Falling into a sprint, I run forward with a sword in both of my hands. My shoes crushing the dew out of the morning grass as I move. When I enter striking range, I hook right while slicing the flank of the monstrous beast with both of my blades. Surprisingly, they cut through as easily as butter. Now that I think about it, I never tested Perenia’s blades on a natural material. That will have to wait for later though, I can’t wait to let myself experiment in real time with limitless possibility.

Now in the middle of their group, I get a better look at the bestial creatures. Visually they are completely black, darker than any natural material to the point where only their outline is observable. They are quadrupedal, each being around the size of a small truck. Large, razor sharp fangs line their mouth, and similarly viscous claws at the end of their legs. Spikes haphazardly line their back, too scattered to be used defensively. The cuts I made reveal a complete lack of typical internal structure as they heal in seconds. I stand surrounded by exactly twenty-four of them as they charge at me, fangs barred while unnaturally making no sound other than their weight on the forest floor.

“Let’s fly.”

Alright.

Energy releases from Perenia to me as solid dark wings are summoned from behind my back. As they do, my entire body has the sensation of being under my control. Like I can move anywhere without hindrance.

I jump upwards, aided by flight and make two of my beam constructs. No need to include the teleportation part, pure destruction is fine. I direct myself sideways to grab a branch of a tree while the beams blast holes in two of the beasts.

“Are the wings really necessary? It makes it a bit too obvious who I am.”

Technically no, but they look very nice if I can say so.

“Then I’ll do without them. They aren’t my style.”

One of the beasts rams into base of the tree I’m perched on, shattering it from the bottom up.

Maybe they are a bit outdated, I can accept that.

They disappear without impacting me the slightest as I jump in an arc. “There needs to be a construct that you use for the flight isn’t there? What is it out of curiosity?”

As I fall, I experimentally create two spheres in my palms simply visualizing immense density. I swing one at a beast jumping at me. It flies back, tumbling into another one.

I land on one foot while having my downwards velocity absorbed. At my will, the orbs release their pent-up energy on both sides of me, covering my field of vision in deep purple as the beasts and dozens of trees are blown away, leaving me in a small crater.

“Woah.” Still in the damaged cabin, Blowout stares at my display, as awestruck as I am.

Shivers run up and down my arms. I can’t help but contain a smile at the exhilaration of combat pulsing within me. At a glance, there are now even more beasts than before. More opportunities to fight.

Information from your world would have made it much easier than what I had to research. Optimum flight requires multiple factors at once. Putting what I did in your terms, would be along the lines of using telekinesis on your body while also decreasing its weight. It also manipulates the air pressure around you to enable capability of high speeds. For an immediate boost it also creates a small guiding wind. It doesn’t sound like much with saying it now, but those took me a few years as a personal side project that took many failures in the process. I still remember that feeling of getting it right. Ah, good times.

More of them from further away barrel towards me. Perenia’s energy catalyzes into several of my beam constructs as I sprint forward forcing myself faster than I’ve ever gone before. Trees blur behind me as distance is covered in no time at all.

Two swords are summoned and telekinetically thrown at two of the beasts, forcing them in the path of my beams that tear holes through them.

Wasting no time at all, I angle myself to propel to the side to avoid a bite from a third yet. As I move away, I make self-launching bullets that shred my attacker.

“The more creative the better right? Because I have so much more just waiting to let out.” I don’t bother hiding my enthusiasm.

That’s right. It feels good to let it out, doesn’t it? She puts on a knowing, devious smile.

Making my familiar sniper rifle, I let loose several dozen rounds, all head shots—assuming there is any value for doing so on these things. “You could say that.”

I probably shouldn’t stray too far away from Blowout for a variety of reasons. Without stopping motion, I curve back the way I came, leaving miniature grenades in my wake. On my way making more beam construct, adding more light to the already lit up forest. The grenades aren’t heat based so there is no risk of forest fire.

For someone not wanting to be found, you are making quite a bit of noise.

