Tugging at the four black strings, Nihil spared none of his strength. Time was against him.
Behind him were two great dangers beyond his capability, a tide that ends all, and the biggest threat of all, Fate.
At the portal, thousands of golden strings were expanding the gap. Eventually, the portal would fit Fate, and the great being could invade Doom's world.
It controlled all others, yet Fate could not control itself, perhaps the only weakness the Greater Will gave it. Influencing all the external things around it but never affecting its internal self, leaving Fate in an ever-present titanic form.
Nihil pulled and pulled, and after a few minutes, he could see projections of glittering orbs enter the underground area.
'The ownership of the cores!'
Behind the cores, there were mirroring strings going somewhere else. Nihil spent no time quickly swiping at the opposing strings and bringing the orbs into his being. Almost immediately, his body glowed in a dark light and something happened, but he could not tell what.
"Now is not the time boy! We have to escape to the deepest reaches of this place, come!" Doom took the newly formed being and dove into the abyss that was the core's ocean.
The farther the two got, the more the portal began to close.
The tide too was dwindling, without constant energy, it quickly crashed into the earth and slowly dispersed after carving out a large chunk of the earth, shortly, there would be a massive sinkhole that would devour an entire region because of it.
...
On a roof, Kain was watching a shady group of individuals leave the city he was in charge of.
Randomly, he felt something off and touched his chest.
"Did I lose something? What did I forget to bring?" He couldn't put his finger on the feeling of loss that abruptly assaulted him.
...
In the ocean depths, the sliver of Doom's consciousness finally stopped and let go of Nihil. It immediately began to study him. It did not care for what had just happened, it was far more intrigued by Nihil.
"You did Ascend! Your soul entered the next level, not to mention you are now a Soul Entity! You gained a great boon!"
Right now, the dark-eyed youth was nothing more than a babe with memories of another life. It was akin to reincarnating but remaining in the same body, keeping the prior life's foundations.
Simply put, Nihil was a Soul Entity. Due to his rebirth taking place in a nonphysical realm, it affected his evolution and he became a being that exists primarily in the incorporeal realm.
However, this was not bad, as Soul Entities exist without bodies and hold strength in their souls. Such beings can take over bodies by going through a few hoops to exist physically. They are described as powerful spirits with no cons.
Doom complimented Nihil, "With that core of yours, you can easily take over a body, not to mention due to your cores, when you possess a body you won't have to get a new one for a while! The only issue now is that you need a full origin, otherwise you're soul will slowly decompose. Luckily you're already most of the way there!"
Nihil half-heartily laughed, 'Yet now I can't use the mist...how is my main weapon supposed to live in my body if I don't have one? I suppose I can keep it as a cloud, but that's too obvious.'
Origins were still the basis of a Soul's life, and Nihil was without a full one. Thankfully, through rebirth, he gained a portion of Origin to signify his change, however, he was 70% of the way there give or take. Another downside was he couldn't consume Kain's core now as they were two different beings.
Nevertheless, Nihil did a self-diagnostic.
'My Origin is something different now...it's completely black and thick like honey. How should I go about healing my Origin? Without it I'm a mortally wounded soul, I need it to exist more than ever!'
He was distraught about what to do.
Not to mention his change in Origin, Nihil looked similar to Cain but his features were more prominent and his "skin" was so white he looked like a proper ghost. Even his hair changed, somehow getting darker with hints of white.
That and the fact his eyes changed. They were now completely black with hints of red pulsating from time to time.
Doom drew closer to Nihil, "What is the specialty of your Ascended Soul? Oh and you are a Demi-God now, your Soul Energy should be able to spread across a whole region!"
Nihil closed his eyes and felt his soul deeply, he felt his pitch-black energy ripple around him, covering him like a veil of ink, similar to the ocean around him. Even deeper, he touched upon his incomplete origin, there, he found something new.
He opened his eyes moving his hand. Rippling, his soul energy touched upon Doom's consciousness.
Something strange happened, Doom's form immediately reacted and cut off a piece of itself. The piece removed warped black and ugly, mutating into a small human-like finger. The finger then attached itself to Nihil, working perfectly.
"It seems I can turn souls into my own. It's like how a virus infects cells. However, I need direct contact with the target's soul, which cannot be done easily. You are just a consciousness, a sliver of soul, so it was easy." He explained.
Doom wasn't even in the slightest offended, he was far too interested in Nihil's ability.
"Great! This can easily deal with those ignorant animalistic Gods, at least most of them! You will have a high chance of getting the fruit! I knew you would do great, I chose you after all!"
The two conversed longer, Nihil aired some questions while Doom answered them. By the end, Nihil got a good grasp of himself and Doom was so happy he fought Fate and lived that he wanted to return the information to his main body. As a parting gift, he let Nihil remain in the planet's core and use it how he saw fit.
Wishing Nihil the best, Doom's split soul left the planet. It would certainly return when the game it created was coming to an end, but in the meantime, facing Fate had too many benefits that even Nihil could not understand. Doom needed to return and give these gains to his main body.
Left alone, Nihil remembered all he did in this world before his rebirth.
'I had a cult yes? Maybe I can use them still.'
Feeling out the world and sending out his Soul Energy, he felt a strange connection that brought warmth to him knowing it still existed.
'Even rebirthing, her connection to me did not change. Makes sense, otherwise I would have to give up the cores to be reborn. The material used in my birth was the existence known as Cain, I am technically him on all accounts. It feels strange saying it like that.'
...
Darla was curled up in a ball in a chamber filled with water. Around her were the corpses of her fellow cultists, they were the ones who supported her even though she became neglectful to the cause.
They were few, not even reaching ten people, but they helped Darla as the cult was taken out of her hands and the new Herald took over. The only issue was that the new Herald could not commune with god. For some "odd" reason, he was barred from hearing the Limitless Raven's whispers.
One thing led to another, it all resulted in Darla being held as a liar, secretly stealing the position of Herald before the current one could.
They were only rumors at first, but not even a week passed before the Herald acted. The result was the dead cultists in front of her, and the group of cultists standing above her dead friends.
Without the support of someone, Darla was weak, she could not face her friends' killers. Her body shrunk, and she fell back, holding her legs and weeping while the new Herald and his Faction glared at her with disgust.
"This was the one who took the position of Herald?!"
"She is a criminal!"
"Disgusting weakling!"
"Why would God choose such a bitch!"
The one called the Herald stepped forward. He had a knife in his hand.
"Princess, you have caused enough damage, the other cults already found our location, they will be here within the week. We need a proper Herald before we escape! If you hand over the position, you will be spared!"
Darla clutched her head and continued to cry, she couldn't even bring herself to speak. Nonetheless, she wouldn't leave this place without the one who brought her here.
"I didn't wish to do this, but you leave me no choice." With that, the Herald stepped forward.