"Logan..." Pixel muttered, reaching her hand out in Logan’s direction.
His body was vibrating—just barely—as he kept his gaze fixed to the floor. "You know, sotis, there’s monts where it feels like the gods themselves detest your being," he said.
The world thrumd—thrashed, even, as not only color, but space itself seed to wield imasurable animosity.
Instead of swirling back out to change environnts, the sensation was more like having your organs wrung out of you.
Pixel shook at the force, just barely balancing herself on Logan’s shoulder.
Pound, pound, pound!
Now, color slamd from the ground, washing over the two like a tsunami. This ti, the scene was familiar. A pure white room that humd with mana, supporting the one person inside.
"You know, ever since she’s awakened her Gift, I always knew she would be special," a voice said, standing all the way in the corner of a room.
Even though his attire was professional, his familiar golden eyes made it all too obvious for Logan to recognize. His step-father.
"Really? So are you saying that she was always this talented?" another voice resounded. They were dressed in a plain, white lab coat, hands covered with blue gloves. A doctor, by the looks of it.
"Of course," his father continued, pointing forward. "Don’t you see the way she controls the mana like she lives and breathes it? She might surpass one day."
Logan noticed Selene at the center of the room, holding her hands up in direct opposition to a surge of power. It ca from a large beast—bright with a mane enveloped with fla, fur that was sharp like daggers, and two protrusions of teeth that ca from its jaw.
From the looks of it, a lion-mammoth. A spiritual beast.
It continued projecting intense waves of energy, thrashing against her like fire.
Except, it wasn’t just her hands protecting her. Bright pink undulated the space between like a barrier, pushing back and even reflecting so of the force.
"At her age, she’s already able to masterfully switch between mana conjuration and projection," his father said—emotion peeking through his lips.
Emotion that Logan had never seen before.
The doctor rose up with pride. "Wow, that’s great to hear. I’ve got to say, you’ve really outdone yourself here. I think I could get soone like her to join the Executioners by the ti she’s twelve."
Suddenly, Logan paced away from the room, searching for another space. He felt his throat catch on a dark emotion, twisting his insides like a wrench. "Pixel, I don’t think I want to sit through this anymore," he said.
Her lips fell. "What are you talking about?"
"This... this is too much," he struggled, leaning against the wall. Without warning, his chest begun to thump intensely—ribcage struggling to keep up.
He wrenched his chest, feeling the intense pace of his heart. It hamred—stronger, faster, working to steal even his breath.
In monts, he turned into a gasping ss, trying hardest to fight off the deep, dark desire rising from his stomach—compelling him to close his eyes and leave this all behind.
"Logan, no! Don’t fall asleep! If you do, then you’ll wake up from this realm and return to the real world! If that happens, then you’ll die!"
Pixel’s yells fell on deaf ears, for the world was already beginning to strain, vibrating, twisting, then falling to a ss of colors.
Like the sensation of crashing, Logan felt his entire body bang against the world, struggling to maintain its existence.
Then, one single mory.
Selene fell upon his mind, standing past him like a beacon of light. Strength filled his limbs as he struggled off the floor, using the wall as a crutch.
His eyes livened, his teeth grit, and his chest tightened. "I’ll face this!" he yelled, getting to his feet.
Then, so did the world, coming back to life. Imagery splashed to being, except, not of the room.
No, of a chamber, instead. There, it contained a huge number of desks, topped with television screens. Through it, one could see every location in the building.
And then a single boy ruffling below one of the desks.
"Are you okay?" Pixel asked, hesitation still striking her face.
Logan smiled. "Yeah. I just had to rember the reason I’m doing this."
Then, he straightened his posture. There, he witnessed what the boy was doing.
His hands moved through a forest of wires and circuits, tugging at one, then quickly replacing it with another. His cheeks were red, his lips trembled, but most of all, he wasn’t smiling.
"Father..." the boy cried, "if Selene were to ss up or fail, would you finally accept as your child? Could I finally have a place in my only real ho?"
Once the boy spoke, Logan sighed. "At that ti, I was at my lowest point. My one guiding star discarded as trash, and Selene was beginning to rise up. I could sense that a divide was beginning to grow between and her, and as she spent more ti in the training grounds, I think a sort of... animalistic drive to protect myself ford."
"What did you do?" Pixel asked.
"You’re about to find out."
Then, their surroundings warped—or rather, their bodies did. They were dragged through space back into the sa room from earlier, only, this ti, the white walls didn’t pulse with a ager pink.
No, so much pink bled into the room that, for a mont, one would’ve mistaken it for red.
"Wh-what...?" Selene gasped, staggering back from the unearthly beast ahead.
Its mane that had already stabbed the air continued to rise, eventually turning into a wild matrix of fla—singeing the air to such extres that just a single flicker of its heat would lt the ground to sludge.
Its claws reached over ten feet, hueing with all the power in the world. Then, there was its teeth—extending out from its mouth like jagged shards.
The sight was gnarly, but beyond all that, was its presence. It shook the room to its very core, making it impossible for soone like Logan to miss.
"Selene!" his father yelled, but it ca too late. In an instant, its claws stabbed into the lower section of Selene’s sternum. "Guh..." she breathed, not even leaving a tinge of emotion in her eyes.
Violet ran from the edge of the beast’s claws, then into the air as it pulled back. Selene tried her hardest to stay on her feet, but to no avail.
She fell down to the floor, reaching her hand for what was a gaping hole. There, it evidenced two trembling masses to the sides. It was her lungs, heaving as best they could.
Then, she stamred for the affected organ directly at the center of the wound. It humd pink, then fell. Her mana core, shattered like glass.
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