Ability Wielders

Unexpected Discovery

Finishing copying more choreographies and studying Japanese for two hours, Hayden took out Aswang’s Origin Crystal from his closet. Examining the diamond-shaped prism in his hands, there was nothing else to see.

“Can I manipulate essence energy?” Hayden wondered. “Or, at least, infuse essence energy into this?”

He tried something that he hasn’t done before, which was to activate his own Origin Crystal by without using his Abilities. To his surprise, it worked, and he felt a cool stream of energy from his heart, spreading all over his body.

In time, he felt stronger in an instant, his fatigue being removed. Energy was seeping to Hayden. “Wait, this is not Indestructible Devil, right?”

Activating the strength and speed augmentation of Indestructible Devil, he felt his strength surge once more. “I can still augment my strength even further by using Indestructible Devil on top of enhancement from essence energy?”

He was already shocked at the fact that he can infuse essence energy into his body. Now, he found that he can even use Indestructible Devil in the process.

“I need information…” Hayden was confused. Remembering that the Origin Crystal had some form of knowledge transferal, he touched it.

Streams of data implanted itself into Hayden’s brain. A few seconds of shifting and arranging the data, Hayden comprehended how things happened. Essentially, essence energy, as mentioned before, was the energy of the world, or more specifically, it was the energy that is omnipresent in the universe, produced by heavenly bodies, including planets’ core.

This essence energy apparently has many uses according to the details inside Hayden’s mind. One application is body strengthening, which allows him to gain enhancements using essence energy.

There were other applications, such as replacing food with essence energy, removing the need to eat, replacing oxygen with essence energy, removing the need to breathe, and a minor increase in healing factor.

“Basically, wielders, even if their Abilities are trash, would surpass humans solely because of essence energy…” Hayden mumbled. “That’s awfully convenient. Not needing to eat and breathe would be useful.”

Piecing things together, it would not be a wonder if essence energy can do all that. After all, it did unlock the dormant genes within Hayden’s and other wielders’ bodies, why would it be strange that the literal energy produced by the universe would be capable to do such things?

“Can I infuse energy into this crystal?” Hayden asked himself. He willed for essence energy to go towards the Origin Crystal into his hand. Seeing the Origin Crystal didn’t have any reaction, he was disappointed. “I guess it’s useless as of now…”

With that, Hayden put the Origin Crystal back into his closet. He did assignments, and afterwards, he recorded more videos of War of Honor to upload for the week.

“Damn, it’s boring…” Hayden didn’t feel like recording anymore, watching a show, or anything at all. He was terribly bored out of his mind as he lay down on his bed.

He checked his Streamlink account, which now had over 5,000 supporters. “A few short hours and there’s already this much supporters?”

He checked his bank account to see that his money increased by 50 credits, evidence that he was already gaining money. After that, he finally checked the comments of his videos.

“What kind of mechanics does this guy have? He’s so godly!” One commenter said

“Holy sh*t! A god appeared in the Philippine server!” Another said.

“Why is this guy getting popular? He’s only at C-Rank, guys…” One hater said.

Scrolling down, the comments were mostly positive. He didn’t bother to reply any of them as he was too lazy. For some reason, this night, he was overflowing with indolence, unbothered to even move a single muscle following the recording of videos.

As such, Hayden forced himself out of bed and attempted to film a video on his keyboard. Prior to that, he watched a few videos of him playing the keyboard. Listening to a song of CHORUS, he wanted to translate it into the keyboard.

Finishing listening to the hit song of CHORUS, Notice Me, he played it on the keyboard with the exact same notes. He felt that the song was not suitable for the keyboard, hence, he added various twists to it.

He was successful, making the piece better sounding than it was before. If anyone were to hear this piece, they would only have one word for it, ‘beautiful!’

Succeeding that, Hayden continued to lay down again, staring at the ceiling of his bedroom. He did not upload the recording of him playing the piano. “There’s nothing interesting that happens here, goodness.”

Browsing through the news on his phone, there was also nothing interesting. Other than Aswang having no current activity anymore, the world was too peaceful. “I wonder, was that guy really Aswang? It’s pretty likely…”

Now that Hayden had killed a person, he had this thirst for fighting, one that was preferably a fight that would put him in a tough position. Remembering that he wanted to take on Muay Thai, he watched videos on his phone containing introduction and basic techniques of Muay Thai.

