Luck, The Black Layer.

 

I can't move. Struck by something that I couldn't even recognize, I'm now unable to regenerate. Whatever is responsible for hitting me is stopping my regeneration, it's canceling my ability. In the end, this dragon was another creature outside of my reach of power. I'm certain that just now, I'd killed it, but it just didn't die.

 

Maybe I should be proud of myself for landing a killing blow. No, that was not my own power. It was thanks to Artemis that I even managed to accomplish the killing blow on the dragon. I cannot use her again, I'd pushed her to her limit under the pretense that the dragon's soul would be stolen from it, just like how we'd sealed Ascelin's soul away.

 

It might be abrupt, but this — all of this... I'm tired of it. I'm sick of the pain I've been forced to endure for no apparent reason. Faced with immortality with the drawback of losing more of myself every time I die. Some might laugh if I told them that with every passing day, I forget more and more about my first life. I was a man if I remember correctly. I had parents, whose faces I can no longer recall, and a life that was — as far as I can remember — carried no importance.

 

Against my will, the system window pops up before my eyes, blocking out the sun that I'd been forced to look up at while helplessly limp on the dirt. 

 

 

Ha, like it was wishing to participate in the game of 'piss-on-Luck', the system that I'd become reliant on completely failed me. It was now showing errors, but this was nothing new if I thought back hard about it. Since the day I was dragged from a 10-year purgatory, Anaphiel emphasized how much of an irregularity I was for the system. My existence was something she'd been tasked with observing, and yet she did even more than that for me.

 

Anaphiel did not only observe me, but she also helped me along the way. When I was at risk of dying to the Abysmal Shaman, she appeared and formulated a plan that ended up saving my life, for a few minutes longer anyway. After being wiped from existence by the Red Mother, she granted me resistance to clairvoyance, something that I am not sure will hold long enough for me to exit this place. She truly is my savior.

 

My savior is nowhere in sight now that I'm nearing death's door, however. This time, I'll die without changing anything. All I did was collect more abilities, but what does that matter? In the face of another powerful opponent, I was just a stepping stone. Like the meaningless monsters I've killed up until now, I too hold no importance. On paper, perhaps I look important to a mystical onlooker. Someone beyond this world might be looking down and watching my every move, expecting something magical to happen.

 

Maybe that onlooker is myself... some version of me that's scolding me and demanding that I stand up and fight. Horrible, right? The feeling of helplessness has become all too familiar to me, even when I felt positive that the feeling was only temporary.

 

The system... I hate it, so dearly. This system brought me so much pain and misery, it's so unfair to me...! 

 

✦ You are beginning to show signs of... callousness. Please, calm yourself. ✦

 

No one really knows how death feels unless they've come back from it. Not the temporary pain that we feel, but instead, the sheer trauma that comes with the knowledge of knowing that your life has ended. My first death on that road was painful, I felt all of the agonizing pain until my final breath. Those feelings stuck with me even now.

 

✦ You are showing great signs of... [Corruption]! Calm down and await further instructions! ✦

 

Every monster has its own unique skill. They have abilities designed and recognized by this system that we share. It's funny, right? With my ability to steal abilities, I've been shown the names of powerful things, but it just doesn't make sense to me. I've seen the story of Ascelin and the Abysmal Shaman. I've seen how monsters existed even before the system, and yet a mysterious someone is always telling me how things are meant to be.

 

Death hurts, but being played as a fool hurts so much more when you're letting it happen. I've idly made myself a puppet to a system, completing 'quests' whenever they appear and happily playing around with everything everyone says to me. Something beyond my reach is always looking to interfere, and I've struggled to admit that it's discouraging. I've struggled to just give up and lie down. I struggle because something always compels me to take action.

 

This unseen force beckons me to ascend and keep fighting. It appeases my feelings and makes me feel confident in my abilities. It seduces my confidence and wraps it around its fingers, just to tear it from my hands. The sadistic onlooker known as fate has never been on my side no matter how much I prayed.

 

I feel sorry for Ascelin and the others who have been depending on me. Depending on me must have been the wrong decision, that's what I think. Everyone, even gods, can make poor choices when they are under pressure. I can fall into despair when I've become hopeless and unenthused.

