Lucian opened his eyes feeling extra exhausted, letting out a yawn he then focused, seeing himself in an unfamiliar environment.
'S-shit. Where am I?'
Lucian placed his hand on his upper temple and grimaced.
The last thing he remembered was hearing a few knocks on his door.
He was currently in a completely dark room, only slightly illuminated by a lamp on top of the table he was currently seated at - which seemed to be in the middle of the room.
Completely dumbfounded by the situation at hand, Lucian felt his stomach which radiated a slight pain almost as if there was an extra heart placed in it and the heart was currently being restricted making him unable to breathe.
Suddenly Lucian heard footsteps, forcing him into deep concentration. Two men soon broke through the veil of darkness.
One of the men wore blue robes, his head covered with a hood with long flowing blonde hair. The other man was dressed in pure white vestments, with a red sash around his waist, and a necklace depicting an upside-down sword, he had long flowing blood-colored hair by inhuman golden eyes that seemed to shine.
'Mistress Of Blades..?' The necklace caught Lucian's attention. 'Am I somewhere near Evanistin?'
Lucian swallowed back his saliva then looked at the man in white, " You are… Bishop Garnil?"
"So you remember me… Surprising, you don't visit Evanistin much despite your mother being a faithful devotee."
Lucian didn't answer, and the hooded man approached him, stretching out his hand.
"It's good to speak to you, Hollow."
'Hollow… That's a word I've heard quite a bit. Let's test the waters here.' Lucian took his hand and shook it, still a bit anxious.
"Could you tell me about what Hollow is?" Lucian asked looking at the hooded man before him.
Immediately after his words, the two men looked at each other, a hint of a smile on Bhisop Garnil's face, Lucian continued to stare at them waiting for an answer.
"This is gonna be a long night." Bishop Garnil sighed, then seemed to pull out a chair from thin air.
Lucian's eyes widened for a moment but quickly returned to normal, reminding himself this was reality.
Bishop Garnil raised an eyebrow seeing the moment of shock on Lucian's face, then looked at the hooded man standing to his right.
"Get rid of that spell Hetrius."
The hooded man shook his head, and then a purple flash ignited from his hands, forming an intricate circle with complicated symbols, soon the circle vanished and Lucian's mind began to uncloud and light began to appear.
Lucian gasped, earlier the room was completely dark as if there was no light - of course, besides the lamp but now it was illuminated completely, a room with stone walls and a simple table with 2 chairs on both sides.
Earlier Lucian had thought that Garnil had summoned a chair out of thin air, but that was only an effect due to the spell that seemed to mess with his perception of his surroundings.
"You're nowhere near as surprised as the average person would be seeing into the supernatural." Bishop Garnil began rubbing his chin while judging Lucian.
Lucian nodded "To be completely honest, I'd two other men use supernatural abilities, of course not even remotely similar to what you had just shown me…"
"Don't look so tense, that's of course within our expectations… After all, you're Hollow."
Lucian simply nodded again and Bishop Garnil continued,
"We call you Hollow because you've received an awakening into the Hollow class, Classes are a simple concept to explain, there are 9 classes each of them has tiers, up to the tenth. Moving up tiers is a very natural process that happens through cultivating your source, simply fighting, and even doing menial tasks… Your source is the connection you have to the Rift, which is basically an entity that dwells in everyone, becoming stronger is increasing your connection to it."
Bishop Garnil propped his head up, using his hands while giving Lucian a stare as if he were staring into his soul.
"Unfortunately, since you're Hollow you'll have to stop at tier 2."
Lucian's mind began taking in the information and he quickly tilted his head and squinted his eyes. "Why is that?"
Bishop Garnil gave him a solemn look.
"As you can tell anything that deals with the Hollow class is unique…. That's because not only is your class rare to find, but it's completely different from the other classes. Honestly, if I was in charge I'd just separate it from the class system altogether."
