July 25, 2175
12:00 A.M.
The moon hung high in the sky, casting its silvery glow upon the ground. The rubble left of the festival building burned brightly below, throwing an orange glow around it. Jack and Diana were sitting on a Kana slab in the sky, resting against each other, in their small bubble of happiness and belonging they had formed with each other.
After about fifteen minutes, Jack realized the situation he was in, how close he was to the woman he loved. He had not paid much attention to it before because his thoughts were all over the place, but now that his senses were back to normal.
He was frozen in place, conscious of the heat radiating off of him and Diana. He couldn't muster up the courage to even say something.
Diana also realized that she had acted impulsively, but now she had no idea how to handle this situation.
"Confess, kiss her," a voice said in Jack's head.
Except it wasn't his inner voice. It was Enak.
"No, I'm scared," Jack tried to mumble in his mouth, but his trembling face opened and he said this out in the open.
"Huh?" Diana said, startled.
"Ah, oh, nothing. I just received something from Ethan over the Kana network. Think we should head out now?" Jack lied.
"Ah, yea. Thanks for showing me this, Jack. This looked beautiful," Diana said, looking around her.
"Don't mention it," Jack shrugged, and they both got up and surfed the air to the top of the hill.
As soon as they touched the ground, Diana nodded and jumped into the pocket tent.
Ethan, who was standing outside leaning against a tree, came to Jack with a smirk at this and then offered him a handshake.
"Saw you two getting all lovey dovey there," Ethan said with a wink.
"We did not. C'mon mate, I'm half dead, you are gonna give me a heart attack if you keep reminding me of that."
"So how did it do?" Ethan said, ignoring Jack's protest.
"What went how? We were just sitting there."
"I don't trust you. You looked welded together from down here."
"Trust him on this, he fumbled, even when I urged him on. This man will venture right into a room full of Revenants at will rather than confess his love," Enak said, manifesting a blob on Jack's shoulder.
"Whaaa? He did?... EEEEKKK WHAT'S THAT?!" Ethan screamed.
"How rude!!" Enak commented.
"Ah... that's Orvenak, but you can call him Enak. Think of him as an AI that functions in my armour," Jack chuckled at Enak's riling up.
"I... I see," Ethan said, looking at the blob with more detail.
"Uh, guys? Shouldn't we deal with those people first?" Diana called from the hatch of the pocket tent.
"Yeah, we should," Ethan said. "We should get them out first, shouldn't we, Jack?"
Jack simply nodded as he was having an internal conversation with Enak.
What to do with those people under mind control? Jack asked Enak.
Put your hand on each of their heads, I will handle the rest, Enak said confidently.
Diana and Ethan went to fetch the people inside the pocket tent. One by one, hesitantly, they came outside.
Enak deployed himself. Every one of the Kratians gathered outside. Ethan and Diana lined them up. Each of them looked uncertain and scared. After all, getting lined up like this, they thought it was just the captives who were gonna eliminate them row by row.
The helmet covered Jack's head and then Enak asked him to pass some energy to his eyes.
Jack obliged, unsure what result he was trying to get.
He had practiced circulating energy into his eyes. That allowed them to increase vision range and clarity and sensitivity.
But this time when he did it with Enak on, he saw millions of translucent threads suspended in the air, flying around. It was Kana energy!!!
Jack could see Kana energy. Jack tried to manifest a simple Kana construct. He noticed how his own energy came out of Aura nodes and then atmospheric energy clampered on his energy.
Fascinating and beautiful, he thought, but he put his gaze back at the crowd in front of him.
A faint amount of Kana energy enveloped every Kratian present there, but on a few it was as if a wire came from afar and was connected to their heads.
"Those are—" Jack gasped as he saw the Kratians with the projection from their heads.
"Yes, the Kratians under mind control. Let's get rid of the mind control, shall we?" Enak suggested.
The sheer number of Kratians under mind control was mindblowing. Out of the 200 Kratians they had managed to save, 70 were under mind control, at least one in every family.
Jack grabbed each of them with his Kana hands, lifted them up, and made them stand in a row in front. Each one of them stood there, in fear of what might happen to them. After all, the mind control was leaving them sane and just subconsciously giving them orders.
"Wh- What are you doing?" one of the men asked, startled and afraid.
"Enak, is there a faster way to do it?" Jack sighed, looking at the huge number of victims.
