Maya, now having a chance to rest, looks over her System post-battle. Her gaze glosses over the rewards, coming to a dead stop upon seeing "Soul ?????????". It was unusual for a skill to be hidden off.
"Hey, what's this?"
"Huh..? Why's it like that?"
Chrona reached forward, pressing on the unknown passive. It displays information on the topic, yet it was vague & and still hidden off at parts.
-------------------------------
{System}
[Soul ?????????]
[Passive]
The User has access to their soul's inner form.
Manifesting this being is achieved by [???]
Upon manifesting Soul ????????? properly, gain access to
[Soul Exchange] & [Soul Manifest LV. 2]
-------------------------------
The two questioned the spoken of "method", wondering why a level unlock would be bound by a hidden achievement. As time drew on, Maya had figured it useless to continue attempting to figure it out, giving up for the time being. Maya stood up, calmly speaking.
"Well, this was fun"—She stretched, closing her eyes tightly as she does—"But I shouldn't stay out too long, Aurelion said he's having someone check out what this Bio-Trait thing of mine is."
"Oh, uh- okay! I'll see you around, then?"
"Yeah, I guess so. See you around!"
Maya begins to walk away, Chrona's eyes stay locked onto her. A look of sorrow spanned across her face as Maya continued off. Her hand instinctively reached out. Her body wanted nothing more than to call out to Maya, yet something else within her knew it was wrong. By the time Chrona had finished contemplating her own mind, Maya had completely vanished from her line of sight. Now being alone again, Chrona slowly walked over to a tree, sitting against it.
"I don't get it, why did I hurt so badly watching her leave.?"
Her words came out with a low, coarse tone. Chrona spoke calmly to herself, deep in her own mind. Through the nature of Chrona's self, she quickly wrote her feeling off as a distraction, something her mind was doing to itself to slow her down. As a result, she had pushed this feeling deep away from herself. Meanwhile on Maya's walk back, she was completely clueless to the emotion Chrona had felt. Maya's unawareness & lack of understanding towards others prevented her from realizing Chrona's unusual pain. Once again, Maya was taking in her surroundings. This unusual place she had been hidden away from, it was mesmerizing to her. She made perfect care to observe everything around, from the simple flow of the grass, down to the intricate designs of distant temples. After spending 15 years in the solitude of The Solace Clan, then another 326 years in a time stasis, nearly anything could excite Maya beyond belief. As Maya continued to look around, she hummed a tune to herself, one that was strangely familiar to her. As she carried on, she tried to recall that melody & where she had heard it from. The feeling of the song made her heart ache, as if longing for something she once had. Her hand slowly reached up to her face. Her fingers softly slid up her face into her hair, gripping tightly. Her words came out with a coarse, monotone whisper.
"So familiar, but what is it..?"
Her thoughts were too jumbled to make sense of anything. All she could understand was the empty feeling deep in her chest. From that hollow feeling within her, deep within her soul, a burning feeling rises. It granted no pain, rather it was a comforting sensation. Without reason, tears began to well in her eyes, not born from sorrow, but from relief. Her head began to clear—even with her unresolved thoughts—enough for her to regain her senses. Maya softly exhaled, looking ahead at Khuvia Kingdom ahead of her. She arrived at the gate with a new sense of calm within her. Looking up at the guards, their gaze lingered down, meeting Maya's. The guard on the left calmly spoke.
"Welcome back, I hope you've returned safely."—His right forearm rose, pressing his balled up fist softly over his heart as he smiled to Maya—"For The Absolute's Honor."
With a nervous & confused look, Maya simply smiles before walking ahead.
"Uhm, Thank you."—Once she had left the guards sight, she pinched the bridge of her nose, tilting her head down slightly—"I'll just—I'll ask Aurelion about whatever that was..."
Once she entered the kingdom, her eyes filled with curiosity, as this was the first time she was freely exploring Khuvia. She walked through the lively streets, looking through the stock of the several shop stands that lined the street. The smell of fresh food radiating from a couple of stands filled the air, as if to call to those around. Maya was filled with temptation to approach the stands, the attracting scent working perfectly. Right before she began to advance forward, she quickly realized a small, important detail.
"Right, I have no money.."—She started walking away, clearly annoyed at her lack of funding—"Damn, this blows."
Maya continues walking—now upset about her lack of funding—back to the Astella Domain. At her arrival, a guard outside questioned her, his tone strict.
"What is your business here."
