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Chapter 14

Watching the World ReTurn

Honestly, the interview had gone a lot better than Maria had planned. Offered the chance to leave she took it, no having to answer awkward questions, no having to either out herself as crazy or otherwise. Instead, all she had to do was go in, say two words “no comment,” effectively those were close to what she intended to say. Then all she had to do was leave.

All day, all afternoon there had been a slow tension, an incrementally painful buildup of pressure. Almost like the sky needed to produce a blizzard or a sudden monsoon, but instead all it could do was produce a gentle breeze that spoke of strenuous times to come. Times that would seemingly never truly arrive. These were the times that Maria had been held to and had forced upon her.

Yet, with every moment she focused on the near explosive growth of ambient mana in the air. Ambient spirit mana that all but called out to her, allowing her to spin and progress her core and her mind to levels she never thought possible.

In science class, while talking about the waves of the ocean, and how those carry waves of power, Maria had her first breakthrough related to her core. There she felt the way the three densities of mana that she could absorb and work with were represented by their different frequencies of energy they could produce. Thus, the frequencies that they could vibrate at were directly proportional to their color, which in turn defined where they were on a color spectrum. Staring at the poster on the wall that showed the doppler effect and the megahertz needed to produce each wave of power, Maria became certain that she was onto something.

Crack.

“Oh.” Maria said, as she grabbed her stomach.

“You starting?” Anita asked, already reaching into her bag.

“Starting?” Maria asked, but suddenly the tensions in her stomach began to twist and burn.

“Yeah, you, know that time.” Anita said, looking around the room to the boys who were nearby.

Maria still didn’t understand, not that she could with so much pressure building up right at her core. Shaking her head, Anita just let out a huff while holding out a small thin item that looked oddly familiar, and yet at the same time foreign.

Maria just stared.

“Just take it and go, before you bleed out everywhere.” Anita said.

“Wait?” Maria began, finally realizing what her sister was talking about. She wasn’t on her period, she hadn’t needed to have one for years. In fact, during the time of the integration while humanity was being judged, there was no way people could get pregnant, as all menstrual cycles were cut off. In fact, thinking back on it Maria tried to remember if there was even a need for sex? Maria felt that she had been a virgin in her past life, though maybe that was just her memories of the end time when they knew they were down to their last shot to save humanity, and thus every second was filled with constantly trying to improve yourself.

“Take it.”

“But I…” Maria began, but then her core truly felt like it was close to bursting. Being the sole owner of thirteen linked nodes, including a core node did have its perks as it meant she was cycling enough energy to fuel everyone in the surrounding area plus the monsters that should appear.

“Ms. Alvarezes, just what are you two talking about?” Mr. Painter said, directing the classes full attention on the two twins that had been arguing louder and louder in their own little section in the back.

At that Maria felt like she wanted to hide in a hole. Well hide in a hole and then die as her core threaten to break itself free from her. Her twin sister however was apparently protective, as she stared back with a defiant look in her eyes to the teacher and held up the tightly wrapped colorful tube that had the word Tampax written in white lettering.

“What is… oh, OH! OHHH!!” Mr. Painter began as he looked first to Anita, then to the item she held up in her hands.  Then from the item back to Anita, then seeing Maria slouched over clutching at her abdomen the gears in his mind began to click, as he suddenly realized what all the commotion was about. Then he realized that he was likely making things worse by drawing attention to the act and the way everyone in the class had stopped what they were doing to stare at Maria who was now doing her womanly things.

“Right, yes Maria, just grab the pass and go.” Mr. Painter said, as he gestured for Maria to leave.

At that Maria got up, but felt her sister force the feminine hygiene product forcefully into her hand. While Maria didn’t mind the excuse to leave, she did mind that everyone now thought her reason for leaving was because of that form of cycle, rather than her reaching a new threshold with the cycling of her mana. Still, this was good, as it let her leave and focus on fully breaking through to the next realm of cultivation, which should help her with her physical strengths.

There was of course a noted side effect of pressing through that was sadly true across most stories and myths about cultivation, namely the fact that as you increased in your cultivation rank you in fact became rank with your body sweating out natural impurities that would accumulate from day-to-day life. Remembering this fact, Maria hurried to the bathroom.

There sitting on the porcelain throne, she began finishing her cycling, while her body went through a different cycling process entirely. Thinking back, maybe this was why she had survived the first apocalypse, most of the people were slated to die today, and she likely would have been one of the many casualties right alongside her sister, had it not been for the fact that she started her cycle.

That rationale seemed plausible, but it was not what happened. She remembered being sad, at least that is what she thought had happened. Unfortunately, her memory was getting cloudier and cloudier the further time went on. The more she tried to think back, the more every event seemed like a cloudy dream, one that became increasingly harder to clasp, the further she got away from it, from Sunday.

There of course were times when she did something, like what she remembered doing in her dream, at those points reality made sense, as she could sit focus and meditate on what she had done in the past and try to mirror or improve upon it this go around.

