Abgere: "On a mission alongside Ro, I had come across a woman I believe to be a seer. Actually, I had known her for a while but it was on that mission that I found out that she was a seer."
Despite his serious expression, Ethan chuckles as he hears that.
Ethan: "A seer, seriously?"
Abgere: "Yes, I know how it sounds. But you have to know that Scrying is an ancient technique that is believed to have been forgotten in this day and age. However, what if, just like you claim the legends are, the whole thing about Scrying being forgotten is also just a myth, a lie or a cover story to hide something."
I'd make sense if that'd be the case.
Ethan sighs and looks at me as he asks,
Ethan: "Scrying is a psychic ability, isn't it?"
Yes, it's the ability you often see old hangs in fiction using by putting their hands on a crystal ball and telling a person's future or their current location. We need the later application but not for a person, we need it for a library.
Ethan: "So, can you do it?"
Kais: "What!?"
Ethan: "Can you Scry?"
Kais: "I … doubt it."
Ethan: "Then I doubt this woman Abgere 'believes' to be a seer is a real deal, either."
After a moment of silence because of the out-of-the-world logic that Ethan has just spouted, Abgere asks,
Abgere: "And how is this guy not being able to Scry and that old hag being a seer connected?"
Ethan: "Well, this 'guy' right here"
He points at me as he continues,
Ethan: "is supposed to be the man capable of using all the psychic abilities in the world, no, universe. If he can't Scry, no one can."
… Yeah, I don't know what to say.
And I don't know what to do about Abgere looking at me with an expression of surprise that says, 'This guy!?'
Ethan: "I'll have you know Abgere, our Kais here is quite the madlad,"
He looks at me with a smile, and then he looks back at Abgere as his smile fades away,
Ethan: "or will be someday."
…
Abgere: "Hah!"
Abgere, seemingly annoyed, says,
Abgere: "I don't care about what you guys think of each other but the person I am talking about is a genuinely powerful psychic and not some cheapskate."
…
Sneha: "I don't know. It's hard for me to believe in Scrying. I don't think anyone can do something like that."
Abgere: "Well, that clearly shows that you have never met a truly capable psychic."
…
Gabriel: "I'm one of the 10 Hellfires, you little shit, and even I can't use Scrying. It's all a bunch of nonsense."
Gabriel says with a confident and serious attitude. Abgere replies in a mocking one,
Abgere: "I guess that's why it's so easy to kill one Hellfire after another, because even you guys are second-rate."
Gabriel: "Okay, you just crossed the line there!"
Gabriel tries to attack him but is stopped by Sneha putting a hand in front of him. He clicks his tongue in annoyance as he looks at Abgere with a face full of fury.
Abgere: "Of course that means that everyone other psychic who is not even on your level will be even worse than second-rate."
…
'A little help here, man?' I request.
'Yeah, sure.' The voice inside me assures me.
Sona: "You might regret saying all that, Abgere."
Sona says with a smile akin to that of someone who is going to watch a movie they have been excited to see for a while.
Kais: "Abgere!"
Abgere: "What?"
As he looks at me, I look back at him and say,
Kais: "I didn't know that two days later will be your birthday."
Abgere: "What!?"
Kais: "I also didn't know that your mother was a poor collage graduate who got used and thrown away by Julius Rome."
Abgere: "Why you-"
As he tries to hold my collars, I hold his before he even covers half the distance,
Kais: "I also didn't know that you were raised in slums and came to find out about the supernatural part of the world through meeting that old hag you just mentioned now."
Abgere: "Uh?"
Kais: "I also did not know that the old hag was your aunt, your mother's sister, as you later found out yourself on the very same mission you found out about her being a seer. Hmm, makes sense why you are so defensive of her right now."
Abgere: "…!"
I let go of his collar and he just stares at me in shock. Sona smiles and enjoys the show from the side and Sneha and Gabriel look at me with surprised expressions.
Kais: "Well,"
I say, turning to Ethan,
Kais: "It seems like I can actually Scry, can't I? My bad for not realizing this earlier!"
After a second or two of silence, Ethan muffles a laugh and says,
Ethan: "Alright, I guess Scrying exists. Our psychic here can do it after all."
All I did was ask within my brain for help learning this ability and, the person inside me, the 'devil', was happy to help out. And so, I now know how to Scry.
Kais: "That said though, I have yet to master this ability. It might be good to visit this old ha- I mean, Abgere's aunt."
Ethan: "Oh, sure. Let's do that then."
Ethan says with a smile.
*******************************
Well, as Ethan said before, I have the ability to learn all the psychic abilities that have ever existed. And so, I will NEED to learn them. Hopefully, I won't always need Abyss to inject the basics of the abilities into my brain. That is not a very healthy process and should be reserved for extreme situations, which I realize this was not but well, I really wanted to shut Abgere up.
Though, I suppose, I do kinda regret not just asking Abyss whether Scrying exists or not and getting the situation under control. I just had to go and tell him to inject me with knowledge and skills. I am paying the consequences of doing that now.
