Quis' POV:
One more week.
That was all the time I had remaining to prepare until everything exploded in on itself. Until my plans came to fruition, and my life in this sect entered a new chapter. Until I began my conquest.
Was I nervous? Anxious? Fearful? No. How could I be scared of the future when I've already foreseen it all? It was very much similar to a game I came across in my studies at Medisma's house. It was called Fichille, a game that derived from the Stone Kingdom. In this game, you move pieces that all have different roles in the hopes of defeating the enemy king while protecting your own. It was a game where every move you made had to have the idea of a move many moves ahead, or else you would be destroyed. It was a game that deeply reflected the real world.
Plan all the way to the end, and you will never fail. Of course, there is the idea that something can always go wrong, and that is a correct philosophy to have. However, a great plan isn't one containing nothing that can go wrong, but a plan that has contingency plans for when something does go wrong. You can think of it as a tree. The trunk is your main plan, while the top of the tree is your end goal. While climbing the tree to the top, it is foolish to think that you can get up by only running up the trunk. Unless you have the raw power to get up in one jump, you'll need to use branches on your climb to the top. These branches are the separate plans for when something goes wrong. Use these contingency plans in conjunction with keeping your main goal in view, and you'll never be let astray. But be careful, for when you reach the top of the tree you'll feel the urge to climb higher, despite there being nothing to hold onto. If you let that urge take control, you'll only fall back to the ground and break a bone in the process. It is like this, that your plan will suddenly have nothing that can go wrong.
Right now, I am in a crucial step in my plan. One that is filled with skinny branches unable to hold my weight. Over the past week, I've had to change some things. First of all, I had to put the new subordinates I gained to use. If I had them surrender to my will, but then I did nothing with them, then they would begin to look at me in dissatisfaction and regret their choice. So I asked for them to use this burst of chaos to prove to Medisma that they've "changed". I told them it was because I needed them to get in her good graces again so that we could destroy her from the inside, but in reality, it was because I needed them to be with me during the midterms. It was knocking out two birds with one stone.
Of course, I was also mighty busy during the last week. I've had to involve myself in public relations relating to the recent Wild Beast attack, along with doing some basic community work. Being the one who took down the biggest threat of the attack gave me a lot of attention, and of course, I utilized this attention. I made myself more than the person who showed up and defeated five Elders from their sect. I made myself the charismatic hero who defeated the horrible Bamboo Bear. Along with that, I spent a lot of my time helping clean up the mess made from the attack, helping identify bodies, and counting them, and I also made a heartwarming speech at the mass funeral that was held yesterday.
Different leaders went for different aspects. Some went for the high and mighty personality. Some went full into the mysterious personality. While others might go for the extremely friendly and just personality. The point is that there are various options available to choose from when identifying the leader you wish to be. For me, I would go with the people's-man approach.
I've been in this sect for almost six entire months now, so I have grown to learn how it operated, the powers that operated it, and the people that lived inside of it. I could tell that people were secretly hoping for something new, something different. They were sick of the constant internal bickering and the people up top who only seemed to think about themselves. If I were to try to same thing as Medisma, Convir, Tempinis, and even the Sect Leader and make myself seem better than everyone around me, it would only end in failure. But at the same time, a leader needed to be known as better than others, or else people wouldn't respect them. So how could I accomplish something so contradicting?
I simply had to strike a balance. I had to make it known that I'm a strong individual, both mentally and physically, but I also had to make it known that I'm the same as everyone else. To do this, I had to lower myself into the position of those who don't strive for more and take up the position of doing volunteer work, and community service. I had to make others think that I have a simple origin and that because of the simple origin, I knew what the lower class wanted. Simply put, I had to make myself the people's representation.
It would be through that repersonification of myself that I would be able to stand out from the other four and cause people's sense of wonder to bloom. That would give me the foundation to make myself seem new, more in the times, and more understandable. Once I capitalize on that foundation, I would be able to use it to frame the other four as "Out-of-touch". And with enough moves behind the scenes along with time, I'll rise into a position of political power where I would be unaffected if news were released of me murdering Pulchra. Of course, something like that would cause outrage if I accepted it as true, but all I had to do was make it seem like the Sect Leader or Convir, or whoever was saying it, was trying to frame me. And like that, I've avoided a huge hit to my future and also got somewhere much higher out of it.
