“I still don’t understand. It isn’t like there aren’t other ways to get stronger.”
“That is true… There are too many ways in fact. Of course not everyone is blessed with the time to do so.“
“Time? Would your body even deteriorate after you get enough stats in vitality?”
“No…”
“Then does…”
“No it does not have anything to do with the Soul either.”
“It’s just death. True death.”
“Fine. Just tell the damn story.”
“See, Once every year, the Beholder of the time, the giant clock in the sky that governs all time… sounds… throughout all realities under NOIM. An ‘Event’ as many call it.”
“The only day where Azraks spawn all across NOIM. Empowered by NOIM itself, these… Creatures… are able to cause true death to all their victims. True to it’s nature of being a test, their numbers and levels would always depend on the composition of the entities grouped up in a location. Taking into account all types of advantages, including environmental, structural and even technological advantages.”
“Each year, these Azraks would comeback… Smarter, stronger, more informed and even with technology of their own. All to push the limits of the inhabitants of NOIM.”
“That doesn’t even make sense. Why would they--”
“To prepare for the inevitable of course. Worlds, Galaxies, and even Realities are built and destroyed with each fragment of a moment. Do you really think, NOIM is exempted to all of that?”
“NOIM is maybe all encompassing and possibly the current most powerful reality out there, but conflict flows as the root of all realities demands it. Sad to say, not even NOIM is exempted from the whims of the Great Origin Reality. Nor will any reality ever be.”
“Just like we inhabitants of NOIM are subjected to it’s laws.“
…
“A perfect cycle of Creation and Destruction.”
“Life and Death.”
“Or just simply fate.”
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“The very chains you become faintly aware of, as soon as you start walking your own path to power.”
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The ground cracked as everything burned around me, countless darkness embracing elves either becoming meat paste due to the bonus Strength and Perception I get from burning anything and everything around me. By this time, I had already familiarized my self with just how absurd my skills are. Without a proper counter, I could technically wreak havoc, and just outright kill anyone due to the absurd Physique and Perception bonus I’m getting. Couple that with the ever burning flames brought about my mana, as well as the dual regeneration I get back from remnants and ashes…
I’ve learned that I could probably burn this whole forest to the ground only stopping everytime my stamina runs out. Just from a few hours of purging, I came to realize the drawbacks of having too much Perception as well as physique without the appropriate amount of endurance and vitality to hold my ground.
I could remedy that of course as I level on, but it did made me regret prioritizing my statpoints into Origin Affinity instead of just directly increasing my Vitality. The sheer stamina required to support the movements of my enhanced physique just beyond me at the moment, not to mention there’s also the fact that I could easily break myself, if not careful...
I shivered as I recalled the nightmare inducing feeling of having your bones break and reform instantly after not being able to handle the sheer force of my own movements.
Also, without proper control of the flames that continuously stacks up bonuses, I could easily faint from being too tired or even just get outright killed because of the sheer amount of brainfog brought by mental exhaustion due to the enhanced Perception. Something that I have no real solution as of now… but the depth of the whole skill just outright excited me.
Makes me wonder what kinds of skills did the others pickup. Specially Alice.
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Eventually, I reached the final phase of the trial. The very horror, that NOIM was asking me to purge.
I paled as I watched the horror in front of me. I thought that I had finally grown numb of the atrocities committed by these dark elves after hearing 10 or so stories about them… but this was just beyond me. These dark elves didn’t have any sacred well or a great tree unlike what the stories in our world tell us… They live, inside a deformed flesh of the living, countless faces of various races clearly still alive but are now acting as a structure to serve as an altar for their rituals.
Lines of chained up prisoners served cultist rituals screaming and crying as their flesh transformed and slowly become a part of the living altar.
“Nothing… Nothing would ever warrant all of this...”
The old woman watched me struggle for about half an hour, somehow amused about the sheer disgust and rejection that I was going through. I could hear her laugh as she placed her hands on my shoulders. She started to gently push me. Leading me towards the make shift stairs of flesh.
“We don’t always have a choice, Isabella.”
Just as she said this, a heart slowly formed at the middle of the fleshmade altar. Immediately it was picked up. The dark elves, kneeling and crying upon seeing the darkened heart. They sang and chant repeatedly with maddened delight.
We continued to walk towards the center. The hundred or so dark elves greeting me with fervor and as well as a cold and crazed warmth. Walking further, we directly met the priest who dutifully carried the darkened heart in his hand. He handed the heart to me, and I took it, the heart waking up as countless faces, and souls screamed and cried in agony, their very soul twisted and forcefully contained. The dark elves singing louder and grander in sync. My brain as if melting, as all of the sound entered me.
Looking behind, I see the old soul, now in her full form standing and smiling gently. Everyone stilled and paused as they gave as much time as I needed to process everything that’s happening.
Looking down back at the darkened heart that I was holding, anger bubbled up into far more than I had ever experienced. A feeling of wrongness, and sheer hatred for all of this. Towards the cunning old soul behind me. Towards all of these weak and gullible elves who desperately clung to this horror.
“To live is to be desparate. You have to understand that.”
The old woman smiled gentler, her tone the most soothing and the gentlest of all the voices I have ever heard. Somehow everything makes sense to me now. Somehow…
No. It doesn’t.
I paused as a familiar feeling washed all over me. Something had waken up inside me. Clearing up all of the deception and control that had slowly dug their way inside my head. It wasn’t the same anger unnerving anger that I desperately pushed down earlier, it was anger that burned like mild fire.
It wasn’t that strong, but it was righteous…
It was… Unrelenting…
It wanted me to burn the sinful to the ground. Until not a single one of them remains. The very same thing that I wanted to take into action but didn’t have the power to.
But now…
Now I did.
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To be continued.