Under Sundered Skies

Sloane woke up not in her room, but to an all consuming darkness. There was nothing but inky darkness for as far as the eye could see.

The only source of light she had in this place were the seven red dots in the distance, they looked like stars from here.

Sloane didn't trust them. Not one bit. They could be another monster for all she knew. She narrowed her eyes and tried to focus on one of the dots to see if she could see it moving towards her or at least discern its features.

Sloane was pulled into the star in response, red lines were all over her vision as she traveled through the darkness at speeds no human mind could comprehend.

When she finally stopped, she was staring at a familiar sight; a long gash with three droplets of blood dripping from the center and its sides.

Sloane felt tempted to rub her wrist but held herself back.

Sloane turned away from the mark, instead focusing on the thing in front of her.

A luminous red dot surrounded by a bottomless pit.

Sloane's mind wandered to the series of words that began to write themselves on her very thoughts upon gazing at, apparently, the star she saw earlier.

[Enhanced Nerve: Makes the user's nerves fire faster, allowing for quicker reaction time, reflexes, and movement.]

[*Drawback/s- enhanced pain. Frayed nerves during and after exertion.]

Sloane ignored the innocuous texts that now marked her mind and looked back at the pit, it was empty save for the blood red orb at the center. Focusing on it did nothing, ultimately making Sloane's prior deflection of the invasive words permeating her mind pointless.

Instead of wasting anymore time ignoring it, Sloane decided to put matters into her own hands and she began to flail violently.

She's had sleep paralysis before, this wasn't new, though instead of being inside her room, she was in this godforsaken place.

Attempting to move had worked in breaking her out of this but it seems that doing so is pointless in this place as simply thinking she wanted to leave the vicinity of the pit was enough to make her fly back to her original spot.

Sloane glared at the seven dots in the distance before looking away. She refused to play along. She would never trust a place like this.

Time passed and nothing happened, it eventually got Sloane to stare back at the stars, all seven of them were still there. Nothing else came even after she spent this much time in this barren place.

Curiosity eventually took over and Sloane checked another star, the same thing happened as last time, she traveled across the void while surrounded by streaks of red before stopping in front of a familiar pit.

The only difference here was the mark in the distance- now having turned into an eye shut closed by a scar running through its center, - and the words engraved in her thoughts.

[Unnerving Look: Forces the expression of the user to be intimidating at all times.]

[*Drawback/s- difficult socialization.]

Sloane didn't like it, she thought about leaving and was granted permission to do so by the space. Well, her suspicions have subsided somewhat, and now she had a feeling just what these orbs were meant to be.

Benefits. She could do something and take the offered abilities by the orbs.

The first one was especially appealing. But also not quite. Frayed nerves didn't sound good as a drawback, it could worsen her deafness even.

For the next few minutes, Sloane went back and forth between the various stars and saw all the things they were offering her.

They are as follows:

[Cell Growth: makes user's cells multiply faster, allowing for quicker recovery.]

[*Drawback/s- faster aging, faster mass loss, hyperactivity. More cell wastes.]

[Mental Work: Quicker conclusions and better intuition.]

[*Drawback/s- Headaches. Extra sleep.]

[Adrenaline Rush: produces more adrenaline, numbing pain and enhancing strength.]

[*Drawback/s- bodily strain. Increased blood pressure. Hyperactivity at smallest stimulation.]

[Mana Channel: Opens mana channels.]

[*Drawback/s- mana sickness. Body cramps. All during acclimation.]

[Spirit Search: allows for sensing of spirits in a small radius. Comes in the form of a racing heartbeat.]

[*Drawback/s- gut wrenching chest pain. Restlessness.]

[Aura Channels: Opens up Aura Channels.]

[*Drawback/s- body pain. Dull senses. All during acclimation.]

...

Each star had a benefit and a corresponding drawback that came with it, but more importantly, they also had different markings. Each unique to every star.

For the star with cell growth, it had a brain surrounded by what Sloane could only assume were brain waves.

Meanwhile the one for mental work- what does better intuition mean anyway? If it was what Sloane thought it was, she might just pick it. - was an eerie line with a gangly figure at the start and a burnt tree with no leaves at the end.

