A Chat with a Old Friend

Lucon eyes quivered a bit before opening up, showing that he was in a giant white space. The white space vast and infinite, felt familiar to Lucon.

"Ah, welcome back."

Lucon eyes widened as he looked at the direction of the voice and saw a familiar being sitting at a table eating various gourmet foods. From a grilled pig to a salad filled with various kinds of fruits and vegetables. And grabbing this table filled food, with its many black gooey hands that stretched and turned, was a familiar black blob that was stuffing its mouth with food.

"Come, come, take a seat and enjoy yourself" the blob said as it ate and stuffed more food inside its mouth. Lucon stood there for a bit and stared at the being and walked towards the table. As he walked towards the table, Lucon felt something run up his spine. He quickly looked behind him and saw nothing but a white space.

"Come now" the being said, raising its arm and ushering Lucon to come sit. Lucon, though a bit confused to the feeling he just felt, turned back and continued walking towards the table.

Once Lucon made it to the table, he noticed a small translucent chair sat itself right next to him. Its position makes the being sit opposite from him. Another thing he noticed was that the small table that had seen from where he stood was a long wooden table, and the small amount of food that was sitting on the table increased.

Lucon pulled the chair back and sat on it.

"!!!"

Suddenly he is assaulted by a feeling of dread. His body began to twitch violently, his mind running, his eyes darting around to see what the cause was. But he saw... nothing. Not in the sense that there was no danger nor in the sense that he lost sight. But in the sense that he felt and knew he saw nothing, even though there was definitely something there. Right there, somewhere in the white space, something staring back at him, calling him, yearning for him.

He felt his body sweating, his breath becoming frantic, his heart beating heavier and heavier. He could not see it, but he knew, he knew! He knew something was watching him! He knew something was calling to him! But what! What was calling to him!

"Take a bite" the dark blob said, biting into the leg of a turkey. Lucon, still under the influence of whatever it was causing him to act like this, grabbed a nearby cooked wing of a bird and stuffed it into his mouth. He chewed and chewed, the sense of danger slowly disappearing and the sense of reality returning. He ate more and more of the wing, chewing its flesh and not swallowing a single ounce of it. He kept bitting and bitting. Gnawing and gnawing. Crunching and ripping at its surface.

Lucon chewed and chewed, before finally swallowing the meat. He felt a great sense of relief finally cover his body like a blanket in the cold night. When he looked back at the wing, he noticed that it was no longer in his hand. There was grease or even a sign of bones in his hand. 

"Ah, so that's your ability" the blob said as it finished eating its meal and wiped its mouth with a napkin. Soon the being stood up from its seat and walked towards Lucon. Its walk was elegant, yet animalistic. Its steps were that of man, but its arms moved as if they were of nature.

Soon, the being was in front of Lucon and looked down at him.

"What do you mean, my ability?" Lucon said as he stared, side eye, at the being to his left. The being smiled as did an exaggerated pose of widening its arms out, "oh, you know, just your Prana ability."

"... explain" Lucon said as he stared at the beings' many eyes.

"Hmm, where to start. Ah! Let's start with the obvious" the being said as it slung its right arms on Lucon's shoulder, "you awakened your Prana correct?"

Lucon nodded as he moved the beings arms off his shoulder. 

"Well that's good, to be honest sort of expected you to awaken it at least two or three months into the world, but I guess fate had another card to play from its deck" the being said as he manifested a deck of cards and shuffled it in its hands. He shuffled and shuffled the cards before tossing three cards onto the table and stabbing another card on top of the last card.

"Now, as you know, if you have Prana, you have the chance of awakening the ability hidden inside the Prana. Now, before I move on, I think we should name your ability, or more specifically your Prana" the being said as it manifested several stacks of paper and pencils.

"Let's start with-"

"Mad Mans Vow" Lucon said, interrupting the being before it could even continue its words.

The being paused for a bit, before it turned its head towards Lucon slowly, "what?"

"Mad Man's Vow, it's fitting. During the state I felt like I could do anything in the world and could enjoy the pleasures the world had to offer without the fear of anyone interrupting me" Lucon stated.

