Zero Potential: Chapter 1 (Patreon)

<<<Author's Note: I had this story rolling around in my head last night, making it so I couldn't sleep. I finally got it out, and figured I'd share it. Let me know what you think.

Also, happy Memorial Day, and thank you to all Vets, and active Duty members out there.
>>>>

Zero Potential

Chapter 1

Every time loopers dream, or worst nightmare come to life. What happens when you spend decades and centuries fighting to save the world, only to save it and be sent back in time? What happens when you find yourself stuck with hundreds of years of knowledge, training, and a future where you were once considered a hero, only to be sent back and start over as the villain you began. Or worse as the daughter of two villains who were wrongfully convicted as the convenient scapegoats that they were.

“You and me, we are not so different Terra of the indomitable skies. This is what, your hundredth time? Thousandth time fighting me? All for what a world that barely accepts you. A world that would never accept who you truly are?” The being of infinite darkness spoke.

“You’re wrong. We are nothing alike.” Terra said, anger filling her words, even as she had the niggling doubt caused by such a claim.

“Oh, we are, and I will prove it to you. Here it is, I will give you your dream world. You will be given one final chance to see the world for how it truly is. You will see that I saved you.”

“You saved me?” Terra hissed out, as blood poured down from her eyes. She had been here before, in this exact moment but this was the first time when she had truly managed to kill the being of infinite darkness.

“I did. And I will prove it to you, by giving you that which you have so desperately wanted for these past few hundred years.” With that the being of infinite darkness smiled, as its human façade began to melt away. This was the most important part, and the part that Terra knew she had to pay the most attention to. Previous restarts were lost because she had left before the end. While she had been warned to keep away from him during those times, it always ended poorly. There was one final mistake, one final spell that he cast to save his life and once again caused the whole process to restart. This time things were different, this time Terra swore she would see this through to the end, even if it meant her life.

That was the sacrifice she was willing to make. She was done, done with the constant restarts. With the constant need to have to first prove herself to be better than her parentage, to prove that she was a hero. While she had the process down by now, it was still something that graded on her. Every time the world reset, she was fifteen again, on her system day, the day her system awoke telling her that she had been granted a task that would save the world. One where her status as the true hero of the world needs to be hidden while she constantly sought to improve herself. Each rebirth she kept her knowledge from her past lives, along with any improvements to her attributes she made. Each time everything was kept secret, thanks to her two Special Skills granted by the gods. The first of her Special Skills was Protected Condition, one that made it so no one could see her true Attributes, Magical knowledge, or Skills. This was important as the being of complete darkness would always forget her, once the world reset, but she would never forget the being of complete darkness. The second Special Skill was Rebirth Cycle, the skill that let her be reborn so long as the ultimate evil was destroyed. Those skills had been both a blessing and a curse, but she had been thankful for them, as they let her learn and grow with each restart. Each time she gained that little bit of extra knowledge, despite being limited in what she could do at first, she eventually learned the trust of people around her, letting her gain access to knowledge that would otherwise be restricted to one such as her. A person with not one, but two parents who were executed for treason. In fact, that was why the Gods originally chose her over the billions of people on the planet, their rationale was that she had something to prove, and she did.

For the past few hundred years she put her all into every restart, constantly getting closer and closer to finally defeating the being of absolute evil, until she was here now. She had him, by the Gods, she had finally done it, he had been powerful, beyond power. But she had to be here, to watch the bile slowly leak out of Darkness’s corroding heart. It would cost her; of that she was certain. She would die right here and now, but it would be worth it. This was it, no more restarts, no more last-minute escapes that caused the world to restart. She was done, and she could finally rest easily.

This was a perfect day; her family had been pardoned. Better still the corrupt officials who conspired against her family were brought to justice. Everything she had been living for and working towards was fixed, right here and now. The world was still in ruins, but not as badly as it had in past cycles. People were resilient, they would be able to rebuild. Who knew, if she was lucky, people might make a statue of her and this moment. Those were the thoughts she had.

“I grant you your wish. You will have a world without me.” The being of absolute evil said, staring up into Terra’s eyes, watching for the moment of recognition of the words. Then Terra realized what he meant, what he would do, before Terra could stop him, stop his magic from going off, he snapped his fingers and made one last spell.

Snap.

The being of absolute evil cast an unweaving spell. An unweaving spell, one that undid everything he ever did and ever would do. That was the reason why Terra had been unable to stop the spell, it had been so sudden, and so out of proportion, that she didn’t even know what happened, until it was too late. The confines of the spell went past her web, past her protections. Worse, it was something that would only affect a limited range around the beast. Had Terra followed the orders she was given, had she stayed beyond the hundred-meter radius the unweaving spell would have had no effect on her. Yet, she was there, right at ground zero, so ready to give her life to the cause that she missed the obvious lesson.

“Give righteous power nothing to oppose and it will inevitably oppose goodness.” The words of complete evil filled her mind, as she was coated in a bright white light, and felt the universe once again reset around her.

***

Klink, clatter.

The all too familiar sound of metal chains clinging together brought Terra to awareness. She knew where she was, this was a day that always reset her mental condition. At first, she hated this day, but over time today, her evaluation day was used as a reminder of what she was fighting against. She had been oppressed her entire life, put into orphanage after orphanage, never truly trusted, but never able to be outright eliminated due to the threat of people possibly watching her from the darkness. There were people who were watching her, people who were part of the being of ultimate evil’s court, people who had amassed a wealth of power, riches, and personal clout against high-ranking nobles to make it so that even good people like her parents could be taken down by their corruption.

“You ready?” Williamson, the guard assigned to escort Terra said. He had to escort every orphanage child when it was their awakening day.

Terra just nodded, part of her tried to figure out how she messed up. She had done everything perfectly. Yes, she had been too close, but that was just an unweaving, that shouldn’t have done all this. Surely that wasn’t enough to make it so Terra failed, right? If anything, that should mean that she had won, that the being of ultimate evil had in fact been destroyed.

Still, she had lost. Here she was back at the start of it all, but she couldn’t understand how. She had no doubts that the being of ultimate evil would not have fully undone themselves that would have been too selfless of a task, too spiteful. That was not something that Terra could fully get behind.

Still, she went through the motions with well-practiced ease.

Going forward, she waited in the back of the line, with the other orphans. She was furthest in the back as she was a prisoner of the orphanage, as she was meant to be known and remembered for the crimes of her parents.

For the thousandth time Terra stood and waited in line. Fortunately, by now her exceptionally high Attributes were able to make it so this task was nowhere near as taxing.

Name: Terra Rose

Age: 15

Attributes:

Strength: B/B

Dexterity: A+/A+

Endurance: B+/B+

Perception: A+/A+

Intelligence: A/A

Willpower: SS/SS

Magic Power Rating: SSS/SSS

Magic Schools Unlocked: All

That was it, her Attributes, and her Magical Power ratings. She had long ago reached the height of perfection for herself. Which was why she found these last few dozen or so iterations to be so tough, as it was one thing to have room to improve and still lose, it was another thing entirely to have nothing else that could be improved upon and still falling short. Before she could blame her losses on her lack of ability, or the lack of fully meeting her full potential. Then once she got to her full potential her only excuse was that she just wasn’t good enough, and that stung. At least at first it stung, until she vowed to get better, to practice, over and over she practiced, until fighting off the entire demon army was easy. Then defeating the demon king was trivial, that gave her the chance to summon forth the being of absolute evil, the one that empowered demons to be able to return to this plane of existence, she had but one chance each time. At first it hadn’t been close, as she was destroyed instantly, then slowly time after time she got slightly better, until finally she had been able to withstand a blow, then two blows, then finally she had been able to land a strike, then two, and then finally she managed to perform the final killing blow. As she closed her status screen, something that should not be available to someone who wasn’t fully awakened, she saw her message letting her know that her information was still safe.

Special Skill(s): Protected Condition, Rebirth Cycle (completed).

There was of course just one question she had, namely why her skill Rebirth Cycle had been marked out? Did that mean what she thought it meant, that she would not be able to use that skill? That this would be the last time she would be reborn, to follow the rules and not be caught within the blast radius of the being of ultimate evil’s zone of influence? Terra thought about this and realized this was likely the case. She had this one last chance to end the being of ultimate evil’s life. Something she planned to take full advantage of. Already in her mind she was working over ways to play out that final battle one last time, so she didn’t have to be so close to the being of ultimate evil. This could have been done if she had longer enchanted weapons that she could channel her own unique spells through.

She had been so caught up in her own mental thoughts, that she barely noticed the line of people moving. Finally, it was her turn, this was the big moment. The moment when she would have been marked as special by the Gods. In the past, every time she came here, she had been granted her Awakening and her appearance was heralded by trumpets from the heavens and lights from on high that showed that she was special. That despite what the glowing orb before her said, she would be called upon to do great things. This was important, as it let her get the help of the clergy behind her early, meaning most of her shortcomings were cut off almost instantly.

Taking a deep breath, she breathed in, then touched the orb.

The orb glowed brightly, but that was it, and then just four lines of sacred runes appeared.

Name: Terra Rose

Growth Rate Potential: F

Magical Potential: Yes

Special Magics: Space

Those were the four that were always there, it listed her true name, something that could not be hidden before the heavens. Then her growth rate, originally that had been listed as ‘S’ rank, due to how high her magical potential was. With each restart her growth rate potential obviously would go down, as she would need less and less to make her final rating. Until finally she had maxed everything out and now had the least growth rate potential possible, mainly because she had nowhere else to grow.

The magic was also easy to distinguish, as the glowing of the orb all but signified this to be the case. Then she had her one truly unique magical school identified. She could use all magical schools, but it was true that Spatial magic was by far the one she was best at. Still, there was something wrong with this. Where was the fanfare? Where were the trumpets? What were the Gods doing.

Seeing nothing else, the clergy before the orb began to read out the four lines that Terra could easily read after having lived through so many lifetimes.

“Name, Terra Rose.” The clergyman said, with a particularly disdainful tone to his voice as he said her last name. That soured expression didn’t seem to change, even as he continued to read. “Growth Rate Potential: F. Magical ability yes. School of magic Space.”

With that, he waved his hand and dismissed the prompt before him, showing that he was done and that the scribe in the back who had been copying everything he said finished writing and then nodded.

That was it, with that Terra was officially registered as a living resident of kingdom of Belaton and finally released from her prison cuffs. Though the reason why she was finally released was not because she had been recognized by the Gods for her upcoming contributions, rather she was being turned over to Headmaster Philton, the leader of the Kingdom’s school of magic.

“Good morning. As of this morning you are no longer considered to be a ward of the state but are now a ward of the magic community. This means that it is up to us to train you, and to help reintegrate you into being a member of society. Fortunately, you are gifted with Spatial magic, meaning that you can be a valued member of society, so long as you do your part and listen carefully. While you will have a tremendous road ahead of you when it comes to the fact that you have no potential to grow further in your magical abilities, do not let this dissuade you, as even an F ranked magician can pull off miracles if given enough time and planning.” Philton said, pausing for the moment.

Out of all the orphans who came, as usual Terra was the only one with magical potential. Also since her growth rate was an ‘F’, the headmaster assumed, as usual, that her rating in magic was also an ‘F.’ For most people this would be an accurate assumption, as most people don’t have access to magic before their awakening day, meaning that it is the one Attribute that cannot be improved before the system arrives. However, this was not the case for Terra, but for the moment she chose to keep quiet on the subject, as this restart was already going off the rails.

Terra was trying to understand what exactly had changed to make things so much different from this time versus the others, and each time she tried to puzzle out the problems before her, she kept coming back to one conclusion. That the being of supreme evil had chosen to do one last moment of spite directed against her, by making it so that he would never come to this plane of existence.

Then she also remembered his final warning.

“Give righteous power nothing to oppose and it will inevitably oppose goodness.”

With those words rolling around in her mind, she realized that this was a test, likely one last test, either by the Gods themselves or the being of Supreme Evil, one that showed whether she was truly worth of the gifts she had been granted. Or if after the being of supreme evil had been finally eliminated, she would use her power to become evil itself.

Realizing this was likely the case, she decided to keep her powers hidden, for now. She was strong, stronger than any general the world had ever seen, more magically gifted than even the wizards of legend. So, what if she started off as a student who would be questioned and challenged with every action she took. For the moment she knew she was strong enough to take this, strong enough to endure. If it meant that she would have to suffer through one final lifetime to permanently seal away the being of supreme evil she would do so. Terra had been through worse, at least that was what she told herself, which was why she followed headmaster Philton to the carriage that would ultimately take her to the place that would be her prison for the next few years.

“You are going to receive schooling in all benign schools. This means Spatial, Healing, and Nature.” The headmaster stated as they got on the road.

At first Terra wanted to ask about whether she could learn elemental magics, but then stopped herself as she realized this was likely the case for anyone who was seen to have magical potential but came from a difficult background. Realizing this to be the case, Terra nodded in understanding. It was not like she needed the training in Elemental magics, she had long ago mastered the forces of Flame, Earth, Water, Electricity, and Air. While it would have been nice to have those elements noted on her proficiencies after she graduated, they were inconsequential. Also, thinking about it, Terra liked the idea of hiding away as some enigmatic healer out in the woods somewhere.

With that, the hero of the world nodded and accepted her new fate of being a nobody in the world she had spent so many lives trying to save. Now she would see the world that she saved and get to enjoy the world for what it was, a beautiful, if slightly flawed form of existence. On this day, she swore to herself to enjoy this life for the reprieve that it truly was.