Chapter 20: Chapter 19 - What a... Unique Train of Thoughts...

CHAPTER 19

What a... Unique Train of Thoughts...

“Hey.” Elanor whispered, poking Jihoon’s arm.

“What?!” Jihoon hissed.

If the Twin Stars of Cosmos hadn’t been meditating not far from them, Jihoon would’ve snapped at the annoying girl.

“What time is it?” the said annoying girl questioned in a low voice.

“How should I know? There’s no signal here.” Jihoon rolled his eyes, slightly irritated. “There’s a mysterious energy field preventing any kind of connection with the outside world—we’re literally in the Asura God’s domain.”

“I’m starving!” Elanor whined. “When will we get out of here?”

Jihoon gritted his teeth. “How should I know?!”

“Well, you’re the all-knowing Master of Technology, Hermes.” Elanor shrugged. “I thought you’d always collect data from your surroundings. I thought you’d at least keep track of the time. Or the energy changes in the air. Or your friends’ condition. Or—”

“Or calculate how much natural power I need to knock you unconscious.” Jihoon sneered.

“She’s got a point, though.” a clear voice floated over.

Jihoon and Elanor glanced up. Yuriel was walking over, with Tianjue following close behind her.

“Eh... Sorry, sorry.” Jihoon scratched his head. “We—I mean I—didn’t mean to disturb you.”

“What do you mean?” Elanor pouted. “Of course it’s ‘we’.”

Yuriel chuckled. “It’s fine—we’ve finished stabilizing our natural power.”

“That’s great, then...” Jihoon secretly let out a breath of relieve.

Tianjue glanced at him. “You said there’s no signal here?”

“Yeah.” Jihoon nodded. “The moment we got here, I lost all contact with the outside world. I can’t even reach my personal satelite.”

“That’s only natural,” a deep voice sounded behind him. “The energy of the Lord of Asuras isn’t something your punny technology can contend.”

“Hey, Vikram.” Yuriel smiled. “You ready?”

Vikram, who had just appeared within a gust of dark-red smoke, nodded with a smirk. Upon closer inspection, he somehow looked more spirited.

“I’m ready, Yuriel. Anytime.” the guy grinned.

Tianjue’s eyes narrowed at the sight.

“Then let’s start.” he said.

“Wait—how exactly are you two going to help me control his power?” Vikram asked.

“We will force him to submit to the power of cosmos.” Yuriel said.

“That’s... domineering.” Vikram nodded slowly, raising a thumb.

“Of course. Now let’s start.” Tianjue said.

He exchanged a smile with Yuriel. The two then went to the open area before the massive stone altar of the Asura God. Vikram followed after them.

Facing each other, the Twin Stars of Cosmos formed some complicated hand seals with a pace so fast that their fingers seemed blurred. Irridescent, luminous natural power bloomed, swirling around the two in a particular rhythm, getting brighter and brighter by the second. The power of cosmos.

At some point, Tianjue and Yuriel pointed diagonally upward in unison. The irridescent power of cosmos around them shot up, converging in that one place the two were pointing at.

Due to the extreme brightness, no one could see what happened in that orb of cosmic power above them. But after a few minutes, the light receeded back into the two’s bodies, revealing a total of ten crystal-like sparkling needles floating silently in the air. Seeing these, Vikram’s eyes widened.

“Are you going to acupuncture me?” he couldn’t help but ask.

“Kind of.” Yuriel grinned.

“Stay still.” Tianjue told him.

And the ten needles flew straight at him, piercing ten different parts of his body: the top of his head, the center of his forehead, his shoulders, his epigastrium, the spot on his lowest lumbar spine, his kneecaps, and the back of his ankles. Looking closer, Jihoon and Elanor noticed that the needle piercing the top of Vikram’s head was significantly thicker than the others.

“You’re... sealing the Asura Lord’s power inside me?” Vikram realized. “You’re preventing it from escaping?”

“Well, we don’t want it to wreak havoc, do we?” Yuriel smiled.

“Eh? I can’t feel the needles, but they seem to prevent me from moving—I can barely move. How strange...” Vikram was somewhat amazed.

