Chapter 354: How does one use Time powers anyways?

It became glaringly clear once they disabled the second bomb and moved onto the next floor that something wasn’t quite right. Why? Well, they entered the same floor. And then after they cleared that floor, they entered the same floor. Again, and again, and again.

It happened six times. That was more floor than were expected, and by the third, Esper Denvers had a confused look on her face. By the fifth, she looked ready to break a wall down. Kellen, however, felt like his hair was still on end. He’d gotten a stern lecture after everyone had been deemed safe, so he was less inclined to go away from the group again but he had a sneaking suspicion he had to do that again.

No one in the group knew that he was both an Esper and a Guide, so they thought he was losing his damn mind. That, and they made fun of the fact that he had ’feelings’. It was fair. They didn’t know about his feelings and they didn’t have a reason to think that they were valid. He was a Field Guide, but he was also injured and now an S Class Guide.

Guides were tucked away and protected in this city. He understood he was fighting an uphill battle, which only justified him having to slip away even more.

As they were about to climb up to the seventh floor, Kellen made sure to fall back enough that when everyone else went up, Kellen stayed back on the sixth floor. Was that dangerous? Yes. It would have been better to remain together, especially if this was some kind of time loop? Yeah.

There was a chance that Kellen might not be in the same reality as the others if he continued on this route, but he felt, in his gut, that this was the right thing to do. They kept going up and up and getting nowhere, so now he needed to break the cycle.

Something was wrong, and Kellen felt that what was going on had to be linked to why the others hadn’t escaped from the upper floors of the building as well. Kellen just needed to find out why, what was triggering it, and how to break it.

Simple. Easy. Kellen could do it in his sleep.

Kellen snorted, more to himself then to anyone else, thinking of how Brent would scold him once this was all over. Hell, even Rhys would be beside himself. He might even get yelled at. That was fine. Kellen was saving his own anger and frustration for the people who had put them in this position.

For now, Kellen took a deep breath, and scanned the area that they had just left. Interestingly, now that he was alone and he couldn’t hear the chatter of the others, there was a low, continuous hum in the air. Kellen was having a hard time pinpointing where it was coming from, but he could tell now that the others weren’t here, that the air was vibrating with the sound.

The hair on his body was standing on end and it felt more like he was near a boss area in a gate then he was on a floor in a Guild building.

That was, tragically, an option. They could have wandered into a gate without knowing. It did happen, even if they had all of the best equipment to monitor where and when gates would show up, but this...that would be too convenient and Kellen didn’t want to consider that an option.

That was too evil, and too much power if that was something that they could do. Hell, sure other powers were showing up, but being able to control gates? That was genuinely insane.

For now, he’d like to think them capable of evil, and cruelty, but that? That was a step too far for him.

Kellen shook his head, his thoughts a little too grim for the situation before him. He turned back to the situation at hand. He may be stuck in a time loop alone. He got out of a poison gate before, he could handle this situation.

For now, Kellen retraced his steps back to the second bomb, going backwards. As he approached the room where the bomb was, Kellen’s ears began to ring and he stumbled, nearly falling into the wall. The pain from the hum was horrific, shaking his very organs.

It was just as well that Kellen was used to being in situations that were strange, since he didn’t bat an eye and continued towards the bomb. He knew that if Esper Denvers had been with him she would have prevented him from continuing, but Kellen knew he had to continue.

The feeling in his gut was telling him he had to. As soon as the hum shook his very core, the powers within him rose to the occasion and Kellen had an experience he had never felt before. Not on the other side.

He was guiding himself while he used his Esper powers. It was...it was a rather strange sensation. In combination with the vibrations and the hair on his body standing on end, he was felt like a snake made of water was slipping through his veins, washing away the impurities that were building up as he used his powers.

The problem was, Kellen didn’t know why he was using his powers. That part was not made clear. He just knew that as he continued forward, the snake continued to move and his body was experiencing a lot of sensations at once. That would make him go crazy before the Time powers did.