 

"Then the gods made a poor choice letting you live this long." Ha, there's a familiar voice in my head. Roshia Qinlen, my past self. I've truly broken down to the peak of insanity — now I'm speaking to myself.

 

"Maybe a talk with yourself is what you need, kid. We're the same person, but you're a whole lot easier to break than me. That's for sure." It's a given. My body is that of a teenage girl at this moment. A homeless one at that, one who lacks intelligence and spirit. This might be the cause of my ongoing identity crisis when faced with the voice of my past incarnation.

 

"You're dying. You're bleeding out and you can't regenerate. Shit, this is pretty bad, huh?" Not even my past self can offer me any kind words in this hopeless scene. It's fitting, given how I am now. The two of us are not much different from each other. We share identical personalities, yet two completely different lives. We are the same people who carry different identities.

 

"My life came to an end pretty abruptly. I don't think I'd mind going back to those times, though. Maybe Alice and I could've been good friends. I think I had a better relationship with Anaphiel than you, actually." The last comment drew a chuckle from my lips. That was the weakest chuckle I'd ever mustered.

 

Here I am, on the brink of death, chatting with myself. "The people you met in this life are a lot stronger than the ones I met in mine. They're not quite as friendly, but I think you forged a better relationship with them than I did with my group. It was a short-lived experience. Are you sure that you want to hang it up here?" The idea that my own self would question me about my will to live is appalling. It actually brings words to life from my lips in soft mutters.

 

"What... can... I do...?" I ask weakly, thinking out loud. My body won't regenerate, and I feel myself getting colder and colder. In only a matter of minutes, my organs will cease functioning.

 

"I don't know what you can do, but I know what I did when it came down to it. I used my head." It was the most insulting thing I'd ever told myself. Using my head couldn't seal the massive cut running up my entire torso.

 

It's then that Roshia tries to go more into detail. "Yeah-yeah, you and I both hate it when everyone's cryptic, right? You need to find a new power. Many of the creatures you've met thus far have unique abilities, but they don't quite register with the system. You must've noticed that after killing certain monsters like those spider things, you didn't get an ability like 'spider physiology' or anything of the sort."

 

In truth, I had hardly been keeping track of the abilities I received. It's thanks to my ability from my first life that I could steal abilities from the monsters I killed. "You need to forget about the system. Not every ability is tied in with it, you need to go beyond it. Use your imagination, find a goal, and then snag it. If everyone else is allowed to have some sort of ridiculous ability, why can't you find yours?"

 

When compared to the others with absurdly powerful abilities, I didn't like to compare my Skill Steal with the skills of others.

 

"Do you remember the first ability you had upon waking up? It wasn't Skill Steal, that's something that came later. Anaphiel gave it to you — but she's connected with the system. I'd know what the ability was all too well since I'm the first incarnation to see our initial list." My intuition tells me that this much has nothing to do with the point she's trying to get across. Roshia is actually just shoving her knowledge in my face, cheekily bragging.

 

"Rebirth. You remember that, don't you? It's the ability we have every time we die. You've stayed alive for a long while, so I'm sure you forgot about it. You only know that you'll come back when you die, but you never account for the fact that it's the result of the mysterious bug-ability that the system could hardly accommodate."

 

Memories flash through my mind, a sudden reminder of the conversation I'd forgotten about. On the first day of my new life as an adventurer, Anaphiel appeared and explained how because my system wasn't unlocked, I'd been trapped in a state where I was neither dead nor alive.

 

"We know how Anaphiel is from Ascelin's memories. She knows more than she leads us to believe. For instance, the system itself... Since the day you came back, haven't you seen how odd it's been behaving? Responding to you at times, even keeping track of the so-called corruption stat that it previously couldn't even comprehend?"

 

✦ You bend the system to your will, even without knowing it. ✦
✦ You, Luck, do not even know yourself. ✦

 

"I... get it..." The pop-ups in front of my face are too bright, even if I'd been looking at the sun before. Through my similar thought process, I can grasp a slight understanding of what Roshia is leading onto. 'The system is a part of me.'

