Zen watched helplessly as he was forcefully pulled from his body and into the glowing pond.
Looking around, Zen honestly didn't know what to say.
Sure, his life wasn't exactly normal before, but nothing like this.
"Freya?"
Zen waited for a few seconds but got no reply. It seemed Freya hadn't come with him this time.
"Welp, guess all i can do now is wait"
Zen didn't even know where he was, all he could see was black with what looked like stars in the distance. All he could tell was that he seemed to be moving. As for how fast, and in which direction, he had no idea.
After some time, Zen suddenly saw a bright light, and for some seconds was unable to see.
[Host has arrived]
Zen felt strange. He still had the usual three hundred and sixty degree vision and ethereal body as all the other times he used the skill , but something felt different this time.
Zen was surprised to find himself in a dilapidated wooden house that looked more like a hut. There were holes in the walls and floors, and some areas even looked burnt
"H-hello"
A voice suddenly called
Zen snapped out of his thoughts and looked at who was calling.
In front of him was a girl that looked to be between ten and fourteen years old.
The girl clumsily and shakily gave a grandiose bow to Zen who didn't know what to make of it.
"You summoned me"
[SP subtracted]
Zen suddenly realized that even an action like speaking costed SP, and thinking about it, it made sense since he was only a soul now.
The girl seemed to not have heard him as she just stared at him with an expression he was very familiar with.
[Soul link built]
"Well that's convenient"
Zen decided to ask again.
"You summoned me?"
[SP subtracted]
"Yes I did" The girl spoke clearly.
Zen looked at the girls eyes and started examining her. Dilated pupils,shaky and dropped arms, drooped posture, and something else Zen couldn't explain.
"You want to kill yourself?" Zen asked
[SP subtracted]
"N-no... I mean...y.... I...]
Zen looked at the girl, giving her time to compose herself.
The girl took a deep breath and spoke.
"I summoned you because I heard of the vast knowledge and wisdom your kind possess"
"My kind?" Zen thought but didn't voice it out .
"So you want me to kill you?"
[SP subtracted]
"I want to make a deal"
Zen immediately reacted to that. He still had no idea what the system wanted him to do here, and he He doubted it would give him an impossible quest,so maybe it wanted him to figure out what he was supposed to do himself, after all, understanding a question is also part of a question.
Zen looked into the girl's eyes and recognized the look in her eyes. He had seen it multiple times, and never on a stable individual.
Zen internally sighed, realizing he'd have to be delicate with this child.
"What troubles you, kid?"
[SP subtracted]
"I...i want to die"
Zen would have raised a brow if he was in his body right now. What did this kid mean?
"I'm cursed, okay? People die when I'm around. And today...so many people died"
Zen still didn't say anything just yet and listened.
"I heard you people can take souls. Make a contract with me and I'll give you my soul".
Zen had a lot of questions right now like what did she mean by"you people" , and how exactly she could summon him,was it her ability? Perhaps a skill or mutation? Zen himself had a mutation which stole energy from non-living, and maybe living things,so it wasn't impossible.
"First off, what makes you think you're cursed?"
[SP subtracted]
Zen asked as he slowly approached the kid, only to be stopped by an invisible wall.
"What's this?" He asked internally.
Zen focused on the strange but pretty basic sigil directly beneath him. He had originally ignored it, but now that he was looking at it closer, he noticed that it was faintly glowing.
The girl seemed to notice as she explained.
"It's a protective circle"
Zen ignored the statement and asked again.
"Why do you think you're cursed?"
[SP subtracted]
"I already told you, everyone dies around me"
The girl spoke shakily, sobbing a bit, but somehow keeping her composure.
Zen looked at the stoic facade and knew it was all a lie. The girl was dying inside.
"What kind of deal are you talking about?"
"Kill the people who murdered my family, and you can have my soul and theirs too"
Zen suddenly realized that he and the girl weren't so different.
"Is your entire family gone?"
[SP subtracted]
"Only me and my brother survived"
Zen was now even more confused. The system said he would succeed once he reached a satisfactory result. Was he supposed to take her deal and soul,or convince her otherwise, and even if it was the former, Zen had no idea what to do.
Zen looked into it girl's eyes and sighed. He knew she didn't actually want this, and she just needed someone to spend time with her, after all, he had been in the same position as her. Looking into her empty, emotionless eyes was almost like looking into a mirror, he was a hundred percent sure that if he accepted her deal, the girl would grow up to be.... troubled.
No matter how much he felt like he was making the less lucrative deal here, he was sure it was his only choice. He simply didn't have any combat ability in this form.
"Take down the barrier"
Zen asked a bit skeptical, after all,a person could only have one ability.
The girl seemed hesitant for a second, but after a second, she came to a decision and placed her finger on the edge of the sigil. Her finger glowed for a few seconds, followed by the sigil, and after a few seconds, Zen felt that he could move again, but as he knew simply moving would cost points.
