"Edelweiss." Niko was enlightened, he had learnt the true name of the Mana that resided in his world.
It is named as such due to its original form being a pure white energy, the reason why it is often colored when in use is due to a person's Aura.
Different colors represented a personality and temperament, most were similar to each other and had different hues to go along with ones many facets.
But the end result was a transparent shroud of a specific color. Niko stared at his arms, due to his achievement in controlling the Edelweiss, he could now enhance his Aura Reading talent by reinforcing his eyesight with Mana.
And as a consequence he was able to use the talent on himself despite being unable to do so earlier, "Woah, it seems like I'm pretty lucky." He smacked his lips in satisfaction, wondering what the numerical value of his Luck stat actually was.
But that had to be held off for now, Niko waved his right hand around and meticulously inspected the life energy with a scrutinizing gaze.
Surprisingly it was of a light yellow hue. From his knowledge of Auras, any yellow ones were indicative of having a shy and antisocial personality, often being wallflowers.
Yet at the same time, those with yellow auras were also more often happy and joyful and would do anything for their friends and family.
But this was only half of Niko's traits. But recalling what a light yellow meant, he was relieved.
A light yellow Aura showed that the person in general was quite slothful yet loyal, they were impartial to all matters and only listened to those who they were familiar with, distancing themselves from strangers at first.
This was the typical traits of a person with a light yellow Aura, and since he had never seen one other with a similar Aura as him he could not make any comparisons.
Interestingly enough Auras were interchangeable, meaning they could change the colors through a certain condition.
Although he did not know what the trigger was, Niko wished to be able to change his own as a light yellow did not fit his aura- as in temperament so to say.
Curious he took a look at the corpse and was dumbfounded, a black mass loomed over it, causing him to feel nauseous.
Black tendrils stretched out of the mysterious entity, gently touching the corpse in a strange way.
It was hungry, it was an esurient creature. Unable to eat normal food, it could only look for the seeping soul energy dead bodies emit.
To them it was a luxurious delicacy, a ghostly being that he had seen once in the Grimoire, "A Soul Snatcher!" Niko was surprised but not anxious, after all it was a rare occurrence as Soul Snatchers were only birthed every 150 years and dying in 20 after its emergence.
It was not an exaggeration to say that he wanted to enslave one, but more rather he would say that he wanted one as a pet for three reasons.
Firstly; Soul Snatchers were rare, and who didn't like a rare luxury item? Secondly; there were little records about them even in the Grimoire, so he wished to do some research on them for the sake of curiosity. And third and foremost; Soul Snatchers had the unique ability to eat Miasma.
So if he ever encountered it, all he needed to do was call upon a Soul Snatcher and it would do the rest.
"System please capture that Soul Snatcher!" He implored his almighty companion, although he had no time to waste, a Soul Snatcher was much more important to his future cause in terms of potential usefulness.
[Acknowledged]. The System replied swiftly, teleporting the Soul Snatcher to the Moonlit Pool.
"Phew." Heaving a sigh of relief, Niko then began his work. Tremendous pressure rose from his body once more, this time a visible shroud could be seen, it was a physical representation of his immense magical power forming a defensive barrier around him naturally.
He then pushed his hands together in a strained manner, as if it greatly pained him doing so. He screamed as veins popped on his forehead, commencing the second step.
"The second step of creating an Artificial Soul is to gather any life force lingering in the air." Making pulling motions, Niko grabbed hold of wisps of life energy several times, gaining thirty fragments.
The process continued, "One must then compress and condense the fragments and fill in the gaps with your own magical power." The third step was rather straightforward, clumping the ethereal white wisps into a ball and shaping it into a spherical form.
"Finally the insertion stage, at this point one must be precise and careful as there is a high risk of having the soul going rogue." Niko did as told and placed the soul directly above the heart of the corpse.
The head area had squirming flesh struggling to regrow, it was steaming from the amount of energy being put into the regeneration process.
Although he was unsure of why, he did not complain. Wiping away the sweat on his forehead, he began to slowly push the soul downwards.
