(Written while listening to: "Wake Me Up" by Avicii on Youtube
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"(...) The Ultimate Gate is pure Light. Evil Light (...) but Light nonetheless and Creatures in the Void are weak to Light. (...)"
-Quote from "How Powerful Are The Lovecraftian Gods?" YouTube video by Literary who
<<<>>>
'WOWZIE!' Laito repeated his reaction at the quite cool name of his newest ability.
One-in-all, after all, shared some wording similarities with One For All… and All For One. That's nice company in terms of strength to find yourself in.
But was it actually strong?
In the original novel Sunny was one of the insanely rare holders of Divine Aspects… but initially he was quite weak in terms of combat. Only after being taught sword fighting by Nephis and then polishing his Shadow Dance, he became a ruthless killing machine on the battlefield. "Shadow Slave" aspect, despite being Divine, was firstmost considered the "Utility" aspect.
Ranks of an Aspect mostly decided the potential it could develop… not always the current strength it held.
Latio has read its description.
Aspect Ability Description: [You can become part of anything].
—
Lato thought for a moment about what he just read.
'Soooo… that's the "Key" part right? Like you can put a Key into a lock and it temporarily becomes part of it…? I don't know. I'll see what is going to happen when I try it.
—
—
'Alright… that was the pleasant part…' Laito braced himself.
The Spell's voice announced with finality one last addition during this appraisal… maybe even the most consequential one.
[All power has a price.]
[You have received a Flaw.]
[Your Flaw is: Eldritch Horror.]
Flaw Description: [You are Evil, so you can only love yourself.]
—
—
If Laito had a body with blood, it would drain from his face as he read the information about his Flaw.
All things considered he was the type of "nice" guy. He liked when others were happy, as he thought that when others are content there's less chance they would bother him, which always stressed him out.
But not being capable of loving anything, but himself…
How he could be a hero like that…
Finding any joy in life would be more difficult.
Flaws are very scary. One has to learn how to live with their own. There's no circumventing it.
Flaws are one of fundamental laws of this reality established by the gods after they created the Universe from the Flame they… found? Or was born from.
Even gods themselves ended up being subjected to their Flaws.
There are many examples of those who managed their Flaws fine… like for example Sunny himself, whose inability to lie, allowed his tremendous character growth. There was also Kai who got turned into a living lie detector… despite it costing him his relationships.
There were also those who completely failed to live with their Flaws.
The prime example was The King of Swords. Anvil of Valor. His Flaw dictated that he would inevitably lose anything he cared for. His best idea to manage that was to just not care about anything.
Bad idea. It ended up turning him into an impassioned tyrant, making everyone(beside his frantic loyalists) to despise him.
'I don't feel any different… yet. Damn. This is going to suck so bad.' Laito thought and rearranged his runes to display his full current status in an easiest way to read.
[Tomes of Magic]
Unassigned Tomes:
Order Affinity: [Tome of Radiance(Complete)],
Astral Affinity: [Tome of Warding(Researching)].
Name: Laito Yogami.
True Name: Lurker at the Threshold.
Rank: Sleeper.
Class: Monster.
Existence Cores: [2/∞]
Existence Fragments: [1/3].
—
'Mhm… that's interesting. I'm already a Monster? Two cores… and no upper limit to their number?
'Wait… "Existence Cores"? And Fragments? I have only one? But two Cores? Something doesn't add up.' Laito felt increasingly confused.
'I remember Spell telling me that I have devoured a fragment of "Mortal Realm"... please don't tell me that I have to eat worlds to grow stronger… how do I even do that?'
Laito felt an increasing headache about his future. He decided to decide later.
Memories: [S-WORD], [Boner], [Rusted Spear], [Disciple's Robe], [Misericorde], [Cold Grave Coffin], [Memory of Abundance], [Seed of Darkness].
'Seed of... Darkness? Whyyyy. Where it is?' Laito focused again on the small orbs representing his memories, but he couldn't find anything resembling "Seed of Darkness".
'I do not remember getting it! I already know it is going to cause problems!'
Echoes: [Bona Fia], [Apollyon].
Avatars: —
'Avatars? Something like Sunny's Shades? That's… good? That's good!'
Attributes: [Divinity of Light], [Guardian's Vision], [Essence Recovery], [Not To Be Named One], [The Key and Gate].
Aspect: [Ultimate Gate].
Aspect Rank: [Unknown].
Innate Ability: [Fate-binder].
Aspect Ability: [One-in-All].
Flaw: [Eldritch Horror].
—
'Again… Almost all of my Attributes have changed. I hope for the better. Let's check.'
Guardian's Vision Description: [You can see everything that your Light touches].
'That's why I have 360 degree vision? I am a floating lightbulb at the moment, so that makes sense.'
Essence Recovery Description: [You have an impressive Essence Recovery].
'I guess my [Stamina Recovery] mutated or something… it was very useful, but having faster recovering Essence is more so.'
Not To Be Named One Description: [Born from the Nameless Mist, a being of pure Light you are nothing… so you can become anything].
—
'Soo, does that mean I am an Other now, or what? I remember that copycat latching onto me and I don't remember killing it… so we fused? I don't know. I'd rather for it to not have happened.'
The Key and The Gate Description: [???]
'Really? No changes here? Fine.'
Laito dismissed the runes after looking through all the changes. He felt mentally drained. And he was eager to return home.
He also wondered whether all of that was some elaborate hallucination and after all of that he would just wake up back in his bed with nothing changing.
But all of that what has happened felt far too real to not be true. Then again there are innumerable numbers of various quirks that would maybe allow creating dreams like that.
It was time to find out.
'Thanks for waiting Spell! I'm now ready' Laito joked as if the Nightmare Spell would wait for someone.
But then almost instantly:
[Wake up! Lurker at the Threshold!]
"
'What was that?' Laito thought with an exasperation at another anomaly.
Laito's surroundings started to spin and then vanished.
<<<>>>
[??? years left until MHA plot beginning]
[Chapter End] The story is not over yet
My tipping jar: [email protected]/marasis (change "@" into "a")
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Author notes:
In the end I have decided to "compromise" xd.
Ok, but seriously. I know that "Absolute" sounded a bit tacky, so following the advice from Spelloyal(Thanks!) to alter it into "Unknown".
From a plot continuity point of view, MC's Aspect Rank is still higher than what Divine Aspects offers (Obviously it's not canon in Shadow Slave universe).
From the author's POV(mine) his Aspect is still "Absolute" it's just the Nightmare Spell is refusing to acknowledge it.
What do you think about his Flaw? Yay, or Nay?
That's it.
See ya soon!