Beacon from Beyond

The child version of himself was a deep, blood red. The rest of the memory was a lighter red, making Leven think that the skill was being contested between the two of them. When it spoke, a million countless voices rang out in a beautiful harmony that promised extreme violence, conveying itself in a similar way that the System did, but much more directed.

Leven felt a simmering within him as this thing tried to take what was rightfully his, but he quelled it, and responded

“I am Leven, and you are in my soul.”

YOU ARE NOT LEVEN.

LEVEN DIED, IN A BEAUTIFUL AND FURIOUS RAGE.

YOU ARE NOT LEVEN.

It repeated itself in its infinite voices. Leven felt that whatever he was arguing with spanned further than he could imagine, but he was not going to let it take what was rightfully his. His Wrath affinity bucked and snarled within him, but he held it back still.

“I did die” he said “but I did not forget, and this skill is mine! This memory is mine!”

YOU CLAIM IT FOR YOURSELF? YOU CLAIM THIS WRATH?

“Yes!” Leven shouted “This is mine, it is NOT yours to take!”

THEN PROVE YOU ARE WORTHY.

As soon as the child finished its sentence, a pulse of power flew through the opposing end of his skill, from the entity he was fighting his Skill for, and into the child. A popping and tearing sound reverberated out from the child as it began to grow, shooting up in height, equally as far as it shot outwards in muscle. Soon it was the same height as Leven, with even more muscles to match, and its skin was taught, as if it barely held itself together. The grotesque facsimile of Leven snarled in rage and launched itself at him

Leven was no stranger to fighting though, as he and his father frequently sparred while working out. As it held its hands out to try and strangle him, he ducked down and delivered a punch upwards into its gut. He faced some slight resistance, before his fist punched through, and particles flew from the back of the creature. The dust-like particles fell upon him, and he felt as a white hot fury entered his body, but he forced it down to remain level headed.

As it crashed into some workout equipment behind him, Leven quickly turned around and delivered a kick to it, or tried to, but its hand shot out and caught his foot. When he tried to pull away, he only managed to lose his balance and fall over.

‘Uh oh’

The creature stood up, and threw him towards the opposing wall. When he slammed into the punching bag halfway there, he felt some particles exit his own body, and he became weaker.

It ran towards him and tried to deliver a high kick, but he ducked under it and moved in close, rapidly laying out as many punches as he could. Each punch went through, tearing out chunks of it that flowed into the room or Leven, but more power pulsed through its connection to the larger entity, and it was constantly refilled with more and more, as it continued its expansion.

Blocking, dodging, punching, Leven fell into a rhythm as he tore out more from the beast, but it was never enough. He had the skills, while this animal had an endless endurance and functional invincibility. No matter how skilled he was, he couldn’t punch forever.

‘I'm missing something, there's a trick to this.’

As more and more of the red energy filled the room, Leven struggled more and more to keep his cool.

‘This skill is mine!'

‘I made it, I worked for it!’

‘I bled for this, working until my muscles failed, punching until my knuckles bled! Who is he to take it from me?!’

But still, he continued to whittle it down more and more. Even as his own soul turned a deep red to match his enemy, he was still starting to lose. He found that his energy never tired, but the thing he was fighting just kept having more pumped into it, getting faster and stronger, until Leven could barely keep up.

‘I’m going to die’ but he didn’t have to. There was still a connection to his own soul, he could still run. If he lept back through the connection, he knew he could escape.

Fear filled him as he started taking more hits, as he started to wane more, and more. It took the white of his soul with every punch, the red within him becoming more concentrated, but he knew that if he ran out of his own energy, his soul would just unravel, rather than run using the Wrath energy that he had been absorbing.

But he didn’t want to give up. He had poured everything he was into this skill, it was HIS.

More than just the skill, it was his memories. He didn't want to forget the first time he and his father worked together, he didn't want to forget all the training he put in to protect people from himself, or how he and his father used to go out for ice cream when his father would inevitably hurt him by accident after getting a little carried away.

He cherished the memories, the pain he poured into bettering himself. He loved watching his progress, day by day, as he pushed himself to the limits of both how much rage he could keep within him, and how much he could pour into bettering himself.

This entity wanted to take all of it, everything to do with the skill. Everything he worked so hard to keep through the void.

“I will die for what is mine...” But that wasn’t quite right, was it? He would hold on, weathering the storm, forever if he needed to. He would not die, he wouldn’t let himself

“No.”

