'Room 221.' Blight opened the door slowly.
The air was slightly stuffy, but that could be fixed. He rolled up the blinds and opened the window slightly.
He had a view of the barracks grounds and the other outbuildings, but in the distance, he could also see the center of the settlement.
His bed was in the corner of the room by the window, and he had a small study pushed against the opposite wall. The room was also a bit cramped, but he would do fine with this.
He sat on the bed and gazed at the pouch in his hands. The crystal had a distinctive coldness to it that seeped even through the pouch.
Blight felt slightly apprehensive, and he noticed his breathing began to slow and his heartbeat became faster and more noticeable.
'Why am I so nervous?'
He couldn't say that he wasn't nervous, mainly about what lineage, boon, and flaw he would obtain.
He had also always wondered about his heritage. 'Where did I come from? Who are my parents, and why did they leave me here alone?'
In the past, he could disregard these thoughts, but now he was facing the truth.
In the books he had read, he learned of the many lineages in this world. All humans were descendants of the gods, who for a long time lived under their dominion before the descent of the Horrors.
In ancient times, all the different groups and families would come together and form clans under the banner of their common lineage. Red Legion was one of these examples, they were descendants of a war god.
This didn't mean that all descendants of a war god would inherit powerful abilities. Their initial lineage ability and boon could very well be related to forging swords or polishing boots, and their boon could also be unrelated to their attunement.
In the same way, a descendant of a storm god could gain the ability to bring forth a storm of destruction and just the same, release a few droplets of water from their fingers.
Their lineage and attunement would always be related to their deity, but most boons and flaws were not.
Nobody really understood how each one came to be, but it was known that certain families in each clan would more often than not obtain the most powerful abilities.
Once he awakened, he would learn which god he was a descendant of and, in turn, where he came from by his attunement and lineage.
Blight tried to calm his heart by taking deep breaths.
He took the crystal from the pouch and held it in his hand.
Upon contact, he immediately felt a chilling cold seeping into his flesh. He strengthened his grip on it and shut his eyes.
As he focused on the feeling of this coldness, it turned into an electrifying feeling and quickly traveled through his entire body.
He felt a magnitude that forced him still as this feeling coursed through his body.
The feeling was strongest in his chest. He felt a mass of foreign energy converge. It began to feel like a star was burning in the center of his chest.
He wished to clutch at it, but a strange force restricted him. As he was about to panic, he quickly noticed that this feeling was not painful and felt indescribably pleasant.
Under the heat, he felt his body be reborn and strengthened, and he touched an unprescended feeling of power unlike anything he had felt as a mortal.
Confidence bloomed in his heart.
It was at this moment that he felt a foreign connection being made to his body.
A toneless voice resounded in his mind.
[Congratulations Awakened Blight, you have been reborn and awakened by Ether, obtaining: Ether Core]
The voice continued.
[When the endling of [Unspoken] awakens, the world will fall into chaos, and the future will be shattered.]
[You have obtained Lineage: Rite of Challenge]
Lineage: [Rite of Challenge]
Rank: [Divine]
Attunement: [?????]
[You are Attunement-less.]
Lineage Description: [You are the final living descendant of [Unspoken] the [Unspoken]. You are cursed by [Unspoken], and your existence is puny and fleeting, but your potential is limitless.]
Blight was dumbfounded, his jaw hit the floor.
'Divine rank lineage! This was the same Divine rank which was only heard of in legends!'
He could not believe it.
But he was cursed?
[You have unlocked the first ability of your lineage: Gaze into the Abyss]
Lineage Ability: [Gaze into the Abyss]
Ability Description: [The future is unstable. Force your will between the cracks of time and reality to peer two seconds into the future.]
If Blight's jaw could open any further, it would have fallen off.
[You have obtained a Boon: Limitless]
Boon: [Limitless]
Boon Description: [Your ether core can be strengthened infinitely.]
[For every boon, there must be a flaw.]
[You have obtained a flaw: Tormented]
Flaw: [Tormented]
Flaw Description: [You hear the thoughts of others when you look into their eyes.]
'What is with this flaw? Why does it not seem like a flaw at all but a powerful ability?'
This was all a lot to digest.
