Side story 1, part 2: A mind

-2nd of April, around 21:00-

Joseph returned under the cover of the night. Keeping away from the main road, he was careful to not step into the light, slowly approaching the house where Crystal lived. Standing in the dimness just outside of light's reach, he looked around, checking whether there was anyone in the vicinity. He breathed a sigh of relief, confirming that not a soul was visible. Without much hesitation, Joseph silently neared the wall of the house and sat down by it, taking care not to step too close to any windows.

After performing the final checkups, Joseph took a deep breath. 'Let's begin.

He crossed his legs and brought his arms together, sitting in a meditation position, and closed his eyes.

'<Mind's Eye>.' he commanded his spirit and immediately felt his mana and Willpower dwindle by a somewhat large fraction. Suddenly, he started seeing things again, just as if he had opened his eyes, even though they were closed. That was one of his signature skills as a Psion: an ability to create a remotely controlled pair of invisible eyes.

Without wasting a second, he commanded his spell to travel and did a quick lap around the house, trying to find any holes in the building to enter through. However, as he quickly realized, there were none that he could squeak through.

'Damnation.' Joseph thought with a bit of dismay. 'Let's try windows. Just a confirmation of her location will be enough.'

He commanded his spell again, and it quickly started looking through the windows. Again, however, he wasn't able to do much. On the ground floor, he only saw that woman's brother sitting on a couch, looking toward the fireplace with a glint of fascination. He checked another window, this time on the 1st floor – it was dark inside. Another one – he saw an older couple sitting on the bed; they seemed to be Crystal's parents.

Finally, coming around the house to the third window, Joseph noticed a glint of light from inside and saw Crystal standing in front of a small mirror hanging on a wall, only clothed in a bra and panties, happily humming something to herself as she checked herself out. Two large candles were standing on the drawer, giving off a pleasant amount of light.

"You say I'm beautiful~…" the young woman's song sounded vaguely through his vision skill. She seemed to be quietly singing as she made a quick turn on her heels, letting her blond hair sway around. "Does this mean you love me like I love you~…"

With a smile on her face, Crystal made a few dancing steps across the room and returned to the mirror.

Unhooking her bra, she cupped her breasts in her hands. They were sizeable, each of her girls unable to be contained by her small fingers that sunk into the flesh. Crystal cooed with a bit of excitement as she squeezed them harder.

"…like I love you… ahh~…" she sang a part of her song again, mixing in a quiet moan as she played with her tit flesh a bit more.

Quickly, Crystal opened a drawer and took something from inside. Without wasting a second, she walked over to the door, seemingly checking whether it was locked, and then threw herself on the bed.

With expertise, she lowered her panties low enough to allow herself access to her dripping slit (which also gave Joseph some view of the situation). Lowering her hand quickly, she quickly opened her other hand and got a better hold of a somewhat small dildo made of wood. Without a moment of waiting, she inserted the tool into herself and bit her lip, a grunt escaping her mouth as she tried to not moan out loud.

She pulled the thing out of her nether lips and then inserted it back in again. Quickly, she set a rhythmic pace at which she kept on pleasuring herself with her right hand while her left one pinched her stiff nipples.

"…I… looove… you--aah…~" she moaned, slightly louder than before.

For roughly a minute or so, Crystal masturbated at a quickening pace, her grunts of pleasure slowly growing in frequency as her muscles started to tense up.

Seemingly feeling her orgasm coming, Crystal took a pillow and covered her head with it, muffling her moans of pleasure as she arced her back. And then, she erupted, her pussy easily sliding the dildo out in accompaniment of a small cascade of her juices that made a stain beneath her buttocks.

She breathed heavily for a couple of seconds, her hefty breasts rising and falling in rhythm. Crystal stirred on the bed slowly, ascending to a sitting position after just a few seconds. Taking the dildo in her hand, she kissed its tip, almost as though she wanted to simulate an encounter with the real thing. A sultry smile was spread wide on her face as her green eyes glimmered.

However, she suddenly froze mid-act. Her eyes shot toward the window, staring in the direction of Joseph's spell.

No... more accurately, the man felt Crystal staring straight at him.

Taken aback, Joseph immediately canceled his skill. His heart beat with some more power as a few seconds passed.

'...what just happened?' he asked himself, unsure what to think. 'There is no way to detect <Mind's Eye>... is this a coincidence?' he moved slightly from his position, looking at the window. What came to his attention was a small bird hopping on the windowsill. '...oh. She noticed the bird.' he breathed lighter for a moment.

