11 A monster stood gallantly, its back turned to an open gate a few meters away. It looked like it was playing "eeny meeny miny moe" to decide which of the two humans before it would taste better.
One of the humans, Neo actually, was struck by an epiphany in the middle of impending danger. -How timely- He had finally realized the reason for their weakness and lethargy. Since the vaccine's effect was waning, the virus was trying to take over their consciousness. He already had quite a similar experience during his test for allegiance trial so he was quite sure of the feeling. But it was of no use anyway; they were a few seconds away from being monster dessert. Speaking of vaccines, Neo had one of them stashed away in his pocket at the moment. At that moment, Neo suddenly had a crazy idea. What if he took it to suppress the virus, making Beauty—the most virus-infected—between them? The caution only said he might die; it didn't say it wouldn't work, so it was a fifty percent chance, the kind he had been used to recently. Since the monster didn't show any signs of genuine sapience, he had to outsmart it one way or the other. "Well, here goes nothing," Neo thought, reaching for the vaccine. The monster stared at Neo taking something from his pocket and drinking it in one go. It felt bitter to the taste. "Is that even how I'm supposed to take the vaccine?" Neo thought. "Who cares, as long as the medicine gets inside me," Neo thought again, shrugging. Suddenly, Neo felt something burning inside him. He felt like there was a shredder inside him; hot blood filled with viscera flowed down from the side of his lips onto his clothes, but the medicine somehow seemed to be working, or was it the pain? Neo didn't really know, but even in the face of death, he regained his strength back. It felt so good, and hell painful! The monster tore its gaze from Neo and went after Beauty. The elusive Beauty was too slow to dodge; in the face of the monster's speed, she was slower than a snail so she couldn't avoid the inevitable. Neo stared at the gate in front of him. There was nothing preventing him from reaching the long sought salvation; it felt too… unreal. Neo quickly put himself together. There was no time to contemplate the gate's reality; nothing was real in that world anyway, more so, his life was on a timer. Neo raced towards the door, but he was just too late. The scrawny figure of Beauty didn't bid him as much time as he anticipated; it took the monster a few seconds to decimate her. Neo's eyes widened as he saw the gate closing up a few meters away from him, and the monster breathing down his neck right behind him. The monster opened its maw to harvest Neo's head off his body, but Neo slipped and fell, escaping the monster's maw for a moment. But he wasn't out of the woods yet; the monster was in the air about to land on Neo and tear him apart, but fortunately that moment never came. The heavy alloy gate closed in on the monster's head like a guillotine, cutting it off in one fell swoop. The head rolled beside Neo, its maw still wide open. Neo shuddered. He didn't even realize he was out of the gate already. His heart was pounding as if it wanted to escape his ribs. Neo turned around to run, but suddenly a blinding light erupted from within the DCC, vaporizing bones and metal alike. Neo wasn't spared either. Only the heat emanating from the DCC was vaporizing his body so fast that it was painless! But before Neo could vaporize completely, the world suddenly became dark. Neo didn't think he would be so happy to be back in that thick manifestation of darkness, but there he was, reeling in joy. His presence there meant he did the impossible. He passed the allegiance trial! "Or what if I failed!" Neo thought. It's not as if he knew what happened to those who failed anyway. Moreover, the last thing he remembered was him vaporizing from the impact of a nuclear explosion. Once again he was back with his old pal, "fifty percent chance." As if answering his questions, the voice of the Reaper, mighty and ancient, echoed in his consciousness. "Well done, dear reapling, you have succeeded." Neo was beside himself with joy. If he wasn't floating in a cloud of darkness, he would have jumped up a few times. The fact that he had graduated from foolish mortal to dear reapling made him happier. "Take that, shitface!!" The voice sounded again. "Compiling feats!!" And then, a wave of energy entered his mind, but this time he still had his consciousness to himself. The wave of energy moved through his mind, making Neo feel as if he was recalling the whole thing vividly. Neo frowned, noticing so many anomalies in his