[Natural Glass Golem Tier 1]
Lucifer's mind ground to a halt. She knew what those words implied. While she herself was, by the definition of her old world, a supernatural being, she had never thought that those tropes could be true.
Almost no magic had worked on earth, the only exceptions being rituals or demonic summonings. Her Father had made sure that none of it worked. She did not ask back then why he was so scared of magic, but in hindsight it was probably to prevent the humans from doing the very thing she had done to him.
Just to be sure, Lucifer closed every single pair of eyes and took a deep breath. Then she opened the single eye that had shown, what she was very sure was a system notification, and looked back to marble.
[Natural Glass Golem Tier 1]
“Fuuuuuuuuuuck” Lucifer groaned.
Opening her eyes again, she thought of the implications of such a thing.
“Marble, since you are apparently sentient, can you please forget everything I've ever told you? Or the fact that I put you in my mouth? Or the years I spent using you as a therapist?”
Shame was welling up from deep within Lucifer's soul. She had thought that marble was a piece of inert space rock, and not that she had gone crazy during the eternity spent in the void. Never in her wildest dreams had she thought that the little glass ball she had made on a whim would come into sentience.
A sound from behind her broke Lucifer out of her shameful recollection. The Dragon was stirring.
Lucifer trained the eye that showed system notifications on the dragon.
“I need a better name for that.”
[Ancient Crimson Dragon Tier 8]
“Hmmmm, I think system-eye works for now. Also I have no clue what that means. I get the gist of it, but I guess I have to ask the Dragon when it wakes up.”
With the Dragon coming back to consciousness, Lucifer reverted back to her Humanoid form, so that it wouldn't black out as soon as it opened its eyes.
Just before all of her wings folded themselves back into her body, Lucifer modified her wings so that the system-eye was at the tip of her right wing. Just in case.
Lucifer spent a good few minutes just standing around ogling the cave, which wasn't very interesting now that it was cold, waiting for the dragon to wake up. Sometimes its tail or a leg would twitch.
Seeing as she had a bit more time, Lucifer decided to try something. She flexed her right wing as far out as it would go, then turned the tip of her wing inwards. After another deep breath, Lucifer opened the system eye on herself.
Instantly a torrent of energy crashed into her body, entering wherever it could. Through eyes, ears, her mouth or her nose. Even through the tiny pores in her skin.
Lucifer recognized the feeling of the energy forcing itself into her body. While in space, the star she had approached released something that Lucifer had identified as radiation. She had then removed the parts of her body that were affected by this “radiation”. This was the same energy as back then.
Taking an entirely uneducated guess, Lucifer decided to allow the energy into her body, and not resist as she had before.
The moment she stopped her unconscious resistance, the pressure with which the energy rushed into her being increased. The moment it entered her body through her mouth or the pores on her skin, it began to infuse her cells.
While she could change her body at will, and could focus her perception to an incredible degree, she wasn't able to observe individual cells. Taking another uneducated guess, Lucifer decided to call the energy “Mana”.
As the mana broke the barrier of her skin, it flooded into her, feeling as if it was liquid. It flowed through her muscles, tendons and organs. It concentrated at the metaphysical channels she normally used for heat, and slowly but surely built a secondary circulatory system. From those channels it branched into her bloodstream and Lucifer could feel the way it rushed through her body.
Her bones were seemingly spared, but the marrow inside was not. An incredible itching sensation spread throughout her body, as the insides of her bones began to itch.
The same thing was happening to an even greater degree to her true form. While her true form was usually hidden “inside” her humanoid form, the mana had no trouble breaching the folded space and entering her true body as it did her mortal one.
The itching rose to unbearable degrees as Lucifer convulsed on the floor. While not directly painful, having an unreachable itch spread through thousands of limbs at once was maddening.
As a writhing and screaming mess on the floor, Lucifer felt something be completed. It wasn't a concrete feeling, just some vague idea. The unbearable itching stayed, but from the single eye at the tip of her wing, Lucifer could see something new.