Kais: "Shit!"
I curse as my back burns while I lay at the sofa of the living room.
And in order to distract myself from that pain, I my best to think about things relevant to the situation.
From my knowledge, there are about 60 psychic abilities in the world. Some are considered ancient and forgotten arts like Scrying and some are 'in-trend', for the lack of my ability to come up with a better term, like teleportation or psychokinesis.
On an average, a Volcano-level psychic knows about 10 abilities and has mastery over 2 or 3 of them.
Walter Schmidt, according to the rumors, knows 50 psychic abilities and has mastery over 15 of them.
I know 20 abilities but have mastery over only two – Aura Reading and Teleportation. I mastered them in the time I had to wait for Sona to bring a jet to the island. I need to master other abilities as well as learn new ones.
I need to become as strong as possible, because our enemies are not going to be Volcano-level psychics. They are going to be almost Walter-levels of crazy and the tricks and gimmicks that work once will never work again (probably).
And so, while I think Abgere was trying to mock us a little too much, I have to agree that I am not that amazing in reality. But, I need to be.
Sona: "Kais!"
Kais: "Yes?"
Sona: "Why do I get the feeling you are thinking of something pretty boring?"
Kais: "…"
That's because I am, I almost answer with that. But no, better not to say anything in response to that question.
Sona: "Anyway, do you really think a seer would be able to figure out the location of the Library. I mean, that's not how the ability works, is it?"
Now that we are not in the same room as Abgere, Sona is openly questioning it without caring for anyone's feelings getting hurt. So, I answer quite frankly too.
Kais: "No, there's no way that a seer will just be able to tell us where the Library is. Scrying is only good as long as it is used on/at some person. It has little value if we are trying to find an inanimate object and no value at all when we are trying to find the location of something like the Library."
Sona: "Then,"
She sits on the sofa as she asks,
Sona: "Why are we going through with this plan? Isn't it useless?"
Kais: "Almost useless."
I say as if correcting her.
Kais: "What we will ask that seer to find is a person with memories related to the Library. If she really has mastery over this ability, it won't be a problem for her. And so, we will know who we should go to and ask about the library. It's not the greatest thing in the name of a trail but it is something that can set us on the right path."
Sona leans back as she contemplates about it.
I know why she is hesitant.
Even though I now know Scrying, I can't really be confident that this plan would work. It still somehow sounds ludicrous for everything that seers do to be possible in reality.
Still, what other choice do we have? The one other thing we can do is go to Reid Vezalius Rosevelt and ask him like we were thinking about doing before. But, from the image I have of that man, I doubt he'll tell us anything. And he's pretty damn powerful so getting the information out of him forcefully would be pretty hard too.
That is why I think we should go with Abgere's suggestion on this one.
Well, that, and there's also the fact that our head of strategy has gotten a bit anxious and less confident in himself ever since he found out that this Bronzer guy could be working against us.
I don't know what kind of person Bronzer is but I wouldn't underestimate him, not if he is dangerous enough to make Ethan Kales lose confidence.
*******************************
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The strongest man in the world, Walter Schmidt, is a person whose aura could terrify demons away, if they still existed. However, to normal humans without the ability to sense aura, he looks like a just a normal human being, unless he tries to purposefully show his aura.
And as of right now, he is not trying. He is just casually relaxing on the bench of a public park after having completed his routinely meditation.
"Are you alone?"
A woman, wearing a tracksuit quite common for jogging and exercising, stops by to ask.
Walter: "Yes, I am alone. Is that an inconvenience in any way?"
Woman: "No, no, not at all."
With a smile, she says that and sits down next to him on the bench. Walter pays little attention to her but she returns the favor ten-fold.
Woman: "So, I was wondering – I have never seen you around here before."
Walter: "Yes, I am a wandering spirit. I never appear in one public park more than once."
Although Walter himself considers that joke pretty lame as soon as he says it, the woman starts laughing like it's the funniest thing she has ever heard.
'Is she hitting on me?'
The question arises within his mind. And everything that happens from there on out seems to indicate a 'yes'.
Woman: "So, what's your name? I am Angela by the way, Angela Holystone."
With a little bit of hesitation, Walter answers the smiling woman.
Walter: "I am Walter Schmidt."
She cheers up even more as she hears that name and asks,
Angela: "Where do you live?"
Since he couldn't really answer with 'The Ghost Nation', or maybe he could – as a joke, but in all seriousness, he had to come up with something else. To not break the flow of the conversation though, he gives the answer he always gives to those asking this question.
Walter: "In Germany, my home country. I am visiting this country for a month or so."
One could tell from his name that he was German and so he had used that lie many a times. However, this time it backfired.
Angela: "I am sure I remember seeing you two months ago too somewhere though. Were you also visiting then?"
She says with a mischievous smile as if to indicate that she has caught him red-handed but is willing to overlook it if the other party plays their cards right.