"Uhm.. Aurelion said I can stay here for a while."
"I highly doubt that."—He glares down at her with an intense gaze—"What proof can you back up that claim with."
"Ask him! That's plenty!" Maya smirks proudly, her cocky attitude slipping through.
"Do you think the Sword Saint holds time to deal with every kid coming through claiming to be permitted entry?" His glare slowly shifts to a scowl, clearly growing impatient with Maya.
"Would ya' just ask him?!" Her attitude started to slip due to annoyance, such a thing not helping her case.
"I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
"Are you serious?! He did say it! Just ask him!"—She cupped her hands around her mouth before yelling out—"Aurelion!!"
The guard reached forward, grabbing her wrist whilst raising his voice "What do you think you're doing?! Are you mad?"
Maya quickly retaliated, yanking to free her arm from his grasp. "Get—Get the fuck off of me!!" Her free arm winds back, ready to punch the guard. A blue wave of Mana floods across the area, forcing both Maya & The Guard to stop dead in their tracks.
"What are the two of you doing? Maya, you know better. As for you, Eric. Using force against a child is wrong and you are aware of that."
Aurelion sighs, walking over to the two, cancelling his Authority ability. As it cancelled, the two were capable of moving once again.
"Sir Aurelion... I apologize.." Eric lowers his head, clearly ashamed of his actions.
Maya looks up at Aurelion with a sense of relief in her eyes "Yeah, I'm sorry."
Aurelion smiles softly at the two, speaking calmly. "What was the issue? Clearly this was not for no reason."
Eric looked to Maya, knowing he was in the wrong, he allowed her to speak first. As Maya realized that, she smiled softly with a sense of security.
"I was just tryin' to get back in, but he didn't trust my words that you let me stay here. I got upset, so did he."—She looks ahead with a slightly upset look—"But it's our fault, both of ours." Eric sighs, nodding his head.
"If that is all, then I believe everything is settled, yes?"
"Yeah." The two both spoke in unison before returning to their original actions. Maya began to walk forward while Eric stood up straight at his post. Aurelion smiled softly, walking alongside Maya while waving back to Eric. The two disappear into the Domain's building. Aurelion leads Maya down a different route than before, taking her to a lab. As the two enter, Maya looks around perplexed. Her words escape with a sense of confusion.
"Hey, Aurelion, what is this place? I've never seen anything like this." She looked around at the equipment in the lab, the employees, everything was entirely foreign to her.
"This is The Domain's lab. All of our biological research and studies are done here. We're here to research the nature of your Bio-Trait."
"Oh, uhm—Alright. So, what's gonna be happening?"
"We'll just be looking into your System and experimenting to find your Bio-Trait's function." He smiles softly, making sure to help Maya feel comfortable in this unfamiliar environment. He lightly puts his hand on her shoulder, looking ahead.
"Got it.." She looked ahead, a nervous expression stuck to her face. It was clear that she was paranoid of the new situation. Maya breathes in, trying to relax herself. Aurelion leads her over to a room, the inner walls were a dark gray tile, the ground felt soft under her step, yet it was completely solid. Aurelion leaned down to Maya's level, looking her in the eyes, his voice was soothing as he spoke. "Maya, they'll help you figure this out. I have some business to take care of, I'll be back soon."
"A-alright." Her voice was quiet, filled with worry as she watched Aurelion walk away. Two employees walked into the room after he left, closing the door behind them. They looked at her with a reassuring gaze, the man on the left spoke. "Hey there, Maya. My name is Irvan, this guy is Kane. We'll be the ones helpin' you figure out your Bio-Trait."
"Okay, Uhm. How does this whole thing work?"
Irvan guided her to a table as he spoke. "We'll take a look at your system, then we can use the information from it to try and figure out what it's function is. If that doesn't work, some DNA might tell us."
She sat down, opening her System. Irvan & Kane look over it, writing down information. The two look to each other, nodding before looking back to Maya. Kane speaks first, his voice was deeper than Irvan's, which caught Maya by surprise. "The name gives off the intention of something Time Based, do you have any skills or passives that imply such?"
"Nothin' I'm aware of, it all seems based around Soulrise, not Rollback. I have a passive, but all the information is blocked."
"Blocked information?"—Kane & Irvan look to each other with confusion—"Please display that, Maya. Something such as that is not typical." She nods, opens the display menu for the Rollback Passive.
