Auclair's [Precious Memories] ended and he found himself standing in a white plane of existence. A little button from Erus' system floated in front of him. It was the other choice he had been presented.
[Key to Your Strength]
But Auclair didn't focus on it, nor anything else. Instead he let his anger begin festering into an indescribable rage. His knuckles quickly paled to white as crimson red dripped to the floor from his hands.
'Sybell… Adrian…'
He stumbled back and gripped his head with immense strength, nearly tearing his hair out.
"Fuck!" He yelled out as long and hard as his lungs allowed. He couldn't even comprehend how he forgot the reason why he spiraled out of control. His mind quickly came to a clear thought.
'Erus…'
He took a moment to calm his shuddering breath and looked up to the message with a glare.
The words floated like an alluring enchantment and Auclair tapped them without hesitation.
He had spent every second of his memories with Sybell and Adrian. There wasn't a single moment missing, it was over two hundred years of memories drilled into his head in an instant.
After pressing the button, although it was more akin to punching it, silence consumed the white void he stood in. It was as if someone cut out the noise entirely.
[Greetings Contestant! Welcome to the Hex Trials!]
[Contestant: 'Auclair' has been granted an Upgraded System!]
[Auclair]
[Rank: Bronze]
[Species: God]
[HP: 200]
[Mana Level: 0 – Core Injured!]
[MP: 0 – Core Injured!]
[Strength: 18]
[Endurance: 19]
[Agility: 20]
[Reflex: 17]
[Traits: Voracious Appetite, God Complex]
[Skills: N/A]
He ignored all the crap that Erus' system spewed out and focused on the creature rising out of the void, sending ripples throughout the white void as if it were water.
The eyes of Auclair's Ego stared back at him before it lifted itself out of the water entirely. With each passing second he felt his bond grow with it until he gained full control once more.
It was much smaller than in the past, embarrassingly so. The Ego only stood at twice of Auclair's height. Much smaller than the Ego in even his memories before he started eating the world. It was simply incomparable to his Ego at its peak.
It walked forward and merged with Auclair without any fanfare. Then he felt the strange place he found himself in quickly began disappearing.
He saw the throne room he hadn't seen in more than 200 years, but the for the others, a second hadn't even passed. He saw crimson giants sprinting towards him at a shocking speed, the youngsters stabbing the giant eye, and the headless king stumbling around in pain as its master tried to control it.
He felt his body caked in blood as well as the warm, fresh blood trickling down from his face, out of his wounds.
Auclair took control of his Ego and sent it out. The room froze as the massive petrifying creature ripped its way out of Auclair's back and ran towards the giants. Auclair followed closely behind his Ego.
Despite being forced to fight by the outer god, the giants faltered in their steps. The Ego shrieked and ran up to the giants without rhyme or reason. Its limbs attached to whatever surface it could to push itself towards its prey faster. Resulting in the horrifying mass of bone and organs to arrive directly before the giants.
The first giant it saw the Ego lifted without any reserves and ripped off its head with its teeth. It tore the arm off and tossed it to Auclair before tearing into the giant's rib cage, ignoring its armor entirely, to eat the giant's heart.
Auclair caught the limp and bloody arm immediately and stole the giant's spear from it. While the giant's were recoiling in fear, Auclair pushed the spear into a giant's head killing another one, then another, and another.
Norman watched with terrified eyes as Connie hid slightly behind him. The outer god's eye nearly popped out of the wall in shock as giant after giant fell.
"Kill him!" The outer god cried out to its dwindling number of subjects.
A giant swung their sword which Auclair avoided with ease. Auclair stabbed the spear into a gap in the giant's armor at the knee, causing them to plummet to the ground in pain. Without a second thought, Auclair yanked the spear out and stabbed it into the giant's jugular, causing blood to wildly overflow out of it.
The Ego pounced onto the dead body like a feral creature and tore out the heart. It raised its head high and ate it in one go before letting out an angry screech.
At the moment, Auclair's fake body was on autopilot and instead he was using his ego to destroy as much as he could. He needed an outlet desperately.
"Connie, come on!" Norman didn't know what the creature that tore the back of and crawled out of Auclair was, but he knew it couldn't be good news.
"No!" But Connie stood her ground and didn't move.
"Connie!"
"He told me to take care of you! Why would mister ask me that if he'd hurt you?" She reasoned.
"I'm not exactly worried about him but the giant monster next to him!" He explained.
"I'm not leaving!" She yelled before turning to the giant eye and clawing at it. The eye was what was hurting Auclair, so she'd at least try to annoy it to death.
Norman clicked his tongue before attacking the eye again. However, he kept checking the progress of the fight behind him with bated breaths.
***
"He accepted it." Erus muttered in a low tone. He was hanging from shackles, stripped of all but his underwear so he'd at least retain some dignity.
Although he succeeded in getting the gods to let him restrict Auclair's ego, he still broke a heavy rule and had to be punished.
Just not as severely as normal.
"You never mentioned what memory you had restricted." Iyseuss said while watching the frail man hang. He preferred for Erus to be killed, but at least he'd get some satisfaction from this. Erus also wouldn't be able to tinker with Auclair's system so long as he hanged.
"Just a few small things here and there." Erus replied.
Iyseuss narrowed his eyes, "You said it was 'a memory,' not memories." He emphasized that wasn't plural before.
"Well, you know me, my tongue slips sometimes." Erus smiled weakly.
"He'll kill you." Iyseuss declared.
"I don't care what you think." Erus replied bluntly.
Iyseuss furrowed his brows in anger and left the dungeon.
***
Yohr opened his weak eyes and looked around. He shifted his legs and turned out of the bed he had stolen after breaking out of the Iron Tower. He got up and limped to the metal door to exit his apartment.
