Apparently, I Have Lasers
For several long moments, Caelan remained seated on the grassy hill with his eyes closed, though he was no longer looking at the training field around him. His attention remained fixed on the impossible emptiness he had found within himself—the mountains, the formations, the great golden chains descending exactly where they had always descended, and the complete absence of the being those chains had been created to bind. Zarathiel was gone. Not silent. Not sleeping. Not hiding somewhere behind his mother's formations. Gone. The conclusion his mind had reached was unpleasant enough that for a while he simply sat there and allowed it to exist without trying to fight it.
I might have died.
It was a remarkably heavy thought for someone who was still breathing.
His chest tightened.
Han Shuren's face appeared in his thoughts first, followed by Lin Rue, Chen Hao and the Sect Head. His palace. The Heavenly Flame Sect. Familiar training grounds. Familiar streets. Familiar voices. All the people who would notice immediately that he had disappeared and all the people who would be looking for him now.
Or perhaps looking for a body.
Caelan's hands tightened against his knees.
Then a padded projectile struck something in the distance with a loud THWACK.
Sakura yelled indignantly.
"I ALMOST HAD THAT ONE!"
Misaki's voice followed.
"You said that about the last three!"
"They were all almost!"
Caelan opened his eyes.
Wind moved through the grass around him.
He could smell the forest.
Hear Clark laughing somewhere below after apparently doing something Daichi had specifically asked him not to do.
Tesla's electrical discharges cracked sharply across the target range.
Flora was quietly encouraging Sparky in the defensive arena while Airi encouraged both of them much more loudly than necessary.
Caelan looked down at his own hand.
He closed it.
Opened it.
Ki moved when he called.
Wind stirred around his fingers.
Whatever had happened before he arrived here, he was alive now.
That was rather difficult to argue with.
"So what if I died?" he murmured.
The words sounded absurd when spoken aloud.
Caelan considered them.
Then smiled faintly.
"If I died, I seem to have done a terrible job of staying dead."
That was better.
He pushed himself to his feet and brushed grass from his clothes.
The others came from another universe and expected eventually to return to it. If there was a path connecting their world to this one, then there could be a path back to his as well. He did not know where it was. He did not know why he had been brought here. He did not even know what exactly he was anymore if the Resonance Linkers were correct.
Those were problems.
Problems could be solved.
And Caelan still had things to do.
His father's shadow had always been enormous: Knight of Fate, Dao Ascension cultivator, former Sect Head, one of the strongest people of his age. Caelan had spent years looking at that legacy and deciding, with the simple stubbornness only a child could properly manage, that one day he would surpass it.
Not merely reach Dao Ascension.
Beyond it.
Immortal Realm.
Strong enough to stand as a guardian of his universe.
Dying once—if that was what had happened—was hardly a convincing reason to abandon the plan now.
Caelan's grin returned.
"Fine."
He looked toward the training grounds.
"First I get stronger."
Then toward the sky beyond Luminel's hidden domain.
"Then I find my way home."
That sounded considerably more manageable than sitting on a hill worrying about whether he technically counted as dead.
Shun was sitting on a stone beside the accuracy field when Caelan approached, laptop balanced across his knees while his Resonance Linker rested beside it. Tesla stood some distance away, carefully tracking a moving target with all four arms positioned for balance.
Electricity gathered.
Tesla waited.
The target changed direction.
CRACK!
The bolt struck it dead centre.
Shun's eyes immediately dropped to the reading.
"Four percent improvement in predictive timing."
Tesla looked pleased.
"The earlier adjustment was correct."
"It was."
"Obviously."
Caelan stopped beside Shun.
"Busy?"
"Very."
"Good."
Shun looked up.
"Why is that good?"
"Because I need the biggest brain here."
Tesla turned his head.
"I am standing over here."
Shun stared at him.
Tesla's mandibles twitched.
Caelan laughed.
"Both of you, then."
Shun closed the laptop halfway.
"What happened?"
Caelan hesitated.
He wasn't particularly interested in discussing the empty seal yet.