“Maybe.” Is it wrong that I don’t care as much as I should?

From Blowout’s location several spikes made of earth suddenly jut out of the ground. They impale several beasts, who disperse into dust on impact. I jump on top of a spike to gain a better vantage point. Despite my best efforts, they don’t seem to be decreasing in number. That reminds me.

“Oh yeah, what are these things? Are they the Goddess of Justice’s hunting dogs or something like that?”

Blowout glances to me before resuming her focus on the approaching beast with her right hand firmly clenched. “I don’t actually know.” She has genuine uncertainty and bewilderment in her voice. “They remind me of what I’ve heard about the energy beasts that were completely killed off over a hundred years ago. But from what I’ve heard they weren’t pure black and didn’t have any sort of regeneration like these do.”

“There is something similar to these in the core of the world… but no, they shouldn’t be here. We eliminated all energy beasts in the Great Extinction, we made sure of it. Flashes of foreign memory pan before my eyes. Memories of hunting and eradicating monstrous energy beasts to protect citizens. Memories of working alongside several other gods to rid the world of a common threat.

“It doesn’t matter much, let’s take these down then get out of here before we attract too much attention.”

Blowout lightly smiles, “so this is the type of thing you’re wanting.”

I close my eyes and stretch out my arms to feel the static god energy rushing through my body once more. It feels amazing. I lean forward, many creative ideas forming within.

A boom resounds as Blowout releases a burst of air from her clenched palm, blowing back two of the beasts.

Once more I use Perenia’s flight construct to enhance my movement as I jump, creating beam constructs in preparation.

I dash in and out of range of biting jaws slashing and blasting as I feel adrenaline rushing through my veins every moment of it.

Skidding to a halt with a small trail of flame clinging to a bit of her sleeve, Blowout stops next to me. “They’re running away!”

I pause to look around as I catch my breath. They are all retreating in the same direction, with their same eerily un-biological silent movement. “Yeah, they are.”

“Odd, energy beasts were known for never retreating.”

“Did you notice that the ones you were fighting regenerated a lot more than mine. I’m not sure if that’s useful at all, but it’s something I noticed.”

Were they? I should have been paying more attention instead of being engrossed in the combat. But hey, room to improve.

Blowout scans the trees while having her back to me. I’m surprised by her actions; she really does look to be wanting to help me like she said earlier. Maybe I should be more trusting in her.

“Thanks.”

She turns, “hmm, what are you—”

The tearing sound of trees being uprooted and crushed drowns out the sound of Blowout’s voice. Small black dots through the tree’s merge into one very big dot. Looks like the fight isn’t over yet.

How much energy do we have left?

Quite a bit. You are making much better use of it this time, so credit to you there.

A smile returns to my face as I step forward, “I appreciate your help so far Blowout, but I’ll finish this from here. Stay back so I don’t accidentally hit you with collateral damage. Time to find out what I can really do.”

She furrows her brows, “be careful, especially if you don’t know your limits. I’d hate for to run out of energy and fall unconscious.”

Her voice barely registers as I pre-visualize new combat methods. My body again becomes lighter as it rapidly become accustom Perenia’s enhanced mobility. My eyes focusing on every relevant detail.

I take off, each step on the ground pulling me faster than ever before. Quickly the source of the noise reveals itself. As tall as a small skyscraper, a beast same as the ones from before, towers above the top of the forest canopy.

Gaining even more momentum, I charge straight to its center. It swings an utterly massive claw, so I speed up even faster. I form Perenia’s energy around me, narrowing to a point like a bullet.

Just like I expect, I pierce straight through with hardly any resistance. Whatever the beast is made of, is no match for the quality of Perenia’s constructs. In my trail I litter energy grenades to annihilate it from the inside. Same in concept as drilling and blasting techniques as are used in excavation. Incredible how I can use formerly unrelated concepts in real combat.

