Gazing into the abyss

The moment he stepped inside, he headed straight for the dice room. He only had 20-something silver coins, but while changing his appearance constantly and being more careful, he quickly made 43 gold coins.

At this point, he cheated or stole most of the city’s wealth. Done with the money gathering part of his visit, he started watching the women there, searching for easy prey.

Noticing a woman in her mid-thirties flirting with an older man, Seth approached her, placing a gold coin in front of her.

“Are you free?”

The woman bloomed into a smile and nodded at the sight of the gold coin.

His six was a lot tamer than the last time, and his size was also smaller, but with his perfect body control, the woman still barely managed to keep up.

After a while, he let the passed-out woman go and searched for other prey.

Having learned his lesson, he only kept each woman for about an hour and practiced everything he had learned to make them reach as many orgasms as possible. He noticed that the more satisfied the woman was, the more lust energy he would harvest.

He slept with over ten women until he finally formed his lust source. He also learned a bit more about how to please a woman, so he was pretty content with how the day went. Still having 32 gold coins left, he walked out of the gambling den.

It was already midnight, but he needed to form his perception source. He would buy some energy vials for the other three sources, but for his perception source, he needed something more.

He received a lot of positive energy from all the women he slept with until now, but he also needed some negative energy.

“Well, I guess I’ll just rob my neighbors.” Muttered Seth under his breath and returned to the inn.

The innkeeper was still inside, sleeping over the counter. Seth tossed 30 coins in front of him and said: “Vials.”

“Tomorrow evening.”

“Can I get them in the morning?” asked Seth as he threw the other two coins as well.

“I’ll bring you 30 vials tomorrow morning.” Said the man as he dragged the coins under the counter, and Seth continued heading towards his room.

When he stepped inside, he found Leora asleep on the bed, wearing the same clothes she wore in the afternoon.

She opened her eyes and said: “Welcome back.”

Seth nodded and replied: “I’m going to make some more money. I need you to wait for me at the window.”

Leora didn’t understand why but still moved to sit by the window. Seth opened the window, turned into a palm-sized bird, and flew out, leaving Leora to stare out the window with a pondering expression.

Seth ignored the warning and quickly moved between his inn and the Calibrum Inn, bringing back 26 more gold coins before returning to the room. Once in his human form again, he spat a mouthful of blood and fell to his knees.

Seth smiled wryly at the text in front of him and said: ‘How long until recovery?’

Meanwhile, Leora came to help him up as well. She didn’t seem to mind Seth’s naked appearance when she asked: “Are you alright?”

“Yeah. Help me lie down.” Said Seth and let Leona support him to the bed.

“Turning into something other than a human puts pressure on my soul, and I get slightly injured. I’ll be fine by morning. Now listen carefully. I’ll start explaining some stuff to you.”

Seeing she started paying attention, Seth spent the entire night explaining the existence of energies, sources, how they are created, how they can be used, and so on. Done with the general knowledge she was missing, he started telling her about light energy theory.

Leora listened to his words carefully and would ask from time to time if she didn’t understand something. This continued until the morning when they were interrupted by a knock on the door. Pausing his lesson there, he asked her to pick up the crate outside.

Leora walked out and returned carrying a crate full of vials.

“Are these energy vials?” asked Leora as she lifted one to her eyes and inspected it.

Seth nodded and said: “We’re stopping our lessons here since I have to form my sources. In the meantime, remember what I told you and try to feel the light energy around you. You can take some coins if you get hungry or want to go out. I can always make more.”

Seeing her nod, Seth drank all the vials one by one before lying down again and starting the source creation process. The process was longer than even he expected, taking two entire days.

Leora spent most of this time practicing. She went out to eat occasionally and even paid an extension for their inn room.

Two days later, Seth opened his eyes and exhaled a powerful breath as he watched the text in front of his eyes.

“It’s finally done.”

Excited to finish the source creation process, Seth stood up and looked at Leora on the floor. She was sitting with her eyes closed and one hand stretched forward, but there was a slight frown on her face.

“Leora, how is it going?”

She opened her eyes at Seth’s voice and shook her head. “I’m not feeling any sort of energy…”

“Doesn’t matter. You have time. Get changed. We’re leaving the town.”

Leora nodded and asked nothing before getting changed. Seth looked at her naked body and activated his lust source.

His vision changed, and he could see a gray aura hovering over her entire body.

He then activated the Perception energy. Leora’s aura changed into half red, half golden. The golden energy was threading softly towards him, but the red one was leaving the room and extending outwards into the city.

