Seth was alone.
For the first time in what felt like forever, the whispers in his mind were gone, leaving him in a horrible silence.
After the race was finished and Gaia had stripped Seth of his hand as well as his dignity, the group challenge had summarily ended.
But Seth did not notice any of it.
He didn’t notice the series of screens that bloomed into existence. He didn’t notice when he had been teleported to a large luxurious viewing booth. He didn’t notice his friends attempt to console him. And he didn’t notice when he had been transported back into the woods of The Incubator.
He didn’t notice anything anymore.
The world had come crashing down in a way Seth had never thought possible.
Even when he had been thrown into Origin’s experiments, completely ignorant and left for dead. Even when he had been mentally tortured by his Umbra. Even all the way back when his parents had moved on without him, Seth still had something going for him. It might not have been much, but even faced with a totally new and deadly reality, there was one thing that he could count on:
Fairness.
Beyond everything, fairness was the absolute law of the universe. Grayson himself had told him as much. The entire archive of information Seth had in his Index affirmed the same. The influence of Fate upon Shapers was insurmountable in importance, but at the end of the day, every single one of them still had the opportunity to acquire it with enough luck.
Hard work and determination be damned, everyone still had the lone advantage of knowing that at the very least, it wasn’t completely impossible.
Until now.
Not only had Seth been robbed of his chance at becoming Fated, but Ty of all people had taken it from him. Not to mention, according to the conversations that had occurred after the race, Gaia was never supposed to have been there in the first place.
Absolutely nothing about what had happened was fair.
It wasn’t natural.
The sensation of the fate leaving him as soon as his foot slipped ran through his mind on repeat. He had felt it. Seth knew at that moment that the fate was his. Losing the fate was like a literal part of Seth had been exorcised. The loss was immeasurable, completely different than when he had lost his hand. Even now, Seth’s fresh stub was inconsequential compared to the other missing piece.
That’s why his accident made no sense.
He had not slipped one time the two and a half weeks he had been running. The lanes were also smooth, with no loose material or slick patches. His memory also had perfect clarity, meaning that he knew for a fact no abilities had been activated. True Sight would have seen the energy gathering. Also, Seth hadn’t felt any pain from a supposed injury, nor were any of his tendons or muscles in disrepair.
What was it.
Every single possibility that his mind could comprehend streamed in and out of his thoughts. Eventually, the sole possibility outside of Fate itself hating him came to mind. It must’ve been her. It must have been Gaia.
Seth didn’t know how, and he didn’t know why, but Gaia had cheated.
For the first time since the end of the race, Seth’s body stirred. His fingers once again reached for his neck, scratching away with fervent abandon. His stub achieved nothing, as he still hadn’t totally recognized its loss, but his left hand tore into his skin, causing beads of blood to rouse from his flesh.
Much quicker than before, Seth’s body was overcome by an all-encompassing sense of Want. Gaia had mentioned the feeling, saying that she could sense its horrible presence. It was bloodlust, pure and unadulterated.
With his focus sharpened, Seth’s object of hate had come into perfect clarity. Gaia cheated. She cheated.
A being of unimaginable power had descended upon the mortal realm, breaking whatever cosmic rules that the other racers had been aware of.
It had broken natural law just so it could fuck with him.
A divine act made only to ruin the life of a tier three insect.
To Seth, Gaia had truly committed the ultimate insult. It didn’t matter whether or not she had done it in service of Ty. Nor did it matter what she might have sacrificed just to aid her follower.
Ty was nothing to him, just another symbol of Gaia’s sin.
What Gaia had done was more than an insult. It was the act of a mortal. To involve such an insurmountable power for such little gain was wrong. To make matters worse, she had inflicted a crippling blow on a bystander, stealing their fate and injuring them for nothing more than her own pettiness. She had insulted his heritage, his entire existence, just for taking a chance that any true Shaper would have. Being cutthroat was part of the job. Doing anything for the sake of progressing was a virtue of shaping.
But Gaia was no Shaper. She was just an all powerful toddler, a bully.
