Prologue E
DEPRESSING REALIZATION
"Lieutenant Crasker, the professor is about to begin his lecture!"
Betty was currently dragging Crasker along to a presentation that one of the most esteemed professors of the empire was about to present.
"Why are we here again? I understand the ability phenomenon and it's multilevel system."
"Apparently, he is going to introduce something new concerning abilities as well, so of course we have to come and listen to it!"
Crasker sighed and Betty giggled, though they both ended up walking into the presentation. They took their seats and looked down at the stage where the professor had already been lecturing for a while.
"So as we all know, many people are born with abilities, though not everybody. When it comes to abilities, there are two types, being the awakened and the granted abilities."
"Concerning granted abilities, those are the ones that some people are naturally born with. Not everybody can have them, and they usually aren't as useful as the awakened abilities. Granted abilities are divided into five stages, with each one adding more power to the ability. Or, at the very least, adding new features to it."
"A person can go up stages by having much experience with using their ability. However, if a person is born with a granted ability, their ability can start at any stage. Some people can start with an already level five granted ability."
"Betty, do we have any sort of popcorn?"
Crasker was already getting bored of the lecture.
"Shut up and listen, he has a much greater mind than you when it comes to this stuff!"
Of course, Betty was having none of it.
"The reason that this lecture is happening is because of what we just discovered. As you all know, awakened abilities are those that anybody can gain under certain circumstances which still haven't been revealed yet. People who have a granted ability when they awaken will retain their granted ability, making it so that they have two abilities."
"Now, this is where the new information comes in. Apparently, awakened abilities also have stages."
"Huh?"
Crasker stopped slouching and sat up to pay attention now. Betty giggled when she saw this, and Crasker slightly blushed when he realized his reaction to the professor's words and slunk into his seat.
"Awakened abilities have only three stages. However, it seems that in exchange for having less stages than granted abilities, each time that an awakened ability goes up a stage, the results are much better than that of going up a stage with a granted ability."
'Shit, I need to hurry up and awaken.'
Crasker was becoming slightly jealous of the people who had already awakened. He had been the lieutenant for two years now, and has had his granted ability at stage four for a while now. Yet, he saw absolutely no sign that he was going to awaken anytime soon.
"Alright, let's go."
Crasker stood up, and Betty took a bit to follow after him.
"Why are we leaving? The lecture has just begun!"
"Dumbass, he just summarized all the new information he had to present. The rest of the lecture is just going to be him explaining stuff related to the new information."
"Hah…"
Betty was a bit disappointed with the lieutenant, but she knew the lieutenant was smart enough to get what the professor was getting at in the lecture.
"Fine, have it your way. Want to go have a drink? It's on me."
"Anyday of the week Betty."
--- SEQUENCE 2 ---
"Hood, now."
"..."
The silhouette hopped right back onto Dionysus and continued to be his hood and cape at the same time. Dionysus began to walk back in the direction that he came from.
'The dome is someone's ability, so we need to get them out of the way before we can get out of here.' The silhouette nodded to reply to Dionysus' thought. Dionysus smiled, and continued to walk down the main street.
All over the city, there were many people who were confused about what was going on. Of course, many people had left their house to look at the dome, so Dionysus had a whole crowd to hide in.
BANG
The silhouette reached its hand out and grabbed the thing that was shot at Dionysus.
"...Tch."
Dionysus immediately booked it into the closest building to him, which just happened to be an apartment building of sorts.
'This one!'
Dionysus picked a random apartment and burst right into it. Inside of it was a mother, father, and baby who were all sitting around a table, with the baby being on the mother's lap. Of course, this was just an assumption, but it was safe to assume that they were a family. The man and woman had a look of shock on their face, but Dionysus didn't quite have the time to explain anything.
"Ah!"
Dionysus realized that this apartment had a patio of sorts, and immediately ran out onto it. He was still on the first floor, so the view was of the main street.
BANG
"GAH"
This time, the silhouette couldn't react fast enough and Dionysus took a bullet deep in his left shoulder.
FWISH
Dionysus promptly threw himself into the curtain that appeared in front of him, and immediately began running around in the glass box to view what was going on in the real world.
'Where, Where, Where…'
"There."
Dionysus heard the silhouette behind him, and immediately ran over. The silhouette pointed up, and Dionysus finally got a glimpse of the person that was after his life. They were on the roof of the building opposite the apartment building that he had run into.
"Here."
The silhouette held its hand out and dropped something.
'The thing that was shot at me!'
Dionysus picked it up to analyze it, however…
'They can shoot anything at us.'
… it was simply a bottle-cap.
���Abilities can be specific, but to be so specific to make it so that the user can only shoot bottle-caps? Chances are, they can send any small thing flying at extreme speeds.'
"Two people?"
The silhouette really had absolutely no facial features, but it could still somehow talk.
"Must be."
Dionysus acknowledged that there were most likely two people shooting at him. Unless the person's ability was something different from what he thought it was, it was two people who were after him, excluding Cerberus.
"Black hair, blue eyes, black hair, blue eyes…"
Dionysus was committing to his memory how the person who was shooting at him from the roof looked like.
"Woah, great place you got here!"
SNAP
"GHAAAAAA!"'
Standing in front of Dionysus was Cerberus in the flesh, and he had just snapped Dionysus' arm like a twig.
"H-HOW?!"
"Come now, that's no way to treat a guest at your house!"
Cerberus looked at Dionysus with his teeth represented in his wide smile. It truly was the smile of a psychotic bastard.
"UNFORGIVABLE"
The silhouette lunged at Cerberus, who easily side-stepped it.
"Woah buddy, you weren't satisfied with beating me once? Come on now, you pummeled me into the ground so much that I thought my life was forfeit! haha!"
SLISH
SLISH
All of a sudden, Cerberus had taken off all of the silhouette's limbs. The excitement had disappeared from Cerberus' eyes, and the smile was long gone. In their place was a dull look that seemed as if it was the result of waiting millions of years in expectation, only to see that nothing was happening.
"Oi, is that all you got? Stand up, come on."
Cerberus threw the silhouette's limbs in front of it.
Meanwhile, Dionysus saw a bottle and ran towards it. The second he reached it, he picked the bottle up and…
SNIFF
… hearing the sniff right behind him, immediately swung it. However, he hit absolutely nothing.
'How did he get into here in the first place? This is my dimension… it must be an ability better than mine.'
All of a sudden, realization dawned over Dionysus and the fear could be seen in his eyes.
"Wait…"
'Better than mine?'
Dionysus finally looked behind him, yet the only thing that he could see was some knuckles.
SLAM
Dionysus was sent flying.
'It can't be…'
'... no, it is. He's awakened.'