The Emerald Basin felt like a throat that was slowly closing. The massive trees had bark as thick as armor plating and they reached toward a sky they would never touch.
The canopy was a tangled mess of vines and broad leaves that choked the sunlight until only a bruised green twilight reached the forest floor. The air was a heavy blanket that smelled of rotting vegetation and the metallic tang of something predatory. Every breath felt like swallowing lukewarm water. Lifeless stood in the center of a small muddy clearing. His boots sank into the mossy earth. Every muscle in his body felt like a piano wire stretched to the point of snapping. He heard the rhythmic heavy thudding of something massive moving through the dense underbrush. It was a sound that vibrated in his teeth.
The foliage to his left exploded in a spray of splintered wood and shredded leaves. A mountain of silver fur and corded muscle burst into the dim light. This was a Child of Divinity. It was a rank created by the gods of the wild to keep the lesser beasts organized and subservient. It stood twelve feet tall at the shoulder. Its eyes were two burning pits of molten gold. The creature roared and the sound physically pushed the oxygen out of the clearing. It made the very trees groan in protest.
The beast lunged. It moved with a speed that defied its massive frame. A fist the size of a boulder descended toward Lifeless. He executed a lifeless dodge. He moved with a hollow and eerie grace. He became a shadow that slipped through the cracks of reality. The massive fist slammed into the mud where he stood a millisecond before.
The impact created a shockwave that sent a spray of filth thirty feet into the air. The ground cracked under the pressure. Lifeless rolled back on his feet. His heart hammered against his ribs like a panicked prisoner. He felt a cold sweat slicking his neck. He was scared. The fear was a sharp and bitter taste on his tongue. Yet he refused to let go of the first fight in the mission. He gripped his resolve until his knuckles turned white.
"Shoot it" Lifeless screamed.
His voice was nearly drowned out by the beast's second roar. From the shadows of the giant redwoods the elite soldiers emerged. They were specters in tactical gear.
They raised their pneumatic rifles and unleashed a volley of specialized canisters. The glass projectiles hissed through the humid air and shattered against the gorilla's chest and neck. Each one carried enough concentrated neurotoxin to stop a blue whale. The needles buried themselves deep into the creature's silver hide. The poison was a dark liquid that should have liquefied its heart in seconds.
The gorilla didn't die. It didn't even flinch. It looked down at the needles protruding from its chest and then looked back at the soldiers with a terrifying and sentient disdain. It swiped a massive hand through the air. The sheer wind pressure from the movement sent two soldiers flying backward into the darkness of the trees.
Lifeless knew he had to draw the monster's focus. He sprinted toward a massive cedar tree. His feet caught on ancient roots but he kept his balance through sheer desperation. He planted a boot against the rough bark and used the tree as a springboard. He launched himself high into the air. He soared toward the beast's head. He cocked his fist back. He reached deep into his marrow for the current. He looked for that familiar hum of energy that defined his existence.
Nothing happened. The muzzle around his neck pulsed with a dull and leaden glow. It felt like a ring of ice was tightening around his throat. The energy stayed locked behind a wall he couldn't see. Without the current his punch was nothing more than a human hand hitting a wall of stone. The gorilla didn't even turn to face him. It simply swung its elbow back in a casual motion.
The blow caught Lifeless mid air. It felt like being hit by a freight train. He was slammed into the ground with such violence that his vision turned into a kaleidoscope of red and gray. The air was ripped from his lungs.
He felt the wet mud fill his mouth as he skidded across the clearing. He scrambled away on all fours. His movements were frantic. He hid behind a massive oak tree and pressed his back against the bark. He prepared to attack. He waited for a heartbeat to catch his breath.
The gorilla was faster than any animal had a right to be. A massive and hairy hand reached around the trunk. It gripped Lifeless by his upper arm. The pressure was astronomical. He heard the bone in his arm groan. With a grunt of effort the monster threw him. Lifeless flew thirty feet through the air before he collided with another tree. He hit the wood with a sickening thud and slumped to the ground.
He was injured badly. His nose was bleeding in a constant stream. A jagged cut on his forehead sent a curtain of crimson over his left eye. He felt a warm and wet sensation on the back of his head where he hit the tree. He tried to stand but his legs felt like they were made of water. He tried to summon the current again. He focused on the center of his chest. He pushed with everything he had. The muzzle only grew heavier. It glowed with an oppressive and dark light that seemed to eat the surrounding colors.
It was weird because he always used current when training and fighting. It was as natural as breathing. Now in the moment he needed it most his body felt like an empty shell.
"Aren't you a genius, tell me what's happening with me" Lifeless said.
He spoke to Jarvis. The voice wasn't outside of him but deep within the fabric of the world he was trying to master.
The world suddenly snapped into black for his eyes. The forest and the blood and the towering beast vanished. He stood in a void of absolute nothingness. There was no sound and no light. There was only the weight of his own existence.
"You're afraid" Jarvis said.
