Chapter 1 - Darkness (Part 1)

Darkness. The ultimate ruler, the true One-Above-All. Everything starts from it, and everything returns to it eventually. People say that in your final moments, darkness seeps in your very existence, engulfs your whole being. They say it's an incredibly relaxing feeling that takes you on your journey to your afterlife. They say that in the very darkness, the 'nothingness' your weary soul will finally be able to rest and relax. This brings up some very philosophical and existential questions. Do you even exist?

To be perfectly honest it sounds a load of cr*p to me. First of all how would 'they' know? If you have to die to experience it, how would you describe the experience? But I must admit the second part is true. How do I know? Well..

I had no idea where I was, or even what I was. I only thought that there was literally nothing around me, but I knew that I am alive in this 'nothingness', this everlasting darkness. I guess it kinda felt like if I would be in a section of the universe, there would be no stars in it, and I would be just floating. It was a very weird experience. I had some blurry memories about talking with someone or something that was surrounded with bright white light, and then everything changed. The last words he said to me were: 'With this, we have an agreement. I will be watching you, my dear friend. Everything rests on your actions.'

I'm not sure how much time must have passed, but as I was pondering on these words, and their meaning, I remembered one more thing: 'You just need to will IT. Remember only you have this ability, do not tell it to anyone. This is your own special gift, the one you wished for. Make sure to will 'Enya' to appear in your mind and learn everything before you arrive in the new world.' He said 'Enya', and that I will be able to see myself in the 'way asked for'... What does that mean? I just have to think about it? Well, it can't hurt to try.. it's not like I have anything else to do here.

'Okay, so I'm supposed to focus on this Enya? But how? What is that? A name? Eh anyway let's just try to focus on the word and treat it as a name. Enya! Enya are you there?'

[Greetings Aiden. How can I help you?] seemingly from nowhere a soft female voice replied to my query.

The sudden reply which felt like coming from inside, startled me so I blurted out a series of questions, yelling basically. "Woah, what is this? Who are you? Where are you? Or better, where am I?"

[I am inside you. With your current knowledge, the best description is that I am inside your soul. So there is no need to yell if you think about the question I will be able to hear it, so just think about your queries and I will reply to you.] Enya calmly replied to my most obvious problem, then continued answering all my previous questions, one after another.

You have died and the almighty Ioris, provided you with the option of choice. You opted to enter the cycle of life and be reincarnated. However due to the circumstances of your death, and because your soul was incredibly unique, your new life is special. You are no longer on Earth, but in a new world, another 'dimension' if that is better for you to understand.

As for the question of where you are, that would be the Gate of Life and Death. You are currently only a soul as you need to answer a few questions and finalize your choices before you can be reborn.]

'Woah that was a lot of information at once Enya. Okay, let's go step by step. Who is Ioris? Was it that bright light thing? Is that God? Did I just talk to God?' The idea of me talking to the creator of life seemed so bizarre that I just had to ask to get confirmation.

I wasn't a deeply religious guy or at least that's what I vaguely remember, but I still had an idea about the root of all religions back on Earth. They all called it differently, but the basis of 90% of the religions was about 1 almighty being that created all life and should stand above all.

[It is a God, yes, but not in the way you think it is. Since you are a comic book fan, let's phrase it in a way that you will be familiar with. Let's just say he is the Ultimate One, the One-Above-All The reason he pulled you from the Gate of Life and Death after your unfortunate demise, was because your soul called to him. It was shining in a golden light, something that in the zillions of years never happened before. He pulled you out from the Gate and you two talked. In short, you had a very strong desire to live, and you opted for a second chance at life.] Enya calmly explained a few of my questions. It does seem she skipped some details, but I should not press for more in my current situation. I did get the gist of it anyways.

'If that is the case why can't I remember? I only remember just some small bits, I can't even recall how I died or who I really was? And I can't remember that conversation, just that I had to call for your name.'

[That is because you are currently In-Between. Normally you have no access to your memories that your soul stores. In your case, there are some special circumstances that I am not authorized to currently tell you, but rest assured everything will be clear later on. Just know that your current objective should be to get your bearings. However I can give you a few details about your primary previous life. I have to warn you may have some difficulties processing them, but it is important that you understand them. Would you want me to give you the details?]

Enya asked the question that I wanted to ask as well. I unhesitantly yelled out: "Yes please!"

[You are a Primal. They are an ancient race that existed billions of years ago. For reasons currently unknown to me, they were an extinct species, until you showed up. Your circumstances around your birth unfortunately are unknown. One thing is sure, that your previous parents weren't your birth parents as they were human. Primals were the precursor race to humans, and they were undoubtedly a higher tiered existence. Primals are a very special race, as they were the only evolver race in existence. In ancient history these species were an anomaly, something that wasn't directly 'created' by Ioris, but seemingly just 'came-to-be'. We could not find the root cause of this incident, and in the end, Ioris did not intervene. Primals weren't like other species, they weren't looking to spread their influence, they were living amongst themselves with a stable population. The evolver term means that their primary means of survival was to hunt and absorb the life essence of other beings, acquiring their traits, skills and abilities. The process wasn't always guaranteed, but as time passed, their power grew, and eventually the other dominant species learned of their existence.

Unfortunately, this part of the history is missing, but after their discovery, a short while later the entire species disappeared. The current hypothesis is that they were wiped out, because they were feared.

The problem with you is that we do not know how you came to be, your first cycle of life was your previous one.]

'What do you mean by that? My parents weren't my real parents? This is a lot of information for me to process..' I sighed. This is a lot to take in at once. Also, there's one more question that I need an answer to: 'Sorry, one more question. Enya, what are you exactly?'

