While I waited for the ritual to commence, my mind was in turmoil.

Was this what I really wanted? Being led by the throat to and fro?

It doesn’t matter that their arguments make sense. The fact is, I don’t know enough to make a better judgement.

What do I want right now?

… I want the ritual over with.

I shifted on the bench as I ruminated.

I want a trump card…

Something to use as leverage, in case my supposed allies decide to use me beyond what I can endure…

Cause let’s be honest, I’ll likely still be at the whims of the powerful for quite a while yet…

And how does that make me feel…

Furious. Words cannot describe the depths of it….

What do I think, about what I feel?

…

Oddly, I remembered when I got fired two weeks into my old dream job on Earth, my crime was ignorance. I did all the research, asked all the questions. Somehow, everyone forgot to tell me about the mandatory signing in both online and physically, every morning. It surely wasn’t in the contract. Boss decided to use me as an example, anyways.

At least the severance package was hefty.

I was devastated. I tried everything, including groveling, to no avail.

So, I went home, and locked myself in.

My mother broke in and sat with me as I cried in my home.

When I had run out of tears, she spoke to me in her usual rambling way, “The reason why women seem to mature quicker is because it dawns on us earlier that we are at the mercy of any random with enough power and an agenda. Yet you cannot live in fear, and you cannot rage at the tyranny forever. That’s not how you live life, because there’s not always a Why.”

She smiled at me, “Build a safe space, carefully, just don’t expect perfection. Work towards greater security, but it will never be completely safe. Work towards a better job, they might still fire you. Make a family with someone, they might still hurt you… deeply. Never chase the perfect wife, or friend or business. You can reach, but you must be satisfied, even while you reach. Make it a habit of being grateful for what’s in your hand, anyways.”

“Women have to go through periods, but at least we could give birth. Doesn’t stop scientist from researching ways to make it easier on us. My husband is not perfect, there are men smarter, more good looking, kinder, more emotionally sound, richer… I still won’t trade him for anything. He’s tried and he’s still trying. We’ve pissed each other off more times than I can count, he’s still enough for me. What I have with him, we built it. We find it good enough. Doesn’t stop us for reaching for something better, together.”

“People say ‘don’t settle for less’, but most do, because there’s almost always something better. Keep in mind there’s not always a tangible destination to your reaching.”

“Enjoy the process. But if you can’t take your place anymore; the boss is especially cruel to you, the wife is abusive… Break the board. You can put it back together somewhat, later, or you can stop playing entirely and move on. You have to decide when you’ve reached your breaking point.”

“My advice, if things start to get too hot, start planning how to break off. Sometimes, not having a plan, can lead to spontaneous mistakes that end up breaking more than you could ever have wanted. And if it turns out you don’t really need to break off, remain, and be grateful.”

“Mom?”

“Yes, my apple?”

“What the hell does this sermon, have to do with me being fired?!”

….…………….. … … …. ……………………………. . …….. …… ………………………. ……………….. …………………..

I chuckled as I sat in the ritual room, tears running down my eyes.

At the time, Mom was struggling with being mentally present, and yet she’d somehow managed to come running to comfort me the moment I had a crisis.

Hindsight has perfect vision.

What a big fool I was.

What will I do, now?

I will reach for power, because I have to survive. But the hows and whys of my reaching must satisfy the Dogma.

And somehow… Even in this messed-up world, I’ll build something I can be happy about. Something good. Or at least, I’ll reach for it till I die.

So, barring any new critical info, I’ll be going through with this ritual.

As if on cue, I heard a tinkling sound, and a glowing cyan liquid poured from somewhere out of sight and filled the grooves. Defying gravity, they flowed up the grooves on the stone ring and finally filled up the gutter surrounding the bench I was sitting on.

As soon as the liquid reached the lip of the gutter, it stopped.

Then it seemed almost like I was drawn into a small, isolated pocket of reality.

How I knew this, I couldn’t explain but, immediately after, a System notification appeared to me:

“Ding!”

Ritual of Consequence Convergence initiated.

Proceed? Y/N

Try everything…

“Um… Can I ask what the ritual will entail?”

