A/N: Hey everyone, author here. First off shout out to Wraith for PRing the chapter. Please leave comments or reviews about your thoughts of the story. Whether i'm doing something good or bad, please let me know so I can improve the quality of the story. Well then, hope you all enjoy the chp!

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’Today we will start off with getting you familiarized with psionic energy. Psionic energy is the energy that is released from white holes. As you already know, black holes swallow matter and light. For some reason that even we, the Xena’ga, do not know, the light that the black holes swallow compresses and become energy sources that is known as psionic energy which is then spat out by white holes.

Psionic energy is an interesting force. Not only does it aid in the formation of galaxies, it also allows beings to manipulate the space around them. Some uses that we, the Templars, have found are to strengthen physical abilities, push or pull objects, create illusions, camouflage yourself, teleport a short distance, and even form an energy blade through the assistance of equipment. When harvested, we have also found psionic energy to be a great source of fuel for our ships and weaponry. Psionic energy increases output by five times for the same quantity of Vespene gas.’

After the two spoke yesterday, Jung had spent the rest of the day thinking about the implications of what transpired. Even though he wanted to laugh and play it off, he just couldn’t shake the feeling that everything Tas’Zul told him was the truth. After hours of mentally chasing his tail around in circles, he came to the decision to just play along for the moment and make his own assessment. With that thought, he went to sleep.

The next day, the two began the training session early in the morning. As he heard the Templar’s explanation, Jung couldn’t help but be shocked at the uses for psionic energy. Increased physical abilities? Illusions? Teleportation? Telekinesis? All of these seemed like powers that superheroes possessed. Also, psionic energy was five times more efficient than Vespene gas?

The reason that the Dontesk Empire was able to use so much machinery and spacecraft was because of the discovery of Vespene gas. Through studies, Vespene gas was found to be ten times more efficient than anything that could be found on Earth, and it was commonly found on planets that were near a sun.Transportation become cheaper due to the large quantities of vespene gas found; you could now travel twenty times the distance one gallon of the previous interstellar fuel could with the same amount of Vespene gas.

Tas’Zul waited patiently as Jung went over all the new information that he had been given. After he had given Jung what he thought was enough time, he continued on.

’Now that your body and mind are attuned to psionic energy, it shouldn’t be very hard for you to feel it. For now, just close your eyes and try to feel your surroundings. You should feel it as your body absorbs the surrounding psionic energy. Now go on, close your eyes and try to feel it.’

Even though Jung was somewhat doubtful, he nevertheless nodded his head and closed his eyes. As he stood still, he attempted to feel his surroundings. At first, all he could feel was the ray of sunshine that entered the cavern through the hole and the soft wind that twirled around and brushed against his skin. He couldn’t tell for the life of him what this mystery energy was supposed to be.

“Huh?”

As he stood there for a little longer, however, he began to be aware that he felt two different types of warmth. Even though it wasn’t as noticeable where the sunlight touched his body; in the areas that the sun couldn’t reach, he noticed that he felt a different type of heat. The heat was very pleasant as he felt it seep into his skin. If he was to describe the feeling, he would say it was comforting, just like when a loved one hugged you.

Now that he knew the sensation, Jung also began to feel the energy throughout his surroundings. It felt as though the room was packed with psionic energy! He was baffled about how he couldn’t sense such a dense gathering of energy before.

“Tas’Zul, is psionic energy supposed to have a warm feeling?”

’Very good child, you have done well.’

“…Even though it feels good to be complimented, can you please stop calling me a child? I’m a grown man for crying out loud…”

’If you met someone who hadn’t lived for even a tenth of your life, would you not call them child?’

“Well yeah, they’d be between two and three years old after all.”

’Child, I have lived for over three hundred years now.’

“….Point taken. Wait what?! Over three hundred years? Just how long does your race i live?”

’An average lifespan for a Xena’ga is around a thousand human years.’

“What?! A thousand years?”

Jung was baffled when he heard the ridiculous life span. Humans had made a breakthrough in science and the average lifespan of a human was now a hundred and fifty years, but to live for a thousand years? He couldn’t fathom what it would be like to live that long.

