Cataclysm, Pt 5

Perhaps it doesn't matter what your Third Eye is capable of - if you don't do something, then you're both most certainly dead. And so you activate it without a lick of hesitation.

Like the first time, you close your eyes and allow your Third Eye to open wide at the same time.

However, this time is significantly different. Gone are the majority of glowing threads flowing in the air - now only few strands flow here, there, and everywhere. Your heart quivers when you realize that's how many people have died since the beginning of this madness.

And it's not as though you particularly care for the faceless masses - you fear mostly for yourself, for Kaja, and your father. If everyone else could fall so easily, then you are certainly no different.

Even if you can see the threads of everyone's fates.

More critically however, the pain that has been throbbing at the sides of your head sharpen acutely. And the more you open your Third Eye, the more the pain drills itself into your mind.

You grit your teeth to the point where you feel them grind against each other.

But you push past it, fearful of death. Or at least, the death that's right in front of you.

You turn your Third Eye on the shadowy figure only to find that it's far beyond what you think it is.

To you, it appears to be a massive, flowing form. As though it's made of pure Willpower itself. It's akin to a shadowy pyre half as tall as the buildings beside it, and easily as wide as the entire street. Its individual ink-black flames flicker and whip around violently.

Though you can't feel any heat or cold, it still pushes up against you. Against everything around you.

Even the blade it controls appears to be an extension of itself, and like its real-world counterpart its edge appears infinitely sharp. It seems almost made to sever anything and everything from reality. Such as whoever those people where that it had slaughtered.

You're just barely able to make out a figure at the center of it all, impossibly darker than the shadows all around it. It stands solidly with stoic resolve, as though in defiance of everything else around it.

It holds one arm out, seemingly lazily. Especially when compared to Kaja's strained stance.

Her luminous form glows brightly in front of you, along with her thick golden thread. Waves of pure Willpower emanate from her, seemingly endlessly. But you realize that 'endless' isn't accurate at all - the strength of her Willpower wavers and flickers every few seconds as she struggles against the shadow creature.

The disparity between their strength is clear - the shadow creature far eclipses Kaja.

A deep frustration builds as you come to realize that she is being toyed with. Or maybe tested. Almost as though the creature is carefully pushing her boundaries in an attempt to gauge her strength.

It strikes you suddenly that Kaja has also seen the threads - she too can open her Third Eye. Which means that if she can do that, perhaps you too can tap into whatever power she's using as well.

You feel your physical body reach forward with both arms in an attempt to mimic her, then push out with your will.

But nothing happens. You don't feel an extension of yourself reach forward, certainly not like what you're sensing with Kaja and the creature. So you try to push harder.

Nothing, all the same.

Your hands hang foolishly in the air, doing absolutely nothing to help your situation, your impending death. Some part of you screams at you to run for your life, to give up on Kaja.

There's no point! you howl at yourself. There's nothing you can do! Run now while you can!

But your body feels heavy, resistant to your fear. You feel your feet plant themselves, hard. Clearly another part of you protests against your strongest instinct.

That part of you reaches out with your formless self, and connects with Kaja's thread.

Electricity courses through every layer of your existence as you connect to her metaphysically. Her memories slam into your mind, and fill you with many of the experiences she has accumulated in her life.

More critically, you focus on how she's doing what she's doing. If you can glean how she is able to use this phenomenal power, this Telekinesis, then maybe you could also turn the tide. But you don't find any such knowledge in her mind.

Instead you see her most treasured memories cascading down from every direction. There's an infinite amount of them flowing through her - they're what's powering her ability to push back against the creature and its blade.

All those memories are of you.

Laughing, crying, angered, stressed, relieved, everything. Your first date. Your last date. Watching movies, playing games, going out. Sleeping together. Kissing, hugging, lovemaking. Your first argument. Your last argument. Sleeping on the couch. Shouting, arguing, fucking.

It occurs to you that there's no memory of her unlocking that power, because there's no such memory. She's using the pure thought of you to do it all, as though she's pouring raw emotion into her fight.

Kaja's fighting against that thing, for you. Because of you. Her strength is you.

And you realize why she's flagging every so often - holding on to that raw emotion and constantly pouring it out has got to be incredibly taxing. Yet there she is, doing exactly that.

Tears build up behind your eyes as you begin to feel the weight become heavier and heavier. Shame comes quickly afterwards, for even thinking of running. Choosing to do so would clearly bring her to an absolute finality.

