[You have slain an Ontological Glitch, Remnant of the Demon Queen]
[You have slain...]
[You have...]
The voice felt... wrong. It sounded distant and hesitant, as if it did not recognize Adrian anymore. The melodious voice continued on, fusing into a choir that echoed in the distance. He did not recognize it either, so maybe that was the reason why their connection felt distorted.
Or maybe because of another reason he could not remember.
He felt peaceful, even though he was alone. The new world he had found himself in was tranquil and still, with no chaos to disturb him. Deep, cold darkness surrounded him from all sides, but it did not feel wrong, not anymore at least. He finally felt peace, after years of struggling as a mortal.
Even though he had no recollection of who he was, or how he had come to be.
It was all a matter of the moment, and what is in front of him.
The darkness wrapped around him like a mantle, making him feel welcomed and longed for. It was a nice feeling, especially after everything that had happened before.
'Everything...'
He did not feel pain, and was not sure if advocating for one was a good idea. He did not know – or at least did not remember what lay outside the darkness, but deep down he knew only violence awaits. That conflicted his feelings.
'Feelings...'
Everytime a small fragment of humanity, or the human he once was, ignited in his soul, the vast darkness snatched it away and devoured it. Leaving him hollow and faceless.
Or was he?
What was he fated to be again? Alone, confused, trapped in the moment and unable to remember the past? Fated to be physically bound to the darkness like chains, unable to break free from the tendrils of its will. To be claimed by the everlasting darkness.
To be clamed by Chaos.
Suddenly, his eyes lit up as he desperately tried to free himself from the nothingness. He felt a turmoil of unfamiliar emotions raging like a storm inside of him. His body moved involuntarily, and so did his will. He battled the darkness as a state of mind, and lost incredulously every single time.
The will of the everlasting darkness was simply too vast, devouring every aspect of himself he managed to recover. He went back to being numb, confused and still once more. The voice inside his mind did not stop though, remaining indifferent to the battle of wills.
Everything was still of a long time, until the voice resounded in his mind once more. It spoke a single sentence, and yet that sentence was enough to stir his whole being. It not only invoked his past, but also set his future in motion.
Now fate was on his side.
[You have received a Title: Fallen Herald]
Something unexplainable shifted inside him. Not an emotion, not this time. It was something deeper and more permanent, embedded into his being. He felt anchored to the world, to existence, in ways he could not explain.
Memories of what had been and what was to come flooded his mind, and he grasped the tightly, before they were devoured the darkness. Chaos still did devour them, but not before experiencing his past, present – the present outside the darkness that is – and future. Along with all of his emotions, desires, fears and wished.
His emotions were raw and unfiltered, just the way he remembered it. His state of mind did not matter anymore, he trusted only his gut to guide him to the light. Just he had always did before. Memories came flooding back in his mind, as if responding to the anchor, and he quickly devoured them before the darkness could.
He felt his greatest desires. The desire to be free, free from not just the darkness, but something else as well. The desire to shed as much blood as he could, and make up for his past mistake...The desire to be strong, stronger that anyone in existence. Stronger than the High Peerage awakened, and even beyond that.
Stronger than the ancient gods themselves.
He experienced all his fears as well. The fear to be alone. The fear of not being strong enough, to be weak in the world where weakness was punishable by death. The fear of trust and devotion. The fear of being unloved and loathed or worse, forgotten by the world. The fear of death itself.
And most importantly, his fear of the dark...
He fought against the everlasting darkness once more, but this time it was different. He did not fight physically – or whatever state he was currently in – instead, he countered Chaos by remembering his existence and anchoring himself to the world.
To fate itself.
He remembered how much he had desired a Title, and a mission that came with it. His desires were so strong that Chaos failed to bind him and turned him against the world. It was not only because he was powerful enough to resist Corruption, but fate was also fighting by his side.
And fate conquered all.
He also remembered how he had succumbed to the Noise, and let himself be enveloped by Corruption. He remembered how he had been fighting against an especially dreadful creature, that ultimately killed him, in a sense.
He remembered how he had desperately fought against the creature, healing himself, nd moments away from dying. He remembered feeling afraid, and also elated at the same time. The system announced his kill at the very beginning, it seems he had killed an adversary far more powerful that he was.
