'Special Skills' were skills only humans who had reached the Lord's Sanctum could manifest. Although, there were a few cases where abnormal abilities under the S-rank division had them; the level rending abilities. And usually, they came with high stakes. This was because those skills were above the users' power levels.
Most special skills provided their users with stat boosts and upped the strength of their attack skills. An example of this is the [Thousand Year Flame] of Asher's Void fire domination. It allowed him almost total control of the heat in his environment, decreased his energy usage, therefore allowing him to create more effective attacks and even boosted his stats to two hundred percent!
No less should be expected from a 'Domination' type rending skill.
However, there were a few S-rank abilities that deviated from the usual path. It turns out, [Amethyst Spectre] was one of those abilities, and now that it was an S-rank ability, it went by a different name.
[Onyx Oni: S-rank LV1]
[ Active Skills:
{} Ceasing Phantom: This skill gives immunity to any physical attack acting on its user.
The quantity and power of each attacks inflicted on the user when this skill is active, determines how much Energy points is exhausted.
This skill deactivates when the user chooses to attack an enemy.]
{} Phantom's Reality: This skill allows the user to make illusions.
Traumatic illusions have more effect, and can trigger any one stimulus on the user's enemies. e.g. Touch: allowing foes to feel the false objects created by the user.]
{} Haunting Presence: This skill allows the user to create a haunted zone.
This zone has electromagnetic and thermokinetic interference properties. And enemies within the zone are put in unstable and restless mental states, while suffering from the gradual unwillingness to fight.
{} Soul Giver: With the permission of a ghostlike being, this skill can place this being's soul inside a soulless body to fight alongside the user. The power level of this soul is capped at 250 percent of it's user's stats and the same level of Onyx Oni.]
{} Dead Summoning— Shuten (Special skill):
Note: This skill needs 4 more dark souls to unlock.
This skill summons a demon spirit to obey the commands of the user. To be summoned, the spirit must be brewed a concoction of the souls in the soul slot.
And until it deems its master worthy, only the lifeless body of the spirit can be summoned. However its body can be possessed by another soul if [Soul Giver] is used on it.]
[Passive: Flight and Invisibility]
As was written, this ability, [Onyx Oni] was one of the few S-rank abilities that didn't offer any stat boost. Instead, it was one that was used to summon a battle servant; a prideful one in Asher's case. He had tried establishing a mental link with the demon spirit, however, it never went through. So Asher could tell even without summoning it that it wouldn't obey him.
And now that Asher was going to take a great fall in power, the spirit's body would be free for a long time. But at least now that Maelstrom was available, the special skill wouldn't be so useless.
"Are you sure you want to be taking that mask away from me?"
"Of course I am." Maelstrom answered. "This thing is an unnatural crutch. It's like... the training wheels on a bicycle. And you need to learn how to ride without it."
After readjusting the terms of the contract and setting the punishment for whoever breaks it, Maelstrom brought the golden ball down and unfroze Asher's body.
Asher stared intently into Maelstrom's eyes, as if asking him if he could really help Nova.
"This girl's body is evolving." Maelstrom started.
"But alas, it wasn't possible to do, since she possesses a shared soul. Half of that soul is in her, while the other was... I guess, made into that bird. And since a soul can't evolve while being apart, their bodies will scatter under the unequal distribution of power.
The only way to save the both of them is to merge their soul back together, to set their souls spinning in the same direction and at the same speed. But to do that, to heal her, tugs way hard of pull on my limiting chains."
"Then would you rather forfeit your soul? You know what happens if you don't bring her back, don't you?" Asher frowned.
Maelstrom smiled. "Of course I do. The contract was my idea after all." As he said that, he placed his hand on the ball.
'This mortal is going to put me into slumber for a year because of this stunt. However, this is but a small price to pay to achieve my objective.'
As he started pouring his power into it, the sphere began to glow till it was blinding to look at. Nevertheless, Asher never looked away from it for even half a second.
'Here it comes! That repulsive heart clenching.' Maelstrom winced in anticipation of a terrible pain, however, that pain never came. 'My me. What is going on?... Have... have I been freed?'
As he opened his eyes in shock, wondering why he couldn't feel the limiters placed in his body, what he was doing had already finished.