But that was only a vague idea of what I wanted. A big goal without anything planned is only a big goal waiting to be failed. I had to plan out every step in between so that when something eventually does go wrong, it'll only be a minor hiccup in my end goal, and so that once I get to my goal, I know when to stop.
I lightly knocked on the door in front of me and stood there waiting for a moment before I heard a voice from inside the door say, "Come in."
I took heed to these words and slowly opened the door before walking inside the open office. It was the same as I remembered it from before. The wooden flooring was nicely washed and looked as if it were just put in. The roof was similar but held a different pattern than the floor with stone accents inside of it despite being flat. The objects surrounding me were few and far between, only a couple of sofas lying around, two bookcases on either side of the room, a few cabinets, and of course the desk at the end of the rectangle-shaped room.
Home to this desk was the familiar-looking man who sat behind it. His brown eyes held much more meaning inside of them than ever before, his dirty brown hair was short and unwavering, and his body which sat in an up-right position gave off the confident aura that his face only heightened. He was a man who was used to the leader position alright: He was Convir Vignus, Grand Elder of the Wood and Fire Fairy Sect.
Right now, he was the man I needed to talk to so that I could continue my plans. One important factor in any leader is strength. Strength can mean many different things, but right now I was referring to the rawest form of strength, physical strength. Now that only a week was left, and my skin was almost back to its original color with only some dark burn spots remaining, it was time to make my first major ascension and enter the realm of Stone Class.
As if planned, once the door closed behind me, he turned around and smiled at me before saying, "I'm glad you're here Quis. I'd rather not waste either of our times with small talk, so why don't we just get to it? You want to ascend to Stone Class, and I'm going to guide you through those steps. Afterward, you'll forget how you did it, just like how I'll forget how I told you how to do it."
I nodded my head in affirmation, to which he reached into his drawer and brought out what looked like a blank sheet of paper. Then he said something, but I couldn't understand this "something" that he said. All I know is that it caused my head to sting as if it were in searing pain. But suddenly, this pain was counteracted with what I could only describe as, "an unformulated presence." I could see it, but at the same time, I couldn't.
I wasn't given any time to comprehend this mind-tearing scene though, as soon both the searing pain and the formless presence left my body, giving me back my consciousness. With my regained senses, I soon noticed something strange, Convir's face was planted on his desk. Once I took notice of this though, his head suddenly sprung back up, and he stared at me. I looked into his eyes, but nothing looked back. It was as if I were looking at the eyes of a zombie.
Either way, his mouth opened containing the instructions he promised, though in a monotonous tone not belonging to him, "Technology Path Stone Class Ascension Instructions: Step One: Use the surrounding Genesis Essence and expand it just before it enters your Duranian to explode your pathways safely."
'... Well, this is quite an interesting start.'
I took a good look into Convir's eyes and after confirming that it wasn't him behind those eyes, I did what was asked of me. Sucking in the surrounding Genesis Essence was something thought to be impossible, but thanks to the old man, I knew that it wasn't.
I opened my mouth and followed the steps that the old man showed me and directed the incoming Genesis Essence through my pathways to my Duranian. Just before it entered my Duranian though, I stopped it from moving. Once it was completely still and under control, I split my brain into two parts, one focused on holding it still, and the other focused on sucking more Genesis Essence into my pathways.
This was repeated a couple more times until suddenly, my pathways popped. It wasn't a comforting feeling, but it wasn't necessarily painful. It was something similar to a burp, just something neutral. After I finished this, as if detecting me finishing it, "Convir" started speaking again in the same manner, "Step Two: Take your flesh and muscles off and take out your innards, leaving only your lungs and heart."
It took me a second to register what he just said, mostly because it was so ridiculous. But, after checking once again, I knew this wasn't just some elaborate ploy to get me to kill myself. Whatever had happened to Convir actually happened, and the process he shared with me had credibility because of that. I took a deep breath and readied myself. This would be very difficult. I would have to skin myself, and practically torture myself all while making sure I didn't die from blood loss with the healing Fruits I had on hand. Normally this wouldn't be too difficult, but the meditation technique I had could only do so much to my curse. The pain was going to be hard to get passed.
