His hands reached into the beacon, his heart felt light as he interact with the beacon.
“Answer me, why in my perilous situation, you revealed yourself... “
“...”
It does not answer him.
The beacon assimilated into himself. “Wait, answer me. Why... Who are you.”
It felt warm like a soup during a rain, he was at peace.
“I miss those times, where I can see them... Without the worries of adulthood... Not thinking about our eventual death... It is my fault.”
His chest weighed like a large truck. Carrying the guilt of their deaths, trapping into this world. “But, it was our choice... This beacon is messing with me”
Like a time-lapse, he traveled through each part of life. Flickering transience, from the moment of his birth to his death; he could not find the fault of everything he’d gone through. But the entire Solvay conference was his fault. If he never drank that night... They would have not died. Yet, the universe seem to orchestrate their demise, like a conductor on the stage of life.
By absorbing the beacon, he could see his faults. All the inconsistencies of their deaths. The bits and pieces that was off. As if it was intentionally put together, like they’re part of a script. How strange.
Suddenly, he was transported in a room. The moonlight pierced through the window. It was a childhood room, adorned with dressers, toy box, scientific trinkets he had as a child. ‘What am I doing here?’
“Curious?” Said the moon beckoning outside the window.
“Who are you?!” He flinched, he rotated his body to see who said it. But he felt the moon staring at him, so he stared back.
“It was my first time talking to you in this world. How do you like it so far?”
Ha... Ha... Ha ha ha...
Arise derided at the moon, slowly laughing as if he was a lunatic. “HA HA HA, So it was you? Prodimia... Is it?”
The moon silently watched him, it seems interested in Arise, his laughing made it ‘smile’
“How bold of you, you know for some reason, I felt intense anger at you... I can’t seem to point that out. It’s like I’m staring at the mirror. You’re a fraud aren’t you?” Arise continued.
“...”
“Talk to me,” He demanded.
“Unbelievable, I gave you a second chance and this is what you’ll treat me?” Prodimia scoffed. “Mortals do overstep their boundaries, but I’ve never seen someone with as much resentment as you.”
“What are your goal?” He questioned the god.
“I do not have such things” Prodimia dismissed.
The scientist grabbed the snow globe off his shelf and threw it on the window. The window shattered and shockingly, even the sky cracked like glass. The moon seem to fragment from the damage. Yet it continued talking. “You’re a disrespectful wench.”
“Oh, am I?”
He watched the sky crumbled as his room slowly decayed. It smelled of rotten wood, like a waterlogged cabinet. The voice of the deity spread everywhere, as if it was everywhere.
“Normally, I do not tolerate people like you. But it seems like you’re a special case.”
Arise a felt a sharp pain in his chest. As the beacon luster, it felt like his chest was filled with buckets of magma. As he felt his intense ambition to stay alive. Everything he needed to do, his goal to reunite with his friends. To figure out the goal of the god. All poured into him, as he gained the power he needed. The gift mentioned by Prodimia.
“Best of luck, Arise. You really remind me of that lad.”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
The shadow engulfed him; the ground disappeared as he fell through millions of kilometers, in a seemingly never ending pit. Until vision filled with Alexandris, he continued to lash him with the wind tendrils.
“You’re still alive... How annoying.”
He felt the gash all over his body. Arise gritted his teeth as slowly took a stance. While heavily breathing, his body bleeding like a faucet, he said. “I name this ability... Theory of Creation”
“Ha... Ha, do you really have the energy to dramatically name your ability?”
He ignored his taunt, his vision was filled with an interface, similar to an AR. He grasped the ability immediately. The moment he came back, the pestering interface was on his vision. Telling him to ‘create’ something. He figured that this ability was similar to building modes of simulation games like the sims or city skylines.
Before Alexandris strike again, he placed a ghastly apparition of the building he wanted to make. It was a wooden spike, He shouted “Construct!”
The foundations of the house nearby suddenly as the wooden beam disassembled itself and reassembled to give Arise's structures life. The houses collapsed into a pile of debris as it crashed from the lack of foundation.
Crack!
A wooden spike emerged out of nowhere and blocked Alexandris’s attacks. “Tsk”
Crack!
“Construct!”
They exchanged attacks, as Arise continued to use collapsed rocks and wood from the houses to construct wooden spires and rocks. Alexandris unleashed a barrage a whips; each was countered by Arise own conjuration of his own activity.
As they continued to exchange blows, Arise’s own stamina was depleting rapidly. The ability drained him, instead of using aetheric energy to functions, abilities used the user’s stamina instead. And the fact he’s wounded, his stamina was severely depleted to begin with.
Sooner or later, he’ll succumb to his wounds. He hoped this battle does not turn into a war of attrition.
‘I can’t let this stretch longer, my life depends on this. But his attacks... It’s getting violent.’
Alexandris’s attacks kept getting heavier like the weight of an elephant added to each strike.
Debris of rocks and wood hurled as Arise was pelted by his own line of defense. The utterance of the word construct howled in the air followed by a loud crash as Alexandris slowly penetrated through his defense.
Arise took a step back as patch of the ground vanished to be assembled into Arise’s defense. Alexandris sauntered as the onslaught of attacks smashed through the spires like mace hitting a rock wall.
“So you do have a use after all, I thought this is just a strange fascination of my father,” said Alexandris, his tone was condescending, like all beings were below him. “Because you possessed an Erudition. How unsightly, out of the people I know, Eruditions users are the most annoying ones.”
