The inky black eyes looked like they were dead. The skin was as pale as moonlight, the hair smooth, silky and blood red like it was dripping from the head of the youth in tight fitting, black clothes.
He lay there on the bed without moving for a while before blinking and looking around the room. His room. White with pastel colors.
On a stool beside the bed sat Tetractys.
"What happened?" his voice was raspy, tired.
"I would like to know that, too. When I arrived, you and your friend..." she sighed.
Gen Tao frowned, then he remembered with an 'Ah!'. A bunch of different emotions flew over his face while he was thinking.
"So, care to explain?"
"Uh, well... You better ask Kohaku?"
"I would if I could find him!"
"Oh. But it's so easy to find him, he's the only one always wearing bright yellow."
The edge of a hand softly hit his head.
"Idiot."
"Mom..."
"Ah! Don't call me that!"
Gen Tao pouted a bit. he wasn't allowed to call his mother 'mom'? How absurd! He was the son of a true vampire overlord and an elf, making him extremely beautiful and handsome. His nose pointed upwards, he had phoenix eyes and though he was only 163 centimeters he was well built.
Vampires magic was black and called void magic, swallowing things, bending space and attracting curses that powered the void and made its user more powerful.
Elves had many different variations, from blaze elves to ice ones, with a great affinity for all types of magic, in Gen Taos case, earth magic.
Earth magic was similar to wood magic, but didn't depend on water. It could give nutritions like wood magic, but move deserts and mountains, build cities and destroy countries. But on a smaller scale in fighting, it was more a defense than offense. While wood and water could heal, earth could reform, but that was something different.
If he also had the fire ability or magic, he could make glas...
There was a slight difference between ability and magic. Abilities didn't depend on magic, one was just born with it. Even when magic was extracted from the body, one would be able to use the ability. Those abilities were very close to nature, enabling people to be purely made out of that element and freely change their body.
Magic however bent the elements, forcing them to take on the shape that one wanted. It was tiring. Weak magic needed complicated formula, strong magic was okay with simpler ones. Abilities didn't need formula, they depended on instinct, habit and such.
"So. Since Kohaku isn't here, you will explain what happened."
"Fine."
Gen Tao rolled his eyes.
After he left his room, he ran into a friend of Kohaku, Xiao Lan. Xiao Lan was petite, with rosy cheeks, light blonde hair and blue eyes. Before she became friends with kohaku, she apparently had quite the fierce nature, but now she was relatively sweet as long as one didn't provoke her.
"Kohaku is waiting for you in the oak grounds." she said with her high, earnest voice. Though she barely reached the 150 mark, she was already 15 years of age, soon turning 16.
Gen Tao nodded and walked towards the oak grounds.
Xiao Lan sighed. Everyone thought that Gen tao was good looking, but after he joined the sect and was adopted by elder Tetractys, he was very aloof and stern, not interacting with anyone. It was also unknown what his true age was, which was actually something very common on Eridymeon. There were many old beings that didn't want to be discovered.
The oak grounds were a valley full of old oak trees full of pure energy, fit for cultivation. The sun there was warm, the clouds one could see looked like they were painted onto the sky and not many people went there because it was behind the Sunspot Residence, which got the most sunlight and yang energy, plus it possessed a big training ground.
The oak grounds were wild without beast, just with a lot of birds. It was better for training abilities or meditating, and one of Kohakus favorite places. According to him, there was also a lullaby about meeting under lime trees in the oak grounds, sounding oddly romantic. The oddest thing though was that there really were two lime trees in the middle of the valley.
There, Gen Tao found Kohaku.
Kohaku was an amber dragon cat with the wood ability. He sat on top of one of the lime trees, his wavy, dark brown hair with the golden shimmer covering the right side of his face. His eyes were of mixed brown colors like gemstones, surrounded by thin, dark eyelashes and arched eyebrows. His lips were like small, rosy flower petals that naturally curved upwards, his skin pale, his chin and jawline clear but soft, his nose straight. This face was extremely elegant with a somewhat androgyn beauty.
He had relatively slim shoulders, long arms and legs and big hands. He wore a bright yellow mantle that reached his calves and had wide, short sleeves. Under that, he wore a simple, yellow robe. The left sleeve was long and wide, hiding the arm, the right one was tight and bound to the forearm with a yellow leather ribbon. Under that robe, he wore tight fitting trousers of a darker shade, reaching his ankles, and an undergarment made out of dark yellow silk that covered his collarbone and half of his neck. On his feet were worn out sandals that were kept on his feet with multiple strings and knots.
