Volume I - Episode 123 Where: Cologne, Germany When: 1 month and 4 days after E-Day, 2:03 pm Krystal closed her eyes. She could feel the presence of the gases swirling lazily inside the kiln a couple of metres away. The multi-coloured mass of slowly-moving vapour was now just as much a part of her body as any of her fingers or toes. It was hers alone to control. It was spellbound. She focused on the gases, merging them, moulding them, forcing them to compress into the centre of the kiln. If she had to describe the experience, she would say it was like reaching your hands into a bucket of water and trying to squeeze the water between your palms. An impossible task, made even more impossible by the fact that it was her brain doing the work in place of her hands. But it was working. Gradually, the gases inside the kiln were growing smaller, denser, more compact. The tip of the Bunsen burner sagged and melted. The rubber tube burst into flames. Buoyed by her success, Krystal pushed a little harder. The gases squeezed into a glowing hot ball around the size of a tennis ball. Flickers of energy burst out along it's surface, bouncing harmlessly off the solaxium-lined walls of the kiln. Without that insulation, the kiln would have been incinerated. Krystal pushed harder. The white-hot ball of gas grew slightly smaller. It spat out a few more of the blinding yellow flares. The mirror on the bedroom wall began to ripple under the intense heat. Klaudia took a few steps back and shielded her eyes against the light. Krystal pushed harder. The headache sprang on her instantly. She winced against the pain, but kept her focus. This was harder than she had ever concentrated in her life. Her entire world became that small, golf ball-sized sphere of light. She pushed harder. After a brief, final moment of resistance, like a rubber band stretched to its limit in the millisecond before it breaks, the ball of light shrunk to the size of a pea. And burst into flame. No, not just flame. It was a 3000-degree point of blazing white light. A miniature nuclear reaction. A miniature star. A miniferno.