A droplet of water fell to the ground, breaking the silence.
Theo opened his eyes wide, gasping for air, and he instinctively tried to activate his ability as his forearms tightened and his fingers flexed, but he found himself unable to move, paralyzed from torso to toes.
He looked around the room he was in and found himself tied to a chair by thick ropes, with dreary walls, dusty floors, and dim moonlight coming in from a nearby shattered window.
“You’re finally awake.”
A voice called out from the darkness, sharp and clear, holding unimaginable coldness.
Theo froze, his body tensing up as he felt a hand grab his neck.
“W-Who are you?” Theo asked, his head locked to look straight forward, unable to turn to see who was holding his nape.
“Shh…” They hushed. “Just answer my questions, and you’ll be fine.”
Although Theo was a man with a righteous heart and condemned crime, he wasn’t stupid enough to rage out and risk his life. He immediately quieted down and complied with his kidnapper’s orders, shutting his lips tight.
“Theo Norris, 17 years old, studies at Saint Anderson University of Dela located in the southwestern part of Nuwesca City. You’re also a master in Karate and have acquired numerous gold medals in different companions throughout the years, solidifying your status as a master of combat. Not only that, you’re ranked third overall in your whole year, showing great intellect.”
They listed out information about Theo, causing the young teenage boy to feel his heart race from fear.
“Moreover…” The voice mumbled with a whimsical tone. “You have gained access to strange mystical abilities that allow you to conjure and control silvery threads from your fingertips, with heightened physical attributes, especially your forearms and hands.”
Theo’s mind turned blank.
“Am I wrong?” They asked.
Theo remained silent, his thoughts racing. From the sudden kidnapping to interrogation and now his biggest secret being exposed, it frightened him.
“I’ll only ask one more time, am I wrong?”
A cold, pointy object was pressed against the bare skin of his neck. This caused his wandering mind to return to the present, and he hurriedly responded, “Y-Yes!”
“Good. Next, tell me how you acquired that power?” The voice ordered, withdrawing the pointy knife from Theo’s nape.
“T-this…” Theo took a deep breath, calming himself down. “I managed to gain this ability two weeks ago, around 5 to 6 am Monday morning, when I was doing my morning jog. Since there were no classes for a week, I thought I could enjoy my usual morning jog a bit more and wandered off into the periphery of the city, where I soon found a strange crystal on the roadside hidden in some bush.”
“The crystal…” He trailed off as if remembering the past. “It was truly strange, as if its mere presence made me want to hold it in my hand and not let go. Before I knew it, I was madly running to the crystal, and when I grabbed it, a burst of white light erupted. The next thing I knew, I woke up and had gained superpowers.”
“Describe the crystal,” the voice ordered.
“It was shimmering and had many colors, just like a rainbow. It was around a few inches, a little larger than my finger but not bigger than my hand,” he described in detail.
“I see…” Braun, now confirming his suspicions, silently sighed in relief.
Turns out, he was indeed right. The meteor shower from before was indeed a shower of superpower crystals descending from the heavens and crashing into the world.
He smiled, and as he pressed a handkerchief into Theo’s mouth and nose, forcing him to inhale the same sleeping powder he used before, the adolescent teen fell asleep, his whole body turning limp.
Braun grabbed the chair Theo was tied to and walked into an adjacent room where a surprisingly okay-looking table was placed. Taking off the ropes on Theo’s body that tied him to the chair, he rested his victim’s body on the table.
Making sure that the windows were closed so that no light could leak out, he hung a flashlight on the ceiling and turned it on, illuminating the dark room. While he may have budding night vision already, it’s still better to operate under steady illumination.
Observing Theo’s body, he slowly took off their clothes, revealing their developed body. He placed more of his attention on their forearms, and just like he inspected before, he felt the distinct increase in muscles and muscular density, as if they were made to handle the strain of his superpowers.
Braun began to conduct his research on Theo’s body, inspecting the details he couldn’t inspect prior to the interrogation, and found plenty of data that gave him a deeper insight into Theo’s evolved body.
First of all, his genetic structure remained the same as an ordinary human.
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A day ago, Braun managed to gain a little bit of Theo’s blood when he was still asleep, and let a hospital analyze the blood for him after paying a little bit of bribe money. The results showed that Theo was no different from any other human, meaning superpowers doesn’t transform a person genetically speaking.
Next up, he more or less confirmed that zenithral power had a significant part when it came to the activation of superpowers.
When he allowed his green flames to pour into Theo’s body and tried to evolve his lab rat, a suction force emanated from some strange, unknown part of his body that absorbed his flame. As the flame was absorbed, he noticed Theo’s forearms grow slightly bigger, and was firmer to the touch.
It’s already a strange fact that some mysterious crystal could grant a person superpowers, but if we take into consideration Zenith’s nature and domains, it isn’t too hard to understand how superpowers come into being.
After coming into contact with the crystal, the zenithral force should influence the two and act as a catalyst, causing a qualitative change that transforms a simple crystal into a source of supernatural abilities.
In addition to that, this explains how Christopher was able to fly around, manipulate gravity, and create that pillar of white light. For every action, energy is required, so where does the energy superpowers use come from?