As I emerge out the other side, I slow my velocity landing horizontally on a tree. The explosions leave holes that should tear it apart, but I’ll keep going. Maybe to ensure its defeat against its regeneration or maybe because I want to prolong my rush of adrenaline. Who knows?

I jump off the tree, spiraling upwards while making countless beam constructs. By the time I soar above the falling beast’s head, it is pelted by deep purple lasers in a helix formation, firing sequentially.

My breath is let out unrestrained as I can’t help but find thrill in my actions. The form of the pure black substance is barely recognizable as it topples to the earth in tiny clumps. Except for one concentrated floating mass around where its upper body was.

The continued surging of Perenia’s energy within me confirms that I have enough for a finale.

Beyond the tips of my fingers forms one last double-edged sword 20 meters in length. It swings downward at my command as I let gravity take me to the ground.

Cool earth welcomes me as I set foot on it, a bit harder than I could have made it. “How was that?” I let out too much enjoyment into my voice.

Perenia smiles, thoroughly entertained at my show. Not bad, not the best I’ve seen. I’ll give you a three out of five.

“That low?”

I can’t you too much credit or you’ll have ‘nothing to improve to’. Am I wrong?

I chuckle, “no you aren’t.”

From the edge of my vision, I see Blowout approaching in a jog.

“Well, that was fun. I hope you still have enough stamina left to run. If you want to follow me, you’ll need to evade the justice angels with me. I’m sure you realized that.”

She nods, “I don’t like the concept, and I still think that we can all work things out. But I’ll go along for now.” She pauses before smiling with a light laugh, “plus, if you get caught, I can always say that I was kidnapped.”

“Yeah, you could.” I match her smile, “but I won’t get caught. Let’s go”

I turn to leave but stop when Blowout doesn’t follow.

“Hey, I don’t think it’s supposed to be doing that.” Her voice lowers to worry.

She points at the bits of the shredded beast. Each chunk I thought I had destroyed, swells like dehydrated food in-taking water, quickly growing past the total mass of its former size.

A rock drops in the pit of my stomach. I wasn’t paying attention to anything but myself. I should have been actually observing the enemy, not just enjoying the high of battle.

“Fascinating. It looks like it was not just nullifying, but actively absorbing my god energy. I don’t know of any being capable of doing such a feat.”

I grit my teeth. “That’s why Blowout was inflicting so much more damage than I was.”

“That also explains why it’s regeneration looks so much like the regeneration of a god.”

The bits and pieces of the parts that had fallen the ground slowly gather, reforming even greater than the previous giant form. All from my carelessness and Perenia’s energy that I fed it. I hold onto my guilt to not have it overwhelm me.

“I really hate to admit it, but we need to get away now. This will have to be somebody else’s problem, even though I hate doing things like this—Blowout?

She pulls out a match from her pocket and strikes it against her coat before tossing it up to grab the flame.

“This is partially my fault too.” She lowers her voice in determination. “I have a bit of energy left so I’ll weaken or stall it out for a bit. It’s the least I can do.”

She takes a big step forward while slowly tensing her body. A bead of sweat drips down her brow as she takes a breath in and out, gripping her hands even tighter.

In seemingly one fluid motion she kicks her planted leg forward, generating earth spikes like before that jut to inside the forming dark mass. From her palm that grabbed the match, she lets loose an engulfing ball of fire that burns it as well as making the previous rock visibly glow. With her other hand she points her finger causing a high-pressure stream of white water to cut through the base of her previously made spikes. Finally, she bends to the side as she kicks with her unused foot and unleashes a burst of air that shatters the melted loosened rock, shotgunning it into the mass of the reforming beast. It topples over with bits of ejected mass dissolving as it leaves the main body.

She nods to me as she jogs in the opposite direction. “I agree we need to run here. I just wish there were more we could have done.”

At my lead we both run further into the forest. When I was in the air, I spotted the rocky area Perenia mentioned maybe a mile or two to the north, so I guide us in that direction.