’What are you so surprised about? Now that your body is absorbing psionic energy, you will also live that long if you don’t die from any unnatural causes. Also, why do you speak when you can communicate with me mentally?’

When he heard that he could also live up to a thousand years, Jung’s mind momentarily froze. A thousand years? In that span he could watch countless generations be born and pass away. It was also enough time to see numerous governments and empires rise and fall.

“It’s…uncomfortable to me. I prefer using my voice to talk.”

’You humans really are strange. It’s so much more efficient to just communicate mentally.

A grin appeared on Jung’s face. He noticed since yesterday that Tas’Zul couldn’t understand some of the basics of human biology. He remembered how mortified the Templar had been when he told him about what the human body did with the food they ate.

’Let’s continue the lesson. We will first begin with the most general exercise: push and pull. This exercise focuses on making you gather psionic energy and either push an object forward or pull it closer to you. The better control you have of the psionic energy, the more weight you can push or pull. The most important part is your imagination. Imagine that you are gathering the psionic energy and pushing the object or wrapping the energy around it and pulling it toward you.’

Even though he was dubious, Jung nodded his head. After he searched the cavern floor, he found a rock ten feet away that would make do for the practice. Inside his mind, he began to imagine the psionic energy as it gathered in front of the rock and began to push the rock. Contrary to the image inside his mind though, the rock stayed in the same spot.

’The image wasn’t clear enough. Try again.’

For the next hour, Jung continued to try to move the rock. Try as he did, the damn rock never even budged. As his frustration continued to increase, he finally decided to take a break and reevaluated his methods. There must be a different way that he hadn’t thought of yet . As he brainstormed over new angles to attack the problem, an idea popped up. Excited, he tried it immediately.

Once again he expanded his senses and felt the psionic energy within the area. Instead of gathering it into one area and pushing the rock, he imagined the psionic energy had condensed into the shape of a transparent hand that was an extension of his own body. Just as he would with his own, he imagined extending the hand outward and pushing the actual object. To his joy, the rock moved finally.

“Yes! Finally got it!”

’Good job, child. Even though the way in which you went about was unique, it was nevertheless successful. Like you figured out, the most important aspect is not the thought of just pushing the rock, but it is the thought that you are pushing it. Now that you got the gist of it, pull shouldn’t be difficult.’

Jung gave a simple nod and imagined the psionic energy in the surroundings gathering to form the same transparent hand. In his mind, he pictured the hand opening up and grabbing the rock before he pulled it in. As the hand grabbed the stone and pulled it toward him, it lifted off the ground and floated back. When the stone reached the midway point to him, a wave of exhaustion rushed his mind and the stone dropped to the ground as Jung lost focus.

“Huh? What happened?”

’Child it takes a lot of willpower and concentration to control the psionic energy. This is the first time you’ve attempted to manipulate it so it is no wonder that your mind is exhausted. Don’t worry though, as you practice and gain a better understanding, the strain on your mind will lessen. Take a break and we will continue.’

Jung plopped down to the ground at the word break. His mind felt muddled and the image that was transported to his brain seemed blurry. After he laid on the ground for a moment with his eyes closed, his mind began to clear.

“Hey Tas’Zul, how long will it take to train and become proficient with psionic energy?”

’It’s different for everybody, child. For some, it can take less than ten years while for others it can take up to multiple decades and even centuries. The fastest that I have seen anybody complete the training was in five years.’

“Decades?! Maybe even centuries?!”

’The main reason that it would take that long is because they reach a bottleneck in their training and they get stuck. As training is done mostly by themselves, they either cannot ask for help from anyone or they are too prideful to ask for assistance.

You, on the other hand, will have my experiences to assist you. Even though the majority of the time I will not assist you when you run into a problem, I will give you advice when you truly run into a bottleneck. It is better to learn through your own experience than to be told, after all.’

Jung contemplated what Zas’Tul told him. When he agreed to be trained in the Templar ways, he expected it to take years, but for it to potentially take decades or even a century shocked him. Just how profound was the ways to manipulate and use psionic energy? Luckily for him, there was a veteran who knew the ropes that could teach him. If he did well enough, maybe he could learn it in a couple years.