"... I see" the being said as it snapped its finger and the pile of papers and pencils disappeared.

"I guess with that out of the way, we can just start with the explanation of your ability or abilities" the being said as it grabbed the first card off the table and held it in its hand. "Alright, your first ability, with how you named your Prana, is called Pleasure."

"Just like you said, when this ability is activated, you will feel a sense of excitement, or in this case, pleasure as your mind starts to warp and change. This effect is due to it absorbing the Prana in the nearby surroundings and using it to boost your body to inhuman limits. Of course, when Pleasure is active, due to the high abundance of Prana entering your body, you will slowly lose grip of reality. You will see everyone around as nothing but a toy to be played with and to be tossed away once you're bored" the being said as it tossed the card at Lucon, who caught it in their hand and turned it around to see its front.

The card showed a skeleton on its knees, looking at the moon that hung in the sky, its hands raised up to the moon, and its boney mouth turned into a smile. Its surroundings was a forest that seemed to be dead, the river in the image dried up, and the sky above reddish brown, as if it was decayed.

Lucon eyes lingered on the smile the skeleton had. The smile, though plain, seemed to hold a sight of innocence as well as vile essence.

"Are there permanent effects?" Lucon asked as he placed the card onto the table and looked at the being.

"No, at least I can't think of any as of now" the being said as it used its many right hands to tap its chin, "oh actually there might be one, though in my eyes it really isn't a negative."

Lucon looked at the being, a bit impatient with how it acted and spoke. Since the entire time he was in this space, the being acted like a little child speaking to their parents and showing off some cool toy.

Feeling Lucon's gaze, the being coughed into its hand before speaking "the permanent effect I can see with this ability is that yours is that, the Prana you absorb alters your body...."

"Explain already" Lucon shouted, a bit pissed now.

"Alright, alright. Sheesh, just trying to figure out how to best put it in words" the being said as it got on top of the table and looked down at Lucon, "alright, as you know Pleasure boosts your body to inhuman limits, well a bit of that effect will permanently linger and will change your bodies mass and shape to be best suited for it. Don't worry, you won't turn into a six armed freak or gain a tail. If you're going to try to gain a lot of mass made purely of muscle, well give up on that idea, since the effects will just constrict it to the point where your once muscle body that many women would flaunt over will become nothing but just your average buff skinny person."

"So the good news is that I gain a bit of strength once it's done, the downside is that it decreases my mass," Lucon said.

"Yep, that's basically it" the being said as it pat Lucon's head a bit. Suddenly the white room began to shake and Lucon's body was slowly covered in a dark goop.

"Guess we're out of time" the being said as it hopped off the table and grabbed the four cards off the table. 

"As far as I can see, you're doing good in your life. Just remember to get yourself some friends and to enjoy other simple things in life, like fishing or being a kid" the being said as it held the four cards in its hand, revealing the names of the cards.

Pleasure, Release, Frenzy, and Plunge.

Lucon looked at the names and stared at the image. Release had the image of a skeleton smiling and being surrounded in a purple circle. Frenzy had the image of a skeleton surrounded by bodies that had cut marks on their surfaces. And finally Plunge had the image of just a world that had a purple sky and a living forest instead of a dead one.

"This is just a hint of what your next three abilities are, but a word of warning" the being said, its voice becoming serious, "if you ever awaken Plunge, only use it as a last resort. Since once you activate it, forces will converge onto your position and try to eradicate you from the surface of the world. Forces such as the Five Beasts, and mainly Amity."

Lucon looked at the being for a bit before he was fully covered in the black goop and disappeared from the white space.

"..." the being stood in the white space for a bit before looking at one of the corners of the white room. It could see a small purple crack appear on its surface. The being looked at the purple crack that was slowly expanding.

"It's not your time yet" the being said as it swiped its arm at the purple crack. The crack slowly began to disappear and heal itself.

"GROOOOOOAR*"

A roar was heard from within the crack before it fully disappeared. The being stood in the white space before smiling, "I can't wait for our next meeting, Lucon."