Mentally - 14. The Unseen Realm

The flight was uncomfortable. I would shift my butt on my seat every few minutes or so, and it was driving Aiden insane. He was just watching the news on his phone and would sneak a look at me every once in a while. Mr. Horikoshi, on the other hand, was meditating on his seat. His eyes were closed, but I knew he was wary of our presence.

Thanks to our sudden connection in SIGMA, we had access to one of their private jets that would be able to protect us from the surprise re-testing of H-Scores. It was all too convenient. I told my companion that we should be more vigilant about this. He just said to me that it would be better if we keep ourselves oblivious. He told me telepathically that they would notice if we look too anxious. And if they asked us too many questions, it may prove to be detrimental to our cause.

It was a setback I was not willing to make. If they find Jaden, then they might track down Damian. That was a few steps closer to my goal, and I was ready to take it.

The jet was relatively fast because it took us a bit more than an hour. When we got down the plane, we were immediately escorted by a group of armored vehicles. Another man was inside, and he looked to be the captain of the small army.

"What's the situation, Lieutenant Enrico?" Mr. Horikoshi spoke first. Aiden and I sat in silence as the thing we rode on started to move. Despite its bulky look, the ride was pretty smooth. My sense of balance could barely feel it. "We came here as fast as we can."

"The anomaly is in Uptown Manhattan. People are dead, and more are injured due to the rampaging individual." The soldier stated coldly. Aiden almost lost it when the man used the word anomaly to describe his brother. I just shot him a quick look to keep him calm, and it was somehow unexpectedly effective. "We should be there in half an hour. We're trying to find the best route possible, given the distance."

"Thank you." Mr. Horikoshi quipped. Then his gaze shifted unto us. I could sense he was about to drop something I would be uncomfortable over. "You two will need to wear something like their uniform to cover your faces. We don't want unwanted attention from the media. Suppose one of them saw that child soldiers are being utilized. In that case, this will turn into a war for different political agendas. You don't want to be in the middle of that kind of fight."

Aiden just nodded in agreement. It was a reasonable statement despite our doubts over this shady organization. In the next couple of seconds, Lieutenant Enrico took out a couple of huge bags and handed them over to us. Inside was a SWAT-like uniform to cover most of our faces. Surprisingly, they were just the right size. I could only assume that it was planned beforehand.

They knew we were coming.

While I was stripping down my boots, a huge crash roared over outside. Since we were in an enclosed space, we were pretty clueless about what was really happening outside. It sounded like a warzone on the other side of the thick metal wall of the armored vehicle. I grunted as the car swerved to the other side, and I was thrown to the wall.

I looked stupid as Mr. Horikoshi and Aiden hovered safely inside with the use of their abilities, and the other soldier was able to protect himself adequately. Before I could even speak up, the vehicle screeched into a brutal halt. This time, I was able to safely stop myself from crashing to the door.

The other soldier jumped into action and slammed the door open. As I rushed outside, the other vehicles were all around us. Soldiers followed through as I saw a couple more armored vehicles going towards our position from a few hundred meters away. It was chaotic as I looked up to the sky and saw a car being hurled to one of the buildings.

And when my vision swayed towards the center of Uptown Manhattan, everything is either falling apart or flying everywhere. It was like a hurricane of all sorts of cars, buildings, and even people. And I doubt that they would survive something like that. At one point, they are bound to splatter and color the pavement into something crimson. I felt my stomach turn at the thought of it.

But the screams of the people running for their lives drowned out my focus. I couldn't blame them either because they have never seen a Mental rampaged by this much. To those who wanted us dead, this would have been the perfect justification. Mainly for political agendas.

As I focused more, I saw the dhorrs that were raging everywhere in open space. The energy this person used must have been tremendous, or else it would fail. It takes a lot of willpower to through something as heavy as a car. That means that this person is probably close to our level. However, I haven't really checked my telekinetic prowess's maximum output yet because I barely understood my powers' mechanics. But thanks to my odd mentor, I may be able to exceed far more into what I could initially do.

