Aurora could see the castle she thought would forever be her home from where she stood. The majestic buildings apex could be seen even above its towering fortified walls. The home of her parents enclosed by more powerful magics than could be found nearly throughout the entire kingdom as a whole.
May the gods curse my bloodline, and bring ruin to my family name. By the light of my soul I hope you all burn, cursed Aurora mentally as she tore her eyes away.
The beautiful kingdom of Imperial stretched in every direction around her. The place a futuristic metropolis of both science and magic, seemingly housed in medieval architectures.
Everything around her built from magically infused marble; glass made from mana, and metals farmed from a slave planet known as Earth to her people.
The kingdom of Imperial was a growing bowl, surrounded by oceans that would have long ago flooded the lands if it were not for the invisible domes that lined the circular continents scattered throughout the realm.
From where Aurora was, the oceans were so far away that the deep blue waters that stretched half way up the dome were indistinguishable from the blue edges of the skies above.
Aurora knew the terror that could be felt when standing at the edges of the continent, having had pressed her hands against the barrier that stopped the water from surging in all around them.
When visiting the damn nearest to her families manor while vacationing six season cycles ago for her birthday, she gained a perspective of scale in magnitude that showed her a fear that lived within all when faced with anything seemingly larger than life itself.
The dam had gushed crystalline waters, water falling into a basin below that lead into constructed rivers, spiraling through every section of the continent.
These same waters; splashed through bountiful garden terraces, flowed softly through the homes of the wealthy in spotlessly clean canals, and even burbled through beautiful fountains constructed to provide the only free resource for all those who lived in the kingdom.
Aurora once cherished the sight of the water made drinkable by runes from any source, feeling as if they’d been nothing more than places to play and spend time relaxing. Even though the dangerous element often took the lives of any and all who couldn’t swim. Countless citizens slipped into the ever moving channels; the water flowing from the kingdoms edge, over the step like sections that separated one area of each community into another, through the streets and open buildings held up by towering marble pillars, and all the way into the very hole she stood before.
Mother once told me that those of Earth bury their dead, as we just float our own dead down stream as bounty to keep back the hordes below as offerings made in the name of the maiden. Makes me wonder what sort of bliss those of earth must live in, not knowing what it is they live and die for.
She even remembered watching as a dead woman floated by as a child, her and her peers laughing at the fate of the woman who was serving as nothing more than fodder to feed the fathomless hunger of the monsters that lived below all life.
The very same water that flowed in a trench to her left, was made attractive to all sea life by being purified by mana and sunlight. It also lead to lakes so large that their beaches were considered unsafe to swim due to the oceanic creatures that migrated into their unseen bottoms, coming in through the dam openings that lined the kingdom.
The powerful creatures that made it past the coast guards of Imperial were often invisible, or only able to breach the entryways due to the large number of aquatic schools traveling together in packs, making the access of some inevitable. As the coast guards numbers were limited
The edges were far unlike the many islands her parents owned that could be found in areas dedicated to entertainment or fishing for resources. These areas had their perimeters guarded by Cultivators. Entire villages could be found there that had been made to house those that worked as fishermen, or fought against dangerous sea life.
She let tears run down her face at the memories spent on the coasts, staring upward, not wanting to face the reality of what was to come.
We are all nothing but slaves to the gods, stuffed like fish in an aquarium to feast upon one another, lost and forgotten by the true rulers we serve as they too sacrifice for the maiden who may have forgotten them… The words of her father echoed through her mind, tormenting her even more now than when she’d first heard them spoken as a child.
The once dazzling multi colored sunset now felt like that of a distorted portrait of horrors as she kept her eyes skyward. The kingdom below heaven that previously smiled upon her mind, body and soul with its multitude of suns, seemingly endless skyscrapers, and a glamour that came with a bustling economy, now bare its teeth at her, revealing its demonic visage before her very eyes for what it was.
Was this the world you wanted me to see father?
The truth of her once beloved homeland, was now stripped of all its former marvel and innocent qualities, leaving only darkness and a growing hatred for all its inhabitants, both high and low.
Everything was built by those without power, to serve those known to be favored by the gods and the maiden. Yet Aurora had once sneered in the face of those beneath her, uncaring of the sacrifices made by those who struggled for the wealthy, dying for individuals they’d never met.
Ha, mother did say if I continued to laugh at the plight of those beneath me that I’d eventually face the worst of what primitive life had to offer…
Aurora looked down at the chains made from hardened light that connected her to a long line of supposedly soulless men and women that stood to either side of her. The runes of the manacles detaining her shifted wildly, twisting the light to look and feel like that of gnarled barbed wire.
The pain caused by the light made physical was excruciating, making her head spin in agony at every move she had been forced to make.
Her every step made blood trickle down her ankles, forever scarring her; blood pooling within her shoes to the point that as she walked toward the entrance to the Catacombs, she left tiny crimson footprints trailing behind her, marking almost the full length of the journey down the path to her grave
All of this over a fucking skill…
Aurora brought up her Overlay, ignoring yet another glob of spit as it struck her tattered clothing. She could no longer face those that threw rotted food, spat, or even slung the excrement of their bonded companions. She instead stared at the empty spaces that filled her Overlay. The rage that simmered in her mind growing with every time she reread her status page.