‘System, explain her feeling to me. I’ve never read auras and need some confirmation.’

Seth smiled and started changing as well. He made sure she saw him, but her lust aura didn’t change at all, nor did she show any change in expression.

‘After all, that happened to her…’

Seth sighed silently and changed into a pair of black pants with a white shirt. The clothes looked modest, but they were of relatively high quality.

Leora also changed into a modest black dress that barely showed any skin. After tying her just as long black hair into a bun, she turned towards Seth and said: “I’m ready. Where are we going?”

“To the capital, but I must first put some things in order.” Replied Seth, and they both walked out.

Walking to the innkeeper, Seth placed all the coins on the table, only keeping a single gold coin, and said: “I need a high-quality carriage with two horses and full of long-distance food.”

The innkeeper nodded as he pulled two golden coins from the pile before placing a small wooden token. “Go to the largest of our sheds in the north to pick it up. Do you mind if it’s stolen?”

“No. Using the rest of the money, please deliver food to my village and ensure it’s distributed among everyone there.”

Counting the remaining coins, the innkeeper said: “Depending on the quality of the food, this would last from one year to ten.”

“Make it average in quality and distribute any other provisions or materials they might need. Make sure it lasts them for at least two years.”

“Alright.” said the innkeeper indifferently as he gathered all the coins.

“Also, tell your boss that if he does what I asked him to do well, I might have more rewards for him when I return.” He figured two carrots and a stick might motivate him even further.

“I will inform him.”

Seth nodded and took the wooden token before walking out of the inn with Leora.

“Why did you buy food for your entire village?” asked Leora while heading towards the thieves’ guild shed.

“My parents live there.”

“But why not buy it just for them?”

“Because people are greedy. The moment my parents are the only ones living lavishly inside that poor village, the others might get envious and try to pull some stuff. Like this, everyone will be relatively content.”

Leora nodded and continued following him in silence.

When they reached the shed, a carriage was waiting for them in front, full of sacks containing food. Passing the token to a guild member, Seth and Leora took the reins and started heading north toward the Capital.

Seeing that Leora stood next to him, he continued reading her light energy theory while gathering more energy into his sources, focusing mainly on his space and destruction sources.

The journey north continued peacefully for an entire month until they finally exited the town’s influence. They passed by three small villages on the way, but Seth didn’t stop at all, intending to reach the Capital as soon as possible. During the entire journey, Seth would spend the first half of the day explaining the theory to Leora, while on the other half, he would have her try to feel the energy for herself. He also took some time every evening to teach her to read.

Seeing a mark with two skulls on a tree to the side, Seth pulled on the reins to stop the carriage and turned towards the covered back where Leora was practicing.

“Leora, we’re leaving the city’s protection. If anything were to happen, I want you to stay quiet and stick as close to me as possible.”

During this month, he got an even better understanding of Leora. She was a relatively quiet girl who seemed to have an uncanny indifference toward everything and everyone. The only thing she seemed to care for was getting stronger.

Hearing her let out a sound of affirmation from the back, he smiled wryly and hit the horses with the reins to make them walk forward again. She kind of reminded him of his old self.

He didn’t know the reason for this exactly, but he believed it was related to her time in slavery. She probably locked all her feelings inside.

He didn’t have to wait long, and not even two hours later, a group of six people appeared to block their path. They all had different weapons, ranging from made-up spears to simple knives.

Hearing the carriage stop again, Leora came to sit next to Seth, her expression just as indifferent as always. She didn't seem to care even with all the eyes lusting at her body.

“What do you people want?” asked Seth, already knowing the answer to the question.

“Nothing much. Leave behind your carriage and that girl; we’ll let you be on your way. See, we’re generous people.” Replied one man in the lead with a smirk on his face. Seth didn’t bother changing his looks much before leaving the town, only making himself slightly taller, but they both still looked like a bunch of 19 or 20-year-olds.

“It’s been a while since I had some fun.” Muttered Seth under his breath before standing up. After he jumped down from the carriage, he started walking forward slowly.

“What? Are you deaf, brat? Or do you want to beg us?” asked the leader again, and all the other bandits started jeering in the back.

Seth smiled at his comment, and a dark red sword soon took form in his hand out of nowhere. The blade was made entirely out of destruction energy.

All the bandits’ faces contorted in terror as they started walking backward. The leader said: “We didn’t know. We didn’t know sir was an ascended. Please spare us.”

“Oh? Wasn’t I supposed to be the one to beg?” asked Seth, already having reached less than three feet away from them.

The bandit leader opened his mouth to reply, but Seth didn’t give him a chance as he lunged forward in a piercing motion.

