Very well. Relax your mind and let me possess you. I’ll make it so you’ll be able to feel and see everything, maybe you’ll also learn something. Also in the meantime, don’t try to take control if you don’t wish to screw it up and maybe kill the girl, okay? → Shen
Sure, don’t worry. I know what to do. → Ryu
I slowly emptied my mind. I felt something entering through the back of my head then taking control over my body.
“Ugh!” → Ryu
It was a really unpleasant feeling but I tried to relax and let Shen take the control.
“…Haaahh…” → Ryu
I exhaled heavily then opened my eyes. From gold, my eyes became green. Shen has successfully possessed my body.
“What monstrous power you have, man…” → Shen
Shen looked at my hands through my body.
Haha~ thanks. → Ryu
Even though he took control over my body, my mind and soul were still intact. I was able to communicate through thoughts without a problem.
“Hmmm…”
He looked then at Tara who was sitting in front of him because we rushed, she was still wearing only my coat with her underwear.
… You didn’t have to rush that fast, you know? → Shen
Y-yeah, sorry about that. We completely forgot about it → Ryu
I said while feeling a little bit guilty. Letting a little girl half-naked in front of a young man wasn’t something so honorable.
“Miss Tara, it’s nice to see you.” → Shen/Ryu
Shen tried to ignore the fact that she’s almost naked so she won’t feel more uncomfortable and simply greeted her while lightly lowering his head.
“N-nice to meet you, mister…?” → Tara
She was shocked to see a real possession and she still didn’t know Shen’s name.
“My name is Shen. While my friend, who’s the master of this body, rescued you, I was busy with rescuing your brother, Ashura.” → Shen
“M-my brother?!” → Tara
Tara jumped on her legs, she felt extremely happy for hearing of her brother after so long but completely forgot about her own appearance at the moment.
“Indeed. Please don’t worry because he’s with me and he’s doing fine. I took out all the bombs he had inside, now I only need to do the same with you. Please come and sit on the bed.” → Shen
Shen gets up and invites her to sit down while he used some water magic to wash his hands… or rather, my hands. Without thinking much about it, she obediently sat down. Shen then touches her forehead with his palm and said.
“To be sure you’ll feel no pain, I’ll put you to sleep. Is that okay with you?” → Shen
She nervously nodded her head and closed her eyes. Even though she was afraid, she still wanted to get rid of the bombs.
“Very well. The moment you’ll wake up, everything will be back to normal. No bombs inside you and my friend will return in his own body.” → Shen
Shen put’s Tara to sleep through mental waves, then he closed his eyes. He visualized Tara’s body and focused at her head. At the back of her head, right where the brain connected with the spine, a little chip-like object was rooted on the tendon. It wasn’t big but once it exploded, half her brain would become paste, killing her instantly.
“Huh? It’s much better than with Ashura. He had out-right half the dynamites inside his head and heart, placed there as if thrown in mud; a completely barbaric way.” → Shen
W-what? Dynamite?! How was he still alive then? → Ryu
“He has super regeneration. If you shot him in the head, he’ll get up and punch you with strength comparable or even bigger than yours when dragonified. These two brats are not to be underestimated. Their hearts are still pure even after going through hell and back, but their powers and strengths are those of semi-gods. The title of ‘God’ is not just for show, even if is a ‘fake’.” → Shen
Even though Ashura’s heart almost fell into darkness, Shen was able to save him by slowly absorbing that negativity.
Even though I did that, all that dark energy was then absorbed into my soul… It must be that devil. → Shen
Shen thought only for himself, without letting me hear anything.
Indeed, even I can tell the monstrous mana inside her. → Shen
Even though he tried to not be heard by me, being in someone else’s body, I was able to hear it clearly, but I continued without asking.
“Now, let’s just get rid of this little bomb and save this pair of brother and sister.” → Shen
Shen gathers some chi on his fingers and makes a little cut at the back of her head where the bomb was rooted. He summons some Prana with a weird golden ring over his my head and makes it stay around the bomb.
“[Dematerialize]” → Shen
Shen says a command with my voice and the bomb becomes dust which flows through the little cut made by him. After that, the golden energy named Prana goes inside the cut to heal back the little holes made by the chip then heals the wound entirely, looking like nothing was there in the first place.