...

'I should wait some more. I need her asleep.'

-About 1 hour later-

Joseph woke up from his state abruptly, taking a swiping look around. The blackness of the night welcomed him, and no matter where he looked, no light was shining from the houses nearby. Clouds covered most of the night sky, blocking access to the moon's light. Shaking his head lightly, he did his best to bring himself back to full consciousness immediately.

'...I dozed off.' he got up and turned around, peeking around the corner of Crystal's home. 'Seems to be deep in the night. Perfect.' a nigh-invisible smile crept onto his face as he stretched his hands a little. 'It's time to face off against another Psion. <Spectral Visage>.' he closed his eyes, letting the Willpower inside him wane off slightly as he felt his body transported somewhere.

A few seconds passed before the feeling left his body. Joseph opened his eyes and immediately noticed an empty expanse around him, nearly entirely black. In the void around him, a few lights suddenly started appearing. They were mostly blue and vaguely reminded him of balls of energy akin to those that some mages could summon. But Joseph knew well those were nothing of the kind.

What he was seeing was other people's minds.

'Let's get to work.' he decided, taking a few steps toward the nearest four. 'These two are very close to each other... they must be their parents.' then, he turned to another one, which seemed further back. 'Her window was closer to my position. That must be her brother. Which means…' he turned to the final one. 'This is her.'

At first sight, the coalescence of Willpower in front of him didn't seem different from the ones before. However, as Psion took a few steps closer, he noticed how a blue, semi-translucent barrier became visible, preventing him from accessing Crystal's mind.

'Immaculate.' he noted, glancing at the structure and trying to measure its strength. 'I'll commend the effort. It must've taken a lot of Willpower just to erect this thing. Your average Psion wouldn't be able to make this thing, let alone maintain it. I wonder... 2nd advancement, perhaps. You are strong, indeed.' he smiled, raising his hand. 'Too bad I have to shatter it, not every day do I find such amazing study material for my students. <Mind Prickle>.'

He focused his Willpower.

Immediately, a small bolt of red psionic energy formed at the tip of his index finger and quickly shot forward, dispersing right into the barrier. A wave of light blue light traveled alongside its surface, but nothing else happened. But Joseph expected as much and didn't even frown, instead sending in a few extra bolts of psionic energy.

'Hmm… not bad. Not bad at all. Let's see you take on something stronger. <Mind Jab>.'

A brighter light emanated from the palm of his hand, forming a small ball of Willpower. Without hesitation, Joseph threw the attack a few times and then looked at the damage visible on the barrier.

…

'…not even a scratch. You are strong, indeed. That, or you had help from someone. Color me impressed either way. But it's time for a big blow.' he raised a hand again. '<Domination>.'

Another wisp of energy appeared, much larger than the previous ones. It was, in fact, large enough to be comfortably held in Joseph's hand, like a nice, ripe apple.

The bolt of Willpower shot forth and exploded violently on the barrier. A powerful wave was sent across its surface, so far out that it eventually went out of Joseph's vision. Additionally, Psion felt something… shift.

'Hmm?' he turned around, unsure of the direction from where he felt the change. 'It looks like she's having a bad dream because of me. For what it's worth, I'm too interested in this to stop now, sorry.'

Turning back toward the barrier, he noticed it bearing a large scratch on its transparent surface, about a finger thick and an elbow long if he were to measure it with his eyes. However, it didn't dig into the surface past a hair's width.

'Most impressive. Most of my students cannot endure a single <Domination>, and this one just shrugged it off like it's nothing. Let's try again.' he smirked, striking the barrier with a pair of <Dominations>.

Two red bolts zoomed forward, closing the distance between him and the barrier, and causing another two scratches to form. However, once again, there seemed to be some change around him. This time, he managed to recognize what it was.

'A reaction from others? Very crafty of you to think about such a solution. Again, I commend the effort. However, triggers have one big drawback.' he raised his hand again. 'They're always late to respond.'

He fired another <Domination>, and the barrier's surface finally seemed to crack. Without wasting a moment, another one followed, expanding the crack further. Then another one. And again. Finally, after sending out the 8th bolt, he stopped to look at the results.

Joseph smiled lightly, seeing the cracks starting to spread on their own. 'It's crumbling.' he nodded, seeing parts of the barrier beginning to fall off and disintegrate into nothingness. 'I'll admit, not just any barrier can withstand 7 max leveled <Dominations>. There wasn't just power involved. It takes skill and talent to be able to do such a thing. It's a very high level of proficiency. Even with support, I'd have a difficult time measuring up to this level... who made this?' he wondered, taking a step closer.