 

Much like how Roshia, a fragment of myself, can appear and explain things that I presently didn't know, the system was connected to me and the greater world, explaining things to the best of its ability. At some point, it gathered a hint of sentience. I'd noticed it when it apologized to me some time ago — it broke character or glitched.

 

"You've got a special ability out there somewhere, so we just need to get you to find it." The world around me shifts into a blank white room. It feels different than when I die, similarly to the space where I'd usually see Ascelin and now Historia. There, Roshia stands before me in a white flower dress. I'm surprisingly fitted in a white hospital gown. I do not understand the symbolic meaning behind this, but I don't think it's all too important.

 

"Come on." Roshia walks further into the abyss, beckoning me to follow her. "We need to go find your ability."

 

"How do you even know about it!?" Stopping her in her tracks, I scream at Roshia — myself. "How do you know that there's something waiting, something that'll make a difference in this hopeless scenario?! Do you even know how hard it is to keep going?! I was so hopeful, or maybe I just pretended like I was...!" My chest aches as I rant, causing me to stumble forward from a sudden vacancy of strength in my joints.

 

"How do I know...?" Roshia tilts her head, thinking of how to answer the question. "Well, I'm right in front of you, aren't I? That should say it all." I miss the meaning of her words, and she doesn't elaborate. Turning around, Roshia continues her walk away from me. "Come on. The best way to find something hidden within you is to find yourself first."

 

---

 

Lulu Burns, The Red Layer.

 

The scene before me is straight from a fairy tale. I'd never expected Zaiden to possess power of this magnitude, not in contrast to the red-haired demigods that asserted themselves on mankind since the beginning of this unusual world of dungeons and battle.

 

With his headband violently fighting the dominant wind generated from each clash, Zaiden swings his weapon with enough ferocity to leave the air splitting around his blade and anything in its way. "Koo, move away!" One of the sisters, Yoo, yells out to her identical sibling. 

 

Koo moves out of the way of Zaiden's blade in the nick of time, sparing her body from being split in half by his blade. A super-sized grin spreads across Zaiden's lips when he sees the result of the swing. Behind Koo, where her sister Yoo is lurching, a giant totem, identical to the one created when they first tried to crush me, is split in half.

 

Yoo, who'd been too worried about her sister to properly notice the impending aftershock of Zaiden's slash, has her left leg slashed by the pressure of his swing. A deep gash is created in her limb that leaves her losing her balance on the collapsing effigy. "You'd better pay attention to me! I'm getting the hang of this ability of yours!" Zaiden yells out excitedly, as gleeful as a child on Christmas day.

 

For half an hour now, I've been watching Zaiden fight with the siblings. Their ability is too complex for me to grasp an understanding of, so I take it that Zaiden is bluffing when he claims to be getting the hang of it. Contrary to what he believes, Zaiden isn't understanding their ability whatsoever. He's dumbing it down with each one of his attacks.

 

From what I've gathered, both of the twins can generate statues of some kind that act as mediums for various abilities that they do not normally possess. Each statue is of a mature woman, nude in appearance. Sometimes the statues will appear as them in an elegant pose, while others might have them in a more lecherous stance. Depending on the stance that they've taken and the appearance of the statue, a manifestation of one of the women in the statues will appear over whichever one of the siblings is responsible for summoning it.

 

The complexity of the ability comes in the form of the various abilities that the statues have. There is no clear manifestation of the ability that I can see. Once in a while, I'll see Zaiden slashing his sword in the air, leaving me to wonder if he's seeing things that I'm not. As a non-combatant, I wouldn't be surprised to find that my eyesight isn't fit for this death match.

 

By destroying the statues, Zaiden's been removing the troublesome manifestation that may sometimes unleash fire, but other times produce invisible attacks — or at least attacks that outsiders like myself cannot see from beyond the battle. 

 

Suddenly, Koo is grinning wide, rather than expressing concern for her sister. This revelation makes me shudder, it is a clear contrast to the concern that she's been showing for the entire duration of the brawl. My jaw drops once the results of Zaiden cutting Yoo appear in the shape of a gash running along his own leg.

