Aaron Amano's POV
….
It's dark.
When the black mist absorbed me, I had lost consciousness for a split second.
I don't know how I woke up, but what is keeping me now from losing consciousness while still being devoured by Xoketh's soul is only one thing:
Pure willpower.
Just like when I was trapped in the world of only darkness, only by thinking various things will my sense of self be intact.
As of right now, the only thing I can do now is to look back to my own past.
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If there was one word that describes my life as Aaron Amano, from my birth to my untimely death, it would be this:
Normal
I was born as the first child of my two parents. My mom and my dad.
Originally, both of my parents had been born and raised in Japan but immigrated to the USA while looking for new opportunities. While they were in Japan, there was no relationship between them to speak of. They didn't even know each other until they had met, coincidentally, in the US.
Apparently, from my Mom's side of the story, the first meeting was....a bit rocky.
At the time, Mom said to have first noticed Dad while she had just finished shopping at a nearby mall.
When she first saw Dad, her immediate impression wasn't a good one. After all, in front of her eyes was an image of a perverted Asian goblin who kept gawking in front of a lingerie store window where mannequins were on full display
Mom is what you would say.... 'straight-forward' person.
She took it as a personal offense that someone who looked Japanese would behave so poorly within a foreign country and wanted to give that person a piece of her mind.
Mom immediately started to reprimand Dad, who at that time a complete stranger, telling him that his behavior is deplorable and that he should immediately cease and desist.
The argument first began with English. Since they both only recently started to live in the USA, the English skills of both sides were not the best. However, as time went on they began to realize that both of them knew Japanese, thus they quickly changed gears.
Mom's reprimands began gathering steam ever since she switched to her mother tongue. Dad, who was the victim of this attack, tried to defend himself while making excuses. He said things like, 'There was a fly on the window' or 'I was actually the maker of that lingerie brand', clearly making shit up.
They kept this up until they noticed a crowd was gathering around them, curious about what was up. Embarrassed. they stopped and immediately left their separate ways. That was the end of their first meeting.
Afterward, it seems that Dad hadn't learned his lesson because Mom continued to see him stare hard at another lingerie store when she went out shopping again….several times.
This relationship kept going for a long time. Their continuous meetings eventually led them to know each other's names, interest, and their reason for living in the US. While both were unsure of how it happened, but after a while, they started to become friends. And eventually a couple.
Even after becoming friends, their previous relationship showed no changes. Mom scolds, and dad becomes the scolded. It came to the point that their arguments became routine for them. Even after they were married this still hasn't changed. I sometimes question whether or not Mom and Dad had 'that' kind of inclinations every time they did this.
While both insist that the first one to confess was the other, both Mom and Dad began to fall in love. And then the rest is history. After a few years of dating, they got married, met each other's parents, and had their first child: me.
The reason that they decided to name me Aaron was that Dad thought the name was cool and won a rock-scissors-paper match with Mom. Elementary school's 'show and tell' day was a fun time…..
My life since birth had no suspense. I grew up healthily. While I did sometimes get sick, it didn't last long. I was somewhat athletic, and my parents let me do Karate which I quit before I went to college.
My school life was also relatively normal. My grades are good enough. I had friends in elementary school. Though as I grew up, I became more of a loner. But I was happy.
I applied and got into the first university I aimed for. While I had no specific goal in mind when I went to college, I just thought it would make my parents happy.
It was in my sophomore year that I met something that would change my life forever: Verstronia: Dreamless Story.
The moment I heard the rumors about the game, I felt like I just had to play it.
From then on my life was a roller-coaster ride.
When I started to play the Closed Beta version, It was all I could think about.
I started to stop paying much attention to my classes. My grade gradually became lower. I even had to retake classes I could've passed the first time because VDS was all I thought about.
VDS became my everything.
When I chose Ashe as my character, I felt it was meant to be,
When I wasn't easily able to defeat enemies quickly enough due to Ashe's 'peculiarity', I felt annoyance yet challenged.