Asher was soon able to see Nova floating peacefully inside the golden ball, and an involuntary sigh of relief escaped his mouth.
"Woah, she looks... different." The Old Man muttered as he looked through Asher's eyes, the figure of the woman in the bubble.
"Hold it, boy." Maelstrom suddenly said with his eyes fixed on Asher. Putting on a creepy smile he continued,
"It seems I don't need you anymore, since whatever you did with the sky probably shattered the chains of this island. It was fun knowing you... mortal."
He pointed his palm at Asher.
"What gives? I thought we were contractual bro's." Asher was back to his casual self, feeling his sister's healthy heartbeat. He pulled Nova out of the bubble and backed away.
He had made a contract between himself and Maelstrom, but the bowl hatted boy was probably too powerful to be held down by it when he got back to full strength. Asher could tell that Sator was at least ten times stronger than him, even with the chains that bound him, not to talk of without them. But still, Asher wasn't afraid.
When it was before, not even the strongest humans on Earth could catch him. And now that he had managed to learn the skill that brought Amethyst Spectre to Onyx Oni in the first place, not even a self proclaimed god could catch him.
"Vale." Maelstrom's grin widened as he shot out something from his hand.
However, Asher's black cloak quickly wrapped around his and Nova's body, making them disappear.
"You know, I kind of get where you're coming from. You must have been someone important in the past, so your deeds earned you the title of a god." Asher's voice sounded everywhere in the void.
"If that's the case, then I guess I'm one too. And right now, you're in my domain." Even without his abilities, Asher was still the master of the lightless day, his evasion techniques made him the manifestation of darkness itself.
"...What?" Maelstrom looked around, trying to find where Asher was hiding, however, the unsettling darkness made that harder to do.
"No matter, since I have my powers back, I'll find you if I— Argh!!!" Maelstrom suddenly fell on his knees and grabbed his chest. "No no no no no!!"
His body soon started to turn to dust from the leg, up; signs that the limiting chains were still active.
Maelstrom laughed in self ridicule as he looked at his condition.
"Oops. I thought they were gone." He looked up and suddenly saw Asher's obsidian black eyes staring down at him. Never in his long years of living had he once thought that he'd kneel in front of a mortal. It grinded his pride to bits, but, he had to get over it. This was his mistake in the first place.
"Listen boy... just like me, there are others on this forsaken island who will come after your power, and everyone you hold dear. Trust no one. And look out especially, for the one who has us trapped here.
Because whoever they are, are even worse than those shard makers..."
Maelstrom soon faded away completely, leaving not trace of Asher's black mask, only proof of their contract.
Asher stuck the golden square shaped earring in his left earlobe.
"And just like you, I'll use their souls like stepping stones to get across the running stream...
Because no one messes with a Tuttel."
All of a sudden, Asher and Nova were chucked out of the void, reappearing at the edge of the desert.
———
"Explain again why we're hugging this dude?" Neven said, pinching Jiten's collar and touching his car with his feet.
However, the others standing close to Jiten too didn't bother giving an answer.
After a few minutes of Neven's whistling, the black sky slowly started to regress, falling down into the horizon. The group looked up to see the glittering stars in the sky and the gleaming moon.
"Back up." Jiten bent his knees a bit and launched himself into the sky.
He looked into the distance. "Yes!!! Finally!" He fell on his back and started to spin in the air. The others seeing his more-than-usual happy mood also smiled in relief.
They could finally go back home.
***
"Hahaha!" Lucius pulled back his shiny white hair as he let out a hearty laugh. "Why would he even think the Limitless Chains would be attached to that brittle space skill?"
"It was probably the isolation that got to him. When he didn't get any drawbacks from healing Nova, he thought he could do whatever he wished." Katie stated, standing in front of Lucius' desk.
"He wishes. Anyway, are those two children done yet?"
"Of course." Katie rose her intangible arm and two people appeared beside her.
"The both of you have used up the life insurance your late parents bought you, so if you die again, that's on your necks. Now shoo. Get back to your base."
The door shut behind the two people who were covering their bodies with only white sheets. For a while, they both stood there with wide eyes, till one of them finally came to, and spoke,
"Hey Liv, what do you think happened to us?" Tony looked at the woman beside him.
Liv's eyes were wide open as she continued to recall how she thought she had died.
"I don't wanna talk about it."