Chapter 146 – 'Ethereal' Turning 'Real'

[2009 – September]

The next day it was back to school for Jean and me since it was Monday again.

Most students were still pretty hyped up about what had happened a few days ago with Spiderman and Dr. Connors, while a large part of the left wing's second floor had been cordoned off for repairs.

Surprisingly, Gwen was already back at school while Peter wasn't. Though maybe this wasn't too surprising, considering that the strong-willed blonde was a very diligent student while Peter might still be healing from his injuries since he had taken quite the beating.

Even for someone with his healing factor, he might need a few more days to heal completely, not to mention that I also had the creeping suspicion that he was avoiding Gwen.

Either way, I didn't really care about those things as they were just observations that I made in passing. At this point, it was harder for me to miss something than to notice it considering the strength of my mind and senses, even when somewhat suppressed.

I naturally wouldn't walk around with my mind and senses fully expanded, as it would be hard to live like a normal human if I did so. In any case, my superhuman Extrasensory Perception was enough to warn me of danger.

When lunch came around, we sat together in our usual group and chatted with each other. It was at this point that Yukio and Ellie told us that 'Spiderman' had also been a major theme for discussion in the X-Mansion over the long weekend since a lot of students speculated that he was a mutant.

"What did the Professor say about that? He must have heard the others talk about Spiderman, especially the younger ones.", Jean asked the others while feeding me a spoonful of her vanilla pudding.

It was my favorite flavor and Jean had picked it from today's list of desserts exactly so that she could share it with me.

"I heard a few younger students had asked him if Spiderman was like them during one of their classes with him.", Yukio replied, before she continued with a wry smile, "He didn't answer them outright and just told them that they all should strive to use their gifts for good as Spiderman did, instead of using them for selfish and self-serving reasons."

"Well, I didn't expect anything less from the Professor. Though it isn't bad advice considering how many mutants end up as small-time criminals due to them using their powers for less savory purposes.", I interjected.

There were always different news articles that were being published, which talked about all kinds of crimes committed by mutants, no matter how insignificant the offense. It almost seemed as if there was a mutant committing a crime every day just around the corner of one's own home.

Obviously, there were some forces at work in the dark that were trying to stoke the flames of conflict between mutants and non-mutants. And they did so quite successfully at that.

Still, the same was true for the conflict between the black and white population, and I was sure that none of this happened because of outside forces. Internal conflict might seem bad for a country but this was also when corruption thrived the most.

After all, what better way was there to gain political support than to promise the masses that one would deal with or eliminate their source of fear and anger? This naturally came with a prerequisite for the existence of such a source. Not to mention that the more dangerous the source, the greater the need for a party to suppress them.

Considering humanity's capacity for evil, it would be more surprising if there were no people that sought to manipulate the masses like this to further their own agendas.

"Mhm.", Pietro hummed in agreement before changing the topic to some new movie that had just appeared in the movie theaters, seeming rather uninterested in our former discussion.

…

Taking slow and deep breaths, I sat near the shore of the small lake inside the academy grounds near which Emma lived.

My palms lay atop my knees facing upward, a blackish transparent sphere held in one while my other palm seemed empty. Naturally, my left palm only seemed empty as the ethereal barrier that hovered above it was undetectable by anyone other than myself.

My whole focus rested on those two small barriers, one possessing a physical form while the other didn't. My mind seemed to extend beyond the confines of my body as my Extrasensory Perception locked onto the two shields, sensing the differences between the two constructs.

Up until this point, I had only ever been able to use two kinds of barriers that either had a physical form or ethereal barriers without one, though both were capable of affecting the world around me.

And while they did seem to be very different from each other, I could use them both for the same purpose, or at least I could do so most of the time.

Shielding myself from different concepts could be achieved with either type of barrier, even though I preferred to use an ethereal one as I didn't have to cover myself in a physical shield in an effort to do so.

My anti-tracking and temporal barriers were two examples of this, as was the barrier that shielded me from the repulsion reaction that threatened to expel me from this dimension.

As a general rule, using a physical barrier to shield myself from something that could be blocked with an ethereal barrier was something that I could do easily, even though it wasn't always practical.

This didn't work the other way around though, since I could not use my ethereal barriers as substitutes for my physical barriers and replicate all their abilities. Most could be replicated but the exception to this rule was that I had not been able to use my ethereal barrier to move physical objects.

This might seem to be a given as my ethereal barrier had no form but I thought differently.

I could heal others using my ethereal barrier which was proof that it could indeed be used to affect the physical world, so using it to directly interfere with physical objects should not have been impossible.

And yet, I had never been able to do it in the past. It was as if there had been an invisible wall that had held me back, a wall that could neither be touched nor broken.

Now though, things had changed. I had changed.

I was the Ruler of a dimension, the incarnation of Darkforce. My soul alone would crush this reality if I didn't forcefully restrain its pressure, while my Energy Vessel had alleviated my body and mind beyond the realm of mortal beings.

Now, I could feel the 'wall' that had held me back before clearly. And with a slight push of my will, it crumbled like a dry leaf under pressure.

Opening my eyes, I closed my palms as I extinguished both barriers, my deep green eyes flaring with a crushing power as I slowly started to float.

Pushing outward with my mind, torrents of air started to whip around me, forming wind serpents that danced around my figure, slight pressure descending on the surroundings as my presence started to leak into this dimension of space.

Lowering my hands, I placed them into the pockets of my coat as I looked down at the lake.

Reaching out with my ethereal barrier, I forced the lakewater to defy gravity as I formed a giant wingless dragon that swam around my floating figure while seemingly battling with the wind serpents for dominance, smiling faintly as I did so.

…

Standing high up in the air with massive elemental serpents and a single titanic dragon dancing around his dark figure, the corners of his lips ever so slightly raised as he watched nature submit to his will, Elijah exuded a pressure that made it clear that he was no human.

Laura didn't know much about Elijah's power as he had never explained to her what he was capable of. She also hadn't asked as she only cared about being around him and was unwilling to pry into his secrets.

What she had witnessed a few days ago though, had shocked her to her core.

She had thought that she understood him, her instincts having told her that he was the same as she was – a being with darkness and a great capacity for violence in his heart.

Looking up at Elijah, Laura started to understand that the dark-haired teen was not like her. In fact, Elijah was not like anyone that she had ever met before.

She could still feel it clearly when she looked at him, the urge to destroy and reap life, now even more clearly than before.

Laura had seen the 'true' him, a living shadow with a presence that devoured all life and light. He had looked like a manifestation of death itself, darkness making up the essence of his being.

And yet, Elijah was still … Elijah.

Looking at his dark figure controlling the forces of nature, the only thought that coursed through her mind was how powerful his will had to be to restrain his own nature like that.

It had taken her years of training to learn to restrain her animalistic rage without denying her true self. Now, her rage and anger were no longer flaws but her sharpest and most lethal weapons.

And yet, her destructive instincts were nothing compared to the sheer malevolence that she had felt from Elijah's presence.

'What kind of belief gives you such inner strength, Elijah?', Laura asked in her heart.