The night sky was dark and cloudy. What had once been a forest was now nothing more than a blasted wasteland with dead trees, still aglow with embers, littering the dead landscape. There was a horrible noise in the background, merged with the howling of the winds, and it shook the soul of everyone who heard it. It was like a deep gong, trapped eternally in its own echo.

The moon appeared from behind the clouds for only a brief moment and with its silvery beams of light it illuminated the bone-white mask of an individual facing a black-haired man. The masked man held a slightly curved sword in his right hand and the moonlight refracted off it, casting dancing lights at his feet.

The man with black hair was armed with a straight sword which was black in its entirety, as if composed of the very shadows that seemed to conceal the rest of the man’s appearance. He was shrouded in an inky blackness to the point where only his form could be made out, and nothing else.

The shadowy man launched himself forward, sword held high as he flew forward—feet not even touching the ground—and then slashed downwards at the masked man.

Sparks flew off their swords as they locked together. Their swords rattled in protest as the two warriors maneuvered, trying to force the other to the ground. A warm violet glow poured from the eye openings of the mask, briefly illuminating the black symbol in the center of the forehead; a circle rising over a chevron, surrounded by three broken and incomplete halos.

The masked man scoffed disdainfully and struck the flat side of his sword with his palm, pushing the shadow-shrouded man back.

That is good enough.

Lightning ran through the masked man’s sword, arcing into the ground as it charged up for the impending attack. The sword crackled with electricity, turning red from the heat. Then something strange happened.

Your [Radiant Sword] attack has become [Stardust Blade] due to [Lightning Element] mastery.

The sword in the masked man’s hand burst into blue fire that progressively turned blacker with each moment. When it was completely black, vaporous, brilliant flames surrounded the black core and they flowed like a viscous liquid over the blackness. It was bright, as if looking at a liquid fragment of lightning itself. It exerted a terrible hum and vaporized everything around it. The smell of ozone filled the air.

Your [Stardust Blade] vaporized the enemy’s chest, right arm and left leg!

Critical hit!

The blade zoomed through the air carving right through the shadowy man’s form as if the flesh and bones were made out of paper. Black blood sprayed on the ground and instantly evaporated. Before both halves of the man could hit the ground, they turned into a silvery mist and flowed into the masked man.

You have gained essence.

You have gained internal energy.

You have gained access to the perk [Plasma Element].

You have gained access to the perk [Lightning Mastery].

You have learned the maneuver [Starfire Slash].

You have learned the attack [Stardust Blade].

The blade in the masked man’s hands crackled and then collapsed. For a moment, it crackled with electricity as if it was still the [Radiant Sword], but then all the metal melted off the hilt of the sword and poured onto the ground in a mass of liquified metal.

The masked man stared at the remains of his sword. This was a surprising turn of events. His [Radiant Sword] becoming another attack never happened before.

Maybe this is my chance. If I can just make it in time, I can finally break out of this hell.

With renewed vigor, he opened his palm flat to the ground and focused.

Conceptualize: Return

A horrifyingly deep sound rang through the earth, as if a piece of the world’s soul just died in that moment. The molten pile of slag on the floor suddenly reversed, as if tracing its steps back through time, and formed into a red hot sword which quickly turned back to its original silvery color.

The masked man snatched the sword out of the air as it hovered there and then leapt forwards. His jump defied gravity, he stayed close to the ground to avoid the archer fire, but he never took a parabolic arc—he just kept flying straight forward for several dozens of meters before his feet finally touched the ground, and then he jumped again.

All around him he could see soldiers in silver armor—his allies—fight grotesque monstrosities as well as humanoid enemies. The masked man had seen this scene dozens of times now. The left flank always breaks and the enemy overwhelms the center. It was unavoidable. Whenever he went to the left flank, these strange shadow-like creatures would appear out of nowhere and—

You have taken extreme damage to your chest.

Your heart has been destroyed.

You are stunned.

You are poisoned.

You are bleeding.

The masked man looked down at his chest and saw the tip of a sword poking out from his form. Slowly, the masked man fell to his knees.

You have died.

He opened his eyes. They were blue ice, surrounded by a deep red outer rim. He sat up from his prone position and ran a hand through his messy, black hair.

“Again?” he muttered under his breath.

“They got you too, Ae? Sneaky bastards,” a girl with red hair said.

Ae nodded, casting a glance about the chamber.

They were not alone. There were another seven people here, and they all wore tired and disappointed expressions. Ae recognized only six of the faces—the last one he never saw before. They all sat in a circle around what appeared to be a ball of blue light the size of a person. The entire room was bathed in a dim blue glow due to the ball of energy at the center.

“How much essence you got?” she asked. Her name was Fara.

Show Essence.

Essence: 2495

“Not much. I rushed the left flank…” Ae trailed off, shaking his head. “It’s impenetrable. I have no idea how many Shadows there are, or where they are until it is too late.”

“There’s nine of them,” a person said. He had brown eyes and short, blond hair.

“How do you know?” Fara asked.

“There’s a perk in my [Extinction] Aspect called [Eyes of the Void], it warns me whenever there is someone hidden and about to attack someone. Tells me the general location, too,” he said.

Show Aspects.

Annihilation

Ae sighed. That perk would be useful, but he didn’t have the Extinction Aspect.

“If you know where they are, and when they are about to attack, how come you die then, Mao?” Fara asked.

Mao shrugged, “There's a Tyrant waiting for me at the end of the canyon. It is extremely powerful.”

Fara slowly nodded.

Suddenly, the blue ball of light came to life with a brilliant glow and hovered higher into the air.

“Your latest excursion into the Rift was a disappointment. You need to try harder than that and you need to stop complaining about the hardships. You chose this,” the ball spoke in a voice that was not heard, but felt inside the soul of each individual. They were not words in a language either, merely the understanding of each word’s meaning. “When you touched the black flames and accepted me as your Liege, you knew this was your destiny and accepted it as well.”

Some of those assembled in the round chamber lowered their heads at those words. The words stung Ae as well. He had been obsessed with freeing himself from the pain of death to the point of not even thinking how these other individuals might feel. Were they just as desperate as he was? There was some comfort in that thought, as well as disappointment in his own lack of integrity.

“You knew this journey would be difficult and that you would meet your boundaries, and you swore on your soul that you would exceed them. You swore that you would persevere and push through. Now look at you. After forty eight deaths, your spirit is broken.”

Silence fell on the chamber and it lasted for several seconds.

“Go now. Rest, meditate, learn new tools—perfect yourselves. Tomorrow, you are heading out again.”

A jolt of pain ran through Ae’s body at the mention that they are going to go out into that blasted battlefield again tomorrow.

With a sigh, Ae stood up and headed out of the chamber. Several people followed behind him, but they all each went their own direction once they got through the hallways that lead to the room of their revival.

In truth, Ae was not even sure if they did revive or not. He could turn back time for objects, therefore the possibility exists that they too merely relive the two fateful days. It seemed rather unlikely however.

Ae thought about the day when the sky shattered and the stars fell from the emptiness. They crashed into the ground and from them sprung a black fire that could not be extinguished and it unmade everything it touched. He ran for so long from what the people called the Flames of the Reckoning. He crossed oceans to escape it, but the flames followed. It was just a matter of time before they would reach him too, and when they did, he was in that chamber and he was made an offer: Submit to Asivos or be annihilated. It was an easy choice at the time, but in hindsight, the latter option was the right decision.

Before he knew it, Ae was in his own chamber. It had no windows except for the circular opening in the top, covered by glass, through which moonlight and starlight filtered through and fell in thick shafts upon a pool in the middle of the room. Ae sat at the edge of the pool and closed his eyes.

Show perks.

Category Name Mastery Annihilation Conceptualize Silver (28%) Annihilation Lightning Element Gold (4%) Annihilation Enlightened Sword Platinum (77%)

Ae thought about his perks for a moment. They were merely windows into obtaining new skills which improved through usage, while the perks themselves improved by channeling the internal energy he gained from battle as well as usage.

Show skills related to [Lightning Element].

Lightning Element Skills Name Effect Skill Level Lightning Creation Create Lightning energy by transmuting spiritual energy into Lightning energy through your connection to the Plane of Lightning. Silver (89/120) Lightning Destruction Improve the accuracy and damage of Lightning attacks. Gold (44/160) Lightning Manifestation Manifest Lightning attributes in your physical attacks. Gold (21/160) Lightning Channeling Channel Lightning energy into pure attribute attacks. Silver (81/120) Lightning Formation Create objects with an Origin related to Lightning. Bronze (0/80) Lightning Annihilation Improve the critical chance of Lightning attacks and their critical damage. Bronze (0/80)

Those last two are new. It seems every time my perks upgrade, I unlock new skills.

The two skills he used the most were [Lightning Destruction] and [Lightning Manifestation]. Combined with his [Enlightened Sword], they allowed him to mix Lightning energy into his devastating melee attacks. [Lightning Channeling] was useful for when he was not within range to attack with his sword, but could reach an enemy by shooting lightning from his fingertips at them.

He ignored the two new skills for now. He had more pressing business to attend to. Tomorrow, he was going to fight again, and he had to be prepared.

Show all perks related to Annihilation.

Category Name Cost Annihilation Lightning Mastery 22,000 Annihilation Plasma Element 30,000 Annihilation Paradox Blade (Principle) 85,000 Annihilation Sword of the Emperor (Principle) 110,000

They all cost internal energy to obtain and he knew he didn't have enough for [Sword of the Emperor] or [Paradox Blade]. Neither did he understand what Principles were. He asked Asivos once and was told that they would affect his Origin, whatever that means.

Internal energy.

Internal Energy: 65,850

Ae sighed. He knew that those two True perks would be beneficial to him, but they were still out of his reach. The battle tomorrow would fare no better unless he found a way to improve quickly. There was only one choice left to him. He slowly began circulating his inner energy through the pathways of his Aspect, embedded deep into his Origin.

You have obtained the perk [Lightning Mastery].

You have obtained the perk [Plasma Element].