Rise of the Omnimage

They stayed over night and the next morning after a solid breakfast of waffles, bacon, and eggs; Chris and Kyrain went out to the yard to work on his new skill while the ladies stayed inside and visited.

Kyrain opened rift after rift as the Sage observed every single angle of it asking questions and annotating different things.

"How do you plan to use this skill man?" Chris asked.

Kyrain looked at him knowing there would be a lesson following depending on his answer.

"For travel." He answered. Not knowing where Chris was going with his question.

"That can't be all? Unconventional warfare and unconventional skills require an unconventional thought process. You need to be able to think outside the box. Your path has unlimited potential, but you keep thinking in a box and not using your imagination." Chris explained.

Kyrain thought for a second then answered.

"Sure my path is useful, beyond useful, but it's just essentially a mage breaker class that we have all read about. That's why this skill is so suprising. There is not much I can do besides become a super shield or utility."

Chris smiled and nodded. "This is what I'm talking about Ky. You're not using your imagination with the information you have just recieved from your rift walk skill. You don't just disrupt aether, but you affect it in ways none of us can due to the manipulation of antimatter which none of us really know anything about either."

He continued as Kyrain fell into though and listening to his words.

"Really ask yourself, what does your path do? Does it eliminate aether? Does it weaken it? Does it just move it? I looked over my notes and read over your first skill. Antimatter comes from what the system calls "the beyond." The only conclusion I can draw is antimatter comes from beyond our universe and doesn't exactly play well with our universe without the system's intervention on your body."

Kyrain was nodding along and thinking as he was told to. If he got fast enough, he could use the rifts for fighting. Almost like those anime teleportation skills. Kyrain looked down in front of him thinking how he would pull this off.

Chris sat down in a chair he brought with him and waited patiently, knowing that look Kyrain had.

If Kyrain were to open up a rift directly below him, he would have to focus on a location. The tunnel system he didn't like at first, might have a bigger part to play if he were smart.

Kyrain opened a rift below him and dropped into it using natural gravity. He was in a rift tunnel that he had imagine creating a "L" with the long side laying down. Once in the tunnel he sealed off the side leaving the other side open which he put behind Chris. As he got to the other side of the "L" he stepped through silently.

Chris turned with a smile. "Took a bit, but wouldn't be bad in stealth operations. Can you speed it up?"

Kyrain thought a bit more. Why can't he just manipulate placement of the otherside. He wanted to exit feet first as he entered.

He ripped another rift open below him and fell through only to immediately appear in the top of the house. He ran forward and dove, opening another rift a rift on the ground shooting himself up and onto his feet.

"There! That's better! That is a usable combat skill. What other things can you think to do?" Chris asked.

The Sage had come up with many ideas of his own if he had this ability, but he needed the kid to think for himself as that was how paths are truly made powerful and not on borrowed hollow power.

Kyrain wondered a bit and though. His rift walk was a mode of travel, but he was told to think outside the box. Yes, the system gave him information and that is what he ran with.

He came to the realization that it was something called "embedding." He just went with it. The rifts were means of moving objects, but was there a limit. He had an idea.

"Mr. Shephard, could you send a stream of water at me?" Kyrain asked.

A sly grin was plastered on the Sage's face as if he knew what Kyrain was up to.

With a flick of his hand and deluge of water was whipped at Kyrain who responded by tearing open an even bigger rift in front of him and the opening back at the Sage.

It vanished through the portal in front of Kyrain who opened another rift below him and next to the Sage on the other side. He stepped through and timed him stepping through with that of the water rushing in.

Chris casually stopped the water, forming it into a bubble in front of where Kyrain stepped through shielding himself with his own redirected attack.

"Now we're talking!" Chris said excitedly. "I think with more practice you will be more of a force to be reckoned with. I will give you another hint to get you thinking outside of the box more. Can you use antimatter offensively?"

Kyrain thought and thought, but nothing came to mind. He would have to do more research in the future.

His uncles and mom made it clear that not only did he not have a high enough tier of power, but he lacked any sort of offense. Apparently Chris had an idea of what he should do, but as was the case when he was a little boy, he wouldn't just give him the answer.

Mr. Shephard always insisted on people coming to the correct answers through their own efforts and critical thinking.

"The journey to the answer was just as important as actually having the answer as it leads to further discovery and improvement." He would always say when Kyrain would complain about having to think.

"I don't expect you to get the answer right away, and maybe not until you have to or even stumble your way into it. This is one of the reasons I wish we could get your dad back. He knew so much random stuff that to this day, even I don't know where he got it all. Used to make me laugh on xbox parties." Chris said laughing and smiling to himself.

They went inside and had lunch with the ladies already at the kitchen table.

"Mrs. Ekart, do you have any updates on Sorin?" Chris asked hopeful.

Brittanie's eyes flashed golden and continued as Brittanie was watching something seemingly in the distance. She had a look of complete horror.

"He is fighting. He is angry. Beyond angry tearing through people. Fire, water, metal, electricity. He is using them all and destroying everything. This skill doesn't give me any context or sound. It just let's me see what is happening." Brittanie said face going pale.

"What has been happening usually?" Elena asked reaching over to Brittanie.

"He has been in this underground facility for years, in meditation. I've never seen him use any skills other than his fire abilities until now." Brittanie responded.

Chris spoke up this time. "If I still know Sorin and I know there are a lot of variables, the only reason he is the way he is and acting like this, because he has been forced to."

Brittanie nodded. "I dont think anyone can take that spark from Sorin nor would he give up his tactical thought processes. The rate in which he is ripping through them suggests an extremely high tier of power. He is flowing through this fight as well as Mitchell, using energy like Kody and with your multiple elements." She said.

"Sorin might need help coming back. If he has serious trauma when he returns, the guild will have to be extremely careful with him. They usually do not like unregistered super users wandering around." Chris said.