Opening his eyes he was forced to squint as the light was slightly bright. No, that wasn’t the best way to describe it. If he had to put it into words, he wasn’t used to looking at light. It was clear he wasn’t back in the trial anymore. The trial had been inside the entire time, the only time he had left was when he went into the strength test and the final trial stage. Even when he went into the eighth room it was still inside and had no connection to outside. Those years were spent indoors and most of the rooms had controllable light that allowed one to see but it was as if the world was painted brightly. There was no stimulation of a light, instead you could simply see everything as if there was an unknown source lighting up your surroundings.
No matter how he tried he couldn’t exactly remember what happened in the eighth room either. But that was a question for another time. If what he had learned, he currently should be in a transition world. Looking around he saw he was on a small island surrounded by destruction of the elements. The sky was covered in a thick amount of clouds but it wasn’t enough to keep the sun from shining its light through. What made things questionable was the fact that it was so bright even when it was clear there were a thick amount of clouds. There was even a clear round object beyond the clouds that could be seen, taking up a good thirty percent of the sky, wherever he was the sun was way too close.
In the distance were mountains and islands or pieces of lands with erupting volcanoes. Very quickly there was another rumbling as the ground seemed to shake. This was what pulled him out of his meditative state. Along with the rumbling that almost made him lose his balance was a tsunami of water. Before he could react the water crashed into the island as it moved so quickly it had appeared and disappeared far too quickly for him to do anything besides brace himself for impact. Only he didn’t feel danger which caused him to feel a bit flabbergasted. Sure enough another wave came, larger to the point it tried to add another layer to block out the sun but once again failed.
As it reached a certain distance the wave crashed into an invisible barrier and simply washed over the barrier before slowly sliding back down into its original body of water. At least what was left. There was a decent amount of water that never reached the bottom of the barrier as it quickly sizzled as it evaporated to add to the thick layer of clouds. He stopped paying attention soon after as a rain of what was likely volcanic ash started to rain down on the barrier. Even still the sun could still shine roughly through all this, even if dampened to a great amount.
With the light given off by the sun it allowed him to turn around and look at the structure in the distance. While he saw a structure it was closer to a tower than anything else, or he should say monolith. Black in nature but even from this distance he could see there were smooth edges of where pieces of the rock came apart. It wasn’t completely straight and it shifted and had bulges but in the end it stood up and had an opening with a series of pillars and a few walls holding it up. He was too far to see what was inside the opening.
What he could see was someone sitting down at a table right outside of the rock tower. Looking in his direction they waved their hand at him. Very quickly he had a dark look on his face. Looking at the ground he followed the small prints leading up a path leading to the rock tower. When he reached the table he had a terrible expression but was still met with a smiling face. He wasn’t surprised by the person's appearance but that didn’t mean he was welcoming of it.
“That’s not your real appearance, change it.” Even though his voice was cold, there were still many emotions that could be heard in it.
Very quickly, like it was all an illusion, a young woman with black hair and very dark brown eyes appeared in front of him with the same smile. He wanted to slap that smile off her face. Of course he might be annoyed and speak his mind to an extent, he would never actually dare raise his hand as the second he did would likely be the last action he ever did.
With a slight tilt of her head she couldn’t help but ask, “So when did you figure it out?”
Sitting down he answered but there was no respect in his tone, “When the overseer who I suspect to be a demigod grabbed me. Even though the pain made it hard as I escaped I couldn’t help looking back and then I saw a glimpse of a little girl with black hair. I thought I was seeing things. But that was just me denying the truth.” With a heavy sigh as he stared at the table he couldn’t help but look up at the smiling face, “What are you?”
“A devil. So are you still willing to accept my seed?” Her voice wasn’t upset at the lack of respect or his inquisitive nature, as the voice of her’s didn’t change from answer to question with the same flat tone.
“Do I have a choice?” This was something he really did want to know even though he was pretty sure he wouldn’t like the answer or that it would matter.
“No. Well, sort of.” With a pondering expression she looked up for a moment and let him stew in his seat. When she finally found the right words she looked back at him, “You can give up the seed but it would require another god or devil to replace it. Though as you probably already know you have accepted the seed so trying to remove it will lead to terrible consequences that wouldn’t be advantageous to you. Even if the seed was replaced with another it would set you back and just to reach the state of a normal person would likely have your hair turn gray by that time and you would have no chance to continue climbing. As removing the bond between you and the seed would cripple you for the foreseeable future.”
She paused slightly before there was a wide smile on her face again as she asked, “Would you like me to reach out and see if any gods are willing to take you in?”
