Blood spurted and gore littered around Seth as he started fading into darkness. The only thing Seth could think of as his consciousness slipped was how pathetic his life had been up till this point. As he finally gave up, whispers erupted in Seth’s brain.
Weak. Pathetic. Worthless! IS THIS IS ALL YOU HAVE YOU USELESS LOSER!?
A familiar loathsome voice rang out through his mind. Anger surprisingly bubbled up in Seth’s gut as the whispers assaulted him, reminding him again of his past.
Anger at his worthless uncle.
Anger at the world for taking his parents and leaving him alone.
And most of all, anger at himself for allowing his life to amount to nothing.
The patchwork being was right, the universe gave him one glance and rejected him. No one cared about him. The memories infuriated Seth so much they pushed him past the breaking point. He ferociously fought back his nausea with an unorthodox animalistic growl and turned a rage filled gaze onto the Fouler. It continued to watch him in its tireless flight.
“FUCK YOU, YOU UGLY BALL OF SHIT!” Seth roared as he spat blood weakly from his mouth.
His ribs were most likely broken as well as his arm that was missing a hand. He had suffered an immense amount of blood loss and he knew it would take a miracle for him to survive.
“A miracle...” he muttered as his feral eyes turned to the open lunchbox next to his deformed limb.
There were no more magic green tablets that would heal his wounds, but there was a chance at survival still there. The Anomalous Gem. Seth plucked the now crimson colored gem off the ground with his foot. If it was anything like the language shard, he was confident it would contain enough “dimensional energy” or whatever to heal him at least a little.
The drawbacks of using the mysterious item were vastly outweighed by Seth’s current situation where he would definitely be dying if he just sat there. Snapping his eyes shut, Seth brought the gem up to his mouth and set it on his tongue. Even though Seth knew he just put the gem in his mouth, there wasn’t any sensation at all. It was as if the gem was just a shadow of a real object.
Seth slowly bit down on the gem, and to his surprise, the gem shattered in his mouth, finally giving a sensation, but at the same time, it was unlike anything he had felt before. Brittle shards filled his mouth, but also a sticky liquid that tasted strangely like maple syrup.
Seth attempted to swallow the liquid, when it caught in his throat. He sat up quickly and tried to dislodge the substance wad from his esophagus. Soon after, Seth let out a choked groan as he felt the shards in his mouth begin to prick his gums. The shards were burrowing into all sides of his mouth, and with that came excruciating pain.
In a panic, Seth opened the menu telepathically and strained to find out what was going on. Every menu option was blinking sporadically and the whole menu itself was flickering. Randomly, the Notifications screen appeared without him having to select anything. Through tear filled eyes, Seth stared in hopeless confusion at what was laid out in front of him.
-Congratulations! You have absorbed a @&$&#%€£#!
-Warning! By absorbing the @&$&#%€£#, your body has been fundamentally altered.
-??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
-???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
As an innumerable amount of random symbols started to appear on Seth’s screen, a huge line in red appeared over every other message. This new message made Seth forget all the pain and confusion he been suffering through a moment earlier. Every feeling was replaced with stark fear as the line burned its contents into Seth’s widened eyes. Only after he finished reading did his mind finally become overrun with darkness.
————
“Commander, come look at this,” the creature observing the monitor gurgled.
Its language consisted of a variety of groans and gurgling, due to its lack of a proper mouth. The creature’s superior lumbered its way over on its silver haired gorilla legs. The commander laid its sea green tentacle on its subordinate’s makeshift shoulder.
“Shilung, what is it?” The commander questioned. There were hundreds of screens observing the subjects for this round of experiments, and the commander didn’t know which Shilung was referring to. “Has there been any powerful anomalies of note?”
Shilung sat up straighter in excitement. “Actually sir, there has been a number of quite potent anomalies absorbed so far. Eight to be exact. But of course, there has been a fair share of useless ones as well.” Shilung explained.
“What is our number on takeover anomalies?” The commander asked.
“Seventy-Eight sir. None of them will be a problem to remove though.”
“They never are,” the commander chuckled, “these weak beings we chose for experiments this round are hilariously feeble compared to other races. And as you know, the takeover anomalies are confined to the being they control, so for these subjects, they will be impressively weak unless an evolution had taken place before the takeover.”
“I agree sir, but I actually wanted you to look at a specific subject I have been watching,” Shilung continued.
“Which subject are you referring to?”
“Subject 50, commander. Something odd is occurring to it,” Shilung stated.
“Well what is it? Is it another Cosmos Reaver?” It was not unheard of for one of the subjects to become one, but if not taken care of quickly, the reaver might become an actual problem.
“No sir, it’s something I haven’t seen since Trial 5333. I can’t speculate on what exactly is going on due to our lack of information, but the signs are similar,” it presumed.
“I am unaware of what occurred during Trial 5333, enlighten me,” the commander demanded.
“I apologize sir, I forgot Trial 5333 was before you were appointed. It was my mistake.” Shilung was startled by its own ignorance, but quickly collected its thoughts and pulled up the records of the trial. “If I remember correctly, the subject in Trial 5333 that resembled Subject 50 perished shortly after its absorption of its anomaly.”
“What exactly was so odd about that subject?” The commander interrogated.
“Well sir, after the anomaly was absorbed, the subject showed evidence of an unusual takeover event that ended with the subject becoming the focal point of a literal black hole. We lost a number of observation vessels, and it took years of shaping rituals to replace them. That was why we began to send fewer vessels per subject,” Shilung finished.
The commander growled in displeasure as it contemplated what they should do about Subject 50. “Jump the vessels back here.” The commander decided. “We can’t afford to waste that kind of time on one subject. And we can’t kill it either due to the circumstances.”
“Understood.” Shilung confirmed. “I will send for them now.”
The commander marched back to its station and continued to work on more important tasks. Although it was inconvenient to lose the data on Dimension 4297’s anomaly, it was just one. Not to mention, the commander knew how terrible that dimension was. It contained mostly tier one beings, and every planet somehow consisted of the same unlivable landscape with one tier three to control its lessors. The commander actually felt a spark of amusement at the idea of some of that dimension being eviscerated.
————
Shilung watched its superior go and chastised itself for its stupidity. “Dammit you idiot. Why would you mention the time before the commander took charge.”
It knew it was a bad topic because the time before the commander got here contained extremely dangerous experiments they were now banned from pursuing. Shilung turned back to the monitor and observed the last few seconds of recording they had of Subject 50. The weak being was covered in its own filth and reaching toward the anomaly. Soon after it placed the anomaly in its mouth, the subject was looking in desperation at its transformed “Nurture” ability.
Shilung watched in interest as the subject’s face morphed into what Shilung understood to be an expression of fear. It moved to an omnidirectional view from above the subject’s head while a line of scarlet text burned its existence into being. Shilung was absolutely enthralled as it devoured the bizarre text:
“Be afraid. Be very afraid.”