 

"Woah! I got cut!" Zaiden, dumbfounded, doesn't even winch in pain at the flood pouring from his leg. "How'd I miss one of those totems? I've got to start paying more attention." After reprimanding himself, Zaiden swings his sword to his left, releasing another shockwave in the direction of something in the distance.

 

Exploding stones burst into the air as the shockwave meets its mark on a miniature statue concealed inside a bush. "Tsk, his sight's gotten better, Koo," clicking her tongue, Yoo acknowledges Zaiden's immense growth during their fight. In the beginning, he barely accounted for the fact that the statues they created could vary in size, seeming invisible to the naked eye. Zaiden, after unleashing a flurry of slashes in random directions, eventually discovered that attacks covering a wide range were effective at dismantling the smaller statues.

 

The larger statues carry a considerable amount of durability, while the smaller ones carry little to none. Throwing a rock is enough to shatter them. This leads me to believe that by altering the composition of the statues, the twins are sacrificing advantages with each statue. As reckless as this may be, I believe this so-called weakness isn't much of a weakness at all. If they can generate these statues with different effects, they'll be locked in a standstill.

 

"Alice, move away as far as you can," Zaiden, without turning to face me, instructs me to flee from the area. 

 

I'd be lying if I said that this didn't worry me. "What are you planning, Zaiden? I'm here to make sure you don't die." Although he hasn't needed my support, I'm here to tear him away from the fight if it looks like he even has a chance of dying.

 

Zaiden chuckles and grins at me. "It wouldn't be a good plan if I said it out loud, would it?" The smile he gave me would've given me reassurance if I weren't still skeptical about the power beheld by the two red-haired twins he was facing off against. Zaiden may not be the smartest Awakener I've ever met, but his confidence gives birth to incredible results. They might not show themselves immediately, yet his confidence manifests his goals in different ways.

 

With my arrows, I push myself away from the area as quickly as I can. Right when I start moving, Zaiden's swords dig into the ground, pressing in until the hilts make contact with the dirt. "So, I was thinking..." Zaiden now speaks to the sisters.

 

Cautiously, the two listen in to what he has to say. My first assumption is that while pretending to listen, they'd create another statue to attack him. The likelihood of their statues becoming smaller as the fight progresses is high, even in his current state, I cannot see Zaiden winning once they reach a microscopic size. 

 

"You guys are seriously good at using the environment around you. It's freakin' terrifying having to keep looking around for the slightest hint of a statue. So, after a while, I started plottin'... and it hit me!" Veins pop out of his hands and he increases the strength of his grip on the handle of his weapon. "What if I just got rid of the environment?!" The earth trembles.

 

Flexing the muscles in his legs, Zaiden pushes himself from his leaning position. His firm hands remain on his weapon, and once his arms are outstretched, his teeth clench. Cracks pop open around us, debris going where they go. "You've lost your mind!" One of the twins yells out. I'm too busy pulling myself away to see which one it is.

 

"I've learned a lot of things in the last few months, and one of them is that a man's got to do what a man has got to do!" Zaiden's motivation is to defeat and surpass Alice Slater, but it doesn't end there. He wants to become one of the greatest swordsmen alive.

 

'So...' As my thoughts begin, Zaiden's blades burst from the ground, upheaving a cacophony of devastation. Beams of red escape from the ground, and the grass and trees around him and the twins are torn asunder. It'd be miraculous for an ant or roach to survive the outburst of power released from his upward slash. A beacon of light rises into the air around him, and his laughter breaks through even the loudest of winds generated from his efforts. 'How can you become the best if you're restricting yourself?'

 

Zaiden Morrison removed his restrictions. By disregarding his concern for what is around him, he can fight with power that the average person would limit themselves from using out of concern for their environment. He is here for a fight and a fight alone. If he loses, he may die — so he will beat his enemy to win, by any means necessary.

 

Without me knowing, this was the second appearance of a battle that'd change the fate of our world forever... How sad would it be if I told you that a happy ending was difficult to achieve from here on out?