Bloodlust poured into the void of Seth’s lost fate. His vision slowly began to crystallize, showing Seth a muddy forest floor, as well as a growing pool of black liquid. His muscles came back under his control, allowing Seth to push himself into a seated position. His eyes lulled from side to side, taking in the surroundings with mute comprehension. Tracing the pool, Seth noticed a writhing figure sitting next to his leg.
Finally, he discovered the source. There was a large python wrapped around his right leg, its teeth seemingly finding purchase just above his knee. Black blood wept from the wound; Slower than its crimson counterpart because of the difference in density.
Paralysis had taken hold of his limb, as it seemed the monster had poison in it’s fangs. Seth numbly reached forward, grabbing the diamond shaped head of the large snake with his good hand. With a quick jerk, Seth ripped the head out of his leg, crushing the skull in the process. He patiently unraveled the monster before tossing it’s tier one corpse to the side.
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With a soft grunt, he rose himself from the ground, teetering due to his savaged right leg. He didn’t bother to use a recovery crystal though, as he wanted to put the enhanced recovery Black Blood granted him to the test. He silently limped in a circle, taking in the old swamp that he had traversed what felt like years ago. It seemed that after the group challenge, the remaining participants had been moved away from each other.
Soft light continued to blink on the edge of his vision, telling of notifications left unchecked. Without a sound, a screen appeared before him.
-Congratulations! You have absorbed a Wisp of Fate!
-Warning! Absorption of Wisp of Fate has been interrupted!
-Warning! ?????????
-Anomaly detected! You have failed to absorb the Wisp of Fate!
Seth’s brow creased with silent rage as his suspicions were proven correct. His bloodlust rose in volume, seemingly causing the air around him to waver. Steadying his hand, Seth scrolled further down to where he assumed Gaia arrived.
-Warning! Your anima has been placed under Gaia’s Grace. You cannot move!
-Warning! Your aligned ability: Presence of Doom, has been damaged! Branch abilities have been affected!
-The branch ability: Anar, has been altered! Physical manifestation of Anar has become limited due to the alteration!
-The branch ability: Anima Thief, has been altered! The aspect ability: Anima Release, has been destroyed due to the alteration!
-Warning! Due to the damage to Presence of Doom, the inherit properties have been affected!
-The inherit property: Anima Abyss, has been destroyed! Calculating suitable replacement properties…
-Anima Abyss has been replaced! Deep Anima has replaced Anima Abyss! Anima Reservoir has replaced Anima Abyss!
Seth looked down at his stub. Instead of the black appendage that usually resided there, only a small chunk of swirling void remained. It was less than half the size of his previous hand, as if a portion of his palm was the only thing left. The previous pattern that lined his forearm was also mostly absent, leaving only a few crooked lines that ran up his wrist.
Seth ran a stream of energy into the black lump, but the energy was summarily denied, causing him to chomp on his lip with anger.
I don’t know what the hell inherit properties are, but I’m damn sure nobody should have the power to screw with them.
Seth knew that the damage to his hand was not normal. The Umbra had affected him on a level no regular affliction should be able to. Previously Seth had hurt his black hand multiple times, sometimes even losing fingers due to some monsters. Every time though, a recovery crystal had been enough to heal him, never affecting his abilities.
This time, not only was his injury unfixable, but his abilities had been negatively affected as well. Seth had seen Anima Abyss mentioned in his notifications a couple times before, so he knew that the ability or property or whatever it was, was actually the housing unit for all his animas taken by Anima Thief.
Now though, with Anima Release and Anima Abyss destroyed, it seemed like he had been completely shut out from using animas as minions. Although he hadn’t found a way to use them as an attack, the ability was still really useful in harnessing higher tier animas. Also, Anima Abyss was used to house the spare animas needed for Anima Prison, meaning that Seth no longer had the option to freely swap out boosts for Anar’s aspect ability.
To make matters worse, there were still unidentified changes to Anar, as well as two new properties that he had no idea how to access. Seth stiffened for a moment, then his eyes shifted toward the snake corpse at his feet. Raising his stump, Seth went ahead and activated Anima Thief as well as Plunder. As the snake crumbled to dust, Seth went to check his notifications. There were still a few left unread, but he scrolled past them to the newest entries.
-You have received Lython Skin.
-You have received Lython Venom.
-Lython anima has been stolen.
