Monica had no idea how she had ended up here, in this space. She only remembered passing out and then, after a moment, meeting the Titan behind her powers, the Twin Phoenix.
She floated in the endless dark space. The two massive birds towered over her, their flames lighting up the void. Each was bigger than anything she had ever seen.
Asking who these two phoenixes were felt redundant. Therefore, Monica chose to ask another question to start the conversation.
“Why am I here?”
Finally the two birds stirred and craned their necks to look at her.
“You have received our powers to fight the parasites,” the two voices said, speaking in synch with an unsettling echo following their words. “We were disappointed in your behavior, Monica Monroe, but you finally showed us a sign that things are not as they once were.”
First of all, Monica felt it was somehow strange to hear a divine creature call her by name. Second, she had a hunch of what they were talking about.
“You’re talking about my daughter and Dotty.”
"Yes." The golden head nodded.
"Is that why you appeared now?" Monica asked.
The black head moved closer.
"We took your memories, Monica Monroe, because of what you did.”
"You took my memories?" Monica's voice trembled with anger and disbelief. The flames of both phoenixes flickered in response to her emotion.
"We did," the obsidian phoenix spoke alone this time, its voice deeper and more resonant than when they spoke in unison.
The two massive birds exchanged a look that seemed to carry centuries of meaning.
“Wait, what did I do? Did I hurt my children?”
“No,” the two Phoenixes spoke in unison once again. “You had nothing to do with your children’s demise. You did everything you could in order to protect them.”
Monica sighed in relief. For a moment, she had feared she might have had a hand in the death of her children. Thankfully, that didn’t seem to be the case.
“What did I do, then?”
“You don’t deserve to know,” the Twin Phoenix spoke. “That life, that very universe is gone.”
“But Machina said she can bring my children back.”
“She very well might,” the Twin Phoenix responded. “But you are living a second chance and we’re not here to discuss your past. And now, after seeing to your improvement, we’re here to offer you the real power of the Twin Phoenix.”
Monica was eager to ask more about her past life but it seemed like the Twin Phoenix was moving on.
“Ok,” Monica said. “But, what’s the power? I am already immortal and I have the Obsidian and the Golden Flames. Is there anything else?”
“How laughable,” the two Phoenixes roared in laughter. “That you might believe that that would have sufficed to make you the most dangerous warrior and our Champion.”
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“Then, what?”
“You have just now come in contact with the higher plane of fighting—what they call Skill Efficiency on this world. A better definition, however, is Skill Mastery.”
“What about it?”
“Skill Mastery is hard to achieve because to expose the flaws in a Skill, one has to be looking for them under the right circumstances. Normal people struggle an entire lifetime to reach the complete mastery of their strongest Skills. They can barely reach the ten percent mark, like that Dwarf just showed you. Even in your time, only a small select few reached above eighty. And those who managed to reach one-hundred…”
After a short beat, the two Phoenixes dropped a bombshell.
“Those were called Old Gods and Titans.”
Monica’s eyes went wide.
“Wait, so Old Gods were mortals?”
“We all were at some point. Old Gods, the parasites, earned their Skill Mastery through absorbing souls and their Skills, through depredating and stealing, through murder and lies. There are wicked practices they used to reach the peak of the Skill Mastery that made them what they are. Titans, instead, are those who practiced a Skill to its peak without taking shortcuts.”
“Wait, but why do Old Gods have followers and Titans only have an Avatar?” Monica frowned.
“When an Old God gathers followers, they take more than they give. They need power to sustain their imperfect form. They cannot live otherwise. Henceforth, why we call them parasites. They get their strength from others, from external factors. They’re thieves whose only directive is to keep stealing.”
“And Titans?”
“Titans cannot split their power once they ascend beyond their physical form. They can only bestow it onto one Avatar, who represents their reincarnation. However, unlike the Old Gods, Titans are eternal crystallizations of the Skill they mastered.”
The Twin Phoenix smirked.
“In our case,” the two Phoenixes said, “two Skills.”
“The Obsidian and the Golden Flame,” Monica muttered.
“Indeed,” the Twin Phoenix replied. “We are the only Titan to ever master Two Skills. And that is only thanks to mastering the Golden Flame first.”
“Wait, what?”
“We’ve said that the majority of people to ever live, regardless of their race, will never even scratch the surface of Skill Mastery, Monica Monroe. That is because they need the right circumstances to unveil the problems with a Skill and then what is commonly called an Inspiration to unlock the next Rank. Do you know what the right circumstances are?”
Monica shook her head.
“The right circumstances are only fights to the death, Monica Monroe.”
The redhead’s jaw went slack and immediately understood what the Twin Phoenix was getting at.
“When you reached the maximum Skill Efficiency for the Golden Flame, you became immortal.”
“All Titans are immortal—well, permanent is a better description. But, like the parasites, we live in a liminal space where we can only bestow our powers onto one Avatar who receives our strongest Skill, or Skills in our case, and acts as our ambassador and champion. But once we reached the peak of the Golden Flame, we delayed our ascendance, defying the System. After, we used its incredible power to cheat death and we mastered the Obsidian Flame just moments before the System forced us to ascend—those who master Skills cannot be allowed to stay among mortals anymore; it would be too dangerous to them.”
“Do you understand what that means, Monica Monroe?”
“That I, your Avatar, can employ the same strategy,” Monica said. “But how are life and death fights going to make me improve?”
“First of all,” the Twin Phoenix said, “they’d improve just about anyone. When someone fights with their life on the line, their soul changes and gets projected outward. Because of that, they can now get closer access to their Skills and are able to perceive the problems in Skill Efficiency, or Mastery, whatever you want to call it, much more closely. Everything suddenly starts making much more sense. But the battles have to be truly life-threatening for your Soul to emerge. The closer to death, the more your Soul will try and give you as much power and knowledge as it can to avoid dying. Your Soul, despite you being able to come back from death, is no different.”
Saying that this was a massive discovery and a terrifying advantage would have been an understatement.
“You are supposed to be the greatest warrior, Monica Monroe. You wield the power of the only Titan who ever mastered not one, but two Skills. Now, you know the true extent of your power. Do not let us down.”
Monica felt the space starting to recede and her consciousness blanking again.
“Thank you,” she said gravely. “I won’t let you down.”
“You better not.”