The moonlight shone over me as I took my first steps. It took me a few minutes to find my balance and coordinate my muscles and joints as if I was a newborn baby. It was a hassle but I had no control over it. These were the after-effects of the coma I got myself in. Since a psychic coma usually lasted for a week or an entire month, I assumed that I was out for at least two weeks.
As I stared at the night sky, my eyes felt heavy. There was an unusual surge of psychic energy in my eyes causing both to glow a reddish hue even though I wasn't using any psychic abilities involving them. I didn't mind since I figured it wasn't of any concern. Being paranoid about everything and anything was great until you basically drive yourself mad from anxiety and overthinking.
I checked my psychic heat to see if all of it had successfully dissipated during my coma, I was pleased to find out that I was right. There was also something odd about my psychic heat, it's as if it had expanded greatly in terms of capacity. My psychic powers also felt different, as if I had become more potent than usual. I didn't know what to make of this but as far as I could tell, these were more than welcomed upgrades to my abilities that I would use to my full advantage. If I had gotten stronger then that was a cause of celebration!
But I had no time for such delusion. There were too many things at stake, the most important of which were the sisters that I needed to reunite with. The first thing I wanted to do was to find the sisters, that was already pretty obvious. Once I found them, I would take them under my care permanently, if they wanted it. I didn't want to impose my decisions and judgment on those two like a despot. I needed to be as open as I could if I wanted to be the embodiment of hope.
I was no longer the tyrant of yesterday. I needed to get used to it.
I made my way southwards from the center of the crater. As far as I could recall, that was the direction the horses took to flee with the sisters. The faint yet incomplete psychic trail left behind by their barriers also pointed south and thus, that was where I was headed.
I walked past puddles shallow and deep puddles that had formed because of the rain. The ground was muddy and thus it was sticky. The dirt clung to my boots while my other clothing's own psychic barriers actively pushed off any and all residue from sticking onto my person. As I crest the south side of the crater, I noticed a single bloop of psychic energy come from under the flattened trees just beyond.
"Hm," I subconsciously whispered as I stared at the land of flattened forest. The bloop came a few meters in front of me, under three trees all piled up on top of one another. The bloop came again as I walked closer, it was just in front of me. I wanted to see what it was, my enhanced sense was telling me it was a small creature judging by how weak its energy signature was.
And, it was getting weaker. Whatever creature was stuck under there was dying slowly. It was a race against time. My eyes glowed brighter as I lifted the trees with my psychic grip before throwing them away to the right. I then saw the poor creature, most of its bones fractured, organs were failing, and it was struggling to breathe.
It resembled that of a bear cub. It had fuzzy fur that had been visibly burnt in some areas of his body while sporting four fine paws it must have used to climb trees. If this bear-like creature was indeed a cub then where was its mother? I kneeled in front of it and took it into my arms.
It cried. It wasn't a loud yelp for help but it was a soft wail of mourning. I was sure of it. I could distinguish the sounds of animals and their meanings and this creature was mourning. It was mourning for something.
And I soon found out why. I failed to notice it at first but just under my feet were the remains of a bigger bear-like creature three times its size buried under broken branches and piles of leaves. There was no questioning it, it was his mother. It lied there on its back, its paws stretched out as if it was trying to shield its young from the explosion but was too late.
I stood there for a full minute, mortified by what I had done.
These bear-like creatures were too similar to grizzlies despite their psychic difference and thus, I began referring to them as grizzled bears.
The young cub turned and looked at me as the life in its eyes slowly faded even further. It groaned as it tried licking my hands. There was nothing I could do to save him. His body was too far gone and even if I did, there was no saying that it could survive in the wild for long without its mother to teach it. Judging by its body composition, the poor cub was only bearly a year old and already it had suffered.
And its suffering was my fault.
I was fond of nature, maybe too fond now.
A single tear fell from my right eye and landed on the cub's forehead. The cub barely noticed and gave me small licks to the hand.
"No,"
Its heartbeat slowly slowed.
Until it stopped.
The bear died in my arms. There were no vultures to feast upon them, no crows to watch over them, the barren landscape was dead, save for the small critters that survived under their small homes. There was nobody here to mourn for the dead.
Except for me.
In one of the rarest moments of my life, I was overwhelmed by a painful emotion that split my heart in two, tore my mind asunder, made me come face-to-face with my blunder. It was as if I was reliving the death of my mother.
And I wept.
