Ki Horizons - [Litrpg, Adventure, Power Levels]

Ki. What was it? If Master was to be believed, it was the equivalent of a natural product. Something I made via the combination of all that I am, but not quite just that. It was my life force. No different than blood for the body but more… core, but for the rest of me. But it also wasn't just that either. So many things that were used to describe it, so many ways that were so close but missing the bigger picture.

As I held the blue orb in front of me, it all finally clicked.

Ki was me, and I was it, but I also wasn't. It was my entire being's blood, but it was also pure power. It was disconnected from me, but it wasn't. The word lingered in my mind, trying to poke at me. Ki was Life. Energy. More.

Just holding it in my hands, staring at it, I felt like a caveman staring at fire. This was… power but so varied. But also not. It had its flavors, its natural dispositions. It's not that it could be anything; it wasn't magic, but it was… so strong. Like I was staring at an endless fuel. So, strong. It was my very lifeforce made manifest, pulled from the natural pulse let out from all that I am. It was me… and it would become me. This was energy. This was life!

The thrum of it all, the current beneath, the pulse of the very universe itself. So long as there was motion, movement, and life… so too would there be Ki.

My senses expanded… and expanded and expanded.

Ki. All the way deep down throughout my whole being, stored within my body, reaching ever further to a place I could barely pretend to notice. My essence. My Core. And like faint lines of whispering ghosts, I could feel the hint of… more. A suggestion barely in the wind, despite its existence. For others, they may never see it. It was like an optical illusion that was already out of place and hard to see at all. It was only the iron clad fact that I knew it was there, that made me aware that something could be there.

My soul.

I couldn't see it, sense it, or perceive it. But somehow, I knew, that I was barely seeing a connection that led to it, somewhere, somehow. No, no that was wrong. Not a connection, not like a wire or a river. My mind, body, and soul weren't separated like that. This was… my mind couldn't perceive it. Couldn't understand it. It was beyond me. And I couldn't sense the mind part of the equation at all, despite knowing it had to pour into me as well.

My senses leveled out, and all I could truly perceive was my own Ki as it flowed through my body. Invisible lines that were like wires running through me, but also subsumed within itself. Like lines of fire within a bigger fire.

And then I 'looked away' with my senses. And the spreading didn't stop. Like a wall of water waiting to hit me, I was left dazed and confused.

Ki. So, so, so, so much Ki. If you multiplied what I had in my body a thousand times, it still wouldn't fill half of what I was 'seeing'. It filled the room, it pushed against me, it surrounded me and had been surrounding me. It was like I was… stuck in higher air. But I could… see it. But I wasn't, not really. It all came back down to fire and energy for me. Perhaps my worldview was simply too lacking to understand it in any other way. Master hadn't been kidding about the blind mouse metaphor.

I couldn't see it… but I could sense it. Sense the ki within, the ki without, Master's Ki, and the thrumming background of it all. The connection with the universe. The rainbow road. Only now did I notice I had let it drift away from my mind. I tried to reach back out and-

My heart stopped dead and cold.

I wasn't alone.

"You made it. Congratulations." The words rang out into my ears.

I tried to move or speak… but it was like trying to make an image real. This was my imagination more than any kind of real place and yet… I couldn't muster any sort of movements. As if my very mind was stuck in a single thought process. As if even imagining my body moving was far beyond me, and I was locked into place.

The being in front of me who spoke looked normal enough. Too normal. A young man, wearing brown work pants, a white shirt, a plain black tie, a trench coat, and a fedora. I was reminded of a story my mother used to tell me about a detective. He was thin, almost unhealthily so, like he worked too much. There was a slight smile on his face though, as he looked at me from within my own… mind?

"Don't worry. You've made it right this time. The connection will be closing soon enough." He reached down, patting the rainbow bridge that seemed to stretch beyond into the universe and galaxy, stars and black lighting the way. This place had been like mist in my mind, hard to focus on, hard to understand, but now despite the lack of mobility, it was all so crystal clear. Like it was all so… real.

A rainbow bridge in space, previously golden, sparkling in colors even my human mind couldn't fully perceive. A thousand thousand tiny specks all together, into a beautiful road. No color seemed to be left out, even browns, blacks, and whites, and yet it all was so… transcendentally beautiful. It meshed perfectly. Such a beautiful creation… stretching ever onwards through space. I knew, now more than ever, that there was so much I wasn't seeing. Most of all, because I now knew that this bridge was made of Ki. So many colors… so many energies…

And yet it all seemed to be closing. Like my mind's eye was slowly shutting it off. Like, like a closing window. I desperately tried to will my inner self to move or speak or anything but-

"Don't panic. It's alright. I'll answer your questions quickly, since we don't have much time. This place is real, yet yes we are in your mind's eye. Don't think too hard about it, the universe is a strange place." He smirked at that. "No, not everyone sees me or even this place when they first connect to Ki. Though many do see this rainbow road. That's fine to talk about. I strongly recommend not bringing me up, however, and I mean you no harm. No, in fact, I come with a warning."

