Bab 1: Re: Calibration — HORIZON'S INITIUM
Spark!
Raging flames of bright red and blue colour danced around a man.
A man who had just died moments ago due..... to a satelite falling on his location.
The fire was, destructive, chaotic, and devouring like any other fire.
The crimson rays— they shine and the saphire flames encircled with goal to devour.
But the man did not feel anything but a warm yet cool feeling.
The flames moved around swiftly and fluidly, as if it was water.
Yet still, maintaining the ferocity and desire to consume— not drown —everything.
"Is this hell...?" the man asked himself, thinking as he saw the tall blue and red inferno above.
He stretched out his burning arm and looked at the burning muscles
'It doesn't hurt... It feels... warm but cooling. Comforting even.'
The blue and red fire continued to burn his muscles until nothing but bones was left of his body.
He looked up where the only source of light came from.
It looked like he was beneath an ocean with how dark it is when he looked down and how light entered the fire.
"H-how?" he questioned himself how this was possible.
He was in a sea of blue and red flames that ate at him like acid but hurt like fire.
The thought of flames acting like water was absurd, and so was water acting like fire.
Yet what he saw and was experiencing told him otherwise.
The fire was still knapping at him.
Even if bones were the only things left, the fire was 'hell' bent on devouring them.
His bones turned bright orange from the heat and broke down into ashes.
All that was left of him was an ethereal body.
<< Purgatory, complete. Proceeding with reincarnation. >>
A sudden voice intruded his thoughts and sparked confusion in his psyche.
"Wh— who?!" he exclaimed, yet no one had responded to the question.
<< You, a purified soul of vile origin, are to be sent to another world. >>
The monotonous voice rang again, this time, bringing even more questions with it.
<< You, a pure soul had landed in a world far beyond the world you had once inhabited. >>
<< As compensation from the omni-celestial administration, you are therefore handed help in this new world in the form of a system. >>
"What?!" the man exclaimed, clearly unprepared and caught off guard by the situation.
Yet the disembodied voice ignored the question and continued without concern to the confusion.
<< It will be helping in such way that you will have an easier time understanding and mastering everything and monitering your growth as you do so to recommend suited growth paths. >>
The man had few— no, in fact, many questions. He wanted all of them clarified but—
<< Without any further imput, the goal is to proceed. >>
His thoughts blanked out a second time as he felt a sudden pull on his consciousness.
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"What?" A soldier in black armour asked himself as he hid behind a tree.
The sounds of swords and spears clashing, arrows whizzing dangerously close, it all resounded in his surroundings.
"Where am I?" He asked, confused.
One second, he was living his ordinary life, yet the scenery suddenly changed.
His body felt pulled down by what he was wearing.
He looked down to stare at his chest covered with armour, heaving up and down.
He touched a part where a sword seemingly had pierced as there was a hole in the metal plate covering his chest.
Whizzzzzzz.....
An beam of light narrowly missed his head as he brought his head back up.
'Armour?' he thought, ignoring that his life almost ended, again
"Then...." he muttered and swivelled his head to the left.
He saw a worn dorn robot shouting like an idiot, hands over its head with a sword in its hands. Running towards him.
Cold seat ran down his back as a thought came to his head.
"Did I perhaps reincarnate in a battlefield?"
The soldier in black quickly rid of his mind of thoughts and found a sword. He brandished it towards the approaching soldier while he still had his arms raised.
Splash!
The colour of red stained the ground below as the soldier in blue quickly stabbed the sword in the guts of the stupid barbarian like robot. "BEEeee..." it grunted.
What had followed up next was cowardly, yet a smart option. The soldier in black quickly layed down on the ground and covered himself with the dead corpse.
He made it look that they were both dead by lying on the pool of blood. He did this in order to confuse his enemies into not attacking him, mistaking him for a corpse long dead.
Now that he had everything prepared, he simply played dead. Now that safety is temporarily ensured, he now began to rummage through the body's memories.
The previous owner was named as Lucius Acrux. He lived a normal life according to the world standards, all until suddenly disaster erupted in the form of robots gone berserk.