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’Also, just because one completes the training does not mean they have mastered the manipulation of psionic energy. There are several other uses of psionic energy that we have never found. Even before the Zvirek invasion, I was still learning new ways to manipulate it after being a practitioner for over two hundred years.’

Jung could understand what the Templar meant. Even within human society, scientists always found out new information about things that were deemed as facts or laws in the past. Why wouldn’t it be the same for psionic energy?

’That should be enough rest. Start again with the same exercise of pushing and pulling the stone.’

With a groan, Jung stood up. As he began to sense the psionic energy in the area, he focused his attention on the rock that was five feet away. Once again, he shaped the psionic energy into the shape of a hand and willed the hand to push the stone.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

For the next month, Jung diligently focused on his training. He felt that he now had a much more solid understanding and control over psionic energy. Not only could he manipulate psionic energy for a longer period of time but he was also able to expand the distance that was covered. Anything that was within a fifty yard radius and weighed less than one hundred pounds, he could now push or pull albeit he would have to anchor his weight down to move a heavier object.

As he became more proficient with his control, Zas’Tul also began to teach him how to strengthen his body and also how to momentarily boost a specific part of the body. The strengthening of the body wasn’t much of an issue as his body was already constantly absorbing psionic energy. All he needed to do was to stop the energy from entering his organs and instead mentally move it to his muscles.

Strengthening a specific area proved to be more difficult to control, however. Moving all the psionic energy within his body to a specific area and keeping it there was an order of magnitude higher in complexity. He constantly had to keep his focus to ensure the energy didn’t leave to spread out around his body. It took a little over one week to succeed consistently.

’You have finally grasped the very basic foundations for the path of Ein’Zul. Even though your partial body strengthening skills leave more to be desired, your rate of progress is very fast. It usually takes practitioners about a year to progress to where you are now. You have a clear advantage over everyone else with your sensitivity towards psionic energy, but it usually takes months on end for initiates to have a good grasp of psionic energy. For that reason, do not become arrogant and slack off. The training from now on will become even more difficult.

Starting from today onwards, I will teach you the martial arts that were created from Xena’ga soldiers. We have refined this martial art and combined it with psionic energy. Through the combination, we are able to exert overwhelming strength and agility to eliminate our foes.

Push, pull, and body strengthening make up the core of the martial arts we train in, which we call Qam’Put. In your language, it translates roughly to “The Way of the Heavens”. Pulling and pushing objects and opponents, you will always be in charge of the battlefield and control the fight’s pace to your choosing.

Before we begin though, let us go to my space craft.’

“Eh really?! We’re finally going to the spacecraft?”

Jung couldn’t help but to let out a sound in surprise. Over the past month, he had traveled around the underground whenever he had the chance. When he first began to explore the large corridors, Jung asked about the location of Tas’Zul’s spacecraft and the area where psionic energy was unnaturally dense.

Space craft designs were always of deep interest to him. He wondered how Tas’Zul’s ship differed from human designs. Was the design made to compensate for higher levels of internal inertia and assist with particle shielding? What functions were built into the spacecraft? What materials was it made of? Those were just a few of the questions that came to mind for Jung. Tas’zul’s answers were that they would go there when it was time and to wait patiently.

When he asked about the energy, Tas’Zul told him that he was not strong enough yet. He said that there might be creatures or beings that were far stronger than him, and he would only walk to his own death. When Jung became strong enough, they would then inspect the area and finally leave the underground.

Now that they were about to go see the spacecraft, Jung couldn’t help but feel excitement grow inside his chest. He would finally get the opportunity to inspect the spacecraft and leave the underground. Even though it was dangerous with the Zvirek above ground, it should be fine as long as they were careful.

’Yes we are. There is equipment on my ship that we will need for your training.’

Jung simply nodded and headed for his gear. Jung had only worn his helmet and clothes underneath his suit the whole time. He thanked God that he found a small underground stream within the passages where he could wash himself. After he climbed back into the suit and inspected his rifle to make sure it was in good condition, Jung began to walk through the corridor.

