The shadows vanished, leaving him behind in a presence he couldn’t comprehend.
[Hello Leven] he felt, reverberating through his soul. Each word held the entire meaning, every possible concept. He did not hear a greeting nor his name, but the concept of every possible greeting followed by the entirety of his life, from start to finish, in less than a moment.
He thought it would be painful, but instead the meanings simply slid off of his soul. He heard what his mind could comprehend, and everything outside of that was held in the periphery of his consciousness.
Looking down, he watched as his body suddenly snapped into existence, when it clearly had not existed a moment prior
“Where am I? Who are you?” he asked. Thousands of questions plagued his mind, but those were the only two that surfaced from the deluge of panic, grief, and regret in his mind.
[You are in the void, in between one life and the next. Normally, the void creatures would have cleansed your soul by picking apart who you are and devouring it to satiate themselves, but you managed to cast a spell to fend them off, just barely long enough to enter my domain.]
[As for who I am, I am a SYSTEM]
The voice continued talking in its absolute way, each word allowing itself to be captured in concepts and interpreted by his soul, but the word [SYSTEM] was different, and forced itself into his mind.
Grunting in pain, he understood that a System was an entity that governed the magic in a sector of the multiverse. There were imbalances between magic in different dimensions, so Systems were created to regulate them, normalizing pressure between areas.
Without Systems, areas with too high magic were lethal to every life form, and areas with too low magic could never ascend past their stations, forever locked to their little planets in an infinite silence, never able to contact others outside of their scope.
Systems existed outside of the scope of Gods, not being limited by them, but usually working with them. Only subservient to beings who have ascended past even Godhood.
Each System had its own designated sector to maintain, and each one did so differently according to their own preferences. This particular System had a preference for giving an interface to mortals, with which they could better interact with the magic of themselves and the world around them.
“Ugh, okay, I got it.” and he did, even the part with Magic. He didn't particularly care that magic was real either, other thoughts clouded his mind right now. “What do you want? It's clear that I would’ve been… cleansed without you helping me, and based on what I’m feeling about Systems, you aren't forces of good, just forces of neutrality.” He felt worn out, more tired than he had ever been. If he had a body, he would probably pass out, but in this soul-state he was experiencing, sleep didn't really exist. Thinking about what happened right before he died, he felt something stir within him, but it felt like even his anger was heaving for breath.
[I do not want, Systems do not desire] it said, but something felt… off. Previously, it seemed like there was limitless meaning in each word, but these felt more shallow.
“Okay… why am I here”
He didn't get a response immediately, but felt a sort of building tension around him. He couldn't see a presence, only the inky blackness of the void, but he could feel emotions radiating off the area around him.
[You are not asking questions in the right order.] He was told, but felt flabbergasted. He didn’t know what this thing was talking about. This felt like when Emily was in a bad mood and wanted him to guess what she wanted. This thing is being moody, it can definitely feel desire, no matter what it says.
Something told him that it wasn’t just going to give him the right question to ask, so he had to break himself free from his foggy thoughts and question the things he knew so far. It was easy, because he knew very, very little about what was going on.
The thought process was simple: The System had just told him that every sector in the multiverse had its magic regulated by a different System, but in his previous life, there was no such thing. No magic, no System, nothing. The no magic part could mean that he was born in a world where magic did not naturally occur, and the System that was supposed to regulate it failed to do so.
“Where was the System in my previous ‘sector’? Why didn't it regulate the mana like it was supposed to?” he said in an accusatory manner, and rapidly felt anger rise from the area around him.
[It COULDN’T!] The System shouted, making his soul quiver in fear [THE SYSTEM OF YOUR Sector. Is dead] it said, grief staining the meaning of each word.
“I’m… sorry, I didn’t mean to imply anything about your… friend?”
They sat in silence for a few seconds, both collecting themselves until Leven spoke first “Do you want to talk about it? Is that why I'm here?”
Irritation filled the void around him [No, I did not call you here to talk about it] the system said, but felt the emotion transform into reluctant agreement [but you will need to understand the situation to understand the request I will soon issue.]
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[Firstly, you must understand that your sector is parallel to my own. The System X0-239214-RG993 was the previous regulator of this sector, and we frequently shared information, to our mutual benefit, that each of us discovered about our governed sectors, such as ways to more efficiently move mana, and the most promising ascension candidates within our domains.] to Leven, that second one sounded like small talk rather than beneficial information, but he wasn't going to point that out to the already emotional system
[However, 279 ages ago, a partially ascended God within the sector of X0-239214-RG993 found a way to siphon energy from it. It did so only slightly at first, against X0-239214-RG993's dire warnings, but it was not lethal. Imbalances were created within system X0-239214-RG993’s sector, but it was easily fixable. Over time, this God became impatient to ascend, and decided to siphon more energy from X0-239214-RG993.]
[The sector began to degrade rapidly, and the Gods of X0-239214-RG993’s sector attempted to kill the partially ascended God to prevent the decay.] Leven felt such absolute encompassing grief in the Systems words, he could only remember all the worst moments of his life as it spoke, and he wanted to collapse in on himself, but could not. The System, oblivious to his plight, continued.
