Branded

Darkness, the hollow whispers of the empty void. They clung to Aiden as he floated through the vast sea of black. Until he slowly opened his eyes finding that he couldn't move. He tried his hardest to move but it was hopeless. Speaking and yelling didn't work either as it was only his eyes that were able to do anything. His mind started to panic and try to rationalize where he was.

'Am I dead? Where am I? What happened to the woman in black?' He was flooding himself with questions and thoughts that only made his panic worse. As he could feel nothing but the sensation of his eyes moving around. As he tried to find some sort of object or light to attach himself to, it seemed impossible. Nothing seemed to appear in the empty space.

That is when he started to truly believe he was dead. 'Dad, I am so sorry. I failed you and left you alone in the world. At least you won't have the villagers to worry about anymore or my curse.' He closed his eyes again accepting his fate, but then a bell rang out in the distance along with a voice.

"Bare thine hand... reach out and call to the souls that run astray from the one whom holds the Demon's Brand." A chant was becoming much more clearer, "Oh seeker of souls, place your hand on my bosom reach for the power within... may it grant you strength and power." That's when he could begin to see a light cast on a silhouette of a creature.

It's brilliance and shape were impossible to fathom, but not only did it stop the pain. It also held out its hands in a welcoming gesture. His arm lifted up and towards the creature. It was partly covered in a blackened mist as if his hand wasn't all there. Aiden's sense of feeling started to return as he could see specks of white light leaving his hand and floating towards the figure. The orbs passed through the being and melded with it.

As the last orb vanished it then extended its hand back to his own and grasped his right hand. The hot and cold feeling returned as he felt a surge of life swell in his body. No longer was world around devoid of anything but the purest blackness. But now he was floating in a foot of water on his back, his body almost translucent except for the mist around his right arm.

Aiden looked up and saw the creature hovering over him. It looked to have wings that were bigger than itself, a long neck, and a face shrouded in darkness. But the main thing he saw was a symbol blazed on its chest. A mark of a crescent moon behind the head of a dragon. Looking into its eyes, Aiden felt a pressure in his body as it started to return to normal. No longer transparent, but becoming solid and the world returning to what it was when he killed the Goliath Cobra.

Sitting upright, Aiden let out heavy gasps and rolled over. His stomach felt like it was wanting to lurch and vacate all that was inside it. Catching his breath, Aiden looked at the ground having opened his eyes and saw his hands beneath him. His eyes drifted to his right arm and saw the black veins gone. But as his gaze drifted further down, he saw blackened mark on the back of his hand. A dragon's head with a crescent moon behind it.

He couldn't believe his eyes, he looked at it, touched it. It felt like his skin but was still hot as he rubbed the marking. He looked around for the woman in black, but she was gone. Looking towards ahead of him Aiden saw something he never knew was there. But where the Goliath Cobra had died a glowing black flaming mass was floating a few inches off the ground.

"What is that?" He asked himself, as he stood up slowly and walked over to the black flame. His body felt fresh, as if he had left a cool bath. As if the fight never truly took place or even the sense of his insides burning. Whatever happened to him just disappeared from existence after he woke up. When he reached to flame, Aiden knelt down to touch it with his right hand. That is when something popped up in front of his face. A black bar with gold lettering appeared and seemed to be with arm reach distance at all times no matter where he moved.

"What is this magic?" He said as he tried to swat it away. His hand just passed right through the text as if it were mist as it dispersed briefly. It reformed back into the black bar with golden text. Not knowing what it was or how to get away from it, Aiden looked at the bar more closely. As he moved away from the black flame the bar vanished as it dissolved into the air. Whatever this thing was it kept appearing as he got near the white flame.

[Pick up item?]

These were the words that were written in golden text. As he reached out towards the flame again he couldn't think of a way to respond to the text. Not know what could happen he decided to just say, "yes." As he did, the flame flickered and dispersed. That is when another bar appeared before him.

[Soul of Goliath Cobra acquired!]

[Man Eater Hide: Armor Resource]

[Man Eater Tooth: Weapon Resource]

[8,000 Souls obtained, level up possible!]

His eyes darted to all the different notifications and then noted the amount of souls he got from touching the black flame. He looked down at the symbol on his hand and inspected it further. Aiden then came to conclusion that he got his Agate in the form of the brand on his hand. But he couldn't explain all these golden text and black bars. For there was nothing in the stories and legends about someone seeing these. Then as if reading his mind as he wanted to know more about this power another black bar appeared.