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His face took on a serious expression, and I felt my heart rate speed up. This, person, was within my own mind and if they came to give me a dire warning-

"Relax."

He suddenly smiled. Even if I couldn't furrow my brows here, in this place, I knew that a look of confusion must've appeared on my face. His smile remained bright.

"My warning is to relax. There will always be problems Mr. Mutai. So many, more than you would believe. There is a threat on the horizon, quite a serious one. You've almost been found by it once, nasty thing that it was. Nearly been unmade if you remember. That would've been very bad. In your long journey, you might learn more. I'd have preferred to tell you this far away into the future, but prophecy is fickle."

"The dreams." Somehow, someway, my mouth in this world moves. The words pull out.

My eyes light up and I see it. The white and golden energies. The blue atom. The Ki. The pouring evil. The golden road… golden no longer under my Ki senses. Now the rainbow is full and pure.

The unmaking.

Power, power on an unfathomable scale. The end.

The End.

I come back to myself in this distorted dream, the connection feeling like a pinhole rather than a window now, and closing ever faster.

"Yes, prophecies. Not necessarily the future… but not, not, the future. More may come. Things beyond your understanding or knowledge to realize. Murky, distant, strange. Terrifying perhaps. Whether dreams or more. My warning is pure. Do not let them cast a shadow upon your heart, Mr. Mutai. Relax. You need not bear this burden. You need not fear the unknown. Perhaps in time, you shall learn more, but do not descend into insanity over this. Enjoy your life!"

And with a smile on his face… the connection fades, and I'm left staring at a blue ball of Ki in my hand.

It sputters out as my jaw remains dropped.

********

"What… just happened?" My own voice echoes into my ears.

Who, what, was that? That man… he was inside my head. He was… related to all the dreams, all the strange 'visions' that had lodged themselves out of my mind. How could I forget so much of that? I remembered.

I remembered.

Terrifying dreams. Terrifying visions. Nothing made sense in them and the pure and utter fear during some of them. But-

"Relax."

How could anyone tell me to relax when-

"Are you going to just stand there all day?" Words snap into my mind.

I turn and-

"Gah!"

It's like my mind was smacked with a sledgehammer! So… Bright! So… much!

"Turn it off!" I scream, my eyes feeling like they're bleeding. My soul feeling like it's being crumpled into paste. Gods almighty, what is this?!

"Oh. Eh, okay."

Only now do I realize I'd been speaking to Master and even now… It's like staring at the sun but with something other than my eyes. The pressure from his aura is… how had I ever endured this?! This is monstrous! What… What power!

My heart rate skyrockets as full understanding hits me.

This is Master. No, this is truly Master. His very Ki. It was like… the sun almost doesn't compare. A living bomb wouldn't be able to compare. My teeth feel like they're going to grind to dust just looking at him! What… what incredible power…

"Welcome to having Ki." Master says, a deadpan look on his face.

Even through the mess of Ki senses, Master's incredible power, and whatever the hell had happened earlier… I can still feel something like a literal fire elemental breathing down my neck behind me.

I turn out of survival instincts and-

I grimace.

Vincent is staring at me like he wants to kill and eat me. Not necessarily in that order.

"Always a step ahead huh…" Comes a voice that reeks of hostility and violence.

"Vincent-"

"Enough of that." Master says. "Sit back down."

Too much, too fast.

"What?"

"We aren't done simply because you broke through. Vincent still needs to, and you could use the time to refine your senses further than the abyssal ability you have so far. So, sit back down. The eight hours aren't up yet."

I blink in shock. I had, things to say. I had things to do, to think, to figure out, to-

"Master. I saw a rainbow bridge."

"Hmm? Yeah?" He looks confused. "It's no big deal, lots of people see it. How have you not heard about it? Idiots are going to be the death of me, I swear…"

That can't be true. No, maybe… but why hadn't I ever heard anyone talk about it? I…

"Did you not read any wiki's on Ki?"

I… hadn't actually.

"But…"

But I also saw something else.

The words are on the tip of my tongue, to tell Master about the strange man on the bridge, but…

I can feel it. Like a dagger of fate at my neck. Telling me in no uncertain terms that I walk the edge of life and death. For some reason…

If I tell Master, he's going to kill me.

I knew it as well as I know that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. That I'm about to take a breath. That blood pumps in my heart and air leaves my body. For whatever reason, if I mention the man, Master is going to kill me. I don't even know how I know, except-

This feels like the dreams, no, the visions.

"I've never heard anyone talk about it before."

"Yeah? It struggles to stick in weaker people's minds for some reason. Just a quirk of the connection of the universe. Could've sworn we've talked about this before… whatever. Eh, maybe we did and you forgot. It doesn't matter. Sit down and get better at sensing Ki."

Like a stilted robot in a hostile room, I do.

The time begins to pass, my mind a mess. A competitive brother behind me, a Master who I can't shake the belief would kill me because of what I know, a strange vision and even stranger man appearing in my mind's eye, and the whole world so full of Ki and so beautiful and amazing and powerful a fashion that it threatens to crush me.

I know one thing for certain.

I'm definitely going swimming after this.