In a luxurious throne hall, which over-looked a bustling Kingdom, which was surrounded by golden colored clouds, a crimson-haired woman, was on her knee, as her back was matted in sweat. Her face was pale and her body trembled as she finished reporting what had happened to her Lord.
"So, you're telling me that he... got away?" A cold voice laced with boundless anger, echoed off of the walls of the throne hall.
"S-Sir we're still trying to find out what h-happened, and even Axel says he doesn't-"
Before she could finish her sentence she found herself embedded in a wall of the throne hall. All the bones in her body were crushed as she coughed out a mouthful of blood.
"Find him, and don't come back until he's in this throne hall, on his knees, and begging me to spare his pathetic life." Cassiel said in a cold tone, "And if you fail me again... you won't leave with your life intact out of this room."
Silence reigned in the throne hall as the woman was unable to answer.
"Take her away." Cassiel said as shadows emerged from the walls and took the crimson-haired woman's body to the healing quarters.
Then he walked to the window with a view of the kingdom, "Don't think you can escape me for long Evolis, I'll tear your godhood apart and make it my own." He said to nobody in particular as a cold glint flashed through his eyes.
---
Evolis felt himself hurled through the chaotic vortex, and when the disorienting rush subsided, he landed with a heavy thud onto soft, moss-covered ground. Instead of a barren expanse, he now found himself in the heart of a magical forest.
Towering trees, with ancient trunks which were intricately veined with pulsing vines, stretched high into a sky dappled with soft, ethereal light. The forest pulsed with life, each leaf glowed faintly, and delicate beams of sunlight filtered through the thick canopy, creating dancing patterns on the lush undergrowth.
The air was rich with the earthy scent of moss and loam, mixed with a subtle hint of wild, sweet nectar. In the distance, the gentle murmur of a crystalline stream and the harmonious roars of what sounded like gigantic, unseen creatures wove together into a serene symphony. For a moment, Evolis lay there, absorbing the overwhelming beauty of this enchanted realm, realizing that... he was fucked.
"Arghh," Evolis groaned as his back began to heal from the gravity blast which the man named Axel released.
[Your body is absorbing the Gravity Energy which has been afflicted unto it.]
[Congratulations! You have achieved a greater affinity for the Gravity Element!]
[Congratulations! You have reached the first stage of the Gravity Element!]
[Congratulations! Due to the energy [Novaris], your Gravity Element has been elevated to the second stage!]
[Congratulations! Due to the energy [Novaris], your Gravity Element has been elevated to the third stage!]
There were supposedly 9 stages of every affinity which a person could go through, each corresponding with the levels a person had to traverse through from, the Mortal stage to the Monarch Stage. And people could have a lesser, average, greater, and perfect grade of affinity for their element, which helped them when comprehending their element and using more creative abilities with it.
At the first stage, a person could use their element to augment or strengthen their body, but they weren't able to use that energy outside of it. And at the second stage, one could begin to expand its influence to cover their skin. At the third stage they could start sending out elemental attacks in a certain radius around them, but they couldn't control it very well except for it's general direction and output
Evolis felt an ethereal energy pulse from his Etherion Core and circulate around his body. He instinctively felt as if he could make his body lighter or heavier depending on what he wanted. Then he felt the energy began to surround his skin, as his body subtly lifted off of the ground and started floating.
Just as he started to giggle like a fool after earning his first affinity, his body fell back down as he felt his head start to ache.
"My core's out of energy already?" Evolis was shocked. As far as he knew gravity users were able to float in the air for about a minute before they had to come down due to their reserves starting to become empty.
But then he felt a branch tightening around his ankle as he looked down and realized that a tree nearby had taken its opportunity to find dinner for tonight, and was leeching off of his energy.
"What the?" Evolis unsheathed his sword from his back as he sliced the branch apart and quickly distanced himself from the tree, "What type of forest is this?", He thought as he quickly surveyed his surroundings with his divine sense.
Name: [@#*&]
Race: Dryad
Rank: Novice Stage
Affinity: Plantae
Yes the name was displayed. No Evolis wasn't able to read it because it was in a language he didn't speak. And he was now able to view the elemental affinity of the person he was observing.
'They don't speak the Language of the United Federation? Where am I?'
He was beginning to get more and more confused but before he could think further, a woman, with an unnatural beauty, emerged out of the tree and manipulated the vines in the ground to burst out and whip at him.
