Cyber Chronicles 2: Prime Voyage

Chapter 39: Crystal

The man's presence washed over them, a palpable force that left them frozen in their tracks, unable to move an inch. Crystal, her heart racing, squeezed her eyes shut and summoned her energy vision with great effort. As the world around her switched to a third-person point of view, her pulse quickened even more as she focused on the man.

What she saw was both awe-inspiring and terrifying. Within the core of the man's skeleton was a torrent of energy, unlike anything she had ever witnessed. It was a vivid, shifting spectrum of colors, each with its own unique shade and intensity.

This man was far from ordinary. He didn't fit the mold of a human or even an alvan.

"You've found this place," the man spoke. Despite the dread that washed over them, his voice seemed oddly familiar to Crystal.

Amadh, his fear mounting, repeated, "Who are you?" His voice quivered, mirroring the unease shared by the entire group.

Crystal mustered the strength to turn her head slightly and saw a sight that sent shivers down her spine. Ray, the usually composed and rational one, stood there, his face a portrait of sheer terror. His eyes had widened, his mouth hung open, and his entire being radiated the profound shock that only he could truly comprehend. 

With his heightened senses, Ray was the only one who felt the full extent of the man's overwhelming presence.

The man's voice remained remarkably calm as he approached them, his mere presence seeming to exert a force that forced them to step back, like a powerful gust of wind. "There's no need to remain on guard," he spoke again, and his words had an uncanny ability to send shivers down their spines.

As he drew nearer, some of his features became clearer. He was of short stature, his aged form slightly hunched, yet there was something about him that felt strangely familiar to Crystal. It was as if she had known him somewhere before, but she couldn't quite pinpoint where.

Finally, the man raised his head, and in that moment, recognition crashed over Crystal like a relentless wave. As their eyes locked, his blind gaze seemed to bore into her very core. "Gustav..." she stammered, her voice quivering. The name reminded her of the emotions she'd experienced when she was forcibly ejected from Lincoln's memories.

The man seemed taken aback. "How do you know that name?" he inquired. "Decades have passed since I've been addressed by it."

As Crystal fixated her gaze on Gustav, a whirlwind of questions churned within her mind. How could this man still be alive after a century had passed? A lifespan of this magnitude was typically attributed to the alvans, not even human wielders. Her mind drifted back to the image of the man she had seen in Lincoln's memory, he was frail and ailing and that was at least a century ago. It left her both perplexed and deeply fascinated.

Crystal pondered a single plausible explanation. Gustav might be one of the individuals suspended in stasis. Such a state could effectively halt the aging process, both in the body and the mind, offering a potential means of extending one's lifespan. These individuals would receive precise nourishment via the stasis liquid to sustain them. This concept was somewhat akin to Crystal's own regimen, which preserved her in a state of slumber, though nowhere near as effectively for prolonged periods.

Nevertheless, this explanation didn't fully account for the astonishing diversity of energies pulsating within Gustav's core. While energy manipulators, such as Crystal herself, possessed the ability to control various forms of energy, only five resided within their cores: Life, Charge, Combat, Condense, and Special. Lincoln had referred to Combat and Condense as Kinetic and Plasma, respectively, as his understanding of these energies was incomplete. Furthermore, he remained unaware of the mysterious purple energy known as 'Special energy'.