For a long time, there was nothing. Then, Ethan was suddenly aware of where he really was—a black, bubbling ocean of tar under a sunless, starless sky. He was sinking, rising, or floating in the coagulate. Or doing all of it at once.
The boy struggled to locomote, but there was nothing to move and nowhere to go. Was this the afterlife? An eternity in black isolation?
'I'd rather have my body possessed by the Grimorium Lustra,' Ethan thought bitterly.
"Oof… We can't let that happen, can we?" an ethereal, manly voice echoed in his head. A good analogy would be—hearing rock music while you're drowning. No, that would be a terrible analogy.
Did Ethan imagine the voice? Had such a long time passed in the tar ocean that he started hallucinating?
[AP+1]
The boy's vision was blinded, but somehow system prompts appeared. Out of nowhere, he was awarded an attribute point.
[Faith—4/10 (+1)] [Conditions have been met!]