“They’re condensed from the power of cosmos, existing on a higher dimension—they won’t hurt your physical body.” Yuriel explained. “The reason you can see them is, as our cultivation grows, we’re actually evolving to become beings of the higher dimensions. But that’s a story for later.”

The others were intrigued, but knew it wasn’t the time to talk about that. So they just kept silent, with countless questions left unsaid in their minds...

Yuriel glanced at Tianjue. The two nodded. Tianjue put a hand on Yuriel’s back. A torrential stream of irridescent power rushed from Tianjue’s hand to Yuriel through her back, enveloping her with a bright irridescent light.

Boom! A low explosion sounded as a ring of invisible pressure blasted out, knocking the nearby Jihoon and Elanor off their seats.

Yuriel, who had at some time closed her eyes, slowly raised her hand, which was overflowing with a beautiful purplish-gold irridescent power.

She pointed a finger at the needle on the top of Vikram’s head.

Whoosh! The purplish-gold irridescent cosmic power shot forward in a flash, surging at the needle on his head, which acted like a lightning rod.

At this moment, the other needles on his body lit up with the same purplish-gold irridescent light. Instantly, the stream of cosmic power from Yuriel cascaded down, submerging Vikram in it—quite literally, as right now he looked like a fish in a fitting conservation pod filled with purplish ‘water’.

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His pupils constricted, and his face showed that he was struggling with extreme pain. But he didn’t let out a sound. Well, it wasn’t like he could either, being submerged in the ‘fish conservation pod’.

Light faded from his eyes, his eyelids starting to close...

“Endure, let the power of cosmos subdue the Asura Lord’s power.” Tianjue said, his voice coated with a layer of powerful mental power which shocked Vikram’s mind awake.

He gritted his teeth, forcing himself to stay awake despite the strong urge to just faint, to escape the torment he was faced with. Dark-red blood-like patterns appeared on his skin, glowing eerily through the purplish-gold irridescent energy around him.

Minutes passed. To Vikram, though, it felt like decades. From the side, Jihoon watched on both seriously and curiously. While Elanor was sleeping.

As time went by, Yuriel’s complexion became paler and paler. Tianjue looked at her in concern.

“Do you want me to take over?” he asked.

“No... not yet.” Yuriel muttered.

Tianjue wanted to say something, but in the end just nodded.

“Alright.” he said softly. “Just tell me if you can’t hold on.”

Saying so, he thought of something and secretly slightly reduced the cosmic power he was transferring. Though only faintly, Tianjue noticed Yuriel’s face regaining a bit of color, and her tensed muscles also seemed to relax.

With a start, he realized something was off. Given his understanding of Yuriel, he knew that she wouldn’t have been so strained from merely channeling her power, given that she had just advanced to the King rank. She even had his power as support. Unless...

Unless her meridians weren’t in the right condition.

Tianjue’s expression dropped. He must ask Yuriel about this later.

“Bring the power under your control, imbue it with your intent!” Yuriel suddenly said­—obviously to Vikram.

The guy could be seen nodding ever so slightly. Eyes closed, he seemed to gather his full concentration.

By now, every inch of his skin was fully covered by those dark-red patterns, making him look like a red-skinned demon. They pulsed unsettlingly like human veins, wriggling wildly as if trying to break free from his skin.

Suddenly, his eyes snapped open, revealing a pair of blood-red eyeballs [yes, you didn’t read it wrong—it’s indeed blood-red eyeballs].

“AAAAARH!” Vikram let out a roar upwards.

The roar shook the entire cave, and made it quake on and on, as if the cave itself was trembling. Tiny rocks fell down from the ceiling, and the bigger ones were shaking fiercely, threathening to fall any time.

“Yuriel! What do we do?” Jihoon quickly asked.

“How far can you teleport us away?” Yuriel asked instead.

“Without the support of my technology? Only ten kilometers away.”

“What about with?” Yuriel asked again.

“Fifty kilometers.” Jihoon said somewhat proudly.

“Prepare to teleport us all as far as you can.” Yuriel said. “Once out, use your tech to teleport us to your Zeus branch. Then Flash us to Finland—do you have a branch there?”

“I do. But where are we right now?”

“Near the sea, southern area of Mumbai.” Tianjue said.

“Where’s your Finland branch located?” Yuriel asked.