“Of course, little one!”

Uh… Jackpot?!

“Thank you! You're… a lot more personable than I thought?”

“I find myself filled with inexplicable… liveliness, when I can help Otherworlders out of scr#pt @#%$… S-sorry for that, dear.”

I filed away that weirdness for later.

Trump…

“... Do you mean you feel more alive when you talk with us? What’s so special about us?”

“That second question is- anyways, I… remember what I am, or was, when I interact with your kind. Please, never hesitate to ask me more about whatever I’m called on to facilitate.”

“Sure thing.”

“Just… Don’t tell anyone other than another Otherworlders about this… advantage. Till date, none have revealed this secret. Please, don’t be the first.”

I find that hard to believe… but whatever.

“All right… Is this- are you in danger? Is that why I’m to keep it in confidence?”

“… You’re far too eager to ask dangerous questions. Please, ask me any questions concerning this ritual.”

“Apologies… Okay! Can you confirm the truth of the assertions made by Roukk and Krix?”

“Only the ones pertaining to this ritual, Jude. Can I explain the ritual?”

Feeling, like I was on thin ice, I stopped fishing, “Please do.”

“The ritual cuts out all the Miasma and Merit currently attached to you and feeds it, in a way similar to what KeyBir and Handa working in concert could do to an aspect of your current abilities.”

“One of the side effects is that it firms your existence in your current body, making it impossible for you to be Stripped from it.”

“Stripped from it?!”

“...”

“Right, not in the scope of the ritual. Please, continue.”

“The only thing left, that I can tell you is I’m the facilitator for this ritual, but you ultimately decide what happens within its scope.”

“... I’ll keep it in mind. Thank you.”

“Well, good luck dear!”

“Wait! What’s your name?!”

Proceed? Y/N

I waited for an answer and seeing It wasn’t forthcoming, selected yes.

I ‘returned’ to the ritual room and was almost instantly pulled into another ‘space’.

Commencing Consequence Pruning…

Wisps of gold and dark purple drifted out from me and began to coalesce in front of me.

Pruning Completed.

Commencing Consequence Concentration…

The wisps condensed into two figures, one gold and the other purple. The figures were shrouded by a cloud of the wisps.

Commencing innate ability detection…

Detected.

Here we go…

Innate ability ‘Cleanse’ detected.

What level of bull-

Enhance? Y/N

“... Is this my only option?”

Divergent question acknowledged.

Checking Credentials…

Approved.

Special Allocations unlocked.

There we go!

Where would you like to apply your convergence?

-> Physical Integrity Expand? Y/N

-> Mental Integrity Expand? Y/N

-> System Graft Expand? Y/N

-> Abilities. Expand? Y/N

I expanded each one:

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-> Physical Integrity -> Stat Assimilation Rate

-> Physical Adaptation Rate

-> General Physical Health and Wellness State

-> Twitch speed

-> Body-Mind Transmission Meter

-> Mental Integrity -> Encoding and Retention Rate

-> Mental Health State

-> Mental Magic Resistance

-> Speed of Thought

-> Mind-Body Transmission Meter

-> System Graft -> Interface Upgrades

-> Loosen System Restriction (Warning! Will attract Divine attention!)

-> Body-System Connection

-> Skill Improvement Rate

-> Stats per Level

-> Experience Accumulation Rate

-> Abilities -> Innate Ability

-> Gifted Abilities

-> Earned Abilities

-> Ability Coalescence Rate

-> Ability Combination Meter

“...”

Choice Paralysis, my old friend.

I intended to continue exploring my options, but was interrupted:

“Ding!”

Due to Special Allocations, the System recommends: The majority of your Convergence is best placed in the innate ability. Assimilation of Consequence has been observed to be nearly seamless when applied to the ability most closely tied to your soul.

Then the voice I was speaking to previously, piped up.

“Jude, most of your Merit and Miasma has coalesced into avatars. Those are the figures before you. Any loose wisps of merit or miasma can be used in a fixed combination, to enhance your other aspects and abilities. Use the avatars for your innate ability, or at least the majority of them. Please, choose wisely.”