Name: Samael
Tier: 1
Race: True blood celestial
Racial skills:
Mortal guise
Endless growth
Soul manipulation
Promethean
Class 1:
Class skills:
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
Class 2:
Class skills:
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
General skills:
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
Then her mind went white as searing hot static forced its way into her soul.
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aindaeth the inferno, Terror of the Burning Mountains, woke from an unpleasant dream. She had been feasting on hundreds of those detestable Phoenixes, gorging herself until she couldn't eat anymore. Only for her Kobold tribe to bring her more and more phoenix feathers. They were a weird black color. Her kobolds kept bringing more and more feathers, without any meat, even after she told them to stop. Until finally the feathers opened their eyes and she woke up.
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As Aindaeth came back to consciousness, she noticed her mouth being full of feathers. Remembering her dream (Just a dream, Dragons don't have nightmares) she frantically spat to clear her mouth and opened her eyes.
Where she had expected to find her usual magma filled cavern, all she saw was black volcanic rock, and a mass of feathers. Right in front of her head there was a veritable hill of matte black feathers, some with closed eyelids on them, causing her to shudder.
Then she remembered the weird angel one of her kobolds had dragged in. She was just about to call for them to attend her, when she heard a pained groan coming from beneath the mountain of feathers.
Her curiosity peaked, Aindaeth took a deep breath and this time without fire magic, exhaled to clear the feathers.
As her breath cleared the ground in front of her, she beheld a grotesque sight. The Angel was lying on the ground in a twitching and drooling mess. Occasionally a pair of wings would burst out of her body, sometimes from her shoulders, other times from her back and sometimes even from within her mouth. The Wings would extend until they were at least three meters long and then slowly shed their feathers, until all that remained were naked wing tips, akin to a plucked chicken. Then these bare wings would grow feathers at a very rapid pace, only to sink back into her body to be replaced by another pair.
Aindaeth watched for a moment, salivating at the thought of a giant chicken, only to notice the flow of mana entering the drooling angel. With a slight effort of will, Aindaeth cast out her mana sense as far as it would go. Immediately she found something she thought impossible.
“It's as if she just hatched! That can't be possible” Aindaeth mumbled to herself, softly as if the twitching angel was one of her brood.
In a huge radius around the Angel, fire aspected mana was being absorbed, in quantities that seemed impossible. For an area more than 20 square kilometers, fire mana was almost nonexistent, and still more was being absorbed from even farther away.
Not only was the burning mountain range an area extremely dense in mana, it was also almost exclusively fire aspected mana.
Never had Aindaeth observed an awakening to need this much fuel. Even the strongest of dragon hatchlings only affected an area of a few hundred meters when they managed to interact with the system for the first time.
Even when a new deity ascended, it affected, at most, an area of a kilometer. If the Angel was ascending to divinity, she would be incredibly strong, but if she was just awakening, Aindaeth had no idea what might happen.
“She must be the cause of the ripple that I felt a while ago.” Aindaeth murmured to herself, barely noticing that in her mind the angel went from an “it” to a “she”.
Then a thought came to her. Maybe she would be finally free of this cursed mountain, if she helped the angel. All of the angels she had met were incredibly serious folk. Debts were to be repaid and rules were to be followed. Aindaeth knew that she couldn't generalize a group in such a manner, but the last time she had met an angel that wasn’t hostile to her, it had told her that any aid given in a time of need, was to be repaid a hundredfold.
Slowly, as to not overwhelm the awakening angel, she released loose fire mana into the air. As a being of the eighth tier, her core was incredibly dense and her stores of mana were seemingly without limit. With the kobolds she had left a bit of her draconic influence on the fire mana, as they hoped to evolve into dragons at their later tiers. Now she let only pure fire mana seep out of her body.
As the Angel absorbed the freely giving blessing, she could feel the bond forming. Even if it was one sided, it may just be her ticket out of this accursed mountain.
—-----------------------------------------------
Lucifer slowly came back from herself. The moment the mana had touched her soul, her mind was overwhelmed with both white hot pain, and incredible amounts of information. She had never intended for the mana to touch her soul, but she had been too late to stop it.
