Finishing his 2nd tutorial, 01 returns to the White World.
01, whenever he was back from a scenario always came back to this place, and it was green and lively with nature. But as of right now, the white world was empty. Only 01 stood in this white space as a golden circular blob that was floating in nothing.
01 moved in the direction he looked in after coming in, only to find himself wondering if he was moving at all.
"This isn't how it should be.....there must be something happening so I can have some progress going on. System what is happening?" asked 01 to wonder if he was even speaking out loud or was he thinking. The very familiar blue screen with texts comes in front of him.
[ Due to the absence of the 'Source Of Power', all the 'White World' facilities have been temporarily removed.]
"Again, with this source of power thing. What is a source of power? And where did it go all of a sudden?"
[The 'Source Of Power' is the source of all power in the 'White World.' If the Source Of Power" becomes absent, then the 'White World' will return to its base form. The Form of Emptiness. The location of the source is unavailable.]
"So now what do I do? Can I get the power back myself?"
[Your soul level doesn't meet the requirement.]
"So is this the end?"
[Of course not.]
"Oh. good. I thought he was running out of ideas." { ;) }
01 simply decided to wait for God to come back. But what was merely a few moment, felt like ages to him.
"Is there something else I could do then going insane slowly?"
[The only thing you can do.]
01 questions his sanity as he waits in this white, empty world with nothing but his thoughts as his ally for an unknown amount of time for God to come back.
***
A man with a dark abyss as a face comes out of a purple sparking dimension gate. The area he comes out into has nothing but silver sands and one building in front of him.
The building was colored grey and had multiple rift gates in front of it, with countless white ghostly apparitions walking coming out of them to go inside the building.
The building is known as the 'House Of Fate.' The building itself is not very appealing from the outside. Grey walls It is where Fate bestows 'Parchment Of Possession.' which gives one God a very big boost in gathering power for his souls and himself through that mean.
"This never gets less weird to look at." Said the void face and turned around to look at the rift he just came out from to witness a creature come out of it.
The creature had a body of a tree but, it was far from being, a tree. It is an Ember Treant. His barks were blackened and had what looked like the shape of a face weeping tears of lava. The flames and the lava disappeared as soon as it stopped having contact with the creature. He didn't have any leaves, branches leaked smoke at all times. It has a face on his body that looks like a carving of a face. The eyes were lava red and his mouth was always leaking lava. He could move his face to express his emotions.
"What are you looking at Void Face." said the tree with a voice that was elegant for its appearance.
"Still trying to take in your whole....contradicting aesthetics...."
The treant moves by shuffling his roots and twisting his branches to look Void Face straight in the eye.
"You are still holding onto your simple ways of thinking? Have you tried broadening your thought process?." the creature pointed at Void Face with its branches.
"Ah, I could but, it would make this place even more boring." said Void Face while shrugging and then starts to walk towards the building but gets stopped by the treant who hooks him by the collar of his suit with his dark charred branch.
"You need to wear the mask remember?"
Void Face unhooked himself and turned around.
"What's the point? It isn't like I'm famous or anything."
The eyes of the treant burned more as more smoke starts burning its mouths.
"It may change soon." said the treant with its barks cracking from the sides of his mouth and making it look like a grin.
Void Face reaches his right hand out and creates a small dark pocket in the air. Then he brings his hand out. A white mask appears in his hand. He looks at the mask before wearing it.
"01 will be so mad....literally," he whispers and wears the mask. His appearance slowly changes into the other ghostly apparitions that were walking inside the building earlier. The system gives him a notification.
[Mask of Secrecy- Equipped]
[Emotions Hidden.]
[Unable to speak names.]
[Outer appearance changed.]
[Your voice is changed.]
[Connection with the 'White World' is lost.]
['White World' state- The Form of Emptiness.]
[Powers are being Limited. Resisted by system]
[Soul(s) have lost effectiveness.]
[Item cannot be taken off until guaranteed to be out of sight.]
