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21

"Well, that wasn't very encouraging," Colson muttered.

"So, what is going to happen?" Zoe asked.

Ivy leaned toward Zoe and whispered, "What does despoil mean?"

"In this context, something awful," she whispered back.

Idris turned to Jashin, "Go ahead."

"Wait, hold on," Zoe started, a confused look on her face.

"It would be easier to show you first," Jashin said. He rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, taking a deep breath. "I'm going to send energy with a murderous intent your way. It will have a bad effect on you since you don't have any defenses against it. I won't send enough to do any real mental or physical harm." He squatted down, his arms bent at a thirty-degree angle with his fists balled. He was in the martial arts stance that he learned from his grandpa years ago.

"You know, the way he's squatting, it looks like he's about to use the bathroom," Ivy pondered.

The whole situation looked utterly ridiculous to Colson. He let out a small laugh as he watched Jashin's stance get lower and lower.

A dark orange aura slowly surrounded his frame. He looked at each of them, no, more like staring through each kid—as if they weren't even there.

All three felt like a wave of freezing water washed over them. Colson's small chuckle seemed to go on for a little too long to be natural. Zoe's eyes felt strained as she looked on at Jashin. She couldn't take her eyes off him; as much as she wanted to turn away, she couldn't. 'This feeling. What is it? Should I go for a weapon?' Her hands shook so badly that she would have dropped anything she picked up.

A bead of sweat dripped down Ivy's forehead as she stared on, teeth gritted and eyes wide.

As Zoe looked on, a realization spread throughout her body like a miasma. 'He's going to kill us!' Finding her footing, she noticed she had slowly backed away. It was as if the world had gone black. The only light emanated from the malice that surrounded Jashin.

Just as quickly as the feeling appeared, it was gone.

"Wha-What was that?" Zoe breathed, her back against a nearby tree.

"Energy," Jashin said. "Some may call it your 'shimmer,' but it's effectively the same thing." He sat down, taking a deep breath, "Been too long since I've needed to do that," he grumbled.

Zoe looked to Ivy and Colson. Ivy stood in the same place; all of her hair stood on end. Colson was hunched over, trying to catch his breath, feeling like he was about to puke.

"So...What actually is it?"

Idris thought for a second, "Well, the easy answer is that it's your soul. A more complex answer is that it is life energy that responds to your will and desires. What you felt right there was the unprotected intent that he was putting on you. To put emotion into your energy and project it onto someone takes a lot of skill; most don't even know it's possible if I had to guess. That's probably why the werewolf didn't melt your brains earlier. He didn't have enough control of his bloodlust."

Colson had a worried look on his face, "Melt our brains?"

"That's part of the permanent damage aspect. If Jashin actually had murderous intent towards you and actually tried to use it against you, you all would be on the ground drooling like a bunch of retards."

Colson looked over to Ivy, who hadn't moved; she still stood there staring forward, "I think you fried the girl," Colson said, nodding in her direction.

"Uh, no, she'll be fine," Idris said, sounding like he was trying to convince himself more than anything.

Zoe walked up to Ivy, "Hey, Ivy, you okay?"