บท 19: Faith of a Believer
Seeker continued to lie down as the machines connected to him ran several tests. Seeker started closing his eyes as if he was meditating. After a few minutes, the door opened.
"Charles." Seeker addressed as his eyes were closed.
"Sorry for the trouble. We should be done in a few minutes. Meryl and Lynd told me about what happened in the restaurant. You sure you know what you're doing?"
Seeker just smiled and nodded.
"Look, I agree with their point of view. I didn't know that you guys are from the Rising group. I thought you'd be a Royal."
"Seems like you guys had a lot to talk about." Seeker smiled.
"Well yeah… I did warn you that I thought these guys are well… weak, for the lack of a better word."
Seeker laughed.
"You're wrong." Seeker bitterly laughed. Weak? If they are weak, what was he?
"Well, I mean, they died in the future, didn't they?"
"World Champions died in the future. That doesn't make them any weaker than me." Seeker sarcastically stared.
Charles was silent for a moment.
"Wait. Exactly who would Lynd and Meryl be in the future?"
Seeker was silent. He gave a deep sigh.
"Meryl Mikado. Did you notice anything special about her?"
Charles gave a peculiar look.
"I don't know. She seemed timid and brave, I guess?" Charles shrugged.
"She has a talent at looking at bright things longer than others." Seeker smiled.
"We would even spend some days at the bright park having a contest at who could stare at the sun the longest. She would always win."
Charles stood there and wondered.
"Great! Good for her." Charles commended with a doubtful expression.
"Right. A weird talent. We never thought it would amount to anything."
"Well, probably in some fields of science, it would."
"What about in warfare?" Seeker grinned.
"I'm not sure. Unless she could keep her eyes open in front of a flashbang and withstand it."
Seeker smiled.
"Of course, she can't. Well, that was until she was unlocked."
Charles was surprised at Seeker's revelation.
"You see, apparently, her tolerance towards light is vastly different from others. And because she was proud of it, she kept developing this useless talent. Once she attained the Unlocking, she transformed it into a weapon of warfare."
"How can that be used?"
"By combining stellar and nuclear science, our scientists managed to create a powerful form of the flashbang. It could create bright light so immense that nothing could see through it."
"How is that possible? Won't some technologies could use different forms of vision to see through this light?"
"Not when it's facing the Sun Flash. We all know that the sun produces different waves of light. It creates light that can be seen by the naked eye, and light that couldn't be seen. The combination of the two technologies created a light that no form of vision could see through. Well, except…"
"Meryl's eyes." Charles was shocked at the revelation.
"That's right. Imagine fighting something you couldn't even look at. Something that could make everything around a few kilometers as bright as the sun. No technology could see through her. But she would walk and see in it. It won't even hurt her eyes."
"You sound as if you admire her greatly."
"I do. They called me Seeker "the Death Tide" Carlean. Do you know why?"
Charles shook his head.
"I managed to cause what appeared to be a tide of dead bodies in one of the major battles on Earth. Stop flinching. It wasn't that great. People exaggerated it. Picture about thirty to forty human bodies sliced and hacked up and would just roll out of the broken doors and windows of an evacuating spaceship." Seeker grinned.
"I don't want to picture that," Charles replied unamused.
"But you see, I wasn't known for any special trait or skill. Truth be told, among those who reached Ranked Hero, I wasn't anyone special. I wouldn't be able to hold my candle around other Ranked Heroes. People like Meryl, they were different. The moment she debuted her first Ranked Hero battle, her nickname was set. Ranked Hero Meryl Mikado, Empress of the Sun."
Charles gulped. That timid short girl was actually a weapon of high power.
"In fact, she was next in line with the highest potentials to be one of the World Champions.
"How is that possible? Meryl and Lynd were earlier insisting that you are a genius! And she's actually better than you?!"
"Yeah, about that. I guess I was surrounded by geniuses that I never considered myself as one. But you see, it's not about being a genius. In terms of Unlocking, you can't reach Ranked Hero or higher by sheer knowledge, skill, or talent alone."
"Then what do you need?"
"Faith? Basically, the power of a believing mind."
"What?" Charles looked surprised.
"I guess we could call it by a terminology you're more familiar with. The Placebo effect."
"Placebo?"
"Did they tell you about what happened with Cliff?"
"That drug addict? Yeah. Meryl said you used some strange trick to make them very afraid. It petrified them."
"You see, that's interesting. They saw how it affected Cliff and his gang but did not even flinch."
"Wait. You mean you didn't intend that? I thought you were only aiming for those delinquents!"
"I can't. Or rather, I don't know how to. To achieve that, I would have to push my brain to activate a certain form of hormones. Ones that could trigger fear. Anyone who would be able to smell it would have been affected."
"I've seen studies and attempts to prove how a certain scent could cause fear that but I didn't know-"
CRASH!
Charles immediately stumbled. He could no longer stand. An empowering fear covered him. Unlike the spine-chilling sensation he once felt, this didn't even allow him to move or breathe.