We sprint in silence. Blowout’s form in running is near perfect, similar to a pro runner. For the first time I don’t doubt what she said about being skilled. Every minute I glance back to see if anything is chasing us, but nothing emerges.

As we near, I point to an outcrop with a good view of above the forest and we head towards it. If there is a cave, it would be perfect for laying low. Unfortunately, there clearly isn’t any as we approach. An idea surfaces.

“With your ability could you somehow make a small cave?”

She nods, knowing what I mean, “Sure.”

Walking up to the rock face, she lays a fist onto the surface and waits, presumably charging her energy. In the far distant sky, two pairs of wings glow faintly against the clouds. The area we fought the dark beast suddenly bursts out into dark bits. They seem to be floating, and upon squinting they look to be in the form of large birds.

“Can you make a telescope? All it would need is a frame made of any material along with a convex lens and a concave eyepiece both made of glass and a few mirrors in between.”

If you can visualize it, I can make it. And yes, I know how it works, we had a few in my time.

Blowout punches a sizeable hole into the outcrop as a small handheld telescope forms in my hand. Upon zooming in to further inspect the dark birds, they are flying towards the angels. One of them has brown wings and what looks like a bow in his hands. From it, he shoots out a single glowing arrow in a high arc that divides into a rain of arrows by the time that it reaches the birds, taking out several of them. The other angel has pale wings and flies quickly in erratic lines through the sky. As she gets close to the birds, she dashes through them cutting through them with what looks like blades attached to her clothes. They methodically take out one of the birds at a time while avoiding counterattacks.

“Alright.” Turning to Blowout, “do you have enough control to partially seal of the entrance?”

She tiredly nods and puts her hand along the opening as I walk inside. I sit on the floor as exhaustion catches up with me. In less than a minute, Blowout narrowed the entrance to a slit that can barely be walked through.

“Ah, that was a lot at once.” She sits and leans on a wall like me. “Were the angels winning?”

I nod, “by quite a bit.”

“Good.” She relaxes her shoulders.

“Let’s take a rest here for a bit till we are ready to move out.”

“Sounds good.”

Exhaling, I let myself relax. I don’t know how I would have felt if the beast went on a rampage with the energy, I gave it. Good thing I don’t have to worry this time. I’ll have to be more aware of about my actions while I’m being creative in the future.

*

I readjust my glasses. This is the second time I am meeting the Goddess of Justice. This time, however, is nothing like the first. Bottled up in my stomach is pent up anger at my mistakes along with crippling worry. No angel guides me in, the gateway materializing on its own as I come close. I take the invitation in, uncertain of what I’ll find. The previously grand archways leading to the throne room seem empty I walk there alone.

Standing on the bottom of the grand staircase, looking out to the empty space beyond her realm, is the goddess herself. As I approach, she turns to me with a shockingly unkempt appearance, polar opposite of what she displayed previously. She has bags under her eyes, and creases in her brow along with a stare that seem to glide past me.

I kneel looking to the ground, “Goddess, I am here as you requested.”

“Certain Future.” I swallow hard. “Two days ago, you gave testimony that you detected no lies when the individual known as Epsilon said that my sister was dead, is that correct?”

“That is correct. I recognize my mistake. I was misdirected by his—

“You didn’t intentionally betray your country. Yes, I know that. But that doesn’t change the result of your actions.”

She pauses; my whole body is tense.

“As I am aware your sister is missing, is that correct?”

“Yes. The last I saw her, she chased after him without thinking like she always to does.” Worry in my chest clamps even tighter.

Again, she pauses before replying, “Then your punishment will be to help bring him to justice. If you cannot do so, then you must be exiled as is the punishment for traitors. Am I clear?

“Yes, I will find him and my sister at any cost.”

She looks to the side with indiscernible emotion on her face, “What happened is a tragedy, but we can move forward.” She waves her hand, dismissing me, “We have the capability to overcome this crisis, and we will come out even greater than before.”

I stand and walk towards the exit. I tap my glasses to confirm. She lied.