Because Kohaku was very lazy, he was often called Lan Mao (lazy cat), which didn't bother him. He was too lazy to get angry at such a joke. He also had a different way of thinking, which meant that he searched for the most efficient way to be lazy. That resulted in him seeming diligent, being good with words and precisely explaining what he meant. Kohaku was additionally quick and agile, capable of healing and because of his height of 185 centimeters good at blending in with the crowd.
He was kind and open, helped the people and liked knowledge. Though his looks were outstanding just like his character, there was something imposing and different about him, keeping people at a certain distance and giving him peace and quiet.
Kohaku was even for his friends a truly complicated character, mostly because he wasn't that close to anyone, displaying something else yet similar for everyone. Or to put it more bluntly: he had trust issues. And a lot of anxieties. Hard on the outside, soft on the inside, similar to that.
"Yo!"
As Kohaku heard Gen Taos call, his head cocked up and he jumped from the tree as soon as he saw his friend.
"Hey. You okay?"
"Yup. Mom said we should take it easier next time."
Kohaku smiled as he heard this. "Sure. Which 'next time'? Maybe we can plan it in."
Gen Tao laughed as they walked towards the lime trees.
"I'm going to participate in the competition."
"Kay."
"Then we can spend more time together. Also, it will improve our strength and we'll see more of the world."
"True. Do you remember the Cherry clan?"
"Oh, yeah, those idiots." laughed Kohaku. "I think they're scared of you."
"Eeh?? But I went easy on them!"
"Nah, they're just that weak."
They opened a secret passage in one of the trees. They squeezed in and the door of the tree closed. Then, the ground shook a bit. It was an elevator, bringing them down into a cave.
Inside that cave were many glowing gemstones, radiating true energy used in cultivation. Cultivation cleaned the body of impurities, making it stronger, lighter and the senses more sensitive. This was a concept made by the sects, practiced in the sects to fight monsters and races that liked genocide.
Many kingdoms, empires and so on had adapted those methods. This was a normal process, it would be useless to fight over Eridymeon for any reason. After all, the planet was created by a true god.
There were many planets that came into being naturally, but there were also one that had been reformed or created by gods. This made the existence of multiple, inhabitable planets in one galaxy possible. And since the universe was seemingly endless, there were many galaxies.
Just like the magic system, gods and planets were more on the chaotic side of things. It was easy to get lost in those tiny twists and turns.
Kohaku was one of those people who had an intuition for magic, abilities and transformations. His stamina however was pretty low. He also had a very direct approach to everything, which made some situations challenging.
The two youths sat down in the cave with crossed legs, exchanged a glance and began to absorb the energy.
While Kohaku relaxed his body, he contacted his system.
"Wos, has it reached the target?"
"Positive." said a calm, male voice.
A dangerous smile appeared on his face.
"Suggestion: activate Dionysus system."
He scoffed in his mind. Hadn't he planted that in the last loop? So not only his progress came to the new world. Worlds couldn't be reversed. One could only jump into a parallel one through a crack in the beyond and start again. Physical bodies had to be discarded, and abilities and cultivation were tied to the souls, making reincarnation and transmigration possible.
"Activate it."
"Activation initialized. Estimated time needed: 2 hours."
"Okay. What about Destiny?"
"The prophecy system has established a link with the host."
"Location?"
"Behind the moon."
"... What."
"Behind the moon in a spaceship. Energy analyzed: Madame of Phoenix Pavilion. Unauthorized system detected."
"Unauthorized? Made by whom?"
"King Moe Estevan of the Darker Lands, approximately 2000 years after the apocalypse."
"What did he name it?"
"Sai, self-aware intelligence."
"Ah, so it's like you."
"Kiwi translate requests your assistance."
"Oi, don't change the subject so obviously. I told you to train."
Wos went quiet. It had gone through so many worlds, just to get a nerd that loved languages and had created a translation system just because he could. In all those millions of years had he never met such a... being. There were just too many things on Kohaku to point out what was the weirdest! It was a huge chaos!!!
Kohaku snickered. Making systems lose their patience was fun, as long as it wasn't in a life threatening situation.
The prophecy system, Destiny, had been created by a god, just like Wos, and given to Kohaku. However, he already had his hands full with one system and having someone help him was smarter.
Since Wos was the world-overthrowing system, its job was to change the fate of the world, to overthrow the powers and create a new destiny.
There existed many different systems, all in different worlds with different hosts.
Though Kohaku liked to think big, all those variables were a bit too much for him. He would have to use maths and neither did he like them nor was he good at them.
When he had first gotten Wos, he didn't really believe in the great calamity, nor did he want to do anything different. Through observing, his worldview changed and he learned more. In his next run, he did a bad job. After that, he spent a lot of time training his soul and becoming stronger, wiser and faster. He had to be the strongest, the most op support character, to save his best friend and the world- no, the universe. But he wasn't sure if it was enough yet.