James sat there for what felt like weeks. He could feel his body decompose and then twist its rotten flesh back together into rejuvenated form. The vacuum of space may have allowed him to breathe, but it didn't exactly spare him from the pain, even with adaptation. He sat on that space rock. On an abandoned moon. Until he saw a light. What appeared in front of him. Was not a person. It seemed to be a white silhouette with teeth, with a grin on its face. James just leaned his head back and let out a sigh.
"Great. Now I'm hallucinating…"
The white silhouette seemed a bit unpleased by this reaction, and spoke up.
"I'm no hallucination."
James rolled his eyes.
"Sure you aren't…that's what a hallucination would say."
The white silhouette smacked him across the face.
"Now am I a hallucination?" Its grin only grew wider while James rubbed his cheek.
"Who are you, then?"
"I, am your power. A physical manifestation of all of the power dwelling in you."
"Uh huh. And what are you here to tell me? That I'm worthless and I'll never be able to leave."
"Hm, quite the opposite, actually, you've been able to leave this entire time…you won't be needing that pesky system anymore. See, you were already chosen long ago. By three separate beings actually."
James's eyes widened a bit.
"What the hell are you talking about? If I was chosen, then why did no damned beast or whatever take me away?"
"You can take it away yourself. Let me help you out a bit."
A green holographic screen appeared in front of James. His status window. It zoomed in on a specific factor. Authorities. That wasn't there before. And yet now there were three. Time, the outer worlds, and destruction.
"…what exactly is an authority?"
"Why, it is the power granted to you by your 'host', we'll just call it that…anyways, each three of these have a key manifestation of their authority. Time, has time manipulation. The outer worlds has something called the voice of the outer world, and destruction, simply something called 'manifest'."
James was having trouble trying to comprehend everything happening. As the screen in front of him disappeared.
"And do you uh…care to explain what they do exactly…?"
"Well, since you asked so nicely. To put it into perspective. At the moment, you should be the strongest mortal being in the entire realm with these powers. Time manipulation is pretty obvious. And you don't even have a limit. Voice of the outer lord is pretty simple, basically, you can enhance your words with a type of power that makes the laws of the universe unable to obey it. So pretty much, you can manipulate everything in existence. Wow. And then there's manifest. If you seek destruction, it can be manifested into literally any form. Any skill, any power. As long as it only seeks to destroy. Anyways, I'm gonna leave now. Do what you will with that power."
His power simply laughed before vanishing before James could really get a grip on anything.
'Huh…how in the world did I end up with powers like that? That's insane…aren't I practically…a god?'
James thought for a moment before sighing. He focused on his sentence when he spoke, trying to empower it in a way. And the worlds flowed naturally.
"Open a rift to earth."
And then there it was. A rift in space. That had simply appeared.
"Yes!"
James dashed through the rift. Only to find his body being literally torn apart and reconstructed. He felt unending agony. Before it did, infact, end. And he was standing on a cold black stone floor, butt naked.
'…now just how did this happen?'
There were a few monsters surrounding him. Which seemed to leave him alone.
'Hm, have I been placed into a monster infested zone? That's a bit annoying…maybe I can try out some of my abilities.'
James didn't even need the system anymore. He simply knew how to use his abilities. It was odd, unnatural. He walked through paused time and bashed the weak monsters. Only for time to resume and they basically just exploded. He smiled before manifesting destruction in the form of a bow and arrow. His body also felt stronger, to a degree he couldn't even understand anymore. He burst out of the building with little effort. Flinging himself through the air. He was being flung naked across what seemed to be a facility that had been filled with monsters. He spotted a giant beast that seemed to be doing battle with a few…people?
As far as James knew, people didn't even have the abilities to fight monsters, how had it changed so much in only a few weeks? As he flew, he pointed the bow and arrow at the creature. A giant orc. That was swinging around a massive bone. He released the arrow and it burst through the air. In a second. The beast had been obliterated. And James was standing where it was last. Though, he had forgotten he was naked. And there were people. The rowdy group of adventurers seemed scared.
"There's a-another boss?!"
The tank of the party seemed to be quite frightened. While Arthur just picked his ear.
"Wait, I'm human."
He was instantly followed up by the mage of the party.
"Impossible! A human cannot look like—"
James blitzed forward. And looked the mage in the eye. Still unaware of his own nakedness.
"I. Am. Human. Now, where am I right now?"
The party found themselves unable to obey him. And showed him out of the facility and out into the outskirts of the city. While they walked. James had used the voice of the outer lord to give himself some casual clothes. A hoodie and some sweatpants. Though there was one comment that was bugging him a bit.
'What did she mean by 'a human can't look like that'…"
He paused and used the voice of the outer lord to summon a mirror. He looked…a lot different. His hair had turned a long pale white, and his eyes a deep crimson.
'What the hell happened to me?!'
As they entered the city. James was unaware that the party had already contacted an emergency line to warn the strongest person in the area to deal with the threat. Though, he actually was aware. As his hearing has grown quite better when his body was torn apart as well. He just didn't really care.
'Im practically unstoppable…so I don't think any person here would be able to kill me. If the thing my power said was correct.'
The moment he stepped foot into the city. A blast of ice came from the ground.
"Melt."
James felt used to his power already. And the ice melted before him. Standing a bit away from him was a woman he recognized. Long raven black hair and cold grey eyes. Wielding a scythe in what appeared to be a suit.
"Identify yourself." Vylette spoke with a commanding tone. Holding her scythe to his neck. James sighed and took a good look at her.
"So you don't recognize me, huh?" James smiled a bit and manifested destruction into the form of a greatsword. He dashed forward.
"Kneel."
Vylette was forced to the ground as the blade almost came in contact with her neck. As James hesitated to follow through. The blast of ice and fire hit him at the same time. Sending him back. He sighed before holding out his hand.
"Attraction."
Vylette was yanked towards him by an invisible force.
"Gravity, strengthen."
Vylette was once again forced down onto the ground by a much more powerful invisible force.
"Who…who the hell are you?"
"Its me."
James had an oddly sadistic grin on his face as he paused time and left the scene. Vylette stood after he vanished mysteriously and sighed.
"Just who the hell was that…? I should tell the others…"