The Greatest Sin is weakness
Starry woke up to the sight of Nephim's beautiful face sleeping peacefully, his body lying on top of her. He looked at her oddly for a few seconds before panicking and clutching his chest, feeling for a wound that wasn't there.
'Huh? Where did it go?'
"Neph. Wake up! Hey stupid fairy! Wake up!"
"Hmm? What do you want? I was sleeping, you know."
"First of all, why am I on top of you? Second of all, what happened after I stabbed myself? Third of all, why are you hugging me so tightly?"
"To answer your questions, you're on top of me because I was too lazy to move you off me after I tried dragging your heavy body to the prestige. After you got stabbed, I realized you were possessed by that loathsome 'Soul Devourer', so I eliminated it from the equation. I then met your father, and he gave me some gifts. The reason why I'm hugging you is because I love you and your strange lineage."
Completely ignoring what Nephim had responded with to his third question, he asked
"Woah. Woah. Woah. What? I have a father? and what gifts did he give you?"
"Not entirely sure if he's really your father. After all he is "I am". Also, he gave me two gifts. One is a vial containing five drops of his diluted blood, and the other is a small figurine."
"Wait." "You mean The Prog-"
Quickly using her hands to cover Starry's mouth, Nephim's expression tensed, and she quietly said,"Don't say his name so casually Starry. Even I can't help you from the backlash you will suffer from saying his name."
"Sorry. I forgot I wasn't allowed to say his name.", "But you really met him? Is he not the creator of the universe?"
"I just said that didnt I?".
Starry quickly pushed himself off of Nephim and stood up, stumbling a few feet back, surprised that the dull pain radiating throughout his head and his body had stopped.
"Why are you so far away? Come closer, hold out your hands and close your eyes. I've got some gifts for you."
Starry complied and walked closer, closing his eyes and holding out his hands. He felt a small glass bottle enter one of his hands, and in the other was a small figurine, depicting a scene unknown. He then felt something wet rub against his arm, Nephim seemingly drawing something across the entirety of his left arm. She then quickly shifted her focus and used that same liquid to write something on his right arm as well. She drew two lines under his eyes, then said
"Strip. I've got work to do. Also keep your eyes closed. I'm not done yet."
"Neph, what are you doing?"
"It's a surprise. Trust me, you'll thank me when I'm done."
Complying, Starry took his dark cloak off and felt the same odd liquid being rubbed over his chest and stomach. She then turned lower and rubbed the strange liquid over his legs.
"It's done. You can put back on your clothes."
Looking down at his scarred body, Starry noticed large glowing golden runes covering the entirety of his body. Confused, he asked Nephim,"Neph. What did you do?"
"I finished the prerequisite to bind us by contract! There's one last step. Only, I'm not sure you'll like it." She said energetically.
"Well, out with it. What's the last step?"
"Well. Um. We gotta. You know." Nephim said nervously, her face glowing bright red.
"Gotta what? No, I don't know Neph." Starry asked, entirely unsure of what she meant.
"Come on. Don't make me say it."
"No… Surely it's not that? Neph. Did you really do all this just for the last step to be that?" Starry asked, catching on to what she was hinting to.
"I did. I'm sorry Starry. You'll be my first." Nephim said quietly, her legs trembling.
Starry quickly started stripping, to Nephim's horror.
"WAIT. You thought I meant that? You freaking idiot! As if I would ever do that with you!" Nephim yelled, clearly embarrassed.
"Wait what? It's not that? What is it then? You said I'd be your first after all."
"Oh my gods. You dummy! I meant a k-k-kiss!" She said, stuttering while pronouncing the last word.
"Oh. It's not that serious is it then? It's just a kiss." Starry asked, crestfallen.
"Just a kiss?! You human's and your polygamy!" She yelled.
"What does marriage have to do with a simple kiss?" Starry asked, clearly confused as to what Nephim was implying.
"Are you stupid or something? Is it not common sense that a kiss signifies love and marriage between two people?"
"Well kind of. A kiss is a symbol of love but certainly not marriage. Ugh. Whatever. It's not like I love you or anything so it's not weird."
"Let's just get this over with. Come here Neph."
Starry walked up to Seph and put his arms on her shoulders, leaning in for a kiss. Nephim responded by pushing him away, tears forming in her eyes.
"Neph? Are you okay? Why are you crying?"
Sniffling, she answered,"I'm… not sure. Sorry that I
pushed you away. Something came over me."
"Neph are you really okay?"
"Yeah I'm fine. Here, let's get this over with once and for all." She said as she walked up and kissed Starry on the lips, both their faces turning bright red.
Immediately the glowing runes on Starry's body surged and he seemed to become more attuned to the space around him and Nephim herself. In this moment both of their minds blanked, immediately filling up with the emotions and thoughts they both felt. They both stumbled about before catching themselves on each other. The numbers 90 and 10 both entered both of their minds, the ratio of master to subordinate in the contract. Naturally Nephim as a tier six being was the 90, while Starry as a tier 1 being was the 10.
Contract ratios directly affected 'ownership' and power transferred. Simply put, depending on which way a contract was made, it would affect the amount of power one could transfer to the other person. In this case the contract was made as an equal contract, but as Nephim was so much more powerful it wasn't possible for the contract to stay as an equals contract. The ratio of power between the two would ultimately decide the type of contract that could be made between the two.
At this moment a loud set of notifications rang out in the prestige. Starry was similarly ejected from his soul sea, floating around a galaxy of stars. This odd place was the intermission between clearing trials and returning to the physical world.
Prestige: Congratulations! Prestige trial appraisal is: Glorious. Awarding first virtue, awarding 100 outer soul fragments. Returning back to the physical body. WARNING. Physical body is currently destroyed.