With such clear-cut instruction, I began clicking on upgrades, starting with the System options, thinking long term (They also looked very juicy). Of course, I avoided the System Restriction and Innate Ability options.

However, I seemed to have quite a large number of loose wisps. I didn’t really understand why but I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Damn… Being an Otherworlder is OP.

One by one, the options began to show MAX in front of them.

After all the options were fully upgraded, I still had quite a large number of wisps. I was about to bite the bullet and put the rest in my innate ability, when a new list popped up:

-> Baptisms -> Mana Baptism (Better Spells)

-> Ether Baptism (Better Cultivation) …Hmm?

-> Reality Baptism (Recommended)

Looking at my remaining wisps, I shrugged and maxed out all three.

Another set of options showed itself:

-> Paths -> Path of Heart (Limited Empathy)

-> Path of Intention (Limited Truth Sensing)

-> Path of Influence (Limited Soul Sight)

“These options are mostly cosmetic. Even at full power, they will never be potent unless improved by a granted ability.”

I maxed them out regardless, I had enough wisps to spare.

Now, it may have come to your attention that I was enjoying this far too much.

I admit, I was a little disappointed when no new options popped up.

I finally studied the two figures in front of me, obscured by a substantially depleted cloud of wisps.

They looked like me… If I was flash bombed by gold or purple glitter. Although, looking at the golden one smiling at me, he was gold through and through.

I smiled back, waiting for the next System window to open.

We waited awkwardly for a time. I decided to break the ice, meeting the gazes of the avatars.

“So… You guys have any notion of how this works?”

The purple one avoided my gaze, while the gold one simply shook their head.

“Mm… System? What next?”

“Ding!”

It is recommended-

“That you sacrifice your miasma through my framework for raw power, feed it to your merit, and then your innate ability.”

“That’s… not what you told me the process was a few minutes ago. Or am I missing something?”

“Your avatars are larger than usual. They also seem to have rudimentary sapience… Which is not standard. I do not foresee anything beneficial coming out of feeding a sapient miasmic creature directly to an aspect of yourself. There has only been one other case of this magnitude of miasma extracted from an Otherworlder taking this ritual, and it’s [Redacted].”

“... It comes from me though. How could it be harmful?”

“... Reach out carefully and touch the avatars.”

The golden one stretched out its hands towards me first, so I took it…

I was caught up in a vision.

Kind arms cradling me.

Someone laughing at my terrible jokes.

Ricardo jumping on top of that grenade.

My old friend, always trying to steer me back to the straight and narrow, unsuccessfully.

Oh… Oh Shit!

My merit was a representation of every good thing done to or for me and vice-versa.

Ever since I was born on Earth, till now.

That was what my merit embodied.

That means… Miasma…

I didn’t need to touch the miasmic avatar to understand why they were so large.

I’d lived an eventful life, a good chunk of it, I would honestly not wish on anyone.

“...” The miasma avatar was staring at me, now.

And my only impression was oddly not that of malice. It was…

Pitiful…

And I couldn’t shake the feeling.

They were fully sapient...

It was something about how they were looking at me.

Like men resigned to their deaths.

I’d seen that look before…

Was this murder?

What am I thinking? No, it isn’t!

…Right?!

I forced myself to look at the avatars again.

They knew I was going to kill them, or at least that they’ll cease to exist as they are. The golden man did not seem too upset about it, but the other was obviously depressed.

I have to do this, or all of this was for nothing.

They needed to go…

But I couldn’t do it!

“Screw thi-!”

Reach…

I took a deep breath, now avoiding the gaze of the avatars.

“... System, could you elaborate more on how the ability enhancement works?”

“Think of abilities as an engine. It takes in materials and produces some product. It’s allowed to take in a variety of materials. Technically, it can take almost any material in existence. It’s however nearly impossible to find more than a few in any world or realm, and even those few are regulated by other Systems. What it can take in might be anything, but its product is fixed per ability, with one exception…”

“Evolution?”

“Correct. Here’s the nuance: Some materials when taken in can trigger an evolution of the ability and that isn't always beneficial, Jude. Please, let me filter it for you.”

“If it could take any variety of input. Can you make it so that they both survive and remain sapient within the framework of the ability?! Look, help me out here! How do we do this that they don’t die!”

“There isn’t always a good answer, Jude… You could abort the ritual.”

“... In that case, what happens to them?!”

“...”

I laughed bitterly, “They die anyways, don’t they?!”

“I will always work towards what's best for you, Jude.”

“I’m sorry, but to hell with that!”

I glanced the avatars, “Dammit!”

It seemed even the avatars had realized this before I did.

After my sanctimonious monologue, here I am forced to kill people because it’s the pragmatic choice!

Reach…

“... The answer might not be optimal, but it is my own.”

“Jude?”

I turned to the avatars, “I’m so sorry. I see one way to keep you both somewhat alive. There might be others. I can’t think of them right now, and I won’t assume that I’m safe in this space from Miard to spend too long here.”

The avatars looked at each other, then at me.

Seeing I had their attention, I continued, “How do you feel about remaining conscious within me. You would be limited in certain… freedoms but everything I see and experience, so will you.”

Still doesn’t feel right…

They nodded, however. The golden one more reluctant than the other.

“System, can you guide the evolution of an ability in a specific direction?”

“... Yes. It’s still not recommended. Miasma is not something to be trifled wi-”

“It’s a part of me, or at least, it was. I don’t think it would harm me. In any case, hear me out first.”

“Very well.”

“What if, we structure the evolved ability to allow for the avatars to somewhat exist within it and observe the outside world.”

“...”

“Humor me.”

“They would need to serve a purpose within the framework of the ability’s function.”

“What was it… Cleanse? What exactly would that evolve into?”

“Some kind of combat purge, probably.”

“... Can’t you tell for sure? Better yet, can’t you guide it, as it’s been evolved?”

“Not if you want me to preserve the consciousness of the avatars within the ability. I could… nudge it, but it’s not a sure thing anymore.”

“Okay. Is it safe to assume that the evolved ability, would still be doing some form of cleansing?”

“Yes.”

I rubbed my hands together, “Okay, I got it! What if we made it so that the Miasma avatar could detect when something is ‘filthy’ given it’s nature, it probably understands what counts as evil and what doesn’t (even if that evil is dirty underwear), and the Merit avatar then triggers the ‘purge’ of said evil? Oh! What if we made it so it’s passive?”

“No. I will not be letting you cede power to these beings, no matter how benign. It must be an active ability. Something you decide to use or not.”

“Perhaps, they could… kind of nudge me to use it if they sense it’s necessary”

“They should not have any influence over your mind!”

“No! I mean like they notify me, that based on their judgement, I should probably use the ability?”

“That’s… acceptable.”

“For real?!”

“You are stunting my ability to push your innate ability towards something more useful, but I understand that this is your choice.”

“Thank you!”

“However, I warn you. During the process, you will have the wherewithal to influence the outcome. Whatever you do, do not reject the conditions I insisted on.”

“No problem. When do we start?”

“Now.”

Enhance Innate ability ‘Cleanse’? Y/N

Yes.

Something that looked like the internals of a mechanical clock emerged from my body and swallowed the avatars.

Innate ability ‘Cleanse’ has evolved into ‘Purge’

Several hands of different colors came out of rifts in space, and began to rearrange the mechanism, leaving two alcoves next to one another on a side of it.

Innate ability ‘Purge’ has evolved into ‘Discerning Purge’

The avatars were lifted by the hands and placed into the alcoves.

Please, let this work!

Innate ability ‘Discerning Purge’ has evolved into ‘Abomination Purge’

“Yes!”

While I celebrated, the avatar of merit began to reach for the other. I was confused at first, but then the avatars stretched their hands towards me as they awkwardly held each other’s hand, while trying to remain within their alcoves.

“The hell are you guys doing?!”

The disembodied glowing hands paused for a moment, then they created a channel between the two alcoves to make it easier for the avatars to hold the other.

Innate ability ‘Abomination Purge’ has been refined into ‘Discerning Abomination Purge’

They kept their hands outstretched towards me still.

Nothing that comes from me should harm me.

I took their hands, and heat flashed within me.

Crap! I forgot about self destructive behaviors! And cancers!

Before I could pull away, I sensed their intentions:

Rather than one detecting ‘filth’ and the other purging, the three of us decide what to purge and to what degree? Hold up…

The miasma avatar can’t purge! It’s closer to a giant ball of resentment than an-

Said avatar was now glaring a hole into my head.

“I’m guessing you take offense to that. Look, you need to accept what y-”

The avatars interrupted me with another wave of impressions.

Rather than an arbiter of evil. It wanted to work together to decide between fast-tracking Consequence, enforcing personal Freedom, or facilitating Restitution (or Redemption)?

I’m lost…

“Whatever the hell you’re trying to tell me, feels a lot out of the scope of what I think the ability is?”

They just stared at me.

Won’t hurt to try I guess…

I felt for the invisible dial I felt inside my mind when the process started, and began to tune it, while keeping the ideas discussed front-center in mind.

And while I’m doing that…

I added that the ability should trigger without my input, but only when it was both an emergency, and I was, for whatever reason, unable to give permission.

Apologies, System…

When I started making the changes, a steady heat had been building within me. It was merely uncomfortable at first, but, as I finished the changes, it transformed into full blown torture. But this was nothing, so I gritted my teeth.

“Jude, stop whatever you’re doing, you’re attracting Their atten- Brace yourself!”

“Ding!!”

Attend! Divine restrictions breached. Retribution enacted.

I literally burst into flames.

“AAAAARGH!!!” I screamed.

Yet I refused to let go of the avatars’ hands.

I’m really beginning to dislike these gods. What the hell did I do now! All because I-

“Hahahahahaha! Hahaha!”

I couldn’t stop laughing. Life can be absurd sometimes…

It’s been a day, and I’ve been tortured twice already! What a world!

Eventually, I regained control of myself.

Then I turned the dial again and stipulated that the flames currently hurting me, be fed into the ability as fuel.

The pain vanished.

Like an attack dog yanked back on it’s leash when it tried to attack a hungry bear.

“Haha!!”

Too late! Bastards!

A small white flame flickered in a new alcove slightly above and between the avatars in the mechanism.

Innate ability ‘Discerning Abomination Purge’ has evolved into ‘M’ida, the Cleansing Flame of the Quiet’

“Well done, Jude.”

“...Do I want to know what the fuck that was?!”

“It’s Rank is high enough to affect even the gods of Relir.” The System sounded giddy.

Ah…

“Guess I should be glad I wasn’t smited, then.”

“You just were Jude. You only survived because of your quick thinking and that you’re technically, not an adult yet. Prepare for when your System Graft fully awakens. They’ll likely be waiting for you then…”

“...”

Ritual of Consequence Convergence completed.

“Stay safe, Jude, and goodbye.”

“Forgive me if I don’t look forward to our next conversation, but... Thank you, System.” I said as the vision of the avatars in their alcoves(with the flame above their linked hands), faded.

All at once, the floating disembodied hands returned to their rifts, except one, that patted my head before returning after the others.

I’m just gonna ignore that one…

I returned to the ritual room to find all the liquid had vanished from the gutter.

I took some time to inspect my body for any changes, and found… quite a few.

My skin was silky smooth, and every breath I took felt like heaven transmuted into breathable gas.

I also finally had that eight-pack.

Praise be…

There was also thankfully a lack of burn damage.

Was I terrified by the apparent alteration of my physicality without my being conscious of it?

Maybe.

Least of my problems right now, frankly.

I stood up fluidly and moved towards the walled up entrance, stopping in front of it, I looked towards a previously unseen window on my left.

Somehow, I knew I could make the jump down to the ground, outside the Castle.

I shook my head.

I have allies here, no matter how dubious. It’s better than roughing it in the streets of a city I have no clue how to navigate.

I called out, ”Roukk! Open up!”

The walls folded out of the entrance, giving me a clear view of the other side.

And a livid Miard waiting for me in the hallway.

"Hello, boy."

"..."

C'mon! Give me a break…