One that ends in your forgetting her existence altogether.

A shudder sweeps through you when you realize you can't replicate what she's doing. She feels so strongly for you that it literally stops death in its tracks. And you know deep in your heart that you don't feel that strongly in exchange. After all, the very thought of running away passed through your mind.

If something like that passed through Kaja's, both of you would be dead right now.

And besides, even if you do feel as strongly as she does, you don't think you could sustain it. The fact is, you know you can't handle that much emotion. You break too quickly and too easily when there's too much of it.

You lament your own inability, your own inferiority. Whatever love you pour through yourself is going to do very little against that blade. You barely love yourself - how could you possibly love someone else with any strength?

Both your physical and metaphysical selves fall on your knees as a deep despair washes over you. You've always felt completely powerless all your life, with this moment being your lowest. There have been plenty of times when you wish you could have the kind of strength and inner Willpower that Kaja holds. The kind that she seemingly wields so easily.

Your desire for it has never been so high than right now.

That absolute need contrasts with the reality of your inadequacy that you can almost feel your heart split in two. Its painful pang joins the sharp spiking pain in your head and creates a cacophonous note that spins up a terrible storm inside you.

You shout out in an attempt to purge yourself of your deepening despair, but the opposite happens. Both your physical and metaphysical selves pour that despair outward, carried by sonic and psychic waves, out in every direction.

Your Psychic Surge flows outward suddenly, and overwhelms absolutely everything in its path.

To the point that Kaja's concentration is broken, and her Telekinesis is halted. Your emotions flow through her, and almost completely blot out her glowing metaphysical form.

Equally as important, your Surge floods the creature as well. Your willpower flows over its blade, shattering their connection instantly. The physical blade simply drops, while the ink-black metaphysical flame gets completely snuffed out.

Your Surge overwhelms the creature's towering aura and blows it apart, leaving the ink-black creature to get completely flooded and washed away.

Your physical self collapses as your Third Eye forces itself closed. The entire world spins around you as you feel yourself utterly drained of your Willpower. Worse, the pain in your head thunders and thumps with such severity that you can barely hear Kaja calling your name.

It takes an excruciating few seconds for the pain to ebb and for your Willpower to begin to rise again. You groan as the world comes back into focus, then push yourself up off the ground.

Of course, Kaja helps you up as best she can.

You can just make out her saying, "Lean on me a while," even as she hooks your arm around her shoulder. Weakened by your attack, you've got no other choice but to do as you're told.

"Did I kill it?" you mumble.

Kaja does her best to reply, but your ears are still ringing somewhat, and only understand half of what she tells you. But a simple glance tells you everything you want to know.

The shadow creature is most certainly still alive, if it can even be classified as that. But it's simply standing there, doing nothing. And from what Kaja has been telling you, it has been that way for a handful of minutes now.

As you gather yourself up, and as your mind clears, the creature turns around and walks away. Calmly and unhurriedly.

Both of you watch as it eventually disappears from view.

"How'd you do that?" Kaja asks you after many breathless moments.

"The Surge? No idea," you say. "I just kinda… I felt in a way I didn't want to. So I tried to push it all out. Well, you kinda know what happened after."

Kaja nods solemnly.

"Felt it, too," she says.

"Felt it? What? Seriously"

"You were feeling really low just now, yeah? Really, I dunno, depressed? Like, deep, dark depressed. Bottom of a pit kinda thing… Never felt anything like it before."

It dawns on you that you can't project kinetic force like Kaja does with her emotions - you project your emotions themselves. Not only that, but they're powerful enough to completely overwhelm whoever feels it.

"Do you…" Kaja mutters. "Do you feel like that all the time?"

You bite your lip, unable to answer her. But that silence is more than enough to confirm it.

"We oughta get outta here," you say weakly. "In case that creature comes back."

Kaja nods in agreement.

"Let's take this with us," she says. "If it's coming back, better we've got this than not, right?"

She reaches out with an arm, and with a tug of her Telekinesis, pulls the translucent purple blade towards the both of you.

It's massive in comparison, certainly much longer than either of you are tall.

"Let's hope it doesn't track us down to get it back, though," she continues. "In which case, maybe we oughta throw it somewhere real far away instead."

You shake your head in disagreement.

"I get the feeling that it doesn't even need this thing."