"So, spill, what was that?" Rimuru asked, after spending ten minutes lecturing Clark on the need for consideration of other beings when playing with dangerous objects.
Shion was still breathing heavily while glaring at the Light God, once again her suit has been ruined because of the same individual. She had already pulled out her sword to engage in battle, when she had been stopped by her lord Rimuru. It was only through great reluctance she disengages when Rimuru-sama promised her a hug, to her caffeinated delight.
For whose benefit remains yet unseen….
Souka was clearing her hair of remnant dusts while glancing occasionally at the Light God. She wasn't given a full explanation on what happened but from what she saw, his power was just as she suspected. Looking up at the skies, she amended, it's probably even more.
The clouds were now where to be seen and the entire circumference of the lowland of four miles had been tilted over. Looking back to its perpetrator, she unconsciously shivered. They were dealing with a Demon Lord Class individual, a very powerful one.
Clark who slouched under the weight of Rimuru's scolding decided to spill the beans, well not all of it, but enough to satisfy her, with a sigh he said. "It's an Ultimate Skill."
Rimuru nodded knowingly, proving to Clark that she already had an inkling that was the case. Ranga slanted confused, Shion raised an eyebrow while filing the term to her memory to ask Shuna what that meant, Souka who had heard the term before but didn't remember what it meant, decided to add it to her report to Souei-sama.
"So, which is it?" Rimuru asked.
Clark still a little queasy on giving the name of his Skill, created a transparent force field much to the indignation of the slime's subordinates, Rimuru lifted a hand to quell the others while turning to Clark who said.
"It's a sound force field," He explained, continuing solemnly, "Look if I tell you what my Ultimate Skill is, I want you to promise never to tell anyone without my permission. Do you agree?"
Rimuru bemused but excited nodded, Clark relaxed at that and said, "Well my Ultimate Skill is RAO LORD OF STARS." And then dispensed the force field.
"Seriously." Rimuru blinked in amazement, while the others drew closer, "Not something like SUPERMAN THE PROTECTOR, it's actually Rao who is kind of like the Zeus for Superman, damn~ man you're lucky. So the thing you pulled back then." The last part Rimuru said as a question.
Clark who regained his smile said, "It's something inherent to all kryptonians," The others pulled together listening in rapt attention, "It's the manipulation of psychic's energy of all forms."
"Psychic's energy?" Shion interrupted bemused.
Looking at her Clark nodded, "Think of it as the manipulation of something different from magicules," Rimuru who heard that noted that Clark already had an idea on what magicules were even though this was his second day, another suspicion was growing, but he was satisfied with this. For now…
As Clark continued, his eyes began to glow yellow, and his hands were wreathed in a flaming like yellow aura, "Force Field," A transparent dome of yellow shimmers appeared surrounding his body flickering for a few moments, "Telekinesis," The earth around them shivered as globs of soil arose in their hundreds spinning around for some time before dropping back, 'Telepathy,' This he broadcasted into their heads, unheeding of the scowls Shion and Ranga threw at him.
"And Aura Manipulation." The flaming aura on his hand molted into a more viscous shape shifted taking forms of a bird, monkey, imitating the sounds they make. He even creating the figure of a roaring wolf much to Ranga's begrudging fascination.
"There are many things psionic manipulation could do, I'm still learning them all, but at the stage I'm in, the only thing I got going is raw power."
Rimuru nodded in understanding, "So the thing you did to Shion and Souka back then was aura manipulation." He speculated.
Clark nodded, "That is correct. Specifically, I used aura manipulation to transfer a sliver of my energy which I refined to tactile telekinetic energy, and then input the method of utilization in their brains through telepathy, "To Shion and Souka he said, "By the end of the day all the remaining energy would have died off and so would the message I inputted so don't worry."
Shion huffed turning away, while Souka merely nodded. But deep in their hearts they wished it wasn't so, that feeling of flight, the clouds above a touch away and the tip of the trees below creating a verdant view was incredible, and to see it gone while not life changing, would be saddening.
Clark not knowing what the pair of kijin and dragonewt were thinking was nodding to himself. The inherent physiology of a kryptonian wasn't for show'. While there was the power and all it was his ultra-processing and comprehensive characteristics that helped him in understanding all that Villa had explained him about this world, the magicules, and even gave him a clear grasp on the workings of his powers.
"Now next up," He clapped widely to the audience, "Since I've already tested my speed and my strength, now I want to try this psionic right away, so ideas anyone?"
