2025-01-19 18:12:24You know that moment when you realize you've been played? Yeah, that feeling was creeping up on me like a bad sunburn.
The jungle around us was alive with sound, but all I could hear was my own heartbeat matching the rhythm of the energy pulsing through my fingers. Bzzt. Bzzt. Each spark felt stronger than the last.Njusa stood there, watching me with those eyes that seemed to see right through you. "Tell me about Orion," he said, like he was asking about the weather."Nothing to tell." I tried to focus on maintaining the energy field around my hand. It flickered like a bad TV signal."No?" His voice had this way of getting under your skin. "The way I hear it, he must quite remarkable. He must have mastered advanced techniques in days. Natural talent."The energy spiked. A nearby branch crackled and burst into blue flames."That's nice," I muttered, but my throat felt tight. Like someone was squeezing it."Nice?" Njusa l
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Orion's Rise: From Zero to Hero in Two Worlds Chapter 1
First period hadn't even started, and the hallway was already a mess. Kids rushed around like they owned the place, backpacks swinging, phones out - you know how it goes. The usual Monday morning chaos at Winston High. I was hanging by the water fountain, zoning out at the floor tiles. They made this weird zigzag pattern if you stared long enough. The janitor had just finished mopping, and the wet floor caught the harsh glare of the fluorescent lights above. "Seriously? You're wearing that?" I didn't have to look up. Jared's voice had this way of slicing through all the noise. The bonehead was born with a megaphone in his throat. And yeah, he was definitely talking to me. I kept walking, eyes glued to those tiles. One foot after another. Don't look up. Don't give him the satisfaction. Maybe if I just kept moving, he'd find someone else to torture. "Hey, Sergio." His footsteps got closer, voice rising. "I'm talking to you. What, are you deaf or just stupid?" The words tumbled o
Orion's Rise: From Zero to Hero in Two Worlds Chapter 2
The library steps were always empty this time of day. Everyone was either gone home or at practice, leaving this corner of campus quiet enough to hear the rustle of leaves scraping against concrete. Emily sat there alone, knees pulled up to her chest, her shadow stretching long across the stairs as the sun dipped behind her. I'd been standing at the bottom of those steps for a good minute, just watching her. The text she'd sent after school had been unexpected: "Can we talk? Library steps after class." Part of me had wanted to ignore it. After what happened yesterday? I wasn't exactly in the mood for conversation. My sketchbook was still laid out page by page across my bedroom floor, trying to dry out. Some of the drawings might be salvageable, but most were just warped paper with bleeding ink - a month's worth of work destroyed in about thirty seconds. "I didn't think... you would actually show up." Her voice was soft, uncertain. Different from her usual confident tone in the hall
Orion's Rise: From Zero to Hero in Two Worlds Chapter 3
I used to count the squeaks my sneakers made on the linoleum floor. Used to think if I could predict the pattern—*squeak-squish-squeak*—maybe I could control other things too. Stupid, right? But that's what happens when your brain's always trying to find ways to make sense of things that don't. "Still breathin' or what?" My fingers froze on the locker dial, muscle memory scattered like startled birds. Jared. Always Jared. The mint from his gum reached me before his shadow did, that artificial wintergreen that made my stomach curl. *Just keep sorting books just keep quiet just—* "Yo, freak-show. Asked you something." A laugh rippled behind him—Chris probably, or Ryan. They all blurred together these days, background static in the endless noise of my life. My hands were so slick with sweat that the dial slipped again. The numbers swam together, black marks that could've been anything. "Bruh, look at him. Man's actually shaking—" "Nah for real though, you see his hands?" The whisp
Orion's Rise: From Zero to Hero in Two Worlds Chapter 4