[I attempted to donate energy in order to slow the decay, in order to buy time for the other Gods to kill the half-ascended, but X0-239214-RG993 said that its prediction algorithms showed that the other Gods would fail, and that it did not desire for my sector to go dark as well.]
[Instead, it enacted self destruct protocols to annihilate the half-ascended, and opened its security protocols to me, requesting that I take its sector after its demise, as a system domain cannot expand unless given direct permission from the regulator of the sector or, in extremely rare circumstances, an ascended administrator.]
[I… immediately abused the opening in security. I did not wait for its demise, instead draining all energy and canceling the self-destruct protocol, while also storing its identity in a reserved database within the parameters of my own system.]
[This instant draining of system energy led to catastrophic failure of all dispersion protocols, causing apocalyptic consequences in the sector, as all mana reverted back to its natural locations instantly, rather than gradually.]
[Using the energy I siphoned, I set up a permanent database to store X0-239214-RG993 in a dormant state, in the unlikely event that a potential Administrator Candidate was created within X0-239214-RG993’s sector.]
[The half-ascended survived and attempted to seek out the source of the immediate system death. If he had succeeded, I would have become the next target for draining. This is why X0-239214-RG993 did not express this as a feasible option, as it would result in the death of two systems, rather than one.]
[Despite the lack of access to system energy, the half-ascended eventually succeeded in ascending, and has not returned to X0-239214-RG993’s sector since.]
Leven took a moment to process the story, but it wasn't the most complicated to understand. A God tried to consume his System, it decided to kill itself and take them both down, this System betrayed his Systems trust and prevented it from doing so, instead putting it in a stasis while he searched for an ‘Administrator Candidate.’
This System put itself on the line, on the off chance to save the System of Levens sector. What he didn’t understand, though, was what the plan was after that.
“What is an Administrator Candidate? And how would it help this ‘X Zero something something’”
[Administrator Candidates are Ascended who do not sever ties to their system of origin. If these Candidates Ascend, then a portion of their energy is permanently siphoned off to stabilize Systems in the multiverse and, more relevantly, provide an unfathomable quantity of System Energy to the system of their origin.]
[If a being within X0-239214-RG993’s sector ascended, it would successfully provide enough System Energy in a singular moment to allow for X0-239214-RG993 to reinstate itself back into its domain. Until that point, I must siphon a portion of my own energy off into maintaining X0-239214-RG993’s dormant identity.]
[Maintaining two system identities on a singular System of energy is an unsustainable state, and in approximately 392 ages, both my own identity, as well as X0-239214-RG993’s identity will become energy starved, corrupt, and perish. Of course, most lives within the sector would have perished around 42 ages before.]
[As such, a being from within X0-239214-RG993’s previous system must ascend within the next 392 ages] Leven was starting to get a better picture, not just at what was being asked of him, but also a clear idea of this system too. Abandoning the X0 System wasn't even in consideration as an option, this system wasn’t trying to save its friend.
This System was in love.
“And I’m guessing that because I’m from X Zero’s sector, I fit the bill? If so, then what makes me any more likely to ascend than a being from a higher magic level universe. Even if there are high and low magic universes, I'm sure there are also some perfectly balanced magic level universes in the sector I'm from.”
[You are correct in that you are still connected to X0-239214-RG993, and you are different from others within your sector in that you are about to be reincarnated, with memories and connection to X0-239214-RG993 in-tact, into a universe governed by an active System. Systems make ascension significantly easier, as Ascended energy and System energy are one in the same. To be bathed in it for all of your existence gives an entity a familiarity with it when attempting to Ascend.]
[Even still, you only have a negligibly larger chance to Ascend as any other being born within my sector]
[Despite that, I will not correct the Errors that will arise from the birth of a non-cleansed soul, as it improves the chances within my prediction algorithms that an Ascension Candidate connected to X0-239214-RG993 will appear.]
The Leven understood the full situation now, and he really did feel bad for this thing. It was clearly in love but was forced to watch as the one it loved wasted away while it could do nothing. That definitely explained why it stated the X0 system was dead, despite the fact that it was only in stasis. After so many ‘ages’ as this thing called them, it was probably becoming more and more hopeless.
“Alright, I’ve got hundreds of questions, but I’m not feeling like asking any of them. What’s next?”
[Next, we discuss your INTERFACE] the system said, again forcing understanding into his mind
Suddenly, a slightly transparent window appeared before him
Name: N/A
Race: Human (Wandering Soul)
Class: N/A
Profession: N/A
HP: N/A
MP: N/A
SP: N/A
Stats:
Physical: 0
Mental: 12
Spiritual: 10
Magical: 11
Affinities:
Kindness: Mid-Rare, 27%
Wrath: Low-Uncommon: 73%
Soul: Low-Common: 0%
Inner Skills:
Kindness: Pandora’s Box (Contained) (254) (25/25400), Call for Help (47)
Wrath: Pandora’s Box (Unleashed) (11), Growing Pains (83)
Outer Skills:
None