The reflective surface appeared to glimmer in response to his approach. The cracks in its surface expanded, sounds reminiscent of glass breaking filling the air.

'There we go. Now... let's see who you are.' he thought as he reached out toward the coalescence of Crystal's mind. '<Mind Reading>.' a kind of a red leash appeared in his hand, rapidly extending toward the thing up front. As it reached, Joseph's mind began flooding with new information.

Without paying much mind to the numerous feelings that surged within him, he focused, doing his best to skim through the surface layer.

However.

The connection was severed abruptly. With surprise, Joseph retreated his hand, seeing that the remnants of the barrier stopped crashing down further. In fact, they began growing back. The multiple cracks became few, new fragments formed in place of the old ones, and within just a couple of seconds, the barrier was standing again.

...

It took him a second to comprehend what just happened. Blinking once, then twice, the blond man let out a short wheeze of surprise.

'...a regenerating barrier?' a faint sense of bitterness swirled in the back of his throat. Swallowing the feeling, he expanded his senses. '...it's not just that. It sucked the Willpower from other villagers... I didn't know this kind of thing was possible...'

He closed his eyes for but a second.

'But something doesn't make sense. Even if this is what's happening, there is no way just a 60-something villagers can have enough Willpower to recover a barrier this strong. Yet, I feel no extra movement. Is that Psion not around...?'

Stepping even closer to the barrier, he placed his hand on it.

'Truly, I've never seen a barrier like this. It's almost like it's… alive, too.' he thought. The nigh-invisible shield reacted to his closer presence, becoming more apparent as his hand drew closer. 'No, I don't have the luxury of pondering. There's only one more thing to do. <Will Calculation>.' he cast a spell.

A large ripple traveled across the blue plane, and Joseph felt a tingle at his heart level, indicating that his Willpower was draining. Still, he didn't stop using his skill, instead only savoring the feeling.

Suddenly, his eyes widened.

'…t-this… there is only one signature?' he felt his hand tremble. No. That didn't make sense. 'How can a single person have this much Willpower?! That's more than twice mine!'

He pulled his hand away. A sense of dread stirred at the bottom of his skull. It was an instinctual feeling that made him feel insignificant.

'I need to get away, now.' a grunt escaped his mouth as he took a step back. Without wasting a second, Joseph canceled <Spectral Vision>. As he felt his body being pulled away, he also started feeling all the sensations left behind. The first one that hit him was a headache. The second one – blood was dripping from his nose.

'Dammit.' he thought, swiping the blood away quickly. Without much waiting, Joseph immediately bent forward, getting up and away as quickly as he could. His muscles, having been in a single position for more than an hour, didn't help him much, and he found himself tripping a little. He let out a groan of pain, forcing himself to keep going.

"Something's there!" he heard a man's voice behind himself but dared not look. Instead, he sent out a <Mind Jab> in the direction where he heard the voice come.

However, what suddenly perplexed him, was that his spell bounced off a mental barrier.

'She's already up?!' he thought, running through the fields. For at least a few minutes, Joseph didn't take a second to slow down or look behind his back; he needed to create a decent distance before he could be sure of his safety.

Thankfully for him, he didn't hear any commotion anymore, indicating that the villagers must've not given chase of him.

-5 minutes later-

He leaned on a tree, taking a moment to catch his breath. The cart he'd been riding in was standing next to him, horses standing not far from him, tied to a tree, and sleeping.

Joseph took a moment to look around. It seemed that deep in the night, he was all alone, but he knew well this wasn't the case.

"Come out. It's safe, for now," he spoke and suddenly saw how a few people jumped down from the trees, silent as the wind. A total of 6 figures made their descent, all dressed in dark cloaks, allowing them to blend in the darkness.

"What are the orders?" a man asked, coming closer and getting on one knee, showing Joseph proper respect as his superior.

"Holia must be put under careful surveillance. Until further notice, keep monitoring and scribbling down the activities of the villagers, but do not let yourself be noticed. Under no circumstance must you come into any contact with them. If you believe you might've been noticed, report to me or my students to have your mental barriers checked. The same applies if you notice any unusual activity. Until it's decided otherwise, Holia is declared as a 'no entry zone' for our men."

"Understood."

"Inform commander Tyron of our circumstances and ask for reinforcements. We can't be taking chances."

"Yes, sir," the man replied again, and within seconds, the six people went away quickly, dispersing into the dark of the night.