“So you call them Erudition... How could you tell?”
“Changing the physical world ever so slightly, without the use of aetheric energy. Only powers of the kind can do it without the force of nature or god. Blasphemous as the church says”
Arise thought Erudition was a fitting name. A likely manifestation of his ambition and interest, a knowledge that only him could use. But if the church considered Erudition as blasphemous, would it make him the enemy of the church; not like he had a choice, he was made the duke as an enemy when the latter ambushed him. And if he passed out now, this would be the end of his journey, no second chances... So he would want to pull through.
Theory of creation allowed Arise to design and visualize structures through an AR-like interface in his vision. Arise could assign the materials that could be built, within two kilometers of Arise, he could use any materials from any existing resources. The bigger the structure, smaller the window of resource he could collect.
Like the rocks and wood from the buildings and road, it'll disassemble and reassemble to Arise's structure. Theory of Creation could not give life to structures out of thin air. To confirm the command of the user, he needed to say the word, 'construct.'
From his futile attempt at building structures in Alexandris's path, he figured that defensive stance could massively drain his energy reserves. So he needed to change his strategy.
‘Being careful does nothing at this point, he’s going to brute force his way. Fuck collateral damage, I can’t be civil when my life is on the line’
'I'm sorry civilians, I'll borrow the materials from your house'
Desperate, Arise began to construct a mass of amalgamated structures. As the Rolsen district became a war zone, townspeople were fleeing from the battle. The building collapsed as Arise used its matter as a material.
“ARGHH” he screamed as houses began to collapse from his Erudition. His stamina on the the brink of extinction. "Construct!"
Alexandris glanced at the collapsed structures . His face filled with bewilderment as buildings reduced to rubble and tumble down like a house of cards.
"What are you planning now?"
He limped away as he blocked Alexandris’s way with numerous amalgamation of structures. He shrugged them off like bugs, shredding it to pieces as he continued his pursuit of the scientist.
“That's just a diversion? How disappointing. ” he slashed through the rubble as the cloud of dust settled. "Too bad that lackluster strategy do not work on me."
The crackle of the wood, the blunt crack of the cobblestones rang in Arise’s ears as his stamina continued to dwindle like a water bottle filling a cup. “hahh... Hahhh...” he breathe heavily, as if his lungs were tied to a leg iron, limping as it tried to avoid its demise.
Arise's plan was simple, keep Alexandris busy and divert his attention from the both of them to him. By using Theory of creation to slighty stall Alexandris, Arise could steadily accumulate enough Aetheric energy for aetheric conveyance.
As he dragged his leg through the cobbled road. He thought 'Damn it, just a little bit. Just a few notches, I could escape with Stanzi!'
It more than he hoped for, energy pulled into his body as he diverts it to a lodestone ring. It was he could see the light from the end of a tunnel, ready to live the dark cave he dragged Stanzi in. As he gathered enough energy; he pulled the paper until.
The wind tendrils whammed into the air, his hand wounded- letting go of the paper. Alexandris followed it with another strike to his back; he plummetted to the ground.
“This time, you can’t run,” the tendrils wrapped each other like a tentacle cooperating with its body, it formed a sharp end which was sharper than any of the blade in the city. “Checkmate, Purple eyes," he smirked.
‘I’m dead... I’m sorry Eishi and Ayase... I guess I’m the first on to die in this world... I’ll see you two in the other side again...’ It was the familiar feeling again, like he was submerged in an ocean. The briney water seeping through his skin, the cool water regulating his body heat. He's used to it by now, he experienced it when he was in a peril. Then he imagined Stanzi's blue hair waving in the wind, Mel's black skirt following Stanzi's hair. The two people that helped him go this far.
‘Stanzi and Mel... I’m sorry I failed... Please live for me.’
From the sky, a blond woman fell as she said:
“Just when I told you not to cause commotion, you did it anyway.” A voice of woman wafted into his ears. She called out to her ability “Dice answer me, let this outcome be on your hands.” She conjured a twenty sided die. She threw it into the air.
The die hurled through the air, sides shifting on the air, not sure where to drop, what side it wants to show. It hurtled to the ground as Hazel announced her intention. “I’ll dispell Alexandris’s Ventus Alis Lampyris with my barehands.”
[20]
On time, she intervened as she back handed the wind tendrils. It dissipated as soon as it touched Hazel’s hand.
Alexandris’s eyes widened as he gritted slowly gritted his teeth. “Great, another Erudition.” He complained. “Didn’t I told you to stay out of my business?”
The blond woman dispelled his intent as she shot daggers at him with underlying disappointment. “Enough is enough.”
“Why do you keep impeding in my affairs?”
The woman exclaimed as she grabbed the nobleman by the collar. “LOOK AROUND YOU!”
His lips squirmed as her grip tightened, “Is the utter destruction of the Rolsen district enough for you? Do you even think what will happen to the people who lived here?”
“So what, Sister? They’re commoners, why should I care for t-”
Hazel struck Alexandris as it cut his insult short. “Listen to yourself for once, you’re embarrassing.”
Alexandris beckoned for a slap. “Hit me, go ahead.” Hazel provoked Alexandris.
He withdrew his hand, he looked down unable to meet his sister’s. “That’s what I thought.”