If it utilizes the zenithral force in some sort of way, then superpowers can basically tap into an endless source of energy. However, since the crystal is also bound to the holder’s body in some sort of way, they also physically exhaust a person, albeit the energy utilized from the body is incomparable to the terrifying levels they use that come from the Zenithral Force.
This doesn’t mean much though, not when I still don’t have any superpowers.
Braun sighed as he did his latest test. Drinking a small cup of bloody red liquid, he tasted an iron-like taste in his mouth and enjoyed the fresh blood.
Before he learned that superpowers doesn’t change a person’s genetic structure, he thought he could utilize his body’s evolutionary capabilities to perhaps copy a super’s genetic structure and gain powers that way, but he already knew the truth at this point and knew this experiment was pointless.
However, it doesn’t hurt to try, so he still ingested a bit of Theo’s DNA just to see what happens.
Unfortunately, just like he predicted, nothing happened.
That’s another failed experiment. He sighed and glanced out of the window where the morning sun was already peeking through the horizon.
Braun listed off another idea from his checklist and checked the remaining ideas.
Only one left… Braun wore a wry smile upon seeing the last, and most pompous idea he had yet.
This idea lies in the fact that superpowers, while amazing and all, are entirely reliant on the crystals that exist somewhere within the person’s body. All of his previous attempts tried to gain superpowers without considering the crystal aspect altogether, but since all of them failed, there was really only one thing left to do—
He had to extract the crystal from their body.
Now, while maybe there are other more refined ways he could do so, there was one hypothesis that Braun was absolutely confident in.
The crystal that a super had absorbed must exist somewhere, maybe not in the physical plane of existence but in some metaphysical space that resides in their bodies, just like his green flame or the vague existence of his soul, an unconfirmed yet exciting area to explore later on.
So, to extract the crystal, he needs to either gain contact with the crystal in that metaphysical space… or just destroy that space entirely!
And, with his understanding of zenithral power, the strange suction force that absorbed his flames a while ago, along with his intuition guiding him just like before, he had come to one simple conclusion.
If this fails, then I just have to find another super later on. It’s not like my path to gaining greater strength is just limited to superpowers. I can totally reach godhood just with augmentation and evolution if I have to.
Braun grinned and raised his hand into the sky, with a sharp knife tightly grabbed by his arm. Swinging his hand down, the knife plunged deep into Theo’s chest, piercing through his flesh and into his heart.
Blood leaked out of the stabbed area on their chest, with an iron smell wafting in the air. Already used to the smell and sight of blood after having committed murder on numerous occasions, he simply pulled back the knife out of Theo’s chest and let the blood leak out.
The scarlet liquid pooled on the ground below, but was quickly absorbed by a couple of rugs placed on the floor prior to this experiment. After he was done with this, either success or failure, he could quickly dispose of the blood just by burning the rugs.
Wiping the blood on the knife with a clean handkerchief, Braun waited in anticipation, his eyes glowing a bright shade of green. He stared intently at the stabbed area on Theo’s chest, revealing the area around his heart, ribs, and lungs.
Soon enough, he felt the zenithral power coming from Theo’s body flicker, and a change began to occur. From the hole in their chest, a shimmering light slowly revealed itself, coagulating into a strange crystal made out of some unknown material that glowed on its own.
It slowly poked out of the hole in Theo’s chest, revealing its entirety to Braun.
The crystal was the same as Theo’s description, with it shimmering like a rainbow and holding an indescribable allure that made him want to grab it instinctively.
Taking a deep breath to calm himself down, Braun made sure that it was safe for him to attempt his next step, before slowly reaching out his hand to grab the crystal.
As soon as he came into contact with the crystal, green flames uncontrollably burst out of his hand to latch onto the crystal. The veins in his arms glowed green as a searing pain overwhelmed his whole body.
From head to toe, from his mind to his soul, a pain akin to his whole existence being torn apart and restructured tortured him. It was a tormenting experience that seemed to last an eternity, yet in reality, only a few seconds had passed.
He kneeled down on the ground, his hand clenched into a fist with blood pouring out onto the floor. Glowing veins bulged out of his skin, with his body’s temperature rising to a dangerous degree.
White light erupted out of the crystal in his hand, resonating with his zenithral power. The pain intensified as he felt a solid lump appear inside the metaphysical space in his body that housed his connection to the Zenith, where a shimmering crystal took root and extended out tendrils into his body.
As the majority of the pain was redirected into his arms, Braun grunted loudly and opened his eyes wide, his pupils burning brightly with a green flame. Grabbing onto his last bits of rationality, pointed his hands to the side as silvery threads spewed out, piercing into the walls like pointy needles.
At the same moment the threads erupted out of his fingertips, the pain subsided and calmed down, with a numb feeling overtaking his senses.
Braun, barely conscious, stared in amazement at the threads poking out of his hands, before his eyes lost their luster and his body turned limp. The overwhelming pain, the numbness, and the exhaustion all caught up to him in an instant, knocking him unconscious, with hands raised to the side supported by countless threads.