"Demons, you mean as in from Hell?"
Zeno asks from his knowledge from Earth.
"Hell, Naraka, Pathala.. you can call it many names. The common term used is the Underworld.
Demons are spiritual entities originating from the Underworld, a dimensional world that doesn't lose to ours in its stability yet more cruel and torturous. They are malevolent entities that feed on the negative emotions of humans."
Adam answers without as any change in his expressions.
"During the age before Soul Gifts, there was a time when demons broke into our dimensional world through what the ancients call
That was when the continent saw the appearance of its first Saint. She was someone whose origin was unknown to all. Nobody knew to which royal family she belonged. She was the one who won the first battle against the Underworld. Within few years she exorcised the world of all its demons and helped save humanity. Since then demons never appeared and is now considered a legend by many."
Adam continues to talk about it as he is fascinated by it. His eyes were shining as he was talking about it. He also longed for such power.
'We were talking about my problem and somehow we sidetracked into talking about demons. Can't this guy just tell me what is wrong with me straight forward?'
This was what Zeno thought in his mind as he listened to Adam.
Even though Adam could sense that Zeno was not getting the point, he continues his talk since he was sure he will come to understand soon enough.
"However after the Inception of Soul Gifts, some people in each generation started to experience some sort of curse like plague.
The person suffering this curse will never know whether he or she is possessed by something he has no control of. He will experience rapid growth in his path as an Advancer which will end up him being considered a genius.
However there will come a time when his body would continue to absorb the energy around him exceeding his body's capability. He would not be able to control the high inflow of energy and will be unable to stop it also. There may be a growth in the person's physical prowess for a period of time. But at last, each living cell in his body will undergo such high inflation that it will be on the verge of explosion.
That time the curse within him will awaken and turn him from a normal person to a deranged person attacking everyone within its vicinity whether it be someone close to him or a stranger, similar to how demon possessed humans did. At the end, it would claim everything around him as its own and will vanish into a black hole never to return.
Since this was a curse only affecting one in a million and not contagious or inheritable, there was never much thought given into curing it. Hence no cure was found for it. Whoever contracted it were considered just unlucky. Due to its similarity to demon possession, it was named the
Adam ends his tale on a high note giving time for Zeno to comprehend what he has heard.
"So you are saying, I am suffering from this Demon's Plague and some day soon, I am going to disappear not leaving behind even a body to bury or burn."
Zeno asks with a slight bit of aloofness mixed into it after staying silent for a few minutes. He wasn't afraid of death but he cannot accept the fact that he got transmigrated only to end up dead once again to some shitty curse.
"I am sorry that I can't do anything for you. Father thought if you never awakened your Soul Gift, the plague may never appear and you won't die. That is why he never allowed you to advance. But it seems that it is nothing but wishful thinking. If there was anything we could do for you, we would have done it whatever it takes."
Adam expresses his helplessness trying not to show his emotions. His face was stone cold as he relayed it all.
'Even though his face doesn't show much expressions, I can feel his grief. I don't know why but I know he doesn't want me to die either. It doesn't feel that bad to die now if you ask me. There was no one left to mourn for my death as Noir and this kid Zeno had a father and a brother looking after him. Now I feel a bit bad for him since I am taking his place. They never even told him about the plague to let him cherish the moment he has left to live.'
Zeno thinks to himself comparing his old life to the new one.
"Whatever happened has happened. If my fate is to die, I would welcome it. If it is my fate to suffer, I would still welcome it. I never cared about myself anyway and I don't want you to worry about me either. I don't want to give up either. I will find a way out myself. You just have to do what you do. Don't mind me.
Can you just leave me for some time alone now?"
Zeno comments after some time continuing to stare at the ceiling.
Adam cannot believe what he heard from Zeno. He couldn't believe that the crybaby Zeno who would shit himself in front of a chicken beast would readily accept the matter about his own death. No matter what, his father's death must have changed his mindset. Adam decides to leave his room giving him time to rest closing the door behind him.
Now Zeno is left all alone in his room seemingly trapped in a cast he cannot get rid of. He tries to move his limbs which he could do so if he strained himself a bit.
'Even though I told him all that, I don't think I can do anything by myself. Should I just give up now itself?'
