Psychic Overlord

Rina was… dead.

He had watched her die through Franco's eyes, but the fact that her body was intact before him also made him understand that this was a half-truth at best. Rina had perished, but this expiration allowed her dormant esper power to awaken, and it was something that had to do with the power of death.

Kaizer clenched his jaw and spoke with bloodshot eyes: "Anir, I need you to bring Rina back."

Anir remained silent, then spoke softly. "I cannot sense her."

It was a simple answer, but it highlighted the problem Anir faced. From what Kaizer saw from Franco, Anir could 'heal' and 'resurrect' by using her power to reject the death of people she targets, causing them to forcefully come back to life or be restored, but it must have limitations.

One of them was this: Anir could not restore what she couldn't see or sense. Rina was technically one thoughtstream or 'psyche' in her mind, with Anir being another. She could not use her death power to resurrect a psyche that dissipated due to death, so she was as helpless as Kaizer.

However, Kaizer found that he was not as helpless as he thought. Closing his eyes to calm himself, he opened them and walked up to Anir, who was floating on the spot like some sort of goddess, speaking in a firm tone.

"Release your mental barrier and let me find her."

His demand was outrageous and very insensitive, but Anir seemed to not be as bothered by it as his previous behavior. She simply hesitated for a bit and then nodded, descending from mid-air to stand before Kaizer in a slightly demure posture, very unlike Rina.

Kaizer had some speculations about this alternate personality that Rina formed, but now was not the time. He stepped forward and placed a hand on her head gently, closing his eyes to master the entirety of his psychic power and channeled it into his telepathic abilities.

He connected with Rina's mind and saw the familiar black barrier that blocked him on normal days, but when he appeared before it, a small hole opened up that allowed his consciousness in.

The moment he crossed over this boundary, Kaizer paused in shock. In front of him was a giant flaming star in a void surrounded by a starry sky, radiating a scalding warmth that caused him mild pain even though he did not technically have a body to perceive such things.

Even more so was that the flaming star was currently in the process of dying, with more than half of its mass turning black, like someone was slowly putting out the fire with some form of smothering tool.

"This is her mindscape. She used to be a rather joyful planet with many critters and peaceful nature until you hurt her. Then it began to become a flaming star, which developed to this level as her hotheadedness became worse," Anir said as she appeared beside Kaizer, adopting Rina's body in an ethereal, semi-visible state.

Seeing her, Kaizer manifested his ability and changed from a football-sized blue orb to his own physical state, much in the same way as Anir. Anir saw this and did not seem surprised, because a psychic like Kaizer was an expert in the field with great talent. Their learning speed in mind-related matters was not comparable to normal people.

"Do you feel that? That is her irritation. Even though she is perpetually annoyed, she still has a kind and warm disposition beneath the surface," Anir said as she referred to the scalding warmth, which was like being under the beach sun — a little annoying, but still somewhat pleasurable.

Kaizer was silent. He always knew Rina was like a powder keg in his presence, but he had no idea that it was in a perpetual state and had gotten this bad after so many years.

"What is happening to her?" Kaizer asked as he focused on what was important — the parts of the flaming star that had died out.

"Depending on the mode of death, people don't die instantly. There is a period of activity where their mind is still present before being forever shut down, and thanks to our ability, I have slowed down her disappearance. However, I do not have the ability to restore her, and she isn't answering my summons to return to the fore," Anir explained succinctly, remaining calm despite the crisis.

"And what happens if she dies? Will you die as well?" Kaizer asked as he began to move towards the flaming star, but had to retreat because the heat was terrifying.

"No. We are two separate thoughtstreams. I will simply become the one and only," Anir replied in a low tone.

Kaizer glanced at her askance with a look of slight suspicion. "And wouldn't that be great for you? Why try to revive her and lose your chance to exist in her body forever?"

Anir lowered her head slightly. "Because she is my sister. She has not been aware of me, but I've been with her ever since we were born. I have watched over her since then, and I don't want to lose her like this, especially since she never accomplished her dreams."

Kaizer did not respond but closed his eyes and tried to release his power within this mindscape, hoping to influence the dying star without getting close. However, he faced the same problem here: the mental power he released was soon scorched by the heat.

Kaizer couldn't help but laugh bitterly within. Many people feared telepaths in the sense that they could control minds, but Kaizer intimately realized that mind control was not easy. Even a dying mind was hard to usurp, much less a living one with its faculties intact.

Of course, if his overall power was greater or his skill was stronger, this might not be a problem, but unfortunately for him, this was his first time. Yet even so, he would have to manage because this concerned the life and death of his own cousin — a matter in which he would not accept failure.

"Okay then, we do this the hard way," Kaizer muttered to himself as he resolutely formed a barrier around his mental body and charged towards the flaming star.

Anir was shocked by this but followed along while covering herself with the black barrier that usually blocked Kaizer from peeping within. Both parties rushed towards the flaming star, forcefully blocking out the heat as they landed on a patch of dead wasteland on the right side of the planetary body.

Upon feeling solid ground beneath his feet, Kaizer couldn't help but marvel. Was it just Rina's mind that was like this, or were all mindscapes like this? In fact, what was his own like, and could he introspect to see what his own mindscape looked like?

He had many questions, but he could slowly answer them later. Right now, he focused on lowering himself to a crouching position and pressing a hand to the ground, trying to send his mental power directly into the core of the star where he guessed the remnants of Rina's consciousness might be.

Thankfully, Kaizer was right, because as his mental power dug deeper, the more he felt some form of consciousness that was extremely weak.

However, the problem was that as he dug deeper, the strain on his mental power became greater and greater until he was completely stretched thin.

At this rate, he wouldn't be able to even see the core!