Blight needed some time to think about it, but the voice did not wait for him.
[Your soul has resonated with a powerful will, producing its own distinctive frequency. This resonance has manifested as a bell, now residing inside your ether core.]
[You have obtained Resonance: Bound]
[?????]
[Cannot determine.]
Resonance: [Bound]
Resonance Description: [You are bound by a great force that originates from yourself. Its effect is unknown.]
'What? What the fuck?'
Now it was his eyes that were threatening to pop out of their sockets.
[Your soul has resonated with a powerful will, producing its own distinctive frequency. This resonance has manifested as a bell, now residing inside your ether core.]
[You have obtained Resonance: Concealed]
Resonance: [Concealed]
Resonance Description: [Abhorrent Blight! The forces of the Forsaken want you dead. Your presence is concealed.]
This time, Blight's jaw really fell off.
'Divine ranked lineage! And two resonances?'
When the voice faded, Blight checked the etchings of writing in his mind multiple times to make sure he wasn't going insane, but every time, it showed the same thing.
Realm: Awakened
Ether Core: Awakened
Lineage: [Rite of Challenge]
Attunement: [No Attunement]
Lineage Abilities: [Gaze into the Abyss]
Boon: [Limitless]
Flaw: [Tormented]
Resonances: [Bound] [Concealed]
'Isn't this a bit too ridiculous?'
He just couldn't believe it!
A divine-ranked Lineage was the strongest possible lineage attainable by man. They were practically unheard of, and Blight had only read about them existing in the legends of the ancient era.
Even the Celestial founder of the Red Legion, Riven, only had a Legendary ranked Lineage.
Not to mention that he obtained not one, but two resonances!
What was a resonance? Powerful passive abilities which could be obtained by performing extraordinary feats during ascension, and right now he obtained two from his awakening without even having to do anything!
But why did it seem like these resonances were not a good thing?
'Who are forces of the forsaken, and why do they want me dead?
Fuck! what did he ever do to them?
And what was with [Bound]? He had many questions about his Lineage, boon, flaw, why he had no attunement, and his resonances. What did all of this mean? He did not know.
Suddenly, Blight realised something and became sombre.
The voice said that he was the last living descendant... which meant that, his parents were dead.
He had many questions and a lack of answers. As far as he knew, his parents had simply gotten up and left one day early on in his childhood.
At first, he was greatly impacted by their departure. He remembered crying once, maybe twice but as the days stretched into weeks, then months and years he quickly grew numb to these feelings, and his memories became hazy.
Now it seemed as though they were really gone forever.
He sighed.
Blight leaned back onto the bed and closed his eyes, trying to gain closure but he found that that there was no sadness, no grief, anger or even relief.
When he placed his hand over his chest, where his heart was, he was expecting something, anything, but he found that his heartbeat was calm and unbothered.
His heart was as cold as ice.
'What is wrong with me?'
In the silence, he realised just how empty he really was. There was a gaping hole deep inside of him.
Anyway… he needed to familiarise himself with the changes from his awakening.
As he became more familiar with his new body. He felt that he was naturally more solid, more real, and far stronger than he had been previously.
In addition to this, there was a core in the middle of his chest.
He could feel a kind of connection to it at all times. It continuously spun infinitely fast and looked like a miniature white dwarf star that gave off light that was cool and slightly purple shifted.
In the middle of this sun, there were two bells that were endlessly bathed in light.
Blight could intuitively recognise which one was [Bound] and which was [Concealed]
Now, he needed to test his lineage ability.
'How exactly do I activate my lineage ability?' He had no idea.
The instructor did not go over this part, and none of the books he had read wrote of this, either.
He felt that he was becoming increasingly aggravated, but for all the wrong reasons.
How the hell was he supposed to know anything when everybody treated him like he was invisible?
Blight willed it and began to feel an unfamiliar sensation originating from his ether core. It was a kind of similar to the same feeling he had when he was awakening this core but different.
It was like pooping, but in reverse...
Wait, why the hell was he thinking about poop now anyway?
A new image appeared in his mind, but it was the exact same image he was viewing with his normal vision. His vision was now split into two identical views. He could see a view of himself sitting on the bed and the room around him.