Seeing that Adam had left, he thinks to himself the probability of him achieving any results by himself. But no matter how much he tried, he couldn't find a solution. He was only thrust into this world recently thus having only limited knowledge regarding this matter.
[User doesn't need to be that bothered by it]
A holographic screen appears in front of Zeno's face with a robotic voice sounding in his ears.
"Is that you, Gaia? No, Gaia has a feminine voice while this is something else. Who are you, now?"
Having gone through the experience of death and being thrust into a fantasy game like world, someone talking to him through his mind doesn't surprise him anymore.
[Gaia doesn't talk to others that often, other than maybe once or twice in a lifetime.]
[Profile is my name.]
[Profile is a Sentient Artificial Intelligence that is assigned as your secondary Soul Gift.]
[Pleased to meet you.]
The previous screen was replaced by a new screen each time the robotic voice uttered a dialogue.
'Is he telling the truth, now? How do I trust him? He didn't respond before, but now out of nowhere, he greets me as if I am his employer and he is my new employee.'
He looks at the screen skeptically deciding whether to trust it or not.
[Profile didn't respond before, because Profile wanted to know what sort of atmosphere Profile is summoned into.]
[Moreover Profile wanted to make sure it was not observed by anybody.]
'You can read my mind?'
Zeno asks being a bit surprised this time.
[Profile is linked to user's mind.]
[Ofcourse, Profile will understand user's thoughts.]
'What did you mean then when you said not to be bothered by Demon's Plague?'
Since Profile could understand his thoughts, it would be more apt to convey his doubts through his mind.
[It would be more convenient to show user than convey it through words.]
[User is advised to fall asleep.]
'You mean, right now? Are you serious?'
[Yes]
'Ok, then.'
Zeno tries to find a comfortable position to sleep in since he couldn't lie down properly with the cast all around him. However he was able to fall asleep soon enough since he was tired from today's events.
The moment he fell asleep, he felt like he was in a trance as if in a high state. He finds himself floating in outer space like an astronaut with the only exception that he isn't wearing a suit. Here he could notice his appearance had changed from his former life to that of the kid's.
Countless constellations of stars could be seen surrounding him in the night sky. Hevenly bodies were illustrated perfectly as if he was in an observatorium and was a bit mesmerized by the beauty of it.
[Seems beautiful, isn't it?]
Zeno turns to face the source of the robotic voice only to be exposed to a blue sun like existence. At first he couldn't adjust his eyes to the light. But after some time he could make out the figure of a blue crystal like brain.
The figure looked like a brain entirely made of bluish white light photons with bright white light pulses flashing through its fiber like structures similar to how neurons traverse through neurons. It has half of his size in comparison.
"Is this how all Soul Gifts are supposed to look?"
Zeno asks being a bit curious to know about the origin of a Soul Gift.
[Profile is a bit different.]
[Profile was created with the primary aim to act as a secondary brain for its host to do complex analysis.]
[Hence this appearance.]
"Hmm uh yeah, fascinating."
Zeno comments while looking around. He felt weird talking to a brain which almost looks unreal and real at the same time. At a certain distance from they were, he notices a large black foggy mass concentrated around a sphere of glassy orb within which he could make out the appearance of a short sword.
"What is this? Is that what you wanted to show me?"
Zeno asks pointing to it.
[That is user's predecessor's Soul Gift.]
[But what Profile wants to show User is the source of the black fog situated at the bottom of this Mindspace.]
Zeno turns the attention from his surrounding to the bottom of the space. He couldn't see any constellations or stars around there. No colourful galaxies or debris could be visible there. What he could see was an endless void of darkness that felt familiar to him for some reason.
He had considered the Great Void where he was trapped for some time to be some sort of afterlife from which he got transmigrated into a young child's body. But it seems his deduction was wrong. Truth was that he never escaped from the Void. He was always within its grasp.
[What you are seeing down there has no relation to any Demon or Devil as its name suggests.]
[It is something far worse than it.]
[Calling it a plague will be belittling it.]
[It is nothing short of a Calamity.]
[What we have down here is the fragment of the Great Void.]
[People that lived during the ancient times called it by another name- The Abyss.]