My curiosity at the back of my head edged out as my heart raced, thinking of the new possibilities that my powers could give me. But first, I must not allow myself to be easily killed amid chaos. A stray rock could hit me randomly in the head, and it would be game over. Then all my chances to see Damian again would be wasted.

I just couldn't let that happen.

"Kieran!" Mr. Horikoshi barked loudly, zapping me out of the daze that only happened within a few seconds. There were booming sirens everywhere, so we had no choice but to shout at each other. "Could you see where it's coming from?"

"See what?" I roared back.

"The dhorrs, idiot!" Aiden stated. His hands were raised, and I felt the strong psychic shield he formed around himself. "There's just a storm of debris that is shooting out of the sky! We need to find the source!"

I nodded at him and tried to take a good look. Since we were in some SWAT uniform, I was wearing a pair of goggles so that our faces wouldn't easily be identified. I had to take it off of my face as my eyes warmed up. My sights grew dim as I saw the golden lines of the dhorrs that were directing somewhere, not even in the center of the debris hurricane. But the path where it leads was still far off.

"What do you see, son?" The lieutenant asked me. He moved so swiftly and fluidly that I barely noticed him. It made me wary how he was able to sneak up on me so quickly. His silence was deadly. "Is it in the middle of that storm?"

"No." I replied. Then I motioned Mr. Horikoshi and Aiden to come near. "The source is farther north of here. We need to keep tracking it. For something so huge and powerful, it's almost impossible to maintain it from a good distance. I think it should be at least a couple of miles north of its epicenter."

"Great. Then let's get back inside the vehicle and get there as soon as possible!" Aiden was the first to respond. His confidence was firm and demanding. It was as if he was trying to control the situation. "Whoever that person is may know what he's doing."

"All the roads are already blocked and barricaded." One of the soldiers spoke up. I couldn't help but wonder how that would be possible. "We might not be able to go through them if vehicle. We need to track it by foot."

"That's stupid!" I winced. Aiden wanted to butt in as well, but I spoke up first. The frown on his face was almost funny if it wasn't for the situation at hand. "You're the fucking military. You're supposed to have special access and get a free pass through those barricades or something!"

"I also don't think it's wise to track the person down in open space. It's safe to assume that he can detect creatures that enter his territory." The lieutenant intervened. "I mean, we don't know that for sure, but we can't risk it. That person could easily ambush us if he knows that we're inside."

"You're right. We don't know the extent of their abilities." Mr. Horikoshi agreed. He took out a small device and scanned it. Whatever it contained, I never saw. It was probably a collection of data from somewhere for sure. "For all we know, they can sense us through the numerous dhorrs that are spread out everywhere. That's not far from possibility."

"The underground railway system." Aiden suggested.

"I can scout. If there is no presence there of the dhorrs then it would be safe." I added to Aiden's suggestion. But his eyes were cold and apathetic to my gesture. Some sort of switch inside of him may have been flipped by God knows what. He was just crazy. "It's the only alternative route we can have right now. Then we can peek every half-kilometer or so. We also better move fast because people are dying out there!"

"You heard him. Get us a map of the transit system and check if we can use something to travel underground." Mr. Horikoshi immediately commanded his subordinates. The other soldiers scrambled as the rest of us gathered in one spot. "There's a station nearby. Kieran, can you check if there are any potential complications we may encounter?"

I just nodded and focused my eyes. The rest of my vision slowly darkened as the glow of the dhorrs brightened my view. But there was none so far in the direction we were supposed to go. "The coast is clear."

Everything happened so fast. I was immediately in a 5-man cell wherein there were two teams. I was taking point since I was the one who was able to see the extent of the enemy's influence in the area. Mr. Horikoshi was just right behind me, and Aiden was in the middle. The lieutenant and another soldier were the rear guards.

