Bab 40: Chapter 40 - Devour
Middendorffi felt his power draining away fast.
But what he saw was far longer than Mike's. The further back in time he went, the more and more world lines there were, and the more different the content became. It was like Middendorffi had become countless selves and was going through numerous world lines at once; or like there was only one self, travelling through progressively different world lines over and over again.
Of course, Eli is present in many of the world lines.
He'll laugh, get angry, hand Middendorffi all sorts of food, and meticulously describe the texture of it. He also comes close, embracing Middendorffi at various moments and from various angles, wrapping his arms gently around her, clasping her hard, tugging her hand and dragging her into his arms, and sometimes pouring his strength directly into the hand that is pressed against Middendorffi's backside. It was similar to Middendorffi's direct devouring of energy. Still, more natural, even a bit of a rampage, knocking Middendorffi into a daze and making it almost impossible to maintain his human form.
Eli then clutches him tightly, "No changing."
Eli slowly moved closer to his face, "I'm going to teach you this ..."
Middendorffi's pupils reflected Eli's dilated face. Just when the distance between them was only two centimetres, Eli paused and suddenly closed his eyes again, pressing Middendorffi's forehead gently.
"It's now, isn't it?" He whispered, "Stop looking and get out."
With those words, Eli's energy suddenly shook, and with it, the entire space!
Middendorffi's energy drain also decreased rapidly, and all worldlines twisted, flipped, and shattered, swirling like currents of water, all rapidly contracting around a vortex.
Eventually, all the images of time and space were received in a tiny core.
The scene in front of Middendorffi's eyes suddenly went white, and then he, too, was back in the hospital.
Eli stood behind his side, one hand clasping his waist as if guarding him backwards at any time, the other covering his hand. Middendorffi's palm was the very same core vibrating with spatial energy. Without even having to look at each other, Eli and he silently, with a single push, pulled this core from Mike's shoulder- above - and completely plucked it away!
"Uhhhhhhh ...!"
It was clear that the two of them hadn't touched Mike at all, but he fell while screaming miserably as if he had been jerked and pulled out of his bones. It was as if the core had stretched out many tentacles to penetrate his body deeply, and by plucking the core, the roots that were attached to his flesh and blood were drawn away raw.
What was even more bizarre was that while Mike fell, the people present watched as his hair fell out, the wrinkles on his hands and face deepened significantly, and his fingers became withered. Not to mention the others, even the doctor who used to see complex cases and life and death scenes was shocked: "Growing old again? So fast? How is that possible?"
However, this was the case, and Mike turned into a seventy or eighty-year-old man in front of them and rolled on the ground in pain. After the initial shock, Adonis finally returned to his senses and staggered, "This, two teachers, what the hell is going on!"
"We got it out of him, and it's backfiring; he can't cheat with that in the future." Eli still had one hand around Middendorffi, the other still gripping Middendorffi's fist tightly, babbling, "Find us a room with no one in it, no surveillance, quick."
"What, what?" Adonis was infected by his tone and followed with urgency, "What's wrong? What do you need a room for?"
"Dealing with this thing we caught." Eli's tone was sad and sounded very serious, "It has to be dealt with immediately, or it's very harmful."
Adonis then looked at the doctor, who, unable to ponder where these two had come from or what they had done, subconsciously replied, "Would a conference room do? It's at the end of the third floor, but the door's unlocked."
"Yes." Eli popped out those two words, scooped up Middendorffi and walked away quickly.
Leaving the doctor in the consulting room, Adonis and the assistant look at each other in disbelief, and a senile version of Mike on the floor with an ugh.
The doctor, after all, has a bit of a work ethic and looks at Mike twice, then at Adonis: "Erm, what do we do? Show him?"
"Look at it, look at it, but I don't see him signing up for the remaining two innings; he's going to lose his bottom for sure." Adonis waved his hand, "Shit, consider it my charity."
The doctor then knelt and started examining him and called for the emergency people to come over and see if Mac needed to be resuscitated. Adonis didn't bother to watch and exited with his assistant, instructing him, "You go to the third floor now, and when those two come out, take them to their hotel accommodations and remember to arrange for food. When they are free, talk to me. I still have to talk to them about this matter."
The assistant nodded repeatedly.
"Also, get some video of Mike and the surveillance of the weird thing that happened just now along with it. Make it for the record when dealing with him." Adonis added, "What other betting dogs think doesn't matter to me. It's annoying when some of them try to screw me back and tell me I'm reneging on Mike's debt. Show all these people and the other shareholders what a death Mike has made of himself."
The assistant continued to respond: "Okay."
"Fuck it, I better go make a video now too." Adonis said, pulling out his mobile phone, "Otherwise when I go back and those old geezers ask, they'll say I'm talking out of my arse again."
The assistant naturally wouldn't put a finger on his boss's business, only saying, "I'll go to the third floor then, boss."