-Lython anima has been stored in Anima Reservoir. (Current Capacity: 1/3)
Seth’s face contorted into a mask of rage.
The capacity is only three?! Before this, I had hundreds of them!
As far as Seth knew, Anima Abyss didn’t have a limit to the amount of monsters he could store. With enough time, he could’ve had a library full of powerful boosts available for Anar’s Anima Prison. Now though, he only had three options to swap out with the holder boost. The scale of what he had lost with the destruction of Anima Abyss settled on Seth like a hundred pound weight, further straining his calm demeanor.
He tried to rein in the anger while inspecting the changes to Anar. After a moment, Seth became ever more frustrated as his old and most reliable ability did not activate. In a fit of desperation, Seth clawed at the black lump, willing it to turn into his familiar companion. Despite his efforts, the black glaive he was so fond of never emerged from the void. Instead, all his efforts only resulted in misshaping the lump slightly. He was about to slip into another fit when something grabbed his attention.
Wait, I changed its shape?
Seth knew for a fact that his hand had never been malleable before. It had felt and acted exactly like the flesh of his normal hand. Seth pulled at the black flesh once again, this time with more focus. After a few minutes of straining, he let out a gasp as a small lump of darkness actually tore off from the swirling mass after he tried imbuing his fingers with energy. Because of his surprise, he lost focus, causing the pebble of black to lose it’s shape and stick to the tip of his finger. He attempted to pull the piece off of his finger, only to find it was cemented to his skin.
What the-
Seth continued to experiment with the mass, finding that it only bended to his will after applying energy to its surface. The energy still wouldn’t enter the mass, but it seemed to be receptive to his surface level manipulation. After returning the misshapen piece to the main lump, Seth took a small piece of the darkness and rolled it into a pointy spike that he attached to the end of his finger. After withdrawing the energy from the piece, Seth watched as the black spike became solidified once more.
His eyebrows scrunched as he attempted to poke himself, only to find the end was too soft to do more than leave a small indent. Seth didn’t give up on the idea though, and after a few more minutes of practice, he was finally able to compact the piece enough to draw a bead of blood. The spike still wasn’t sharp enough though, as he had to put a significant amount of force into his finger just to prick himself.
He didn’t let the lack of progress bother him, and instead continued his experimentation with a renewed fervor. With a shudder, he reached for the seemingly unending pool of bloodlust that festered in every cell of his body. Once again, the powerful wave of Want poured over him, sharpening his mind and stilling his hand. Shortly after, a new thought occurred to him.
Instead of using his fingers infused with energy, Seth started to pull at the material with energy alone. Due to the change, the swirling void of the lump became volatile and a tar black blade shortly emerged from his finger about an inch out. Seth almost let out a whoop of joy, but quickly schooled himself. After returning the small piece back to the lump, he repeated the process, causing an obsidian dagger to rise from the main mass.
So that’s what it meant! He thought with relief.
It seemed that he was still able to summon a version of Anar, but this one was much smaller than his previous glaive. In fact, he doubted the dagger was even a fifth of the size of his previous weapon. He swiped it through the air a couple times, testing its range and suitability.
It wasn’t ideal, but Seth was more than happy to discover that he wasn’t completely unarmed. He would have to change his method of attack to a certain extent, as he had become relatively skilled with the glaive, and the short weapon was much different. He tested it further, trying to recognize the advantages of the new weapon. Abruptly, his arm fell and the dagger retracted back into his wrist.
Am I seriously getting excited over this?
Rage began to boil in his gut as he admonished himself.
After all that… I’M GETTING ALL GIDDY BECAUSE I HAVE SOME DINKY ASS DAGGER?!
Seth lashed out with his good hand, blasting his fist through a nearby trunk. With a groan, the tree swayed but stayed upright.
No, fuck this!
Seth reached for the lump once again. He chewed on his lip to halt another outburst, and instead began tearing chunks off the black mass on his wrist. The Concept of Resonance began racing through his entire body, mixing with the never-ending ocean of bloodlust that raged through his veins.
Tainted, imp, dark, sickening… YOU HAVE NO IDEA YOU STUPID BITCH.
Remembering every word Gaia had used to insult him, Seth went to work.
“I’ll show you a monster.”