"Didn't I tell you.. not to look at me, Sergio?"Even though Jared's voice was hardly more than a growl,It sounded to me like a siren.I kept my eyes down;My head down;And my back against the cold brick wall.All other sounds were muffled by the laughter,The footsteps of his friends coming closer,And the distant voice of a teacher behind the doors.That one voice was all I could hear.Jared's.I opened my mouth;My tongue was starting to form words.*Say something.But I choked on the words.I felt like my body was frozen.As though my limbs were fixed.I had lost all sense of my purpose for being here.Why I kept coming back,Day after day. To this dumb school."I asked you question." Jared said.Abruptly, his hand grabbed my shirt collar.Yanking me forward."Did I not?""Yeah," I croaked.“You did.”"And?"He smiled and leaned close enough for me to smell the slight tang of cheap cologne and sweat. “What’s your excuse this time, huh?""Gonna cry about it?""Or maybe you’ll ru
Orion's Rise: From Zero to Hero in Two Worlds Chapter 5
I should have known they'd find me again. The worst part is, I did know. Deep down. That's why my hands have been shaking all day, why my stomach's been doing backflips since lunch. Why I kept checking around corners like some paranoid freak. *Just get to the bus. Five more minutes. Four more minutes. Three more-* "There he is." My whole body freezes. That voice. Different now - harder, colder. The fake friendliness stripped away. I'd almost prefer the old Jared, the one who pretended this was all just a game. Almost. Don't turn around. Don't turn- but my body betrays me, pivoting like I'm on strings. And there they are. Not just Jared this time. Six guys. Maybe seven. All with that same look in their eyes. *They're scared of you now*, a voice whispers in my head. But that just makes it worse. Because scared people do stupid things. Desperate things. "Think you're pretty clever, huh?" Jared's voice echoes down the empty hallway. Where is everyone? There should be kids leaving, t
Orion's Rise: From Zero to Hero in Two Worlds Chapter 6
Everything was dark. No, not dark. Empty. The kind of nothing that makes you question if your eyes are even open. The kind that makes you wonder if you still have eyes at all. *Am I dead?* The thought drifted through my mind, strangely calm. Detached. Maybe this was what shock felt like. The calm before the reality of everything hit you. "You're awake. Finally." The voice wasn't mine. Wasn't anyone's, really. It was more of a thought than a sound - clear in my head but impossible to place. Not male, not female. Just... present. My stomach lurched as the memories crashed back. The hallway. Jared. The power surging out of control. The interface flashing red warnings I couldn't understand. The alley... "Who-" I hesitated. Did I even have a voice here? "Who are you?" "I am your Guide." The voice-that-wasn't-a-voice remained steady. Calm. Like this was totally normal. Like materializing in someone's head after they've had some kind of supernatural meltdown was just another Tuesday.
Orion's Rise: From Zero to Hero in Two Worlds Chapter 7
I didn't want to be the voice of reason. Not today. But watching Ben march toward those glass doors with his shoulders squared and chin up, I could already feel the secondhand embarrassment creeping in. "This isn't going to work," I muttered, trailing behind him like a shadow. The slouch I'd been trying to fix all semester came back automatically, my body's natural defense against attention. Ben adjusted his glasses, catching the afternoon sun. The ginger hair he refused to cut made him look even younger than seventeen, but try telling him that. "It's going to work," he said, with the kind of confidence that usually preceded disaster. "You just have to act like you belong." "In the eighteen-plus section?" "They can't card us for energy drinks. That's not even a real law." "Then why'd they make a separate section?" He waved off my logic like it was an annoying fly. "Corporate nonsense. Come on." The automatic doors slid open with a hiss that felt way too loud. My heart was alre
Orion's Rise: From Zero to Hero in Two Worlds Chapter 8
The phone's constant buzzing had become white noise by now. As meaningless as the patterns I'd been tracing in the textured ceiling since midnight. The sun was rising, whether I was ready for it or not. The interface flickered every few minutes, numbers shifting in my peripheral vision. Monitoring. Always monitoring. Another buzz. Ben hadn't slept. The timestamps on his messages told that story clearly enough: 2:14 AM: *Dude. Check this out. Guy in Poland claimed he could move things with his mind back in 1988. Says he saw numbers too.* 3:27 AM: *What do the numbers look like exactly? Need details for my spreadsheet.* 3:42 AM: *Found some weird stuff about Brno's history. Like, WEIRD weird.* 4:15 AM: *Holy shit. HOLY SHIT. Library. Emergency. When you wake up, come to the library.* 4:16 AM: *Not dead btw. Just figured something out.* 4:17 AM: *Unless I am dead and this is all a hallucination. Can hallucinations text?* I should have been more worried about him. Abo
