…
The Council of Ten watched in shock as Aria's irregular movements played out on the holographic display. "What tier is that material?" one of them wandered out loud.
"What should we do? Do we send the lieutenants to restrain him immediately?" Councilor Kaida spoke, a worried expression written on her face.
"No! Let's see how it plays out. If he is unable to resist the beast tempts, then we will simply kill him." Councilor Amara said coldly.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Leina was sipping coffee on her seat in the armory class, when she suddenly spat out the coffee she had just taken in. Her eyes widened as she realized she had forgotten to warn Aria about the risk of the beast soul taking over his body. She had forgotten that the tier of the material was way higher than Aria's. "No, no, no... Please don't let anything go wrong," she whispered to herself, her mind racing with the worst case scenarios.
…
Back at the arena, Aria stood frozen over Sheila's unconscious body, his eyes vacant and lost.
"What the hell is happening?" Lirien said, as he stared at Aria's lost body.
"I don't know…something is definitely wrong." Kael replied.
Suddenly Aria's eyes closed, his body collapsing on the floor. "Where the hell am I? One minute I am I the arena, and now here" Aria said, his voice loud and audible, echoing in the dark space.
Suddenly, a dark entity materialized before him. The air grew colder, and an eerie silence fell over the dark space. "Why do you dare wear my skin, weak human?" the entity's voice sent shivers down Aria's spine, his tone like a cold breeze on a winter night, chilling him to the bone.
He tried to peer through the darkness, at least to try and make out what the entity looked like. But that only resulted in him feeling intense pain in his eyes, he held it and screamed at the top f his voice. The pain was unlike any he had felt before, it felt as if someone was forcefully trying to put a thousand needles in each eye. Tears of blood poured down his face as he held his eyes, weeping in pain.
"You dare try and gaze at me, filthy trash." The entity said with a dominantly, his voice booming in the dark space which caused Aria's ears hurt.
Aria tried to speak up, but his voice was caught in his throat. He was scared shitless, he never imagined he would see himself in such a miserable state. Why was this happening? Where did this entity come from?
Retracing back to the entities words. 'This must be a fragment of the beast soul contained in the material, but why can it talk. From what I know, only high level beast can talk, right?'
Humans had decided to classify beasts using the same ranking system they used, except they also classified beast under low, medium and high.
Low level beasts where ranging from novice tier to knight tier. This beasts basically had no shred of intelligence. They relied on instinct to survive, like basic wild animals of the past.
Medium level beasts where ranging from King Tier to Hero tier, this beasts had little intelligence, they were able to think, even in battle they were hard to beat since they could think for themselves.
High level beasts, were ranging from Legend tier to Archon tier. This beast were basically myths, found to be able to converse in human language, and also had extraordinary strength, strength that could destroy an entire star system. Even if one was at the same tier as such beast, they would still loose. They had to be one tier higher than such a monster to be able to kill it.
Does that mean that right now, he was in the presence of such a monstrous myth? If that was true, does that mean that the strength he was using was not even up to one percent of what the suit could do?
Does that also mean that Lieutenant Leina had lied to him? After all, she had told him the material was of the Knight tier. Or she was also oblivious to the tier of the material? In fact where had she gotten such a material from?
A lot of thoughts were running through his mind, his eyes on the floor as he knelt down, he couldn't bear to face such pain again. He could feel the entities gaze on him, his body, mind, soul like an open book to the entity as it continued to gaze at Aria. Aria felt as if he had been violated.
"Hmmm! Your bloodline? It's of that clan huh!" The entity whispered to itself, but its cold voice was very audible to Aria who was still kneeling on the dark floor. "You will make a good vessel!"
Aria's eyes widened after hearing the entities words, sweat poured down his face constantly as he felt something forcefully invading his body, he was so scared he couldn't even retaliate.
Suddenly flashes of vile scenes filled his head. He could see himself, brutally killing the students of the academy, guts and limbs were scattered everywhere. He could hear the shrill screams, and perceive the scent of the blood, as if the scenes were real. On his face was a sinister and devilish smile that went from ear to ear.
He could even see Kael and Lirien's bodies, they had tried to put up a fight but where eventually tortured and killed. Even the higher ups, the councilors, and the principal herself where being treated like children in front of this being. Was this the power of a high level beast?
Suddenly, visions of his parent's faces before they died entered his head. Their bright smiles filed him warmth. He remembered, his goal, his reason for living. He wasn't going to die until he had completed that goal.
"I…I will not let…you do as you please, you stupid bitch!" Aria shouted at the top of his voice, his will power resisting the entity's advances, pushing his soul out with all his might. His heart raced, and his breadth became short gasps. He felt like he was drowning in a sea of darkness.
The dark entity seemed surprise by Aria's willed power. "You're stronger than I thought. I expected as much, after all you carry their bloodline within you. If I had been able to take over your body, then it would have been a disgrace to their name."
"But just know, the moment you falter, I will take over your body, and destroy everything you hold dear." The entity voiced out, his voice like a knife twisting in Aria's heart. Disappearing into the darkness as he appeared.
'We shall see!' Aria thought as he got down into a lotus position. He was not going to leave this place until he got his mind under control. He couldn't risk this disaster being set free, and killing of the entire human race. Even as he meditated, he could still feel the entities cold prying eyes gazing at him.
'Let me see, human! Let me see just how long you can keep this up?'
…