“Well, that was easier than I expected.” → Shen
Shen said with some pride in his voice.
The next morning, Tara woke up and she looked around surprised.
“It wasn’t a dream!” → Tara
She then started to tear from happiness, her sobbing being heard from outside. After we finished the operation, Bonny’s sound-proof magic wore off and her sobbing resounded around. Bonny heard the sobbing from the next room and she left me to sleep, while she rushed to her room.
“Poor child, what happened? Did you have a bad dream?” → Bonny
Bonny hugged her tightly and caressed her head.
“Waah~ t-thank yuu sob huuu~” → Tara
Tara cried while saying repeatedly “thank you” through her hiccups.
“Ah, little Tara, everything is alright now, you don’t have to cry anymore.” → Bonny
[[POV CHANGES TO SHEN]]
“Now your sister is alright. Ryu saved her and Bonny will take care of her. I was able to take out the bomb from inside her head and heal her up to full. She has regeneration of mana, unlike you, who has ridiculous self-healing capabilities.” → Shen
I informed Ashura of Tara’s condition right after I finished. Right now we were inside Ashura’s new room where I entered meditation while he was guarding me.
“…I’m indebted to you, mister Shen…” → Ashura
Ashura bowed his head to me, then looked with gratitude and appreciation.
“Is that so? Then help me finish the ridiculous task I have on my back with this Ragnarok thingy. After that, you’ll be able to do whatever you wish.” → Shen
I said with some indifference. All I had on my head was to stop the Ragnarok from taking place. I felt the pressure every day only harder to bear and this made me unable to sleep at night.
We can’t go on with only this little speed. I’ll see what I can do with the engines of the ship, maybe I can tune them a little. → Shen
Seeing me so agitated, Ashura was a little bit confused.
“Sir Shen? May I ask what this Ragnarok is?” → Ashura
“Alright, come with me, we’ll talk while we walk.” → Shen
I said everything to Ashura, from the dream Sylvia had, to the one I had. I even sent him some memories so he could understand what I was saying. Ashura was shocked time after time. I had to drag him by the arm to keep on moving. Of course, he bombarded me with numerous questions but while we entered the engine-room, I answered all of them in order.
I examined the engine and saw how some rubber-tubes and metallic rods came out from inside a cylinder, circulating some kind of blue energy which was then used to spin huge propellers and make the ship move. The design was simple but not enough for me to understand from the first look.
The Energy stone is thrown inside the furnace. Because the stone is not activated, it doesn’t take the form of any elements but is melted like a normal metal. After that is being released through these rubber tubes which are not really made from rubber… the hell is this material? Anyway. After this, the now liquid-energy goes inside the cylinder which transforms the melted stones in pure energy to be then circulated by the rods to the engines that spin the propellers… I mostly understood the mechanism. I need to strengthen the engine and make the energy from inside the rods to circulate more efficiently without wasting so much energy. I can tell the quantity of energy which evades from the rods while is circulated is ridiculous. Till it gets inside the engine, more than half is already wasted… What a joke of technology. → Shen
“Ashura. I might need your help here, stay by my side and do what I’ll tell you. We have to upgrade this excuse of an engine.” → Shen
I said with some disgust in my voice while pointing at the engine.
“Huh? Now? While we’re moving?” → Ashura
Ashura looked at me incredulously.
“Of course, when else? The end of the world gets closer every day. We don’t have time to hesitate in any of our moves.” → Shen
“Have you worked with engines before?” → Shen
“Never” → Ashura
“Huh?!” → Shen
“It’s no big deal, as long as I understand how it works, I can play around with it all I want. Trust me, we’ll make this one work two times faster than before.” → Shen
“…” → Ashura
Ashura looked at me with shock in his eyes.
From where comes all that confidence? → Ashura
We started to work for the entire day. At night we both looked like we worked in blacksmithing, with burnt parts and black wounds. Ashura only had his clothes dirtied, his skin being already healed.
“How convenient.” → Shen
I looked at him and smiled.
It’s really useful to have such healing powers. → Shen
“Please don’t say that.” → Ashura
Ashura smiled bitterly while feeling a little bit complicated.
