Chương 17: Strand

[New Task Available

Devourer:

Consume the light of the Traveler]

The Traveler? That's the giant white ball in the sky, if I remember right. Is that where light comes from? I assume so, and I assume that's where the guardians get their power from. Now, let me check something out.

[Darkness Control (Strand) 1]

[You gain control over the Weave, an intricate web of psychic energy interlinking the essence of all things in the universe]

Like that helps. The Weave, huh? I wonder how I even use it. It might just be the same as regular darkness, like the corrosive energy on my claws. To be honest, the way it's written makes it seem way stronger, even at level one.

Standing up, I walk to the center of the room and close my eyes. I focus, attempting to sense the Weave that the ability informed me of. A series of strands, intertwining all things, connecting everything to each other.

I take a deep breath in, the silence of the abandoned building now louder than ever. Outstretching my hands, I attempt to feel for the Weave, or anything to give me an idea of what I have to do.

Something thin touches my hand, as if I'm touching individual threads of a silk blanket. I open my eyes, to discover faint, ethereal strands of a green sort of energy running up and down, seemingly connected to the ceiling. This must be Strand. I try to grasp it in my hands but they seem to pass through.

How am I supposed to do this? It's unfortunate that the messages don't act as a tutorial.

Sighing, I give it another go. My fingers wrap themselves around the green strings, and I focus.

My mind brings me back. Back to a simpler time in my old life when my mother pushed me on the swings and my little brother ran around me, narrowly ducking under my feet that tried to kick him. I remember the feeling of the rope, of how I pulled downward to stretch the few more millimeters. The scene changes, and I'm brought back to my time in San Fransisco, where I hung multiple smugglers from a building top using a thin rope. The feeling, all familiar to me.

Attempting to recreate this, the green strands seem to shine slightly brighter, beginning to slowly stretch and coil around my arm. They continue, swirling around slowly as the strands begin to spin themselves together.

Is this it? It feels so... strange, like I'm pulling a kite through a sky with no wind. It flows so freely, with no resistance at all. Grasping the strand tight, I give it a slight tug, pulling downward on the string. It doesn't break, and I watch the thread thin, almost like a real, physical string does. What is this even connected to? I pull even harder, seeing if anything will happen.

*Crrreeeeaaakk*

I hear a creaking sound above me as I quickly look up to see a giant twenty-foot rusted pipe, easily weighing over several hundred pounds, breaks off of its connection with the ceiling and comes crashing down toward me.

My legs are luckily now perfectly healed, and I manage to duck out of the way just in time to avoid being turned into a pancake, a slimy, green, Hive, alien pancake. Disgusting, just the thought of it grosses me out.

But, ignoring the near-pancake-experience with the pipe, the power in only a few strands amazes me. It's able to pull with so much force... wait. Hold the fuck on. It wasn't able to do this in my previous life since it didn't exist as portrayed in shows. With this power, can I...

Slowly unveiling the green strands once more, I grab a random one, as they begin to coil around my arm once more, and I pull. A small green glow radiates from the end of the string as it grows outward and finds its way to a piece of rebar at the end of the hall. It latches on, and I pull back even more, watching the strings begin to thin rapidly, before they snap back with elasticity, shooting my body forward toward the rubble, quickly.

The speed is much less than what my legs can generate, but that doesn't matter. What does matter is... this power is a motherfucking, legendary, grapple hook. Something humans have only imagined in theory back on Earth. Sure, we had tools that could pull things toward you, but nothing to make you get pulled toward it!

Relaxing the string attached to the metal bar, I look up, and grab on another string and repeat the movements as I did before. My direction changes, as I shoot upward toward a pipe. I let go again, and my momentum carries me slightly higher before I begin to fall.

Right as I begin to fall, I grab another string. It flows and shoots out to show its connection to the ceiling in front of me, and as I drop, I swing. I swing in an arc, and I must be seeing things, but I imagine my little brother once more, beneath my feet. Intuitively, I tug harder as if I'm being brought back to those exact moments, and I guess little me was right. When I tug downward, the string lengthens slightly and I fly toward the wall faster than I had before and collide into the concrete. The old, crumbling material giving way to the impact as a large crack is formed. My carapace absorbs the force of the impact with relative ease, had I been going any faster it might have done something.

After landing, I look out toward the room. It's so hard to believe that I almost died just moments ago. To be fair, there are no longer any bodies that really show any battle, they've all been either eaten or... harvested. Regardless, I make my way back to the pile of armor and weapons that the guardians had. The only thing I care about here is the strange weapon that the warlock had.

It's similar to the weapons the Fallen had, but it seems much stronger in a way. Slicing it with my claw, it opens up. rather easily, revealing a multitude of different parts and pipes. Immediately, I stand up and look toward a wall. Why did I even bother trying? I'm not, and never have been, a scientist. If I had been, I wouldn't have died in the first place.

I look closer at the rest of the items that the guardians had. Metal armor, robes, cloaks, and a number of guns. I know I missed the guns, but I've slowly gotten used to the claw-based combat. Combined with Strand, this way of fighting is so much more fun than shooting. I mean, it's way less safe but, hell, this is my second life, I did enough shooting in my first one.

I'll take one with me, but I don't know if I'll use it.

Rummaging through the pile, I find a nice, sleek handgun. It isn't the same one the hunter used, that was a red-black gradient. This one was much flashier, it had a sleek, silver frame with a black handle. There was an imprint of feathers stemming from the barrel of the gun. It looked amazing, like a gun I would have treasured on Earth. Sadly, it pales in comparison to the options I have now.

Who knows when I need to hit someone from far away, though? It might have some use then.

I stand up, pushing myself to my feet using my hands and when I start to take a step, I realize the gun has disappeared. The voice of my ghost speaks to me.

"I have it. Your useless weapon."

Okay, fine. I probably wouldn't have used it but I'd rather have a gun and not need it, than need a gun and not have it.

I begin to walk around, exploring the area. I don't know if Malvūc plans on taking me back in to his ship, but from the looks of it I think he expected us to all die. No way he sent us into that expecting for us to win.

Thinking this, I continue exploring, looking through the dark and wet hallways and passing through the rubble, when eventually I begin to see the starry night sky through a large crack in the ceiling.

Reaching out to it, I grab hold of a green string that wraps around my wrist and slingshot myself toward the hole, landing on the top of the building.

I look out, and see large formations of grey rock, surrounded by a multitude of craters. Wait a second, this doesn't seem right. I know I'm in a different world, but I don't think I've seen this many craters in one spot before. Was this a war zone or something?

Turning around, a one single glance answers all of my problems. A distant object. A radiant blue globe, with regions of white and green. A smaller, white sphere near its surface.

I understand now, this is no a war zone... Malvūc just threw me on the goddam moon.