“The capital, Helsinki.”

“Great. Once there, teleport us to the air above the sea, as far as you can.” Yuriel said.

Jihoon nodded. “Alright, leave it to me.”

Right now, Yuriel and Tianjue had stopped channeling their power to Vikram, but the purplish energy around him still existed, thanks to the ten needles which created some kind of barrier around him.

The Twin Stars of Cosmos cautiously watched him, observing his condition. Tianjue sometimes glanced at Yuriel’s pale face, worried. He held her shoulders, considerately supporting her.

Yuriel glanced at him, smiling, but didn’t say anything. She even leaned slightly against his chest. This made Tianjue’s heart skip a beat...

Meanwhile, the two needles on Vikram’s back and right ankle had at some time fallen to the ground. Blood-red energy seeped out of him, but when it met the cosmic power around him, it was quickly forced back in.

Then the third needle fell off, followed by the fourth, fifth, sixth...

Jihoon watched the scene. He guessed that by the time the tenth needle fell off, it was the time when he would need to teleport everyone away.

“Teleport us when the tenth needle fall off.” Yuriel said, confirming Jihoon’s silent guess.

But something caught his attention—Yuriel’s eyes. They were telling him something... Jihoon narrowed his eyes, focusing his attention on Yuriel.

Pa! The seventh needle fell down, quickly followed by the eighth.

Pale-cyan natural power swirled around Jihoon. He was ready to teleport them all. Yuriel was still locking her eyes on him.

The needle on Vikram’s forehead trembled. It was the ninth needle.

“Now!” Yuriel suddenly shouted.

The needle fell.

Cyan light flashed. Everyone was gone.

A terrifying deep roar shook the cave. The statue of the Asura Lord shone with blood-red light.

The ground cracked. The cave caved in.

***

In the air above the raging sea, five figures appeared within a flash of cyan light. And they immediately started to fall down.

“LEE JIHOONN!!!” Elanor shrieked.

Lee Jihoon didn’t answer. He was furiously typing on his invisible keyboard, face full of concentration.

“AAAAAAH!! LEE JIHOON YOU BASTARD!” Elanor shrieked and cursed the guy, eyeing the raging surface of the sea not far below...

Vikram grunted. Blood-red energy surged around him.

Cyan light flashed.

***

The secret Flash Array chamber of Zeus’ Electronics, Mumbai branch.

Cyan light and white light flashed one after another.

Nothing changed.

***

At the secret Flash Array chamber of the Zeus’ Electronics’ Helsinki branch, the same scene unfolded.

***

Above the sea, several kilometers away from the beach of the capital of Finland, the group of five appeared. This time, though, they didn’t fall down—a cyan disk supported them.

“Great job, Jihoon.” Yuriel gave him a thumbs-up.

By the side, Elanor fell to her knees, shivering in fear and shock.

“Let me guess... You must be afraid of heights?” Jihoon grinned.

“Shut up!” Elanor glared furiously at him.

Yuriel laughed, then casually swung her foot at Vikram. The red-skinned guy fell. The others stared at Yuriel.

Faintly, a splash sounded, indicating that Vikram had falled into the sea.

“What... did you just do?” Jihoon gulped nervously.

“I just kicked him.” Yuriel shrugged.

“Are you alright?” Elanor asked in a small voice.

“I am.” Yuriel grinned. “Relax, guys, I did it on purpose—he needs the freezing water of the gulf of Finland.”

The others heaved sighs of relieve.

Tianjue couldn’t help but laugh. “Why did you have to kick him, though? And you did it so suddenly...”

Yuriel chuckled. “He couldn’t hold on, and needs to immediately soak in freezing-cold water—but I wanted to laugh... Plus, you’re holding me like this—the quickest way to send him down there is by kicking him.”

Tianjue scratched his head, releasing his hold on Yuriel’s shoulders.

The others were speechless. What a... unique train of thoughts... “Alright, let’s sit down and relax—Vikram won’t be coming out in a while.” Yuriel said, seemingly oblivious to the others’ stares.

She directly sat down on the floating cyan disk, taking out a can of oolong milk tea from her spatial storage pendant.

Opening the can, she gazed into the distant eastern horizon.

What a beautiful dawn of the first day of the year...