"Clark, sir." Souka called out, "Since you said your psionic energy at this stage only provides you with raw power, maybe you can test with your range and potency… Like your telekinesis, what it can pull, at what size is its limits and how far is your area of control."
Rimuru at the side nodded in agreement, "Nice idea Souka, couldn't have thought of a better idea myself."
Hastily bowing, Souka said gratified, "No my lord, it was just an idle thought."
Shion pouted petulantly folding her arms, "Well I could have thought of a better idea myself." Ranga nodded in agreement.
Rimuru shrugged, "Well you could have but would any of you have said it?" He asked with an arched eyebrow.
Both kijin and tempest wolf both flinched, "Ugh!" Well, there was his answer.
Clark hearing what Souka said was also in consonance, telepathy while cool to experiment might just stir up unwanted hornet nest, the others were just boring, and aura manipulation while fun still required concentration that took too much time apart from small figures, leaving telekinesis which in Clark's opinion was cooler than aura manipulation particularly as it was the easiest to use. While he could try using the mountains around them as a test, he needed to try out his range. But the question was what.
Tuning out the batter between Rimuru and the others, Clark eyes reached up the sky, with a little effort the atmospheric barrier was sieved away, and the stars burst forth. Beautiful' he thought. There were no words that could be used to describe it, smiling froze as he spotted the rocks that hung around.
"Maybe… I could use this." Eyes and hands still wreathed in flames; he stretched a hand upwards.
"Hmm, Clark what are you doing?" Rimuru asked noticing Clark odd behavior, looking upwards Rimuru took in the cloudless sky confused on what the kryptonian was doing. As he was about to repeat his question, the slime suddenly yelped as an invisible thump of energy erupted from Clark and the kryptonian finally spoke in a low tone.
"Come"
Trepidation arose as Rimuru had a hunch something was about to come crashing down from the sky, the sudden thrumming hum, and the blue sea firmament becoming flaming red was the confirmation he needed, that yep. Clark really was going to destroy his forest.
.
Telekinesis was like using a mouse to operate a monitor,' Clark thought as he began to reach to out to the meteorites. With his own method, using telekinesis was first finding what he needs, hold and drag however he wants, and that was what he did.
The visuals for the meteorites were surprisingly easy, his eyesight took him farther crossing the alien moon to the star field space. His awareness was like the cursor scoring the expanse for his targets, one by one, he latched on the bolides. One meteor became two, tens, hundreds, and thousands, until it he didn't bother to count anymore. He expected to feel tired or any sign of exhaustion but there was none, he would have go on, but he felt what had gathered was enough.
Stretching a hand he visualized, the marked stones, visualizing a command.
"Come."
All without exception left their positions shooting away at incredible speeds as he pulled them set on a path to the planet.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
It was only when the skies began to look like something out of an Armageddon, did Clark knew he took things too far.
"Light God! Cease your incursion at once!" Clark turned to see an odachi pointed at him, Shion scowl was scathing, but the fear he tasted was so palpable that he might be staring at a murky bundle of it.
Deep with his soul, a yellow anthem began to form.
"Shion?" Clark asked in confusion, looking around, Souka threatened to bowl over but stood up straight only by pure will power, Ranga stood protectively over his lord growling clearly at him.
"I will not ask again, stop this now or test my blade."
"Shion stop!" Rimuru slinked out of her shadow forcing her hand down, "You are only making this worse!"
The humming changed into a discordant blare, and earthquake shook the entire range, and high above they all showed themselves filling out the entire sky.
Meteorites…
Thousands of them, even the smallest had the size of a house, Rimuru really wished he could perspire at this moment. If they all drop at the same time. The mental image of a barren radiated Great Jura forest fleeted through Rimuru's brain. No, he wouldn't let that happen.
"Clark stop it! If all of them drop at the same time you're going to wipe the entire forest off the map! Everyone would die!"
Clark shook mortified, turning to the sky, and with a hand gesture all space stone stayed stationary thousands of meters in the air. Letting out a sigh of relief, he heard one sigh with his as Clark saw the Rimuru in her slime form on the ground.
"Crises averted~" Rimuru chimed, before turning back to his humanoid form once more. Looking back up, he saw that even the radiated fumes were frozen still, given the burning stones the mental image of a hanging guillotine. Only this one smash rather than cuts.
"I'm sorry." Clark said as the others slowly regained their bearings.