Right now, she had done so many things correctly that she was honestly wondering if she actually forgot anything, from starting with her Attributes maxed out, to now, everything just sort of felt right. Well as right as an impending apocalypse and what turned out to in fact be the start of her last period, not just of the day, though that too had started since she got here, but her last period ever. At least that is what she hoped, as she finished off cycling her core, receiving a system message.

World First Notice: The First Evolved Cultivator Core.

Title Gained: First Evolved Cultivator: You have seen the energy of the universe and were the first to consume it from your planet. +15 to all Attributes, +75 to Meditation.

That was it, finally the pain inside her body ended and for a second, she swore she saw a message race past her eyes. True to form, her body had evolved, and she now stank. Blood, bile, sweat, and other smells permeated her body.

“Oh, my gods, what is that smell?” A preppy sounding girl shouted out. At that, Maria couldn’t help but feel slightly embarrassed, though at the moment she didn’t feel the need to defend herself.

“Uh, must be one of those meth users.”

Meth? Does meth even have a smell? No, wait, I am pretty sure it does. Still, it can’t smell that bad, can it.

“I’m going to get Woody.” Another girl said.

“You do that, I’ll make sure she doesn’t leave.” The aristocratic sounding girl said.

At this, Maria felt like the day was just going to get worse. Also, it seemed like despite her better impulses, she was now officially held captive in the bathroom stall, but the smell police. In her mind, she vaguely remembered the girl doing this, at least she thought she did, Victoria Taylor, the student council president, which would make the girl that left her right had stooge, what was her name?

Regardless of what her name was, it ultimately didn’t matter. There were only a few hours before the Integration happened and the only thing the Integration cared for was success.

This was why Maria used this moment to focus on her Meditation skill, a skill that had once again increased in capabilities. As far as Maria was tracking, the skill was now over 125, she didn’t know what the highest a skill could get was, or if a skill could in fact cap out at all. All that she knew for certain was that she only had a little over an hour and a half to replenish her now evolved core, and try to do the same for her mental node, simple right? All while having the morality police come and lock her into a bathroom stall, while people went to report on her, just perfect.

On the bright side, her stomach was now settled and while she had been against it originally, she had in fact use the item that her sister had provided for her, of course this was after trying to wipe down her skin with the bathroom tissues. She would have tried to use the sink, but with the morality police on alert, Maria figured that was a bit beyond her at the moment. This was why she spent the next few minutes cycling energy into her main mental node and was just on the verge of an epiphany, when knock, knock.

A knocking sound came from outside the door.

Still, this was it, the final moment, that last push. There was so much ambient energy, and her supersized core was able to draw in so much ambient energy and cycle it through her body and directly into her mind that she almost felt giddy with the surge and swell of mana in her mind.

She even felt the slight nuances to the way the energy would need to be altered to fit her mind, the way light blue mana would be filtered at her core, sent to a different set of channels that were linked but also cut off from each other. In a way, it sorts of reminded her of her throat, the way normally the tubes were open to allow for air to pass, but without even thinking about it, her throat could open up and let liquids pour down her throat, past the channel and into her stomach. That same sort of piping and valve system seemed to exist in her second set of meridians that would allow for specialized light blue mana to go through her meridians directly into her mind. Once there, she would be able to focus on the energy and swirl it in a way that was wider and more fluid like air.

“Hello, this is security. I have been told that there is a danger to someone in here. Speak now if you are indecent.” Woody said, obvious discomfort in his voice. “One second.” Woody said, apparently speaking to the school president’s lacky.

“What do you mean you can’t go in? she is right there.”

“I know, but I need to get a female teacher for this.” Woody said.

At that Maria nodded, good man. She thought to herself, as she used these extra few minutes to force the pressure within her mind to build up and expand until finally, she felt the power growing behind her eyes.

“Holy shit, what is that?”

“Relax, she is probably just using her phone to play Candy Crush.” Victoria said.

At that Maria’s mind was already gone, already out pushing out and beyond the extremes of the day, past the constraints of normality. As such, her mind and heightened senses heard, but did not comprehend the words being spoken. Not that such words meant anything to her, as she would have likely agreed with the assessment, that is if she could recall what a Candy Crush was.

Though her memory of such things as phones and phone-based games were long gone, lost to the madness that was the great purge. In her mind she had a Vision of the past, or maybe the future at this point. In it, she saw the trail of events that were and had yet to play out.

In her mind she knew that she had changed the future, by her just being here, and being strong enough to exact change upon the world, she had already made it so the world was already safer. The fact that the world was now safer from things to come, was beyond all doubt.

Tzzt!

There was a jolt and a spark of electricity as Maria was nearing her mental breakthrough. The closer she got to the moment, the more her mind began to pulse and ache with power, yet she continued to press on.

“Oh my god, what is that?” The lackey asked.

