Psychic Overlord

Kaizer panted as he retracted his hand and stood up, glancing at Anir, who had been watching him try his best silently. She did not offer a hint of help, nor did she try and hinder him, leaving him wondering what this 'alternate personality' truly thought and was planning.

"I can sense her, but I can't reach her," Kaizer revealed with a hint of frustration.

Kaizer was someone who considered himself to be rather adaptable and realistic. If he knew he couldn't do something, he wouldn't beat himself up over it and would try to learn how to do that thing over time - if it interested him enough - or would simply find someone else who could.

Ever since awakening his psychic powers, he had not stopped for a second while awake, constantly pushing himself to try and maximize his potential and achieve his rather abrupt dream of becoming the strongest esper.

But he had continually been slapped in the face with the reality that he was not strong enough nor skilled enough. Theoretically, his potential was extremely high, but it took time to realize that potential, time which he did not have since all of this happened at the snap of a finger, only affording him 3 measly days of practice.

What could one do with such a time?

A person who had never drawn before would need years of practice daily to be able to grasp anatomy for art. A person who wanted to become a pro footballer, assuming they didn't attend an academy, would have to play daily in the public park with others to hone their skills.

Even an obese person had to work out and diet for months in order to turn that loose fat into muscle, or at least, lean mass. It was impossible, no matter how talented, to achieve full mastery in three days, and Kaizer only had a significant head start due to years of adapting to his stunted telepathy pre-awakening.

Anir saw his frustration and glanced at the wasteland around, seemingly to consider something. She eventually spoke slowly, but every word was like thunder to the ears of the distraught Kaizer.

"You might be looking at the problem from the wrong angle. Even if you woke Rina up, it won't stop the fact that her mindscape is extinguishing itself due to death. Your goal is to prevent the extinguishing by reviving her consciousness and letting her fan the flames of revival to light up this star. Why not work through the inverse angle instead?"

Kaizer stood up and nodded, releasing a deep breath. "Thank you, Anir."

His heartfelt thanks did not make the alternate personality happy, as her expression faltered slightly, with a hint of sadness at the fore.

'So he will go this far for sister... but not for me,' Anir couldn't help but think sadly.

As she said, she had watched Rina ever since she was born, so she too experienced all that Rina did and largely felt the same way as Rina. To see the usually calm Kaizer lose his composure over his sister's survival when he didn't even flinch when his own life was threatened made her understand how important she was to him.

...but that was Rina.

Did she, the recently named Anir, have the same weight in his heart?

Anir didn't want to think about it, which was why she didn't do anything.

Meanwhile, Kaizer took to heart what Anir said. Yes, Rina's consciousness was still present, but even if he woke her up, what strength would she have to rekindle the flame of her mind and return to her previous self? If he even brought her back like this, would she still have the same mental faculties as a normal person with nearly half her mind inactive?

So the best way was to rather reinvigorate her star first, setting it to a strong blaze, which would feedback energy to Rina's waning consciousness and bring her back with a stronger intensity than before!

Kaizer was not sure if this was the best way to resuscitate a person's mind for a psychic, because not everyone had a mindscape that was like Rina's. However, he felt he would have time to delve into that in the future, and right now was more pressing to deal with the problem before him.

Kaizer did not know how to perform pyrokinesis yet and did not think that was a smart way to handle the issue either. Rather, he did the same as before, placing his hand on the ground but rather than digging below, he directly infused his purest psychic power into the star, sending as much of it as he could within.

There was an immediate reaction from the star below him as his power was swallowed up like water being fed to a thirsty mammal or oxygen to a land creature. There was surprisingly no sense of rejection, and the flaming star began to tremble as flames exploded all around the darkened parts of its surface, while the still existing fire sprung higher and higher.

Kaizer and Anir had to return to the orbit of the flaming star, watching with different expressions as more and more flames emerged around its surface, its heat that was previously mild becoming more and more scorching.

Seeing this, even though Kaizer was no expert per se, he could instinctively feel that Rina would be awakening soon. Despite knowing this, he didn't necessarily jump for joy but turned to Anir, who was watching on with an inscrutable expression.

"You previously said that I stole your authority. What did you mean by that?" Kaizer asked calmly.

Anir did not turn to look at Kaizer and responded in a rather distant tone. "You were born with strong psychic power, but its limit was clearly defined. You would likely be stronger than every psychic that ever came before when you reached your peak, but you had a peak."

Anir's expression then became pointed and accusatory, like looking at someone who deceived women for a living. "However, when we were young, both sister and I made a foolish mistake by promising to spend the rest of our lives with you and to share everything in the old family house."

"Because of that, you and us exchanged a portion of our power with each other. We gained a portion of your psychic power, which is how I became so strong to exist separately from Rina as well as how I can block you out, while you gained our ability to harvest power from death."

Kaizer trembled slightly, remembering the feeling of stripping something away from the men he personally killed, which increased the base strength of his psychic power.

"Is there any backlash?" Kaizer inquired solemnly.

Anir glanced at him as if looking at an idiot. "Do you feel a backlash when you use your psychic power? If not, then why should we face a backlash using our death power?"

Kaizer was not bothered by her harsh words, as his mind almost exploded with the implication. Like Anir, he too understood that he had a limit and was willing to train himself diligently until he achieved it and vied for the strongest esper, but now he was being told that could theoretically limitlessly increase his power as long as he killed people?