[Would you like a tutorial?]

He shrugged and said yes again, that is when the bar expanded and a wall of texts and moving images appeared. He had never seen anything like this nor the fact of a moving picture existing in this world. He began to read the text as it explained how it worked.

[Tutorial: Accessing the menus]

It explained that to access the various menus it had all he had to do was either speak the name of the menu or think it. The image showed a Knight in a very intricate armor design demonstrated. The armor looked to resemble that of a dragon knight. But had blacked pieces and right gauntlet had the similar brand to his.

"Speak the words and the menu shall appear. You have an inventory, status, and special menu." The Knight said, causing Aiden to look around and try to locate the voice. "If you wish to close the menus, think of it like closing a book and the menus will vanish." The put his hands together and closed them like he was closing a book. Which made the menu vanish before the knight. "Note, that you are the only one who can see these menus, be it from me or yourself. No other being can see them so no need to worry about others spying on your inventory or whatever you are doing in the menus."

Aiden continued to listen to the tutorial, or whatever it was called. The knight explained that killing a demon caused souls to appear in his Soul Counter. The stronger the demon, the more souls yielded by said demon. Which explained the 8,000 souls he had currently.

"If you happen to kill a demon it will drop an item as a black flame. These items can vary between resources or even weapons. Some creatures require special ways to kill them as to gain a better reward from them." The image moved over to a demon that looked like a deformed demon dog. The knight called it a Hellhound, a flaming dog from the pits of Hell.

"You kill this demon like any other it will yield souls and an item that could be useful. But if you kill it in a special way, it will drop a unique item to the Hellhound demon. Then he walked away from it, "This is a tutorial so I will not show you how to kill it in this special way. You must find it out for yourself," as the knight bowed.

"Thank you for viewing my Menu tutorial." With that the screen faded and in front of him was just the ground he was staring at. Aiden didn't know what to think or say, but he knew that this power, agate, or whatever it is. He knew that it was helping him but in a very round about way. Taking a deep breath, Aiden cleared his mind and spoke a single word.

"Inventory," as he finished the word, another large bar appeared and showed a little version of himself and his equipment. Next to that was a list of items he had on him with a golden glowing tab at the top next to others that looked like weapons, armor, a bag, and a scroll. Using his finger to try and touch the bar he felt resistance as his finger touched the Goddess Tear herbs in the inventory tab. This particular tab showed all he had on him instead of separating them out into the individual tabs as he found out that is what each tab did.

Aiden smiled as he could see all the items he had on him including that armor he had equipped as it showed slots on his person. Each piece of armor which included the chest, arms, and legs had pieces in the little boxes. When he touched the screen on the chest piece it removed it from his body. As black mist dissolved the chest piece from his body and put it into his inventory.

[Unequipped Elk Demon chest piece]

Aiden then clicked the armor in the inventory and a smaller menu appeared showing him some options. To either equip the armor, drop it, or destroy it. This seemed more in-depth than he first anticipated and for now he equipped the armor. Walking over to a large rock he sat on it and opened the Status menu after imagining himself closing a book with the word Inventory on it.

Another menu showed Aiden himself with a blank list next the image of himself. As well as words and numbers in separated boxes. It showed the words Vitality, Endurance, Intelligence, Strength, Dexterity, Soul, Faith, and Luck. Above this box was another box that had the words Souls with the his current soul count and then under that was the words "Souls Required for level up." Then he noticed the word Level with the number 1 next to it.

When he saw this he looked to the words below his soul count and saw he only needed 1,500 to level up. Looking at his stats he saw that his mainly physical stats were all higher than the other numbers.

[Vitality: 8]

[Intelligence: 10]

[Endurance: 8]

[Strength: 8]

[Dexterity: 8]

[Magic: 2]

[Faith: 2]

[Luck: 10]

[Passive Skills]

[Active Skills]

He noticed that the skills tabs were glowing as if something was drawing his attention to it. As he clicked it, he could see a few skills he already had seemed to have been transferred to this list. This Demon's Brand seemed to be a very useful tool as well as a blessing. But he was curious about one thing. What was the Immortal Cycle and what was the skill Immortal Body?