Or wait, was it two adversaries? Even though he did not remember fighting two creatures, but an accomplishmen was still an accomplishment, and he knew better that to sell himself short. He did not remember being Corrupted, but he did remember listening to the Noise and all the secrets of the Nightmare.
The secrets of Chaos.
Knowledge was truly a powerful thing. He only managed to slay the abomination, Remnant of the Demon Queen, only after becoming Corrupted, which meant that he unlocked some knew profound power after descending towards profanity.
He devoured as much of his existence as he could, until he finally felt another shift. This one significantly different from before. The amount of memories he consumed were still increasing with every moment, leaving the darkness behing by a wide margin.
He was still losing himself to it though, but that did not matter anymore. Nothing except survival did.
He felt a shift, not inside him this time, but all around him. The darkness was getting lighter and lighter, and he could finally move freely – not that there was anything he could do. The pressure decreased as well, making the vast expanse of darkness seem less daunting.
Finally a large rift appeared, causing the vast nothingness to shift once again. More rifts appeared, until finally the darkness crumbled and collapsed completely. His eyes tightly shut by that point, but it only took a few moments for the chaos to die down.
He opened his eyes and saw something else. The feeling was different as well. He was still not quite awake, but he was not oppressed or trapped anymore. He was floating freely in the vast expanse of his consciousness. He had missed the feeling.
The Trace Rune was still there, but the Noise was gone. The pain of being too close to the scar was gone as well. He reached for the Rune and studied it. It was different from before. It was still shinning brightly, but the color was wrong and distorted.
He pulled the rune as watched as the thread familiarly weaved symbols in front of him. Only this time, the symbols were different, but his mind was still able to translate. They were foreign to the Nightmare and the Eplialtic Weave even, but some aspect of his mind was capable of translating.
His Corrupted aspect maybe.
The runes read:
Host: Adrian
Title: Fallen Herald
Rank: Azure Beast
Tier: 5
Potential: [Empathy]
Attributes: [Scarred] , [Nightwalker] , [Corrupted]
Abilities: [Mend]
Affinities: [Chaos]
Soul Core: Dormant
Essence: 372/2000
Vigor: 88%
He let go of the Trace Rune, allowing the runes to dissolve into the nothingness. He remained still and emotionless for a few minutes, trying to process the new information.
Most of it had not changed, except his rank. There were a few additions that had obviously not been there before, like the Title, an additional Attribute and an Affinity.
The former was a dream come true, the addition attribute was to be expected, but the latter... he did not know how to feel about the affinity to Chaos.
Affinities were super rare, even rarer and more precious than Titles. They were so rare that almost no human in existence had one. Even the most seasoned awakened fighters of humanity barely came across the concept of one, and here he was with an affinity to such profane existence.
He was still most likely the only Commonality with an affinity and that was quite an accomplishment.
Speaking of being a Commonality, it seemed he was not one anymore, but a Corrupted ceature of the same tier. Although it was not that bad, considering only he was able to see his runes. No one would know what he truly was.
Unless...
He muffled a silent curse, and let go of his consciousness attempting to awaken into the real world like he always did. And it surprisingly worked. Even though he was free from Chaos – to a certain extent that is – he still could not get rid of the memory of being trapped in the oppressive darkness.
He opened his eyes, again, and looked around. His head hurt like hell, but at least it was not the Noise. It was something else though, something even hus ability failed to heal. Something much deeper in his mind.
He tried to get up, only to realize he was soaking wet. The stench of blood assaulted his nostrils, making him grimace. Instead of a humanely sound, something else escaped his lips. Something low and beastly.
But he paid it no attention.
He looked around and saw a giant monster laying dead beside him. It was terribly mutilated, streams of blood flowing out from a terrible wound in it abdomen. The abdomen itself was entirely gone, leaving a gaping hole where it was supposed to be.
Its insides, including the intestines, what looked like the lungs and even the heart, were placed somewhere else in the battlefield. The creature was almost completely hollowed out from the inside.
He was currently kneeling on the floor, after failing to get up, so he tried again. He used his arms to support himself and used the other two arms to balance his weight. He wobbled up and–
'Wait the other two?!'
He felt back on the ground with a loud thud. He groaned in pain – or at least tried to. Instead, low beastly growl escaped his mouth again. His heart raced so fast he was afraid it would explode.
He looked at his hands, and he could not believe what he saw.