Gently encapsulated in a small shield formed by his own magical energy, the soul was nothing but safe.
As it neared the heart, his own heart started to beat faster in anxiety. He bit his lips, nervous of the outcome.
Then suddenly the soul was sucked into the body, instantly shocking him. He had no idea that an event like this would happen and had thought he failed, but all of a sudden a bright light caught his eyes.
A bluish-white ripple spread across the corpse's body, encasing it in a stone like substance. It was petrified mysteriously, at first Niko thought it was the consequence of failing a Soul Insertion, yet the System proved him wrong.
[Warning! Necromantic energy surge has appeared. Please be wary Host, a God level entity has arrived!]
[Warning! The Ferryman Of The River Styx And Archeron- Charon and The Reaper Of Souls, Harbinger Of Death- Thanatos has descended!]
[Metamorphosis occurring! Warning! Corrosive death energy has deteriorated your body].
[Death energy nullified by World System- Chaos]. One by one multiple screens appeared before him, several being extremely ominous.
Especially the ones that heralded the arrival of two Gods, the God of Death himself and the infamous God that carried the souls of recently deceased across the river of death.
Abruptly interrupting his thoughts, two shadow cloaked figures appeared before him, bringing with them the dismal air of the Underworld and scalding flames of Hellfire.
The one on the left glared intently towards Niko, "A Destroyer? No, you're a Maverick. I see, how amusing. To think that the World System would come back to the Origin World to find a Host." The entity spoke in an unsettling tone, cold and mysterious yet so alien at the same time.
"Thanatos, I believe you had something to say to this young mortal?" Charon, turned to his fellow God, wondering what he would do after discovering the status of the young mortal who played around with hellfire.
To Charon's amazement, Thanatos did not punish the human, "I dare not reap away the life of a Maverick as they have a purpose, and are valuable to us Gods, he is a Champion of Chaos; the origin of all things. Who dares incurs his wrath after knowing of his true standing?"
Thanatos saw Mavericks as a similar existence as him and were very useful as they bought more deaths.
Not only that, Destroyers could be given missions by Gods in exchange for rewards, so as long as the System agreed he could request the Mavericks anything, "Well said." Charon agreed with Thanatos, all Destroyers were irreplaceable and bought many benefits to deities and Gods of all worlds.
Niko stood dumbfounded, he was speechless and was unable to catch up with their conversation, 'Destroyer? Maverick? Champion of Chaos?!' He was utterly confused as per usual.
Seeing this Charon could not help but chuckle, "Ah, I see, so Chaos never told you? Well I won't ruin the fun of figuring it out yourself." He winked at the boy, which was an odd scene to witness yet made Niko feel slightly embarrassed.
"Yeah, I just got the System recently and had finished a mission a few hours prior." Niko explained to the Gods that he was very uninformed of the many affairs regarding his role and what the System was.
He felt extremely embarrassed not knowing such things as it seemed to be common knowledge amongst other Gods.
Although it was to be expected from a God, from what they were implying it seemed like that they knew more than what they let on.
Meaning that his System was very well known in other worlds and even feared his existence, only those that were ignorant of the System and how to identify a Wielder would try to kill him.
Feeling the tension in the air, Niko coughed slightly, "Ahem, pardon me, but if I may ask. What exactly are you two gentlemen here for?" He spoke politely as if knowing that speaking casually may anger them.
"Haha, no need to be so uptight. Geez, you guys are so high maintenance." Despite Charon being extremely morbid during his work, he was more relaxed and casual when off work.
He was easy going and calm, unlike Thanatos who was cold and distant. "Well, if you want to know. It's because we felt a necromancy spell activating despite there having being no magic in this world.
Except for Heaven, Hell, Olympus and a bunch of other places that hide away from Earth, nowhere on this planet should there be any traces of black magic." Niko knew of what he was referring to, Necromancy was a forbidden art and should have not existed in modern times.
Yet the spell still activated. Alerting the two Gods instantly. As for why them, it was because Necromancy was related to their job and that Hecate was too focused in her research.