Looking at various demonstrations of techniques, Hayden opted to shadowbox. Adopting the basic Muay Thai stance, his left foot slightly in front of him, and his hands in front of his face, his left hand positioned much farther from his face (1).

After consolidating his stance with the exact details given by the video, he imagined an opponent in front of him.

This imaginary opponent threw a left jab at him, making Hayden dodge to the side. As he watched a boxing anime, he knew the term ‘liver shot.’ The liver shot was an attack that obviously aimed for the liver, incapacitating the opponent if the attack had enough power. Hayden knew that a liver shot must be performed precisely, otherwise, the incapacitating effect would be diminished, or not take effect at all.

Seeing an opening from his opponent, he ducked lightly, twisted his left fist, wanting to perform a corkscrew punch, a punch that rotated one’s wrist while in trajectory for added power. Then, he punched where the hypothetical liver was located at full power. With the combination of the corkscrew punch and a liver shot, Hayden’s punch would be able to immobilize even the strongest boxers.

Needless to say, Hayden was simply doing shadowboxing, if he actually met with a professional boxer, he wouldn’t last a minute without his Divine Perception. On top of that, in spite of his body being plenty strong due to the exercises he did, the bodies of professional boxers were still stronger than him, hardened by countless matches.

“I need to buy better exercise equipment…” Hayden muttered. “Also, why am I doing using boxing while… Wait, I can do this instead of Muay Thai!”

He had an epiphany of what his possible fighting style will be. What would it be? It was nothing else other than the amalgamation of the different martial arts! Imagine fighting a person performing the dances of Capoeira, punches from Boxing, grapples from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, targeting of vitals from Krav Maga, kicks from Taekwondo, and the usage of all eight limbs from Muay Thai. It would be terrifying!

“Well, if I utilize Divine Perception while fighting, nobody would be able to defeat me in hand-to-hand combat anyways, assuming they’re not so fast that my power is useless…” Hayden’s face twitched. He thought back to the two real fights that he experienced. “Yeah, like those two… Not only that, if I use Indestructible Devil along with my essence energy…”

Hayden shivered in fear for his opponents. He further resolved himself to not use his strength unless the situation was absolutely dire. At most, he would use essence energy, which is inferior to the strengthening capabilities of Indestructible Devil. Still, Iit was better than nothing, right?

“I seriously need to experience more fights.” Hayden was bitter. There was literally nothing else that came to bother him. Currently, his life was way too peaceful. He kind of wished for some sort of little calamity to befall upon him. “Well, I guess this is for the best anyways…”

Hayden shook his head, berating himself for wishing for death. It’s true that this situation was the best for him in the present. What if some kind of monstrously powerful wielder attacked him and his family? He wouldn’t be able to protect them at all!

Removing these thoughts from his mind, he continued to shadowbox. Every time, he would attack the solar plexus, perform uppercuts, knee his opponent’s stomach, and imagine numerous situations that he may find himself in.

Thinking that he was surrounded by a number of opponents that went to surround him, Hayden moved akin to that of an expert. One opponent was downed by a finger jab into the throat and solar plexus, while Hayden caught a punch from an imaginary opponent.

With him catching the punch, Hayden slid down the opponent’s legs and dragged his head to the ground. Getting out of the made-up encirclement and downing two opponents in an instant, he stood up quickly to look at the remaining hypothetical four.

When the four rushed towards him with great speed, Hayden infused his body with essence energy. He then twisted his body to perform a spinning elbow attack to the fictional person nearest to him. In Hayden’s mind, the actions of the people were true and his surroundings slowed down.

This was due to him unconsciously activating Divine Perception. He was actually able to concentrate enough to see the phantoms of his simulation, allowing him to truly feel like he’s in a battle.

When he saw that the opponent received his spinning elbow, he swiftly and smoothly transitioned to another attack, a high kick. He aimed this high kick to the head of the person, with smooth transitioning, no movements wasted.

After kicking the opponent to the head, he observed the last two opponents. Taking the initiative to rush towards them, he burst with great speed and uppercut the two with both his left and right hands.