The voice snapped through the silence.
"You said this muzzle was made from force" Lifeless said into the dark.
"It is. But it is using your fear as more force to stop you. The device feeds on your panic. The more you doubt yourself the stronger the cage becomes. Put your faith onto God. FIGHT" Jarvis said.
The world snapped back into reality. The gorilla was standing over him and its massive shadow engulfed his broken form. It raised both fists high above its head for a final and pulverizing blow.
Lifeless didn't think. He didn't hesitate. He reached past the pain and the blood. He looked into the core of his soul and found a spark of something that wasn't fear. He pushed his belief into the silence. A flicker of energy sparked at his fingertips. It was a green current. It hissed like a nest of snakes. He rolled beneath the gorilla's descending fists and landed a punch square in the center of the creature's stomach.
The gorilla flinched. It was a small movement but it was the first time the beast showed any sign of weakness. It backed up a single step. Its golden eyes widened in surprise.
The monster recovered instantly. It unleashed a flurry of punches that moved faster than the eye could track.
Lifeless was forced into a desperate dance of survival. He dodged a massive hook that would have taken his head off. He ducked under a strike that shattered the tree behind him into toothpicks. He took multiple hits to his shoulders and his ribs. Every blow felt like a hammer hitting an anvil. He managed to dodge the bites as the beast snapped its jaws at his throat. He punched again and his green current flared with every contact. The gorilla flinched once more.
They were toe to toe in the center of the clearing. It was a brutal and primal exchange of violence. Yet Lifeless was damaged. He was coughing up blood. His vision was blurring again. He looked at the Child of Divinity and realized the truth. He was incapable of defeating this monster through a war of attrition. It was a creature of a higher order.
He fell to one knee. The gorilla loomed over him like a silver titan of destruction.
"I will not die before I meet my parents" Lifeless said.
The words were a vow. They were an anchor that kept his mind from drifting into the abyss.
Jarvis heard the shift in the boy's spirit. The fear was gone. It was replaced by a singular and burning purpose.
"Lifeless listen to me, focus. To break the barrier between the two worlds, the void and the real world. You need powerful force to break it" Jarvis said.
The world snapped black again to Lifeless. But this time it was different. Lifeless only saw the gorilla in front of him. The black was an abyssal void where his mind reached the flow state. He was no longer a boy in a forest. He was a force of nature.
Lifeless blowed a single breath.
In the physical world the atmosphere shifted. The trees of the Emerald Basin began to shake as if a tornado had touched down in the clearing. The leaves were ripped from the branches and whirled into a frantic cyclone. The water in the nearby stream blowed into the air and rose in a fine mist. Jarvis and the soldiers were physically blowed back by a sudden and invisible pressure that expanded from Lifeless's body.
That wasn't the wind of the forest. It was the sound of his fist powering up current.
The current changed. The green flicker died out. In its place rose a deep and heavy red current. It wasn't the white of training or the green of desperation. It was a thick and visceral energy that seemed to have weight and mass. It hummed with a low and terrifying frequency that made the very air vibrate.
The gorilla struck. It threw a punch that carried the weight of the entire forest. Lifeless dodged. He flowed around the gorilla's strike and struck the beast with a right hook.
The sound of the impact was like a mountain cracking in half. He followed it instantly with a punch to the ribs. The force was so great that the gorilla's massive body was lifted off the ground. The creature screamed. It was a sound of pure shock and agony.
Lifeless leaned his arm back. He channeled every fragment of his soul into his fist. He punched the gorilla in its face.
The forest shook. A shockwave rippled out from the point of impact and leveled the smaller trees. It sent a cloud of dirt and debris hundreds of feet into the air. The soldiers fell from the sheer force of the displacement. The gorilla was knocked flat onto the ground. Its head hit the earth with a sound like a falling star. It tried to get up. It struggled to find its feet. Its golden eyes were now clouded with a frantic and primal terror.
Lifeless didn't give it a second to breathe. He moved over the fallen beast like a vengeful god. He struck it with even more power with red current. Each punch left a glowing and crimson crater in the creature's silver hide. The beast's eyes began to roll back. It lost the ability to scream.
Lifeless kept punching it over and over and over with powerful force. He poured his pain and his mission and his red current into every strike. The ground beneath the gorilla began to collapse. It formed a deep pit as the strikes continued. The red lightning arched between the trees and set the damp wood on fire.
The gorilla finally went limp. The light in its eyes vanished. Its skull was a ruined mess of bone and fur.
Lifeless finally stopped. The red current flickered and died. The immense pressure that gripped the forest suddenly evaporated. He stood over the carcass of the Child of Divinity for a single and silent moment. Then his strength vanished. The internal injuries and the sheer drain of the red current took their toll.
He gave up on his struggle to stay upright and collapsed on the floor. He lay in the mud and surrounded by the wreckage of the fight. He was broken and bleeding and exhausted but he was alive. The first fight of the mission was over. He closed his eyes and let the darkness take him.