An odd euphoric feeling washed over his whole body, like warm water flowing through his veins, empowering him greatly.
'My body is what now?' Not giving him time to think the prestige kept talking.
Prestige: Rebuilding a physical body in random human planet. WARNING. Failure to construct an adequate physical body. Re-trying. Failure. Re-trying. Failure. Prestige is unable to construct an adequate physical body. Would user like to synchronize with a previously existing adequate physical body?
"Yes."
Prestige: User has accepted physical body incarnation. Granting user's true name. Failure. User is already in possession of a true name. Instead would the user like to opt to be granted 1 point of world authority?
Remembering what Nephim had told him about the various types of authority within the world he grew ecstatic. World authority was something that increased one's affinity with the world, causing them to blend in to the world more, have an easier time understanding the operating principles of Aura, and would decrease the rejection they would naturally face by the world significantly. This was the best type of authority one could possess as granted by the prestige.
"I would like to accept one point of world authority!"
Prestige: Accepted Request. Granting one point of world authority. Granted. Sending user to possessed body on planet "earth".
Instantly, Starry felt his body become much more attuned to the space , and the sense of rejection from the void lowered slightly.
'Earth? What planet is that?'
While Starry was aware that there were three other Roathia-like planets besides Roathia itself, he had never heard from Seph or Nephim that there was another inhabitable human planet besides those three.
Though he didn't have time to contemplate this for long, he was immediately ejected from the void, and watched as his spiritual body flew down to a large blue-green planet with massive dark and red splotches on it.
He kept flying towards the planet until he entered the atmosphere, then descended quickly upon a large futuristic city. He kept descending until he flew into a house, filled with six people. Upon entering the house, he descended upon a black-haired youth. The youth was holding some odd piece of metal up to his head, crying. As he neared the youth, the young boy's spiritual body was forced out of his body. Confused, the young teen looked around, noticing Starry, he became visibly relaxed.
Sitting down on the floor, the young boy started solemnly talking,"I was about to do it. I was about to end it. But then you came. Why did you stop me?"
"I'm sorry." was all Starry could muster up, his throat tightening and his brain moving at a million miles per second. When the prestige said that he was going to 'incarnate' into a previously existing physical body he thought that it meant that he was going to replace the body of a god or some powerful being, particularly, an evil being. Most of those in power were evil after all.
But no. He had been chosen to replace some kid on a distant planet. A kid that was currently suffering in the wallows of depression and sadness. A powerless being. While this didn't sit right with him, he couldn't exactly cancel the process, as once the prestige started a process, unless explicitly stated otherwise, it would be impossible.
"You don't have to apologize. It doesn't seem to be your fault. Instead, Thank you. I wasn't sure how much more of this I could endure." The youth said, tears streaming down his face, smiling.
"I'm sorry it had to be like this." Starry said as he accepted the prestige prompt to integrate his soul and consciousness into the youths body.
"I suppose this is goodbye. It was nice meeting you,?"
"Lucien. And your name?"
"Starless."
"What a beautiful name. Anyways, goodbye. It was nice meeting you Starless of Gluttony"
The youth laughed, before his soul was extinguished.
'How did he know my true name?'
Starry pondered. He hadn't told anyone besides Seph and Nephim what his true name was, for good measure. There were two main reasons he hadn't, the first was that his true name contained of the seven deadly sins, which was a pretty big deal. The reason for this was because true names carried weight, particularly about the fate and future said individual, For example, if a person's true name had the words destruction or power they would have the potential to grow to be incomparably powerful. The second reason that he hadn't and most likely wouldn't tell his true name to anyone else, was because those a minimum of one tier higher than him would be able to invoke his name and control him, to a certain extent.
Nephim had invoked his name earlier, when he was drowning in the soul sea, commanding him to follow her orders. He followed obediently, as she was a tier-six being. The difference between the two was incomprehensible. Because the difference between them was so large, she was able to exert full control over him, but to a being only one or two tiers higher than him, they would only be able to issue either extremely simple commands, or control him to a low degree.
After the youth's soul was extinguished, Starry incarnated into the youth's body, feeling the odd world around him. Because of his world authority, which granted him high affinity to the world, or rather the universe, people would be drawn to him. This was important because all memories of his predecessor, Lucien, would change. His name would now be 'Starless' and 'Starry'. He wouldn't have to bother himself with adapting to being called something different.
Looking around the room briefly, he noticed a tiny little fairy resting on his shoulder.
'Nephim?'
'Hey Starry. You finally finished the transfer process?'
'I'm about halfway done with it.'
Remembering how he had upgraded Nola's spirit manifestation attribute he calmed down, understanding why he could now see Nephim on his shoulder.
Not even a few seconds after he finished his brief conversation with Nephim, Lucien's memories flooded his brain. Starry felt his new brain struggling to comprehend all of this information. After all, 15 years of information were entering his memories within an instant. He immediately fell on his back, releasing all of the muscles in his body, to relax as much as possible.
Nephim fared much better, but still showed signs of discomfort on her face. This was to be expected after all, as she was over 1000 years old, 15 years were nothing to her.
Viewing Lucien's memories, Starless felt a bit sentimental. He saw Lucien being comforted by his two sisters, brother, mother and father after failing to pass the [X] academy entrance exam. Starry had never had any family after all. Even though as far as he could remember he was always inside of that small stone prison, he got the feeling that he had never truly had a family. He viewed Lucien's 'Happy' life, seeing him struggle through the years, triumph, and then eventually fall into depression. The reason why he fell into depression was because he had zero talent whatsoever in controlling Aura or in combat. Starry watched him struggle through a year, before eventually arriving in his room, holding a gun to his head. This was the moment his memories were cut off.
'Oh man. This guy lived a pretty sad life.' Nephim said as she looked down.
'All the more reason for us to live a good life for him.'