(Written while listening to "Fading Light(Winter Cavalry Remix)" by Starset on YouTube)
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Laito felt confused.
He was lying face flat into some black stone floor. The last thing he remembered was his fabulous landing… then:
Not much.
Some shattered images. Pain. Agony even. Than nothing at all.
'Have I died… again?' Laito shuddered at the thought as he remembered that his death would open the Nightmare Gate for the Corruption to invade his world. That and the fact that his ROB warned him that there would be no more chances for him…
Although lots of people consider their current lives their "final chances" so he wasn't THAT unique with regard to this.
Anyways.
He tried to move his body. Because surprisingly he did feel he had a body despite remembering that it was on the verge of exploding last time he checked…
Did that mean he succeeded?
Partially.
He was still alive for now… technically.
But he had hoped that at this point the Trial(or the Execution as ROB has called it) would be over.
'I…- don't think that this is my Soulsea. Besides there was no Spell announcement for Trial completion.'
Speaking of which:
[You have received a Tome of Magic: Tome of Radiance].
Spell whispered casually.
'Oh yea, I remember I could find that somewhere along the way. Lucky me I guess.'
With that thought, Laito tried to stand up, but he froze midway when his hand entered his vision.
'What the heck?'
He jumped onto his feet and started to look all over his body.
'No way!' He was panicking.
There could be many justified reasons for somebody in his situation.
He was naked. Completely hairless. His "skin" was pure white and still glowing with light. His face was mostly flat and featureless. He wasn't even probably fully human anymore.
But no.
The thing that absolutely horrified him was something else:
"Where… is.. MY DICK!?! IT'S GONE!" Despite just standing up, he has already fallen on his knees in despair.
'No, wait!' He realized:
'This is still just a Nightmare! My body still waits for me to wake up, back in the Meta World.' He coped.
'Alright.' Laito steeled himself with newfound grim resolve. 'NOW I have to finish this as fast as possible. I won't let this stupid Nightmare take my dick away! No way! I will do whatever it takes!'
Laito looked around.
He stood at the edge of a platform made of black stone. It was perfectly smooth with the exception of six symbols carved into it, arranged into some sort of a circle. Outside of it there was the same transparent floor with monstrous eyes, that he remembered. And in the middle of it:
'There it is.'
The Gate he was supposed to open. He and It were connected with a thick rope of light.
It was covered in intricate runes that looked inactive.
With the exception of a single rune at the base that glowed… very dimly.
A single rune out of the thousands… if not hundreds of thousands.
Based on what he saw, he figured out that probably the Mana in his body served now as charger for The Gate.
Low efficiency charger, apparently.
Laito stared at that one small rune that glowed weakly.
After glaring at it for a few minutes:
'I… think? It got a little brighter… Damn it is going to take an eternity to power all of these up.' He checked out the densely packed swaths of runes that were converging into strange, elaborate patterns.
'Well… if all it takes is to wait a bit, I think there's no problem with that. I'll take that up every single time over facing some horrible monsters. I could use a small break anyway.' He shrugged and sat down, resting his back at the arch.
He took a deep breath and slowly let it out.
'Okay let's try to find out what happened.'
He summoned the runes.
They shimmered into existence like usual… but something was different.
Usually when Nightmare Spell displayed its writings, it was using its characteristic runic language that Laito really couldn't read on his own, but the Spell somehow has been sending the meaning and interpretation of it directly into his mind.
Now the runic language that Laito's Nightmare Spell displayed has changed.
Into exactly the same writings he vaguely recognized from Tome of Warding and The Gate he rested on.
'Strange' He thought. Thankfully though, the Spell kept giving him the meaning of what it displayed.
Unfortunately it wasn't so generous with the runes on The Gate.
Lait shook his head to disperse unnecessary thoughts and focused on looking for any changes in his status. For some reason he started from the bottom of the list.
He found some new things:
Attributes: [Divinity of Light], [Keen Sight], [Stamina Recovery], [Lesser Light Elemental], [The Key and Gate].
A lot has changed again, regarding his Attributes.
Laito lost two of them, while gaining two other ones.
[Incandescent Chainmail], an Attribute born from Soulbound Memory gifted by Incandescent Order was gone.
Considering that his Soul suffered fundamental transformation, it was somewhat expected that his faithful armour was destroyed… or maybe absorbed, who knows.
[Mana Surge] also disappeared. Thankfully.
It is not healthy to take Mana. You can easily overdose and it's addictive… and very deadly. Remember kids!
Don't do Mana!
Laito proceeded to inspect the new Attributes.
Lesser Light Elemental Attribute description: [You are a Lesser Light Elemental. Your body is made from pure light].
–
'How helpful.' Laito was a little bit disappointed in very modest characterization of what he considered quite consequential Attribute.
'I'll worry about it later. The next one looks… big.' Laito focused on his final Attribute. He felt quite apprehensive, but also excited.
He originated from modern Earth after all. Back there he was a big nerd, so among many other things he was well acquainted with works of H.P Lovecraft.
And in the scenario that he was currently finding himself in, surrounded by an army of Eldritch eyeballs and all…
He would have to be an idiot to not connect the dots(Actually, Laito was an idiot).
The Key and Gate Attribute Description: [???]
—
—
—
'What a let down.'
He lowered his shoulders in disappointment and shrugged it off.
With the key being mentioned, Laito also noticed that he had lost a certain Memory.
At just a glance through his Memory list, he could see the unexplained absence of Gatekeeper's Key. He took a look at The Gate with suspicion.
'How poetic. Now I am the key here. Damn it that key had sentimental value!' Laito protested, but there was nothing he could do.
Next change he found:
Echoes: [Bona Fia], [Giant Wolf-Bat Shade].
'Oh! So in the end I killed it… or maybe gravity did, I dunno. I don't remember hearing the announcement, but I'm not gonna to complain!'
He summoned it.
He expected it to appear from the usual whirlwind of sparks, but there apparently also changed alongside with other things.
Laito's second echo materialized from the motes of snow-white light that concentrated and formed the expected creature.
This summoning went much faster than Laito was used to with Bona.
'Curious.'
Now that Laito had a better point of view he could take a closer look at his once captor.
It looked indeed like an ugly, mismatched hybrid of wolf, bat and ventablack paint. It was as big as an elephant and had glowing red eyes without any pupils.
'Hmm. I'll name you… maybe something cool this time.' Laito thinked for a moment.
—
'How about: Apollyon! Cause you lived on top of the abyss. I like it.'
'Let's see what you can do.' He turned back to the runes.
Echo: [Apollyon].
'Damn, that was fast.' He internally praised the NS.
Echo Rank: Demon.
Echo Core: Fallen.
Echo Attributes: [Profane Body], [Child of Shadows], [Blood-drinker], [Mark of Unholiness].
Echo Description: [The cursed progeny of the Original Murderer. They inherited the punishment for his Sin. Waiting, multiplying, growing stronger in hopes to one day feast on the blood of their Sire].
—
—
'I'm speechless.'
Laito was speechless.
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[??? years left until MHA plot beginning]
[Chapter End] The story is not over yet
My tipping jar: [email protected]/marasis (change "@" into "a")
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Author notes:
I'm releasing unscheduled chapter.
Cuz I can.
See ya tomorrow as planned.