However, didn't she say just earlier that she had never seen him before? Or, did she say that she said never seen him 'around here' before?
Walter: "Well, that shouldn't really count, as I am a psychic capable of teleporting from one end of the Earth to another in a matter of seconds. Back then, I had just come here for some business."
He says the truth with a straight face but obviously the woman sitting next to him just laughs again, thinking it's a joke.
Angela: "And what kind of business was that?"
Walter: "The vampires were making trouble so I was asked to wipe out a little base they had set up near here."
It had taken him a whole hour to kill the half thousand of them. Quite a crafty bunch they were. But in any case,
Woman: "Oh? And how did it go?"
The woman asks, believing herself to be playing along with a joke.
Walter: "Well, it went well. Other than those bloodsuckers shouting out threats like 'our strategist will kick your butt' or something like that, no major problems happened. I am kinda interested in meeting their strategist though. He seems like an interesting guy."
Angela laughs yet again.
Walter wonders to himself how he could use truth to become a real playboy if these are the general results of telling women about vampires and psychics.
Angela: "Well, that's all well and good."
She says as she closes in on him.
Angela: "But let's get a bit more serious."
Seeing her closing in, Walter uses Aura Reading to see if this all is a part of some elaborate prank by a bunch of mischievous women or if it's actually a ploy, albeit a very generic one, by someone to get to him by making him drop his guard. Nothing and no one suspicious like that could be picked up in the vicinity of a thousand kilometers though.
Walter: "Alright, let's get a bit more serious."
He says as he turns to the woman.
Walter: "Let's stop trying to pretend that you are interested in me and get to why you are really here."
Despite there being nothing suspicious in the vicinity though, when using Aura Reading, Walter inadvertently read the aura around her. And it seems like, deep inside, this woman named Angela is trying her best to suppress her murderous impulses towards him.
Angela: "Alright,"
She says with a sly smile.
Angela: "Let's do that."
And without giving him a chance, she brings her hand to his cheek and rubs it against his skin once. Or so, she thinks.
She does end up being able to touch his cheek but it's not that she was too fast for Walter to stop her. He could have taken a tour of half of the world by the time her hands reached his, but he chose to let her go through with whatever she was trying to do – to see what she is planning and why.
As soon as her hand parts from his skin, Walter feels dizzy and his vision gets blurry.
He says in a plain voice though,
Walter: "That's a useful ability you have got there, Angela."
And he passes out.
Angels leans back on the bench and wipes off her hands disgustedly, and smirks.
Angela: "But of course, you overpowered asshole!"
*******************************
When he opens his eyes, the strongest man in the world finds himself in a rather comfy-looking apartment, tied in a rather not-comfy-looking chair.
Walter: "Well, this is new. Or maybe not, who knows?"
Hearing his voice, a particular woman walks out of her bedroom and looks at him with a condescending smile.
Angela: "And here I thought you'd never wake up. Seriously, taking that long to wake up just from a single stroke of my hand on your cheek, you are so lame."
Walter: "Oh, do pardon me. Maybe you are just that great of a psychic."
Of course Walter could wake up at any time he wants.
That stroke of her hand couldn't keep him down for more than a minute. After that, it would have been his choice whether to wake up or not. However, he chose to use that rare opportunity to rest and dream more and hence, he had not woken up.
However,
Angela: "But of course I am. I do wonder though, how did you know what I used was a psychic ability?"
She bends over and looks him directly in the eye. The distance between them is nothing more than a fourth of a meter, as if to demean Walter saying he doesn't even pose enough of a threat for her to maintain her distance.
Walter: "Well, for starters,"
He uses that opportunity however to –
Angela: "Wha-"
Return the favor from earlier. This touching of her cheek with his hand, however, doesn't last more than a split second and is nothing more than a peck at best. Walter purposefully immediately pulls away, and Angela finds herself getting dizzy.
Walter: "THAT is how I know it is a psychic ability."
This man had known this ability for over a decade know. Although he has rarely needed to use it, he is still the best at it in the world. He doesn't even need physical contact in fact; he can make a person fall unconscious from just a wink. That's just how ridiculously broken this man is. Yet, he decided to go to the trouble of touching – as a payback for earlier.
And as a result, the woman with a smirk on her face earlier finds herself falling to the ground as her consciousness rapidly drifts away.
Walter, with a carefree attitude, breaks the ropes tying his three still-tied-up limbs and stands up, only to stretch a little and looks at the woman lying unconscious on the ground.
Walter: "Hah! Now who exactly could this woman be?"
He questions himself.
While yes, nowhere near his power level, this woman still seems to be quite skilled of a psychic to have been able to hide her supernatural aura from Walter when they met at the park earlier. Even when he used Aura Reading, he could only find out that this woman had murderous impulses being suppressed inside her. He couldn't dig deep enough into her aura that she was a psychic.
He has to wonder at this point – who could this woman possibly be?
And so, he sighs.
*******************************
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