“Hm, I think your light powers aren’t quite the same as mine…”
Psiksi had been struggling a bit, trying to teach Gentle, Submissive Retvik on how to turn light into weapons. So far though, Ret had only really made a few laser beams and some motes of light. Ret also had some pretty fine control on the lasers as well, and they were hot enough to cut through not just flesh, not just Corruption or Voidborn plating, but it was enough to make a hole that went entirely through Ret’s room.
“I think so too…” Ret frowned. “I want a cool light sword.”
“Maybe I’m just not explaining it right.”
Ret shrugged. “Maybe?”
Psiksi dismissed his own exalted blade of light, then thought for a moment. Ret in the mean time was making little light motes and trying to make them pointy.
“It’s tricky explaining to someone else something that is intrinsic and pure instinct for me.”
“Did you always have light powers?” Ret asked.
“Nope. I used to just have telepathy and weak telekinesis, same way Eksi and Teekay do. I find it weird though that Kayel doesn’t have telekinesis at all, and he’s not part of our Skyan telepathic network stuff…” Psiksi mused to himself for a moment. “I think the same thing happened to Elkay. Old-universe Rethans had an empathic link known as The Secret, which allowed Rethans to quickly evaluate threats. Elkay though got cut out of The Secret, and since he spent a year living with Teekay. he adjusted his telepathy to use our Skyan networks instead.”
“Why do I not have this Secret thing though?” Ret grunted. “I feel a little left out.”
Psiksi shrugged. “I don’t think anyone’s on it any more. Three of the Rethans here use their own versions of telepathy, and you and Retvik don’t have external telepathy at all, you can only really receive basic telepathic signals.”
“Oh…” Ret trailed off briefly. “May I ask more questions?”
Psiksi shrugged. “Sure!”
“Were you a gladiator?”
“Mhm!” Psiksi nodded. “Me and my brothers had a team, Skya Squad One. We kinda parted ways though after I was invited to join the Dessaron, to fill the gap Arkay left, but we were pretty damn good.”
“Did you have a solo career at all?”
“Uh, no. Mostly I was just part of a team. Why are you asking?”
Ret fell silent for a moment. “Um… I know… knew a Psiksi. He is a gladiator, one of the best. But he did not look like you.”
Psiksi fell silent too. “Huh. What did this other Psiksi look like?”
“He is very big and muscular. Heavy and nearly 2m tall. Very kind. Is green-plated and wore custom armour because he is such a good house fighter. He is rather different though. Focused on his work but also a bit playful. He and Kayel were, uh, friends with benefits, or something like that.”
“Huh…” Psiksi wasn’t quite sure how to respond. “To be honest, a 2m tall green-plated Skyan sounds hot as fuck. At least the new universe version of me is good. You were a gladiator too, right?”
“When I turned 18, yes. Before the bad stuff happened, I had a streak of 306 solo victories, and 31 wins with my Dessaron team.”
“DAMN!” Psiksi exclaimed. “That’s fucking badass!”
Ret smiled. “It really is. And, technically, assuming I am considered dead back inside our universe, I never lost, no one ever broke my streak.”
“That’s so cool!” Psiksi was genuinely impressed. “You Decaylings are so cool. I totally saw that Retvik and Arkay were nervous about your trial, but you’re all pretty fucking tough already. Also, somehow, you befriended a Voidborn.”
Ret suddenly paused. “Was Kyr Phovos a Voidborn while we were inside the universe? Either way, she has been my boss for over thirty years, we have a lot of respect for each other.”
“Honestly, mate, I got no clue. That Vekeus guy is literally Arkay’s half-brother and he didn’t look like a Voidborn until he left that universe.”
“I… guess that is what happened to the Raptor. She screamed and grew metal plates when we were brought here.” Ret grunted, then decided to change the subject. “I admittedly do want my own summonable weapon. Kayel has been talking about making a fire dagger and an ice dagger, but Tenuk seems to prefer just having lots of little kunai things and electrifying them.”
Psiksi shrugged. “I’m pretty sure you can summon an exalted blade like I do, it’s just working out the summoning technique.”
With more shrugs, Psiksi summoned his light blade, which was rather broad and wide. He did so by having both his hands face each other, his right palm open and his left hand in a fist, summoning a little light power, then pulling his left hand away in a straight line. As he pulled his hand away, Psiksi opened his fingers slightly, allowing a handle to fill the gab and making a guard formed around his fingers. From seemingly out of nothing aside from a white glow, Psiksi successfully pulled out his blade, and twirled it around in his left hand.
Ret tried to copy Psiksi’s hand movements, but nothing happened.
“I think maybe you need to think harder?”
“Maybe…”
Ret thought to himself briefly. After some thinking, Ret decided to try doing what Psiksi did, but with his hands held vertically rather than horizontally. Ret then imagined that he was summoning a blade the same way Ret would lift up a slice of pizza with cheese on it.
Somehow, this worked. Except Ret didn’t seem to have summoned a big weapon. Instead, he was holding a short sword, or perhaps a long dagger..
“Huh.”
Just like Psiksi did, Ret twirled the weapon around. He seemed to have a smile on his face, and flipped the blade back and forth, testing out various positions. Once Ret was satisfied, he pressed the blade into his open palm, but as the blade would have touched his skin, it evaporated into nothing. To prove that it wasn’t a fluke, Ret then re-summoned the blade.
“Wow!” Psiksi grinned. “Great job!”
“Thank you!” Ret smiled back. “It is not as cool as your colossal blade, but I am happy with this. Thank you very much for the help.”
“No worries! Let me know if you need any light-based help, alright?”
Ret nodded, then bowed slightly. “I appreciate the assistance. Now, if you do not mind, I am going to show Tenuk my new trick.”
“Alright, have a good one!”
Psiksi watched as Ret walked off, then smiled to himself.
“You’re all going to be absolutely fine…”