Wait, it was a road with a tree and a monster. What did it mean?

Sloane decided that she wouldn't get any answers and moved on.

The one related to adrenaline had a detached heart surrounded by veins in a spider-web like pattern.

The one about magic- was it odd that Sloane didn't feel weirded out by this after everything she witnessed? - had a third eye on a blank human head, the only other features in it were two lines where eyes would be.

Sloane assumed- hoped- they were closed instead of blinded.

The one about spirit search had a figure shrouded in mist for a mark, two eyes pierced through the fog and gave the silhouette some semblance of features.

And lastly, the one for aura was similar to the cell growth one in that its mark was a featureless human body surrounded by a wavy line, which Sloane assumed must be aura.

After fiddling a bit more with the stars and how they worked, Sloane realized that focusing on the red orb and their corresponding boons caused something inside of her to shift.

She tested this on an orb that she wanted the benefit of, which was for sensing spirits, and true to her thoughts, the shifting mass inside of her started to flow out of her body and towards the pit.

Sloane stopped the process before anything could truly happen and went back to staring at the seven stars and discerning their purpose.

Sloane eventually got a semblance of a pattern between the mark and their benefits.

The bleeding wound for example was for giving her attacking benefits, as seen when it can give her something to enhance reflexes and other combat abilities while the one about magic opened the third eye, which represented magic in most cultures.

Next, she concluded that the drawbacks that came with the benefits weren't as bad as they were situationally.

Frayed nerves were bad, but that's the second and presumably, more severe drawback, and it could only happen to her when she over exerts herself.

Enhanced pain? That... May be bad, but how "enhanced" was the pain really?

And if the benefit was an overall upgrade to her nervous system, wouldn't that mean that the enhanced pain would only last for a second due to how fast her nerves were firing after getting the benefit?

After her considerations, Sloane actually put the Enhanced Nerves benefit on the top of her list for which of the seven benefits she should get.

The next was Mental Works, which was more of a "subconscious" thing rather than an active one, it allowed her to do mental work such as math and making conclusions much faster.

Essentially, it makes calculations more "intuitive".

Enhanced Nerve and Mental Works was basically the difference between active and inactive reactions.

She's learned about it in school in the past, before her life went to shit.

Sloane felt the space around her shift when she began to get angry.

It... It responded to her?

The last benefit she considered was the one for adrenaline, which would be useful to her, assuming that she starts encountering more of these creatures from now on.

The strain to her body was most likely referring to the fact that her muscles would literally tear themselves apart under the effects of the enhanced strength, higher blood pressure was a given with such a benefit as well.

Meanwhile, "hyperactivity at the smallest stimulation" could mean many things, but the one that Sloane concluded was that she would become antsy and more vigilant. It was not a bad thing. Especially during a fight.

The rest were useless and had drawbacks far too severe for her to even consider them. Rapid aging? No thanks. Pain during acclimation? Also not something she could deal with at the moment. It was also why she scrapped spirit sensing.

So, she had three choices. All of which are related to combat in one way or another.

The first she threw away was Adrenaline Rush, the fact that she could enhance her strength on the fly was good, but her heart was weak and her body even more so. She'd, quite literally, fall apart seconds after using it.

The next was Mental Work, better intuition was good, but how good? Was it worth the extra sleep and even worse, the headaches?

How many grams of painkillers could she even consume before it would subside? Would that much drugs cause an overdose now that she's had an enhanced brain? If the answer is yes, then Mental Work would only kill her.

She needed her pills. Otherwise...

Sloane tossed those two benefits away for the simple reason that they were on both ends of an extreme; one was literally turning simple activities into a life and death situation while the other wouldn't let her sit idle due to her brain becoming too active.

Or, at least she assumed that was what those two benefits would do to her.

The last one, Enhanced Nerve, was stuck perfectly in between those two as it allowed her to fight to the extreme at a less severe cost while letting her rest and sit still. She also had control over its use. This was important.

Sloane flew to the star that held the Enhanced Nerve benefit and began to feed it with the alien mass inside her person.

Tendrils of something dark flowed out of her and into the pit, when it connected, Sloane felt pain as though she was on fire. Then it slowly built up until she was screaming her lungs out.