“Uh, don’t worry, she just dropped her phone in the toilet is all.”

“Eww, that is gross.”

“Yeah, but what do you expect from someone that uses meth in the school bathrooms.” Victoria added, as she stayed there.

Yet, the tension in the air only built up over time, as the power seemed to swell. No, not quite swell, but it did build up right in the stall where the user was. The two girls watched on in wide eyed horror as the pulses of electricity and glowing lights from behind the stall door surged and swelled to a crescendo.

Knock knock.

“Ahh!” The two girls screamed as they were suddenly disrupted from their gazing to hear a new person coming in.

“Detective Quinn, Washington PD, I am here to investigate a potential meth case?” The detective said.

“Ye, yeah. She’s there.” Victoria stammered out, half frightened by the fact that a real police detective was here, and halfway frightened by the visual display that was going on before them.

Detective Quinn nodded and moved her way forward. “I am coming forward.” Detective Quinn cried out loudly in her authoritative tone, as she mentally had but one request on her mind. Please be dressed, please, please be dressed.

To her surprise the girl was dressed, and with that she let out a long sigh. To her visual sight, the girl was just there sitting fully clothed on the toilet with her clothes on.

Zzzappp!

A spark of electricity flew from a corner of the stall to the door, right as Detective Quinn came closer. The spark was so unexpected that she jumped back on reflex more than anything.

“What the?” She cried out, but then her instincts took over. For a second she thought about drawing her gun, but then quickly discarded the thought, bringing a metal gun to anything electric all but spoke of burnt and smoking hands. With that quick survival thought, she raised her hands back up and to her mid waist level, her hands out as if she was somehow trying to get the metallic looking stalls to calm down. Of course, this was mainly for her own racing heart as she was now close enough that she could feel the energy swelling in the stall. It was that thought that pushed her forward, the thought that if there was an electrical current being set free, she needed to get in there, she needed to save the victim at all costs.

With that thought in mind, Detective Quinn raced forward.

At that moment multiple things happened all at once. The first and most important for Maria was that she had in fact evolved her mental node.

World First Notice: First Evolved Psychic

Title: First Evolved Psychic: You are the first true psychic to have evolved your mind from your world and have been recognized as such. +15 Intelligence, +15 Spirit, +75% Psychic Focus, +75% Psychic Manipulation.

The power that Maria now felt was truly impressive, and amazing. There was an explosion in her mind, as for a moment the universe as a whole opened up to her. For a brief moment she could see and experience everything. Then she felt it, the moment her mind warned her about. An impulse letting her know that something terrible was about to happen.

Clink, clatter.

Outside her stall, she heard someone wrestling with the lock, the one where you just need a coin or long fingernails to pull off, something that all girls had in droves, apparently as her door was jiggling open. On reflex, Maria opened her eyes, despite feeling the onset of a power infused Vision coming to her, one that seemingly was warning her about opening up her energy infused eyes and releasing the built up power out from her eyes and having it surge forward and strike at a familiar yet blurry figure in her mind. In her mind, the figure was amazingly brilliant, her aura was blinding, and above all Maria knew two things.

The first thing she knew was that she had found her, it had taken two meetings and two back to back evolutions brought on by an abundance of untapped ambient mana. She was looking at the Champion, the chosen one, the one whose destiny had shone brightest. She hadn’t been here last time, last time she was resting at home with her dogs looking over old police files when the apocalypse came. She made her way to the school, but it had been too late, Detective Quinn, the Champion of the new post-apocalypse world had been found once again.

The second thing that Maria knew beyond a doubt was that the buildup from her vision was going to be too much. She herself was channeling second and beginning stages of third stage evolutionary powers through her body. There was no way a pre-system anyone could survive being caught up in the elemental backlash from such an event.

Zzap!

An arc of lightning flew out from Maria’s eyes, just as she had seen, just as she had been powerless to stop.

FWOOM!

BANG!

The sound of Detective Quinn’s body flying out and slamming into the wall, as an electrical arch shot out and pressed her against the wall as if she was a delicate butterfly and the arcing bolt of lightning was little more than a pin to hold the specimen in place. Of course, the detective fared about as well as the butterfly would in such a case, her body twitched once, then twice, before finally collapsing to the ground in a lifeless husk.

All Maria could do was stare out in muted horror, as a system message filled her and everyone else’s mind.

Integral Flaw: Integration Planet’s Designated Champion has died before testing could commence. Planetary Reset Process Initiated.

That was all, Maria saw, all anyone saw, before the world flashed white, and then all thoughts were gone.

Comments

Lijwent

So, new time loop. Now what will she remembers/take back this time. And will anybody remember anything? Now I'm imagining her farming those reTurn and breaking the system before it is even implemented 😂. Can't wait for the next chapter! TFTC

Igloo15

Really enjoying the series and looking forward to the actual integration. I just hope it doesn’t take another 14 chapters to get there.