Bonds

"This aspect of Tether is not known to a lot. It's worth so much that even the Alliance holds it so dearly." Gabriel explained. What he was trying to do was to use this knowledge in exchange to officially join their crew. Seeing them closely, this crew was like a gathering of abnormal people. He was so intrigued!

"I'm aware. Truthfully, I know a part of this… I would have already told them about it but since I have no abilities relating to Tether, it'd be pointless. My point is I'll determine the authenticity of your words." Arwan said. His words also agreed with Gabriel's indirect proposal.

"Alright." Gabriel began, "Within the Tether Energy, there are a kind of otherworldly entities existing. These otherworldly entities are looking to enter real bodies so they go around the galaxy and choose someone who would be a suitable host for them. 

"There are only two ways to enter your body,one naturally and over the years, people have come to realize an artificial way to do this.

"I'll only talk about the first one since that's what relates to Femi at the moment. The natural one is usually a long process that can take multiple years. These entities usually wait for when their chosen personnel have reached a stage where their body has evolved to a suitable stage by using Tether. Additionally, if you don't reach that stage they want, they can give up on you and start following around another host.

"Now, the stage at which you need to reach to host them is not definite as it depends on the entity that chose you, but when you're chosen, these entities that are restricted due to the fact that the energy they live as is spread widely forcefully converge when you're ready. Then, they'll enter your body as a unique type of energy that eventually enters your core."

Femi assimilated the knowledge, eventually coming up with a question. "What do these things do to the body after? Are they going to take over the body? What makes them so special? You say entities, are they really alive?"

Arwan nodded, gesturing to Femi that he asked good questions.

Formulating a response, Gabriel continued, "When these things enter your core, using the energy from your core, you can connect with them and bring out part of this entity's unique nature to create and use supernatural supernatural abilities.

"Although I was young and my body had not evolved then, I proved capable of hosting a bond - ah, those entities are called bonds, and out of the few that's hosting bonds in this galaxy, I became one of the youngest Tethered - people that have become hosts."

Arwan had expected this seeing his kill count. Although Tethered preferred to keep their abilities hidden to use as trump cards, he asked, "So you can also use supernatural abilities… Mind showing us?"

Gabriel's eyes darkened as he weighed the option. Knowing there was the fact that if he joined them, they'll see his ability very soon, he just shrugged and sat straight.

"Alright," He said. "I'll demonstrate. Now, I'll be connecting to the bond within me, using my energy, I'll bring out the first levels of this entity's ability."

Under their watchful eyes, Gabriel raised his right hand, and pointed it forward. In his palm, a floating yellowish-green shard appeared and suddenly it expanded to form an irregular shape.

He moved his palm to make contact with the irregular-shaped crystal shard. On contact, the shard suddenly morphed to a gun shape that Femi had previously seen.

"Whoa…" Femi and Arwan expressed how impressed they were, while Eina's eyes widened.

Gabriel smirked at their reactions. "Eh, it doesn't end here." Gabriel said, his yellow eyes transitioning to green.

The air around him shook as he absorbed the energy around him to refill the little he used. Following that, multiple shards of crystals with similar color of his crystal gun appeared at his back. 

"Go," Gabriel said.

The crystal shards moved around the cargo and at the last moment, they headed towards the members of the crew.

"Fuck!" Arwan exclaimed, covering his face with his hands.

As silence brewed in the Cargo, Gabriel laughed and made Arwan drop his hands to look.

Arwan saw multiple shards in front of him, halting the moment they were about to make contact. He exchanged looks with Femi and Eina who didn't flinch at the movements of the shards.

Realizing why Gabriel was laughing, he cursed, "Kick me in the ass!"

"Alright, alright." Gabriel waved with a satisfied look,"I'll continue now."

As the shards around him and the gun in his hands, disappeared to thin air, he continued, "Regarding if they take over your body, the relationship looks like a commensalism type, where you gain and where the bond is unaffected, but after my years and the alliance's years of research, they've determined that its a predation relationship. 

"This bond might give you an ability that makes you stand at the pinnacle of the galaxy in terms of abilities, but they feed you this power, so you can crave more. Just like when one loses themselves to the usual Tether due to the inability to control it, when one uses abilities beyond their limits, they'll lose themselves and the bond will take over the body. That's what we call a Tethered Abomination."

Femi tried approximating the Tethered Abomination's strength, and questioned, "If the Abomination we encountered was that strong and it's a normal one, how strong is a Tethered Abomination?"

Those thoughts also crossed Arwan's and Eina's mind, as they evidently squeezed their faces.

Gabriel raised a brow. These newbies encountered an Abomination! "You really encountered an Abomination? How come? How did you survive?" He asked questions that showed that he was really a researcher.

"It's a long story," Arwan said in a tone that suggested they'll talk about it later.

Catching on, Gabriel replied, "I see. Well, about the strength of a Tethered Abomination, it's as you imagine. They are immensely strong. I can't put a limit to what their strength is, but that's a good thing. They've been able to subdue all the Tethered Abominations before they completely devoured their hosts mental presence.

"There's also the fact that the amount of confirmed Tethered Abomination is countable with one hand while normal Abominations are more than thousands."

Not completely understanding the world of Tether, Arwan asked, "Why? I believe a lot of people are power driven and would lose themselves to their bonds."

Gabriel explained, "For just using Tethers for enhancing and improving the body, a lot of people know about it, it's not really as arcane anymore.

"The only limitation for it is the amount of people that can actually use it. For using Tether and the bonds that reside within it, the knowledge is not shared as everyone wants to monopolize that knowledge."

"Another thing that limits anyone from becoming Tethered is the amount of bonds that exist, it's also been confirmed that there are few bonds to go around for everyone." Gabriel added, "In the past few years, I don't believe I've encountered up to 20 Tethered. Ah, you may want to consider that most Tethered are very low-key."

Upon seeing they were satisfied with his questions and they didn't ask anymore questions, Gabriel moved on to the topic on what was so special about Femi.