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Chapter 34
You know that moment when you realize you've been played? Yeah, that feeling was creeping up on me like a bad sunburn.The jungle around us was alive with sound, but all I could hear was my own heartbeat matching the rhythm of the energy pulsing through my fingers. Bzzt. Bzzt. Each spark felt stronger than the last.Njusa stood there, watching me with those eyes that seemed to see right through you. "Tell me about Orion," he said, like he was asking about the weather."Nothing to tell." I tried to focus on maintaining the energy field around my hand. It flickered like a bad TV signal."No?" His voice had this way of getting under your skin. "The way I hear it, he must quite remarkable. He must have mastered advanced techniques in days. Natural talent."The energy spiked. A nearby branch crackled and burst into blue flames."That's nice," I muttered, but my throat felt tight. Like someone was squeezing it."Nice?" Njusa l
Chapter 33
My face was buried so deep in the sand, I could probably taste yesterday's beach party. Getting out was like trying to unstick your hand from a jar of peanut butter - technically possible, but way more effort than it should be.Something tapped against my skull.Tap. Tap."Ow!" I jerked upward, spraying sand everywhere. A seagull hopped back, tilting its head like I was the weirdest thing it had seen all day. "Really? You had to peck me?"The bird just stared, probably wondering if I was edible."Shoo!" I waved my arms, which only made it take two casual steps backward. "What? What are you looking at?"Every muscle screamed as I tried to stand. Note to self: hitting sand at terminal velocity? Not recommended. My right arm was definitely not supposed to bend that way, and I'm pretty sure I had about six new joints in places joints shouldn't be.I brushed sand from my clothes, which was kind of pointless since they were basically rags now. "Where am I?"The seagull - my new best friend,
Chapter 32
Wind whistled past Jared's ears as he plummeted through cloud after cloud, each one soaking him with icy moisture. His stomach had left him somewhere around ten thousand feet ago, and his throat was raw from screaming.Where was Njusa? The mysterious warrior had simply... vanished.Oh god, is this because I mentally made fun of his name? Did he read my mind? Is this how I die - because I couldn't keep my thoughts to myself about somebody's weird name?The clouds broke beneath him, exposing a vast expanse of ocean that sparkled like broken glass in the sunlight.It would have been beautiful if it wasn't about to become his final resting place.Voooom!Something dark cut through the air beside him, trailing ribbons of pure energy. The figure moved like a missile, cutting through the sky at an impossible angle.Jared's eyes widened as he caught glimpses of Njusa through the vapor trail. The warrior's dark skin gleamed with sweat, muscles tensed as he manipulated the energy around him lik
Chapter 31
The hallways felt different after lunch period. Emptier, somehow. The air had gotten thinner. Jared's footsteps echoed wrong, each tap-tap-tap bouncing back at odd angles.Something was off.The energy under his skin noticed it too, humming like a tuning fork struck against glass. He flexed his fingers, trying to shake off the sensation.A shadow moved at the corner of his vision."Aunt Moira?" The words slipped out before he could stop them. But no - she wouldn't play games like this. Would she?The fluorescent lights overhead flickered. Once. Quick enough that anyone else might have missed it.But Jared wasn't exactly anyone else. Not anymore.I should go to class, he thought. But his feet carried him toward the shadow instead. Down the science wing, past rows of locked classroom doors with their little windows dark.Something brushed against his consciousness. Like fingers trailing through water, leaving ripples in their wake."Okay, this is getting weird." His voice sounded a bit
Chapter 30
