Afo had been walking in the forest for a while, he had already left the protective field on the left side of black hill, it has been two and a half years since Afo had actually seen the outside world that it felt like a whole new encounter for him and the hill that had a beautiful forest was a nice first place to be at after years of being locked away, the smell of the field filled the air, the color of green was indeed a nice color to behold. Afo felt relaxed and at the same time anxious on how he might accomplish his goal of going home.
("um I Haven't really had a conversation with them in months")
("um can you guys hear me??)
["yes we can kid"]the first female voice answered.
("I'm sorry I haven't fulfilled the end of my bargain so far")
["we just wanted to give you time to set your priorities straight, that's all"]
("I didn't know you guys were so considerate")
("it was…...") Afo waited for a while expecting a completion of the statement and after a while realizes that the statement won't be completed.
("it's kinda uncomfortable to have five voices in my head you know")
["is that so??"] the phoenix asked.
("the ability I used in the underground ability was yours right??")
["just one of us yes, although your body could barely handle his ability at stage one , quite a flimsy build you have"]
("is that how flimsy I really am despite my training??")Afo responded with a bit of sarcasm.
["well to human standards, you're basically a talented one but to us you are merely a flimsy container"]
("well thanks for letting me know that, but I have a question")
["ask away kid"]
("when I was in captivity four months ago you refused to tell me who you guys where saying it was because I had given up") as Afo said this the memories of being endlessly experimented on ran through his mind yet his facial expression had no change.
("can you guys tell me you are now??")
(".....")
("...")
Afo after patiently waiting for their response, after a few minutes of silence he was about to ask again but before he could utter the words out of his mouth he immediately feels a rumble on the ground as if the hill was crumbling over an earthquake yet he didn't move neither was he surprised over the turn of events.
And just as if in an instant he felt like he had been teleported from his current position and at the same time felt like he was still at his current location, he felt like he was everywhere and at the same time nowhere, he looked around the floor he stood on was a dark mist and around him where blue clouds yet he felt no wind, he looks a little upwards and finds five thrones placed above the clouds.
Thrones so huge it stretched thousands of kilometers into the endless skies. Sitting on those thrones were five beings and Afo stood right in the middle of these mighty beings but he felt no fear neither did he feel overwhelmed despite the kind of aura and presence and these beings possessed.
A man who was dressed in red attire and red hair which to Afo who was into comics and anime already suggested who was turned out to be the first to respond to him.
"well boy now we've met" although Afo couldn't see them completely but he could more or less get an overview of their appearance.
"I'm quite surprised, what are you guys like god or something??" Afo asked reluctantly.
"Well some of our kind have traveled to world's and assumed the name of God but in your original world earth the term to be used to address would be aliens"
"Aliens??"
"Yes, we are from a world far beyond the galaxies billions of light years from this world of yours where beings with power that transcend your imagination lived, although we can be said to be the last of our kind"
"Meaning??"
"You have said too much phoenix" a woman who had the most intense aura immediately shunned the man with red hair addressed as phoenix.
"I'm sorry" Afo though surprised to the way she had shunned the man was bothered of two things, why is she censoring that information despite them being Ina Contract and why is a being from another world answering a name common to the human world.
"We know your thoughts boy"
"How is that"
"Despite us not being able to infringe into your mind on Normal circumstances but in here nothing you think is hidden from us"
"Then ma you already know what I'm going to ask" Afo responds in the most honorific way he could to her not because he was afraid rather because he felt they were his elder so he had to pay his respect .
"We cannot give you too much information untill you are ready"
"Why is that??"
"That is because you are not ready, if you wish to know get stronger and fulfill your end of the contract"
"Then why does a being who claim to be so powerful bear such a name"
It is nothing but a mere alias the beings if this world gave us in their respect to us." Afo at the moment burning with curiosity had a lot of things he wanted to know and didn't know where to start his questions.
"We would start by introducing ourselves and our attributes to you"
"Yes that would be great"
"I am Naro and by alias 'the phoenix' and my attribute is that of flames, I have no weapon experience though nice to meet you kid" Afo's suspicioun had already been confirmed since he had guessed his ability was flames related.
"Nice to meet you sir Naro" the next to respond was a man who emitted so much cold steam thet Afo was confused on why the whole place wasn't ice frozen.
