(Written while listening to: "Zankoku na Tenshi no Thesis" by Yoko Takahashi on YouTube)
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"There would be a Guide—and a very terrible one; a Guide who had been an entity of earth millions of years before(...)"
Quote from "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" by H. P. Lovecraft & E. Hoffmann Price
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Laito felt pressured. He had already sacrificed a lot and was just a tiny nudge away from pushing the potential of his yet to be made Avatar.
But looking at the last acceptable option that he could use, there was risk involved.
Making something related in any way to the concept of "solace" into a part of his creation was quite dangerous, as solace was closely associated with madness and to the Daemon of Dread, Ariel…
The same one whose tomb housed the final Nightmare seed.
'It's dangerous and risky… Screw it!' Laito chose to throw cautiousness out of the window and threw the casket into the melting pot.
[You sacrificed a Memory.]
[Current predicted Avatar's Aspect Rank: Supreme.]
'LET'S fucking GOOOOO!!!' Laito cheered aggressively while flailing his ball form around.
With a pulse of energy the Tome of Radiance vanished. The symbol that was activated started to radiate stronger and stronger.
Laito "new sense" that he had felt awakening earlier started to stir and shift and then…
He felt himself splitting.
It wasn't painful or even unpleasant, but it was weird(like basically all that had happened around him recently).
His light orb form had a 360 degrees vision in all directions thanks to [Guardian Sense].
And now that vision started doubling.
'Woa, I can see a part of myself… wait does that mean I look like a butt?'
He indeed looked like a glowing, floating butt for a moment.
And then the two "halves" of him split.
It looked quite alike to cell division.
'I found my second Core! I wondered where it was…'
The truth he found accidentally during the Avatar creation process was that both of his cores were perfectly overlapping each other all this time, while bringing the same empowerment that Divine Aspect holders had when they used their multiple Cores to manifest additional force of their own. Like Nephis's flames, Sunny's shadows and Mordred's mirror images.
'I can see twice! So much seeing! Now what?' Laito still had that feeling that pulled on one of his Cores.
He followed the feeling and moved himself… a half of himself, towards the activated symbol on the platform.
And sunk into it.
The other Laito-orb observed the process from the side and hoped for the best.
The one that entered the symbol has been eveloped by the energies of the process.
'Okay… the moment of truth.'
The one directly involved started to rise.
He emerged back from the yellow-gold symbol and started to shine brightly with light.
And then his form started to change.
It started to... shrink and reshape itself.
After a few seconds the Laito observing stared in shock as he saw:
—
—
'A bird.'
—
'It's… a bird.'
—
'A pigeon.'
Laito was stupid at the time so we have to forgive him for feeling disappointed. It wasn't a mere pigeon.
It was a magnificent dove!
With beautiful pure white plumage and elegant form.
But yes… most people at the time would consider that disappointing. Heh, how naive.
But back to Laito.
The floating orb of light stared at the Laito-dove while the dove-Laito stared back at the floating orb of light.
[You have created an Avatar of yourself: Keeper of Souls].
—
'Keeper of Souls… that doesn't sound half-bad… but it's a pigeon!'
It's a dove.
'What can it even do? I guess I have to check.'
While dove-Laito began to inspect its new body, the orb-one summoned the Spell's runes to figure out what the hell had happened.
He instantly noticed that Tome of Radiance was gone from the "Unassigned Tomes" category.
Instead, it was under the description of his new Avatar.
Speaking of which:
Avatars: [Keeper of Souls].
'Good, that's what I have expected, let's see what's there.' Laito thought and inspected the details.
Avatar's Tomes of Magic: [Tome of Radiance(Complete).
Avatar name: —
Avatar's True Name: Keeper of Souls.
'... What? Well I guess it could be expected since the Spell told me that it would have an Aspect of its own… Wait! It's a pigeon! Not a human! Animals shouldn't have Aspects! What is going on…' Laito got confused as he remembered that ancient powerful non-human beings were called "Noble Beasts" before all of them went extinct because of corruption.
They indeed did not have Aspects of their own and grew the same way that Nightmare Creatures did… just the other way around.
Laito decided to just read further.
Avatar's Rank: Dreamer.
'The same as me… because it's me. It's fine.'
Avatar's Class: Beast.
Avatar's Memories: —
Avatar's Echoes: –
'It… can hold its own Memories and Echos of its own? Why? For what?'
Avatar's Attributes: [Flame of Divinity], [Font of Wisdom], [Holy Ghost], [Lurker's presence].
'These look SO noice… except the "Lurker's presence" one. Creepy. No, wait again! It's about me. Then it's okay. Descriptions, descriptions…'
Flame of Divinity Description: [Your Soul is aflame with light of divinity.]
'Mhm. I know this one. I wonder how that works since I have "Divinity of Light". Now that I think about it… Do I share my Attributes with my Avatars or not? I'm curious, but it's for the future to figure it out.'
Font of Wisdom Description: [You possess uncanny insight into the mysteries and truths of the world.]
'Really? I don't feel any different. I guess I already knew too much in the first place. Beside… "Font of Wisdom"? I really like that one. Good sport.' Laito fell into slight reminiscence about his mentor during his now over trial.
Holy Ghost Description: [You are a being of Order. The holiness of your very presence radiates with light, faith, justice, peace and authority].
'That's… interesting. I remember Spell mentioning the "Affinities" of my Tomes, with Order being the Affinity of Tome of Radiance.' Laito remembered the connection between the two.
Lurker's presence Description: [You are a vessel for the Lurker at the Threshold].
—
'Jeez. If I didn't know it's about me, I would have freaked out at that. Imagine someone checking their Attributes and randomly seeing this… really bad.' Laito felt shivers at the creepiness of his own powers.
'That's for the Attributes. What's next?' He wondered.
Avatar's Aspect: [Avatar of Order].
Avatar's Aspect Description: [You are an Avatar that belongs to the Order Affinity. Order is the power that brings structure to the cosmos and the lives of mortals.]
'Kinda self-explaining, but it's good. Much better than some eldritch, scary, horrible descriptions. My own is a bit too much.'
Avatar's Aspect Rank: Supreme.
'Yup, I knew that one.' Laito confirmed that Spell's promises were correct.
Avatar's Abilities: [First Blessing].
Avatar's Flaw…
'NO FUCKING WAY YOU ARE GIVING ME ANOTHER FLAW!!!'
Laito seriously crashed out.
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[1,5 years left until MHA plot beginning]
[Chapter End] The story is not over yet
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