That night, everyone didn't talk long. The Task proved way too exhausting for all of them, and faced with the guilt of having to take a human life, they slept a sleepless night in their beds. Except for Fen, of course.
Having already dealt with whatever reaction he had from killing, through both logical and illogical reason he collapsed into bed and enjoyed a peaceful night. At least, he was, until he felt the familiar sensation of being sucked into Dey's reality. Seriously, couldn't that old God at least give him a heads-up?
The transition into his reality triggered the Death's Mark's weird effect of causing a massive headache, and it took him a few moments to adjust to the pain. While he was waiting for it to pass, he frantically waved around him and gestured to his head until Dey noticed and waved the pain away. After all, in his reality Deion had absolute control over the Death Mark. Too bad that control didn't extend anywhere else.
"Ugh... So, what's up Dey? Missed me much?"
Dey lifted a certain black energy finger on his hand to form a rude gesture.
"You wish. So, how was your first experience with a Chosen? I assume it was a Chosen, what with the Death Mark and all. Too bad that I couldn't watch, I might've been able to help you." Fen's head snapped around to look at Dey. "You've been watching me again?!"
"Well, what do you suppose I should do all day? I perform my duties, and then I have hours of free time to kill. It gets boring, you know. Not like I can go watch a movie at the local theatre, not even corporations would dare enter this place. Watching you is the best source of entertainment I can get; your life's a drama, an action, and a comedy all into one."
"Uhuh, great to see someone's enjoying my life." Fen scoffed.
"Why couldn't you watch me? Is there interference down here or something?"
"No, the Foundation was just more... advanced than I thought. And their method of creating the Scenario space is entirely different for the Tasks than it is with the Scenarios, so I couldn't trace your energy signature to enter the created reality with you. It's already hard enough to exert any influence here, to the point where a mere Planet Grade organization can limit my actions... Damn, I've really lost it."
Fen's ears perked up at the unknown term.
"Planet Grade?"
"Eh? Are they really holding back that much information that you don't even know the civilization grades? I mean, when I was around your age I didn't know them only because there were no other civilizations to classify, but you? Come one, you should at least know the Universal Grade civilization Heaven, right?"
"Ah..." Fen thought back to when Archon Ellora described Heaven as a civilization. "Heaven's actually a civilization?"
"Duh. What'd you think they were? Did you just not pay attention when I was telling you they descended on our people with the intention of eradicating us? No 'divine' force does that, because those don't exist. They're people just like humans on Earth, it's just that Heaven has an entirely different species that's much older than humans. The only species that might be older would be us, probably."
"Wow, I mean I thought they were... actually, I don't know what I thought they were." This new information caught Fen by surprise. The schools back on Earth never mentioned anything like different civilizations. The most they taught them were about the other Fallen civilization on Earth before the Sin's influence corrupted them beyond the point of saving and caused their collapse. Suddenly the different puzzle pieces in his head clicked into place.
"Is Heaven the strongest civilization?"
Dey scratched the back of his head, sparks of black energy dancing in the air around him while he thought. "Well... It's hard to say which is the strongest, but yeah, Heaven definitely ranks among the top. None of the Universal Grades have fought in the last few hundred years, and so much time has passed that the balance of power might've changed. That, and I've been pretty much stuck here so I don't get much news unless a straggler comes in."
The God smiled. "But I still know more than enough to teach you."
"I should probably start by explaining the different grades, so that you can better understand."
"Earth, as far as I know, is a Planet Grade civilization. They still haven't even left their planet to enter space and start colonizing other worlds in their own reality. Just above them is the Stellar Grade, species who have managed to colonize different parts of the universe but not another planet; so they'd have colonies on asteroid belts or moons. Not a big jump, but the increase in power for every grade changes significantly the higher you get.
"Above the Stellar Grade is the Stellar Systems Grade, which have colonized multiple planets and also have a brief understanding of dimensional travel, in that they might be capable of jumping realities with their own technology. But the dimensional technology level doesn't really matter that much, the change in grade is influenced more from the colonization of different planets.
"Take the Foundation for example. They managed to use Rifts to take their people into the Void, a place so massive and empty that it'd take years for even a higher grade civilization to find them. I think there's also another rule for a Stellar Systems Grade... ah, they could have a God.