Evolis weaved in and out of the vines, as he used his future sight to predict where they were going to land. He tried to hack of as many as he could but even with his future sight they moved too quickly for him to react to. And to make it worse, even if he managed to cut them they would just regrow and keep bombarding him.
Suddenly he felt his energy reserves replenish, 'Guess this is what the Cosmic ascension Record meant by my regeneration beingquadrupled.' He quickly used his new gravity element to create a point of attraction behind him to pull him back, and then looking at the dryad with a solemn look, he got into a sword stance, and as he was about to deliver what could only be a magnificent blow, he...turned around and bolted.
'There's no way I'm gonna survive against a Novice Stage when I only just reached the Awakened Stage,' He thought as he justified his current behavior, 'Yep. Totally because I didn't nearly shit my pants.' He nodded to himself with a righteous look.
The Dryad froze, and then starting chasing him. But the agile human was too quick for her, and she couldn't stray too far way from her tree otherwise she would become weakened, so she gave up and waited for the next prey to come around.
Suddenly a troop of elves emerged out of some bushes nearby and surveyed the surroundings.
"It looks like a fight occurred here." A woman, with pointed ears and who was extremely beautiful said.
"Princess we shouldn't stay out for too long, otherwise we'll run into the nightwalkers once the sun sets. We can set camp, nearby on the hill, I even have a tent which was provided by my father which is able to absorb attacks from enemies." A man behind her said as scoured her body with a lecherous look in his eyes. He was wearing an expensive robe, and looked like he hailed from nobility.
A look of disgust briefly flashed across her face, but she knew he was right, as barely anyone could survive the horrors of the night. "You don't need to worry, I have my own tent." She said coldly as she looked around once more before deciding to leave, "Let's move out then. As soon as we get there make sure to scour the perimeter and choose between yourselves who get's the night shift."
The elves quickly dispersed into the forest as they continued to protect their princess on her journey.
---
Evolis sprinted through the forest, vaulting over over unrooted branches, as he used his divine sense to maneuver around dangerous beasts and what looked to be more dryads, 'I need to find shelter before the sun sets.'
He suddenly stopped as he saw a cave in the distance through his golden eyes, and started making his way towards it.
As he approached he used his divine sense to scan through the cave to make sure there weren't any beasts occupying it, and as soon as he determined that it was safe, he made his way inside and found a secluded corner, as he sat down to organize his thoughts.
'This doesn't look like Aurelion or anything remotely close to it. It looks like I might've traveled to another planet... or even another universe.' Space vortexes were extremely unpredictable and almost impossible to navigate, so Evolis had no idea where he might've ended up.
'At least I got a new power from it though.' He thought as he had a wry smile on his face, 'They must be pretty worried about me as well... I just hope they don't do something stupid' Evolis began to worry about Lyris and the rest, 'She'll definitely do something stupid.'
'Well it's meaningless to think about them now, or at least until I can find some type of civilization.'
Evolis started to notice the sun going down, and stepped outside his cave while looking for something. 20 minutes later, he returned with a boulder the size of the entrance of the cave. Using his now strengthened body and his new gravity element to reduce it's weight, he shifted it to cover the entrance of the cave.
Then he proceeded to lie down and listen to the soft whispers of the forest, and the distant howls of beasts as he began to sleep.
The next morning he got up as his stomach growled in protest to not having dinner. He chuckled as he made his way to the entrance of his cave, and moved the rock away, his skin glowing in the morning sunrise as he used his sense to check the surrounding area. Then he felt his body become nearly weightless, and jumped forward, cracking the ground as his body revealed the shocking strength it was withholding.
'My body should be about as strong as a Novice Stage's.' Evolis thought as he soared through the mysterious jungle, keeping a lookout for anything that might be considered a meal.
'There.' He saw it. A majestic deer drinking water by the edge of a stream. He carefully came to a stop so as not to alert it as he looked around to make sure nothing else was close by. Then he slowly made his way forward as his body began to blend into the surroundings.
Once he was about 10 meters away he slowly took out a sharp rock which he had found earlier. Then he tapped his finger on the pointed edge of it as his energy thrummed and then looking at the neck of the deer, he imagined a point which would violently attract the edge of the rock. Then he pulled his arm back, and *Boom*.
The air subtly rippled from the point where he released the rock, as the deer raised its head. But it was too late the rock seemed to adjust itself mid-air as it redirected itself towards a specific point on the neck of the deer.
