'Am I finally dead? Seems so, considering my mind can now compose thoughts. I was never one to deeply ponder about the afterlife, but I wonder which I'm going to…'
With a hint of fear and irritation it barked, "what the heck is that terrible noise? Vile Knight? What's all this about now?"
The eerie voice continued, ignoring his plebian plight.
Essence of existence – tainted. Darkness enveloped by the brilliance of Light armour. Born in Radiance and devoured by the Void. Unsanctioned existence.
Dweller ID … 070124
Title – Vile Knight
Power – 01
Knowledge – 105
Skills – [Crimson smith] [Mighty] [Hero] [Sole Survivor] [Battle Monger] [Greed]
Followers – 4289
Void Domain – 10
Armament – [Vile Armour] [Vile Sword]
Inventory – Nothing
Slaughtered – None
Dreaded Soul – [Visage of Terror] [Daunting] [Desire] [Retched Void] [Soulless] [Madness] [Unfathomable]
Vile Knight! Your Will?
Not even forgetting how terrifying that voice is, 'it seems to want something from me, all those seem to be describing something… Oh! I was doing something before ending up here, come on remember, God knows I cannot keep this voice waiting, I must figure this out quick good thing my knowledge isn't low. I my name, or title, seems to be Vile Knight. The dweller ID seems confusing but my skills seem to be suggesting something to me, smith, could mean I made the armament I am wearing, mighty, strength, hero- isn't that someone who helps others, at least at the core of it, sole survivor, meaning I survived something harrowing, through battle, and apparently I'm greedy by the looks of the last one. Somehow it seems I do not have the Vile Sword with me for all intense and purposes, I have nothing much in my inventory, a rather generous number of followers and regrettably I have never slaughtered a thing, I mean thankfully. What am I even saying? It's good that I am not a killer. My domain and effects of the dreaded soul all seem rather confusing, they don't stir up anything when I read them, come on think harder… There is the information about me only acquiring the title, soul, and residence of the void status recently, meaning it is something I have been pursuing or happen to come upon now. Meaning I did die but I didn't, I'm somewhere that's quite not the afterlife, meaning technically I had another life before all this and seem to have done all those things to get the skill cause they did not seem acquired, and considering the sheer number of followers, that might mean that these followers came with me since they were not acquired either, I can feel something but it keeps vanishing as if I should not know, well no use wondering about it now might as well see what my will, will be? The talk of light and darkness and the vague hints about the inconsistencies in my soul seem to point out that I was probably something that was not foreseen or maybe not even welcome, I have a feeling that wherever it is this deep darkness is, I will need impose myself seeing that I am a dreaded soul, so my will is like the voice is granting me a wish, maybe it is to apologise for dragging me from the raptures of the actual afterlife, or congratulate me for attaining these treasures, if they are treasures, since I'm still not sure whether I was seeking this power or happenstance, lucky or not, I still think I should probably make the most of this, he might have limits though, wouldn't wanna make it reject it. A will is more like something I wish to enforce, seeing that I am greedy, I should make is as outlandishly dreadful as possible too, I know exactly what my will is now'
"The will of the Vile Knight is… Knowledge – the entire catalogues of existence – to be privy to my existence, which you seem to insinuate that it should not be."
… Scale accumulation chosen [Will of Wisdom] Composition and transition completed. Synchronising soul… Complete.
'Is it done? What happens now? And what does the voice mean about the accumulation? So not done…'
Knowledge of void infused. Soul formed – conduit needed – Grain of Darkness infused into Will… Die!
'Guess that means it was not happy about me intruding into the void with my "unnatural soul", still I can't stop shaking whatever that voice is, I sure hope I don't hear it – ever! It made it hard to focus, with so much dread oozing from it, I almost missed some of the things it said, now what…?'
***
Collapsing onto what feels like solid ground it remembered, it was descending the whole time. Soon its vision pieced through the veil of darkness, not that it was fading but its eyes were adjusting, with not even a single speck of light littering the view, no sun or moon, not even stars. it could still see clearly though colours and all.
'How bizarre, there's rivers and fauna, trees, grass, and more, all of it is a shade of deep black, the river was crimson though, blood by the smell of it, seems that I have great senses, probably part of the mighty skill. Maybe I should go drink, cause it even smells way more alluring than what my senses seem to want to make me believe.'
