blind star // txt taegyu

a new gaze

Taehyun drew back his hands, releasing his fist and a barrage of blades appeared, striking the ground all at once. The blades disappeared almost immediately and he looked at the one-way mirror to the left of the room. "How was that?"

"There was a sudden spike in the Scher energy in the room," Soobin's voice answered through the speakers. "Your Scher energy is always at 100%, but when you brought the style forward, it jumped to almost 325%. It seems thst Beomgyu will be useless against you."

"Oh, did he find his style?" Taehyun asked as he walked to the door. The door promptly opened and Taehyun was able to walk into the observation office.

"Something of the sort," Soobin answered, typing something into the computer. "Your readings are similar to Kim Sunwoo's."

"Kim Sunwoo? Herrscher of Mortality?"

Soobin nodded as he hummed in response. "He's, uh… living as a human right now. He doesn't care about being a Herrscher and all, ans has in fact moved quite far away from the clutches of Anti-Entropy. We would've gotten him to revive you, but… he's done doing favours for us. He doesn't use his power either."

Taehyun hummed, sitting on the desk. Soobin glared at him slightly and Taehyun got off the desk immediately, sitting on the extra chair beside the table. "Think I could live that way?"

"With the Sixth Herrscher dead? Probably," Soobin nodded. "He was our biggest threat. Currently, you are our biggest threat, but we have you on our side, so that's a relief. However, we've begun to evolve the next Herrscher soul core."

"Oh, really? Then I won't be the strongest one anymore," Taehyun complained with a little laugh. Soobin smiled, still typing away on his computer. "What if… I just succumbed to my fate as a Herrscher and just became everyone's enemy? Then what?"

"Don't have those types of thoughts, the core is fueled by hatred," Soobin warned. "It's why Yeonjun burst out suddenly — he was driven by his hate towards Anti-Entropy and Aenix Labs. Truly, we shouldn't have just kept him trapped here all the time, but he was dangerous. He was a sociopath and extremely manipulative, there's no knowing what he'd do."

"… not like that's a problem right now, though."

Soobin chuckled bitterly as he nodded. "True. But these powers given to you are god-like — you could end humanity. Schers are just capable of inconvenience — but a Herrscher is capable of destruction. You could wipe out humanity if you wanted — but you don't, which is a relief."

Taehyun looked down at his hands. "Beomgyu believes I'm not a bad person, and I don't want to be a bad person because of him. I'd like to abuse my power, but… Beomgyu believes I'm so perfect and that I'd never hurt anyone."

"Well, would you?"

Taehyun smirked a little. "Perhaps."

Soobin was quiet. That was clearly a red flag. He cleared his throat before bringing his clipboard in front of him. "R-right. I keep forgetting that we're in completely different leagues. Uhm… we'll run some more tests, so please step back into the testing chamber."

Taehyun laughed as he stood up from his seat. "I won't hurt you, doc. Really, it's the last thing I want. Beomgyu likes that I'm practically harmless, and… I want to be a good person for him. I'd never hurt anyone that has never done anything wrong."

"Based on how you killed the Herrscher of Flamescion in less than 20 minutes and destroyed an entire neighbourhood by sending it to another dimension, I doubt I can trust your words."

Taehyun walked to the white door and it opened immediately. "Just trust me."

•

"He's pretty strong up close, now that I watch him."

"This is barely half his power," Soobin scoffed, crossing his arms as they watched Taehyun spar with another trainer. Beomgyu was shocked, watching as each of the blades that attacked the trainer made their energy level drop significantly. "He's restraining a lot. We told him to fight so we can read his average output level. His stamina has improved greatly, however."

"Get the trainer out there, he's suffered enough," Minseon muttered, looking to the side at Beomgyu while Soobin spoke into the speaker. "I want to test your ability against him. He's currently running at 175% energy, so he's overflowing. Bring him down to at least 80."

"But that means he has to negate 100% of a Herrscher's energy," Soobin said quickly, a frown forming on his face. "It would wear him out completely, and he wouldn't even be able to bring him down to 50%. Taehyun's just too powerful."

"Just like Taehyun, Beomgyu has to train his ability to strengthen himself. He also needs to develop a fighting style and harness his energy into a physical form, such as Taehyun's blades, your ice and my neon shields," the woman said, turning to Beomgyu. "We can take a break after this test, since you two haven't seen each other since last night, I'm betting."

"Ah, I do miss him," Beomgyu chuckled. The door opened and the trainer walked out, glaring at Minseon.

"He's a monster," he muttered. "I'm not fighting him ever again, you should get a different guy in there. Maybe you should fight him."

"Nonsense, I'm in the front lines," Minseon said as she dismissed the trainer. "Beomgyu, get in there and don't get distracted."

Beomgyu proceeded to get distracted immediately.

"Taehyun-ah, my sweet lovely angel! Oh, how I missed you!"

Beomgyu ran straight to Taehyun, enveloping him in a right hug. Taehyun laughed brightly, hugging the slightly taller boy in return. Beomgyu rested his head on his shoulder, smiling as he finally got to hold Taehyun after a morning of tests being run on them. "Are you feeling better, Beomgyu? You seem to be doing better."

"Herrscher energy heals fast, was what I was told," Beomgyu responded. "They made you work so quickly, how unfair. You should rest more."

"Says the one with a barely functioning heart."

"Okay, lovebirds, let's get a move on," Soobin's voice spoke over the speakers. "Beomgyu, you said Taehyun would demonstrate it better, so I'm hoping he can effectively train you. Taehyun, today's objective is to help Beomgyu maintain his power and finally develop a proper physical style."

"Oh, that should be easy," Taehyun smiled with a nod. He looked at Beomgyu, an unreadable smile on his lips. "Look at you. You're a monster, just like me."

"Hey — you were never a monster, okay?"

Taehyun stepped backwards slowly to create more distance between them. "Yeah, but with what I have inside me, I'll always be a bad person."

"You're only a bad person if you choose to be one."

"Then I'll have to be careful with my choices, huh? Anyways, let's train."