Bent World: Epilogue II

Epilogue II

Sal stood up, his hands slicing through the air as he went through his mental Tai Chi movements. Everyday, nearly every hour Sal moved. Every movement, every motion built on improving his body and maximizing his true potential.

Long ago, the giant ‘P’ on the back of his left hand began fading. The more monsters he killed, the more excess energy the ‘P’ absorbed. Each mote of light, each drop of power all pulled into his hand, infusing his body with energy.

The first change happened, when the ‘P’ shifted from black to a dark coppery color. That entire day he felt a long dull ache course through his body, similar to an intense growth spurt, but different. As this was not his body growing out, but condensing inward.

For three days and nights he was caught in a period of excess pain. His body too weak to move, so he had to use his mind to feed him and take in water at the correct time. Had it not been for his reserve of food, and water he had stored up over time, he would have died. That or the transformation he underwent would have been far worse.

When he awoke, he found that he was the same, but also changed. Outwardly he was still the same height, roughly the same weight. The only difference was that now he felt lighter. No, this wasn’t entirely true either, he wasn’t lighter, but his muscles and joints were more explosive in their movements, which caused the sensation of being lighter.

It was at this stage that Sal also noted a difference in his ability to Slice, that was his working term for how he would carve a way through the barriers between worlds. Before the transformation, he had to focus all of his energies into and through the edge of his blade.

Now the chipped and cracked blade served as a reminder of where he came from, the first wall decoration that he would place to adorn any new abode he called home.

The time was therapeutic, having lived until well past forty in his first life, and now having had the autonomy to live as he wanted in a completely younger body, he found this time to a form of a vacation. He had always dreamed about doing an old school backpack across the Appalachians, or Europe trip as a youth in his past life. This time he did so, with the fear and drive that his ancestors must have had while exploring.

There is an unexplainable thrill about getting lost, and making your way anyways. In his mind, he could feel the call directing him towards distant locations, locations that all but reeked of power. He found a few of these Monoliths along the way. Received extra power that would fill up his left hand, and in fact it was one such monolith that led to his absorbing enough energy to generate the bronze ‘P’ that now sat on the back of his hand.

From there, he visited dozens of more monoliths, but despite clearly touching more Monoliths and killing hundreds of monsters, it was not enough to make the change. For a moment Sal wondered if the Bronze ‘P’ was the penultimate setting, but ultimately dismissed the idea.

As his powers changed inwardly, his external body also underwent changes as well. His body was thinner, not emaciated, but narrower and taller. In a way his proportions looked too gangly, almost as if he would crush himself under his own weight, but he didn’t. Something had changed when he underwent that transformation to a bronze ‘P’ on the back of his hand.

Also, as it turned out, he found his body also involuntarily followed the preferred style for his new home planet. The style of boys of age growing their hair out long to show they are able to maintain the hair and remain healthy. For Sal, his growing his hair was more out of necessity, as short hair would always grow, get wet from sweat or blood, and stab him in the eyes at the most inopportune of times.

Meanwhile, growing his hair out, allowed him to pull it back into a simple knot in the back that would allow him to see without the constant need for brushing hair out of his face. As for his clothes, they were rugged and sturdy, made from the skins of the strongest animals he could kill. Not as a show of dominance, but out of a form of necessity. Through his time alone, he learned the ability to sew. Well his sewing was slightly different than others as his required no manual movements to administer precise needle works. Instead, he used his Telekinesis to help manipulate bound leather threads into intricate seems that would old the gear in place.

With him being his own master in this, and figuring he might need a craft to fall back on, Sal used this time as the perfect chance to work on various crafts and skills that he had taken for granted, even in his new life.

By the end of his time, he found his want to interact with people growing to an all time high. It had always been there, a faint echo that always got drowned out during battles, or while achieving personal goals. But it would always rise up in the back of his mind when he least expected it to, in the middle of the night, or when he suffered a particularly grievous wound and could only apply bandages, suture up when needed and wait for the healing process to take its course. This was when that want for human companionship began to ring loudly, and why he decided to make the next world he went to one that was familiar to him.

Crackle.

Moving his hands through the air in the strict tai chi methods, which were basically functional movements that he sort of remembered from the three-week training he had in his first life, he moved. Each movement causing energy to course through his body and ultimately into the world around him. Then as had become a habit of ease, a rift appeared in the space before him, showing he makings of a world that instantly caused his breath to catch at its sight and wonder.

It was his home world, not the world of his rebirth, but his actual true home. Seeing it, he held out hope that someone might have survived.

Taking a deep breath, he paused, then before he forgot he reached out with his left hand, while Telekinetically calling his sword to his outstretched hand.

Clasp.

Once his fingers wrapped around the old comforting blade, he nodded to himself and entered the new world, ready to see what remained of his home.