Quest Completed A Step To Annihilation has been completed. Reward: Awakening ‘Annihilation’
“What the hell was that blast?” I asked myself, “And who’s Nulla talking to?” slowly standing up to see two amorphous clouds of dark and light energy speaking to Nulla.
“Hah! A long time? What’s that? We’ve only been asleep for a moment, remember?” An unfamiliar voice responded.
“Huahhh… Although it was still a good nap.” Another unfamiliar voice yawned, asking “So how long has it been, Nulla? And what is this place? It doesn’t look like Novus?”
“It’s not. This particular place is actually...” Nulla stopped himself after noticing Lavie and I were intently listening to their conversation. “Let’s just say it’s something new the Creator came up with some time after you two were put back into your slumbers.” Relaying, “And as for how long it’s been… I believe only 350 or so years have passed, but who other than the Creator knows exactly when your slumbers began after finishing implementing the new changes onto both of you.”
“New changes? Is that why I feel even more so weakened without a vessel? And why we’ve been regressed back to such… primal forms?” The dark energy questioned in a spiteful tone.
“I would assume so.” Nulla answered, sounding not too sure.
“Urgh, how dare the annoying Creator alter me without my permission again!” The dark energy angrily voiced.
“Well it seems like the Creator didn’t alter us that much if that unpleasant and nasty attitude of yours is still intact, Salv.” The light energy remarked.
“Hmph, as if the Creator could truly alter us!” The dark energy scoffed, “And I told you to stop calling me that, or I’ll start calling you Anni and see how you like it!”
“Fine by me. I think Anni’s a cute name to be called by.” The light energy teasingly laughed.
“Urgh, you’re infuriating!” The dark cloud of energy visibly billowed in annoyance.
“Hold on, did I hear that right?” Lavie interjected, approaching without concern, “The dark energy is my Earring of Salvation? Not the light one?”
“An earring? Did she just call me an earring?” The dark energy asked, clearly disturbed by that classification.
“And one that she thinks belongs to her no less!” The light energy mockingly laughed.
Swelling up in anger and expanding in size, the dark energy ignored Lavie and spoke directly to Nulla. “Don’t you dare tell me this… ordinary woman is to be my new vessel, is she?” Questioning, “What happened to allowing us to choose our own vessels? You know I hated when—”
Nulla worryingly cut him off, saying “I assure you, Salvation, there is absolutely nothing ordinary about this woman who’s to be your new vessel. But as for the other matter, you should already know I cannot reveal such knowledge in front of others, and I'd like to remind the both of you what happens if either of you do too.”
“Hah, don’t give us that crap, Nulla! We all know you, more than anyone else, breaks the most rules out of you and your siblings. And besides, the Creator’s empty threats do not scare us, nor should it you, or either of your siblings for that matter. After all, you children are—”
Light energy in the shape of an open hand suddenly struck the cloud of Salvation’s dark energy, instantly creating another powerful shockwave, and sending both Lavie and I crashing back against the wall. Nulla was also noticeably affected by the intense shockwave this time around, causing even him to stumble back from the immense force. “Must you always try to get the children in trouble, Salv?” Annihilation spoke in a callous manner, “You really should know better by now.”
“Grrr…” Salvation billowed in anger once again, “Anni, you know that hurt, right? I hope you don’t think I’ll just let that go, do you?”
“When do you ever?
“I guess I don’t.”
“Well are you sure you want to have another fight with me, Salv? Remember what happened last time?
“I only remember having a weak-minded vessel holding me back, nothing more!”
“If that’s what you wish to believe…” Their two amorphous energies slowly began to circle the centre of the space, causing not only the air around them to visibly ripple, but now also resulting in the entire Waiting Hub to be affected by their sheer presence—intensifying to a point where the very reality of the space started to warp entirely.
“Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no!” Nulla worryingly panicked, and quickly coming up with a solution, he shouted “Please you two, just get into your new vessels already!” Then without warning, Lavie and I were both suddenly picked up by Nulla’s magic and unwillingly thrown straight into our respective energies—the darkness of Salvation for Lavie, and the light of Annihilation for myself.
Every inch of our bodies were enveloped in the clouds of energies, and instantaneously acting as natural conductors, we unwillingly and excruciatingly began to absorb their overflowing power into ourselves. Lavie and I screamed in torturous agony; feeling not only being fundamentally changed and transformed physically, but also feeling our minds being forcefully invaded by overwhelmingly conscious and unknown entities. And on the brink of losing our very own consciousness and sanity from the seemingly endless pain, a golden healing warmth unexpectedly rejuvenated our bodies for a brief moment, helping us to just barely be able keep our minds intact. Though sensing this was only a small fraction of their horrifying total energies, we rightfully concluded this was only just the beginning of our torment.
