Staring at what was his would-be attacker, Mathew quickly assessed his limited options. He could either stay put and accept his fate or run, leaving the cowering woman as a distraction. But neither were very good ideas, the beast would just make quick work of the woman and focus its attention on him. Did he have no choice but to intervene then? But what could a weakling like him do against a Voidspawn? He might as well just walk up to the beast and ask it to eat him. Devoid of hope and desperate for anything that could give him even the slightest chance of survival, the as if blowing the winds of hope in his favour his attention was drawn to the hole by his feet by a gust of cold wind. He stared into the void within, feeling drawn to it like a well of gravity was pulling him in.
In that instant, an idea instantly sparked in his mind.
Approaching with its maw wide open, and a mixture of saliva and blood pouring through the gaps in its teeth, the beast circled them. It sauntered at a slow, methodical pace. Inching ever closer, and seemingly revelling in its prey's despair. But refusing to accept the hand dealt to him, Matthew maintained his calm. The air felt tense, and adrenaline flooded his veins; it was as if time had slowed to a crawl
And in that moment, Mathew could feel the weight of the beast's predatory intent. He began slowly backing away from where the woman was, sensing his movement, the beast shifted its gaze to him. Their eyes locked, but neither so much as flinched. Stopping in its tracks, the beast's tentacles began slithering forward, its mandibles opened wide, revealing the row of teeth within.
Mathew looked to his left, then his right, and continued backing away. the beast growled at him and edged forward. he took another step back and, in the same motion, with a burst of determination, he pivoted on his heel and sprinted down the hallway. In the next instant, the beast lunged forward with its tentacles leading it and whipping past him, only just narrowly missing his shoulder and striking the ground ahead of him. Without missing a beat, it retracted its slithering appendage and it whipped back, catching Mathew and sending him crashing into the wall. The shock of the impact forced all the air in his lungs out, but he had no time to recover as the tentacle came flying back.
Dropping to his knees, he ducked below the strike then rolled away to avoid the second strike. Jumping to his feet, he dashed down the hallway, but the beast refused to allow him even a moment of rest bite. With a sudden burst of energy, it charged after him.
With no time to think, Mathew gritted his teeth and grabbed a loose brick on the ground, his fingers closing around the rough surface just as the creature's tentacle whipped past him yet again. Using the momentum as he dodged, he swivelled, drew his arm back, and hurled it at the beast. It struck square on its head and shattered, breaking into particles of dust. Mathew couldn't help but be amazed at the force behind his throw, but had no time to admire his newfound strength. The beast's tentacles whipped round and smacked him to the ground, looking up at the beast, he rolled away and dashed back in the direction where he first came.
The woman from earlier had collected herself and was running down the hallway. Mathew picked up his pace and caught up, then reached out and seized her arm. In the same motion, he pulled her back and propelled himself forward. Then, timing his move with precision, he pulled the woman towards him, narrowly avoiding one of the creature's tentacled mandibles. Looking down, he found himself standing over yet another gaping hole in the floor, and an imperceptible smile appeared on his face. He threw the woman towards the beast, grabbed her arm and pulled back. The beast lunged for her, but before it could reach them, Mathew had pulled her back, pivoted and driven his foot down onto the loose bricks with all his strength. The ground groaned in protest as the beast followed and landed a few feet away. It shaped to charge once more, but before it could move an inch, the ground shifted beneath it before giving way.
The cobblestone bricks fell through, revealing a gaping hole that swallowed the beast whole. But the beast refused to go without a fight; it extended its clawed arms and held on for dear life while its tentacled mandibles thrashed around. The more it struggled, the more it slipped closer to the abyss. soon, the entire floor around it gave way, and it roared in protest as it disappeared into the abyss. Seconds passed, and Mathew's eye followed the beast's descent into the chasm. The faint sounds of its wails rang in his ears until suddenly an eerie silence hung in the air.
He strained to hear the faintest sound of impact.
But no noise arose from the depths, leaving the unsettling realization of how impossibly deep the chasm truly was. Finally, a loud thud echoed from the depths, followed by a whimper, then silence once more. Shaking off the unease, Mathew stared at the roof of the passageway, trying to regain his composure. Just then, the voice of the codex echoed in his mind.
[You have slain a Voidspawn, a Dormant beast, Gila.]
Mathew fell back and now lay sprawled on the ground, a sly smirk tugged at his lips, and he muttered to himself.
'I actually killed it.'
Well, that wasn't entirely accurate. It was more in the vein of causing the beast's death instead of actually killing it. After all, he didn't lay a hand on the beast and just stomped on a few loose bricks. But in that moment, he didn't really care about the specifics; all he cared about were the results. He sat up and pushed himself to his feet, brushed off the dirt and sweat from his palms, then took one last look back at the chasm. A shiver ran down his spine. The abyss almost seemed to swallow all the light that surrounded it.
As he stood there gawking at the hole, a presence appeared at his side. He turned and saw the figure of the earlier beauty of a woman rise to her feet, dust herself, and walk up to him. Mathew stared at her, stunned for a moment. During his entire life living in the higher districts, he had never seen such a beautiful woman. Completely forgetting about his exhaustion, but bereft of an idea about how to react, he shifted his gaze back down the passage.
