Chapter 7: Chapter Seven
A few minutes later you land in the middle of Champas world with the girls groaning after hitting the ground. "Uuuuuugh... Did anyone write down the number of that spaceship?
Fuuuuck me my head hurts."
"Are you okay Caulifla?"
"Yeeeeah... Hey. Did you really get all emotional when we were Kefla?"
Nervously you look around. "N-No!"
"Hah! Dork!"
After she fell back to sleep you carried them back inside and tucked them in their beds nice and snug. Going back out to Vados you picked up the bottle of whiskey you brought.
"Damn... Now I feel like I need a stiff drink."
As if on queue two glasses appear in the hands of your master. "Shall we?"
"Yeah..." Pouring each of you a decent amount you kick back and start relaxing. "What are the chances of them forgetting about that?"
"Close to nill." Vados says as she stirs her drink around. "But I think this ordeal will do them a lot of good. Some rest will do wonders for their condition."
"Yeah... I overheard that. Why don't you explain that to them?"
"Do you think they'd listen? Besides... they never asked."
"Hmph..." You chug the entire glass in one go and cough a little afterwards. "Well, that's another thing I'll have on my mind for the rest of my life."
"Do you have issues with that?" Vados asks you.
"Are you kidding? To this day sometimes I recall moments from my childhood when I was an awkward little shit and then beat myself for being so dumb!"
Your trainer then walks up to you and gently touches your shoulder. "Oh don't be like that!
Everybody makes mistakes! And if it makes you feel better you've done nothing but exceed my expectations up until now!"
"Thanks Vados!"
"No problem." She then finishes her drink as well. "Oh my, that's nice and smooth! But now that we're nice and warmed up what do you say about a bit of training?"
"It's like you're reading my mind!" You stand up and charge up your power, letting that purple aura build up a bit.
"Now now. Not so fast. I'd like to give you a little test this time, see if you can figure it out on your own. But before we do that I have a question... I'm curious... You're reaching the level where you can safely branch out.
What direction do you see yourself going in? What do you think would compliment your abilities? Because we'll have to start thinking about that soon."
You stop for a moment and start thinking about it. But in the end you shrug. "I'll worry about crossing that bridge when I get to it."
"I see. Then shall we begin?"
"Is that even a question?"
Vados chuckles and waves her wand around in a circle. When it passes by one of your limbs they get encased in a familiar material. Both your forearms are now clad in a gauntlet of sorts both your shins appear to have some sort of armor cast around them. They are not only heavy but each one manages to disrupt your psychic abilities by a pretty hefty amount, leaving you almost as a cripple as they drag you down.
"As you can tell this is the same material I used before, called Blank stone and it has the curious ability to disrupt the very energies you can create with your mind."
You grunt as you struggle to move any of your limbs. "Sounds like something you gods created just to fuck with psychics!"
"Thiiiis may be the case. But I hope you're ready!"
"No wait! I can't even lift my ar-"
Using her wand Vados whisks you away into some strange dimension that seems to be devoid of... everything. "Welcome to my world.
It's a little pocket dimension inside my wand.
In here I can set up any sort of training regiment I want for you."
"G-Great! And why does it feel like I'm suffocating?"
"That's just a side effect of it. You'll get used to it. Hopefully. Normally you couldn't even move in here if even a bit of ki leaks out of your body but I dialed that back for the purpose of this test." She then extends her hands and conjures up a waterfall in front of you and a fruit bearing tree somewhere next to it. "You'll stay here until you've completed your test. You may eat from the fruit and drink from the waterfall as you need."
"W-What about other bodily functions?"
"You may proceed as normal. It doesn't really matter." She then points up. "There is my wand. That's your exit. But it will only activate once you've completed your trial."
"Which is?"
She points forward. "I want you to split that waterfall in half. While wearing your bindings."
"URK! A-Are you serious?!"
"Very." Vados then begins to fly upwards to her wand. "And I'd hurry if I were you. While your body may endure prolonged isolation won't do your mind much good!"