“You will die for what is mine” he spoke, for the very first time, pouring his soul into every word, a declaration of absolute certainty.

He stopped holding his rage back, stopped blocking or dodging. He tore into it like a cornered animal, pushing it back with his entire body as he punched, kicked, kneed, and bit the thing. Whatever it took to deal as much damage as possible, he ignored that its punches got weaker and weaker, he ignored how the red energy that permeated the room flowed into him. He let go, and beat the enemy into a puddle of pulp. When it stopped regenerating, he ripped its limbs off to beat its torso into nothing, and when it was nothing more than dust, he stomped it down into the floor until cracks started to appear.

When there was nothing left, and everything was absorbed into him, he growled animalistically, and set his sights on the connection between his soul and this entity. He didn’t care how far this thing spanned, he was going to beat it senseless for trying to take what was his.

But just as soon as he set his sights on the new enemy, he gasped as his sensibilities came back, and he dropped to his knees.

He felt tired, incredibly tired. His soul was strained, but he was still aware enough of his surroundings that he watched as the red particles within him changed color, becoming a fleshy tan color.

He soon felt his strength return, and still the red particles continued to change and emit more and different colored lights.

By the time the last particle changed he no longer looked like a transparent ghost, his body looked as tangible and real as the moment he died, minus the gunshot wounds. He was in the same denim jeans and white collared button up he had been in when he perished, this time without any blood.

YOU ARE NOT LEVEN.

LEVEN DIED, IN A BEAUTIFUL AND FURIOUS RAGE.

BUT YOU ARE MY CHILD NONETHELESS.

And he felt the connection that attempted to pull his memories away slowly released its grip, almost reluctantly, until he was finally able to pull it back fully into himself.

He wanted to say that he felt mentally taxed, but he really didn't. As a matter of fact, he felt better than he ever had before. He looked around his soul, and saw that it was smoother than it had been previously. There were still spots of discord all around it, but many of them had faded away, leaving a significantly easier, yet still rough, journey through his life, as many of the spots of static or haze were lifted.

He checked his notifications too, as they had been buzzing in his head since he returned back to his own soul.

[Claim for Ownership made to Skill: [Growing Pains] by Human: N/A]

[Claim for Ownership made to Skill: [Growing Pains] by Affinity: Wrath]

[Ownership Contested between N/A And Wrath]

[N/A Recognized as Owner of [Growing Pains] by Wrath]

[N/A Recognized as Child of Wrath by Wrath]

[N/A Recognized as Owner of [Pandora’s Box (Unleashed)] by Wrath]

[N/A given Blessing by Wrath: Wrath Mana Conversion (single use)]

[Wrath Mana Conversion has converted to N/A’s native affinity: Human]

[Stat Gained: 1 Spiritual]

He was baffled, but also grateful for the blessing. It was nice to not have tons of Wrath affinity mana running rampant through his soul, but also, was he reading this right? Did he now have a bunch of Human affinity mana running through him? What did that even mean?

He now realized that he was fighting the very embodiment of Wrath itself, and had almost tried to jump down the connection to get at it. He remembered feeling a distinct sense of pride from the Affinity Wrath when that thought occurred to him, like he was only confirming to it that he was just as crazy as it wanted him to be.

Something told him that if he had succeeded, and actually jumped down the connection before Wrath could stop him, then he would have been handled gently and quickly sent back to his own soul. He laughed at the thought of this Affinity calling him its “Child” and then gently carrying him back to his soul when he threw a tantrum.

Leven moved his view away from his soul, and back to the natural darkness that his body persisted in, before checking over his Interface for any changes.

Name: N/A

Race: Human (Fetal)

Class: N/A

Profession: N/A

HP: 7/7

MP: 7/7

SP: 7/7

Stats:

Physical*: 7

Mental: 12

Spiritual: 12

Magical: 11

Affinities:

Kindness: Mid-Rare, 27%

Wrath: Low-Uncommon: 77%

Soul: High-Common: 12%

Inner Skills:

Kindness: Pandora’s Box (Contained) (50) (4826/2000), Call for Help (9)

Wrath: Pandora’s Box (Unleashed) (2), Growing Pains (16)

Soul: Astral Projection (1)

Outer Skills:

None

Starting from the top, he saw that his Physical and Spiritual stats had both gone up by 1. His physical most likely from the natural development of his body, while his Spiritual seemed to be from the strengthening of his soul after the strain he had placed on it to succeed in contesting the claim to his skill, kind of like a workout.