"Sorry?! Did you just say you're sorry! Do you really think it's that easy to say sorry and everything is forgiven! You almost killed us all, destroyed our home! And all you have to say is sorry?! Some Light God you are." Shion said face set in anger, her hands clenched white around the grip her odachi.
Clark on the receive end, closed his eyes while setting down clenching his fist looking contrite.
Rimuru seeing the remorse on Clark quickly calmed Shion down, even Ranga who looked one step from pouncing on him in ferocious anger was grudgingly pacified. But still the Demon Seed had to admit as he looked up, however terrifying as it was that it was still impressive to see.
But still it was scary to see how close he was to losing his life all on an unintended urge to experiment. With a wry smile, he thought, it's like I'm with an isekai overpowered character.' But still he idly wondered what the border kingdoms would be doing now that they had seen such an attack. Hopefully it would be taken as a deterrent rather than provocation.
Ah~ what a mess.' Rimuru thought while dragging his hands across his face, before addressing Clark.
"Clark not like I'm saying what you did is right? But please before you throw stunts like this again, just give us the head lights first, so that we can tell you what you're about to do is right or is it going to spark disaster."
Clark recoiled at the unintended barb, Disaster.' Shaking his head to rid it off the coming blush, he turned to the slime and nodded.
"Still how are we going to get rid of all this." Rimuru sighed as he gazed at the hanging mountains above them.
"My sincere apologies, Master, but regrettably even if I summon my fellow tempest comrades, we won't be able to do much against this much mass." Ranga despondently said.
"Light God, if you are capable of bringing them in then you could send them back right." Shion said curtly to Clark who nodded, turning to her lord she said clearly preening, "Well that's problem solved."
As Clark was about to throw the meteors back to space Rimuru suddenly stopped him, 'Wait Clark, let me ask this do you still have any other attacks in your repertoire."
Clark nodded, "They aren't much, but I still have some purely attack abilities, my heat vision and arctic breath included."
"Yeah, I even forgot about those from all this excitement, but still, this gives us an opportunity." At Clark inquisitive look, Rimuru explained, "From the way you look I can say that holding up all those rocks aren't as straining as I assumed, so why don't you use that as training targets. It'll be doing two things at once, clearing the rocks and testing yourself more."
Nodding Clark looked at the rocks for a moment before deciding something, "I'm going to try something but first I want to ask, do you all have resistance to decrease and increase in temperatures."
All of them nodded, except Souka, "My resistance to lower temperatures is much lower than my resistance to higher ones."
Rimuru looked interested as he said, "So you're going to use it?" Finally! Finally! After all this time he was going to see it.
"Yeah, but first," He gestured as the dragonewt who flinched a bit before relaxing at the sight of a translucent barrier that hovered some inches away from her body but still provided air, "Just for precautionary safety." At her nod, he turned to Shion and Ranga, "What of you do you need it?"
"No thank you, Light God."
"It is not needed."
They both tersely replied, Rimuru also shook his head, "Don't worry I'm more resistant that I look."
Seeing that Clark nodded looking back up, he took a deep breath through his nose sucking the air in like a vacuum cleaner. His chest puffed up, fists vised folding slightly while his elbows pushed back, his lips parted in a small hole and then he exhaled.
Considerably the air chilled drastically, Shion and Ranga yelped in surprise, while Souka seeing the earth being turned into frozen tundra luckily thanked her stars. It wouldn't have killed her but it would have been very unpleasant.
Rimuru watched with stars in his eyes as what could be described as a turret of icy winds spurted out of Clark's lips.
'This is The Artic Breath.' The slime thought in wonder.
The tips of Clark lips felt comfortably cold, as he watched the blustery frost rush out from his mouth shooting up higher till it crashed against the rocks and began to spread, the red heat of the rocks gained from the reentry friction was snuffed out in creaking sounds, and by the time Clark had stopped, all the rocks had been covered in a film of ice.
"Thank goodness he didn't do this on land, we all would have been frozen to our very bones." Just by freezing all those rocks at the same time with one breath, Clark had just proven he could do the same to the entire forest!
While it was morbidly funny to watch the way his subordinates' jaws slacked open, Rimuru relate to them as well. Hell, he suspected it wasn't at full power! Shaking his eyes in wonder, he turned when he heard Clark informing them, he was about to try his other one.
"Another one? You still have something other than this?" Shion said unable to contain the trepidation arising within her. This man, this being, was too dangerous to be around Rimuru-sama, unconsciously she edged around her lord, who promptly set her aside.