"W-WAIT! VADOS!" And she's gone. "Grrrrrr.... Great."
You look at your new challenge and scratch your head as you try to figure out how to handle it.
First things first, you pluck a fruit from the tree and take a bite out of it. To say it's bland would be an understatement. It's completely tasteless and its only saving grace is that it's juicy. But the juice is just water. However it does seem to fill you up and has enough nutrition to keep you going.
Munching on the thing you slowly guide yourself through the empty void with what little psychic power you can muster. Floating around like an astronaut you reach the top and attempt to find the waters source. Just as you suspected it has no beginning nor end. The water just appears out of nowhere and drops down into nothingness. The only thing that's seemingly standing in its way is a somewhat flat rock roughly around the same level as the trees base.
You drop the remaining core of the fruit into the stream and watch it sink down, not even making a dent in the current. Cautiously you stick your hand in it and realize that it also fails to alter the flow of the water. "I see... Tackling magic with logic was a stupid idea...
But what do you want from me then Vados?"
Cupping your hands together you take some water out and give it a taste. After just a sip you conclude that, much like the fruit it's absolutely bland but serves its purpose just fine. Taking what's left in your hand you begin to focus intently on it. The little water that's left in your hand rises slowly after much effort.
*pant* *pant* "This is pointless! I can barely move this! Let alone a waterfall!" You cry out in your desperation, realizing the true magnitude of this test. "There must be something else to it... something." You look around until you see the rock inside the waterfall. "Maybe."
Slowly you undress and hang your clothes on the tree before sitting underneath the waterfall. Crossing your legs you attempt to meditate. You aren't sure what you are doing or why, you just remember a lot of movies where this is a thing. And since the asians were seemingly mostly correct about the afterlife, maybe they know something you don't. But just as you're starting to question your own sanity you feel your consciousness slipping as your breathing regulates itself and feel the waves gently wash over your body.
Calm. You feel calm. The here, now and why becomes meaningless. No longer do you feel frustrated about your current predicament, nor do you care about the myriad other things on your mind.
But if there is one thing that's bothering you is how your head seems to be aching in one particular area where the water is hitting it. Probably some injury you suffered during training. You think about moving your hand over there to stop it but discard the idea as it'd break your concentration.
However as if it heard your thoughts the pain subsides immediately. This makes you think.
"Hmph... So that's how it is!"
You steel yourself and sharpen your mind. The sensation of the water hitting your body completely vanishes as does the feeling of the rock underneath you and that of the air you breathe. Right now only you exist. Everything out there, the water, the air, the rock you sit upon, all a part of you. And you think about not hitting your own head anymore. Looking up you see a small dome of air formed above your head, keeping the water away.
That is the secret.
Up until this point you were using your psychic powers wrong. Your feeble human mind could only think up a pair of psychic hands reaching out and grabbing things or something equally simple to imagine. But that's a roundabout way of doing it. Instead you must use that energy to become one with something and move it as if it was your own body.
"ALL RIGHT! LET'S DO THIS!"
"Hehehe..." You close your eyes for a moment and then begin.
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
The nothingness around you begins to quake and quiver as if something terrible is about to be unleashed. And after your scream you let out a single, commanding shout. "HA!"
As if the hand of God himself chopped the damn thing in half the entire waterfall split at your command violently. Giggling like an excited little kid you look at your bindings and shake your head in disbelief. Standing up from your rock you begin walking towards the tree and dress back up. Once you're done with your business both the rock and the tree crack before shattering into a million pieces under your psychic might.
Touching the now glowing staff you feel yourself being thrown out of the little pocket dimension Vados set up for you and your teacher looks at you with eyes wide open.
"That... wasn't supposed to be that quick...
I barely had time to put up some tea to boil!"
"Sorry to disappoint Vados. But some tea sure sounds nice."
"Right away. Erm... but before I go, here let me remove those."
"No need."
You raise both of your closed fists and with a smirk blast the bindings into smithereens alongside the greaves. Vados stares at this display intently before blushing ever so slightly.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone