It was after choosing his newest identity and realizing that he could not walk in either light or dark without severe consequences that a middle ground was established-forcing the warring sides of the Force into a truce. Neither could truly lay claim to Erebus' soul, but at the same time, they both could.
Such is the power of Shadow. One could walk in the light and darkness, but never truly affected by both in a significant way. Unbeknownst to Erebus, this was the best choice he could make in regards to the long-term benefits he will gain throughout his adventures in the Variant Timelines.
From the reaches of the Old Republic era to the stone hallways of Hogwarts, no one could accurately predict what his path will take him-save for the Elder Gods who helped take him into this weird place. For the time being, Erebus was unaware of his future path amongst the famous golden trio nor his eventual encounter with the Sith of the Galactic Republic era before the rise of the Empire.
All he knew was that the Tutorial was over and his adventures were set to begin in earnest.
<-+->
[System Tutorial Completed. Host is awarded the following:
- +100 EXP
- +50 EXP {Achievement Reward: Tutorial}
- +500 Credits
- +1 Voidship Voucher
- +1 Starter Pack
- +1 Space-Time Relocation Beacon (One-Time)
- Campaign Quest: {Wandering Soul: Rise of the Outworlder I}]
[Congratulations! You are now Level 2! 50/200 EXP to Next Level.]
"Wow," Erebus said with a light tone of shocked surprise after waking up in his new body crafted especially by Mortis himself. Even though in his previous life back on Terra, he didn't have such strong muscular definition to the point it would feel like his whole body was essentially made of strong fiber optic cables! "Damn, I look good. If I knew all I had to do was die to get this body, I would have done it before!"
Yes, he wanted to have his moment of narcissism before acknowledging reality.
As for what he now looked like? Well, unlike young Aedan Bones from "Harry Potter and the Rise of the Protector" fanfiction which Mortis had read through the Eternal System's interface with the Archive, he wasn't going to design his new body around the laws of a singular world. Not when he is meant to traverse multiple worlds in the future-hence why he didn't just make him into a pureblooded Sith. What Mortis had done was pull in design choices from nearly every world young Erebus would visit in the future while making some slight modifications to his base human form.
First to change was the hair. Erebus-due to his new identity confirmed by the Remnant Soul System itself-was now long wavy jet black hair with a soft dark magenta gradient towards the tips of his hair. It was in a similar fashion to those cultivators from xianxia/wuxia novels like "Cultivation Online" or "Rebirth of the Supreme Celestial Being" in terms of hair style, but Mortis would have preferred the celtic hair design that Saratas' Nyxian vessel had.
Second was the skin tone. Instead of a light tan white skin like Terran natives had due to the singular sun their planet orbited, he had a deeper tanned white skin which lightly complimented his hair color. There was no physical evidence of the tones used by the Son and Daughter future Obi-Wan and Anakin would encounter during the Clone Wars, but rather a mixture of both that would show the fragile balance of the two.
Third, the eyes. Unlike young mister Potter in the books with his bright green eyes, Erebus had a deep sapphire blue that was reminiscent of Mortis' own eye color he had in his normal priestly vessel. This would give off a subtle feeling of peering into the eyes of Death itself if one were to directly look into his gaze, but there laid a dangerous beauty which ensnares the soul. It was also reminiscent of Daniel Radcliffe's own blue eyes from the movies.
Fourth, the ears. Like Aedan Bones, Erebus too had pointy ears reminiscent of elves from the Lord of the Rings franchise. Even if there wasn't any plans for Erebus to travel into Middle-Earth currently, it was better to plan for every possibility.
Fifth, the fingers and toes. In a similar fashion to Voldemort's portrayal in the movies by Ralph Fiennes, Erebus had slightly pointed fingernails and toenails that resemble claws. Unfortunately, there wouldn't be many times for people to see the toenails.
Lastly, Erebus had been roughly 5'7" (five feet and seven inches) back on Terra, but he was now roughly 6'1" (six feet and one inch) tall. His entire body was designed for a balance between speed and power, but this would change often through his stat table. Aesthetically, it would be rather difficult for both genders to not find Erebus attractive if they like his specific body type.
Luckily, a moment later after Erebus finished with his narcissistic spotlight, the System automatically equipped him with the standard basic clothes that-like in any RPG-provided no stats and only provided him with something to cover up. He didn't mind that and nor did Mortis who had waited patiently for Erebus to get used to his new immortal body. With little time left before Mortis had to return to System-controlled space and resume his duties there, he started to give Erebus some pointers on what to do with his rewards.
"Any reward you get from achievements or quests will be stored in your [Inventory]," Mortis explained. "There is roughly 400 slots in your inventory divided evenly into twenty columns and rows where you can store up to 99 items of the same type in a single slot, but some items are not stackable such as weapons and armor. You can expand your inventory in various ways, but I'll leave that to you to discover on your own."
'That is pretty handy to have,' Erebus thought to himself and Mortis nodded since he heard his thoughts loud and clear.
"All ships you acquire in your adventures-including Voidships-are not listed in your [Inventory] and are put into your [Shipyard]. There is a limit of ten ships you can have per benchmark level, which is every ten or so levels," Mortis continued. "You can only have one active ship at any given time and if you wish to change ships, you must make that new ship your active one and you can't change your active ships again for at least a year. Your first ship will be your active ship for free, but any others must follow the same rules."
Erebus' eyes widened at the prospect of having his own ship and the joy radiated off of him in waves like an electron storm. Mortis chuckled lightly at the sight, but nonetheless continued his small lecture.
"You can use your System to fast travel through the current dimension as long as you have been there before and you're in the correct time period. For instance, you can't travel to the Death Star since you haven't been physically there and it isn't built yet. For now, there is nowhere you can fast travel to yet, but the only exception to this rule is your active ship if it is a Voidship," Mortis sternly said. "This is so you can return to your ship no matter what and all ships rewarded to you are soulbound-meaning they cannot be traded, sold, or gifted to another. Only you can use it or disassemble them for parts or refining points (RP)."
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
(A/N: Refining points do not play much of a role in the story at the current moment, but they will become much more useful when Damian/Erebus has multiple ships taking up slots. Think of them as a currency you can only get from disassembling ships that you can use to upgrade the other ones like in games similar to Eve Online.)
"Lastly, in your travels, you will encounter people you may befriend or become enemies with. Your System has the ability to put them into contacts like a cellular phone from your homeworld. You can even contact me or anyone else you've encountered for assistance through your System, but be warned," Mortis said with his right index finger slowly being pointed at Erebus's forehead in a warning manner. His tone suddenly dropped and became ice cold as he finished with "we will NOT come to your rescue nor will we offer favoritism. All you will get is advice on the information you provide and that is all. We are extremely powerful, but we have already given you plenty of resources to make yourself self-sustainable. Anything else is up to you to get or discover."
Erebus gulped subconsciously as he felt true fear from this enchanting man whose command over Death itself is unreal. All he could do was nod vigorously and Mortis then retracted his finger as the aperture started to degrade.
This meant their time was coming to an end.
"Now, I suggest you use the [Starter Pack] and the relocator beacon in that order. I forged your body in a place outside of normal time in this Galaxy and once this place degrades, you'll either be flung into the future or into the past. The beacon will give you a fixed place to land in space and time," Mortis explained to Erebus as he snapped his fingers-vanishing from the Variant Timelines completely as if he was never there.
Erebus saw that and immediately got his head in the game-feeling the pressure from the decaying aperture. He followed Mortis' advice and opened his [Inventory]-selecting the [Starter Pack].
Immediately, the item vanished from his [Inventory] and he received a few notifications from his System.
<-+->
[Opening Starter Pack...]
[Congratulations! You have received: 1x {Lightsaber Construction Kit}]
[Congratulations! You have received: 1x {Force User Robes - Neutral}]
[Congratulations! You have received: 1x {High-Quality MedKit}]
[Congratulations! You have received: 500x Credits]
[Congratulations! You have received: 1x {Cultivation Method - Primordial Cosmos}]
[Congratulations! You have received: 1x {Basic Skill Set}]
[Congratulations! You have received: 1x {Soulbound Pet}]
[Achievement Unlocked: First World]
[Congratulations! You have received: +50 EXP, +100 Credits, and System Unlock: Money Pouch.]
[All Credit rewards have been automatically added into your Money Pouch.]
[Lore: In your many travels, you will gain world/dimension-specific currencies and instead of spreading your wealth everywhere, you can change your currencies for a small conversion fee through the System itself. Your Money Pouch is set within your [Inventory] and no items can be placed inside of your Money Pouch.]
[Pouch: 1100 Credits]
<-+->
After reading through each of the notifications, Erebus dismissed them all. Now, he was only halfway to the next level, but he had a feeling that it wouldn't be this easy to level up in the future.
'The aperture is nearly finished!' Erebus thought to himself as he saw that it was barely holding on and all it would take is a few minutes to fully break. He didn't know how he understood that, but he'd chalk it up to something to find out later on when he's relatively safe. 'I need to use that beacon!'
With his [Inventory] still open, he quickly found the beacon Mortis had told him about before leaving-its icon was similar to a Sith holocron, but had a cerulean tint to it. He quickly tapped on it and a System prompt appeared-asking him when and where he would like to go.
Erebus didn't bother with seeing every single listing for the entire Galaxy and selected Coruscant in the Old Republic era. Whether or not he was going to find travelers from an alternate Earth thinking they are playing a game, that would be left up for debate since this wasn't "Star Wars: Galactic Expedition."
[Destination selected and locked. Safe travels!]
Just as the aperture broke apart and disintegrated, no one suspected a thing. Erebus had traveled back in Time and his destination on Coruscant left unknown for now...
==+==
In the Old Republic era, both Darth Marr and Vowrawn were left reeling from the surprise they received in the Council chambers just moments earlier. They couldn't explain in too great of detail about the emergence of an Outworlder which would arrive in their space in the coming months. The Force did not lie in its prophetic telling as they saw the Outworlder appearing on Dromund Kaas faced against members of Imperial Intelligence. In fact, they even made preparations based on these visions to prepare for his arrival. No doubt that even the Jedi have made similar preparations for the Outworlder, but there had not been any movements from either yet. The war was taking up most of the time from both intelligence offices due to the stalemate.
Neither of them knew exactly how long it would take, but the only thing they had was within the year, they will encounter this Outworlder.
==+==
It had been a long day at the Ministry for one woman. She had learned that her niece Susan Bones had just been born to her brother Alfred Bones and his wife, but today was a bit too long in her opinion. The downfall of Lord Voldemort played a crucial part in this, but Amelia Bones was just happy to finally return home. Little did she know the events that were about to unfold as soon as she opened the door to her home.
A small sound of fingers snapping echoed and the lights popped into existence-revealing a handsome man in his mid twenties dressed in black with eyes gleaming emerald green staring right at her. This put Amelia on guard immediately, but after a moment of nothing else happening, she tentatively asked "Who are you?"
"Apologies for the mild interruption into your life, Amelia Susan Bones," the man said in a clear yet calculating tone. With a gentle wave of his hand, he softly closed the door behind her and continued, "but I have business with you specifically."
Amelia didn't pull out her wand nor did she let down her guard, but calmly waited for this stranger-who seemed to know her full name-to explain himself. She would get her answer a few seconds later.
"In the coming years, there will be changes. Harry Potter and your niece will go to Hogwarts at the age of eleven, but events will play out differently than what this world has in mind. Neither you nor the Ministry can stop this of course, but that is not why I'm here. To put it simply, Madam Bones, I represent a group of people who have a vested interest in certain events of which will involve the Wizarding World at large," the man continued as he understood her. She was tired and exhausted from the long day at the Ministry due to Voldemort's downfall at the hands of the infant Harry Potter-who was currently on his way to the Dursleys to live there for the next eleven years-but this was a crucial turning point in where the canon events will be set into motion.
He had to make sure some of the events explained in the books and movies still happened, but the context was altered.
"What?" Amelia asked, confused. 'Who was this man?'
"I am Saratas," the man responded as if stating his name was casual. "I'd explain a lot about myself and the group I am a part of, but I can see your exhausted. A long day with paperwork to certify young mister Potter's triumph over Voldemort-by the way, don't bother trying to tell me not to say his name. I am not scared to mention the word and by the time his followers found out, they won't find out who or where it was said."
"Mister Saratas," Amelia began with a small sigh of relief and her tone getting a little stern, "could you please explain what business I have with you?"
Saratas gave her a light smirk. "Of course, Madam Bones. The reason why I am here is twofold. In the next few days, you will receive a notice from Alastor Moody that a survivor of your brother's has been found and taken to St. Mungo's. Normally, this will not have happened, but in this timeline, there will only be one survivor. He is an acquaintance of mine who has suffered more than just the ritualistic torture he'd been put through, but that will be his to share. His fortune is tied to the Bones family and more specifically, your survival."
"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Amelia asked Saratas in a curious tone. She had not yet heard of the Death Eater attacks on her brothers-leaving little Susan Bones in her aunt's care. This was what Saratas knew, but left it to the incoming owl to clear up for them both.
"You'll find out soon, but I'll clear up what I said last," Saratas shrugged. "In roughly sixteen to seventeen years, you were supposed to die at the hands of Voldemort-leaving little Susan alone in the world. The changes in the timeline will circumvent this dark fate as all of us who've heard the story do not wish for you to die."
At this point, Amelia was in shock from the explanation of her supposed future. This made Amelia immediately put her guard up further than before, but something stopped her. Running it through her mind again, the way Saratas spoke about this grim fate and changes in the timeline made her rethink that this man was trying to insinuate that there was hope.
And it all lay on a little boy she was now very eager to meet.