I shouldn't have come back here.
The thought settled almost immediately as I stepped into the non-specialized training room. It was smaller than the facilities dedicated to Controllers, less advanced too, but that was exactly why I had chosen it. No advanced monitoring, no real-time analysis, no exploitable records. Just an empty, neutral space, usable by any type of Imperium.
And most importantly, no one.
The door closed behind me with a dull, muffled sound. Silence fell instantly. A different kind of silence from the Mentalist rooms. Over there, the calm was dense, almost oppressive, filled with invisible calculations and thoughts. Here, it was more raw. More physical.
I stood still for a few seconds at the center of the room, observing the space around me. Reinforced floor, composite walls, a few modular structures embedded into the surfaces. Nothing impressive, but enough.
My body was still tired.
Not just physically.
Mentally too.
The NeuroScan had left its mark. A dull heaviness behind my eyes, like my brain hadn't fully returned to its normal rhythm yet. My thoughts were slightly slower, less sharp.
And yet…
I came back.
Why?
The answer was obvious.
Because I couldn't stand that feeling.
The feeling of being limited.
Of knowing I could do more… and not doing it.
I exhaled slowly and took a few steps forward. A small metal plate rested on the ground, probably used for basic manipulation exercises. I stared at it for a moment.
Simple.
Safe.
I raised my hand slightly.
Nothing happened for a fraction of a second.
Then the plate vibrated.
Barely.
Almost imperceptibly.
I frowned.
That wasn't clean.
Not stable.
I tried again.
This time, I didn't focus on the object itself, but on the space around it. The vectors. The forces at play. The possible directions.
The plate lifted.
A few centimeters.
Unstable.
It trembled, wavered slightly, then dropped back down with a sharp sound.
I released the tension in my shoulders.
Still bad.
Not surprising.
I had barely trained this seriously.
I closed my eyes briefly.
Try again.
I adjusted my stance, grounding myself more firmly. This time, I didn't try to force anything. I tried to feel it. To understand how my brain interacted with space.
The plate vibrated again.
Then lifted.
Higher this time.
I held it there.
One second.
Two.
Three.
Then the trajectory shifted violently and the object slid sideways before crashing to the ground.
I clenched my jaw slightly.
Too unstable.
Not precise enough.
I already knew why.
My brain wasn't trained for this.
Controllers don't just move objects. They manipulate vectors, forces, complex physical interactions. It's not about raw will, but spatial understanding.
And me…
I was compensating.
Badly.
I tried again.
And again.
Attempts followed one after another, each slightly different from the last. Sometimes more stable, sometimes completely chaotic. The fatigue grew slowly, but I kept going.
Because this time, I didn't want to stop.
I didn't want to back down.
Not after today.
I changed my approach.
Instead of lifting the object, I tried to alter the pressure around it. Not a direct force, but a constraint applied in all directions.
A compression.
The plate reacted immediately.
Then slightly deformed.
I stopped instantly.
…Wait.
I stayed still for a second.
That was different.
I hadn't tried to move it.
I had altered the environment around it.
I slowly raised my head.
What if…
I tried again, more carefully this time.
I didn't target the object.
I targeted the space.
Around it.
A diffuse pressure.
Light.
The plate trembled.
Then the floor itself seemed to react slightly.
I felt something shift.
Not in the object.
In the room.
A resistance.
As if the air itself was becoming denser.
I narrowed my eyes.
That wasn't normal.
I wasn't supposed to feel this at my level.
I should stop.
The thought passed.
Ignored.
I continued.
I increased the intensity slightly.
The plate slammed violently against the floor.
A dull sound echoed through the room.
I flinched slightly.
My heart rate picked up.
Okay.
That was definitely not normal.
I slowed my breathing.
Calm.
Control.
I tried to reduce the pressure.
But something didn't fully go down.
I frowned.
Why…
I tried again.
Lower.
The pressure decreased.
But not completely.
Part of it remained.
Diffuse.
Unstable.
Like it had… spread.
My gaze swept across the room.
The wall structures were vibrating slightly.
The metallic supports emitted faint creaking sounds.
A chill ran down my spine.
I wasn't controlling this properly anymore.
I tried to cut it.
Completely.
But my brain didn't respond cleanly.
The signals weren't clear anymore.
The NeuroScan fatigue was coming back.
Amplified.
My temples throbbed.
Bad.
Very bad.
I took a step back.
Mistake.
The pressure reacted.
Not me.
The room.
As if my movement had disrupted the balance.
An invisible shockwave passed through the space.
Objects on the ground vibrated violently.
Some lifted slightly before slamming back down.
My breath caught for a moment.
What the…
I tried to regain control.
But it was too late.
The pressure increased.
Not locally.
Everywhere.
Uniform.
Like gravity crushing from all directions at once.
I felt my own body react.
My muscles tensed involuntarily under the strain.
My knees bent slightly.
Breathing became harder.
The air felt heavier.
So did my thoughts.
I had never felt this before.
Never.
And most importantly…
I didn't know how to stop it.
I closed my eyes for a second.
Focus.
Analyze.
No.
Too slow.
No time.
I switched approach.
Stop thinking.
Act.
I tried to break the overall structure of the pressure.
Not reduce it.
Shatter it.
But the moment I interfered, everything shifted.
The pressure spiked violently.
Like a response.
A reaction.
The walls creaked.
A deep metallic sound echoed through the room.
I felt my body pushed harder toward the ground.
My vision blurred slightly.
Shit…
I clenched my teeth.
I had to stop this.
Now.
I tried to focus the flow.
To regain control over a specific zone.
But my brain was saturating.
Signals overlapped.
Mentalist.
Controller.
Both interfering.
I couldn't distinguish the processes anymore.
My temples pounded violently.
My breathing turned irregular.
And around me…
The pressure kept rising.
I wasn't controlling it anymore.
I was enduring it.
A dull impact suddenly echoed through the wall on my right.
Then another.
Farther away.
I turned my head slightly.
Bad idea.
The movement destabilized everything further.
An invisible wave spread through the room.
And beyond.
I felt it.
Even without seeing.
Even without analyzing.
It wasn't contained anymore.
It was spreading.
To the neighboring rooms.
I opened my eyes again.
Shit.
Someone was going to notice.
Of course they would.
There was no way this would go unnoticed.
I tried one last time to shut everything down.
Brutally.
No finesse.
No control.
Just stop.
Everything.
For a fraction of a second, everything froze.
Then the pressure collapsed.
All at once.
Like something had snapped.
The air returned to normal.
Objects dropped.
My body gave out.
I fell to my knees, breathing heavily.
My vision still trembled slightly.
My hands were clenched without me realizing it.
I stayed there.
Not moving.
For several seconds.
Maybe more.
I had no sense of time anymore.
My heart was beating too fast.
My head hurt.
And more than anything…
I had just realized something.
This wasn't just a mistake.
This wasn't just lack of control.
It was something else.
Something far more dangerous.
I slowly raised my head.
If someone felt that…
Then I'm finished.