For several tense seconds, he remained in this precarious position, grappling with the stark divide between their appearances. Within the next few moments, he tried to distract himself when his thoughts drifted painfully, directed to the one person who tethered him to that hell called Earth. The image of his mother's lifeless body that was forever burned into his memories played on repeat like a broken record. Each time it replayed, the image of her killer's nonchalant expression followed, and an unfamiliar feeling welled up inside him. Was it the pain of watching her death? No, this was something more intense.
What was this feeling? It caused adrenaline to flow and his blood to boil. It consumed his every thought. His eyes radiated a burning intensity, and his nails bit into his palm. The darkness of the chasm felt like it was crawling up to him, ready to devour his very being. Suddenly, his mind calmed. And his focus narrowed, falling on a single, unrelenting thought that dominated his mind.
'Ah! So that was what it was.'
His eyes widened. The emotions he was feeling weren't something fleeting like love or pain. It was something more substantial. An insatiable desire that can almost never be satisfied.
It was a burning need to kill. Rage in its purest form.
"How dare you!"
His fists clenched tightly, and just as he was on the verge of an outburst, a memory washed over him.
***
A glimpse of radiant light falling on him. He was sitting in a dilapidated room, staring at something within the light. An infectious laugh echoed in the room, and the image became clearer, revealing a smile so warm and inviting that it filled him with joy.
'Mom...'
A warm sense of calm spread through his body, and a smile made its way onto his face. Mathew felt almost free from all worries. Like nothing in the world could take away this peace. Then, as if to mock him, the image began shifting. The joy-filled smile twisted and contorted, shifting unpleasantly into a lifeless expression of confusion and pain. The image haunted him, and it like a spectre hovered just over his shoulders. He clenched his fists tighter, desperately willing the memories to cease, but they didn't, they just played over, and over, and over, and over again, fuelling his rage, and dragging him deeper into its depths of despair.
Then suddenly, something within him snapped, and in that moment, it was as if a hurdle that obstructed him came crashing down. He calmed his nerves, slowed his breathing, and focused on a single thought.
'I'm going to kill that icy bastard!'
Living a life while simply struggling to survive till the next day with no clear direction or purpose, that was how Mathew had peacefully trudged on in his life after deciding that being nothing but a side character in his own story was the best way to live his life. But for the first time in his eighteen years of life, he had a purpose, even if it was a twisted one driven by nothing but pure rage. He had something to strive for, he had a goal.
To that end, that evil thing known as fate had dealt him a card that he couldn't have imagined ever getting. He had been chosen, chosen as one of the few qualified to inherit powers beyond his imagination, and now had the chance to become a Herald. The opportunity to gain the very power he never otherwise had the desire to obtain. To become stronger and escape the clutches of a life of poverty, powerlessness, and suffering.
But obtaining that chance didn't change the fact that he found himself in a precarious situation. From what Mathew had heard, which wasn't more than rumours, speculation, pointless gossip, and at times straight-up lies, a person's first trial wasn't supposed to be anything too difficult. Usually, candidates would find themselves in a difficult, but fairly manageable situation based on what the Codex thought them capable of.
One could be incarnated as a member of a hunting party, or a soldier in an army in a castle with all the necessary tools and weapons to defend it, or even something as simple as a farmer whose only task was to defend his land.
Considering all that, Mathew felt that for some reason, he was different.
Being incarnated as what looked to be a soldier with nothing but worn and tattered leather armour, in some sort of underground structure, this was far from being the fairly manageable situation he had heard about. If anything, he had been handicapped, and what would have been his team, or companions, had nearly all died before he arrived, and the one who looked to be useful had perished before his eyes. And that wasn't exactly fair, now was it?
It couldn't have been all bad; if the trial had given him such a difficult trial, it would have given him just as amazing a trait. A trait is a singular concentration of a Herald's affinities and innate nature, which the codex takes and moulds into their specialization. Granting them unique, and sometimes fantastical, powers or simply a superhuman ability.
Mathew focused and thought about the phrases that characters he had heard the heralds use to summon a computer-like system known as the codex
''Status window, profile." But nothing worked. He began wondering if it took more than just words to make the window appear.
'How do I do this?" he thought
With a deep breath, he focused on the desire, and in the next moment, the air around him shimmered, and a set of intricate runes blinked into view. Mathew stared at the words, realizing that the symbols before him were in a different language from what he knew. But for some reason, he felt a strange clarity; once he read through the runes once more, their meaning became all too clear to him.
'Is it the power of the codex?'
The chances of it being anything else were unlikely, so he could only accept the scene before him and push aside any other thoughts. Looking down, he quickly found the set of runes describing his trait.
[Name: Mathew]
[Title: None]
[Rank: Candidate]
[Relic: None]
[Trait: Last son of Unknown.]
[Trait ability:
[Attribute: None]
'What?'
He looked below to find its description.
[Trait Description: As the last son of Unknown, you are blessed with great potential, but cursed to face the hardships of your birthplace at the same time.]
"Last son of unknown? Blessed but cursed? What does any of that mean?"
He stared at the runes, convincing himself that what he was seeing was nothing but a cruel joke. Rubbing his eyes, Mathew looked again, but nothing had changed. His hard and gruelling but peaceful life had been turned upside down, then he was forcibly thrown into this harsh world, and now this?!