Opening her eyes, the usual ones on her face, she stared at a black ceiling. Below her back she felt the cold volcanic rock she was laying on.
Somewhere in her mind she felt something try to grab her attention. It was in some indistinct place between her physical brain an her soul, but she couldn't find the spot where it originated.
The moment she switched her attention to the actual feeling, something unfolded in the depths of her mind. It felt like a piece of folded paper was being opened inside her soul, and the writing on said piece of paper appeared as if it was one of her own thoughts.
Name: Samael
Tier: 0
Race: True blood celestial
Racial skills:
Mortal guise
Endless growth
Soul manipulation
Promethean
Class 1:
Class skills:
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
Class 2:
Class skills:
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
General skills:
Dragon Bonded
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
Classes available: 12.047
“Oh fuuuck me.” Lucifer groaned.
“Is something the matter?” a deep and rumbling voice spoke from next to her. Now that she had a moment, Lucifer noticed the distinct feminine undertone, despite the bassy rumbling.
Lucifer looked up, groaning through her headache to see the giant head of the dragon directly next to her, it's massive eye narrowing as she looked directly Into it.
"Damn you are a pretty lizard" Lucifer blurted out, her mouth faster than her brain.
Aindaeth took a moment to mull over her words, and seeing that it was a seemingly well meaning compliment, answered.
"Thank you, I think?" The massive dragon answered tentatively.
"You also have very beautiful feathers"
Lucifer blushed a bit, it had been a while since anyone, with the exception of Marble, had seen her wings.
"Although they do not taste very good" Aindaeth added. She thought that assuring the angel that she did not taste good would assure her, but by the facial expressions of the angel, her compliment had not worked as intended.
Lucifer took a moment to feel her wings feeling nothing amiss.
"How did you come to that conclusion anyway?" She asked
With a deep rumble that sounded suspiciously like a chuckle, the dragon answered.
"I woke from a dream to your feathers everywhere, during your awakening you started to molt, although at a rate I have never seen. Some of them ended up inside my mouth, through no fault of my own."
"That's what I would say if I had a thing for eating feathers" Lucifer quipped.
As the dragon's eye narrowed into a tiny slit, Lucifer hastily added.
"Just a joke"
Heaving her body into a sitting position, Lucifer saw the staggering mass of feathers littering the cavern. Yet before she could ask anymore questions Aindaeth spoke up again.
"I know you must be confused, as you seemed I'll prepared for your awakening, but you need to choose your paths. The longer you wait after your awakening the more painful it is going to be."
Still barely functioning after such an unpleasant experience, it took a moment for Lucifer to understand what the dragon meant.
"You mean classes?"
Seemingly annoyed the dragon answered
"Yes "classes" as the humanoids call them. The longer lived call them paths. Now you need to choose, as the longer you take the worse it's going to be. Your body is incredibly malleable after your awakening, and every moment you waste is going to make the pain worse."
Lucifer took a moment to focus back on the feeling of her status sheet, and finding the underlined classes tab. Seeing the "Classes available: 12.047" change to "paths" she decided to ask something.
"Okay I'm having issues, how do I choose a path? Because I have a lot of options."
Earlier when the mana had touched her soul, she had the basic descriptions and names forced into her head.
"It can't be that many, if it's to many you are just going to have to live with the discomfort when you choose." The dragon answered.
Sheepishly Lucifer told her "I have twelve thousand options"
Aindaeth froze. "I'm sorry, how many? I thought I heard twelve thousand."
"Yes, I have exactly 12.047 options, and unless you have some tips, it's going to take a while"
"That's a ludicrous number! How old are you, to have experienced so many things?"
"Well I stopped counting individual years after my first million, and I stopped counting millions after my first billion, but I know that it's at least 3 billion years since I've been created."
Hearing an even more outrageous number, Aindaeth decided to push the questions that arose to the back of her mind.
" There is a way for choosing after your first tier. Seeing as you earlier spoke of "checking" a dragon's soul, you have the ability to see your own soul, am I right?"
Seeing Lucifer's nod, the dragon continued.