In a matter of seconds, we descended to one of the stations. Since there were so many destructions above the ground, a considerable portion of the underground station had its electricity knocked out. Even some parts of the wall had cracks on them. It was going to be dark, but there were three Mentals in the team. Plus, two from the 2nd team a hundred feet behind us were also Mentals trained by the government.

All of us dropped on the tracks. Based on a brief report from one of the soldiers, most civilians have been evacuated from the area. And the public transportation had been shut off in the meantime. Otherwise, it would be scary to happen if a train would be speeding towards us and bulldoze into smithereens. I was aware that I had the latent ability to produce so much output. Still, I am not willing to test that on something as heavy as that without practice.

We traveled for a couple of kilometers with me checking the upper portion of every station if it could give us a clue where the specific direction of the source is. The psychic storm that unraveled in Uptown Manhattan would be getting more deadly by the minute, and it would not be far from the impossible if the death count would hit above the thousand.

The whole event was unprecedented, and I could only imagine the political agendas the government could use to put Mentals under more strict control. Whoever was causing the ruckus probably had no idea of what he or she was doing. There were so many consequences that I could think of that could branch from the chaos that was going on.

As we pressed forward, I could feel the thickness of psychic energy in the air. I even had to pause for a split second as soon as the invisible force touched my face. Even Aiden and Mr. Horikoshi sensed the pressure in the air. All three of us gulped simultaneously because there was something more than just the intense amount of energy. A gist of malevolence permeated through it, too. And it was slightly scary.

Whatever the person was, their power was not natural.

My vision alerted as dhorrs could finally be seen underground. I signaled my other companions, and we checked the map if we could find other means to go outside. Since we were inside a tunnel, the maintenance rooms were the only options. We had to hike back a hundred feet just so we can see the opening.

The maintenance room was small, but thankfully, there was a way back to the streets. A secret passage was also built into one of the buildings, which was also advantageous for us. On a typical day, I would have loved to question why a public transportation system had a private building passage. But that very moment was not the time for such queries. Our lives were at stake.

The lieutenant took point and made an exit to the streets. The whole place was a ghost town, and not a single soul could be felt. We followed through as I scanned the area. It almost blinded me when I saw dhorrs upon dhorrs that lit up the mid-part of the buildings. I was dumbstruck at how much of them could be released all at once. The power of the Mental was simply frightening.

The two soldiers were blindly aiming, but the three Mentals in our team were wary with force everywhere. Our step were far more calculated. Before I could make my next step, the lieutenant zoomed into the air and crash over the wall. The sounds of bones breaking could be heard from our spot.

I raised my hand in instinct and fought back the force that tried to grab us. Aiden followed through and reinforced the psychic shield from above. Simultaneously, Mr. Horikoshi attempted to wrestle with the invisible dhorrs and tried to discern where the psychic strings are, so he can nullify them. But our feet were unguarded, and the other guard took the consequence for it. An invisible hand grabbed from below, and he was hurled to the wall, breaking his neck.

It didn't even take a minute before two of our men were killed in action. I didn't even have a short moment for the reality to sink in that two men were dead on the spot. Plus, the way I defended ourselves was by instincts alone. I had yet so much to learn to apply something more intentional and learned. And despite my seemingly limitless potential, it may still take some time before I could actually use it in a real-life-or-death scenario.

Mr. Horikoshi urgently protected our lower bodies. But I knew it wouldn't hold much if our attacker would try to breakthrough. As much as I wanted to reinforce the lower guard that Mr. Horikoshi erected, the tug of war with the invisible force on space before me got even more potent. I had to raise both my hands into position before I could get crushed by his sheer will. Even Aiden had a struggle despite being stronger than the average Mental. And his primary abilities were mostly for supporting constructs by properly reinforcing them.

"Kieran! We got this!" Our mentor erupted between his breath. Even the statement itself caused me to doubt their abilities. They're both strong, but the force that was being poured on me was on a different level. "Sense the dhorrs. We need to know where it's coming from. Use what I taught you! Shake it off! "

"It's too strong!" I howled back at him. We were just so close to each other, but there was so much electric-like noise being generated from the clash of psychic energies. They could barely hear me. "You're gonna be crushed in seconds!"

