Caedren's body trembled.
A strange force lifted him off the dias until he hovered ten feet above it.
Back arched, limbs splayed, mouth open in a silent scream.
Wind tore across the mountain in raging torrents.
The fog darkened to an ominous grey that took on hazy monstrous shapes.
The execution watchers were spooked.
"What's happening?"
"I came to see blood. Not drama!"
"The sky is…is darkening!?"
"Why is he floating like that?"
The guards scrambled around to the monolith.
The sticks in their hands elongated into spears with blunt ends.
"Get back on the ground at once!"
Flashes of blue lightning zapped out from the spears towards Caedren.
They bounced off an invisible forcefield shield around his body.
Feht Luen, warden of Veil's Spire, stood at a distance beaming with pride.
He watched the chaotic scene without care.
"I knew there was something special about that one."
Still the sorrow choir sang. Their songs a harrowing frenzy into the encroaching night.
The crowd gasped and mumured in fright.
The guards continued to release charge after charge from the spear.
But none penetrated the sphere.
Caedren's consciousness slowly returned.
It felt like wading through murky waters from bottom to surface.
He gasped as heat seared his chest before spreading all over his body like wild fire.
"What's happening to me?"
"I feel…different."
He felt light. Energized. Invigorated.
Powerful.
Like he could snap his fingers and the sky would blink out of existence.
Ok, right, now that that was out of the way, could anyone tell him why he was flying?
Maybe not flying. More like hovering in place.
"Why am I floating?"
Guards in black gathered around the dias. Weapons drawn and pointed at him.
Lightning sizzled from their spears but a shimmering sphere blocked it.
Caedren grinned.
That was sick.
👽
Soul Synchronization complete.
Host core acquired.
Monarch of Mystery reborn.
👽
Caedren's blood chilled.
That voice…deep, monotone yet ancient, from his mind.
It vibrated through his veins.
Lines of text shifted across his vision like a screen through his mind. Intangible but present.
"Wait…what now?"
Something wasn't adding up.
👽
Host: Caedren Valerian
Rank: Soul Devourer
Emotional Path: Despair [Darkness, Lust, Nothingness]
Energy Core: Essence
Bloodline: Monarch of Misery
Misery Grid: Uncharted
Unique Skill: Carnage
Quest: Feed
👽
Holy shit!
A system. He'd activated a system!
He'd read about stuff like that in fantasy webnovels.
So this world had powerful systems and super abilities.
The potential to cultivate and grow powerful as well.
Caedren couldn't suppress his excitement.
On earth, he'd been an outcast. The lowest of the low. Poor. Negligible. An insult to humanity.
But here…in this strange world, he was offered a cheat pathway.
A system that would grant him all he ever desired.
Power. Glory. Fame. A name.
"Monarch of Mystery…"
Sinister yet not bad.
Sounded villainous. Dark and dangerous.
Caedren didn't mind.
Playing nice guy hadn't gotten him anywhere.
Now, a different life. A different world. A different person.
Caedren Valerian, Monarch of Misery.
Something caught his attention.
👽
Quest: Feed
👽
"Feed on what?"
Caedren wondered aloud.
But there was another more pressing issue.
Like the guards beneath him. The yet to be completed execution.
He had to escape.
He wouldn't die so easily.
Not when he just got everything he'd ever wanted right at his finger tips.
Within reach.
He'd have to fight for it. No more Mr. Nice guy. No more fear. No more regrets.
👽
Unique Skill: Carnage
Skill Effect: Chaos
👽
What did that mean?
"How does this work?"
He had to do something fast.
The guards would get creative soon. Find a way to break the wierd sphere protecting him.
"What could go wrong?"
He closed his eyes and activated his Unique Skill.
Carnage.
His spine chilled.
The air around him pulsed.
The shimmering sphere shattered into fragments of sparks.
👽
Essence Core: Empty
Despair Core: Empty
Host Soul Override Imminent
👽
Soul Override?
Like, taking over his…
Caedren passed out.
👽
Soul Override complete
👽
Darkness poured in from the abyss beyond the mountains of Veil's Spire.
It spread over the sky like black mist. Spiralling snakes of night.
The Executioner rallied the guards together.
"Sound the gong! Call in Spirit Walkers!"
"Which creed?"
"All of them!"
The sorrow choir continued to sing even as the crowd scrambled to escape.
🎼🎼🎼🎵🎼🎼🎼
A great evil has been unleashed
A terrible fate has manifested
🎼🎼🎼🎵🎼🎼🎼
Coils of darkness shot down to grab random people.
They screamed and flailed but they couldn't tear free.
The mist poured into their bodies through their mouths and eyes.
It reached into their souls to collect the one emotion common among the crowd right now.
Fear.
Crimson red globs shot back into the sky as the darkness fed.
The bodies dropped down barely alive. Pale and unconscious.
A thick band of darkness wrapped around the monolith like a great python.
The white crystal broke off from the dias. It got dragged into the night.
The mist consumed it.
👽
Essence Core: 13
Despair Core: 13
Shadow Phasing initiated.
Soul Override suspended.
👽
Caedren's eyes snapped open.
He sat up ramrod straight as if poked with a needle.
He glanced around.
No longer on the dias or the mountain in general.
He was surrounded by mounds upon mounds of junk and decay.
Metal scraps. Wood splinters. Ruins of ancient buildings; castle, spires and even domes.
Moss and ivies thrived among them. Creeping over the walls and scraps.
No sound. Total silence.
"Weird things have happened a lot lately."
He gasped as waves of understanding poured into his mind courtesy of the system.
Eclipsera…the name of his new world.
That was the mortal planes. It existed in parallel with the spirit realm called Kavana.
A world fueled by emotions categorized into six paths: Grief, Wrath, Envy, Bliss, Serenity, and Valor.
Those with strong emotional cores could train as spirit walkers in any of the six paths.
After reaching a certain rank on their path, they contested for places in the top creeds for better pay and publicity.
The main responsibilities of spirit walkers was to vanquish spirit beasts and dark monsters who managed to escape into Eclipsera from Kavana.
"I'm a spirit walker."
Yes, but on a seventh path. A forbidden path.
Despair.
A corruption to all the six paths combined.
There was also darkness and lust and nothingness?
Surely all those paths were related to the system somehow.
He couldn't remember much about how he got from Veil's Spire to here.
Cragmier was once the capital of this world before the Shatter Dawn; breaking of the veil that kept the mortal planes and spirit realm apart.
It was thanks to the Shatter Dawn that certain humans could cultivate emotions and grow powerful as Spirit Walkers.
The fractured veil also allowed beasts to cause havoc here.
"To become powerful, I have to cultivate despair."
👽
Essence Core: Empty
Despair Core: Empty
Quest: Fifty eidos of rage.
Quest: Ten essence cores.
The Monarch of Mystery overrides host if quests are not completed within 13 hours calculated equivalent to Earth's Solar cycle.
👽
Sounds scary enough, Caedren though.
"What's the big deal about this whole override business?"
Granted, he couldn't recall much of the few minutes after the last override but surely it was nothing too bad.
It had saved his life.
Right?
👽
Override Effects: Each Soul Override consumes 1 shard of host's soul.
Consistent overrides can lead to Soul Realignment.
The Monarch of Mystery becomes you.
Soul Realignment is irrevocable.
👽
Caedren shuddered.
"That doesn't sound very user friendly."
He could get cores from spirit beasts but eidos came from humans. For stronger eidos, spirit walkers.
Caedren rose from the ground.
First, the essence cores.
For that, he needed beasts.
And he knew just where to find them.
Cragmier didn't harbor ruins and decay alone.
Author Note: What do you think so far?