Name: Aurora Imperial.
Age: 13
Race: Cultivator
Bloodline: Dormant/Unknown
Class: Locked
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Innate Abilities: Unknown
Techniques: None
Skills: ???
Current Attributes =
Offense: 0.1
Defense: 0.1
Systems: 0.0
Aurora clenched her fist so tight that her hands began to tremble and bleed; her fingernails puncturing her soft palms regardless of there manicured perfection.
Was everything just a lie…? She roared every angry thought in her mind, her voice long ago lost to her violent screams as she was pulled from the palace she was born in.
The Imperial Guard didn’t stop the holy men and women she now could only see as zealots. For this could only be lunacy, as only evil and injustice could result in the theft of her entire life by ripping her from her home.
Her parents may rule the kingdom, but without the doctrines set by the church of the maiden, no ruler was sovereign. So regardless of how many times she’d heard her parents tout their lack of belief, there was nothing either could do when she was dragged kicking and screaming through the palace gates.
The blasphemy I could share being spouted within the palace walls… Not that any of that matters now.
Those without a skill on their status page by the summer equinox of their thirteenth season cycle were believed to be without souls. The few hundreds of people in front of her were not all thirteen however. Many if not most were actually citizens found and captured after escaping being scanned; the church often missing many who fled by the summer equinox after reaching the age of majority.
Those of lowborn society could normally tell if they were going to develop skills at a very young age. The status page of an Overlay was unlocked by seven, often giving hints as to what the skill would be, through listed abilities, or higher than normal attributes.
Aurora was the eleventh in line to the throne, and long believed that due to her being that of the HonorBorn, the highest skill bestowed portion of society, that she without a doubt, would get a skill by her thirteenth birthday.
It was only now, in the moment before the massive hole known as the Catacombs that she knew the folly of those thoughts and beliefs. Now remembering every look that passed between her parents and siblings when she spoke of what she believed was going to be her given skill. The knowing side eyes that spoke of fear and what they all knew was to come.
All of the HonorBorn had skills already bestowed to them the same moment they unlocked their Overlays. All except Aurora.
“You may believe this to be unfair, and in this regard you couldn’t be anymore incorrect!”
Aurora looked up finally, looking to the head priest of her local chapel; the man flying above the center of the cavernous hole; walking upon the balcony of a flying villa, its length wrapping around the entire exterior of the home, allowing for the regal man to look upon all those captured to hear his message.
Aurora pulled her eyes from the man, and back toward what lay before her. A hole so vast that she could not see the opposing side, nor its bottom no matter how desperately her eyes searched its edges.
The number of those chained was so numerous that the front of the line could be seen a few yards to her left across the trench. Every person there all forced to face their ends in the same way she was, connected by torturous manacles; guards patrolling behind them all, forcing them to stay lined up around the hole.
At least you got to live a life, thought Aurora when she glanced from the boy to her right, before looking toward the adult man to her left.
A tall man stood there with his shirt dangling, shredded and torn from his shoulders. His garments ripped in the moments of his capture, showing the fight he put up in the moments that lead to his inevitable death.
No life was reflected in his eyes. Only light glowing from the softly illuminated stone made Aurora able to see the man’s darkened features, leaving Aurora to feel that somehow the light to be seen after death was all that shined up at him, as if he died on the walk toward the hole. Many others in line shared his dead eyed look, all knowing what was to come as they either stared forward or toward the priest above.
He was left to stare at the weight at his feet that would soon be kicked into the hole before him and all his fellow chained. Left to bare the fact that he would be the first to die, and the first to know what it was to be sacrificed for nothing more than ritual, as demons hadn’t been seen in millennia.
Unlike her peers, Aurora wasn’t being spat on, cursed at, and struck with waste for the same reasons as those around her. She was being treated this way for her reputation alone. As those that were older than thirteen were seen as betraying the will of the maiden for hiding from this iconically honorable ritual, she was receiving the wrath of those she belittled from her noble perch, treating the citizens of her kingdom as nothing more than tools to be used, broken, and thrown away.
Now she would be thrown away. Given to the veracious void to feed the demons that would forever plague the lands of Imperial, and every other continent which in Cultivators lived and died within the realm.
Who even knows if we still face the wrath of demons. How it must feel to be the first in this line of lives moments away from being dropped into the darkness that is our self constructed hell, thought Aurora, looking back up toward the priest that spoke to them all, daring to believe his words didn’t fall on def ears in the instances they had left before he killed them all. Aurora baffled to come to the understanding that this same ritual was happening across the entire realm, countless others all standing before a hole just as terrifying to confront.
“The maiden has chosen you, you may be without souls, but even this is for a reason,” Said the priest. His voice was projected in the same way it was every time her family went to see the man preach at their church, and Aurora couldn’t help but wonder if she was being punished for not having a deeper relationship with the gods and the maiden, not even able to remember the name of the priest even as his familiar voice touched her ears.
