Ch 43 - To Control the People

Clapping his hands, Vergil stands in front of his whole class and looks at each and every one of his students, and his gaze lasts a bit longer towards Freidrich Braun who looks at the board behind him with absentminded eyes, two sets of pen floats discretely below his table locked in a serious sword fight as if it was wielded by two invisible humans the size of cats.

Shaking his head in his mind, he lets Braun do as he pleases considering he now has potentially grown from Level 0 to finally somewhere around Level 2 in his estimates, perhaps his bullying would now stop now that he grew a spine, but that spine might be bigger than he initially thought, due to how esper abilities work, the higher the level you have, the smarter you become (except for a certain few), and that gleam behind his absentminded eyes really caught Vergil's attention.

"Okay class, now that I have everybody's attention, it's finally the time most you have been waiting for! Our weekly sparring session!" Vergil said while a grin on his face, chuckling at how everyone here was a bit of a battle maniac in their own right, just by hearing his words, everyone in class's eyes light up, even the ironically cold Amber Phoenix.

"Well everyone already knows what to do, put on your sports uniform, then meet me at the training facility before 8:15, those who are late are going to be penalized by a few points on today's score," Vergil said and with a flicker, his body disappears from their view while everyone hurriedly stands up to go the locker room and change their clothes.

Quietly standing up, Braun looks at his classmates with analyzing eyes that went unnoticed, their mannerisms, their subconscious habits, their general thoughts, it was like a naked lady presenting her beautiful body to him in open view and he happily devours all of that intel given to him for free.

Silently walking down the hallway, he reaches the locker room with it divided into 2, one for the boys and one for the girls, entering the boy's locker room, he finds everyone else already inside their own little dressing tube that works using nanite technology to form the sports uniform around their body within seconds.

Entering his own metallic tube, he watches as a ray of blue light shoots down above him covering his body in an electromagnetic field, and from the ground up, he watches a skin-tight black suit envelop his whole body starting from the tip of his toes, onto his thighs, then torso, arms, and finally up to his neck while an invisible barrier covers his face.

Walking out, he stands in front of the mirror opposite from his changing tube and looks at his new outfit consisting of a skin-tight black suit filled with golden lines and symbols, acting as the barrier transmitters for the whole suit, both practical and cool showing the fashion might of Zenith Academy.

Glancing at Zach in the distance who was preparing to cause conflict against him, he simply starts to walk towards the locker room's entrance and exited the room, a simple solution to many conflicts, you just need to avoid them instead of confronting them head-on.

Walking through the hallway, he gets out of the building and onto the open field where a metallic dome resides in the distance named Training Facility where the students, teachers, and staff members of Zenith Academy could train themselves, but espers that are Level 5 could live in the dorm complex located right inside Zenith Academy where everything is free, and they could live a life of luxury, and of course, the 10 Kings also resides there.

'That part of the academy is like a different place altogether where the very best of Zenith Academy resides, the chance of conflict will rise through the roof due to their pride and arrogance, but that would be manageable with my charisma and mastery over the human psyche, just like a dumb animal, they're nothing but slightly dangerous beasts living in their safe kingdom.' Braun thought, his logical mind assessing multiple threats, risks, and dangers of this world and creating plans to act accordingly towards them.

Standing in front of the dome, the entrance automatically opens and he walks through it to see the drastically huge training facility of Zenith Academy that holds the state-of-the-art training equipment for them to use.

From combat droids to IVR Pods, multiple Ais that are as smart as the most brilliant of minds on Earth, and more that would make any espers who strives to reach the peak salivate.

Walking towards the place for Class 1-A along with his other classmates, he finds his teacher Vergil standing there while holding a white tablet in his hands standing right beside the circular arena in the middle of the place they are in with blue lights running along its edge that would produce a circular barrier around the people within it, both to protect the facility and the spectators watching the match.

After a few minutes of waiting, Vergil stands in the middle of the arena while the students are huddled around just outside the blue edge of the arena.

"Now that everyone is here, we'll proceed as usual. I'll spin the randomizer and whoever gets picked could either get a random opponent or pick their own sparring partner. And the winner could get challenged by anyone who wants to or be given a random sparring partner once more until they lose or win 3 times," Vergil said as everyone takes nervous gulps except for Zach who glares at Braun and Amber who remains stoic.

"All right, the first contestant would be!" Vergil said while clicking on his tablet and they watch the holographic screen in the middle of the room start to show a slew of names until it finally stopped on a certain one like a twist of fate.

"Zach Goldenbody, could you please come up on stage!" Vergil shouts as Zach wore a malicious grin upon entering the stage.

"Now, would you like to get a rand-"

"I would like to challenge Freidrich Braun in a spar," Zach said, cutting off his teacher who secretly rolls his eyes in his head.

"Is Freidrich Braun willing to spar against Zach Goldenbody?" Vergil asks Braun who simply nods his head.

"Well, may both contestants please get on stage?" Vergil said, watching Braun get on stage on the opposite side of the arena against Zach and activate the barrier around them, encapsulating the duo in a blue forcefield that couldn't be broken by both students.

Starting the timer, the sound of a loud beep erupts while everyone watches them with bated breaths.

Widening his grin, Zach's body was covered in a golden glow while his muscles became slightly bigger, and due to the skin-tight property of the suit they were wearing, his muscular body was clearly shown, and coupled with his handsome face, it would surely make any girl blush in response, unless they were part of Zenith Academy of course.