He took a breath of fresh air, at least as much as the world he was currently on could provide, and teleported outside the crowded black market.
The unending city he was hiding away on sprawled across an entire planet in the far reaches of the galaxy. It was filled with the most deplorable people imaginable, but he wouldn't be found here by the Iron Syndicate.
He entered the black market slowly and hobbled his way over to a hospital.
"Take two of these every Monday, and in a year, maybe you'll be back to normal." A doctor wearing a sleek black suit remarked to Yohr with disinterest as he handed him a bottle of medicine. They looked at some documents before leaving to the next patient.
Yohr looked at the orange bottle before popping it open and taking his medicine. The heavy bags under his eyes showed his lack of sleep and he nearly passed out right then and there. But he pushed his body up and started leaving.
"Hey."
But he felt someone tug on his arm.
Yohr looked at the man who suddenly came up to him with open suspicion.
"Boss wants a word with you."
Yohr's face contorted when he heard the word 'boss.' But he groaned and followed the man into the back of the hospital and into the dark alleyways of the unending city.
***
Alex and Hero sat in their office watching the live fight going on in Auclair's trial. None of it was being recorded and they were the only ones with access.
"What in gods name is that?" Alex asked his father.
"See? Never be overconfident in your knowledge. You still have a lot to learn." Hero responded.
"Yeah, but what is it?"
"That's the real him."
"That's what the gods really look like?!"
"No, that's what Auclair really looks like. There's a difference. Listen next time."
They bickered for a moment before Alex gave up. He didn't feel like fighting with his father. Their gazes returned to the screen.
"It's surprising though." Hero mumbled.
"What is?"
"That he'd bring out his ego when he's so weak. That's their real self, they don't bring it out that often unless necessary." Hero narrowed his eyes and pondered.
Then the phone next to the two rang.
[The Council – Group Call]
"Shit." Alex quickly straightened his attire before accepting the call.
On the holographic display, the board members spread out and floated, all of their faces easily visible.
"How may I help you gentlemen and gentlewomen?" Alex said smoothly.
"You're running a new batch of games, am I not mistaken?" A member asked.
"Yes, I am."
"Do you mind explaining where the current match is? It's not live." The same member as before asked while tapping their fingers on their chair.
When Alex and Hero were called into a meeting last time, this is what they feared.
"A third-party interrupted the match and killed all the players, we've sent a team to investigate." Alex lied without so much as a stutter.
"Well, I expected that, but where's the footage?" The board member controlling internal investigations spoke up. She twirled her long hair with a harsh gaze locked onto Alex.
"Unfortunately a space rupture occurred when the third-party arrived. That's what killed everyone and corrupted the system's feed. As you know Erus only jury rigged the recording system on because he'd have to strip away too many important components for it to work completely."
"Well, what planet was selected for the Hex trial? I'd like to send a team to investigate." She continued.
"We already have an ongoing investigation. The team has already arrived on scene."
"Yes Alex, you're completely correct. I'm Internal Affairs though, I investigate you and the rest of the Syndicate." Her hand left her hair and she sighed in annoyance. "I would like a report by tomorrow Alex."
"I'll get right on that." Alex feigned a smile and hung up. He collapsed in his chair with a groan.
"You did well, but you watch out for Miss Whitewood. She's persistent. I'd send a scrub team to make your lies a reality."
"I was going to."
***
Auclair and his Ego stood above the large pile of giant soldiers who had been torn apart. Scraps of metal and flesh alike laid scattered around the room in disarray. Some portions of the room were so bloody that it was hard to differentiate between the bodies and crimson armor.
[Voracious Appetite: Your hunger has grown irrepressibly in the passing eons since your entombment. The world has forgotten your hunger. Remind them.]
[Your strength grows with every consumed heart, whether it be from human, elf, planet, star, god or anything in between. Some hearts will give you additional traits or skills.]
The lanky Ego contorted its neck and looked at the outer god with its black eyes. A dull clicking resounded and left it's body. The Ego slowly trudged towards the outer god.
The outer god had only partially descended to this place so it wouldn't die. Unless it was a complete descent, it would remain alive. An outer god who's completely descended would have been able to fight back itself against Auclair too.
Auclair's Ego created a sharp spike at the end of its hand and stabbed it deep into the giant eye before expanding, causing a massive rupture inside.
The Ego shifted its sharp claws around without any care for the piercing screams being telepathically conveyed. Outer gods had to create a special core to descend, usually on the backbone of countless sacrifices.
As the Ego's claws scrapped across something particularly sturdy in the jumbled up eye, it griped onto it and tore it out.
The clicking emanated from the Ego once more. This time it sounded more akin to laughter at the outer god's expense. Once the clicking ended, the ego lifted the object and dropped in into it's mouth.
'An artificial heart, but it's sweet. How disgusting.'
The heart was reliant on sacrifices and as such, those sacrificed determined the hearts taste. Meaning that this heart had a lot of innocent lives plucked just to descend an outer god into territory that didn't belong to it.
It was sweet because of the innocent, but Auclair found it disgusting because it happened in the first place, not because of the taste.
'All captured, how could you leave our realm in this uncontrolled state… Such disgraceful gods.'
The tall Ego looked down at Norman and Connie.
"What are your names again?" Auclair asked as his Ego began crawling back into his body.
"You don-" Connie was about to ask before Norman cut her off.
"I'm Norman, this is Connie." He decided it was best just to tell him. He didn't know how he forgot, but he wasn't going to ask.
"Auclair." Auclair said before looking at Erus' system.
[New Skilled Gained: Seeker!]
He expanded his system to actually investigate it, but before he could, another message appeared.
[Congratulations on passing the tutorial!]