24 hours later…
You have gained the Title: [Vessel Of Annihilation].
Vessel Of Annihilation: Becoming an imperfect amalgamation of ‘Annihilation’ and yourself, you must seek perfection on the long path ahead, or be erased from existence so another may walk. Receive the Creator Quest ‘Annihilation’, and gain a new Equipment Slot for ‘Annihilation’ herself.
Creator Quest
Annihilation:
Merging with ‘Annihilation’ and becoming her Imperfect Vessel, you alone must steadily walk down the Path of Annihilation and truly become her Perfect Vessel.
Find ways to prepare and develop your body and your mind to be able to withstand ‘Annihilation’ and her ever-growing existence.
Never lose a single Player Event, or reveal to ANYONE that you are the Vessel of Annihilation.
And do not remain dead for longer than 24 hours, or engage in any form of combat against the Vessel of Salvation.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Reward: ??? Failure: ‘Annihilation’ will consume and erase you from all existence.
Annihilation
Uncommon
An unknown entity whose powers are limited only by her vessel, though whose existence is ever-growing to become whole once again.
Active Effect(Requires Consent): Temporarily become a Perfect Vessel for 1 minute, and fully utilize the 10% of her existence you can currently endure without restraint, but then be forced to enter an unwakeable slumber until your body and mind can completely recover from the devastating consequences(1 Year).
Passive Effect: Any true perceived hindrance and threat against ‘Annihilation’ and her vessel, must be immediately annihilated for the sake of achieving her ultimate and perfect End.
Bonus Effect: Naturally be influenced by ‘Annihilation’ and her perceptual consciousness, experiencing more of her power and existence the closer you reach perfection. +100 to All Stats.
Annihilated Existences: 24 Lesser Beings
Requirement: Vessel of Annihilation
“Fucking shit...” Collapsing to my hands and knees, “Why are there so many goddamn things in this world that causes me so much pain?” My whole body was absolutely drenched in sweat and heavily breathing from the longingly torment I just underwent.
I looked ahead to see Lavie in the same state, but she was strikingly different than before. No longer having her light red hair—or even the scarlet crimson colour she had while fighting, she instead had long raven black hair draping over her face. Salvation’s darkened energy also visibly radiated out from her, but it appeared to be slowly receding inside of her body—notably returning her hair back to its natural colour. Though in the moment I realized that I too was different; Annihilation’s lightened energy radiated out from me as well, and my hair was now an ashen white colour—which was also returning back its natural colour.
“A-Are you two mad at me?” Nulla nervously asked, magically raising us up to our feet.
“Mad? Why would we be mad?” I asked sarcastically, “We were only forcefully thrown into energy clouds that put us through 24 hours of tormenting hell!”
“Yeah, a little warning would’ve.” Lavie added, combing her hair out of her face.
“No, I don’t care if you two are mad at me. I was talking to them.” Nulla clarified, still pointing at us.
Suddenly a voice in my head responded, “It’s alright, Nulla. We aren’t mad. It’s good that you stopped us before we destroyed everything here.” and a small visage of Annihilation manifested beside me, “It also looks like Salv has finally calmed down thanks to being merged with his new vessel.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m not mad either.” As a small visage of Salvation manifested beside Lavie, “So just leave me alone while I sift through all this woman’s memories, alright? I can see she might actually have some potential after all...” and then he dissipated just as quickly.
“Wait, what? He can’t do that! Some of those memories are private, you know!” Lavie exclaimed to us. “Hey, get back out here, Salvation! Or whatever you're called! At least be nice enough to ask for my permission first!” But there was no response.
Annihilation laughed in amusement, then relayed to Lavie “Seems as if Salv has already grown quite interested in you, Vos, especially if he’s already engrossed himself into exploring and experiencing your memories without interruption.”
“Vos?” Lavie curiously repeated.
“Vessel of Salvation.” Nulla explained.
“Well I shouldn’t linger out here either, for you see, I saw something quite interesting in the brief glimpses of memories I witnessed…” And like that, Annihilation dissipated as well.
Lavie and I both looked at each other lost for words, unsure how to interpret and process anything we just went through, or the unknown entities now dwelling within us and openly prying on our memories. However, breaking the silence, Nulla sighed in relief, saying “Whew, good thing they didn’t cause more of a scene, or I would’ve needed—” he stopped himself and instead said, “But now that Annihilation and Salvation have finally been awakened without any casualties, that really should conclude everything here.” As he rapidly began forming another teleportation circle above us.
