Under the fusion of psychic power and spatial energy, Slowking carefully handled that thin needle.
That same mental barrier which, no matter how many times Cain tried, was completely immovable...
Was pierced effortlessly by Slowking's fine needle.
And in that instant!
A millennia-old dam collapsed due to a tiny crack.
Just through that small hole, the barrier that contained Cain's psychic power began to completely fracture.
Large amounts of psychic energy began to spill uncontrollably.
That familiar and longed-for sensation returned to Cain's mind.
That psychic power he used to manipulate as easily as moving his own arms had returned.
Slowking and Kirlia immediately withdrew their powers.
Cain, frowning, shut his eyes tightly.
Slowking and Kirlia silently stepped back.
What remained to be done, Cain had to resolve on his own.
Inside his mind, an unchained whirlwind had erupted.
A frenzied psychic energy relentlessly crashed against the remains of the barrier.
Cain could only focus with all his might to control whatever he could.
What he hadn't expected was that his psychic power had grown to such a level without him realizing it.
He had to concentrate all his efforts to contain that out-of-control energy spreading in every direction.
It took him nearly an hour to fully stabilize all his psychic power within his mind.
"Haah... what the hell was that!?" he exhaled deeply, opening his eyes in surprise. A faint glow of psychic energy flickered around him.
He couldn't have imagined that, without realizing it, his psychic power had reached the Advanced level!
He was now an advanced-level psychic!
With the mediocre talent he always believed he had, he never expected to get this far.
Cain still remembered that, when he first awakened his psychic abilities, the system had told him he'd need over seventy years just to reach the beginner psychic level. And yet now, in such a short time, he had reached the advanced level!
Of course, the volume and strength of his current energy made it much harder to control.
If before Cain had 85% control over his psychic power, now that control had dropped to barely 50%.
Just enough to avoid losing control completely.
Even though technically he had only just crossed the threshold from intermediate to advanced psychic, the difference between both levels—in volume and quality of power—was immense.
If his psychic energy used to be one unit, now it was worth ten.
A tenfold difference.
No wonder an intermediate-level psychic stood almost no chance against an advanced one.
But it was precisely after this evolution that Cain understood, for the first time, the true distance separating him from Sabrina.
Even now, as an advanced-level psychic, he had no way to face her.
And in part, he understood why Sabrina was the way she was.
If a person, before achieving emotional maturity, were to gain godlike power—a power capable of rivaling Pokémon—then ordinary humans were nothing more than ants in their eyes.
If not held back, just by releasing a bit of that psychic power, she could wipe fragile humans off the map.
Her emotional instability was likely because her power far surpassed what her mind could handle.
Cain took a deep breath and composed himself.
He had finally regained his psychic ability!
Although he didn't yet wield it with full ease, he was no longer the helpless cripple he had been for days.
He fixed his gaze on a distant tree and extended his mental power. Like an invisible ribbon, he tied it to one of the tree's branches.
There was no sound, no movement, no trace. The branch simply detached from the tree and instantly appeared in Cain's hand, as if it had passed through a spatial gate.
He looked at the branch with a thoughtful expression.
His interest was fully piqued.
It seemed that the spatial energy he had absorbed earlier had been assimilated into his psychic power. Now, his energy carried spatial properties.
Cain thought this combination could be perfect for surprise attacks.
Although, for that, he would need to further improve his control.
Otherwise, he'd be discovered before getting close to the enemy.
But if his assumption was correct, maybe he could already begin using Teleport techniques.
He focused, fixing his gaze on a distant tent, and recalled how the psychic flow of Slowking felt when he used the move Teleport.
"Now's the time!" he said with conviction.
Suddenly, he found the point where space folded.
Surrounded by his energy, he vanished from the spot.
Slowking and Kirlia felt the spatial fluctuation of the Teleport move and looked toward where Cain had been.
They saw he had vanished.
But when Cain reappeared...
He was still exactly in the same place.
"As I thought, it's not that easy," he said, noticing that he hadn't managed to move to where he intended, but had simply returned to the starting point.
But that didn't discourage him. He supposed the failure was due to the limited control he still had over his power. The moment he found the spatial fold, his energy fluctuated, causing the Teleport to fail.
If he could improve his psychic control, then teleportation would be possible.
At that moment, Cain felt something strange.
As if he were no longer an ordinary human.
As if he were part of that special group that inhabited this world.
Now that he had regained his power, he was no longer a cripple.
He could solve many things on his own and also take the opportunity to continue training control of his ability.
In front of him, a long row of psychic pressure spheres floated in the air. He manipulated them at will, changing their shapes.
Even as their number increased, Cain felt no mental strain.
"It seems that now that I'm an advanced-level psychic, these spheres no longer serve for training," he thought as he observed them.
"Honchkrow!" he called to the sky.
Upon hearing him, a sleek Pokémon with completely black plumage descended and positioned itself before him.
"Increase the dark-type energy in these spheres a little."
This was his new strategy: to strengthen the spheres so the mental pressure would increase, making training effective again.
And among all of Cain's Pokémon, the one who best mastered dark-type energy was undoubtedly Honchkrow.
When it finished modifying the spheres, Cain immediately felt the difference: his control over them became more difficult.
He thanked Honchkrow and began a new round of training.
This time, more motivated than ever. If he managed to recover the same level of control he had as an intermediate-level psychic, he'd be ready to use Teleport.
And with that, even without his Pokémon nearby, he would have a way to protect himself in dangerous situations.
Thus, Cain and his Pokémon resumed their respective trainings.
(End of chapter)