"Well, take out your katana and slice away at the Kana threads. I will handle the rest," Enak replied.
The people squirmed as they saw Jack take out the katana. Then a black mass enveloped it.
"Like this?" Jack said as he raised Kazekiri and tried to hold the projection with one of his hands so he could cut it off.
"IDIOT, DON'T TOUCH IT!!" Enak screamed in his head, but it was too late.
Jack made contact. An electric shock ran through his body, twisting away his Kana network, sending chills down his spine.
Suddenly the pain stopped. No, every sensation he felt with his body vanished.
He opened his eyes. Enak was no longer deployed around him. There was nothing around him. He was flying alone in a void, suspended midair, in darkness. The atmosphere felt crushing, suffocating. Foreign energy began to seep forcefully into his Kana system.
Along with the energy seeped despair, anger, and various other negative emotions.
Just then, he heard a voice. A voice that was bone-chilling, a hoarse whisper that shook Jack to his very core.
"Interruption detected. Subjects of the Chicago area seem to be alive. Oh?" it said in a whisper, the voice echoing in the space.
Just then, one of the dark walls of the space fell, revealing a cavity.
Jack deduced it was the place of intersection of space and time. A place where to move, you have to push out your energy from behind like exhaust to a rocket. He started doing so and started toward the opening.
Just then, he saw a silhouette of a man standing in the opening. He was completely dark, but the shape of the man was disturbing. He looked like a normal human from the front, but from the back, about five projections extended out of his back like tails, waving around.
Jack could feel his gaze on him, an intimidating and chilling gaze, a gaze that lusted for his blood.
Jack backed away. He flew away as far as he could from the man. He knew whatever he was, Jack wasn't strong enough to take them down right now.
"Interesting. A Hauston. A HAUSTON AHAHHAHAAHAHHHH. If it isn't the last living of the Hauston bloodline himself. Hello... Jack Hauston," he screamed madly.
Jack's head began to hurt. The foreign energy that was seeping through him was making it hard for him to circulate his energy.
He began to slow down, like a fatigued swimmer does in the middle of the ocean.
Jack looked behind. The man's tails twitched and without warning, he lunged forward, using his many tails to pierce Jack's hands and feet and pin him against the opposite boundary.
"WAHAHAHHAAH~ Finally. IT WILL BE OURS."
Jack tried to scream, but he couldn't. The world began to close in around him. His vision started to get blurry. Just then, a golden light broke through the walls and punched the man, taking him off Jack.
"Take care~ NOW GO!" the man in the golden light shouted.
There was something about that voice that made warmth wash all over Jack. It felt oddly familiar and for some reason reminded Jack that he had heard it somewhere.
But where? Jack wanted to shout out but couldn't. But he didn't have to wait much longer for that answer.
The wall he was pinned against tore apart. He looked back to the wall and saw himself standing on the ground and Enak pulling this Jack out of the dark place, back inside the Jack in the outer world.
Jack looked back into the cavity and saw the two men fighting.
"TEN FUCKING YEARS AND STILL YOU ARE GOING AGAINST ME," the figure clad in black shouted as he grabbed the man in the golden light by his head and started to drag him against the wall.
The golden man kicked the figure in black, who flew away at the impact and quickly straightened up midair. He rushed toward the golden man and then put his hand on the opponent's face and pushed him back through the opening in the wall from where the man had appeared, shouting, "YOU ARE GONNA BE TAUGHT STUFF TODAY, MORTAL."
That was the last thing Jack heard. He was pulled back into his own body. Panting, he asked Enak what that was.
"I will tell you later. They know your location. Get rid of the projections quickly, load them into the pocket tent, and change your locations."
"Alright." Jack initiated his body-strengthening Ikanami and cut away all the threads in the blink of an eye as he dashed forward through them, wielding his katana.
"EVERYONE BACK INSIDE THE TENT NOW. WE ARE CHANGING LOCATIONS. I WILL EXPLAIN WHO WE ARE LATER. LET'S GET OUT BEFORE WE GET A WHOLE ORTHO SAPIEN BRIGADE ON OUR ASSES," Jack shouted as he put back Kazekiri.
Everyone obliged. Jack got on the car and made a road in the air out of Kana slabs and drove as fast as he could on them, relocating several miles away, landing into the wilderness.