Kellen made it to the doorway of the second bomb room and gasped. In this world, the bomb had already gone off and Kellen realised why his powers were activating. He was turning back time on the room.

Kellen watched as pieces of the world were repaired, pieces of the building flying back into place. The only reason the hallway was saved appeared to be because of the direction of the bomb. Kellen didn’t think that was how it worked for most bombs, but with magical parts and Esper powers, anything was possible. This bomb’s goal seemed to be causing the most damage to the exterior of the building. It seems like they wanted others to know that they had attacked the Phoenix Guild and destroyed it.

Kellen felt anger well up inside of him, mixing with the Esper power leaving him, and Kellen was surprised as the repairs seemed to speed up. He watched on, only able to see out of his one eye, and he slumped against the doorway of the repairing room and reached for the drinks that he’d asked Uncle Vance for.

He’d given him several, a back pack of them, and Kellen was going to need them. It was bizarre to be so aware and moving as he was guiding. He’d never experienced it like this, even as he was guiding as part of being an S Class he could feel his active guiding happening, like he was holding his own hand.

Kellen pulled the lid off of the drink and poured it into his mouth, watching as beams flew back into place, the desk that had turned to dust because of the bomb pouring back into the shape of a desk. Glass fragments slid back into place and Kellen continued to drink the calorie boosters. He’d have to do this with the other bomb, he could tell, and the only thing that truly frustrated him about the situation was that he had no clue how he was doing what he was doing.

His powers had never worked like this before now. He’d had rather plain powers in his mind. Practical. Worked just as well for him, since what Rhys did, what Kellen was doing right now, was flashy. Very, very flashy. Ended up in the newspapers and on the t.v. flashy.

Rhys had tried to test if this was the kind of powers that Kellen had and Kellen hadn’t shown a reaction. Maybe the way they tested had been wrong.

Kellen stared grimly at the re assembling room, and then realised he was going to have to deal with the bomb. Fuck.

Kellen stopped drinking his drinks and shuffled towards the desk. It was fully formed again at this point and Kellen yanked it back. The sound of it sliding across the floor grated on his ears, since he was already overwhelmed, but he didn’t care. Instead, he stared at the bomb that didn’t look like it had exploded at all.

Kellen, he hadn’t taken a bomb defusing course ever, sighed. Today was the day he learned, he guess.

Kellen had to take of his eye patch at one point, getting annoyed by how his eye was throbbing painfully, and the limited visibility that he had with his eye would be better than what he had right now.

Even a blur was better than darkness.

He’d failed defusing the bomb three times already, and it was a bit of a cheat that his body would stop the bomb before it exploded and turn back time. However, it was very taxing on his body. Kellen could tell he’d lost a lot of weight already, so he knew he had to figure out the method soon, or else it would be a problem.

He was following the basic principle of cutting certain wires would stop the bomb from going off. The problem? He’d cut the all individually at this point and Kellen was getting frustrated. He was running out of time, literally, and with his body taking it all on, Kellen hissed out a breath

That was when Kellen had a crazy idea.

What if he reversed time on the bomb?

Kellen grit his teeth and placed both hands on the bomb, holding the dangerous thing in his hands. He wasn’t sure how to do this, but his desire to destroy this fucking thing filled him.

Nothing happened for one beat, then the next, and then suddenly the plastic on the bomb began to warp. A loud whine could be heard, before a strange pop, and then the bomb began to fold in on itself without an explosion. Kellen watched as in his very hands the bomb began to fold, crumble and disappear. In a matter of minutes, it was just a pile of very dangerous dust in his hands.

The humming lessened, and the pull on Kellen’s body reduced. Kellen stumbled back, slamming into the wall behind him as his legs nearly gave out in relief. Holy moly.

He could take a moment to breathe, and then he needed to chug more of the drinks and attack the bomb that he found. No waiting. No trying other methods. It was grasping the issue in hand and destroying it that way. It suited Kellen perfectly. He was a hands on kind of guy anyways.