I breathed in and out, preparing myself for the next moments of incredible, drawn-out, pain. After calming myself as much as possible, I took the small knife I found on Convir's desk and started with my arm. Of course, I used a method similar to how I tortured Vernam before, dividing my body into segments. I made the first cut without hesitation, going from the top of my shoulder to the bottom of my wrist when I noticed something strange. There was both no blood gushing out of the cut wound, and no pain coming from the cut. This situation was already filled to the brim with unusual activity, so I decided not to question this either. Instead, I would take advantage of it.
After about 5 minutes, I finished my entire left arm and then switched to the next arm. Once I finished with my arm, I shaved the skin off of my one remaining leg. Soon I was done, and I carved out my chest and stomach. Next was my back, which was difficult, but with enough precision, I was able to complete it. Finally, I ended with my head. I made sure to be careful not to poke my eyes out, but other than that I wasn't the most careful with the knife. This wasn't the only part of the process after all. I still had to take care of my flesh, muscles, and inner organs.
After around 3 hours, I finally finished my task. The entire process was strange. My flesh came off like clumps of cheese off of a wheel and my muscles popped off like 3D puzzle pieces. Eventually, only my bones, eyes, heart, lungs, and brain were remaining. Everything about this process went against what I knew scientifically, but I wasn't too surprised. My last world had the undead in it, so how couldn't this world replicate that? Yeah, my lungs and heart hanging without anything attached to them was strange, but this entire world was strange, so why would this be what freaked me out? Plus, I know that those at Stone Class weren't walking skeletons, so there had to be something else to this.
I looked up "Convir", and without any confusion or wonder, he said, "Step Three: Burst your heart and lungs before saying, "ᛁᚾᛏᛁᚱ ᛘᛁ ᚢᚬᚱᛚᛏ, ᚠᚬᚱ ᛁ ᛅᛘ ᛅᚾ ᛁᛘᛒᛏᛁ ᚢᛁᛋᛋᛁᛚ. ᛋᚼᛅᛒᛁ ᛘᛁ ᛁᚾᛏᚬ ᛁᚬᚢᚱ ᛁᛘᛅᚴᛁ ᛅᚾᛏ ᚴᛁᚢᛁ ᛘᛁ ᚦᛁ ᛋᛏᚱᛁᚾᚴᚦ ᛏᚬ ᛒᛁᚴᚬᛘᛁ ᛅ ᚴᚬᛏ."
His words held no resemblance to anything that I'd heard before, but somehow I was able to interpret what he said and commit it to memory. After he said nothing more, I placed both of my hands on my lungs and heart respectively, before popping both of them with no hesitation. From my heart, all the blood that was saved from bleeding earlier exploded into a waterfall of blood. And from my lungs, all the oxygen that was stored inside of it was left in a torrent of wind.
Once I did this, despite missing all the essential parts for speaking, I spoke the words imparted onto me before, "Enter me World, for I am an empty vessel. Shape me into your image and give me the strength to become a God!"
Once I finished speaking, I could feel a mountain of pressure fall onto me, causing my bones to collapse, and my brain to splatter.
Despite this, I could still think. I could still see. I could still hear. I could still smell. And I could still feel.
My sense of time wasn't able to handle the task of keeping track of it for me, but eventually, the mountain-like pressure disappeared and I was able to lift myself back up. It was with this that I noticed it was all back. My organs, my blood, my brain, my muscles, my flesh, and my skin. It was all back.
Not only was my body back, but I could also feel a strange connection to it now. Before, I only felt like a separate being controlling a meat husk that I happened to take over, but now I truly felt like this body was where my soul belonged. It was even better than my original body from my previous life. That body seemed perhaps a size too big, but this body... it belonged to my soul like a fish belonged in water or like a bird belonged in the sky. It was perfect.
I placed my hands around my body, trying to bask in the feeling of this perfection. It was then that I noticed all of my burn marks were gone, and my leg had returned. I was in peak physical condition, no, I was what felt to be my apex.
"Ahem."
It was then that I realized that Convir was out of his trance and returned to normal. Once he gained my attention, he picked up the piece of paper that a blank before and put it away before I had the chance to read the ink now imprinted into it while saying, "I'm glad to see you are enjoying your new body. But Quis, before you go and test out your new body, I have a couple of things I need to discuss with you."
Once he said that I was brought back into reality, and made sure to pay attention to his next words.
"It's about the midterms... Medisma and I have a task for you."