"My name you do not need to know, I was called by the alias 'the ice king' attributes water specifically ice, I am a master of all weapons mostly the sword"
"Nice to meet you your Excellency"
"My alias "ohm", attribute lightening" Afo immediately understood he also like the king refused to mention their names, he felt they must have some reason not want to do so.
"Don't think too much of it boy, that's how they are" Afo turns to the woman who had spoken, even though Afo couldn't see the face if this woman her voice were able to discern she was kind and beautiful.
"Oh boy you flatter me" she giggled.
("Oh right they can hear my thoughts, I'm sorry miss")
"Just call me the 'blood trinket' that's my alias, attribute blood manipulation I'm a void user and my specialty is thread making"
(A/N* the term attribute would be explained as time goes on, thank you.)
"Nice to meet you blood trinket"
"Although boy you'll be disappointed to find out I am not female.
"Huh are you like all those trap characters" Afo stared in confusion and curiosity.
"I don't know what that means kid but we are a kind that posses no gender and our original appearance is somewhat bizarre"
"I-Is that so"
"Yes" she responds with excitement, Afo really didn't understand why she was excited but she was the most comfortable person around and at the same time felt like she was the scariest.
"Anyways kid I'm Nerfano I went by the alias 'queen', I am a variant attribute user of space manipulation and a specialty I hand to hand combat and the captain of this team, if anything you can call us 'the presence" Afo thought unlike the blood trinket she didn't act very feminine like she had a stoic look but at the same time he felt she was the kind with a final she wanted to accomplish.
"Anyways kid let's discuss our contract"
"Yes I guess you already know my goal, I wish to go back to my home planet earth"
"Ehhh~ but kid if you go back to your world how are you going to show me fun things like you promised" trinket asked as she puffed her cheeks pouting like a child which made her look extremely beautiful.
"although not as beautiful as IJ though" he thought.
"You flatter me but don't compare me with others, every woman has their significance"
"Um I-" before Afo could respond to the blood trinket's question Nerfano immediately interrupts him.
"This isn't a time for trivial matters blood trinket"
"I'm sorry captain" trinket apologized.
"Boy as you heard I'm a space manipulator and getting you back to your world is right up my alley..."
"But??"Afo asked expecting the but.
"First your world earth is millions light years away from the current world you're in"
"But you said--"
"Second to do that your body must be able to access stage two of our abilities and currently you could only withstand the base transformation of the blood trinket & Phoenix's abilities for a few minutes before you passed out four months ago, do you now understand"
"How do I get-"
"Fulfill our contract and get stronger boy"
("Will she ever let me finish my sentence")
"That depends boy" she responds to his thoughts stoically.
"Sorry I-" he decides to leave the question.
"So all I have to do is train hard enough to use stage two if all your abilities at once as well as fulfill my promise to protect the--" Afo stops his sentence immediately as if expecting something.
"You're surrounded boy"
"I could tell--"
"We'll be returning you to your reality boy"
"Eh..." The group he stood on immediately cracked as if it were glass and shatters with Afo falling through and immediately returns to his senses, the familiar and yet unfamiliar scenery he was at before being taking to speak with the presence.
Flint!!
Afo hears a flinting sound from behind and immediately turns around catching the arrow shot at him.
["Surprised you caught that boy"]
("Well I was summoned to this world to be an archer in the first place and was trained by the god aof archery himself for a year so it's not as if I was a weakling.")
Afo snaps the arrow by pressing his thumb against the arrow head and drops it on the ground.
["If you were trained by someone like that how did you end up--"]
("You should have seen how many it took to place me there")
Afo said with supposed smug expression on his face which provee that those who put him in that hellhole weren't person's to sneeze at.
["Did you just interru--"]
("Don't know what you're talking about!!") Afo immediately denies her accusation despite having interrupted her on purpose.
Nerfano was going to continue her argument with Afo but before she had the chance a humanoid object dashing at lightening speed snaked passed Afo, the humanoid object was so fast that Afo could not react to the humanoid object not because he couldn't but because he wasn't just paying attention till last minute.
"Um?"
Afo tilted his head to the side noticing that blood was dripping from his neck, he noticed that the object that just passed had cut him on his neck although not deep enough to be fatal which meant one thing to him, the person was trying to prove to him that he could have killed him if he wanted to and there was nothing he could do about it.