Water trickled from the fountain's spout, each drop catching sunlight before joining the pool below. Jared stared at his reflection, distorted by the ripples.The same face that had watched Orion's sketchbook sink beneath these waters, pages bleeding ink like dying butterflies.Why did I do that?The question echoed in his head, bouncing off memories he'd rather forget. The look on Orion's face. The way his hands had trembled as he fished out the ruined pages. All that talent, all those careful lines, destroyed because... because what? Because Jared could?"You wanted to see me?""Jesus-" He spun around, nearly losing his balance. Emily stood there, still wearing that oversized sweater despite the warm afternoon.Pull it together. Bad guy. Remember?He straightened up, forcing his face into its familiar smirk. "It's like eighty degrees out. What's with the sweater?""What do you want, Jared?""Take it off."Her eyes widened."The sweater," he clarified, already hating how the words ca
Chapter 29
The microwave hummed. Jared watched the plate spin, somehow finding the monotonous motion calming after everything that had happened.His mind wandered back to his Aunt. Orion. That name kept echoing in his head, like a song he couldn't shake off.Of all the people in the world, why did out Orion? Why did just thinking about him make reality feel... thinner?The pizza rotated another quarter turn when it happened. Just a stray thought, really - wondering if Orion could see him right now - and suddenly the microwave wasn't just heating his food.The display flickered, showing symbols he'd never seen before. The hum changed pitch, rising to a whine that made his teeth itch."No, no, no-" Jared reached for the stop button, but his fingers never made it.Energy. Pure, raw energy erupted from the microwave door. Not heat or radiation - something else. Something that shouldn't exist in his mom's kitchen on a Tuesday afternoon.And Jared... caught it.The energy felt alive in his hands, like
Chapter 28
Jared spent three days waiting for the world to break again. It didn't.The numbers stayed quiet, mostly. Sometimes they'd flicker at the edge of his vision, calculating odds he never asked for. Like the 73.4% chance that the cafeteria would serve mystery meat, or the 12.8% chance that Martin would try to talk to him today.He didn't.People whispered, of course. The guy who used to rule the school through fear now spent lunch periods alone, scribbling in a notebook filled with equations he didn't understand but couldn't stop writing."What happened to Jared?""Heard he had a breakdown.""Maybe he's finally on meds."Tap. Tap. Tap.His pencil kept perfect time with the universe. Each small sound echoed through probability space, creating ripples he could almost see."Mr. Jared," Ms. Henderson called out. "The answer to number seven?"He blinked. The math problem on the board twisted into something else entirely - not the simple algebra she'd written, but a fragment of code that descri
Chapter 27
"Varian val'Soren."The name tasted like lightning. As soon as it left his lips, the world... shattered.Not literally - the field was still there, the tree still stood, but everything seemed to splinter into a thousand possible versions of itself. Jared saw each blade of grass existing in multiple states at once, growing and dying and never existing at all.His head filled with numbers.[Probability Engine Initializing: 0.001%]The ground beneath him rippled like water. He scrambled to his feet, but gravity seemed optional now. Each step he took left momentary footprints of light that faded into strings of code.[System Integration: 2.47%][Neural Pathway Reconstruction: 5.89%][Power Limitation Protocols: Disengaging]"Stop," he whispered, but his voice came out in harmonics, each word echoing through different possibilities. The tree behind him was suddenly both ancient and a sapling, its leaves falling upward into a sky that kept changing color.[12.56%]A flock of birds passed ov
Chapter 26
The strange sparks had faded by the time the final bell rang, but Jared's hands still tingled like they'd fallen asleep."Hey," Tomáš called out across the parking lot. "We're heading to the mall. Some middle schoolers have been acting tough lately. Want to help put them in their place?"A month ago, Jared would have been right there with them. Now the idea made his stomach turn. "Pass. Got stuff to do.""Since when do you have stuff to do?" Martin chimed in. "Come on, man.""I said no."Jared turned away before he could see their reactions. The walk home took him past the park, where fallen leaves skittered across the path like they were trying to spell something.That's when he saw it.A letter, hovering at eye level, completely still despite the autumn breeze. Its envelope was a deep purple that seemed to swallow light, marked with a seal he'd never seen before but somehow recognized: a twisted tree wrapped around a sword.He reached for it, half expecting his hand to pass through
