The blackout Licht was hoping for never happened.
A mystical yet unknown place appeared in his vision, and for some reason, he felt quite clear-headed and rejuvenated.
As if all of his fatigue was gone, both in mind and body. He still didn't quite understand what had happened in the previous moments.
'It felt like something had taken over my body. It had enclosed 'me' in some kind of prison while that thing fought that monster...'
SHAA
Grabbing his attention from these thoughts, the lights finally turned on in the unfamiliar place. What came into his view was just too mesmerizing.
The ground was entrapped with hundreds if not thousands of gears. It was like he was in the inner workings of a clock tower.
From the beautiful circle, he was standing in, seven lines extended, each of different colors. Going into the seven structures that were surrounding him from all sides, they each had unique light emanating from them.
The structures looked like one-way screens, but instead of matter being in them, ethereal light floated inside them. They looked like portals seen in movies.
Purple, red, green, blue, silver, brown, and black. Each portal-like structure was based on these colors.
Suddenly, starting from his left, a new system screen started projecting, levitating on the front of these portals. It started with the purple portal and went to the black one. Giving small details about them.
--Ding!
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Choose one of these zones to spawn in:
1. Anima's zone (Lord of the Storms) [Lightning]
2. Ifrit's zone (Sun's fragment) [Fire]
3. Morgana's zone (Poison Ivy) [Poison]
4. Leviathan's zone (Tidal Titan) [Water]
5. Radon's zone (Radiant Behemoth) [Life/Light]
6. Bahamut's zone (World destroyer) [Earth]
7. Ezith's zone (Harbinger of death) [Death]
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Note: You can't change zones after choosing one of them.
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Advice: The calamities in these zones will be based on their progenitors. Choose wisely based on the aspect, utility, and affinity of your monster while considering your chances of survival in each elemental zone.
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Chills rose through his spine when looking at the names. "These names are quite the horror already. I don't even wanna imagine the real faces of these calamities...."
Removing the useless thoughts from his mind, he tried to focus on what mattered.
"Based on what I have gathered, I have yet to awaken my monster fully but from what I saw... My power is based on a bone?"
"But I also did some explosions with my hand and it could be flame-based. Augh," Said Licht while ruffling his own hair in frustration.
He moved around in circles from the extreme confusion he felt toward his own power. Taking his time for a minute or two, he finally came up to the conclusion.
'I have two options, either I choose Ezith's zone or Leviathan's zone.' Licht had no idea how his power worked or how it would fair against other elements. He knew just the upper characteristics of it.
Pondering over it for some more time, he finally clicked on the death zone.
The surrounding gears shifted, forming complex sounds of clanging while the path to other portals closed, hidden under frameworks of gears.
Licht moved his feet towards the black portal, slowly climbing the stairs. Finally reaching it, he stopped for a moment.
'I don't know if I will survive this, but I will give my all till I can!' With resolute determination, his hand touched the portal and he was transported out.
Instead of seeing the zone or anything similar, a familiar place appeared in his vision. It was a dystopian amalgamation of the ruins of his home, the prison, the arena, and the site where his world was broken down, the place where his mother died.
The biggest fascinating thing about this was that the place he was standing on was extremely enclosed and only darkness surrounded with dim enough light inside, just enough to see everything but not peer into the surrounding darkness.
All the different ruins converged in one place, as if wanting him to move towards that place, his broken house, prison walls, the sand of the arena, and the concrete floor all met in one place.
Slowly moving his steps toward the place, a horrifying creature came before his eyes. It was a three-meter creature, with a somewhat hunched back. Its body was clad in black scales, and grotesque markings appeared from time to time where its skin wasn't covered.
Some white bony spikes came out of his forearm and a thin streak of clear blood-like substance flowed through his body. The red streaks flowed in stripes across his legs and arm, but all of them converged at the center, its chest.
The demonic figure had a weird mask on its face, hiding its identity from being seen by anyone. The mask had strange lines on it, forming a beautiful pattern, while the figure's hair was mangled and dirty.
Licht was scared of even approaching it, yet he had no choice. According to Mr. Flare's words, this figure was his monster. The source of power he could gain, but the problem was the hamster never signified what to do!
"What should I even do here?" Licht said, wondering how to get out of this place.
He roamed around it, trying to get a reaction from it but when even that didn't work he did some actions in front of the mask. But no reaction came, having to resort to other methods, performing weird jutsus with his hand.
Saying weird words like a monkey and producing unga bunga noises, none of them worked. Finally, at the end of his straws, he touched the skin of its right hand, the place which was infested by several marks.
"Let's hope this works or I don't know what to do after that…" He said in a tired voice, looking at his monster again.
Just as his finger touched the rough skin, a change finally occurred. Streams of smoke rose from its body as the epicenter, and its hand finally moved. Just at a speed far greater than the naked eye could see.
The hand grabbed Licht's hand, pulling it closer to the insidious mask when it said in a rough voice.
"I won't save you the next time nor will I give you power..." The monster said in a cracked and hazy voice.
"Slowly but surely, we will meet again, Licht Vanrir. Soon we will meet…."
The figure pushed him back, and Licht crashed onto the ground with his butt. When he looked above, all he could see was a dark ceiling and a weird stench permeated his nose.
His world was spinning for moments when it finally got on the right track and he finally realized that he was in a different place now. His hands felt the damp and mushy ground and he could hear occasional drops of water touching the ground, making ringing noises.
The smell coming into his nose was quite awful and he totally didn't like the wet kind of atmosphere in this place but not a single noise came out of his mouth. Just because he had seen red gleaming eyes moving in the dark.
The red eyes reminded him of the calamity he had seen back on Earth. If he could survive by being quiet and enduring this gruesome sensation then he would gladly do so.
Sitting still in the darkness, Licht regulated his heavy breathing but it all crashed down when the damned blue screen came in front of him, startling the shit out of him.
A splash of water was made near his legs because of being startled, but he didn't make another twitch. His heart started beating faster and faster, but he just couldn't say it had to stop.
The sound of the rhythmic beating of his heart resounded, making his body even more tense. And as he had predicted, the being with red gleaming eyes finally arrived near him, but Licht stayed still.
If it was just another predator then it would leave him if he didn't say anything nor react in any way and after some time the being finally moved away from his body.
'I survived! But why do these kinds of things happen only to me!?' He thought while doing an internal sigh.
Finally being free of the unknown mortal danger, Licht could finally turn his attention to the so-called status screen.
--Ding
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Please 'say weapon selection' to browse and choose a weapon for yourself.
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Lights will open shortly. Please beware of the calamities lurking nearby.
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Good luck with your quest for power!
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'Huh?' He said while browsing through it.
It was good, and all but reading the last line made him shiver and curse internally. The lights were going to be turned on and it was a good thing.
The catch was, it was a good thing not for him but for his predator!
'Ah, why does this only happen to me? Bloody hell!' Licht could only curse at his luck, but he couldn't also do anything to change it.
Recalling the command on the screen, he said it in his mind.
'Weapon selection!'
Hearing his call, the screen appeared again, just this time with hundreds of weapons. Sensing the buzzing of the current around him, Licht was pressed for time more than ever. Browsing as fast as he could, he finally found a regular long sword.
The lights finally flickered and turned on, but as if it couldn't get worse, the sword that appeared in his hands was heavy, and just as it materialized it clashed with the ground.
CLANG!
With all the pretenses dropped, he finally saw the creature that was some meters away from him, running at him with great speed, and another weary expression found its way up to his face.
"Well, I will be damned…"