A nameless, formless consciousness existed only in pain, only in agony and torment. It was neither alive, nor dead, only a malaise of half-life and half-conscious thought. Sometimes the poor thing would have a flash or remembrance, or a distinct feeling. I’m tired. I’m hungry. What is this? Were some of the most common. However, most of the time the ideas were little more than emotional impulses in response to its timeless agony.
[Passive Mana Absorption complete… Running Diagnostics…]
Adrift and awash in this dark expanse, the consciousness floated, until one day something distinct and new changed. A light coalesced somewhere above. What is above? The utter blackness was pushed back by the light. As the light grew, the pain lessened - an end to the agony.
[Diagnostics complete… Rendering Evolution Preparation Results]
[Status Screen]
Name: Trial Participant 3451,
Race: Human, Subrace: Scion
Class: None
Base Characteristics:
Constitution: 10
Strength: 13
Dexterity: 19
Intelligence: 17
Wisdom: 23
Temperment: 33
Mana Saturation: 100% (full)
Mana Capacity: 8567 Numens
[Recommended Evolution Path: Human >> Solar Larimer… Accept y/n]
As the light continued to expand and overtake the black, the consciousness noticed strangled symbols and figures dance across its vision. Blessedly, the pain continued to recede. It would accept the strange phenomenon if it meant the bone-deep ache would go away. What are bones?
The consciousness drifted like that for a while. The light stopped its advance on the dark, and all was well with the world. The consciousness enjoyed a new sense of being. Once again, strange symbols whirled and danced across its vision. However, this time they didn’t go away. They sat front and center of its view, pulsing a soft golden hue.
[Recommended Evolution Path: Human >> Solar Larimer… Accept y/n]
Unsure what they meant, or why they came back, the consciousness attempted to banish them. Still, they continued to pulse. So it just sat there. Enjoying the peace of the light despite the bizarre vision.
Suddenly, everything went dark. The light was extinguished, like a candle’s life compressed to nothing between a forefinger and a thumb. The pain didn’t return, only the coldness of the void. Then, two pinpricks of light appeared on the horizon. As if they were at a great distance. They slowly grew, expanding in the timelessness of the void. If a day passed, or a year, or an entire lifetime, the consciousness did not know. It was entranced by the steady advance of the two orbs of light.
After an indeterminate amount of time, the orbs of light became more distinguished. They were deep violet, and there were no orbs at all. They were eyes. Large violet eyes with sclera the color of milky, silver moonlight and no pupils. The eyes stopped their advance. In an instant they snapped into focus and bored into the consciousness. It knew they saw him. They pierced it, skewered the soul with an intense gaze. Long moments elapsed in their analysis. Then they flared with anger. Red and silver lightning crackled around them, shooting off into the void in a chaotic dance. The soul trembled at the magnitude of anger and fury possessed by those deep and abiding eyes. Then symbols flashed once again across the soul’s vision.
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[Recommended Evolution Path: Human >> Solar Larimer… Accept y/n]
[n… Admin Override… Invoke Evolution Override: Patch 19.293.2… New Evolution Path accepted]
[WARN: Suboptimal Evolution Path for Host… Estimated Evolutionary Selection Success: 38%… Continue: y/n]
[y]
[Accepted… New Host Evolution Path: Lunar Estimer… Accept y/n]
[y]
[Initiating Forced Evolution…. Human to Lunar Estimer… Installing Mana cores… Building Mana pathways…. Downloading base mana management package… Estimated time: 17 days, 4 hours, 5 minutes]
The strange symbols flashed once again across the soul’s vision, briefly severing the link it held with the eyes. At that point, the eyes closed and melted away into the darkness. The light returned. This time, though, it was hot and bright and agonizing. It lit the consciousness' insides on fire. Flames licked at its blood. The light intensified, so bright it became blinding. The fire turned to liquid magma. Thick and condensed, the congealed mass of torment slid through the consciousness' insides as it slowly transformed it from the inside out.
Fire, and pain. That was its world. It could not tell time before, but at least the consciousness held the concept in its mind. It understood there was a before and an after. Now though, the pain was relentless, prior agonies a numb hand on a cold day compared to this. What is a hand? And cold? I…. What was that again? A day… Yes, I remember a day. Despite the agony the consciousness was in, the bizarre, far more lucid thought shoved it to the background.
[WARN: Anomaly detected… Mana system incompatible with host… Terminate procedure y/n]
In a flash of silver and red sparks the eyes returned, but the light did not recede. The eyes shined with a renewed vigor, and the pain intensified. The light around the consciousness intensified. Utter torment and agony.
[n]
[Admin Override… Forced Evolution Confirmed… Host Evacuation cancelled]
[WARN: Forced evolution will result in aberrant host or death]
The eyes closed again and faded even faster this time. The agony exponentially increased as the process continued. More letters and symbols scrolled meaninglessly across the soul’s vision. Days, weeks, months, years passed. Or no time at all. Time was a useless concept in the face of overwhelming, soul-crushing pain. And then it was gone, along with the light.
[Evolution complete… Running Diagnostics… Completed]
[Results: Evolution Path: Human >> Twilight Aberration]
[Congratulations! You have completed your Involuntary Metamorphosis. You are no longer human]
[Congratulations! You received: Aberrant Mana Core, Aberrant Meridians, Basic Mana Control techniques have been installed]
[You have a new patron: The Goddess of The Shattered Suns. You’ve received the boon: Twilight’s Embrace]
[Lares Progenitor protocol complete… Goodbye!]
[WARN: Forceful ejection from stasis pod in 3… 2… 1]
Something changed for the soul in that moment. It knew it was not a soul, not a consciousness, but a thing- an it- no, a person. It existed, and had hands and feet and a brain, it could breathe. And, it was propelled by an unknown force onto an extremely hard, cold surface. The jarring impact was followed by a wracking, wheezing cough. The being was alive, and everything hurt.
He… Wait, was he a he? Yes, for some reason that seemed right. He lay in a fetal position until the wracking cough subsided. He noticed new sensations. Feeling returning to arms. He had arms! Wait, what are arms? He moved them, they slowly and painfully moved away from his body. Like a newborn baby from the womb, they moved in a general direction told by his brain, but he could not really control them. It was like his brain was foggy and only a few of the commands took hold. He opened his eyes, blinking furiously to get some moisture back into them. After the tears cleared the dust of centuries from them, he saw for the first time.
Laying against a wall the strange man looked around at the world at a ninety degree angle, a soft blue light washed over a circular stone room. In the middle lay a stone sarcophagus that was on a raised stone plinth. On it were intricately carved sigils, the source of the light. Off to one side, the top of the rectangle rested, as if it were thrown off from its perch.
He spent some time laying there, letting the blood flowing to his limbs slowly bring his sore and battered body back to life. Eventually, he was able to get his feet under him. It took some effort, but he was able to prop himself up with the help of the wall next to him. After he got up, he noticed a door he hadn’t seen before on the other side of the room because it was blocked by the stone sarcophagus when he was laying down.
After a cursory inspection of the plinth, there appeared to be nothing else in the room, so the man stepped up to the door. It opened to a muted shower of dust and scraping stone on stone to a hallway. Blue sigils illuminated the hallway just like the room. It continued for a few hundred feet, ending in another stone door.
The man continued like this, walking through hallway after hallway. Some had doors in the middle of a hallway. These were outlined in an angry red and would not open to him, so he continued. Door upon door sliding open for him as his feet carried him forward. Eventually, a hallway door opened, revealing a bright light. The man stepped through into a new world.