The world began to quake, startling Jake out of his socks. He could feel the void becoming darker by the millisecond; soon he realized it was all starting to coalesce towards himself. Soon the void began to condense into pitch black smoke, and seeing it coming at him quickly, he jumped back to try and escape away. In a split second he turned around to run the other way, but just as quickly he stopped dead in his tracks as more smoke was coming from that side.

He began to laugh hysterically, before feeling all strength gone from his body, he dropped down to his knees and could feel his teeth clattering together because of fear.

The smoke collided with his body and circled around him at ever faster speeds until his body could be seen no more. The black smoke soon entered every orifice of his body, and quickly disappeared, a fading dream that never was. Jake began to scream in pain, he could feel his brain being pressured hardly against his own skull. He grabbed at his own hair and pulled hard, just short of ripping his scalp away.

Mike walked closer and began to pat his screaming friend on the back, like a friend helping a vomiting drunk pal. Except instead of vomit it was Jake’s sense of self and sanity. He continued to pat his friend’s back, but his view turned towards Ishbula-na’, his eyes filled with worry and concern.

“Sire, are you sure he’ll be fine? You’ve grown stronger since the days of my ancestors”.

The floating eye blinked, before smoke began to exit Jake’s body, who began to shake uncontrollably on the floor, foam exiting from his mouth, his eyes rolled back and his back slowly arching forward.

The same guttural voice from before could be heard, this time clearly to the point the convulsing Jake could make out the words, albeit on an off from the sound of his own bodily fluids being flopped around as he jumped around like a fish out of the water.

“You are right, I might have overdone it a bit”, Ishbula-na’ said, the eye staring intently at the flopping Jake. Mike tried to hold down his friend, in an effort to stop him from biting his own tongue off. He could feel a vein popping on his head, and he snapped out a “you reckon, sir!”.

A very guttural gulp could be heard, and a few seconds later a purple gem the size of a tennis ball fell from the sky, next to Jake and Mike’s position. Mike took a hold of it as soon as his eyes lay upon it, and he placed it on Jake’s chest area. He pushed hard enough blood seeped out, and he began to speak in a strange tongue, producing the words “Vasa▓▓sl As▓▓▓”.

The gem lit up in a purple light, that quickly wrapped around Jake’s body. His convulsing body stopped flopping around, and his back relaxed. His eyes rolled back to where they were supposed to be, and after coughing loudly once to push away every last bit of foam in his throat, Jake sat upright quick as a bullet.

He looked at his friend, tears beginning to form on the corner of his eyes. He seemed close to a full-fledged breakdown, but instead, he hugged his savior very strongly.

“Thank fuck you did that Mike, I was scared as shit mate, god damn it”

Mike laughed strongly once, and he patted his friend’s back again, as he was being asphyxiated because of how strongly he was being held. “if you are swearing this much you’re fixed but scared, you’ll be fine now Jake”.

Jake let go, and he turned around to face the floating behemoth of an eye, and he exclaimed in a fit of anger towards him, “What was all that about Ishbula!”

The floating eye looked away from Jake, and a small guttural whistle could be heard coming from everywhere in the room. it looked back

“Where the na’? Ah, forget it, I’ll forgive you since we are now family. Jake something something, from now on you are hereby called, Jake Grim”.

Jake could feel a vein popping, but instead, his eye just twitched and he exclaimed through gnashed teeth, “Family, you say! you almost killed me just now!”

Small guttural laughter could be heard from everywhere, and Ishbula-na’ said with a cheerful voice, “Don’t sweat the small stuff son”. Jake heard this and he truly wanted to rip his hair out. Mike gave him a pat on the shoulder, before addressing Ishbula-na’ without the same respect he showed at the beginning.

“I’ll take Jake outside, you guys can speak again once he calms down. I’ll explain everything to him, you can watch the fort Ishbula, alright?”

The eye blinked once before black smoke took the shape of a vortex. Mike dragged Jake through it, and once outside they were back at Mike’s apartment, inside Mike’s bedroom.

Single bed with red sheets, a white drawer to one side and a window to the street on the other, a brown closet opposite of all these things. Jake sat on the bed, a massive frown on his face. He felt like he’d just been fed horseshit for dinner, and quite so, as that smoke didn’t particularly taste like chocolate pudding.

Mike scratched the back of his ear with a smile on his face and sat down on the floor in front of Jake. He knew his friend tended to get pissy sometimes, and at such moments he’d completely lose control of his TPO filter.

“It’s alright brother, you are fine now right? Cut Ishbul some slack, he hasn’t added anyone to his family in close to five centuries, since my first ancestor”

Jake sighed like a deflated balloon, before dropping back onto the bed. His frown relaxed, and soon enough he was back to his usual laid-back self.

“Alright, but you need to promise you’ll answer every question I pester you with alright? no more secrets. I’m still a bit pissed you’ve kept this from me for the past 20 years we’ve known each other for”

Mike stood up and sat on his desk, a big smile on his face. “Sure thing, fire at will pal,” he said.

Jake raise a single finger, a very particular one, to begin with. “Alright, first question. How in the crap do you have a portal to, if I remember correctly, the seventh ring of something something on the room opposite the bathroom?”

Mike pursed his lips while evading Jake’s gaze. He seemed to be struggling, but finally leaned back, his spine against the wall behind the desk.

“Well, Ishbul has been working on a project lately, and he needed my help with the logistics of his operation. Opening and closing the portal takes too damn long, so I just kept it open these past few weeks”

Jake could feel a vein popping on his forehead. He counted to ten before asking a follow-up question.

“Alright, I’ll ask you about that project later on. What does it mean that I now have another surname? It’s a bit disgusting to have a floating eye of doom as a stepfather”, he said, immediately pointing with his index finger while following with, “as cool as that may or may not sound”.

Mike stretched his arms lazily and yawned, he could see the question coming a mile away.

“Ah, not much, honestly. You will be able to make a portal to enter Ishbul’s home at the abyss, use the type of gems I used to patch your sorry ass and you’ll be partially immortal, just that”

Jake’s eye twitched, he really wanted to punch his friend at that moment.

“Okay, I figured the first two on my own but ‘partially immortal’?”

Mike sat straight and looked at his friend in the eyes.

“Well, not immortal per se; you can still die it’s just, uh, think of having a cat’s nine lives but for real. You can die, hell you probably died three or four times back there. Your soul was strengthened by Ishbul’s smoke and that’s why you’ve got more lives now. Also, that’s part of the reason you died a few times, as he kind of overcharged your soul with power”

Jake blinked twice, deciding to ignore the calm yet terrifying revelation he’d just been given. He played with his septum using his fingers, before continuing.

“Alright, so how many times can I die? Can I like throw myself onto the train tracks and walk away fine?”

Mike stood up and patted Jake on the shoulder, he looked a bit worried and began examining Jake’s head for a concussion. Jake slapped his hand away and Mike sat back down.

“Are you suicidal? why would you throw yourself there? Anyways, It’s more like a strange play on fate; whenever you are about to die Ishbul will freeze time, reverse it and try to stop your death from the abyss’ plane of existence”

Mike blinked once with strength, and his eyes took a strange blue hue to them. He looked over Jake’s body, moving his head to get a better of him from time to time.

“Your soul can take maybe 50 more time reversals for now. Of course, sometimes Ishbul is going to need to go back a lot further back, to the point where you could consume 10 of your lives in one go, So please don’t go and do stupid shit like throwing yourself on the rails or something”

Jake rolled his eyes, and at the same time he opened his mouth to ask another question, Mike interrupted him.

“One more thing, you can strengthen your soul by fighting in the abyss. I know you like to play these shitty RPGs from time to time, so you can think of it as you leveling up. you’ll be able to use stuff like what I used to heal you in no time”

Mike nodded, an excited smile beginning to form on his face.

“Shit, sweet. So can I like, throw fireballs and shit?” He said, as he played with both hands and made strange sounds with his mouth.

“Uh, sure bud. Weirdo”

Mike coughed to grab Jake’s attention, before producing the purple gem he used earlier.

“This is a force stone, you can use it as a catalyst to cast shit and what not. if you don’t have one you can still cast stuff, but you’ll use part of your soul in exchange. Also, you could probably make out a single word or so from when I healed you, don’t worry, you’ll understand more as your soul grows”

Raising his chest like a weirdly shaped cockatoo, Jake harrumphed and interrupted Mike, “I’m only missing a few words, I’ll be able to in no time”.

Mike rolled his eyes while saying “Sure thing bud,” under his breath. Jake glared at him, who ignored this and continued speaking.

“Alright,” he said, “Where was I? Oh yeah, the Force stones”.

He leaned forward and opened the drawer, revealing it to be filled with gems of many colors: red, green, purple, yellow and a few black, with a single white on stashed at the back of the drawer. “These are the force stones. It doesn’t matter what color they are, uh, I think. Anyways, pick one, so you don’t go and kill yourself in about 30 seconds”

Jake looked at him with a strange face, while grabbing ahold of the single white gem sitting lonely at the back of the drawer. Mike stole it right from his hand, and Jake exclaimed and was taken aback. “Sorry, that’s just a pretty rock I found on the beach”, he said.

Deciding to ignore his friend’s antics, he chose one of the black gems in the drawer; neither the smallest nor the biggest, the perfectly average sized one.

“God, what a nerd you are mate. Have you seen too many shows, you massive edgelord?”

Jake blushed a little, he did choose it because of that, but he wouldn’t readily agree to what was just said. “Just get on with it, fuckface!”, he screamed.

“Alright alright, chill. Now, this is something super simple, I’ll teach you how to look at someone else’s soul so you can tell how much power they have. Their power level, if you will”

With a single roll of the eyes and a nod from Jake, Mike raised the gem and placed it on his chest, with Jake copying this action. “Alright”, he said, “now you don’t need to say this out loud, just think of these words in your mind.”

Mike gulped, both ears perched up. “Oogity boogity I’m just fucking with you”, And right before Jake exploded then and there, he continued. “Alright, now seriously relax. Just think of the words ‘Varisa Alma”, he said, as his eyes took on the same blue hue as they’d taken before.

Jake closed his eyes and repeated the words in his mind. When he opened them, he looked at Mike, who now had a strange orange halo surrounding his body. When he focused more, he could make out white lines perpendicular to his body, too many to count, really small, as well.

“What do you see?” Mike asked.

“You have an orange outline with strange white marks, what does that mean?”

Mike chuckled before touching his index finger to the side of his temple. “You are making this way too hard on yourself. Those white lines are the power of my soul, you can have it represented as you want, be it numbers or letter or whatever you choose. It’s taken this strange shape because you are making it be this complex, just go back to one of those games you enjoy playing, maybe imagine a number on my chest or something dumb like that”

Jake groaned, before closing his eyes once more. He opened them and took a look at Mike. The orange outline was still there, but the white streaks were gone, a number sitting above his head, a weirdly shaped 605.

“Alright, you have a number above your head, a 605. what does it mean?”

With a smile as half an answer, Mike explained. “That, my friend, means I’m fairly strong. How much I’ll let you find out tomorrow when you look at yourself in the mirror to compare”

Jake stood up, moving towards the door. “Alright, jackass. I’ll see you tomorrow, I still have to take my exam, hopefully, I don’t completely shit the bed”. Mike stood up and patted Jake in the shoulder. “Good luck tomorrow, I’ll take you hunting in the abyss so you can play around a bit, you damn pyro”

“Fuck you”, he said, as he exited the room and went to his own, falling asleep like a log as soon as he touched the bed.