Sirius slowly opened his eyes, grunting as he clutched his head.
'What… happened?' he thought with a frown as he scanned his surroundings.
He was on his bed, with Nyx sleeping peacefully beside him. Reverberating purring sounds could be heard.
Carefully, Sirius sat upright, grimacing as he felt aches throughout his body. He shook his head and continued scanning his surroundings.
His room showed no signs of any conflict or struggle. It remained exactly the same, nothing out of place.
For sure, he knew something had happened. But what exactly? Sirius didn't know. There were mysterious gaps in his memories he couldn't access.
Crossing his arms with eyes closed, Sirius rummaged through his sea of memories.
However, as time passed, his frown deepened.
Sirius couldn't remember anything…
'That's… weird. Did they beat me up so badly that I lost consciousness and forgot everything?'
Vexed, he habitually rubbed the back of his neck, only for his eyes to widen.
The necklace was gone.
"No–"
Suddenly, an incorporeal goddess materialized on his bed, floating before him.
At the same time, a flood of memories surged through his mind, accompanied by a severe headache.
Sirius gritted his teeth in pain. His eyes locked with hers. The memories unfolded one by one.
At that time, because his vision was blurry and her figure was indistinct, he failed to see her features clearly.
'The Immortal Spirit… she was real!'
Now, everything made sense. Sirius was struck in utter disbelief.
He thought he was hallucinating at that time, and feeling desperate, as Sirius was reminded of his failures, he agreed instantly.
Now…
To claim that the Immortal Spirit resembled a goddess was a grave understatement. Even if her features were slightly discernible now, the word 'goddess' barely encapsulated her grace. It was as though she existed beyond this world, untouched by mortal dust.
She possessed the temperament of a mystical fairy. Pale skin, glowing red eyes, and long, braided silver hair crowned by a golden circlet. Clad in ornate red-and-silver armor inlaid with green gems, much of her curvaceous body was exposed for the world to see.
Without a doubt, the Immortal Spirit was a goddess. A real one.
Sirius forced himself to snap out of his trance, his eyes growing serious, as he quickly cupped his fists and bowed his head.
"Senior—"
"Speak informally."
He stared at her for a while, then nodded reluctantly.
"You said you'd give power… what's the price?"
Sirius wasted no time. He believed no such thing was free in this world. And even though it sounded far-fetched, he was too desperate and had no choice.
Not to mention, Sirius didn't bother to be cautious. If his guess was correct, then this so-called Immortal Spirit was a Fifth Realm cultivator or even beyond, given her ability to completely project her Primordial Spirit outside her body.
With a quick glimpse at Nyx, who was still sound asleep, Sirius confirmed his conjecture that she was able to remain undetected, even against a magical beast with keen senses.
Against such an existence, everything was futile.
"I would not give you power directly. Rather, it is the primordial artifact you once held that would give you opportunities. In the end, it is up to you, the inheritor, to risk yourself and grasp the opportunities presented unto you."
Sirius was stunned, then he frowned. 'Primordial artifact? Inheritor?'
He shook his head. Such thoughts were useless at this moment.
"But… I'm unable to cultivate." Sirius' expression turned extremely dark as his head lowered.
The Immortal Spirit stared at him for a moment, then replied:
"Inheritor, truth be told, you are not a cripple. When you cultivate, the spiritual energy you absorb is inevitably redirected into the artifact to slowly repair itself and then maintain certain functionalities. This is needed in order to protect you when absolutely needed. At the same time, it blocks divine sense to avoid scrutiny, thus appearing like a normal artifact unto the others."
His lips twitched. For a long moment, he didn't know whether to feel infuriated or overjoyed.
When he was a kid, his parents had given him this artifact as a memento. They told Sirius to keep it at all times to ward off bad spirits, though he didn't believe that. However, ever since his parents passed away, he had kept it all the time, only removing it to hide it away from those pests.
Sirius had even thought of allowing them to look at it to finally remove all suspicion. But he feared that they would still be persistent in thinking it was an 'anomaly,' snatching it away for an even deeper investigation.
He stared at his hands for a while, feeling the once familiar sense of powerlessness slowly turning foreign. In the end, he sighed in defeat and met her eyes again.
"My necklace—the artifact… what is it and… why only now?"
"The artifact requires you to drip blood onto it to fully awaken and make it yours. However, since it was heavily damaged, there was no way to contact you…
"Regarding the nature of the artifact, it possesses various functionalities beyond your comprehension, all designed to facilitate your growth. All you need to know for now is that it detects Providents, allowing you to eliminate them without karmic backlash, and then seize a portion of their cultivation, fortune, or talents."
Sirius couldn't help but be astounded beyond belief once more. As far as he knew, no such artifact existed in this world.
'Providents… aren't they the same thing as the protagonists found in fictional works? But… why?'
Shaking his head, Sirius asked another question:
"How about you… what are you?"
If the artifact existed to help him grow, then what was the Immortal Spirit for?
"Mentor. Teacher. Guide. You could think of me as the consciousness of the artifact."
Surprised, Sirius nodded and clenched his fist. He looked at her with a serious expression:
"How do I start? I want to start now."
The Immortal Spirit was momentarily taken aback.
"Are you sure?"
He nodded.
She stared at him for a while, softly shaking her head.
Sirius was confused and was about to ask when something appeared before him that made him gape in wonder.
It was a hologram, reminiscent of those video game panels he had seen countless times.
[A scenario has been created.]
[A Provident has been selected. Preparing description…]
[Noah Eckert: The reincarnation of an unfortunate mortal from the Divine Realm. In an attempt to steal a sacred treasure under the eyes of powerful deities, he faced instant annihilation. His soul then went through the cycle of reincarnation and was subsequently blessed by the Heavens. He awoke on Earth before the cataclysm began without his memories intact.]
[Providence (Blessed): 500]
Sirius couldn't help but open his mouth. 'This… was a Provident?'
[Objective: Travel back in the distant past, before the cataclysm began to eliminate the selected Provident.]
"What!?"
[Initiating scenario…]
"Wait, wait! Stop!"