Any civilization with a higher being like a God is automatically considered, at minimum, a Stellar Systems Grade, but there are some Stellar Systems Grade civilizations that don't have one so its not really a requirement."
Fen absorbed the information as Dey spoke about the different civilization grades.
"Is a God really that powerful?" From his understanding, a civilization capable of colonizing different planets across the universe should be much more powerful than a single entity. That, or his understanding of the ability a God had was severely lacking.
"Is a God powerful..." Dey scoffed. "Well, that's actually a good question, I shouldn't laugh. You're really ignorant, so I should take educating you seriously." Fen's pride stung a little from his statement, but it was true. He really didn't know anything about the universe.
"A God's power changes per individual, but it mostly depends on what their energy is based from. The Foundation told you that Gods can create life and Mana with the help of a planet's natural energy, so I don't have to explain that too much... Essentially, a God is a being that can create their own unique energy." The energy being closed his hand around Fen's mouth, preventing him from speaking. "And before you start blabbering 'oh, I create Vital energy, am I a God?' just shut it. Quiet down and listen. Gods represent the peak of power in the universe no matter where you go, so you need to understand how they reached that point."
"They're stronger than anyone else, faster than anyone else, and more durable than anyone else. Before I became one, I didn't fully understand but because I am now one of those higher beings, take my words seriously when I say don't ever piss off a God. They will mess you up before you can even regret you life's actions that led you to that point. Even worse, they're capable of shattering entire civilizations.
"Ahem. Anyways, about the creation of energy. Just to give you an example, I'll explain the Creation God, the leader of Heaven. That bastard, he can create anything using the energy he creates, be it planets, items, and even materials. Thankfully, his ability is limited in that it takes the fucker a lot longer than other higher beings to recharge his energy, but after centuries he became extremely annoying to me and all other Gods. Even though his ability is limited because of his own strength you should get the idea of what he could do with that power, right?"
"And as if their power wasn't good enough, most Gods are immortal unless killed by a being of equal power to them. I say 'most' because some Gods simply implode before they can fully utilize their power from lack of control, for some reason. Maybe they solved that problem while I was stuck here, but I doubt it..."
Fen's head was reeling from the amount of information dumped on his head. So that was the true ability of a God... but, it was supposed to be different depending on the God's energy? Then what type of God was Dey? Annoying energy?
"What was that?"
'Ah, did I say that out loud?' Fen cursed inwardly.
"Shut it before I slap you. But to answer the question that came with that insult... Well, the short answer is that I'm a Void God. As far as I know, the only one." As if to prove his words, black tendrils of dark energy extended from his hands and flew around the created space. Using the same manipulation ability, Dey's entire body pulsed, before a smiling emoticon appeared on his face.
"Creepy..." muttered Fen as he stared at the black smiling face on Dey's head.
"Ah, I didn't mean to say that, forget you heard anything." Shit, was his mouth forcibly connected with his brain or something?!
A tendril of the black Void energy spun around and smacked him on the head with enough force to send him flying. Although his head was spinning before from the information dump, this was a different kind of nausea.
"Hmph."
Dey was about to talk more about the different grades, but a loud crack announced the end of their meeting. The space started to shake, and a frowning expression appeared on the God's face, filled with annoyance.
"Damn, she's coming again. The frequency's getting higher and higher... Hmm."
Groaning with his hands clutched around his head, Fen barely managed to stop his ears from ringing and stood up from the ground.
"Ughh... who's coming?"
"Nothing. I'll send you back now."
He seemed a little distracted as he waved his hands, sending Fen back to the Void reality where his real body was waiting in bed for him.
****
Sensing the time, Fen got out of bed and started preparing for meeting with Raisen again. Or, at least, he was, before a loud buzz warned him that the coming day wasn't going to be that simple.
Before Fen could wonder what was distracting Dey so much, the buzz grew louder until it formulated into mechanical words.
[Congratulations for passing the first Task, and may you pass many more. For further instruction, please assemble in your Squad rooms until your assigned Archon informs you of your scores on the prior assessment.] Oh. The mechanical voice answered the question Fen had about where the points to buy more Lessons were supposed to come from; as far as he knew, most of the other Opfer were still in the dark about the Points Table.