Suddenly the sensation ended. Charles was gasping and slowly stood up.
He knew what he felt. Scared. He was scared of the teen lying down on a bed with several machines attached to the teen's brain. How did that happen?
"Convinced?" Seeker stared with a non-committal attitude. Charles nodded his head vigorously. He never wanted to feel that way again.
"And yet, Meryl wasn't affected by that smell. Disgusting monsters."
"What?! How? Didn't she feel the spine-chilling sensation the other day when we were discussing the plans?"
"Well, I think it was doubt. I mean, they learned of my memories and how I'm a Reincarnator. Maybe they were suspicious of me. But I guess by the next day, they somehow accepted me and treated me as a friend once more."
"How would that be able to make Meryl immune to fear?! I'm an army doctor for Christ's sake! I should at least have some resistance, but she did because she thought of you as her friend?" Charles demanded. He felt a bit insulted that the overpowering sensation was like a breeze of wind to two teenagers.
"Frustrating, right? I feel you." Seeker smiled. Finally, someone could share his insecurities with his friends.
"She believed that I'm her friend. She believed I wouldn't hurt her no matter what. So when the hormones I released was transmitted into her brain, her brain simply refused to interpret me as a threat."
"That's the most absurd thing I've ever heard! The brain receives signals, be it from sight, scent, or whatever. And you're telling me that for Meryl, her their brain simply disregarded those signals like some random piece of note from a suggestion box?" Charles complained.
"Oh, ye of little faith." Seeker laughed.
"Think about how the placebo effect managed to cure and heal various diseases across the world. It's a proven fact. The mind can do powerful things. Because the mind controls the entire body. Down to its very cells and DNA."
"How is that possible?"
"I don't know."
"What? You don't know?"
"I really don't. Those two are special. A simple faith that transformed into a power of will that can convince the mind. Even I can't do that. It's actually one of the necessary elements to reach World Champion."
"So, to Unlock someone, they need the power of believing?"
"Well, you could reach Inhuman and possibly Ranked Hero without these. But going beyond there, you need it. Take Meryl, for example. She believed, and as was accredited to her faith, her brain evolved. It morphed into something that could simply cancel light or limit it to a vast extent. I don't really get the science, but that's basically the gist of it. I just can't do that. I never managed too, even when I knew the theory behind it."
"So just because she believed that you are his friend with all her heart and soul, she managed to negate a type of fear that could send someone like me to my knees?"
"Disgusting right. At that time, I poured out enough hormones that could paralyze a veteran soldier, and they just stood like I was a plush teddy bear!" Seeker complained.
"Then why didn't you tell Meryl about this? This could've helped her to be more confident!"
"Wrong. It wouldn't clear her fears. It might even hinder her. Think Charles. The power of suggestion is a powerful weapon when it comes to inducing placebo, but only if the recipient truly believes it! For Meryl, it wouldn't help. This is because of my existence. Even you right now, at this very moment, still struggle with disbelief at the facts of my existence. If I told Meryl that she could reach Ranked hero, she'd probably think that I'm lying to motivate her, and it may even hinder the Unlocking."
Charles couldn't argue with Seeker's explanation. Seeker was right.
"I see. At worst, she may never achieve the Unlocking towards Ranked Hero or World Champion."
"Exactly." Seeker sighed.
"You see, I'm in a bit of a dilemma here. I'm not sure how to motivate her without altering her simple faith." Seeker started to rub his forehead in frustration.
"I miscalculated. I can't believe that my very existence could alter the course of history this devastatingly." Seeker lamented.
"The ripples you make in this continuum are far bigger than we first imagined. Looks like you are right. Missing a simple coffee meeting could change the world as uh… well, as you know it."
"In any case, I'm very sure that I must never reveal her true capabilities. She must believe on herself through her own methods."
"Don't worry. I won't tell Meryl of her capabilities. What about Lynd? What level of Unlocking did he reach?"
Seeker smiled.
"I was blessed to be their friends, you know? I was very proud of them. Most of the battles I fought had them beside me. Lynd was far greater than Meryl and me." Seeker sighed. His heart would ache every time he would remember the last moments of his friends.
"The World Champions called people like Meryl 'Believers.' With their innocent and straightforward faith, they had the highest potential to reach World Champion. However, they had a different term for Lynd when he became Ranked Hero. His belief system was so powerful that it didn't make sense even to those in the World Champion realm."
"Even World Champions couldn't understand Lynd?"
Seeker nodded.
"He was a prodigy amongst Ranked Heroes. He could even emulate skills only World Champions have. And upon reaching World Champion, several scientific breakthroughs about the Unlocking were made. It was as if his Unlocking held the potential on how to break through past the World Champion realm."
Charles gapped. If he would be the starting science that could bring hope to the world, then Lynd potential held the almighty power to save it.
"What was he called?"
"He had many names in his career as a soldier. But amongst World Champion, he was called the Prophet Elijah. The One Who Prepares the Way."
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