Afo gently caressed the blood gently dripping down his throat with a look of apathy all over his face as if it was nothing more than a paper cut, he still felt the pain though but a strange force was keeping his face calm. Although the usual Afo wasn't much different but he could tell that changes had occured in his persona.
["Sweetheart! You do know that every drop of blood you loose has to be refilled right??"] Blood trinket asked with a timge of amusement in her voice.
("I know, I have to or I might end up in a long forceful sleep so as to replace lost blood") Afo replied in a monotonic tone once again expressing the changes his persona was going through.
["Then do you best not to get injured"] she replied with her voice still filled with amusement.Of course Afo could tell that if he lost too much blood he would have to refill his blood by taking from another living being, that was why when the presence had taken control of his body back in the facility he had a huge craving for blood due to the massive loss of blood he experienced during the experiment.
Although phoenix had been the one in control at the moment he still craved blood because at the moment they were all different persona's in one body and that body had inherited all the their abilities and a little bit of their persona's and blood trinket needed to drink the blood of other lifeform's to replace any blood lost during a battle or her body would be forced to sleep so as to replenish the lost blood so what did all this mean for Afo? Yes that's right he wasn't allowed to get injured or else he would either be forced to sleep or forced to drink someone else's blood to make sure he meets his need, that is going back to earth.
In less than a split second the wound on his neck had healed up and if not for the traces of blood on his neck one would never tell wether or not he was even injured a moment ago. He tried to extend his senses so as to use his perception ability due to his heightened sense in connection to the ether energy around him to tell the location of his enemies and after a few seconds of trying he got nothing which made the end of his lips to curl downwards like a kid.
Once more he closed his eyes and redid the previous process to make sure he was concentrated he still got no feed back he could only tell that he was sorrounded but didn't know the location of his enemy (enemies) which he didn't understand why and immediately asked the presence what was going on.
[" Your connection to ether energy has been severed"] Nerfano replied him.
("Why? How?") He asked in a lazy tone this time around.
["You were once an archer and you relied on your connection to ether energy to track down your enemies"] Blood trinket answered him.
("So?") Afo asked once more.
["Right now you've obtained all our abilities so to train you to get used to your newfound abilities and increase the chances of you unlocking the second stage of your abilities and return to your home planet we decided it was the best step."]
Blood trinket explained and right now Afo could only imagine her as a university professor in a suit and short black skirts to match and a pair of glasses and her red flary hair to top it all up.
["My thank you for thinking so highly of me"] she praised Afo in a teasing manner.
("You're welcome but then again how do I tap into your.... Sorry my abilities without receiving the same strain as last time?") Afo asked lazily once more but still with a face filled with apathy.
["Easy! Your abilities have different stages not that you'll ever need to unlock them since you plan on going to your home planet soon but the early stages are simple"]
["First the pure state and then the remaining stages represent's the ability to take in a full fledged transformation better than you did back at the facility in a form we originally haved when we still had our bodies"]
Afo already understood what she meant by taking a form better than the firm he took back at the facility because he barely even used a miniscule level of power and an almost completely form of the blood trinket but didn't understand what the pure state meant.
["Your pure state is your current state right now which would put as much strain on your body but it is a state you would eventually get used to"] Blood trinket explained.
Afo was beginning to wonder why it would put strain on his body because before he was taken for the experiment he was basically ranked a 'saint(mid)' already.
["Easily put the pure state should be somewhere at a myriad(high)"] Afo was surprised but it lasted only for a millisecond.
("That's a skip, then again you severed my connection to ether so how do I use my abilities") Afo asked because it was common sense on planet afria that ether energy is required to perform feats reffered to as magic.
["In your world does a cheetah require any extra connection to be fast? does a gorilla need any to be strong as well?"]
Hearing this he was pointed to the right direction, all they did was nothing but tap into their natural genetic code which existed in them but he was a human so he didn't understand how a mere human from earty was supposed to go about using such powers without having his genetic code altered... At this point Afo realises something and his eyes opened in surprise to his realisation although his facial expressions returned to normal in no time.
["That's right you've been rewritten to you can't actually pass for human anymore and now some specimen just appeared before you to test out your new abilities, what do you say?"] Blood trinket asked with her voice tingling with expectations and excitement.
("Let's get ready for practice then") he replied in his now regular apathetic tone.