I am curious about my abilities.
One’s powers mirror their soul. The soul mirrors the powers.
So what am I?
I sit down and close my eyes, turning my focus inward. The blue fades, taking the unease with it. Something innate rises at my command. Instinctively, I understand the consequence of letting it surface.
I feel complete, like I have been reunited with broken limbs I had forgotten were missing.
I stand and order the bot to do the same.
“Fight like a somewhat trained boxer.”
It assumes a stance. Southpaw.
Fuck him.
The bot closes the distance, hands up in guard. I do not move.
It extends its right hand. A jab. I take it full force to the face.
Unwary and drunk on amateur confidence, the bot explodes into motion. A wide left swing, more jabs. A flurry of hands.
I stay where I am.
I take every hit.
Unmoved. Unchanged.
Five hits.
Ten.
Fifteen.
Eventually it slows. Fatigue opens a gap.
I seize it.
I turn my focus to my fists. I have no stance. I throw an inhumanly fast jab.
The bot reacts too late. My fist connects and it staggers.
Left. Faster. I accelerate. Thud.
Left to the solar plexus.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Right to the liver, faster.
Right to the chin, clean.
Left to the face, stronger.
The bot collapses, unable to move.
If it were a normal human, it would be dead.
At the same time I cough up blood.
I overdid it. A first time mistake.
I cannot sustain this power for long yet.
Thankfully the bot was set to human parameters.
The infected possess superior constitutions. Better reaction time, strength, endurance. Even a newly awakened infected is roughly ten times stronger than the strongest human alive.
That disparity explains how easily the fight ended.
It was like playing with a child.
I order the bot to stand down and sit back, letting my breathing settle. I need to reflect.
The simplest explanation of my ability is this. I can unbind things. Concepts, ideas, limitations, even laws.
It is freedom in its purest form.
During the fight I first negated damage. I unbound force itself. What should have been barely registered. If the bot had been stronger, that would have been dangerous.
When my first punch landed, I removed my speed limiter.
On the second, I eliminated the need for acceleration entirely. I went from zero to maximum velocity in microseconds.
On the third, I combined both.
On the fourth, I removed discontinuity. Movement became fluid. Fatigue nearly vanished.
On the fifth, I removed lactic buildup in my muscles to amplify the strike.
It is an absurdly potent ability.
But it has drawbacks.
I can only use it for about ten seconds before my body starts breaking down. With time and full assimilation with Blue, that limit should extend to a minute or more. Increased strength and higher virus concentration, essence, should push it further.
I can only unbind things within myself.
And there are limits to how much I can interfere with the laws of nature, for now.
That is enough for today.
I call Aphrodite and arrange a meeting.
We meet again near the water. She greets me with tea, composed as always, her expression unreadable.
I tell her what I have discovered.
She listens without interrupting. No surprise. No approval.
When I finish, she speaks calmly.
“That ability is rare,” she says. “Metaphysical powers almost never manifest naturally. We still do not understand why.”
She pauses, eyes fixed on mine.
“The woman you killed had the same class of power. Reality manipulation.
My fingers tighten slightly around the cup.
“She believed it made her untouchable,” Aphrodite continues. “She was wrong.”
“I will be careful.”
“That is not what I said,” she replies. “Use it wisely. Carelessness draws attention. Attention draws predators.”
She stands, already finished with the conversation.
“Stay in contact. My assistant will send you files. "
“Yes.”
She turns away, leaving me alone with the water and the quiet certainty that whatever I am becoming, people like her are already watching.