[Regrettably, we have no information about you and your real parents. Also for some reason there's a lock on the information surrounding your birth, so I cannot answer your question about your parents.

I am the System that was implanted into your soul by your request.]

'By my request? And what do you mean by system? Is it similar to something of an AI from Earth?'

[You could say I am similar. I'm not a machine or a program, but your current you will not be able to comprehend the truth, so just go with what you are comfortable with. You can check your screen and navigate like you would in a program on a monitor just with your thoughts. That was your request to the Creator. Simply focus on the system that you should be able to feel inside your soul, and your System Screen will be visible to you. Any questions you may have I will be able to answer you.]

Once Enya informed me, I did notice a weird feeling, that I should be able to call up something from inside me. I focused my thoughts on it, and just as I was told, a screen came up.

Name: Aiden

Race: Primal (Evolver)

Form: ?

Condition: ?

Might: ?

Agility: ?

Spirit: ?

Skills:

Primal Absorb [?]

Effects:

Blessing of Ioris [?]

So I'm called Aiden, huh. That's good to know.

There was also a notice:

[Before you can begin, you have to finalize your details. Please 'Finalize your selection']

It had the word BEGIN blinking in green so I couldn't help but focus my attention to it. Once I did, my screen changed immediately:

[You have received 5 points that you can distribute between your primary attributes. Please focus on each individual attribute to see the details of it.]

Might: 0

Agility: 0

Spirit: 0

I focused on the word 'Might' first:

[Might: Measures how physically strong you are. Affects your prowess, your overall power, and your physical appearance. It controls your ability to learn might based skills.]

Then I went through all of them:

[Agility: Measures how agile you are. It also has an effect on your speed. It controls your ability to learn agility and speed based skills.]

[Spirit: The power of your soul, the depth of your spirituality. It is your connection to the universe spirit pool, it has an effect on your ability to communicate and see mythical entities. It also controls your ability to learn spirit-based skills.]

Interestingly, this reminds me of those RPG games I used to love and play… Hmm... The Spirit is very unique, the "power of your soul"? 'Enya, can you tell me more about this Spirit?

[All of your attributes govern a certain aspect of you. Might controls the physical power, Agility controls everything related to speed and coordination, while Spirit controls the power of your soul. This also means your connection to the universal spirit pool which will allow you to use that power to your liking and manipulate your elements to your will. In certain worlds this is called Magic, while in other worlds it might be completely different.]

'What are these points, and what does 1 point for example in Might would mean to me? How does it work?'

[Each point is a level of that attribute. Each level will increase that attribute by a level. Normally these would increase as you train in that field. However with the help of the system you can skip this procedure and directly increase the chosen field. Another way that you can increase their levels will be your Primal Absorbing ability. The creature you absorb could affect you by providing you an increase in your attributes as well.]

'One more question: What is this Blessing of Ioris, that I can see under Effects?' I asked.

[It's a little gift to help you in your early days. Since you are Primal, your start will be unique. The blessing you received has 3 uses, and it is designed to assist you in your time of need. Once you finish your attributes, we will discuss what it is for. For now, assign your attribute points.]

'Alright.. Hmm…' Enya was right, I should spend my points.

'So I have 5 points. Each point is basically a level. Each stat can be trained as well and I can also get them by absorbing. I will need to understand that ability more but that can come later. Right now, I think the best course of action would be to focus on Spirit, since it is directly related to my soul and my intellect. Also seems rather unique, has something about the magic pool, and communicating with mystical entities.. I will have to ask Enya about this later as well...'

After some more thinking I decided to go with my initial thought, since Might and Agility should be easier to increase than Spirit. So my attributes are as follows:

Might: 1

Agility: 1

Spirit 3

Once I was finished, the skills section came up. But this time with a lot more information.

Skills:

Primal Absorb [Level 1]

I focused on the skill to get more information about it.

[Primal Absorb: Absorb the life essence of the defeated enemy. Based on the lifeform, you can acquire it's unique skills, and get an increase in one or more of your attributes or obtain attribute points to spend. You can absorb lifeforms 1 level higher than your current skill level. It only works from your Primal Slime state.]

'Level? What is that? How can I increase it? Also, can you tell me about levels in general?'

[Level is the system's summary of the overall strength of a given life form. The system is capable of analyzing a lifeform, and creating a visual summary of it's attributes, strengths, weaknesses, and skills. It also has stored information on many of the common life forms. The level of a skill is a representation of your current depth and knowledge of a given skill. By giving it a similar value, you will be able to compare and get a grasp of it. For example, the Primal Absorb Level 1 is capable of absorbing lifeforms of level 2.]

Last section was the Effects, where I had the Blessing of Ioris. I focused on it, to see it's description.

[Blessing of Ioris: You have been blessed by the God Ioris. You can forcefully absorb any life form regardless of state of health. Warning! Because of its power, it puts a strain on your soul putting you in a comatose state for 24 hours after usage. You can use this ability 2 more times.]

'Woah, that sounds incredibly useful! Enya, what happens when I have used the skill 2 times? Will the blessing completely disappear?'

[Yes. Once you use your skill 2 times, the blessing will be gone completely.] Enya confirmed my suspicion.

'In that case, I will need to be really careful about using it. I shouldn't waste it away.'

After I read the last remaining section, my character sheet updated again, and my condition section got updated.

Condition: 100%

Level: 1

Experience: 0

Once I read through my finalized character screen and all related information I had, a new male voice spoke to me before everything went dark again...

[You are ready. I will be watching, my friend.]