His chest going up and down, Hayden exited his concentrated mode. “That’s interesting… Giving me a phantom simulation in my eyes, this Divine Perception is proving to be such a handy Ability!”

The experience he had right now was too real for him, like his brain unduly perceived those opponents that attacked him. Hell, Hayden even actually felt the skin and weight of his simulated opponents when he attacked them.

“Seriously though.” Hayden said solemnly. “It is necessary for me to experience more hardships. If I don’t, sooner or later, I’ll die from these unforeseen attacks. Who knows when that wretched Kamay ng Lagim will send another attacker.”

On that note, Hayden was getting pretty sleepy, thus, he took a shower, ate dinner, brushed his teeth, and read some novels prior to drifting to sleep.

He was able to sleep quite rapidly due to the mental exhaustion brought by using Divine Perception every day.

…..

Hayden woke up to the vibration of the ground. When he opened his eyes, it was pure darkness. He knew he wasn’t in a dream as when he activated Divine Perception, he was still in his house.

Facing his window, it remained pure darkness. At that moment, he heard voices coming from outside his window.

“Go, go, go, we have to defeat that before the gloom dissipates!” He heard a man’s voice, and dozens of footsteps.

He could make out human outlines using his echolocation. “What is happening? What are they talking about?”

Thinking that it wasn’t wise to go outside at this moment, he made his Origin Crystal resurface and made it light up to provide himself light.

“What the f**k is that thing?” Hayden subconsciously uttered due to what he saw. When the essence energy’s faint light went to his eyes, it gave him the ability to see again in the cover of absolute darkness. From this, he deduced that he had some form of night vision, allowing him to see in dark places with a minuscule amount of light.

When he regained his vision, what he saw outside was a huge, red Godzilla-like monster, hence the cursing. Granted, the monster wasn’t as huge as Godzilla, as that would be way beyond the size of the street. It was merely as big as a ten-wheeler truck. He did not get a clear view as he immediately ducked back down. The last choice he was left with to look for answers was his Origin Crystal.

Touching it, information rushed through his brain. With Divine Perception, Hayden instantly made sense of what that thing outside is. It was what was called a cognizant!

A cognizant is an umbrella term for non-human wielders. It was rare for Earth’s animals to awaken, consequently, cognizants were rare in Earth. Sometimes, however, a dimensional rift can open to what Filipino wielders called “Kabilang Mundo (2).” The dimensional rift is what Filipinos called “Lagusang Itim (3).”

Through this Lagusang Itim, cognizants from Kabilang Mundo go through to invade planet Earth. To this day, even amongst the ancient wielders, there was no one who knows what the source of this phenomenon was. Whenever a Lagusang Itim appears, a fog from the Kabilang Mundo comes with it, at least it was assumed that it was fog from the Kabilang Mundo. Regular humans without the power to use essence energy will not be able to see anything within it, exclusively pure darkness.

This fog also removed any other sensations and gave a regular person better sleep, even putting them in a temporary stasis. This fog from the Kabilang Mundo will disappear within 24 hours of the appearance of a Lagusang Itim, allowing humans to see the cognizants if it wasn’t rid.

The material given to Hayden raised more questions in his mind. Ancient wielders? Kabilang Mundo? Did the Phantom Demon and Indestructible Titan come from the Kabilang Mundo? What were the actual origins of this Origin Crystal?

Hayden tried to touch the Origin Crystal, but it did not give him any other information. His face turned grave because of this, howbeit, he knew that being curious and sulky would not help him in this situation.

Peering out the window one more time, he was stunned when he finally got a clear look of the creature. It was actually a dragon! A goddamned true-blue dragon! A red Western dragon the size of a passenger plane! It was only his imagination and the fact that he merely glimpsed before ducking made the dragon appear as a Godzilla.

Its wings were wide open, fire blasting out of its mouth. Hayden admired the beauty of the dragon. They existed! Hayden was both terrified and happy, wanting to befriend the dragon.

It was already being fought by tens of people, yet to no avail. The dragon’s flame breath was too strong. Abruptly, he heard a voice on the other side of their street.