“Even so, I think you got it worse than me. Luckily, with your power-words we were able to repair the engine after failing numerous times, but every time you got exploded and electrocuted… Are you alright?” → Ashura
“This is nothing, I got in the middle of even worse shockwaves.” → Shen
In comparison with the Energy stone’s explosions, that was nothing. → Shen
…Even worse than this? I think anyone from my school would have been dead by now… at least I’m not the only monster here. → Ashura
Ashura felt some camaraderie for me and looked at me with more respect. We were able to finish in upgrading the engine, making the performance and speed almost double. I commanded for someone to stay and examine the wind every moment of the day to see if we moved with or against it. Like this, we knew all the time when to lower or raise the sails. With the upgrades and the constant reading of the wind, our speed was enough to get in the Eihwaz continent in less than a week. When Ryu and the others had to come on the Nostrung continent after me, they had to sail for more than a month because of the trashy engine which was much worse than this one, making it almost as slow as a boat with an engine from earth. Now our ship can travel the same distance within only a little more than 1 week.
“…Let’s wish this is fast enough.” → Shen
I was at the top-most place on the decks, at the front of the ship, looking in the distance.
“There is also the idea of making more wind stones to push the sails… but the shockwave is too strong. I might endanger someone and I can’t ask everyone to stay on the other side of the ship only to give me some space for experimenting…haah I’m out of options…” → Shen
I looked with helpless eyes, not understanding what I should do now.
Should I just use up all my mana in making strong wind to push the ship?… That might be the only thing I can do for now. → Shen
But before I was able to start and do what I decided, I saw Theodore with Melinda coming my way.
“What is it? Do you need something?” → Shen
I asked with a confused look.
“Master… you haven’t taught us anything lately… Did master forget about us?” → Theo
Theo looked with sad eyes at me while Melinda looked down, grabbing Theo’s hand. I froze at their remarks. The last few days I wasn’t able to even talk with my disciples, let alone teach them anything.
What master I am… it’s true. I completely forgot about them. → Shen
I kneeled down and caressed their heads.
“I’m sorry you two. I had a little too much on my head lately and couldn’t think about my disciples… Please forgive this foolish master.” → Shen
I said while smiling bitterly.
“Yes master.” → Theo and Melinda
Theo and Melinda smiled back at me.
“Alright, let’s go inside. Let this foolish master walk you two in your rooms, tomorrow I’ll teach you about stars, what do you say?” → Shen
“Stars?!” → Theo and Melinda
The two kids looked at me with shining eyes.
“Hahaha~ yes, look.” → Shen
I raised my hand and on my palm, a little black hole formed then inside it, a little shining dot appeared which became bigger and bigger until it became as big as my fist. When it finished growing, I created a strong barrier around me then…
– BOOM-
The energy released by the new-born star exploded around and shook my barrier, almost breaking it. When I completely took control over it, the star shone just like a little sun, illuminating the deck with a dazzling light. After that it started to grow again but not as bright as before, forming a red color and afterward, it became smaller and whiter. With a hup I threw it high in the sky where it exploded with a brilliant light, illuminating the dark sky everywhere around us. After the explosion, it left behind a shining green, white, red and golden mist.
“Wooaaahh!” → Theo and Melinda
The two little brats looked with amazement at the sky.
“How beautiful! What was that?!” → Theo and Melinda
“That’s called a Supernova. Well, being such a small star, you can call it just ‘Nova’. That happens when stars die. They leave behind that colorful mist from which new stars or planets are born later. Of course, nothing will happen on its own. With the help of some external help like black holes or a spatial bending, the star will be born and around it, planets with new life-forms will appear.” → Shen
The kids looked at me with incredulous eyes then Melinda asked completely shocked.
“Master! Does that mean you almost created a galaxy?!” → Melinda
“Hahaha! I can’t do such a thing. I still don’t know about a lot of laws of the universe. I barely understood the law of space and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I can use the laws of space to create mini-black-holes which will absorb the gas around, then-…hmmm. I can’t really explain you in such a complicated matter, I’ll tell you everything tomorrow, yes? Let’s go to sleep now.” → Shen
“Can master sleep with us? Maybe like this, you won’t forget again…?” → Theo
Theo said with a little sadness at the end, stabbing me with guilt.
“A-alright.” → Shen
I smiled warily and entered the room together with my two disciples; the two of them sleeping in Melinda’s bed while I prepared to sleep on Theodore’s bed.