He could hear another rumbling in the distance as another few waves crashed into the barrier. He just watched this silently as he let that be his answer. Finally after a period of silence in the barrier he spoke without turning to look at her, “Where are we?”
“You remember what little Cronos told you?”
“Little.” He could only guess who little Cronos was, but if he was a demigod and she was a devil it meant the gap between the two was truly large.
“System Universe, that is the place you are. Your original homeworld was also in this universe. A universe is not so simple and even I find it difficult to fathom it all. There are simply too many layers to understand the complexity that generally won’t help you so you should just forget about that. There are endless galaxies in a universe. In a single universe are countless planets and celestial bodies. Not all of these are inhospitable to the creatures that are part of the System Universe. In fact the majority of such worlds are far too hostile to live in, that is not to say that living in that world would be difficult but impossible to live in.
Some of these universes have lived out their lives and have reached their end. Like organic life, the life of a universe doesn’t stop. The pieces of the past will be pieces of the future. This is simply one of those worlds. Even when the world comes to a tragic or long end it is still part of the System’s Universe. We are currently on one of those worlds that is trying to start anew. As I am sure you have already noticed this comes with a very large boost of mana. This is my last gift I can offer you for becoming my apostle.”
“All I feel is the same lowest level mana. But out there is different?” His voice was slightly unsure he could feel something but it was vague and not definite enough to confirm for himself.
“Yes, I removed all higher level mana before you arrived. As you had guessed I made a deal with little Cronos and he took the hit of sending you to this world since it would have been a bit too much of a backlash for me at the moment. If I didn’t remove the higher levels of mana, not only would little Cronos have died even I would die from the System’s backlash. There are a set number of worlds even we need to comply with. At least to a certain extent. So what do you say?”
He looked at her with a bit of confusion but she just smiled happily at his gaze. He could still see traces of the little girl from hell so he could only look away. He wanted to be angry. He wanted to attack her but that would be useless. Even more so he remembered letting go of many things. He felt much later as if all his baggage was gone. He really couldn’t feel any anger even knowing she was responsible for it all. It was a mysterious feeling that left him with a tiny bit of exhaustion. Going in circles trying to find the negative emotions he felt like he should be feeling.
“What would it mean to be an apostle? Am I supposed to go around asking if they met Satan? She is a little girl who goes around doing crazy shit that makes you feel helpless with no escape? Or are you going to give me a bible to go around spreading hate to everyone I see?” Maybe it was because he felt an overwhelming sense of helplessness around her he couldn’t help but want to express himself even knowing the person he was talking to was someone he shouldn’t be fucking with.
Sure enough he was right, she started to laugh and even had to wipe the corner of her eyes as she seemed to be tearing up a bit. Making things worse it was a pleasant sound to listen to, “Haha, no. There are indeed a few gods and devils that go around trying to start religions but the way the System Universe works once you leave the lowest level world we are both heavily restricted by the system. As for religion, it's worthless outside of the lowest level worlds. Faith is a restricted power. If you are religious, the system won’t do anything after you die so if your god wants to take your soul they can. But in terms of faith, they can’t send it to you nor can you gather it while under the restrictions of the system. Only power that can be transferred is classes, for example seeds.
The relationship between a god or devil and an apostle is simply a master and disciple relationship. Only everything you need to learn is housed in the seed and you probably very rarely even react with said god or devil. Though this does have side effects. As a class is a piece of the god or devil in question. In a sense they are their class. It isn’t like a piece of clothing or equipment like a weapon. Instead the class is a part of them, for example their personality. I won’t deny that being called Satan and me really do share many similarities but in the end I am simply who I am. I share many characteristics of many beings. These will influence you and likely start to change you from the inside out.”
She paused as she pondered how she should word it. He didn’t interrupt her as he simply turned to look at the scene outside. It was a scary apocalyptic scene that would make your heart beat faster. Even though this was an undeniable fact it had its own beauty that made it hard to look away. This silence continued for a few minutes before he was drawn back to reality by the voice speaking to him.
“Haaa, the best way to explain it would be to explain the difference between a god and devil. These are simply two terms to explain the power we use. I can’t go too in depth and you might already know these terms, even if you don’t you will learn them in the future so just memorize it if you find it important. Inner and outer force. These are the two types of ways of using mana, a god is a person that reaches the pinnacle mastering outer force. They like to go around like they’re above others like untouchable celestials sent down from the heavens. They specialize in using mana outside the body and often don’t even need to come into contact and attack from a distance.
Devils are the same. We are described by the way we use mana and how we fight. They reached the pinnacle with inner force. Using mana inside the body allows us to use our bodies to fight and do things that can be done by gods generally with close contact. But the imagery of a person waving their hand and the ground ripping asunder is more appealing while more fear is generated when a person punches the ground and causes it to split like creating two separate continents from a single piece of land. In terms of what matters, gods and devils at least in the System Universe are no different personality wise. The negative connotation of a devil is the fact we are more destructive in nature.