It walked closer and crutched to study the bloody river, almost immediately it felt something welling up from its soul trying to explain what it is, it is looking at,
Despite pretenses this is not a river tainted with blood; it is the blood of the slaughtered. Once a being has been slayed, a portion of their blood comes here. The blood serves provide some of the life energy for the creation of those who are of the Void
'Interesting. It sounds like the voice I heard when coming here, but somehow, none of the essence of what made my being near it tremble is present. I think it is the basic knowledge about the void, that seems to be in the form of a miniature version, extremely weaker… so that's what it meant by 'Grain of Darkness' – so the information is stored or rather infused into my soul through it I guess.'
Well, that made it wonder about the creation cycle, but no answer came.
'That means that it gives me basic knowledge, or perhaps I am not sufficient for more, or even I might have to learn some things myself considering my will is wisdom. Doesn't really matter, I'm concerned is about its edibility'
Without hesitation this time it spoke:
Sustenance of this kind will not suffice; it will merely prologue your terrible hunger. Need to consume direct life.
'All of this is so confusing because a part of me thinks its new while it thinks it is natural. I guess too much information is a thing, time for me to hunker down and understand as much as I can about my situation. Firstly, I probably must slay the living to live, considering the kill counter, the river, and the supposed need to consume direct light. Secondly, I need find out exactly who I was but seems that it won't help me in this current predicament, so I'll have to move on. Thirdly, I need to study myself and see what a dreaded soul entails for me because I have a bad feeling that very soon, I'll have to contend with the locals, the ones that were created here unlike me who just arrived, I'm probably the only one to pull it off by the sounds of … I think I'll call the voice, Contempt of the Void, mostly just Void, and by the sounds of what it said it seems that I am an unexpected development, and I wouldn't wanna see what the locals might do to me when they realise. Lastly, I need to figure out my next move as well as more information about this place, both tasks need to be completed in unison.'
It focused in on the voice and instead letters appeared in its line of vision. A complicated array of meaning rather than practical language. They were ethereal but it seems it can interact with them, even though they still reminded it of its early encounter with Void, they were for sight instead of audio so that made staring at them more bearable. Deciding to begin with this first task it started studying them and even the voice tried to explain some of them if ever it was lost.
'I don't think the dweller ID will become important later in the future. Woah, what happened to my power, it's now 105. I can feel it coursing through me, seems like I get what will is, it is something the allows you get stronger, basically what makes your will stronger, also in turn makes your being stronger, meaning that I messed up, sure I got stronger, but that means I have to work hard to raise my knowledge cause the power will not rise on its own, thank goodness I didn't say something stupid like bend reality, cause that would mean that I would have to bend reality to raise my power by one. Something even worse I can't use the dreaded soul abilities except one, the rest say power level insufficient, seems like to unlock the first one I needed to be at level one hundred.'
[Visage of Terror] – Absolute fear of which, no being can ignore, no tool can conceal, no power can deny, unrestrained-utterly so.
'from what the voice also explain this means I bring fear to all that can feel when I am coming and that it can even cripple those of weak mind, and even those more powerful than me will feel this irrational fear, it is even more so that I can vary its effect, it seemingly is boundless how much pressure I can exert. If I had to guess I would say that the voice I heard also has this if it even is a soul.'
Skills – [Crimson smith] [Mighty] [Hero] [Sole Survivor] [Battle Monger] [Greed]
After thinking more on the uses of this it proceeded to look at its skills next, 'I can craft weapons, makes sense, then the mighty skill, when activated enhances my body, making me faster stronger and even makes my senses sharper. The hero one is perplexing, somehow, the more people believe in me the stronger I get, useless because once I carelessly activate the visage of terror, all that belief will turn into fear and I will get weaker. Sole survivor is impressive, it means that when I am utterly out matched, but I still have cause to resist, it will make me immortal, conditionally but wonderful. Battle monger enhances my use of weapons (including my hands if need be), it's like if in a fight and I pick up a hammer, I will use it with ferocity and bring death in my wake. Greed seems like it will turn into a problem, it uncaps my limits by forcing me to the task I am doing even worse, like if I start and I jump high I will want to jump higher next time, if I start collecting coins I'll want to collect as much as I can, if I pick a leaf from a tree I will pick them all.'
It took another look at the skills and sighed.
'What's the point in knowing how to fight if my power is low, maybe I'll be a tactician of war, comfy knight giving out orders from a distance while accumulating knowledge – Never!'
'I still can't figure out what the follower's part though…'
As it was thinking this a sudden noise caught its attention, turning around it saw it. An ugly beast in what looks to be human clothes 'humans? Oh! The things I must slaughter? Should I kill it?'
This was no human, just the first local the Knight met, one treacherous bastard.