In response, Braun simply stands still while a slight grin was on his face that somehow causes Zach to be more furious than before as if he was a raging bull.

And with the final beep, Zach rushes straight towards Braun and appears in front of him in a blur, his right hand punching straight towards Braun's head while his already red eyes glow redder, his bloodlust clearly emanating from his body due to the golden glow around his body glowing a tinge of red.

In response, Braun simply turns his body to the right and barely doge Zach's fist, and using the momentum built by his spin, he thrusts his left hand forwards straight to Zach's neck and lifts straight into the air.

Continuing his spin, he spins his body further to the right and slams his left hand down to the ground causing the residual shock that went through the defense brought by their suits to seep into Zach's body which was further enhanced by his esper ability causing him to let out a slight grunt from his mouth.

Chuckling, Braun lifts him up with his left hand reinforced by his telekinetic abilities, and watches Zach struggle to grab his hand that was covered in a telekinetic barrier.

"You can't hope to defeat me, Zach, I'm not the weak loser from before, I'm a verifiable esper right now. And just like your older brother who remains the 10th King, this is the same reason you would lose to me with your powerful ability, you just simply can't touch me in the first place to do any meaningful damage and defeat me in this spar," Braun states, letting go of Zach's neck and watch him float into the air, letting out choked sounds from his mouth while grasping the invisible telekinetic hand grasping his throat.

"F-fuck you!" Zach said while croaking from his mouth, veins pop out from his forehead while his face goes red due to the blood pressure enveloping his blood vessels produce from his constricted neck.

Snorting, Braun raises his right arm and as if he was holding Zach through his right arm, he slams it down to the ground and watches Zach slam head first to the ground.

"Teacher, did I win in our friendly spar?" Braun said, turning his head around to look at Vergil with the same nonchalant eyes he wore since the start of the spar.

"You indeed won. But I must deduct some points from you due to the excess use of violence," Vergil said, a slight grin contorting on his mouth as he knew he let Braun do what he did, revenge is a dish best served cold is quite true, and in this case, Zach losing to Braun would bring him humility, and allow Braun to have a confidence boost, a win-win situation.

Manipulating the space around Zach's unconscious body, he suddenly appears right beside Vergil's feet covered in shiny black metallic shoes.

"Now, does anybody else want to spar against Freidrich Braun?" Vergil asks the class, and as he expected, he watches Zach's lacky Jasper Goosebumps raise their hands into the air.

'Jasper Goosebumps, a Level 3 Esper who could transform into an incorporeal gaseous state, produce, and also manipulate the same material his body turns into for offense and defense, a very powerful ability in the right hands with enough training, but unfortunately, it fell into the hands of an arrogant loser like him.' Braun thought in his mind, glancing at the lanky boy in the distance with ghostly white hair, pale white skin, ivory eyes, and a toothy grin on his face.

Nodding his head, Vergil teleports Jasper into the arena without saying a single word and starts the timer once more.

"You really became arrogant by finally gaining your esper powers, well I'll make you remember why you're a loser and will always be below us!" Jasper shouts while his long tongue spats out of his mouth, his body slowly turning into a gaseous state while his irises glow pale white that complements well with his new gaseous form consisting of ghastly white particles.

In response, Braun simply yawns and the moment the timer beeps for the last time, everyone watches Jasper suddenly shrink down into a small spherical ball the size of a football and float right in front of Braun who glances at the ball with a cold gaze.

"Oh really? Did you actually think I would lose to a retard like you? Oh please, even with you being Level 3, you can't even solve a simple high school math problem, you only got into this school because your family is rich and you are related with your older sister who is a Level 5 Esper, you're nothing but a disgrace to your family you piece of shit," Braun said while Jasper felt his body slowly shrinking down further.

"W-what are you doing!" Jasper shouts when he suddenly saw Braun open his mouth wide.

"What do you think I am going to do?" Braun said while Jasper's body became the size of an apple, and with a loud chump, everyone in class gagged when they saw Braun put Jasper's body into his mouth.

"GUWAH!" Braun shouts, puking out Jasper's body into the ground who hastily returned into human form covered in Braun's saliva, his eyes rolled to the back of his head from the traumatic experience he suddenly went to.

"HOLY FUCK! YOU TASTE LIKE ACTUAL SHIT!" Braun said while rubbing his tongue with his gloved arms, trying to get rid of the taste from Jasper's body.

"Eh herm, congratulations Freidrich Braun, now does anyone else want to fight Freidrich Braun for the last time?" Vergil asks while Jasper's unconscious body appears right on top of Zach's unconscious body, piling the both of them into a human stack.

"I like to do a spar against Freidrich Braun," a cold voice suddenly said in the distance, and as everyone turns their gaze to the back, they saw Amber Phoenix raising her hand to the air which made Braun look at her with an intrigued smile.

'All according to plan.' Braun thought with a cold, calculating voice within his mind, countless thoughts flowed from one to another in his mindscape that produced countless algorithms and equations at rapid succession to essentially allow him to mass control the psyche of everyone within the room to produce the desired solution, and the solution is Amber Phoenix fighting him while he already fought two other espers and is now technically exhausted, a sign he discretely made by the beads of sweat on his forehead and his neck being covered in a sheen of sweat.

'Now all I need to do is to slowly control the people, and in turn, control the world.' Braun thought as thousands of calculations formed in his restricted mortal mind.

AN: This is 2335 words, you're welcome.

Writing is hard, so send me some powerstones.

(June 8, 2022 – 196th day of writing)