"Trust me! Aiden and I can hold this back!" Mr. Horikoshi shot back at me. His eyes were bloodshot for some reason. Even if I couldn't see it, I just knew that his knees were wobbling. "Find the strings, and you could easily disable the force that's being pushed on us. Quick!"

I obliged and slowly shifted my strength back to my eyes. Surprisingly, the two allies behind me compensated for the energy that I pulled back to check where the attack was coming from. The transition was smooth, and my vision slowly dimmed. As I looked above, I saw the thick golden lines that directed me towards the northwest building. It seems that the attacker was coming that way.

Then I projected my own energy and wrapped them around the dhorrs. Slowly, I diverted them, and the ease could be clearly seen from Aiden and our mentor. The force that was being used to push us to the ground slowly faded. But the floor beside us slowly cracked and took on the sheer weight of the offensive force.

But before I could take a step towards the building where the dhorrs were coming from, a tingling sensation crawled on the back of my neck. It was swift and icy. Danger erupted from everywhere, and my instinct took hold of me. I created a barrier around as we were pushed towards one of the buildings. My psychic construct served as a bubble that cushioned as. Otherwise, we could have been easily killed.

"What the hell was that?" Aiden shrieked.

"An attack from behind." Our mentor pointed out. Then he gave me a blank stare. I was not sure if he was sympathizing or downright disappointed. "A cheap trick. But it was definitely overlooked."

"You were supposed to look where he is coming from!" Aiden nagged at me. His eyes were kind of wild, and he looked around. "What's so hard about that?"

"The source was from there!" I shot back at him with my finger pointing at the northwest building. But when I focused slightly to see the invisible lines, all the signs of the dhorrs had dispersed everywhere. The golden lines even surrounded us as if we were in the eye of the storm. "There was no way I could have sensed that the enemy would be coming from behind!"

"Do your job right, Klein!" Aiden snarled. "This isn't the time to be an idiot!"

"I did what I was told!" I snapped back at him. We were ambushed, and the blame was on me. I hated it because he was partially correct. I was supposed to sense where the attack should have come from. "If it wasn't for me, you'd be dead right now! So shut the fuck up!"

"You two! Stop quarreling!" Mr. Horikoshi hushed. "We don't have time for this. Look up!"

And we did.

A humanoid figure started to descend from the skies. Almost like Superman. I tried to look at it, but the light of the sun was against us. Even worse, his head was covered by a helmet. For a Mental to project that much strength meant this person was more than we could probably handle. I focused on the unseen realm, and I saw thousands of gold lines swirling like a tornado everywhere around him.

Then I noticed something different. Before process it, the enemy swayed his arm, and a massive tidal wave of psychic energy crashed over us. My arms made it in time to raise an invisible psychic wall to avoid getting crushed. Thankfully, both my allies were within my range, by I was almost thrown off from the raw amount of force that he summoned so casually.

There has to be a secret behind that raw psychic strength.

Mr. Horikoshi hinted back then that the relationship between the dhorrs and reils was like a lever. Using it properly into a flow can easily amplify the strength of any psychic attacks that I have. And the ability to see the unseen was the greatest weapon I needed at that moment. If I could figure out how this powerful Mental could use such force and duplicate the process, it would give me the same advantage.

"Distract him!" I roared at Mr. Horikoshi. Aiden also looked at me along with the older man with huge question marks on their faces. "There's a secret to that enormous power. I need time to figure it out!"

Aiden was about to complain, but our mentor responded. He started using his powers to grab some of the debris with psychic energy and threw them at our opponent. It was a gutsy move as he started running away from me.

The first thing I noticed was that the enemy was like a mindless child. It followed the bait right away. All the movements he had shown so far were raw power, but there was no sense of finesse in it. Each swing of the arm was a natural one, like a toddler throwing a small tantrum. Mentals with high psych output were supposed to be insanely clever. But not this one.

