into it, the wood buckled and snapped like a twig beneath her. Kiehra crashed into the ground, looking on in dismay at the mess around her. Her body—now a vessel of overwhelming strength—was too much for even the simplest things to handle.
"God-freaking-damnit all to hell…" she cursed, standing up as cautiously as she could. Her hands flexed and twitched at her sides, trembling as she tried to keep herself in check. Underneath all the new muscle, sparks of spectral energy ran through her veins, flickering and flashing nonstop.
Slowly and deliberately, she took a step forward, and the ground beneath her boots cracked slightly, the entire camper van creaking underneath the pressure. Every step she took left small dents and cracks in the floor, like she was walking on glass.
"You're brimming with strength," Three mused. "More than you would know. You must learn how to channel and apply it. Currently, it's uncontrolled—like a dam that's burst. One must walk before they run; with time you'll understand how to focus my power and use its destructiveness to your advantage. Once you do…nobody in Gehenna will be able to stand in your way."
Kiehra grit her teeth, frustration growing inside her. "I'm a walking disaster…I don't want to be this. I don't want to break everything or everyone I touch."
"Of course you don't silly. How would you ever get married then?" Three joked, seemingly giggling at his own response and her vexation. "One cannot claim to have power until they've truly mastered every facet of their skills. You can't wield something as great as this without understanding it properly. This is just the surface of what you can do. Once you can control it, you'll be unstoppable."
She flexed her fingers again, watching as her muscles bulged while spectral energy hummed in sync with them. A conduit of spectral might and physical power. She certainly felt like one.
Taking a long, deep breath, Kiehra moved towards the door, each step cautious and restrained. The floor cracked slightly with every footfall, the wooden floors groaning each time, but she managed to reach the door without shattering anything else. She reached for the door knob, her hand hovering over it for a couple of seconds—she wasn't sure if she could open it without ripping the door clean off its hinges.
"Steady..steady…" she muttered to herself, grasping the knob as gently as she could. But despite her care, the metal twisted a little too easily in her grip, and with a sharp snap, the hinges broke and the door came free, crashing onto the street outside with a thunderous boom.
Dust billowed up around the fallen door as Kiehra stepped out, wincing at the destruction. Even the stony street wasn't safe from her, crackling as she walked to the door. She had always wished to be something greater, but never realized how much of a change that would bring to her body. Now a source of both unimaginable strength and immense energy levels, her own body felt alien and dangerous.
"You're getting there," Three reassured her, though he still sounded as relaxed and delighted as ever. "It'll take some time, but as you humans always say: practice makes perfect. Repetition will help you harness it."
"Practice?" she sighed, using her fingers to massage her forehead as the magnitude of her new life began pressing down on her. "No offense Three, but I need a lot more than practice—I need a fucking miracle."
Three's low chuckle echoed in her mind, sending a shiver down her spine. "Power isn't a miracle Kiehra dear, it's a tool. You have more power than anyone else in the world, and only you can decide how you wish to use it."
Frustrated, Kiehra glanced around the street, her gaze landing on the crumbling wall of a nearby building. Without thinking, she reached out and brushed her fingers along the old concrete wall, testing to see just how lightly she could touch it. But the moment the tip of her finger came into contact with it, cracks formed on the surface of the wall, spreading up the wall faster than she could even process it. The entire side of the building groaned and shook, collapsing in a cascade of dust and debris.
Kiehra pulled her hand back, clutching it to her chest and staring at the destruction in shock. She had…barely even touched it.
"Easy there tiger," Three's calm but teasing voice warned. "You don't wanna bring down the entirety of Old Oasis do you?"
Her hands couldn't stop trembling, heart pounding in her ears as she stared at the wreckage she'd created. She had never felt so powerful—and so damned dangerous. She had—no, needed to learn how to control this soon, or she was going to decimate everyone and everything in her path without breaking a sweat.
She sat down gingerly on the steps of her camper van, causing the entire vehicle to lean in her direction. She took several deep breaths, closed her eyes and put her head in her hands. Just this afternoon at work she was fervently wishing for power, wanting to be seen as more than a nobody from Abyss. But this…this far exceeded anything she could have ever imagined.
"So…what now?" she asked herself, her voice low and uncertain.
"Now we learn," Three replied gently, his tone filled with promise. "The connection between us is something ancient, something untainted by the modern world. I shall guide you through it Kiehra. You shall learn to control it, and once you do…"
The sentence hung in the air, but Kiehra didn't need Three to finish his words to understand what he was aiming at. If she somehow managed to master the full extent of all her powers, no one—absolutely nothing—would be able to hold a candle to her.
Kiehra stood up, her body humming with both muscle and spectral energy—a sensation she was getting used to already. With Three's help she would learn to control this, but the question that lingered in her mind wasn't whether she could. It was whether she really wanted to.
The world around her felt fragile as an eggshell now, and she was anything bought.
And though a part of her found that realization was terrifying, she couldn't deny that another part of her found it thrilling.