Instead, he pointed toward Shun's Resonance Linker.
"That thing keeps insisting I'm an Aetherkin."
Shun glanced at it.
"Yes."
"I want to know exactly what it thinks I am."
That caught his attention.
Shun straightened.
"Now that is interesting."
Caelan immediately regretted the enthusiasm.
"Scan me."
Shun was already doing it.
The Resonance Linker illuminated.
A beam passed over Caelan from head to foot.
A translucent image appeared above the device, rotating slowly.
Caelan stared at the miniature version of himself.
The miniature Caelan stared heroically into the distance for absolutely no reason.
Caelan tilted his head.
"Why am I posing?"
Shun glanced at the hologram.
"I don't know."
"Can I change it?"
"That's what concerns you?"
"At the moment."
Shun tapped through several screens.
Information appeared.
CAELAN ARDYN
Classification: Humanoid Aetherkin
Developmental Stage: Juvenile
Legend Rank: Legendary
Then another value appeared.
Level: 25
Caelan frowned.
"I have levels?"
"Apparently."
"I didn't have levels yesterday."
"You probably did. We simply didn't check."
Caelan considered this rather offensive on principle.
Shun continued scrolling.
"Your readings are extremely strange."
"You've said that before."
"They haven't become less strange."
More information appeared.
Shun's eyes moved down the list.
Then stopped.
"Huh."
Caelan leaned closer.
"What?"
Shun read aloud.
"Stellar Movement."
Caelan's expression changed.
Shun scrolled.
"Path Killer."
Caelan stopped breathing for half a second.
Then:
"Lasers."
Silence.
Caelan stared at him.
Shun stared back.
Tesla walked over.
"Why did both of you stop?"
Caelan pointed at the display.
"It says I have lasers."
Tesla examined it.
"It does."
"I don't have lasers."
Shun tapped the entry.
A lock symbol appeared beside it.
"Apparently you do."
"I think I would remember having lasers."
"Perhaps you haven't unlocked them."
Caelan's gaze moved back to the other two names.
The humour disappeared.
Stellar Movement.
Path Killer.
Those were not meaningless words generated by some strange machine.
He knew them.
Or, rather, he remembered knowing them.
That distinction suddenly mattered a great deal.
"Path Killer..."
Shun looked at him.
"You recognize it?"
Caelan nodded slowly.
"It's one of my fate abilities."
"What does it do?"
Caelan stared at the glowing words.
"It removes paths."
Shun waited.
"From the future."
That earned his full attention.
Caelan lifted one hand, thinking.
"Eyes of Fate lets me see what is going to happen before it happens. Path Maker lets me identify a path leading toward the result I want."
Shun's eyes had already taken on that dangerously interested look.
Caelan continued.
"Path Killer does the opposite."
Tesla listened intently.
"It removes possibilities available to an enemy."
Shun's fingers moved toward his laptop.
"If someone has three possible ways to avoid an attack—"
"Remove one."
"Then two remain."
"Remove those too..."
Shun looked at him.
Caelan nodded.
"...and eventually there may be nowhere left to go."
For once, Shun did not immediately speak.
Tesla did.
"That is an unpleasant ability."
"For the other person."
"Obviously."
Shun returned to the Linker.
"But you can't use it."
Caelan frowned.
"I should be able to."
"You've tried?"
Caelan lifted his hand.
His Eyes of Fate opened.
Possibilities immediately unfolded around him.
Tesla stepping left.
Shun pushing his glasses upward.
A target firing in the distance.
Airi yelling because Sparky had been hit again.
Caelan selected one of the possibilities around the moving target.
He reached for it.
Nothing happened.
The path remained.
His expression darkened.
He tried again.
Still nothing.
Caelan lowered his hand.
"No."
Shun pointed toward the screen.
"Locked."
Caelan looked.
Beside each of the three unfamiliar-yet-familiar abilities was the same symbol.
REQUIREMENT NOT MET
Shun tapped it.
A number appeared.
LEVEL 30
Caelan stared.
"So you're telling me I know how to do these things..."