When I wasn't able to defeat a chapter boss for the first time in order to progress the story, I felt despair.
When I got to know each of the members of [Vers Warriors] before the guild's creation, I felt blessed.
When I was able to create a unique method only I can perform for controlling Ashe, I felt fulfilled.
VDS made me experience more things than I ever would have had in my life before the game.
But then even good things have to come to an end.
When Kami Production announced the discontinuation of Ashe as a playable character…..all I felt then was emptiness.
It was like an important part of me that made me human was….gone…..without a trace.
My heart became an empty hole.
My mind doesn't even register any emotion anymore. Neither sadness nor joy, anger or happiness.
I only wished that the announcement had only been a bad dream,
I don't know what would have happened to my life after VDS had been taken from me….
However!
I was not alone.
Everyone in [Vers Warriors] understood what I was going through.
We are a collective group that shares the 'same heart'.
Although we each chose a character different from one another, we share the same feeling of belongingness that we could only get when we played VDS.
It was that camaraderie that provided me the strength to continue on.
But before that could happen…my life ended
Suddenly and prematurely.
Before I could even understand, my life as Aaron Amano had ended there.
…but it seems that fate has other things planned for me.
The rest is history as we know it.
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As I continue to rifle through memory archives, the 'outside' world seems to become a bit noisy.
I…. can feel it.
Whether it was because I am currently being in a state of absorption, I can feel Xoketh as he exercises his unique power that only Demon Lords like him can use.
VDS, as a game, contains many elements that can be found in other MMORPGs or RPGs in general.
One such element is the use of a status system. By defeating enemies, the character you control can gain experience points (EXP). As EXP reaches a certain threshold, characters were able to raise their levels which in turn raised their stats.
An important stat that is essential to understand how to play VDS is the so-called [AP Bar].
The [AP Bar] in VDS is equivalent to the MP bar in other games. It stands for [Aether Point Bar].
Characters in VDS are able to use attack skills known as Aether Artes by using the Aether stored in their bodies. The max amount of Aether a character can have is indicated using the [AP Bar].
As with inside the game, the inhabitants in this world too also use energy known as Aether which allows them to demonstrate superhuman feats.
The reason I was able to know this can all be attributed to Aileen.
Living in the Merez Forest depths is not an easy feat that anyone can do. As such, Aileen constantly has to keep up with her training as to not lose her edge.
Ever since Ashe was able to walk without support, Aileen allowed him to watch her train as long as he behaves. This was where Ashe and I saw Aileen use a mysterious energy that made her shine a pale blue. This light must be Aether.
While I didn't know it then, I had learned later that humans living in the world of Eruvia had developed a categorization of the different types of ways for how humans can control Aether, simply called Aether Control, or AC for short. AC is then subcategorized to two main methods of usage by modern Eruvians: F-AC and T-AC.
F-AC, or Flow Aether Control for short, is the use of Aether by allowing it to 'flow' within the user's body in order to 'strengthen' it so that the user is able to perform moves beyond the physical limit. This is the oldest known method and is considered an orthodox method shared by many martial arts schools around Eruvia.
T-AC, or Tech Aether Control for short, is the method to insert Aether into specially created devices to perform a variety of different functions. This method became popular the Eareo Empire when the country began to enter the Pre-Modern Era, otherwise known as the Aether Industrial Revolution Era, as research about ancient Omnias technology had reached a historical breakthrough, It was that breakthrough that allowed people of that era to finally find a way to revive ancient Omnias technology where the Omnians had created countless tools that use Aether as a source of power.
Since then, the development of the Aether-using technology evolved so fast that modern Eruvian technology can be compared to modern-day Earth's in both complexity and variety.
Other than these two methods, current Euruvians have found no other viable method of Aether usage…but naturally, a Demon Lord from an ancient era is different.