"Why is that?" Lucian asked with a slightly disappointed expression, but inside he was secretly excited by the turn of events. 'This world is truly… Different from Earth.' He thought while waiting for Bishop Garnil to answer.
"Because the classes and tiers are separated into alignment. Orderly, Neutral, and Corrupt, are what separates everyone that's in a class…"
Cutting himself off, he turned to Hetrius and signaled him with a gesture. Soon after Hetrius raised his hand and holographic words were displayed in the air.
[Sword Bearer]
Orderly:(3)Knight
Neutral:(1)Apprentice, (2)Duelist
Corrupt:(3)Warlock
Lucian had a hint of surprise and looked at the words with a face showing a sort of understanding. "Sword Bearer is a class?"
Bishop Garnil nodded then said:
"That's right. It's the class of our church… And also my class, those of the Orderly serve the Mistress of Blades, and the fiends of Corruption serve King Laughter." Garnil sighed and shook his head slightly, dismissing his thoughts.
"These are the basic tiers of a Sword Bearer, You can only be a tier once, so most people follow a similar path alternating between Orderly and Neutral, for example when you reach tier 3 you have to pick between Corrupt or Orderly, not always will there be an option for an alignment… So almost everybody completes themselves more, each person is unique in what path of tiers they go down.y alternates to Neutral a few times, and sometimes the ability you gain from the Neutral alignment."
Lucian nodded his head a few times then looked at Bishop Garnil, " Why not just uh, switch between Orderly and Corrupt?" He asked.
Hetrius laughed after hearing his question, but Bishop Garnil quickly silenced him.
"Because alignment isn't just some way of us saying we don't like certain tiers, picking a tier will imprint itself on your source affecting not only your source but your character as well! This means that going directly from Orderly to Corrupt will naturally mess up your mind, causing you to lose characteristics that belong to yourself, Vice-versa is also true however going from say, err… Orderly Neutral to Corrupt, will have lesser effects on the mind but if you aren't a person that can cope with evil then naturally using the abilities of that corrupt tier will slowly decay your mind."
Bishop Garnil stood up by the table, leaning his hand on it.
"There are cases of people who have switched between all Alignments in the church due to of course unfortunate reasons, they are usually mentally unstable people but they can stay stable as long as they don't use abilities from the Corrupt path very often, and for people who go fully Corruption it would be the same for them…"
Lucian scratched his head, then asked:
"Why can't I progress through the Hollow class?"
"Take a look." Bishop Garnil replied, then looked towards Hetrius.
[Hollow]
Orderly-
Neutral-(1) Psychic, (2) Reader
Corrupt-(3) Hateful
"This is all our church has of the Hollow class… At least we of the lower echelons know of, but there is one thing we do know about the Hollow class, even just from this. It's linear! You're forced to go down the path of Corruption, we're not even sure if there's a single bit of Orderly in the Hollow class."
Lucian slightly gaped and thought back to Renes, 'That guy was unhinged…' Lucian thought of the bone-chilling atmosphere when Renes threatened to kill him if he didn't eat that gross worm…
"So that means there's no diversity in those who are Hollow?" Lucian asked.
Bishop Garnil nodded and removed his hand from the table while turning around.
"That's all we have to tell you, of course, you will be joining the church today as a Priest in training."
Lucian opened his mouth but was quickly shut down.
"No. There is no choice in this matter. Tomorrow, come back to the Evanistin Cathedral at 8:00 p.m. You will be instructed on how to use your abilities."
The slight trace of a smile appeared on Lucian's face.
"Where am I now?"
"Under the Evanistin," Hetrius responded.
"I guess I'll just leave." Lucian gave a slight bow of his head.
"Don't worry about it. By the way, Hetrius is of the Mage class." Bishop Garnil raised his hand.
A faint glow came out of Hetrius's palm, and a warmth overwhelmed Lucian.
***
Lucian opened his eyes and he was currently standing in the doorway to his home, already inside.
"Incredible…"