“It seems that I have to appear personally…” The man’s voice was light and feminine. When Hayden turned to look, the man was a tall brown skinned man wearing a white coat, white polo, and black trousers. It was the man from earlier. “I guess it’s my responsibility to finish this, tsk. A puny Level 3 cognizant dares to come out of this?”

When the man stopped talking, his ears became sharp, resembling an elf, his irises became white, pupils became gray, and his hair turned white. Hayden saw that the man became a creature that bore resemblance to that of an elf!

A bow made of light appeared in the man’s hands. Next, the man condensed a long white arrow, nocked it on the bow, and aimed towards the dragon. The dragon noticed this and flew, howling. It rushed towards the man.

The man simply smiled, aiming for the dragon. “Die, cognizant!”

He let go of the nocked arrow. Instead of the arrow flying out, a strong beam of light was released from the bow, a beam of energy bright enough to blind Hayden because of its radiance.

Hayden instinctively turned away his head because of the immense brightness. From his hearing though, he heard the dragon screeching before its bellows became non-existent. Hayden was thankful that he can filter out sounds, or else he would’ve highly likely gone deaf.

Opening his eyes once more, he saw that the dragon was standing, unmoving. He had a shiver as he noticed the dragon’s eyes were soulless. The dragon was dead!

“Wielders…” Hayden wanted to go out of his house, yet restrained himself to do so. He didn’t trust them one bit. What if they were the ones who sent Aswang to kill?

But, when Hayden thought about it, if these people killed cognizants, wouldn’t they be good people? Shaking his head, Hayden thought of another possibility. What if there were some unexpected gains from killing a cognizant?

Like in novels he had read, perhaps the meat of a cognizant was amazing and nutritious. Or perhaps its Origin Crystal? After all, from the data given to him by his own Origin Crystal, cognizants were simply animals or creatures that possessed and awakened an Ability. Well, at least he presumed. It was reasonable that they would have an Origin Crystal. Another reason would be their body parts. This was a goddamn full-on mythical creature! Its fangs and scales would definitely be valuable!

Any wielder, if they had enough power, would want to kill it for the last reason alone. Without knowing enough, Hayden wanted to stay put. He knew that he was already noticed by an organization, so laying low was his best choice, even though he understood full well it was going to be ineffective. His main purpose of laying low was to remove the observations from this mysterious organization.

For the past few days, he increasingly felt more and more eyes were on him, like he was being watched from afar. Needless to say, this was merely a gut feeling. Be that as it may, it was a gut feeling supposedly stemming from Divine Perception! What other explanation would there be? This led him to believe that he was under the surveillance of multiple people.

Just as he was thinking about it, he picked up the sound of footsteps from behind him. Turning around swiftly, he saw a woman. The woman had white skin, yellow eyes, and blonde hair. She can only be described as otherworldly. She was so beautiful that even Hayden, a man whose heart ‘belonged to someone’ was stunned for a moment. What’s more, the woman donned a white, tight-fitting dress with a symbol of a white sun with three rays (4) embedded on the left chest.

“Hello there!” The woman said with the fakest amicable smile he has seen, the otherwise exclusive flaw that Hayden found. “I’m from Puting Araw, will you please come with us?”

…..

1 Just Google Muay Thai Stance.

2 Kabilang Mundo – Can be translated to English as Other World, or Opposite World, whichever you prefer.

3 Lagusang Itim – Can be translated to English as Black Passage or Dark Passage, whichever you prefer.

4 White Sun symbol – The Philippines’ flag has a sun with eight rays. For reference:

https://www.google.com/search?q=philippine+flag&sxsrf=ALeKk00WW-PxKnPrmJ70Avs3k8oDpEOXtw:1588174271791&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjQxr6a-o3pAhWNEqYKHcvLC3MQ_AUoAXoECCYQAw&biw=1366&bih=657#imgrc=93ZL_QfGvAgGRM

See the sun-looking insignia on the white triangle? That’s the sun I’m talking about, albeit, as mentioned, with only three rays in a clockwise position starting from the top one. In the Puting Araw’s symbol, it’s like that, and as they are wearing white uniforms, it’s outlined in black thread. You will know what the three rays mean in the next chapter.