Zen waited for a bit to see if he would actually disappear, but after a while he realized he was fine.
"I removed the barrier keeping you trapped, but not the one keeping you here"
Zen grunted in acknowledgement
[SP subtracted]
"Really?" Zen thought but didn't risk loosing more by speaking. He had no idea how much he had left, and would honestly rather not check.
"What's your name" Zen asked, moving a bit closer to her while ignoring the notifications of deduction for both movement and speech.
"Immy"
"Okay Immy . You made a mistake, and people killed your family because of it, right?"
Immy nodded sadly.
"And don't you dare tell me to move on with my life or to forgive them. I will NEVER forgive"
Immy said,tears running down her face
"I wasn't planning on it. What did your brother say?"
"He said there was nothing we could do about it , and we should honor them by moving on.... but it's all a bunch of lies....*sobs* he's angry too.... he hates me "
Zen felt like he was reliving his childhood all over again, except less intense .
"Enough talking. Is it a yes or no?"
"No"
"Huh?..... but..."
Immy's eyes suddenly filled with tears as she finally broke and fell to her knees,her facade shattering as small sobs escaped her mouth. In that moment her fragile heart had been shattered into a million pieces as all hope had left her world and plunged her into complete darkness. The last bit of light had faded from her life.
"P-please , what did I do wrong *sobs* I'll do anything, anything. I'm sorry, okay? I can't do anything right"
Zen sighed and started counting internally. He had experienced this, and knew what was coming next.
"5....4....3....2...1"
Immy felt her world spinning as the overload of emotions finally got to her innocent little mind. Her eyes went blank as she suddenly fell to the ground unconscious.
Zen sighed.
"I guess now I wait"
Zen looked around the shack and flew outside through a window , getting a clear view of the wooden house from the outside.
Zen went back in and started looking for a mirror,or anything reflective so he could see what he looked like, back home, when he checked the mirror while using the skill, it would always show nothing, proving that he was invisible, however this girl could see him,meaning he must be visible and thus have a reflection.After a few minutes, he gave up and just floated around. Other than a single bed,some basic furniture, and other essentials, this place might as well have been empty.
Zen moved closer to the dainty little girl who although dressed a little old fashioned, still seemed like someone who was well off, Zen couldn't help but be curious about the details of her story that would end with her being here, and her brother, probably having left to look for food for them.
Zen was still examining her for injuries when he noticed a flash of light. Zen looked at her hand and saw a silver ring with a green gem on it.
Zen focused on the silver ring while moving left and right, and noticed what looked like a glowing ball of light, mirroring his movements"
"Is that me?"
Zen moved a bit more and confirmed that it really was his reflection.
Zen didn't know what to say. It was scientifically impossible for a ball of light to move independently unless there was some sort of projector . The thought of light and projectors got him thinking about hard light technology. This was how most AI got physical forms like his own class AI . He passed through objects in this form, but was it possible for him to get a somewhat solid form. After having possessed the system, Zen's views on the world had changed a bit, and he felt this might actually be plausible.
The general gist of hard light was to cause controlled increased interactivity between photons, causing them to bond in a way resembling atoms, and thus,matter itself in a specific way,as such there were different types of hard light categorized by density of the photons.
Zen had absolutely no way to do that now, but if this body was truly made of soul points,then he would only need to manipulate and bind those soul points to a higher density, and although only knowing how to use soul points to a limited degree, he felt he could try to do it. Zen suspected that the only reason he could be seen now and not when he used phantom form himself was because the density of the soul points now and when he did it before were vastly different.
And with that Zen spent the next hour trying to put this plan into action, forgetting completely about everything else, and focusing completely on what he was trying to do.
After an hour, Zen was beginning to rethink his theory when he suddenly got the strange feeling that he got smaller by at least half.
[Phantom form lv: +1]
"Success"
Zen thought. It seemed he was correct, and luckily so, because when Zen checked how many points he required to improve this skill, only the first level cost ten points.
Zen once again tried to move through the wall, but realized that it was slightly more difficult and slow, and it was only normal in small areas with holes which he squeezed through like water flowing through floorboards instead of directly passing through it.
"It works" Zen thought.
The theory was about the same. He had to bond and compress the energy that made up his spectral body, forcing it to adopt a solid state.
"Now for the real experiment"
Zen said, somehow turning off his vision, despite not having eye lids or even eyes.
Zen then spent an excruciatingly long time bonding and compressing energy and just as he expected
[Phantom form lv: +1]
[Phantom form lv: +1]
Phantom form lv: +1]
...
The constant dings kept encouraging Zen to keep trying. At first he got a notification every half hour, and then every hour, eventually he just stopped bothering with the time.
After a while, Zen suddenly stopped.
He instinctively felt that his body was out of its own energy, and trying to compress it again would be a bad idea, especially since he had gotten so small.
However, he checked the skill level and felt it was satisfactory.... for now.
[Phantom form LV 7]
"My life is begging resemble a fantasy cultivation book more and more"
Zen said wryly.