“Hold up, Nulla, where are you sending us?” I questioned, unsure of our destination.
“Yeah, you said we only had 24 hours to settle our unfinished business on Earth, but I’m pretty sure it’s already been longer than that!” Lavie pointed out, “Don’t tell me we missed it because of all this, did we?”
“Of course not. That would just be unfair. Plus, who knows what Annihilation and Salvation would do if I hindered their vessels from finding potential closure and developing mentally.” Nulla replied knowingly; then revealing to us “Besides, time on Earth hasn’t even begun to move forward yet since you all left, nor will it until the two of you return to the points right after your deaths alongside the others.”
“What?! It hasn’t?!” Lavie exclaimed in disbelief.
“Not at all?” I also questioned.
“Not even a little bit.” Nulla answered, sounding genuinely honest. He then proudly claimed, “It was personally my suggestion for being the most efficient way to allow most of you Players to find immediate closure within the span of 24 hours. And rightfully, it was voted upon as such by the Guides, becoming the only obvious point for which you Players should return to Earth.”
“Uhh…should you be telling us this?” Lavie concernedly asked, “Because it doesn’t feel like you should be?”
“Well according to Salvation, he does break the most rules.” I remarked, already knowing he's recently done so in Eicio's Limbo.
“Probably not, but it should be fine seeing as how I haven’t revealed anything crucial to the Creator’s—” A sudden ringing of a phone echoed throughout the entire space, and Nulla instantly entered into another panic, shouting “Oh, shit! I’m being summoned!” He then quickly began to activate the teleportation circle above us, “Well hopefully I'll see you four at the next Player Event, so until then!” Though he suddenly called for me, “Oh, and Eyes! We’ll have to have our discussion next time! But to reassure you that I only have good intentions, allow me to inform you that no time has passed on Novus either!”
“No time has passed?” I cluelessly repeated, but then it dawned on me, “Wait, does that mean—” But my words were cut short as Lavie and I were finally teleported away.
***
Arriving in the presence of a brilliantly beautiful and surreal cluster of actively shifting stars, Nulla nervously stammered “Y-You called for me, Creator?”
“Indeed, I did.” A disembodied voice replied, directing the cluster of stars towards Nulla, “But what took you so long?”
“Umm... Uhh... Creator, it’s not what it seems like. I was only sending the Vessels to Earth with the other Players.” Nulla tried to explain himself, “I-I promise there was no scheming done whatsoever...”
“Mmm-hmph…” The Creator hummed in skepticism, gathering all the stars together and effortlessly compressing them into a singular dense ball of energy.
“A-Anyway, may I ask why you’ve called for my personal attendance, Creator?” Nulla curiously inquired, “Especially here of all places...” intriguingly peeking at the countless assortments of incomplete creations scattered throughout the boundless domain.
However, not answering Nulla’s question, the Creator instead asked “In your opinion, how well do you think Anni and Salv took everything this time around?
“Excuse me?” He replied, unsure of what the Creator was asking.
“Their awakenings I mean. From their slumbers?” The Creator clarified, abruptly causing the ball of dense energy to explode, instantly creating an entirely new universe as a result of it.
“Oh… Well… I have absolutely no clue what those two are thinking.” Nulla shrugged, feeling honestly clueless.
“I see… Well I hope your parents didn’t give you too much trouble, did they?” The Creator asked, shrinking the newly formed universe and carelessly tossing it away into the beyond.
“No, not too much. But it did get a little frightening for a moment there.” Explaining, “You see, Father was quite riled up after learning you altered him without his permission again, so Mother slapped him before he could reveal our true origins in front of their vessels—which of course led them almost getting into another fight with one another; though luckily I prevented the potential catastrophe before it began, forcing each of them to start merging with their respective vessels while they weren’t expecting.”
“Oho, what an eventful awakening! Hahaha…!” The Creator laughed wholeheartedly, sounding genuinely delighted and amused by the fact.
Waiting until the laughing concluded, Nulla tried to bring up the Creator’s reasoning again, reiterating “So about my being summoned here…”
“Yes, yes. Always so keen on wanting to know my exact plans right away, while I myself only wish to have a casual conversation with my favourite grandson first.” The Creator responded, playfully acting dejected.
“My apologies, Creator, but the importance of your summoning is painfully clear when you invited me here, to your workshop of all places.” Nulla logically reasoned.
“You're as astute as ever, Nulla.” The Creator happily remarked, pulling a specific creation from the beyond and presenting it for Nulla to properly see.
“C-C-Creator, is that…!” Leaving Nulla utterly shocked and speechless—only expressing !?!?! on his face.