"Are you ready kid?" I jumped and turned around to find Shottana. My entire body had gotten cold just hearing him talk. If I became the god of death my presence would have the same effect on people. Sadly I have chosen to pursue the life of a collector, I want to own at least one of every object in the known and unknown. In order to do that I need to beat all the other heirs and decline my crowning when the time comes.
"What are you doing here?"
"What do you mean? Don't you want me here?"
"I thought you were a busy guy."
"I can never be too busy."
It felt as if whatever was holding on to me tightly had just let go. I don't know why but my body started to heat up the more I thought about the old man seeing me off on my first day out. In a way I think I started to feel some reassurance and a bit of guilt.
"I want you to have this as your going away gift. You may be gone from anywhere between a few hours to hundreds of years." The old man said as he handed me an old box shaped like a coffin.
"That doesn't sound that long."
"You will understand once you are among the mortals. Time is a precious thing, keep it in mind through everything that you do."
I understood exactly what he was saying. Our kind, the dealers in life and death are in somewhat similar to are similar to an on and off switch. Time starts and ends with us and this is why the House of Darkness is a noble house in the land of the Astari.
"Okay, young Astarians. Please gather around the teleportation platform and prepare for transfer. You are going on an exam, it is only after impressing us in this mission would we now announce you juniors in training." The elder Astari who just spoke raised his staff and began preparing a teleportation spell. He is from the House of Magic in case you're curious. He is an elder there, basically one of those people who failed in the struggle to become a god and ended up being locked in this world for the rest of their lives.
"Tempest, kin of the storm."
"Inawa, kin of the flood."
"Korona, kin of time."
"Kongora, kin of war." (Please pronounce as Kong aura).
When the names were called the young Astari would disappear into specs of magic.
"Thoromo, kin of life."
My name was finally called and my body started to dissolve into colourful pixels, I lost feeling in all the parts that dissolved. This went on until everything was dark. From then I found myself floating in a black abyss, growing up the old man used to take us on vacation to other stars and planets but I never got used to seeing the majesty of outer space.
"Young master of the house of dark, you will soon arrive at your destination. Please make sure not to panic when you awaken." The butler said, he was a skeleton of a few words. Which made more sense because these things are not supposed to be able to talk.
"When have I ever panicked?"
"This will be a new experience, mortals are very different from us and some immortals have never been able to recover from mixing with them. That and all the other young masters before you pressed the emergency button as soon as they arrived."
"Why?"
"Ah, it seems our time is up. I wish you well young master, you were always my favourite."
"Why did they panic, what were they..."
BOOM!
My ears rang and my head stopped working and tightened up. The pain was unlike anything I have ever experienced before. My ears kept on ringing, as soon as I got some sense I felt my body get moving at great speeds. And it was not due to me, someone was pulling me and they were screaming at me.
"COME ON SON MOVE YOUR BODY WE CAN'T CARRY YOU ALL THE WAY." The man continued screaming.
I regained my senses slowly but it was sufficient. There was a rope of some sort around my neck holding up a gun that was flying all over the place. The coffin thing the old man gave me was still on my back, and it was slowing me down.
Gunshots came from the back and they sounded dangerous. I instinctively started to dodge and slipped my hand from the man's grip.
"NOW THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT." He yelled as he turned around to return fire.
I leapt into the air and fell flat on my belly. I got on all fours and went at it, we seemed to be moving through some trenches. Behind us, we were being chased down by armed people wearing all navy blue armour. I was able to see them perfectly because of my superior senses.
Since their aiming was dookie firewater I decided to actually put the gun around my neck to the test. I turned around in the most way and held the gun like a 90s action movie hero held his and pulled the trigger. I pulled it again, I pulled it again. All my bravado went up in smoke and I started to run again.
A bullet flew right past my ear and I thought to myself, 'I am definitely not failing this test.'
The man who was pulling me before joined me in my run. "If we continue down this way at this exact speed we will be able to find Betty and escape."
"Betty?"
"That's my spaceship remember, I told you that when I said that I was here to free you. Wait a minute, you can talk!?"
"Yeah, I don't know what you are talking about. Are you sure you don't have the wrong person?"
"Nah, you are the one. The shortest guy in the Strainhort Prison, with a coffin on his back."
"I am not short."
"It's okay buddy, I won't judge you."
After some struggle, we were finally able to locate his ship. It was an orange and black vessel that had the aura of a tiger in its prime. It was small but big enough to have about 5 passengers and some cargo.
Once we got in we strapped up and he started pushing buttons.
[Welcome aboard, Arnold.]
"My name is Irongrip you dumb ship!"
[Pease behave, Arnold, we have a guest on board with us Arnold.]
"Irongrip, Irongrip, did you short circuit while I was away?"
[All my internals are in tip-top shape, thank you for asking. Arnold.]
"IT'S..."
"Why don't you just give up already?"
"You are right she's not worth it."
[At least my name isn't Arnold.]
"If you want me to fly you into the ground just say, say it I dare you."
[Drill me into the ground Arnold.]
This exchange did not appear to be ending soon so I decided to consult with my quest system.
{Name: Thoromo 6th son of Dark
Unique: Boundless
Status: Healthy
Mission: Space Vanguard}
{Host has sustained 1% injury.}
{Injury not life-threatening.}
{In excess injury could threaten host's health.}
{Activate regeneration?}
{Regeneration confirmed.}
{Host healed.}
{System would like to suggest host use "Skill Peerless" to develop immunity to such instruments of harm.}
{"Skill peerless" activation confirmed.}
{Error.}
{Host needs to directly absorb the object to analyze and evolve to overcome it.}
Ah yes, this was my ability. It basically makes me a juggernaut, once I start moving nothing can stop me. According to my old man, it is a form of reactive evolution, he said I am blessed to have it. However, I never felt like it was a real ability I had, naturally I am fast. I have always been fast, so fast not even the heirs to speed could run with me when we were younger. I don't know about it now since we have not met in so long. but if their training and mine were similar I am confident that I would not lose.
Anyway, I feel like this "ability" is just my body being fast. It's fast at healing itself and it is also fast at evolving itself, to me that's how it has always been. This unofficially makes me the only Astarian my age who have not yet figured out what their gift was. Fortunately for me, taking on the universe has proven to be effective in finding out what I was blessed with.