experience in that illusory world, things he should have thought about, or rather things he wasn't allowed to think about. A good example is the fact that he didn't know if he was still in his own body or he was transported to another body. It was part of his consciousness was locked away. Also, why would Reaper prepare some weird sci-fi setting for him when there was no such thing as that in his memory except for his few years in the junior academy? "Probably he was trying to make things really hard for me. Who knew what went on in the head of an elusive demon anyway?" Neo thought, choosing to let go of that anomaly. The funniest part of the whole allegiance trial was that he never really found out who or what the threat was. For all he knew, it could have been the monster, Beauty, something or someone he never even had the chance to meet, or even the whole DCC itself. But since he was out of the crazy illusory world, he couldn't care any less. All that was in his mind was the benefit he would receive for passing Reaper's test. The wave of energy finally left his mind, giving way to the words Neo's ears had been itching for. "Dear reapling, you have done wonderfully well." [You have received a spectre] [You have unlocked Reaper's gifts] "You are on your way to the afterlife." "Ahh, finally. Maybe… just maybe my plans would finally come to pass," Neo thought, bracing himself for the future. End of pre-Volume: ALLEGIANCE TRAIL12 "You are on your way to the afterlife." Neo grinned, as the cloud of darkness receded gradually, the faint light of dawn piercing his eyes. He was in a cave; there were crystal cones protruding from the roof and the floor. Neo knew they were called stalactites and stalagmites, but he didn't know which was which, not that it mattered anyway. His happiness had been quenched by the sight in front of him. One look was all it took for him to know that he was not in a human settlement; in fact, he was far from it. The entrance to the cave was in sight, the visage of a glowing white sun towered above the world. "Where is this place?" Neo mused, walking towards the entrance of the cave. He felt something thin press against his pale skin. Neo looked down to check what it was, before he could recover from the shock that he was stark naked; an arrow pierced through the air with insane speed and lodged itself firmly into his shoulder. The force sent him reeling to the ground. Al
13 Neo checked out the skin and phantoms, and they were unsurprisingly empty. They were supposed to be extremely scarce anyway, so he didn't bother himself too much about them. As far as being cool went, skins and phantoms were also considered top-notch, albeit not as cool as specters, but in Neo's own opinion, they were as cool as specters, even much more so. The usage of skins and phantoms was rather simple. A skin will provide the wielder the ability to transform into a creature for a specific period of time. The usage time and cool-down period is dependent on the level of the creature. Phantoms work in an almost similar manner except for the fact that the wielder summons the creature whole without having to transform into the said creature. As for the perks and quirks, Neo already had a probable explanation for that. "[Bone of contention]," "[ten lives per second]," and Neo's second ability "[soul stinger]" were all Reaper's gifts, and they all had perks and quirks, so that pr
14 Neo was trying to fight himself free from the creature that was hell-bent on snuffing out what was left of his life. What's worse, Neo was bleeding from multiple places as blood cascaded down his naked body like a crimson stream. Speaking of blood, upon closer inspection, one would notice that Neo's blood wasn't touching the ground at all. Once close to the ground, it would suddenly turn into a spark of red lightning and dance out of existence. Neo's body also seemed to be undergoing the same transformation. His veins were slowly being replaced by red bolts of lightning as they flickered, and red sparks erupted from and around his body. Then the bolts of lightning made their way around his body, dancing and flickering. Neo's eyes shone a deep red hue as his strength exploded in leaps and bounds. He moved with inconceivable speed, grabbed the Herknidae, and pummeled it with his fists. A huge chunk of flesh vaporized out of existence, revealing the blood-soaked innards of the cre