It was said that in the time of Ancient Omnias, the Omnians had another special method to use Aether.
That method is called…..Majik.
An ancient technique that allowed the user to control phenomena incapable of being replicated by current science.
The records of such technique can be done had since been lost in time, save for a few mentions of its existence.
Even now, current Eruvian scientists and scholars are unable to revive or replicate any of the techniques described within the ancient Omnias text. This led the modern people to believe that the existence of Majik is just a fairytale.
However, for a Demon Lord who has lived during the Omnias Era, the existence of Majik is not just a fairytale. In fact, Demon Lords are capable of using special Majiks unique to their race. It is known as Dark Majik.
For the Demon Lords to use Dark Majik, they must first convert Aether into Miasma.
Just like Aether, Miasma is another type of energy form. However, unlike Aether, Miasma is not a product of the natural world and is in fact very harmful to its surroundings. Unless an existence, like a Demon Lord, that can convert Aether into Miasma appears, Miasma can not naturally exist in this world.
Through the 'Soul Link; I have with Ashe, I can feel as if a huge amount of some kind of light energy is being absorbed from the air into Ashe's body only for that energy turn into something very dark and heavy. As the dark and heavy energy builds up in Ashe's body, it began to release itself outside to what appears to be a dark mist.
This feeling must be Aether being converted into Miasma.
As the conversion continues, the newly created Miasma seems to be changing the makeup of Ashe's body from the inside. Even though I am merely a soul with no body, the sensation of changing into something completely different from the inside was clearly felt through the 'Soul Link'. It was unpleasant to the extreme.
Having known since the game of Ashe's mutation, never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that I would experience something like this.
What felt like an eternity, the sensation did not last long.
If I were to see Ashe's body now, there is no mistake that Ashe's appearance would match the many illustrations of his demonic form I've seen countless times when I was alive. While still only a body of a child, long white hair would drape carelessly across his small shoulders and his blood-red eyes seem to drill holes into your soul.
While I am still under the influence of Xoketh's absorption, it seems that Xoketh is ready to spread chaos. Under these conditions, I am unable to use the floating screen to see what is going outside. However, probably a result of being half merged into Xoketh, images of the outside world from Xoketh's point of view are being transferred directly into my soul.
Xoketh's first victim was set.
With a demonic scream, Xoketh had charged at the closest Merez Forest Wolf.
From Xoketh's outstretched hand, he activates his first deadly Dark Majik.
Chants? Majik names? Xoketh needs none of those. With just a thought, pure destruction is born.
The surrounding Miasma, which had begun aggregating to his hand, reacted as if oil as it burst into a terrible black flame.
Unlike normal fire, heat did not emanate from the flame. On the contrary, only the feelings of freezing dread and bone-chilling killing intent can be felt.
The targeted Merez Forest Wolf, while showing no sign of struggle, had it's head completely incinerated into ash, it's now headless body falling slowly to the ground.
The other Merez Forest Wolves, having seen their kin's final moments, became silent and still. Having observed such an unbelievable scene, it would seem that they could not understand what had just happened.
However, Xoketh does not wait for them.
One after the other, Xoketh began to massacre the wolves as if they were no more than a pest.
For each wolf, Xoketh uses a different Dark Majik to kill it. It was as if he was testing his power.
Ice spears, black as obsidian. As the ice spears pierce a wolf, it corrodes the wolf from inside.
Wind blades, which blend fully into the dark forest. As each blade cuts off an appendage, the wound opening explodes into a bloody mess, painting the forest floor.
Water whips, like black ink. The moment the whips make contact with a wolf, it's body mummified as if they were sucked dry of all moisture.
A sandstorm, reminiscent of a locust swarm. The wolf that had been swallowed by the storm was reduced into dust, leaving nothing behind.
Within seconds all the wolfs have been eradicated.
All threats towards Ashe had all been eliminated…
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..
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However, Xoketh doesn't stop.