The priests robes billowed in the tropical breeze that flowed without end through the realm of Imperial. The black material was lined with the runic language of the realms, and was worth enough to feed a kingdom stricken with poverty for an entire season. Aurora cursing the man’s every rigid feature as he spoke, slowly spinning to face the gathered citizens and the bound soulless.
“Without this sacrifice, the demons below would return, swarming the land as a bane unlike any seen before in this realm!”
Aurora felt her hand yanked backward, turning her head to see a scowling man, lifting a runic brand. He saw the blood marring her palm, and forced her to wipe her hand on her formerly pristine white tunic.
The sensation of heat that pressed into her hand in the next instant made the glare she sent toward the man fray. Her vision went white, and though she tried to scream, not a sound spilled from her lips. The smell of burning skin striking her as wrong as she felt her knees weaken.
By the time she could see again, she was shocked to see the actions of the man behind her. A portal as large as her torso hovering above her hand was being filled with mana stones; Aurora glancing around to see that her fellow soulless were all being given the same treatment.
Then a box popped up in her vision and she read, the man before her closing the portal with the use of his own mana.
*Notification* - Spatial inventory unlocked - You have unlocked a spatial inventory, however due to the lack of access to mana within your body, you do not have the ability to access its contents.
Slots Available: 1.
Slots filled: 1 of 1.
Inventory list: 1000 basic mana stones.
Another box immediately popped up in her vision and she frowned, knowing that its contents neither helped her, nor would they ever come to effect her.
*Notification* - Time until spatial inventory unlock - ???
What… why in the fuck would they… She trailed off mentally as thoughts bloomed like a freshly started campfire in her mind.
Aurora only had to think for a moment before she realized what was being done.
We don’t have mana, without this they would be doing nothing but dumping dead bodies in a hole…
The demons of the Catacombs, or the land before time fed on the flesh of cultivators of Ki, mana, or void energies. So without what was being done to those around her, nothing would stop the emergence of the notorious demons of old.
“Fear not, you will not live beyond the fall!”
Aurora laughed mentally. I won’t even experience the fall you ugly old bastard…
Aurora looked at the tribal sun now burned into her hand as the guard stepped toward the next person in line. The young man screaming as he shook his head in fear of what was to come.,Aurora only then noting that he’d probably smelled her flesh as it burned just a moment prior.
Surprised I didn’t topple over, but I suppose they can’t let that happen until these bastards are done adding the garnish to this feast for demons.
“Know this children of the dark, the maiden loves you, and for this your journey will end in peace, never forced to be reborn in the realms of trials and tribulations!”
Yeah right, fuck the maiden and any gods who let this ritual of dread continue!
Aurora made her decision in that moment. For her family’s secret was the only detail that she believed could save her in the moment before her horrific death, and only by giving her a slightly less violent option.
The only option she felt that she had to save herself from experiencing the plummet and the inevitable fate of feeling her body explode as it collided with the depths below.
“I hope this brings ruin to your entire life father, I forsake you, I forsake the name you and that wretched woman you call a wife gave me, and in my last moment I vow that in my next life, I will be what brings the end to your reign,” mumbled Aurora underneath her breath, readying herself for her early end, wiping away her tears as an unspeakable rage filled the depths of her heart and soul.
She’d once been told by the man that birthed her that the secret of their families bloodline’s state of dormancy being told to anyone would result in only one thing. her immediate death. A death which she now felt would be far more honorable than allowing for her end to be decided by the vile priest before her.
She looked over at the tall boy next to her and couldn’t help but smile at his features. His long black hair identical to her own. His straight as hers was curly. The boys yellow irises meeting her own crimson gateways, tears running down his face as he looked away from the brand as it touched his skin.
His eyes widened and he bit back a scream; his tightening jawline enough to communicate just how much pain he was in, Aurora wondering if he was on the verge of losing teeth with how hard his bite was now clamped down.
A moment later she saw relief on his face, and she settled on him as her choice, as the chained man to her left was too far.
Surprise wiped away all signs of pain from the boy’s face as Aurora leaned in, stepping up onto the tips of her toes and shared what she knew would be her first and last kiss with the shocked young man.
The guards didn’t stop the action, as many stranger things had been done before, and the simple kiss was actually one of the many more common and tame situations playing out between the soulless.
Jumping early was something Aurora had already witnessed a handful of times, only for the guards to pull the suicidal sacrifices back up, often unconscious, bloodied, and broken. The weight of those above only allowing for their bodies to fall enough to smash into the exterior of the hole they all stood before.
“Sorry about that, I just couldn’t die without knowing what it was like to have a kiss.”
The boy’s cheeks reddened, and he nodded, not knowing what else to say after having his first kiss stolen by the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen. One he believed to be as beautiful as a princess. The boy himself being of the rare few who wasn’t aware of her status.
“I know this may be unfair in our current situation, but may I request something of you,” asked Aurora as formally as she could manage. Her voice raw and containing a malice she felt in her chest even as she tried to speak sweetly toward the boy beside her.
“Of course, anything for a beauty,” said the boy with a stutter that managed to make Aurora smile. Feeling as if she was running out of time, she made her request.
“Can I tell you a secret?”