And *Slip*, a sickening sound was heard as the rock penetrated straight through the deer's neck as its body convulsed and collapsed onto the ground.
As Evolis approached he saw its legs still kicking against the ground as its fading instincts told it to run away, yet its body couldn't seem to find the strength to.
Evolis nearly turned his gaze away but made sure to watch it all the way through to the end.
'I'm going to have to get used to killing. Eventually I'll also have to kill humans to protect myself.' Evolis slowly affirmed his will as the life began to fade out of the deer's eyes.
He then touched the deer and made it float slightly above the ground, and attached a point of attraction on his back which pulled it along with him back to his cave.
After he finished cooking and eating it, he started looking for beasts in the forests to start training himself.
Eventually he found a salamander type of beast which was camouflaging itself against the bark of a tree. Then he picked up a rock as he was going to use the same strategy that he used on the deer against it.
Yet as he launched it towards the skull of the beast, anticipating it to go straight through, it harmlessly bounced off of it scales and landed on the ground.
Then the beast turned to look at Evolis... then back at the stone... and then back at Evolis, as if asking, 'Seriously? That's the best you could do?'
Evolis awkwardly coughed as he avoided making eye contact with the beast.
Suddenly, Evolis saw it's energy gathering towards it's throat with his golden eyes, and then he saw a semi-transparent, green fireball launch towards him and explode, decimating him and the 10 meters behind him. Yet before his future vision could come to pass he launched himself towards the beast, now for any onlooker they might have thought that Evolis had slight masochistic tendencies, as he was essentially heading towards his death, but as he got closer to the beast, his hand reached out and tapped towards the direction of the salamander's beak, causing it to violently snap to his left.
The green fireball hit a tree just beside him, and he used his gravity element to add a field of repulsion around him to off-set the shockwave from the blast. Then as he approached the beast he jumped off a nearby tree and altered the gravity around him so that it would pull him upwards, which caused him to go above the beast.
The salamander then started charging up another fireball and aimed it at Evolis. Slightly panicking, Evolis then reversed his own gravity again and strengthened it causing him to violently plunge downwards in the direction of the beast.
As he approached, the beast knew it wasn't going to have enough time to fully power his attack so he prematurely launched it to provide him some time to get away from its attacker.
But just as it expected the human to be blasted away from it, it saw a sword emerge and cut through the fireball, diverting most of it's power away from the human.
Evolis emerged through the blaze with some of his skin sizzling on his forearms, but as if he didn't notice he pulled his sword above him and cut downwards through the head of the beast.
He landed heavily on the ground, as he breathed in heavily, due to the fire burning all the oxygen in the air, as well as leeching some of his energy. But strangely as he looked around he noticed that the surrounding forest was unaffected.
*Thud* The ground slightly trembled as the beast landed next to him.
Evolis briefly looked at it and made sure it was dead before thinking,
'Status'
Name: [Evolis Aetherion]
Age: 17
Gender: Male
Race: ???
---
Attributes:
Strength: 42 -> 47
Agility: 47 -> 48
Endurance: 43 -> 47
Vitality: 48 -> 51
Intelligence: 53 -> 54
Charm: 49
---
Etherion Core Level: 14 -> 17 [Due to fighting a Novice Stage Beast]
Talent: SSS
Bloodline: Locked
Affinities: Time (2% unlocked) (New), Greater Gravity (Stage 3) (New), Plantae (12% unlocked) (New), Fire (10% unlocked) (New)
Abilities:
Innate Skills:
The Seer's Gaze [Grade: Unknown] [Evolvable]
Body of the !O# %F @$%pt$b$%#@y %$& G#$wt% [Grade: Stage 1] [Evolvable]
'Wait... I forgot to check its level,' Evolis thought with his mouth agape. 'I thought it was impossible for an awakened... to fight a Novice Stage beast.'
Little did Evolis know that due to a myriad of factors he had won the battle, such as the beast underestimating him due to it sensing he was a newly awakened, his higher tier energy (Novaris) which was still effective even when used against opponents two stages above him, and surprising the beast with his willpower to endure its flames to kill it.
'And, I'm guessing the percentage shows how close I am to getting an affinity with that element. So I can awaken more than one element?'
As he started cackling wildly with a silly grin on his face and lost in his thoughts, he heard the howls of beasts in the distance which seemed to be approaching. He quickly stopped laughing and used his gravity powers to bring the salamander with him and went back to his cave so that he could avoid getting jumped by more beasts.