“The test for electromagnetic energy resistance begins at low light intensity.” As Krasin’s words rang out, the glass encasement suddenly brightened as the light within went up intensely. From the previous natural lighting inside the glass, it now looked like somebody had turned on a massive spotlight in the room, flooding everywhere with brightness. Currently, the light within wasn’t enough to cause much discomfort—just a slight irritation to the eye and momentary light blindness though the researchers were prepared for this as they wore dark shades to protect their eyes. “What are the readings?” Krasin’s voice sounded out as he asked someone beside him. “All readings are stable, sir,” was the response. “Good. Then increase the intensity continuously and maintain a gradual progression. Make sure to monitor all parameters carefully,” Krasin instructed. “Yes sir.” Following this exchange, the light within the glass encasement began to brighten, becoming whiter and whiter until n

“How did you discover that young Cale was missing?” Karla quickly began answering this question. “Last night after we parted ways, I went up to my room for the night but before entering I checked up on Kaleb but he wasn’t around so I simply assumed he was sleeping out and didn’t think much about it.” “But this morning after waking I went to check up on him again to see if he had returned but he wasn’t around yet. That's when I became suspicious.” “Kaleb doesn’t have many friends, not even in the orphanage. Occasionally he would go back to see some of the other kids and help out a little but he never stayed there for long. But I still called the orphanage regardless just to be sure only to be told that they hadn’t seen Kaleb in days.” “Then I started asking the neighbors and anyone in the street if they had seen him but they all said the same thing… nobody had seen Kaleb ever since blessing day. He had simply vanished and because of the battle curfew that followed nobody seemed to

Three days later… So many things have happened during these three days. First, after discovering Cale’s disappearance, Karla and Bolin went to make a report at the nearest security station. The military, security bureau, and judicial police were the three largest official armed forces in the fortress and each of them were responsible for overseeing different aspects of the fortresses security operations. The military being the largest among the three was in charge of protecting the fortress against attacks and invasions from hostile enemies originating from beyond the border as well as the exploration and expansion of the fortress territories beyond the border. It was mostly made up of two distinct sub divisions, the official and volunteer corps. The official corp consists of official drafted soldiers with direct authority from the Coccyx to defend the fortress, while the volunteer corps consists of independent awakened who acted as reserve forces that can be temporarily drafted

Hours later… Cale jolted awake to a splitting headache, like his cranium was stuffed full of gunpowder ready to be lit ablaze with a single spark. There was an incessant ringing in his ears and the whole world swooned like it was going topsy-turvy. A wave of vertigo hit Cale causing him to retch over the side of his bed but then a slender arm wrapped around him to support him from falling over as Cale spilled his guts. Blergh! Cale emptied his stomach of its content which was nothing but bitter bile and saliva. He continuously retched for several minutes, his sickness being nothing more than the manifestation of the abuse his body had been put through over the past few days. While vomiting, Cale received occasional flashes of memory from his body about all he had been forced to endure during his coma. According to proposed theories, memories were a function of the body that is formed through the accumulation of experiences, and the spirit or psychic consciousness was created ou

When Cale discovered his powers, he realized that it wasn’t just one ability he possessed, that is the ability to open a rift in the void leading to the other world. There was also another power, a second ability that was simply special and very fearsome at the same time. This was the power to command other people’s loyalty. Similar to mind control, Cale’s power could seize the psyche of anyone and forcefully command them to do his bidding. But it was more intricate than that. Mind control forces people to act against their will with most not being conscious of their actions and simply acting like puppets at the behest of their controllers. There was a limitation to this though being that people with powerful wills and psyches were naturally resistant to mind control and could break it given enough stimulation. Another limitation is that most times people under mind control could not perform extremely delicate and precise tasks like engineering, only being able to carry out simple