All the other magic gods could not care less and left it to these two to investigate that cause and then report back to the others.
To summarize the story, they were basically scouts for the other Gods. "Oh, that's right I forgot. Since you're here I have a request to make." Charon spoke up joyfully, recalling an old memory.
"Uhh, okay?" Niko responded thoughtlessly, "Wonderful!" The ferryman was cheerful and turned to look at the death god next to him.
Gazing at each other for a few seconds Thanatos eventually relented, "Haah, fine. But you owe me one."
The two Gods faced Niko and simultaneously requested him, "Niko Matsuda; I, Charon/Thanatos humbly require your assistance." Two hands outstretched, both with the same purpose.
Niko was astounded and was about to ask what they meant by assistance, but there was no need any longer as his System answered his questions.
[The Gods Charon and Thanatos has given you a Quest. Will you accept?]. It was a mission notification from the System. Niko gulped, if it was from a God, then the rewards were obviously plentiful!
'Accept!' He shouted in his mind, the screen before him changed. Now showing the mission requirements.
[Hero In The Shadows.
Mission: Thanatos and Charon has consulted the Oracle and they foresaw that their roles were to be overtaken by a Hero turned God that shall steal their powers and position.
Now what you must do is kill that Hero as you are a Maverick, a being able to change his destiny and does not conform to Fate itself.
Requirements: Kill the Hero Zachary before he becomes a God. Use any methods to prevent him from taking away their divinity.
Rewards: Unlimited supply of Greek Underworld rivers' water. Blessing Of Death. Blessing Of The Ferryman. A chance to obtain any one skill from both Gods. Seven Sins Demon Essence].
Niko drooled looking at the bountiful rewards. His luck was truly the best!
...
In a luxurious hall with 12 thrones in a circle, there was a bearded man sitting slovenly on a cold throne. The throne was made out of black marble that had small pieces of gold embedded into it for decoration.
The throne was larger than the rest of the other thrones, having an extra seven steps leading up to the actual seat, each one pigmented with a color of the rainbow.
There was a large blue sheathing over the throne, resembling the sky. On the right arm of the throne was a ruby-eyed bronze eagle that stood proud and distinguished.
He gazed at the void, beyond the boundaries of world and setting his sight in a particular being.
"A male Maverick? It has been centuries since Chaos decided to pick a male, I wonder how he tastes." His lips broke into a lecherous smile, for Zeus was infamous for his many affairs and did not discriminate.
...
An elderly man with two ravens perched on his shoulders was silently still, he adorned an eyepatch and held his ground in the middle of a storm.
All to temper himself and attain insight with every ordeal he undergoes, he looked up and smiled, gazing at the same boy his friend Zeus had set his eyes on.
"A Maverick, eh? Seems like a storm is brewing." Hugin squawked and complained to his master, "What a terrible joke!"
"You're the joke!" Munin retorted, they both cursed each other back and forth, causing Odin to sigh, "Why did I ever think that ravens and crows were cool?"
....
In a bedchamber of sand-like walls, a voluptuous figure rolled around on her bed, fiddling with her dreads, "Well this is unexpected. A Maverick with an affinity towards Balance. How long has it been since we had one those? Since the reign of the Pharaohs? Well no matter, the Ennead still lives, Pharaohs are unnecessary in this modern world."
The Goddess cared about nothing else than her family and her pride, she expressed no interest in the mortal only finding him useful for making her Son king once the cycle occurred once more.
The bed beneath her began to sink, the walls streaming down into mud. Sand flowed down quickly, altering the landscape tremendously.
Isis let herself embrace the softening bed, melting into the earth and becoming one with nature. She had let her entire palace be swallowed whole, back underground.
....
All the Gods with an intricate relationship with Earth soon discovered Niko's existence and deemed him as useful and someone they should not provoke.
In a myriad of voices, in a thousand languages, across the boundaries, far away from Niko and other deities. They all spoke one sentence, "I shall be the one."