What I could only conclude was the energy output was some sort of boost. That would most likely be the effect of Zion. But since they were experimental drugs, there must be some sort of setbacks.

As Mr. Horikoshi and Aiden baited him away, I scanned the unseen realm for clues. The opponent swung his arm, and a bright blue glow momentarily appeared in his fist. Then another glowing star appeared out of nowhere and followed the motion. Golden lines stormed towards the star-like it was the center of gravity and followed through the direction where he had swung his arm.

This action was followed by another and another. When I saw the pattern that his reils inside his body was charged by dhorrs at specific points. Then a counterpart would emerge like a psychic construct that would follow the main body's command. I had to think back on my comic books, and I realized that it was a similar concept to Green Lantern's ring.

The enemy was simply making largely invisible constructs controlled by the reils charged with dhorrs inside his body. Only I could see them because I could see those constructs made out of dhorrs.

As soon as I realized it, I created my own construct and gather dhorrs. But the golden lines inserting themselves into my body was slightly uncomfortable. There was some sort of pressure inside my veins as if they were going to pop. I looked at the enemy once again from afar and barely noticed that there were also glowing stars by his feet. It was probably how he was levitating in midair.

I summoned three glowing stars inside my fist with my fists ready, a triangular pattern, and I saw the same stars emerge a foot away from me. I mustered all my inner Green Lantern focus, and the golden lines or the dhorrs gathered around them. Even if I was reluctant, I created an invisible fist, and I felt the psychic power surging through before me.

I readied myself into a position as if I was going to throw a sucker punch. Thankfully, it was a good practice match because the enemy was relatively easy to lure. Then I started jogging in their direction with my new weapon in tow. Mr. Horikoshi and Aiden immediately saw me and wondered at the growing amount of energy around me. They were not able to see it, but I was sure as hell their instincts were alerted. As soon as I got near enough, the enemy turned and saw me.

But it was too late. I through the punch and the invisible golden fist made out of psychic construct hurled into the air. My opponent tried to guard himself by hitting it with his own energy. However, mine was more formed into a proper shape than his. My construct broke through his as if a wrecking ball plowed through his deformed wall and directly hit him.

The guy was literally blasted to the sky at frightening speeds. It was cartoonish, and I almost laughed at the view. Surprisingly, he managed to stop himself in midair right away. From afar, I noticed that his left arm was broken and hanging. It probably took the impact the most. Before I could process what really happened, he charged at me through the open space.

Thankfully, I never closed my unique vision and saw him preparing an attack in midair, so I also summoned mine. Three glowing stars on my hand in the same pattern as the last time so it would turn out into another fist. But with the rest of my focus, I still managed to summon two glowing stars on my left. This time, it was a karate chop.

As the enemy charged towards me, I saw the glowing stars on his forehead. It was an incredulous and literally head-on attack. But that was no time to be merciful. I sucker punched the heck out of him as he crashed onto my construct. My punch was angled downwards so he would slam to the ground. And he did. Before he could bounce away, I did my karate chop from the top, and the blade-shaped golden construct blasted him downwards, crushing the ground and creating enormous cracks everywhere.

Mr. Horikoshi and Aiden were stunned in silence. I couldn't blame them. They were not able to see the constructs at work. In their eyes, I was randomly swinging my arms, and everything around me just started destroying itself. The place that I could now barely recognize as a small park was in ruins. But at the very least, the enemy was knocked out and neutralized.

"What the fuck was that?!" Aiden snapped at me.

"Powers of the Green Lantern Corps. "I smirked. Aiden just looked at me funny and was probably clueless about what I was talking about. "In brightest day, in blackest night. Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power—"

I was about to continue the chant before I noticed something was coming out of my nose. My hands reached it automatically and saw blood. Even worse, the same feeling emerged from my eyes and ears. My orifices were bleeding, and the next thing I noticed was that I was falling to the ground.