15 "So uhm, a mutant beast would give me a beast soul, berserk two, and Amok three. The same logic should work for the monsters, devils, and the others I guess." Neo thought, finally alighting from his train of thoughts. Then he moved on. Innate ability— Crimson nebulae Remarks: You wield a tremendous power; its prowess can only be limited by your mortal body. Neo suddenly paused. The memory of him wreathed in crimson red lightning and the backlash to his body that followed flashed through his mind. "Now it all makes sense." Neo nodded weakly in understanding. He then continued. Reaper's gifts— soul stinger Reaper's remark: Energy is the foundation of all things. Perks: You gain great affinity to souls of the living. You can repair or destroy it. Quirks: During each attack, your souls become exposed. Progress— 2 Specter— Ten lives per second (soul tied), bone of contention (soul tied), cave mantle Skin-? Phantom-? Neo stared at "[soul stinger]" for a
16 It was a mural. There were three people, and two heads were missing. Neo stared at it in bewilderment, straining his eyes to make out its shape under the light bioluminescent insect lantern placed in the center of the room. After studying it for a while, Neo discovered the mural was only quite familiar with the portrait in Neo's house, but it was definitely not the same. Neo and his elder brother's head was intact in the portrait, but their parent's head was faceless, for a reason Neo would kill to find out. And strangely enough, as far as Neo knew, that was the only portrait that survived the fire. But the mural in front of Neo contained only three figures: two headless tall people, and a relatively short person with his/her head intact. It was just a bogus cave wall painting made with makeshift colors after all. So Neo couldn't quite figure out the gender or the facial features of the short person. Neo studied the mural for a while, but he couldn't figure out anything s
17 Come night, Neo's bizarre host was back, with a scary creature that looked like an ape from head to torso, and then had the lower limb of a walrus. Neo was… definitely not going to eat that."Dinner here," he said, dropping the carcass with a loud thud. "Nice mantle by the way," he added, his voice as husky as ever.Neo nodded in reply. He then swallowed and summoned up courage. "So what can I call you?" Neo asked grinning."Seeker… call me Seeker," he replied, walking towards his boulder. Seeker shifted the boulder with one hand, making Neo's eyes widen in surprise. As he was about to enter, he suddenly halted. Throwing investigating glances around the room. Neo's blood froze.But his fears didn't come through. Seeker entered, oblivious to Neo's infiltrations. Neo breathed a sigh of relief.*The next morning, Seeker went out to hunt and Neo decided to tag along. He wanted to get familiar with the environment in case he needed to beat a hasty retreat. Walking along with him, Ne
18 "Welcome, kid, to the valley of endless battle," Seeker said to the still discombobulated Neo. Neo was still reeling in shock when he suddenly felt a strong push from behind, and he lost his footing, falling from the cliff. His voice echoed, accompanied by a series of loud curses, but his voice was quickly drowned by the sound of battles below. He really wanted to arrange his thoughts, but the sight of the ground that kept growing bigger and bigger made his eyes twitch violently."What to do... What to do..." Neo thought as he tried to swim in the air. He only ended up looking stupid.Suddenly, a large arm grabbed his waist and glided over the battle below to a relatively safe place. It turned out it was Seeker after all. His feather mantle wasn't for show; it was actually a makeshift wing suit. "Never gets old," Seeker said, putting Neo down after the landing, almost laughing out loud. Neo, still exasperated, walked up to Seeker's towering figure. His voice was stifled amids
19 Neo picked up the sword, but it was too big and clumsy for him. Suddenly, the sword disappeared into a rain of golden sparks. "[You have acquired a specter]," a magnificent voice boomed. Neo flinched, hearing Reaper's voice. "Surprise!" Seeker said. As soon as Neo got closer, Seeker explained, "So, I untethered the sword from my soul core, and since you picked it up, it quickly recognized you as its master."Neo grinned weakly as he summoned the sword. It was very thin and long, and from a distance, it looked like a dark spike with red markings. Neo also noticed that its look was almost completely different from when Seeker wielded it. "Cool, it's of the demon rank," Neo thought, waving the sword in the air. "Alright, go on now, and if you die, I will kill you," Seeker remarked, snapping Neo out of his daze. Neo muttered some words that sounded like curses as he proceeded towards the battle in the distance with mixed feelings. His mood looked forlorn, but he tried to encoura