"In theory."
"...but this body won't let me."
Shun adjusted his glasses.
"That would be my interpretation."
Caelan looked increasingly annoyed.
"I remember Path Killer."
"But you cannot perform it."
"I remember Stellar Movement too."
"But you can't perform that either."
Caelan stared at him.
Shun pointed toward the final entry.
"And apparently—"
"Don't."
"—lasers."
"I said don't."
Tesla made the clicking sound that passed for his laughter.
Caelan folded his arms.
"This world is ridiculous."
Shun looked back at the information.
"Actually, it makes some sense."
"Of course you think so."
"You are classified as an Aetherkin."
"I am aware."
"Aetherkin become stronger through experience, training, absorbed essence and battle."
Caelan nodded reluctantly.
"And Luminel already told us strengthening the Juvenile stage improves everything that follows."
"Yes."
Shun tapped the level indicator.
"Then perhaps some of your abilities are being restricted by your current developmental state."
Caelan went quiet.
Shun continued.
"Your memories might know the techniques."
He pointed at Caelan.
"But your current form isn't capable of supporting them yet."
That explanation was deeply uncomfortable.
Mostly because it fit.
Caelan stared at the screen again.
"What happens at Level Forty?"
Shun checked.
Then blinked.
"Evolution."
Caelan leaned closer.
The Resonance Linker displayed:
NEXT DEVELOPMENTAL THRESHOLD: LEVEL 40
JUVENILE → ADULT
Caelan's eyebrows rose.
"So I evolve too."
"According to this."
"Into what?"
Shun tapped several times.
Nothing appeared.
"Unknown."
Caelan looked disappointed.
"I was hoping it would show me."
"So was I."
Tesla folded two of his arms.
"You both sound disappointed that the mysterious future transformation remains mysterious."
"Exactly," Shun said.
Caelan nodded.
Tesla sighed.
The next several minutes turned into the sort of conversation Shun enjoyed far more than Caelan did.
Training increased physical statistics.
Technique refinement increased mastery.
Battle experience contributed significantly.
Absorbing released essence contributed more directly.
Different forms of training seemed to affect different characteristics.
Caelan listened with his arms folded.
"So I can reach Level Thirty by training."
"Yes."
"Without finding things to kill."
"Yes."
"Good."
Shun looked toward him.
"You sound relieved."
"I'd rather not wander around murdering random creatures because a number told me to."
Tesla nodded approvingly.
"Sensible."
Shun scrolled further.
"Combat would probably be faster."
"Training."
"Training."
Caelan looked toward the various fields.
Strength.
Speed.
Accuracy.
Defence.
Control.
He smiled.
Shun noticed.
"Why are you smiling?"
"I was already going to train."
"Now you have measurable progression."
"Exactly."
Shun looked slightly concerned.
"Do not interpret that as permission to destroy Luminel's training grounds."
"I wasn't."
"You looked like you were."
"That's just my face."
Tesla tilted his head.
"It is not."
Caelan pointed at him.
"You're becoming too much like Shun."
"Thank you."
"That wasn't a compliment."
"I know."
Caelan began with wind.
He moved to an open section of the field where several reinforced targets had been placed against the cliff. There were no named techniques to practice and no carefully memorized sequences. Wind had never worked that way for him.
He simply moved it.
A thin current became a cutting edge.
The edge struck the first target and carved a shallow line across its surface.
Caelan adjusted the pressure.
Again.
The second cut went deeper.
He changed the angle.
Then the width.
Then divided the current into several blades travelling along different paths.
The training system recorded each attempt.
Control improved.
Accuracy improved.
Output efficiency improved.
Caelan grinned.
"Useful."
He switched to larger movements.
Wind spiralled around the field.
A shredding current tore leaves from the ground without touching the targets.
Then Caelan compressed it into a barrier.
A training dummy fired.
The projectile struck the moving air and bounced aside.
Another fired.
Then three.
Caelan strengthened the barrier.
The next volley stopped completely.
He moved on.
Flight came naturally.
