A terrible place

Myrka was a terrible place.

After being here for two weeks, I could tell with a 100% surety that I'm glad I was a mercenary in my past life. Otherwise, survival would be close to impossible.

"Again! V1NC-T3, hit him harder." There's also the obvious fact that, from the start of my life here, we were not assigned names. From time to time, I reminded our examiners that I had one, but they refused to acknowledge it.

My glowing eyes were the only indication my little brother had before being sent flying against the wall. "011V-3R, get back up!"

"Yessir!" Oliver, as I took to call him, screamed, rising from the debris with only a few scrapes. My peers learned to talk after a few days, thanks to the program they played on our mind to acclimate ourselves with all that was going on around the world. 

In this world, demons and gods were very real. 

While I refused to believe so, I soon found myself believing after hours of revisiting famous battles that we fought against the inhabitants of the Umbral, a Demi-plane that kept trying to invade the Sun Realm. The most annoying thing was the headaches after each grueling session, but, thankfully, those days were behind me.

Dodging once more, I focused my ESP in slowing Oliver and, then, hitting him straight in the chest, followed by a failed grapple, which allowed him to clock me in the face. 

Thankfully, I redirected the strength of the blow, so I would stay conscious. 

Still, it'll leave a bruise.

Oliver smirked and pressed on the offensive. Using the surrounding vectors, I redirected his first blow, forcing him off balance, to which he tried a kick to force me back.

Even if we, Homunculi, made up for almost 99% of the population, few of us had the right to have a name assigned, so, as a form of defiance, we assigned our own names.

Few of us wanted to serve, but they were quickly swayed. After all, achieving great military accomplishments allowed one to be a part of the royalty and be granted freedom. 

I, of course, had a different reason to serve.

No one knows who I truly am. They know not that I came from another world, and I intend to keep this way. My plan is a simple one. Find the Umbral, invade it, and, hopefully, get a way back home. While it is not concrete enough, it is my only lead currently, so I refuse to let it go to waste. I dodged another counterblow, focusing on my fight and allowing my ESP to filter all the surrounding energy, boosting my power. 

Feeling the Ether course through my veins, I could scarcely let go of all that, but focused on him, forcing him down with the strength of the gravity. 

This is the easiest and simplest application of my power, Vector Manipulation, and while I needed to use every once of it to force him down, I still had enough in me to grapple him, choking him for a minute, until he lost consciousness. 

Forcing myself back up, I sighted, trying to stop my trembling legs. It wasn't over yet. 

"Very well, V1NC-T3," our trainer began to clap, before, in an instant, he pulled a gun and shot at me. Even with how strong and versed I became in my ESP, altering Vectors of a moving bullet was still too much of a hassle. Dodging after slowing it down, I sighed at the sting in my face. "Go clean yourself… also, patch that cut. Your blood is leaking."

I ignored his disdain, knowing full well that speaking out of turn would only get me in trouble. It's not the first time I was shot, but it was the first time I got to live with my own legs, instead of being carried to a healing pod.

While walking to the infirmary, I heard other soldiers speaking. Each of us were of equal rank, but more was expected out of me and the other two. Oliver was a slow learner, but was quite tricky to fight. Way more interesting than Bernard, in my opinion.

As was usual, the moment they caught me staring, they growled, so I tried to ignore it. I honestly don't need another talk with the sergeant, so back to what I was going to do, it was. 

After cleaning myself, I needed to do a regular check-up, to see if my ESP is working properly. It was a necessity, but many lads tended to forget that and saw it as a mere formality or a pretense to hit on that witch masquerading as a doctor.

That woman explained to me, after pestering, about what my powers were. Admittedly, I was new to all of this, so I was grasping at anything, but even I didn't expect to hear what was told to me.

"ESP is a modified part of your brain. It works like a mix between the digestive tract and muscles. You pump yourself with Ether that is around, filtering it and enhancing your mind and senses. That is why you can 'see' the soundwaves and light particles… It also grants you the power to manipulate the world in a specific way, faster than our mages can do, and more efficiently as well."

The only problem is that I can hardly branch out from ESP. Since it allows me to filter Ether to a more refined form, I don't have access to the more raw energy that is required for spell casting. However, it hardly matters. 

Nothing these so-called mages do can stop a bullet from piercing their brains if that bullet is fast enough. 

And since my ESP is basically that with extra steps, I can pretty much beat anyone, so long I have the necessary tools.

"This is so unfair, Vincent!" Looking back, my eyebrow rose, glancing at Oliver, who was tapping his left foot with an annoyed scowl. "How come you always win!"

"I take it, our dear teacher didn't take it so kindly to you losing…"

"No, he made me run a few hundred laps around the complex…"

"And you're here instead of their why…?"

I sighed when his face went from anger to surprise, and then fear.

"He… he never said I needed to do that now…"

Sure, let's go with that. I went back to walking, forcing him to walk closer to me.

"To be honest with you, I'm a bad match against your type overall… Your ESP allows you to increase your physical strength, mine, however…" As if to illustrate my point, I picked a rock and threw it at a nearby tree. 

By controlling its inertia and impulse, I made it tear through the bark and body of it.

"I control all forms of Vectors, and even if math is still a bitch to figure out, it still makes for a very versatile power, I'd say."

I remember at least the basics of my education from the other world, but since I was never the most intellectual out of my team, it's a constant struggle to use this power.

"It's still so unfair!" He was about to continue, but then stopped after glancing at me. 

Noticing the concern etched there, I cleaned my face, noticing how blood kept pouring from my nose and eyes. 

That's another annoying part of ESP. Like a muscle, if you overextend, it'll hurt. My head ringed constantly when using it. I am constantly altering the laws of physics, so of course it's taxing.

With a sigh, I shook my head, trying to dispel the dizziness

"I just need a rest, that's all" I lied, knowing full well that Oliver didn't buy it for a second. "Now, to the infirmary."