"But Rimuru-sama?" She whined. Couldn't he see she was trying to protect him.
Looking straight at her, Rimuru said, "For more than once let me ask you again, if he really wanted to try something how do you think you can stop him?"
Words hooked in her throats, before gulping an air as she said, "Then I will give my life to stop him."
Shaking his head, Rimuru said, "I don't want your life Shion, it shouldn't be for me," At her budding protest, he raised a hand, "Please Shion."
The berserker clenched her fist, before she was nudged at the side by Ranga who shook his head. Sighing she relaxed back conceding.
Seeing that everything had been settled Clark initiated his optical discharge. Activating his heat vision was surprising simple when compared to most coming-of-age Superman's iterations.
Maybe it was because it required emotions as its fuel, Clark presumed that was why it felt so intimate to him, all he just had to do, is to sink into his growing grievances. It was all too easy in letting go.
True, he was brought into this world probably overpowered, but still he knew it wouldn't be easy. Shion, Ranga, Rimuru, Souka… they had all proven it, maybe it was as a result of his enhanced perception, but he could feel it, see it, possibly taste it. The palpable fear of what he presented, the anger born from apprehension of his actions, the dread permeated the air when he narrows his eyes, the anxiety that followed as they discussed about him like an object of terror... All of it, all of them WERE JUST TOO FRUSTRATING.
He wasn't perfect. While he might have had introductory aspects of the world lectured to him yesterday, he still didn't know his place in this world, he knew he was many things but an idiot he was not. Sighing Clark wondered whether the monsters back in town were even sincere when they congratulated him. Even Souka who looked nice, and all was basically spying on him for God's sake!
Maybe it was foolish for him to think like this, but still a question lingered in his heart as he was welcomed. What if they were motivated by fear?
Objectively he was lucky to have been summoned at this place because if it was in a more aggressive environment. He would have been on a warpath, and then Clark wouldn't have recognized himself anymore.
Quietly he focused on his anger at the world, at Shion, at Ranga, at Souka, at Rigurd, at Benimaru, at everyone who was at that town, at Rimuru who gave him impression that maybe there was something he could feel for this place, at the world that he was brought into… at himself for feeling like this again and breaking his promise to Laurie.
The ambient temperature surpassed boiling level, his eyes became a crimson borne of flames, and then with a grunt he released.
Twin optical beams of intense energy shot out from his eyes travelling at the speed of light increasing in breadths the instant it was released, with a resounding boom the red lasers crashed against frozen rocks vaporizing the meteors into dust, the sudden collision of different temperatures brought about the sudden introduction of an ambient humidity that chilled the valley.
Clark moved his head sideways moving from rock to rock, from where eyes passed explosion and dust followed, to Clark it was like burning a piece of paper. But he couldn't get them all from where he was. Eyes turning back to its normal cerulean he said curtly to the others.
"I'm going up, need better view." Clark crouched slightly before shooting up with an earth chipping force, a moment later he was back in the sky. There was no moment to enjoy the vista it provided, as he looked around for the rocks surrounded the air space. Eyes narrowed he scoured meticulously for avian seeking to get away from what he was about to do but as he found none, he presumed his stunt with the meteor calling must have scared them from flying for a while.
With that out of the way, he beckoned the fire to his eyes once more anger as his fuel and then released it this time with more force. Twin scorching red beams created a death line, melting and obliterating all the meteors that it passed, not a moment later an entire section had been cleared, to round it up Clark began to spin turning into a red human tornado, his crimson beams doing away with all that it touched, none of the rocks could offer resistance.
When he stopped, Clark saw that even though all the meteors were gone the pieces and the fragment still remained, so using his telekinesis once more he gathered all of them in one place in the form of a sphere that had the proportions of a small house, raising his hands shrouded in yellow flames, Clark began to squeeze, shrinking and compacting into a smaller size and at the end what remained was a ball that was smaller than an egg, its smooth surface and vermillion black shape the only suggestion that it had a peculiar quality. He played with it indolently before placing it one of his jacket pockets.
Later on, he might ask someone about it.
But first he released a sigh as he took in the skies, all meteors gone, obliterated, leaving behind clear blue skies that belied that a thing such as an Armageddon of stones had even happened, even the tainted smell, those space rocks carried was gone as well.
But still why was there no satisfaction? Releasing those beams surprisingly helped him, because he actually felt like he had released all the itching problems he had, but still something felt missing. With a sigh he sank down slowly leaving the solitude the heavens provided back to the land below.