Next, he was surprised that he had only gained 12% in his soul affinity, and no progress in his Wrath affinity! But he supposed that made sense, because he wasn't actually using his Wrath for anything or getting any closer to it, he was just getting the embodiment of Wrath to recognize what he already was.

Last was the thing he was definitely putting off looking at, the incredibly worrying number next to [Pandora’s Box (Contained)], because it was way, way over the max.

He pulled it up to get a better look at the specifics around it

[Pandora’s Box - Level 50 - Kindness Affinity - 4826/2000 Mana Stored

To contain your sin, you have created a tangible field within the world of concepts. To resist giving in to your anger, you refuse to lash out. You refuse to express your wrath, as you rise above your base instincts. “What is better? to be born good or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?” - Paarthurnax

Creates a pool within your soul that contains the excess Affinity Mana produced by the various affinities of the user, unless otherwise specified

Contains (2)*((Spell Level)/10) mana rounded down per level (Currently 10 mana per level)

Also contains double the mana per Level within the Spell

Also concentrates the mana within the pool, giving a conversion rate of 6 Affinity Mana to 1 Concentrated Affinity Mana (mild concentration)]

[WARNING: Spell incompatible with body. Use of spell may result in harm, disfigurement, or death]

Okay, so the spell was still broken and nothing else had changed, but he could tell that there was now a drop down under “Mana”

Mentally expanding the word, he received a breakdown of all the affinities contained within Pandora’s Box

[35/2000 Wrath

4791/2000 Human]

Hmm.

That still didn't help.

He mentally sighed before, yet again, he turned his sight inward to look at his soul, This time seeking out where [Pandora’s Box (Contained)] resided. Not where it was formed, instead, he looked where it stored all of his mana.

This was the first time since his reincarnation that he had checked this part of his soul, which wasn't surprising considering he couldn't even see his soul before, and it looked bad.

What he visualized as the skill was, predictably, a massive box. It seemed to be a sort of wooden music box, with a small thin latch that kept the lid on. The issue came from the fact that it was covered in cracks, as it was still a broken skill that wouldn't work properly. When it wasn't full, it simply gathered all his Affinity Mana into itself, but when it became full, it showed that the Affinity Mana was spilling out everywhere, all across his body. The box continued to pull the mana into itself, but more mana was just forced out in its stead.

He followed where the spilling mana went before being pulled back into the box, only to repeat the cycle, and he saw that it was just floating through his body and soul. He felt like it should be wreaking havoc or something, because it moved in very angular or specific patterns, but it was like watching a well-maintained, well behaved highway. Mana moved aggressively around his body, but since it was a perfect match for everything, it did absolutely nothing to him.

This was probably what it meant when it said this was his “native affinity,” it meant that the mana was perfectly suited to him as a human. This probably also meant that there was no “Leven” affinity, and Human was as specific as he was going to get.

‘This also means that four thousand wrath affinity moving freely through my body would probably have eviscerated me. No wonder it didn't let that happen’

He was still observing his soul, when he felt the walls around him shift.

‘No way, wait, isn’t it still too early? How long was I fighting Wrath?’ he started to panic, and quickly pulled up [Growing Pain], but luckily there was no warning at the end of the skill. He had fully integrated it into his soul before he was born.

‘Well, I guess there's nothing holding me back.’

Instead, he simply braced himself and waited. The walls contracting were painful as shit, but he didn’t have any way to express himself as it felt like he was crushed again and again. After way too long of this, new notifications popped up before him

[Full System Integration initiated]

[Natural Birth Affinities detected: Wrath (low-Uncommon), Kindness (low-Uncommon)]

[ERROR! Wrath detected above Natural Birth Threshold]

[Wrath Affinity recognized by Wrath, Error resolved]

[ERROR! Kindness detected above Natural Birth Threshold]

[Resetting Affinity to Natural Birth Threshold]

[Reset of Kindness Overridden, Reset Canceled]

[ERROR! Soul detected above Natural Birth Threshold]

[Soul Affinity recognized by Soul, Error resolved]

[How did you manage that? Well, good for you]

[Initializing Body Functions. Racial Variant changed from Human (Fetal) to Human (Gem Dweller Variant)]

[ABNORMALITY! Excessive Human Affinity mana detected, harnessing Mana to upgrade racial bonus.]