[Systems effects are being disturbed.....disturbance nullified.]
"Well, that is that. Are you going to keep staring at me like that, or are you going to wear your mask too?" Void Faces' voice changed to a subtle heavy voice
The treants bark splits open with lava spilling out of the gap. It reveals the same white mask. The treant grabs it with multiple branches and closes the Gap. Then he places it where his face was. Like Void Face, he also turned into the same kind of apparition as everyone.
"Let's meet each other when we will be able to, after a long time. Kay Void Face?"
"Why not here like always Ilgrif?." Void Face questioned.
"You will know in a while." Said Ilgrif and started walking.
"Hey, what do you mean by that? Ilgrif? Stop ignoring me! Ilgrif!" He asked Ilgrif the same question a few more times but he didn't respond to him and only laughed as he walked in through the wall. Void Face stopped right outside the wall.
The walls of this place distort time and reality. So you can't follow anyone. The reason is that you will end up in a random position inside the building. So following someone and ending up at the same place is incredibly rare, and even if you do, because of the 'Mask Of Secrecy' you will not be sure that if it is the person you were following.
"What did he mean by that?" thought void face but didn't reach any conclusion.
"Welp might as well find out myself." He sad and went inside.
Now Void face was inside the building and looking around for an empty place to sit down. The indoor was a giant circular hall with stairs for seats. The indoor was white with nothing but grey stairs.
"This place still looks extremely bland for someone so grand." thought Void Face as he sat down on the nearest seat. Almost everyone was sitting down on the stairs that were closer to the center.
After a while, the first lines were full, followed by the second. Only a few sat in the last row along with Void Face. The middle of the room instantly expanded as soon as everyone took their seats. Now the room was as big as a field.
A giant humanoid creature with uncountable amount eyes on its body and head appeared in the center. Its legs were crossed and he was hovering in the air right above the ground. It had many physical hands along with unimaginable amounts of transparent silvery hands. Each of them held a rolled parchment.
The creature's body was purple. The eyes are red with black pupils. The hands have silver bracers with the parchments shining gold. The eyes stay still the transparent hands would always faze out and change places.
"Oh, come on. Speed it up a little. It won't kill you." Thought Void Face feeling extremely bored. He started to bad mouth Fate through his mind.
"It is the same thing every time. The first time it looks cool. The second time is still cool. The THOUSANDTH TIME? This is less entertaining than someone getting stabbed in the knees which, let me reminds you, isn't entertaining. So why not just finish it inst- Oh, here it comes."
The many eyes Fate had. The ones on the top side of the body locked onto Void Face when he thought these negative thoughts about the creature. Many apparitions turned around to look at him to stare for a moment, then turned back after a while. Void Face sighed like every other time he comes here when this exact thing happens. The Fate starts giving its 'Parchment of Possession' he gets bored and thinks these thoughts. Fate gets mad and glares at him. Everyone turns at him out of curiosity and then turns back around. This has now become something that will always happen.
The giant creatures silvery hands started to warp next to many white apparitions and handed one to each of them. They received the parchment then it stops glowing gold.
"Oh, so I am not getting one this time as well huh? I suppose it's cool." thought Void Face and shrugged as he now leaned back and watched relaxed.
Fate then starts giving the parchments in its physical hands. These hands, although there are many of these parchments, only 9 of them received the parchments from these.
"Hmm? 9 people? It's always 11. Oh...oh no...don't tell me....will my plan come to play so early? Was Ilgrif saying that my path will begin now?"
All the hands of Fate slowly fade away except two. One is physical and one transparent. It raised the hands high then two red pyramid-shaped crystals appear flying above them. The one on the right, the physical one, fly to another apparition. And Void Face gets the transparent one.
"Really? someone who never got a 'Parchment of Possession'
receives a 'Crystal of Greed'?This is some next-level idea Fate."
Everyone started whispering to each other, and many began to talk loudly. But in the middle of the whispering and, the other apparitions mask breaks and falls.