"Go, go, go."
The two of them were at the clinic's door and parted on this while the doctors and nurses from the emergency clinic had already arrived.
***
On the other end, Eli led Middendorffi into the empty conference room, the lights left on.
He casually punched a spell on the door in case anyone came in by mistake and then asked Middendorffi in the darkness, "Okay?"
"... It's okay." Middendorffi naturally did not need illumination, opened his mouth and spoke straight to the point, "This thing, it can see the future, and it's a myriad of possible futures. Mike relies on it to predict the future, then picks the scenarios that come up the most as the projected outcome and bets on them to win. But it takes a lot of energy when it unfolds, and Mike is an ordinary man, even though he only sees for a very short time, and the life drain is immense."
"Hmm." Eli listened to what he had to say, but instead of discussing it along the topic lines, he said, "Do you want to swallow this thing?"
"I'll eat it?" Middendorffi didn't ask why, just said honestly, "I probably couldn't eat it; it contains too much energy. And I've been drained of energy alright, no need to rush to fill it ..."
"I don't have anything for it." Eli lied a little. He had some containers that he could try to fit in, but he selectively ignored them, "It's only fitting that you devour it. Not only will it give you a huge increase in energy, but with your native attributes, it's possible that you can master spatial rifts by swallowing this with its space and time attributes stacked on top of each other. If you can master spatial rifts, we won't be able to just part ways in the future."
He paused momentarily and added, "You said you can't eat it so I can help you. But then my power would be added to you and possibly into you. Would you be willing to do that?"
As soon as Eli asked that, Middendorffi remembered the last scene he had seen in those worldlines.
So, instead of answering, Middendorffi just asked, "Were you just pulled in to see those futures?"
Eli was silent for a second, "... saw it."
Middendorffi asked again, "The scene that helped me devour this thing, see that too?"
"Saw it." Eli's voice was a little deeper in the darkness, "So it will work; don't be afraid."
Middendorffi pressed on, "See anything else?"
"... I'll talk to you later; for now, let's deal with what's in front of us." Eli digresses, "Eat it, will you? I can feel it rioting, it's so special it's going to be a problem if we don't deal with it."
"Eat it now?"
"Now." Eli said, "Or turn back into black mist if you can't. I've locked the door and blacked out the glass, so we'll go out when you're stable."
Middendorffi didn't understand yet, but he trusted Eli. he leaned toward Eli more than the future shown by those worldlines, so he nodded, "Okay."
"Then I'll count to three, two, one, and you'll swallow after that." Eli loosened Middendorffi's fist in the darkness, but the hand clasped around the other man's waist remained unloosened, "I'll see what I can do to help you once you've finished swallowing. You try not to turn into a black mist, or my senses won't always be accurate, and it won't be easy to channel the power."
Middendorffi was reminded of his "no turning" line from the worldline again.
But he didn't have time to think about it any more because Eli was already counting down, "Three, two, one."
Middendorffi grabbed the thing by the hand and "swallowed" it.
Just like what he had "experienced" in those worlds, this thing was powerful and overbearing, absorbing energy with great intensity. Rather than Middendorffi swallowing it, it was more like a tug-of-war between the two sides. Both of them were born and bred with the attribute of "devouring", and now it was a matter of which one was superior. Just like in the wilderness where Black Mist was born, the weak and the strong eat each other, killing each other, and once they face each other, it's a matter of life and death.
But this time, Middendorffi still had Eli to help.
This was the first time Eli had helped him devour so directly; even if he helped Black Mist eat something, it was just an out-and-out attack. But this time, the thing didn't have a solid body, and Eli could only keep outputting his own power to Middendorffi. Or rather, he had to make it easy for Middendorffi to swallow the foreign power into himself and then come back to fight and digest what he had just consumed.
And Eli's power was sent from the palm that covered Middendorffi's hindquarters in a steady stream.
Middendorffi couldn't care less about this side of him right now; his entire focus was on the confrontation. The energy inside him ran wild, being snatched away and snatched away from his opponent. His skin turned black with fluttering edges all at once and then shifted back to a regular skin colour with standard edges.
Eli simply gathered him in his arms and kept whispering instructions, "I know it's hard for you; hang in there and don't change; keep it under control! I'm helping you, no problem, consolidate your control while you can!"
Eli was indeed teaching Middendorffi now. The Black Mist used to rely on instinct for its devouring and growth, but for it to step up to the higher levels and become a more powerful existence, learning a more systematic method of becoming stronger was almost a must.
Middendorffi held down his human form, gradually stabilising as the three forces rushed in. He slowly began to gain the upper hand, devouring more and more energy than was being absorbed away, and the rate of increase grew faster and faster.
Finally, at the dawn of day, the core was completely devoured.
Middendorffi dispersed out of the black fog and back into the body.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
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Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone