2 Stranger in a Stranger Land (Patreon)

[Sinners]

[Servants]

[Knights]

[Counts]

[Marquesses]

[Duke]

[Princes]

[Kings]

A world has been found. A world of incomparable value. A pure world, devoid of a true and deserved master, untainted by the primordial ichors — unclaimed by a [System].

Such a supple canvas calls to me, and its soil lay ripe for our expansion.

The time is upon us once more. The time to raid. The time to rage and rave. The time to bring forth a cleansing (APOCALYPSE) to sweep bare this world’s original design, and usher in a proper order.

But we are not singular in this hunger. We are not alone in conquest. Our rivals seek to infest this land before we can, seek to absorb its people, mysteries, and technologies before we can. Such an insult cannot be allowed to stand — make no mistake: this realm is a treasure above treasures, and it must be made ours.

In recognition of this, We, Mepheleon the [Harbinger], Speaker of the [System] that governs these Crawling Worlds, declare the summary initiation of the Blood Games!

Regardless of if you find yourself a [Sinner] seeking to claim a [Class] and descend to the Circle of [Servants] through triumph, or if you are simply hungering for the [System]’s favor, the gates to the Moongraves stand open, and the path to your pleasure awaits.

Prove yourselves. Prove yourselves for a place in the coming (Apocalypse). Prove yourself to us, and be granted the right to take from this virgin world your rightful spoils.

-Mepheleon the Harbinger, Sovereign of Diaspora, Lord of the Claimed Hells, Master of the Crawling Worlds

2

Stranger in a Stranger Land

Existence came alight before Wei. All of a sudden, he was aware and alive, with no memory of even opening his eyes. It was like his consciousness ignited into being like a candle.

What greeted him first was the sky, but not a sky he knew. No clouds drifted overhead—no freshness of air, no blue and bright colors. Instead, the atmosphere was one of sweltering static, and its face was lined with slow, sprawling storms. Bolts of crimson lightning spread out like expanding veins creeping languidly over existence, their branches joining and breaking, curving down past his vision like trailing willows.

Between their striations were pockets of quivering monochrome. Wei gained his first glimpse of the greater cosmos and beheld its aesthetics. It seemed a turbulent ocean locked in struggle against itself, shifting motes of light and dark grinding together, making the skies resemble a boiling cauldron. A twinge of recognition passed through Wei. He knew these colors—more, he could sense them. Feel an energy there that seeped down upon the world, that dissolving into faintness.

Those were the hues poured into his Nascent Spirit, recolored him from the dullness of gray.

And then, just beyond the near-opaque chaos, a colossal structure loomed, bringing with a wave of artificial brightness. At first, he thought it was the curve of a burning moon drawn near to him by an illusion, but then more of it unveiled itself, displaced the chaos inhabiting the hues beyond the atmosphere. It resembled a torus passing over him, and across its surface were massive sprawling structures and blooming lights.

Even so far, he felt faint emanations of cultivation—spikes of power that pierced his awareness as if daggers cast from beyond the horizon.

A line of text drifted across his perception, breaking him from his stupor.

Host consciousness restored…

Generating System Update

Name: Wei An Wei

Species: Cultivator/Trespasser

Source Core: Lv. 1

>[0/5] Aspect Advancements to Core Ascension

Source: [10/10] Lumens

Establishing Foundational Aspects

Warning: Host’s body has been reconstructed from Source. All Aspects aside from (Will) suffered extreme Conceptual Damage. Current Foundational Aspect thresholds based on highest recalled feats.

Foundational Aspects

Strength — 4

>How much force one can exert.

Speed — 6

>How fast one can react and move.

Mind — 2

>How much information one can process, conceptualize, and remember.

Awareness — 5

>The amount of detail one can notice in their environments.

Constitution — 3

>How much damage and pain one can endure.

Will — [Incalculable]

>How much one can control and exert themselves over natural and unnatural external effects.

Masteries

[None]

Sourceries

>Source Refinement — The host can create 1 Lumen of Source by attuning with existence. Attunment can be performed through meditation or extreme focus.

>Source Amplification — The host can expend 2 Lumens of Source to temporarily advance any Aspect. Amplification will remain active until the host break’s concentration.

Ascensions

>Sourceforged — The host has been remade from Source. As such, they can affect spiritual, psionic, eldritch, and material entities without fail. Should the host run out of Source, they will also cease to exist.

Wei struggled to make sense of all the information. He had no idea what Source  or Lumens was supposed to be, and neither did he fully understand how some of these metrics were established. The analogies used to judge his body and mind cultivation were in line with what he knew; he had demonstrated feats in line with those listed during his training.

More incomprehensible was the text under Ascensions. Sourceforged? What did it mean he was remade from Source? And something about the words ‘cease to exist’ filled him with coldness.

As his confusion grew, a presence within him reacted.

It is recommended that you leave the local area. You are currently in hostile territory.

Wei blinked twice. “What?”

He shot up to a seated position and took his surroundings once more. The ground beneath was that of obsidian, with gleaming fluid flowing through the arteries that lined its cracks. Heat seared discomfort into Wei without ever becoming pain, but he found himself more consumed by the fact that he could feel the drifting liquid running through the ground’s sundered channels—could feel everything in perceivable existence drifting around him, through him.

It was like his Spirit was a mirror, somehow? A mirror, but also another dimension that was filled by all that it reflected.

This was a level of clarity he never knew before. He was a disciple at the Nascent Spirit stage—true awareness should not be—

Coldness filled him. He turned his focus from beyond to within, and found his stomach turning into a growing void. The color of his Spiritual aura was absent, and in its place shimmered a corona of monochrome. His Nascent Spirit was missing.

Correction: Your Spirit was corrupted. Your existence was in the process of being unmade. You triggered this System’s activation through a connection via its planar cage. The System preserved your existence and joined with you thereafter, rebuilding the other Aspects of your being through your Will. You no longer require a Nascent Spirit, as limits applied to your former classification of [Cultivator] have been removed.

Wei understood the words, but the sense behind them—what was going on? His mind was lost in a whirlwind. Memories tore through him as his breath came fast—he couldn’t feel the beating of his heart—his mother… she was dead. His father… was he dead? How was Wei still alive? Where was he? What—

His mind tumbled from one moment to the next. A new sight distracted him from the rising tumult. Not five meters away, an enormous, transparent column sprouted from the land. The many veins lining the obsidian surged upward, channeling their energies into it. It wasn’t cultivated essence, but he could sense it. Feel it. As he followed its pathway up, Wei felt his jaw open slightly as he saw a cluster of shapes bobbing within the column.

Humans.

Some of them were human, anyway. From all manner of foreign cultures, considering the way they were dressed and the oddities of their appearances. The other creatures… seeing how he could sense them too, he guessed they counted as awakened beings, alien though they were. Cords were burrowed into the back of their skulls, and their faces were shifting contortions of emotion and expression.

Their eyes were open but vacant, and from them was extracted a particular resonance that slid across his senses like a sword gliding over tin. Wei winced.

All around him were countless more of these pillars, with where he stood being a clearing in a dense forest. Looking up, he saw the webwork of red storms connecting and breaking from the structures, exchanging energies as they passed.

Structures Identified: [Sin-Incubator]

>Sin-Incubator: A structure meant to extract conceptual [Sins] from an entity before combining the severity and nature of their transgressions, thereby forming a demon.

Mind Advanced > 3

As the knowledge flowed into his mind, Wei felt something inside him fracture. A burst of monochromatic radiance flared outward from his being. Wei blinked. Somehow, his mind felt clearer than it did a second before. His thoughts flowed like coursing water.

Then, from behind, Wei heard a noise—sensed something break at the borders of his perception. Spinning, he found the cracks running along the ground fracturing wider. Blackened blacks spewed free in sync with a spray of festering fluid. Wei recognized it immediately as the ichor of a demon, and when a thin tendril punched through the ground, instinct guided Wei as he readied himself.

The boulder-sized nightmare that burst free from the soil greeted the air with a screech—a twisted facsimile of a newborn at the moment of their birth. Nine whip-like tentacles flicked along its back, but the rest of its body resembled that of a hound. The way its skull blossomed open like petals ended the comparison there, and a chasm of quivering flame licked at the world using plumes of flame.

Hostile Entity Identified: [Hellhound] 

Hellhound Lv. 1

The Hellhound sniffed twice and looked around. Only when it laid eyes on Wei did it seem to truly notice him. It jerked back, seemingly in surprise, before letting out an enraged cackle with its howling flames.

Wei moved, and an explosion of air erupted opposite the path he strode. He cleaved left across the ground as a wave of cascading fire roared out from the Hellhound’s open skull. Its tentacles lashed at the surrounding area, slashing wildly to deny him an angle of entry. Intelligent. Definitely more intelligent than just a dog.

Demons inherit fragments of memories and experiences from the progenitors they were extracted from.

Wei ignored his potential insanity as he snatched a shard of obsidian off the ground. He aimed his shot as he kept running, moving fast to keep to the hound’s side. The fire coursing out from it was unceasing. To his surprise, he could sense the channeling of its energy as well, knew it to be a diluted form of what flowed within him. He timed his shot—waited for three tendrils to arc past—then launched the rock with all his strength.

A whip crack sounded through the air. The stone threaded between its misshapen body, punching through ragged fur with a splatter of kaleidoscopic ichor. The Hellhound stumbled two more steps before its flame sputtered and its body sagged. It collapsed face-first on the ground and began decomposing rapidly, material body unraveling into flecks of ash and unidentified essence.

Strength Advanced > 5

Wei swallowed as the voice inside his mind continued talking, as lines of text flowed across his awareness. Perhaps this was all just a dream. A nightmare. Or maybe all he remembered did happen, that he went made the moment he saw his mother’s severed head facing him. Or maybe he was dying still, and had retreated into his mind.

But it didn’t feel like he was dreaming. It didn’t seem like he was lost in a delusion. He felt more attuned in body and soul than ever, and his mind processed things with a clarity he could only call refined. Functionally, he never felt better. Internally, his thoughts were still reeling, forced him to do all he could to not think about what happened to his home, his mother, his father…

Another growl broke Wei from his thoughts. More demons were coming. They crept into the borders of his awareness from all around him. Some slithered, others walked, a few trotted, and one passed over the land like flowing mist.

Looking around, Wei saw more forms emerging from behind the Sin-Incubators, forming as if a pack of wolves stepping out behind the truck of trees. But wolves they were not. Instead, their bodies were misshapen distortions of humans, insects, and animals. First among them were the Hellhounds, faces snapping open, flames burning bright. Behind them came towering chimeras that seemed the bastard offspring of a human skeleton grafted upon the body of a war horse. And then, wafting over them, drifted a hooded shade, bringing with it an ethereal chill.

There were twelve of them so far, and more were entering his perception by the second. 

Hostile Entities Identified: [Horseman], [Specter]

>Horseman Lv. 2

>Specter Lv. 3

Assessment: Successful engagement unlikely. Recommend an immediate retreat.

Wei nodded numbly at that. He might be going insane and hearing voices, but at least his delusions sounded intelligent and were trying to aid him. A cultivator was to draw from all sources of power to forge an advantage even if it was their own madness.

Eyeing a potential gap between the foes arrayed against him, Wei marshaled his focus and sprinted toward a dense forest of Incubators.

As he ran, he found himself startled by two things. The first was how he somehow knew over 30 demons were chasing him without even taking the time to count them. The second was how a monochromatic glow intensified around his body while an aching pressure built within.

What is happening to me?