Leven felt as all the loose Human affinity mana was drained from him by the System, and used to upgrade him, which sounded incredible! But it was only taking the loose mana. Quickly, he unlatched Pandora’s Box with the intent to release even more of the mana, despite the small amount of Wrath mana. He forced all the Human mana out, while still suppressing his Wrath mana, but he found that it wasn't all that necessary. For some reason, the Wrath mana didn't even try to leave the box, while the Human affinity mana was quickly sucked away by the System.

Once all of his Human mana was drained, he quickly closed the box before the Wrath could change its mind, if that's how it worked, and waited on the next notifications. He felt incredible power flow through him and improve something within him, suddenly receiving newer and even better notifications

[Racial Bonuses for Human Variant Upgraded]

[Tremor Sense (Minor) upgraded to Tremor Sense (Major)]

[Darkvision (Lesser) upgraded to Darkvision]

[Stoney Disguise evolved into Camouflage (Major)]

[Digging (Lesser) upgraded to Digging (Major)]

[Aversion to Light increased to Weakness to Light]

[Aversion to Vibration increased to Greater Weakness to Vibration]

[Insufficient Mana to Upgrade further. Would you like to change your appearance with the remaining 27 Human mana? (1:00 to decide before mana is discarded)]

He wanted to read more into the weaknesses, but he was in excruciating pain and could barely focus. The option to change his appearance also took him by surprise, and he needed to decide quickly.

He didn't think that he should change what he looked like too much, otherwise he was worried that his mother might be accused of cheating. It had to be clear that he was still their son, so he needed to look like both of them, but what would he change then?

Immediately, his mind went to his mothers eyes, and how they were a vibrant ruby red.

‘Can I upgrade my eyes?’

[Insufficient mana to upgrade Darkvision]

[Sufficient mana to change color of eyes]

[Sufficient mana to purchase condition: Heterochromia]

[Sufficient mana to upgrade vibrancy of eyes]

Reading quickly, he realized that he had more options than he expected. He wanted his eyes to be even more red, but now that it was infront of him, Heterochromia sounded fucking awesome.

‘Heterochromia!’ he mentally shouted, as the timer ticked down

[Heterochromia selected]

[Please select two colors from list]

[Ruby (Dominant gene): 0 mana

Brown (Recessive gene): 5 mana

Amethyst (Dormant gene): 10 mana

Diamond (Dormant gene): 15 mana

Topaz (Dormant Gene): 15 mana

Emerald (Dormant Gene): 20 mana

Sapphire (Dormant Gene): 20 mana]

Looking over the list quickly, he already decided Ruby would be one of the colors, just like his mother. He also really wanted another gemstone eye (sorry dad), so he discarded brown as an option.

He wondered about the mana cost for a second, but it was probably because the lower down the list he went, the further away in his ancestry the eyes were, taking more mana to “wake up” the gene.

He was still worried about his mom being accused of cheating, and an amethyst colored eye seemed amazing right now, so he went with ruby and amethyst, hoping that perhaps the amethyst option came from her parents or grandparents

‘Ruby and Amethyst please’ he told the System, remembering his moms lessons on politeness.

[Ruby and Amethyst selected]

[17 Human mana remaining. Would you like to change your appearance further? (0:07 to decide before remaining Human mana is discarded)]

‘Yes, spend the rest on upgrading the vibrancy!’ he shouted quickly in his head when he saw how much time he had left

[Vibrancy increased]

[Human mana fully spent]

[Refitting soul-shape]

‘Wait wha-’ Was all Leven thought before his memories and identity were stuffed into the body of a crying baby, with all the neurons of a baby, and the higher brain functions of a baby. He wasn't conscious enough to check his interface, but if he were, it would look quite a bit different.

Name: Dei Grrata

Race: Human (Variant)

Class: N/A

Profession: N/A

HP: 14/14

MP: 14/14

SP: 14/14

Stats:

Physical: 7

Mental: 2

Spiritual: 12

Magical: 11

Affinities:

Kindness: Mid-Rare, 27%

Wrath: Low-Uncommon: 77%

Soul: High-Common: 12%

Inner Skills:

Kindness: Pandora’s Box (Contained) (50) (35/2000), Call for Help (9)

Wrath: Pandora’s Box (Unleashed) (2), Growing Pains (16)

Soul: Astral Projection (1)

Outer Skills:

None