-------------------------------
{System}
[Rollback]
[Passive]
The User of [Rollback] will be ########### #### a ######## #### upon #####, these ##### were applied ## #### at ##### by a ###### #####. In ### #### of [Maya Solace], ##### are ## ######## ##### in ### ######. ######## #### does not mean ######## ####. Every #### will ###### the ###### #### ## [Maya Solace].
-------------------------------
Kane looks to Irvan with confusion before clearing his throat. "Get a team on this, we'll try to decipher it. Something like this is too unusual." Irvan nods, writing down what he could before leaving the room. "This is interesting, Maya! You've been established with something that we haven't seen before, It's exciting." He gives her a reassuring smile as he reads over the info once more. Maya talks quietly after her large period of silence. "I don't understand this, my name is there twice, why would my name be in a description?" She tilted her head, looking up at Kane. "Once we figure all this out, I hope Aurelion can help me level up! I wanna get stronger." Kade sighs, a tired smile shone down to Maya as he spoke "I'm sure that you'll be strong, stronger than most." Hearing his words, Maya's smile brightened, a shine in her eyes as she took in his words. "Yeah! I'll make sure to save lots of people just like Aurelion!" Kade laughed softly to Maya's words. "I bet."
After some time, Irvan returns to the room. His face was neutral as he spoke. "So, we were able to decipher a bit of it, but not enough to make sense of the text. We'll need some DNA testing to be sure." Irvan pulled a syringe, asking Maya to hold out her arm. She did as he asked but questioned the reasoning. Irvan explained that they were just going to draw blood to run some tests on, he informed her that it was going to hurt a little bit as well. She grit her teeth as the needle slid into her arm, drawing blood. After the drawing was finished, Irvan took the syringe, passing it off to a different employee. "We should be able to hear back from them within a week, okay?" Maya nods, standing back up & stretching. "Anything else I gotta stay here for?"
"Not currently, You are free to return to your room, Maya."
"Got it, thanks, Old Man!" She smirks, giggling to herself as she walks away. Irvan rests his forehead against his palm, sighing. "I'm only 34, I've got to give that girl a piece of my mind later.."
Maya walked through the halls, now being alone, that same disgusting feeling she had previously felt arose again. The cold, harsh gaze of the unknown pressuring her from behind, It was way too familiar. She couldn't tell why, but this feeling was something she had known since birth. Her eyes stayed glued to the floor as she walked, Maya carried on, hoping that ignoring it would resolve this terrifying feel. The longer she disregarded it, the more intense it felt, the feeling of something tearing down at her. The aura felt as if it would certainly end her if she kept ignoring it. In this wave of terror her eyes shoot up, turning around instantly. Her breath was shaking, her heart racing violently. This wave of fear was more intense than anything she had felt in the past. Her chest felt constricted enough to choke her. It was too intense for her to muster up words, all she could do was stand staring ahead into the empty hall. As she stood longer, a dim blue glow began to radiate from her chest, the light began to leak out in the shape of an arm. It reached forward, as it did, the feeling of fear began to fade into comfort. Maya looked down with surprise and confusion at the arm reaching out of her chest. She had no words as she watched it reach out. Maya then realized the situation, causing her to turn around & start walking to her room. She didn't know why, but she trusted the strange manifested arm to keep her safe as she treaded on. After some time, the feeling of both the overwhelming fear & the comfort of the manifestation had both vanished. With that, she had returned to her room. Once again, Maya was alone in this room. She fell backwards onto the ground, sighing loudly as she collided with the ground.
"Ugh, I hate this. Dealin' with that every time I leave this room, It's a pain in the ass."
She raised her hand forward, opening her system. Maya had recalled the stat points she gained from the fight earlier. She had allocated them as such, +4 to STR, +3 to CON, +3 to LUK.
-------------------------------
{SYSTEM}
[User: Maya Solace]
[Class: None]
[Trait: Soulrise
][Bio-Trait: Rollback]
[Level: Three]
[STR-5] > [STR-9]
[INT-2]
[WIS-2]
[DEX-2]
[CON-2] > [CON-5]
[LUK-10] > [LUK-13]
+ [HP: 110 > 125]
+ [Base DMG: 10 > 18]
+ [Crit Chance: 2% > 2.3%]
-------------------------------
Afterwards, Maya stood back up, the System Screen vanishing. She walked over to her bed, laying down once again. Maya closed her eyes, slowly drifting to sleep. After the long day she had, It was fairly easy for her to fall asleep.
-Chapter 6: END-