The gap in knowledge was supposed to be addressed sometime after the first Task, but he didn't expect that it would happen so soon. Most likely, it was a part of the Foundation's plan to keep the candidates sane for the most part. There have been multiple studies that show that keeping busy had a positive effect on a negative emotional state, serving as a type of distraction from stressful events. And with the scale of the Task, most of the Opfer probably needed a distraction.
Stumbling out the door, he saw Amelia do the same with an exhausted expression on her face. From her appearance, he guessed that she didn't get much sleep. Neither did he because of Dey's reality shifting, but Fen had a feeling that they had very different reasons for their lack of rest.
Maybe she was still effected by the guilt? The image of her room filled with scorch marks came to mind, and Fen set a mental reminder to talk to her about it.
He lost his chance to say something though as the rest of the Squad got out from their rooms.
They all gathered at the table.
For obvious reasons, most of them had gloomy or depressed expressions on their faces, the lack of sleep not helping with their slipping mental states.
"Their deaths aren't your fault. If you didn't kill them, then they would've killed you. You knew that the moment the Archon told us about the Task. Feeling remorse about their deaths isn't helping you; its only holding you back." For once, Fen managed to sound sympathetic.
Some of the light returned back into Qin's eyes as he slowly chewed through his words, before he scoffed.
"Easy for you to say. Do you feel nothing?" His mouth twitched as he looked at Fen with resentment.
"That's unfair-"
"No. I should answer." Fen cut Amelia off before she could defend him.
"Fuu... Does it make me a monster if I said I don't?" A light laugh slipped out from him. "I'd be lying if I said that I valued their lives the same as mine. But, can't the same be said for you? After all, you killed them too. You wouldn't be here if you didn't."
"But I'm not a monster. I'm human." A lie, but it was easier than telling them the truth.
"And you're not a monster either. You're more human than me because you feel something. The only thing that I feel is unlucky that I ended up in this damned Program in the first place."
Amelia hesitated before agreeing with his words with a small nod of her head. After all, it wasn't as if they had chosen to be here in the first place. Their name was Opfer, the ones to be sacrificed, the ones taken from their original places on Earth.
'Don't hate the person, hate the reality cruel enough to make them that way.' Although he didn't say those words specifically, it was what Fen was implying. The statement didn't resonate with all of them but it at least made them realize the unreasonableness of feeling guilty for doing what they had to do to survive.
After speaking Fen saw that none of the others were willing to say anything so he turned to grab his breakfast from the interface. Today it seemed much more abundant, with a healthy serving of eggs, grapefruit, milk, and of course, bacon. Although a small smile appeared on his face, inwardly Fen mocked the Foundation's obvious attempt to cheer them up with the delicious food. Not like he was going to refuse of course, food was food, and unlike his human companions, Fen needed much more food to fuel his body, even if most of his energy came from the energy that he passively absorbed from the surroundings.
The others, still quiet, followed his example and started grabbing their selected food from the interface after him and sat down at the table. Rather than talking, they stuffed their faces, using the excuse of eating to not say anything. Although the mood was much more light compared to when Fen was speaking, it looked like he would have to be one to initiate a conversation. Again.
It wasn't like this most days. Even if only a month had passed, after around two weeks they started the unofficial tradition of eating together when they could. For one, it helped them get more familiar with one another as well as exchange any helpful tips or information they learned in their respective Lessons.
Though, most times Amelia didn't get the chance to share partly because of her unique position as the only person in the Squad capable of formulating a spellwork. After Fen revealed his ability to manipulate his own magical energy to create his Flaming Spear, she was more than happy to share what she learned, finally getting the chance to be the 'teacher'. Inwardly, Fen was worried that it might've been a sort of fetish for her. He hadn't actually let go of his previous impression of her as a pervert.
Thankfully, she didn't seem weird whenever she talked down to him like a student in school, or at least until Fen started to get a little annoyed with her.
He could accept being talked to casually, but the second the person started to get arrogant it pissed him off, mostly because he was confident that he'd be able to perform much better with his own talent once he got the hang of it.
...Wait, wasn't he the arrogant one?
Fen chose to see it as just being honest so as to not hurt his own ego indirectly.
"What Lesson are you going to buy after you get your points?" Fen decided to start off with a light conversation and not bring up the Task for a while. Doing so might be detrimental for their mental health, or increase the amount of guilt they feel.