Wind gathered beneath him, lifting him from the earth. He rose until the training ground spread beneath his feet, then accelerated across it, banking between trees before dropping sharply and stopping only a metre above the grass.
That wasn't enough.
He went again.
Faster.
Sharper turns.
Less wasted wind.
Then ki.
He reinforced his body and ran the speed course without using wind at all.
The first attempt was fast.
The second was faster.
On the third, he allowed ki to gather beneath his feet and stepped into empty air.
Once.
Twice.
Again.
He ran above the ground as though invisible platforms existed beneath every stride.
At another station he formed barriers from compressed ki and allowed the defensive systems to strike them repeatedly, adjusting thickness and density after every impact.
Then offensive control.
Ki gathered along one hand.
A narrow blade of energy left his fingers.
It struck the target.
Caelan frowned.
Too much wasted power.
Again.
A thinner blade.
Cleaner.
Another.
He kept going.
There were dozens of things he could already do.
That, strangely, made the abilities he couldn't use even more irritating.
Every so often he checked the Linker.
The number did not magically jump to thirty.
Caelan found this unreasonable.
Eventually he returned to the centre of the training ground, breathing harder than he had been when he started.
Shun looked up from his laptop.
"You're disappointed."
"It barely moved."
"Did you expect five levels in an afternoon?"
Caelan looked at him.
"Yes."
Shun stared.
"Why?"
"It would've been convenient."
"That's not how training works."
Caelan sighed.
"Unfortunately."
He sat cross-legged.
There was one thing he wanted to test.
Eyes closed.
Breathing steady.
Ki settled through his body.
The familiar emptiness surrounding Zarathiel's absence remained somewhere deeper within him, but Caelan did not descend toward it this time.
Instead, he focused outward.
His Eyes of Fate opened.
The world filled with possibilities.
Movements before they happened.
Choices before they were made.
A training projectile launching.
Clark deciding whether to use his claws or head again.
Daichi shouting don't before Clark had actually made the decision.
Caelan smiled.
That worked.
He lifted one hand.
Golden light gathered.
Chains erupted from the air.
They wrapped around one of the reinforced training constructs, binding arms and legs in place.
The dummy struggled.
The chains tightened.
Chains of Fate.
Still available.
He released them.
Then Path Maker.
Possibilities spread ahead.
Caelan chose a simple goal.
Strike the moving target once.
Dozens of possible approaches appeared.
One became clear.
He moved.
A single wind blade crossed the field and struck precisely where the target was going to be.
Path Maker worked.
Caelan stared at the result.
Then tried Path Killer again.
Nothing.
He already knew what would happen.
It still annoyed him.
"Level Thirty," he muttered.
He stood.
Shun glanced up.
"What?"
"Nothing."
Caelan looked toward the training fields.
Sparky was still in the defensive arena.
The little Voltkin had just been knocked backward by a padded blast.
He rolled once.
Stopped.
Then climbed back onto his feet.
Flora said something to him.
Sparky shook himself.
Raised his paws.
And tried again.
Caelan watched.
Then smiled.
Fine.
If the rules of this world said he needed to become stronger before regaining abilities he should already have, then he would become stronger.
Level Thirty first.
Stellar Movement.
Path Killer.
Lasers, apparently.
Then Level Forty.
Evolution.
After that—
Home.
His father's face appeared briefly in his thoughts.
The impossible standard he had spent his entire childhood chasing.
Caelan clenched one fist.
He still intended to surpass him.
Still intended to reach the Immortal Realm.
Still intended to become strong enough to guard his universe.
Whatever had happened to him had delayed that dream.
It had not changed it.
Caelan started toward Sparky's training area.
"All right."
Shun looked after him.
"Where are you going?"
"Training."
"You've been training."
Caelan glanced over his shoulder.
"Not enough."
Tesla looked at Shun.
"You caused this."
Shun watched Caelan walk away.
Then adjusted his glasses.
"I may have."
Tesla's mandibles twitched.
"You sound pleased."
Shun looked back at the climbing level indicator on his laptop.
"I am."