I knelt on the dead ground of fallen trees as tears streamed down my eyes. I wept as silently as any man could. I jerked ever so slightly after each painful hiccup. My eyes swelled and puffed as the tears flowed like a stream of clear water down the mountain before arriving at a small pond where it finally settled. The reddish hue of my psychic powers began manifesting around me in the form of sparkling orbs that swirled and swerved around the corpses. As I was consumed by grief and regret, the corpses glowed red as the sparkling orbs touched their skin. The mother and her cub slowly glowed crimson red and slowly turned into orbs of light that floated onto the sky.
It was a beautiful and painful sight that I would forever remember. Their corpses disappeared and in their place were the last remaining orbs that slowly floated towards me, clinging onto my own psychic power. As my weeping slowed after witnessing what I sowed, it was time to leave this empty road.
I then felt it.
The spirits of the bears clung onto me.
The tears stopped as I looked around to see where they were. I felt their presence as they clung onto my soul. The spirit of the cub snuggled around my arms, I couldn't see him, I wanted to, but he was there. The mother was leaning on my back, resting against it. I felt the sorrow lessen as I realized that the bears had forgiven me, even in death, there was mercy. The mother and her cub had forgiven me and this was their way of telling me so.
I was glad.
I wiped away my tears and stood. The thousands of orbs of lights that floated around me made their way back to my body, with those orbs were the orbs of the bears whose souls had transformed into my own psychic energy. As I welcomed their gifts into my psyche, I stood there with a stronger resolve than ever. I had a duty to fulfill and I was to fulfill it completely and without fail.
As I looked over the recovering landscape, I felt my heart skip a beat. Something was happening, a surge of psychic energy blanketed everywhere my naked eye could see. The ground around and below suddenly glowed green as the psychic surge manifested into physical existence.
Was this another attack? The gemstone survived? Questions flooded my mind for the green color of the psychic energy was too similar to the gemstone's power.
I wasn't going to prolong the fight and commit the same mistakes as last time. In a split second, I overpowered my barrier to its greatest extent yet. The bears had given me strength but the strength I felt did not coincide with the strength the bears gave me. This level of psychic ability far surpassed what I had before but I was not complaining. I was the great master of psychic abilities and mere powerups were of no concern to me.
This was it.
If the gemstone did survive and was launching a massive attack against me, I would have no choice but to respond in kind and unleash the entirety of my newfound capabilities. I was ready to fight to the death to ensure that my dream of becoming the embodiment of hope in this dire world would come to fruition.
Maybe I had become somewhat childish but I did not want to lie.
There was something I would like to see again with my own eye.
To see their smile again would be enough even if I die.
As I was about to burst into a glorious crimson star, my heart again skipped a beat. The green light stayed as it were and suddenly, hundreds of thousands of small green orbs floated from the ground and into the air.
I was dumbfounded.
I had heard stories from psychics long dead and psychics long gone about how nature rewarded the good in men and punished the evil in all. They told me stories of nature granting psychics power that far surpassed their own. I did not believe them for even though I was fond of nature, I never did anything to deserve its gifts. I pitied mother nature and tried my best to prevent my harm from reaching it yet I almost always failed.
This was maybe the first time did I show regret in my actions in the presence of her grace.
It felt.. chilly.
A gush of wind breezed through me and I felt a sensation I didn't know was possible.
The spirits of every animal that died in these ruins rose from the ashes as the orbs of green light carried them. I saw tens of thousands, these weren't only the living things that died during the attack, these were also the animals that had died in vain a long, long time ago. This wasn't the first time mother nature's beauty was trampled on but I was the only one to show remorse for my actions.
All stared at me, I felt everything. The dead slowly made their way towards me. As each spirit clung onto my psyche, the orbs of light began to gather into one spot in front of me. It started slow, they gathered into small clumps before joining to form a larger orb. Then, all hell broke loose.
In the blink of an eye, the orbs came together in a flash of green light that illuminated the landscape for the split second it happened.
Floating in front of me was an indescribable beauty. For it followed no single form but that of many combined to create a work of art that ensembled a symphony of grace. I was enamored and succumbed to the light.
I fell on my knees and bowed.
I waited.
Waited.
And waited.
I heard the light call out to me and I looked up.
It slowly floated towards me and I gave it my hands.
I saw four letters form before it turned into dust.
HOPE
It called out my name.
The dust of the light then entered my body through my skin. I closed my eyes so that I could cherish the moment with every fiber of my being.
As everything that happened came to an end, I found myself at peace.
I had been enlightened and lifted to a new plane of understanding and power. I was no longer the feeble man of greed and pride.
If I were to instill hope into this world, I must rule. Not as a despot, not as a dictator, not as a prideful conqueror but as a leader of humility, dignity, and benevolence.
A rare smile appeared on my face as the spirits of tens of thousands clung on to me.
They gave me strength.
And I shall repay the debt of life.
Comments (0)
See all