The leader lifted his cleaver to block, but Seth’s sword pierced straight through the cleaver’s blade and the man’s neck.

Swiping sideways, Seth decapitated the man and dashed towards the next bandit in line. The bandits turned around and started to run away, but how could Seth let them leave so quickly?

Focusing on his space source, the distance between him and the first bandit disappeared instantly, and he claimed one more head. His body started flashing through the battlefield from one bandit to the other, decapitating the remaining four in seconds.

Looking at the plain filled with headless bodies, he canceled his destruction sword and walked back to the carriage with no drop of blood on his entire body.

Leora didn’t look impressed and asked: “Was that space and destruction?”

“Yeah.” Seth nodded and started driving the carriage forward again, ignoring the blood-filled road, before continuing: “Destruction is quite easy to handle, but space is still a pain. A few blinks, and I spent all the energy in my source.”

If he didn’t have the system to help him, he wouldn’t be able to blink at all.

“How does it feel?” asked Leora, seemingly not even having heard his earlier words.

“To empty my source? It…”

“To kill people.” interrupted Leora.

“Oh.”, said Seth before gathering his thoughts and continuing with a melancholic look in his eyes: “Now it just feels like a slight pressure on my chest, but it wasn’t always like that. The first time I took a life, I immediately threw up and couldn’t sleep properly for a few months.”

“The second time, I threw up again, but insomnia persisted a few days less.”

“It slowly started getting easier and easier to kill. In the past, it felt no different than swatting a fly.”

As more and more time passed, his soul got used to his memories, and his feelings started falling into place. He didn’t shut them completely like in the past, but killing was still what he knew best.

“How many people have you killed?” asked Leora.

“Too many to count.” Replied Seth.

“Are you a God?” asked Leora next, catching Seth entirely off guard.

“What made you ask that?”

“I’ve heard girls pray to gods in the dungeon in the past. As those men did those things to us, the ones who held the most were the ones who prayed to gods continuously. I wondered why they prayed to these gods even if nothing had changed for so long? Who were these gods? I eventually got curious and asked them what gods were.”

“They told me gods know everything, as you do. They told me gods are strong, as you are. You can change your body at will, which I had never heard of, but I guessed it must be something they didn’t know. Also, the look in your eyes matches none of the faces you’ve shown me until now. That’s why I asked you to show me your face.”

“I thought I could finally see the face behind those eyes that sometimes look at me like I’m nothing but an insignificant ant, but that face you showed me didn’t seem right either.”

“Is there any other face you keep hidden behind those eyes?”

Seth smiled and asked the system: ‘What are the consequences of releasing my divinity now?’

Seeing the curiosity on Leora’s face, Seth asked: “Want to see it?”

“What?”

“The face of a God.”

Seeing her nod while fixing her eyes on his face, to not miss a single expression, Seth changed his face to the one in his old life.

Leora frowned and was about to speak when Seth activated his divinity for a brief second.

In that brief second, Seth in front of her turned into a giant towering over the entire world. She saw images of him gazing upon different worlds and those worlds disappearing like they never existed in the first place. Pictures of him killing endless armies with but a single thought. Everything around him was slowly fading into thin air, leaving behind nothing but a giant shrouded in a dark red mist sitting on his throne in the empty and lonely space.

Tears of blood started rolling down her cheeks as she stood there frozen, her mouth still open as she was about to ask a question. Her eyes were utterly dull, and blood was dripping from the corner of her mouth.

She remained like this for an entire hour until some light returned to her eyes. She immediately turned around and started puking out of the carriage. Seth stopped the carriage and waited for her to calm down.

Once she puked everything she could, she turned to look at Seth and asked in a shaking voice: “What was that?”

“A mortal’s eyes gazing upon a God’s divinity.”

“Divinity is like a crown given to a person who reached the very top and understood a concept to perfection. For that brief second, your soul peered into everything that is both destruction and me. Since you have but a mortal soul, it was flooded with information and almost crumbled into pieces.”

“Then why did you show me?” Leora had a terrified expression as she asked her question. She never imagined there would be something that could make her feel so scared in this world.

“Because you asked me to.” Said Seth with a smile.

Leora nodded mechanically and walked into the back of the carriage without another word. Once she was gone, Seth spat out the mouthful of blood he was holding in his mouth.

‘Because the seat of light is still not taken. I can see it, locked deep inside Leora, the same will that pushed me forward in my previous life. Peering into a divinity so early would speed up her progress. Who knows, she might pull it off.’

‘Of course there is. She is one of mine.’