"Then I need you to meditate on your soul. The closer to your actual soul the nodes are, the better suited for you the offered path is. I can see the questions on your face, but it's a matter of visualization and thus different for everyone. Start meditating and the rest will be intuitive."
Since Lucifer had had enough discomfort for one day, and she didn't need to add more, she decided to just follow the dragon's advice.
After a bit of shuffling, Lucifer sat in a lotus position with her wings flared out behind her. Having lived a lot of time among mortals, she had adopted a lot of mannerisms and the lotus position was one of them. The time she spent among the Buddhists was some of the most peaceful during her entire existence.
With practiced ease she sank into a meditative trance. Enjoying the silence for a moment, Lucifer decided to hurry up. Her ability to see the souls of others made her own visualization easy. The moment she had the multicolored sphere encasing a white candle flame in her mind, she understood what Aindaeth meant with "intuitive".
Like thousands of tiny asteroids orbiting a planet, her soul was surrounded with tiny pinpricks of light. Some were further away than others, with some grouped together or other lonely ones. Focusing on one of the further spots showed the basic information of said "path"
Swordsman: a physical warrior focused on bladed weapons
The spot that was furthest from her soul showed the path of "Cook" which explained why it was so far away. Over thousands of years Lucifer had tried to cook multiple times, but her instinctive use of fire burnt most of the meals she tried to prepare. She had gotten better with practice, but she occasionally still reduced things to ash when she tried.
Deciding to disregard most of the nodes furthest from her soul, she focused instead on those that were closest.
Some things immediately stood out, most following a theme. Paths such as
Magma sorcerer
Inferno mage
Light mage
Laser mage
Swordsman
Blade dancer
Samurai
Most of the offered paths had something to do with either heat or swords, which Lucifer decided was pretty accurate. There were not many things she was truly good at, but burning things and cutting them in two were exceptions.
Focussing on some of the closer nodes she continues to read.
Fire enhancer:
Use the power of flames to enhance your physical might
Flameblood sorcerer:
Liquid fire runs through your veins. Use the power of your will to burn the world to ash.
Firebender:
Through meditation and comprehension of the natural laws, bend fire to your will through the medium of your body.
All very interesting, but nothing that piqued her interest. Only when she got to the dots closest to her soul did she feel something truly resonate with her.
Acolyte of the first Flame:
You have been born in the fires of creation. Fire comes as naturally to you as breathing. Walk the path of unending fire and burn the stars to ash
The moment she read the description, Lucifer knew that this was to be her path. Fire had been with her from the beginning. It had both been a tool her father had used through her, and in the end it had been her liberation.
The moment she mentally agreed, the tiny node rushed into her soul and entered the candle flame.
Now with one half of her path chosen, she could feel that time was running out. It was indistinct, but she could feel the framework of both her body and soul grow more rigid, urging her to complete her choice.
She was just about to choose the closest sword based paths, namely the samurai one, when she noticed another node.
This one was on the direct opposite side of her soul, far removed from all the other node groupings. But it was only a tiny bit further away than the path of the first flame had been.
As soon as her attention shifted towards it, its description popped up.
Autokinetic:
The base form of kinetic energy is a powerful one. Manipulate the base form of this energy in your body. Absorb incoming energy, and release it from inside you.
While swords were one of her special interest, she remembered the hundreds of years spent meditating in the void, trying to feel and manipulate kinetic energy. The feeling of stopping asteroids in their tracks and using their energy to boost herself had been exhilarating.
After a short moment of indecision, Lucifer decided on the autokinetic path.
"Nothing says I can't still use swords" she reasoned to herself.
Again, the moment she made the decision, it became reality as the tiny node joined the first one inside the flames of her soul.
A soothing feeling spread through her body and soul as Lucifer came back to the real world.
Aindaeth, seeing that Lucifer was still conscious, spoke.
"Unusual. I had expected you to be twitching and crying right now. But by your smile I can see that everything went well."
Just as Lucifer was about to answer, she felt the metaphysical channels inside her body contract, stretch and then shatter.
Aindaeth watched as the angel burst into flames with an incredible shockwave displacing the air, that moved even her incredibly heavy body.
"Ahhh, there it is."