He noticed it was getting dark and suspected it was around four in the evening. He noticed little immy shivering and realized it must be getting cold, and he didn't feel it because he didn't have a body.
He swiftly moved to the bed and moved under the blanket before floating up and lifting it with him to cover the little girl. He considered lifting her and putting her in bed but decided against it after thinking.
"Why?" Immy suddenly spoke.
"Why do you all want to leave me? Am i not good enough?"
Zen realized she was talking in her sleep.
"I'm sorry. Please come back *sob* I won't do it again *sob* I'll be good, just please don't leave"
She suddenly started shivering, despite the blanket and talking louder.
"It's all my fault, isn't it? It's my fault everyone's gone"
Zen simply listened to her mumbling for the next few minutes and didn't wake her up, simply listening to her let it all out. The pain,sorrow and madness, Zen stayed throughout and listened to it all, settling down next to her.
************
Immy's eyes slowly fluttered open as she woke up. She brought her hand to her face and realized she had been crying.
"You're awake"
She suddenly looked up and saw Zen.
Noticing that she seemed confused, Zen spoke up.
"It's still me. I just made a few cosmetic changes, that's all"
The little girl didn't seem interested in speaking with him and huddled up on the floor, looking depressed.
"Listen kid. I won't tell you to forgive and forget. By all means, have your revenge, but I can't do it for you"
"Well why won't you?" She asked.
"Because it wouldn't make a difference. It would only be more people dying for no just cause. If you want it to have meaning, you need to make sure no one can ever harm those you hold dear. EVER. And you can't exactly do that without your soul"
Although Zen's monotone and emotionless method of speech might not be comforting to the child, it seemed to get the message across.
"But I can't wait. Every second i think about what happened, I'm in pain"
Zen paused for a bit. Curious as to whether he was doing the safe thing here, before continuing.
"That's easy. Keep the pain, keep it close, but don't use it to fuel your actions, neither should you with your joy. Make it a part of who you are, but at the same time don't "
Immy looked at him with hopeful,teary eyes.
"Does it get easier?"
Zen contemplated answering. Although his words didn't seem like much,they could directly be translated to him saying "lose your humanity".
"No...it doesn't " Zen spoke honestly.
"You just get more and more numb,till it kills you without you knowing. In the end, it's pretty much the same as selling your soul, however this way, the power is yours, not some demon's".
Immy looked down, contemplating what he said. Zen knew that she'd need some time to digest those words, he hadn't held back in the slightest, but at the same time,showed restraint.
Zen flew directly in front of her face and briefly increased his glow, catching her attention.
"You wanna hear a story?"
Immy looked at him for a while before ignoring him, seemingly not interested.
Zen didn't mind and started his story.
"Once upon a time..."
************
"The end "
"What? Already? Tell me another one! Please"
Immy asked politely, having brightened up considerably
"Alright fine"
Zen started another story. Luckily,Freya was a book addict,so he felt he could do this all day.
This went on for the next few hours, and Immy slowly but surely started resembling what a happy young girl should look like as she laughed and smiled at Zen's stories and occasional jokes, despite his dry delivery.
After an unknown amount of time, Zen suddenly got a notification.
[Stand by for transportation in approximately 60 seconds]
Zen figuratively tilted his head curiously. He felt like the first quest was almost too easy and advantageous for him, but he couldn't exactly ask anyone.
"Immy, it's getting late. I'm going to leave now, okay?"
Immy looked at him with the same smile seemingly not having heard him, but after a few seconds, his words suddenly registered in her mind and she immediately frowned, upset.
"Do you have to?"
"You summoned me, so you should know i do"
Immy muttered for a few seconds before her expression brightened once more.
"Okay then, tell me your true name. That way i can summon you whenever I want "
Zen had indeed seen a tab that said true name, but he either didn't have one,or the information was hidden.
"I don't know my true name"
Zen expected her to become suspicious but instead she had a look of realization.
"Ah that makes sense! Dumb Immy didn't think about that"
It does?
"Okay then, what name do you go by. Just to remember you "
Zen considered whether to give her the name Zen,or Azrael. Both were equally his name, but in different senses of the word. Eventually Zen just gave her both.
Immy nodded happily, and looked as if she just remembered something. She suddenly took off the ring on her finger and it suddenly started to glow and float above her hand.
"My mom taught me that a certain fate binds all creatures together, like one big spiderweb, meaning that if we're meant to meet again,we will. You can have this to remember me by "
She suddenly slammed the ring into Zen's ethereal body at the same time his time ran out.
Zen was assaulted once again by the feeling of being flung against his will like a ragdoll.
The same process repeated itself, only in reverse as Zen was pulled back towards his body at speeds that he couldn't even calculate.
"Ugh"
Zen's eyes slowly fluttered open as he found himself on the floor in the cave.
"You're awake!"
Zen heard a voice that he was one hundred percent sure didn't belong to Black.