The 'Crystal Of Greed' is something everyone wants but fears to have. It allows one to gather and use more souls to use as subjects. It also allows the souls to grow faster making a God stronger. And most importantly, it allows you to invade another God's scenario while making yourself immune to it. You also get to steal the soul if it doesn't have an ego. Of course, no one wants their work to be stolen. So the ones who end up getting the crystals get targeted by others. In this, the 'Mask Of Secrecy' comes to play. It is supposed to keep your identity hidden and allow you to come here anonymously. But since Gods retain some of their powers even in the 'House of Fate.' One of the many Gods uses their power to break the mask which causes the receiver's identity to be revealed in public. The God who does this every time when a 'Crystal Of Greed' is bestowed is yet to be found.
If it is a strong God who gets the 'Crystal of Greed' like Foflin or Eolsine, they wouldn't care about their identity. They can't be stopped by anyone other than each other anyway. But unlike them, others can get pressured into submission. And those who don't submit gets dried of resources that allows them to become stronger.
The mask falling ended up revealing the person wearing it. It was the machine god Tecknow. He looked like a dwarf with half of his face being bronze and one hand of his being a prosthetic. But in reality, he was a complete machine from the inside.
With no choice, Tecknow raises his metallic hand, takes the crystal, and shatters it in his metallic hand. The crystal breaks into nothingness. Now everyone slowly turned to where Void Face was only to see that he wasn't there and neither the crystal. They were all surprised that he disappeared.
"He is hiding among us!!"{1} shouted an apparition. "No one can leave this place till Fate forces us to. WE NEED TO FIND HIM BEFORE THAT." {1}
"Did no one saw him? There are like... 70 of us and NO ONE saw him while Tecknow was shattering the shard?"{2} asked another one.
There was silence. No one saw where Void Face moved. They all started using their limited skills that they were able to use in the 'House of Fate.' They looked around the stairs. Some used magic to find him while others used skills. They did everything they can to find Void Face, but it was a failure.
They stopped looking for him after a while when Fate had one transparent hand above everyone.
"Whoever you are, I will find you. I will make you break that crystal and when I do, you will regret not revealing yourself here."{1} said an apparition.
"Stop being so loud. You can't find him no matter how hard you try. Instead, why not you wait for him to come to you?"{3} said one from behind him.
"Remember the last time this happened? It was disastrous." Said another sitting on a stair. {4}
"I remember. The entire leaderboard was only her and her alone. Until Fate intervened personally. That was a huge loss for everyone. She had every soul in this entire chain."{1}
"I'm sure it won't happen this time. That soul herder guy is pretty strong."{2}
"Eh, I don't care. Since I am in the low end no one will get any decent profit from my place. I should be fine."{3} and they all disappeared from the place.
***
"Hooh! THIS IS AMAZING!!!! MY PLAN IS WORKING. WHO WOULD'VE THOUGHT THAT MY LUCK WOULD BE SO GOOD. NOW THERE IS NO NEED FOR ME TO BE SCARED OF 01 GETTING STRONG. YEAAAAAAAAAAAAH. Good thing the system is immune to that power dampening so my skill 'Recall' saved the day." said God after returning to the white 'White World'. He took his mask off and the 'White World' returned to its green and lively way. His appearance returned to him wearing a suit and 01, who was hovering in a place as a gold-colored ball, now turned back into a white silhouette of a human. But 01 did not react. He was out of his mind after being in the emptiness for so long.
"Well, at least you don't destroy yourself from the lack of power like normal souls so you will be fine."
He inspects 01 closely as he was just standing there without any movements. "I think I will give you a name. A proper one that is. You aren't just a simple test subject anymore. You are THE test subject that's going to help me achieve my goal." he said as he patted 01 on his shoulder.
"System, Drop him in a 'Soul Stealer' scene. We are getting ourselves some Blue Souls."
[Searching for possible 'Soul Stealer' scenarios.....Found.]
[Starting in 3...2...1...0]