Like he had noticed in his previous journeys, the corridors underground were large and circular. The ground, walls, and ceiling were smooth with no rough edges to be seen. It seemed to him as though either lava created the corridors as it ran it’s course in the past hundred years or a large, circular, worm like creature had burrowed through and made the corridor. He earnestly hoped that the corridors were that way because of the prior option and not the latter. Shivers ran down his spine at the thought of such a large worm.

The countless number of corridors made it feel as though one was in a maze. There was an eerie feeling to it as the only sound that could be heard were his own footsteps. Through the past month of traveling, Jung had never encountered a single life form, be it an animal or plant. He began to seriously debate whether the whole area was a graveyard or not.

Even though his navigational system did not function properly underground, they were saved by Tas’Zul’s exceptional memory as he remembered the route back out of the cave to the entrance he came in through. It felt like an eternity to Jung but after a couple hours of twisting and turning along the corridors, they finally reached the entrance. After he scouted the area and made sure no Zvirek was nearby, they finally exited.

“Ah...it’s been such a long time since I’ve come out to the surface.”

Jung felt a wave of emotions sweep over him. He began recalling the final moments before he fell: The feeling of hopelessness and betrayal, his courageous soldiers as they fought to fend off the never ending swarm of Zvirek and survive, the cries of agony from his soldiers as they died, the death of 1SG Martinez.

All of the emotions overwhelmed him as he stood at the entrance and looked upon the barren and cracked soil in front of him. The grey ground and jagged rocks seemed to match the gloomy skies as the dense clouds blocked the sunlight from reaching the ground.

’There’s nothing else you could have done for them, child. You led them bravely and your soldiers in turn fought with courage and honor. You shouldn’t bemoan their deaths; rather you should rejoice their lives which touched you and remember them for their courageous actions.’

“...Heh, you’re absolutely right Tas’Zul. I think I will do just as you say. Anyways, where’s your spacecraft?”

’About two miles north of this location will be a forest. Its at the edge of this country’s barren lands. If you continue northwest for another mile and a half after you enter the forest, we will arrive. Let us move along the rocks. Right now you’re out in wide open territory and if anything bothered to look in this direction, they would see you from miles away.’

Embarrassed by Tas’Zul’s stern lecture, Jung ran toward the jagged rocks. With the use of the terrain as cover, he began to run north. Even though he could run two miles in about ten minutes on a straight road, it took him nearly double that amount of time to traverse through the rocks. The jagged rocks thankfully went around the whole base of the mountain and he was able to use them for cover and concealment all the way to the forest.

For the first time in over a month, Jung finally heard noises from different life forms. The chirps as small avian life forms perched on the branches, the creaking of bugs, and the sound of grass as it was forcefully moved. The forest was full of life.

The trees were humongous. Even if his arms were twice their length, he wouldn’t be able to wrap them around one. The height of each tree easily surpassed fifty feet. With branches that expanded outward for tens of yards, the canopy of leaves that the trees created felt like a dome which guarded against any light that attempted to penetrate down to the ground.

Since he didn’t have to worry about rugged terrain, the mile and a half trek went by a lot more quickly and it took him only eight minutes to travel the distance. At the end of his run, he arrived in a small clearing among the trees.

The clearing looked empty at first glance. Jung could clearly see that there was nothing in the area. The only thing that gave away that a large object was in the area was the smothered grass that didn’t move along with the rest as the wind passed by.

“So Tas’zul, how do you remove the camouflage system?”

As the words escaped his mouth, Jung felt Tas’Zul’s presence gather psionic energy and release it toward the center of the clearing. As the energy approached the middle, a tiny spark of color appeared in the empty space.

Within the open clearing, glimpses of a black metal kept appearing and disappearing. Watching a camouflaged spacecraft disable their system was always a surreal sight for one to behold. The scene reminded Jung of a television channel that kept receiving and losing signal. After no more than ten seconds, a large imposing object appeared in the clearing.

It was a black Xena’ga spacecraft.