With this in mind there is a spectrum of personalities. Because we are embodiments of our classes the power itself is part of this spectrum. At one end you have extreme gods and at the other you have extreme devils. Unlike what you might imagine, this spectrum is like this…” She stuck her finger on the table as she created a ‘U” upside down and drew a line through the middle. The drawing was used with some type of mana as it glowed very lightly on top of the table. “At the end points are the two extremes. If you come up to where it starts to curve you would find less extreme personalities and once you meet in the middle is a normal personality.”
“The two extreme personalities are the same between both gods and devils?” He wasn’t sure if this was right but he found it weird the two extremes were basically parallel to each other.
“Yes, there is no good or bad. A saint and a demon are also similar in nature. They are the same distance between them and normal. One might be more liked than the other but in terms of behavior traits it can be categorized that the most important aspect is the baseline and not one end or the other. Even if an evil person is far less popular than a saint it doesn’t change when you ignore aspects of the person themselves and look at where you find it on the spectrum you will find between a normal person and a saint or demon. The two are closer to each other than a normal person, at least looking at their abnormal behavioral traits.”
“Does this mean that extreme personalities are stronger?” Maybe it was from her attitude but she gave off this impression.
“Yes, and no. An extreme personality generally is stronger than someone with a normal personality. This is not factually true, only an extreme person is usually willing to go further than what a normal person would. But in the end these are behavioral traits, every person has survival instincts, so if you try to kill an extreme person and a normal person the two will fight just the same. Only someone with an extreme personality will not let the issue drop when all is said and done.”
He felt like he was going in circles. He understood that she was speaking in generalization as there weren't cookie cutter examples. So there was no real answer to his questions. He didn’t have much of a choice but in the end after letting go of his baggage he also didn’t really have any qualms with who he was now compared to before. Which also meant he didn’t have any sense of belonging to the person in front of him but he also didn’t feel any hatred that had originally been buried deep in his heart. He wasn’t sure if this was a good or bad thing. “So what am I doing here?”
With a sly smile she answered, “This is the last thing I can do for you. This is a bit of a special place. As the world is currently rebuilding itself it is only possible because of that.” She pointed to the rock tower, “Without the protection of the altar you wouldn’t be able to survive here, let alone you would be stuck here until the day you die. With it, you can stay here for a number of years if you wanted. Because you survived the eighth room you have the qualification to reach the initial level worlds. Though you weren’t going to be sent to such a world.”
She couldn’t help but have a more pronounced smile as she said this, “Rejoice, as part of the bet, little Cronos took a fair bit of damage for sending you here. Since you have the qualifications it was okay but since it went against the System there were still some issues that he had to take on because he lost the bet. Aren’t you curious about the bet?”
She was a very animated person, she asked him that while tilting her head to the side. “No. Get to the point.” It was hard to keep on point as she constantly swerved left and right in the middle of the conversation, some were smooth but others were hard turns that made it a bit annoying to talk to her.
“You’re no fun. So the reason I brought you here is because of what I said before, this is the last thing I can do for you. Once I leave the initial world mana will start to seep in. You can use that to train. You need to stay here for about two years. Though a minimal amount of time you need to be here is a year. After that you shouldn’t have many problems but you will hit a roadblock.” She paused slightly before looking him in the eye with a serious expression, “I recommend you stay here for ten years. Use that time to not only take advantage of the dense mana, you need to learn to control mana. Your mana usage is pretty sloppy and you need to get used to using the seed. If you do stay for ten years you shouldn’t have any issues making it to intermediate level worlds and will likely only need to do around five trials, maybe a little less.”
He had a serious expression. He really didn’t want to. With a heavy inhale and exhale sometime after, during which he had his eyes closed. When he opened them he found that the person across the table was gone. It seemed she already knew he had been stockpiling food in his inventory. After experiencing hell he had stockpiled food since he was at the altar with other people from Earth. The amount of food he had now would last for years. Though ten years would require him to ration it, the biggest issue was there was nobody here. He didn’t know how long he would last but he knew it would be in his best interest to stay as long as he possibly could.
Getting up he sat cross legged on the ground as he could feel the mana in the area was extremely thick. It was hard to describe the difference but he could feel the mana enter his body and start to react to the mana inside his body. He felt around a bit and was able to feel that hand that still felt like a hand reaching out of the earth asking for help. Ignoring the repulsion and reaching out, grabbing the hand. With that all stray thoughts disappeared.
End of Part 1