The world, according to the body's memories, is a world, fairly similar to earth. The only difference would be the apocalypse that was currently taking place as he thinks.
Due to an experiment on generating infinite energy source going wrong, a virus like energy had erupted unto the earth's atmosphere, corrupting all it can, mechanical things included.
This had caused global death rate to skyrocket, literally, as the humans had been forced to escape into space just to avoid any more casualties that may incur.
Thus, this new type of energy was then dubbed as "EXSIA".
Though the humans had fled in panic, an overwhelming desire to reclaim the planet was surging in their veins. Exsia is a very powerful energy source but the problem is it's corruptibility.
Still, the humans found a way to purify Exsia and process it into usable energy. But another problem arises, the humans can't just simply use robots to fight, as it worsen the situation even more.
To combat this problem, the scientists— no, humanity as a whole decided to create something entirely new: modified humans. To further explain, humans modified with cybernetics in order to obtain greater strength, powered by purified Exsia AKA Rifexsia.
They are called 'The Abridged' where they are able to use Rifexsia as they see fit, and resist the raw Exsia's capability of corruption through will and control.
As they had been modified with Exsia, they gained extraordinary power. These new order of humans were absorbed into the military force of humanity, further strengthening humanity's chances against the endless hordes of corrupted on earth.
Lucis Acrux is one such modified human. Well— the previous owner of this body is. After he had recieved the augmentation, he had been immediately ordered by the higher ups to descend to earth immediately, together with 50 other 'Abridged' like him.
Squad name: Horned-Serpent
Their primary goal was to land safely and meet up in rendevouz with a senior squad: Blue-Heron. After they meet, the senior squad will escort the survivors into the base of operations.
Key-word: Survivors
What does that exactly mean?
They weren't expecting everyone to survive.
In other words, if Rai— no, Lucis Acrux does not stand up and fight, everyone dies. The ones he is, and his team are fighting are equiped with thermal sensors.
It'd wouldn't take long for everyone on his team to quickly die if he doesn't intervene and he would be next, seeing as he currently able fight against literal hordes of enemies alone.
He.... They have to fight.
Pushing the metal ragdoll away from his body, the soldier in black— Lucis, brandished the sword and stepped forward, drudgingly slowly.
Slowly.... speeding up from a brisk walk, to a full sprint— swinging his sword upward into the air. Fragments of the concrete road, and metal shrapnel flew.
Time felt slow, and his senses felt numb, yet as sharp as the sword he was holding. Lights lit up on his parts of his body as he looked up at the bisected metal frame in front of him.
'So this is Exsia....' he thought, taking note of the superhuman feat he had just performed. Tearing through metal like it was mere mud instead was frightening. Exsia is a miracle....
<] It is. ]>
A monotone feminine robot-like voice answered Lucis in his mind. Lucis was left speechless for a second before a literal laser beam had blasted him on the ground.
"Ugh..." he grunted in pain as a wall of text appeared in front of his eyes.
<[ You have taken 40 points of damage. ]>
<[ Health: 260/300 (-40) ]>
'...Are you a system?' Lucis hesitantly asked.
<] According to your memories, no, I am not a system. Rather, I am an artificial intelligence skill called {Charys}. I exist for the sole purpose of assisting my owner and is merely a sub ability the system you have possess. ]> The voice answered curtly.
'I understand. How much Exsia do I have if put in the world's scale, Charys?'
<] If we compare the amount of exsia you have, you will only have the above average amount of exsia, master. ]>
Lucis began to immediately think of how to utilise the exsia in this battle. A thought came to his mind as the exsia in his body suddenly began to spread out and cycle in his body, enhancing it.
"It worked." He spoke while having a smirk of amusement with the succession of his quick theory.
He looked at the snipers trying to reposition themselves to hit him. "{Charys}, please inform me of the arrow's direction, or generally all attacks aimed at me. Also give me a map of the terrain and increase my reaction speed to respond to the attacks."
<] Alright ]> Charys had responded.
Lucis, with his newfound speed, quickly sprinted towards the archers like a cheetah. Lasers were shot at him, but they only grazed him as he dodged and continued running.
He quickly reached the snipers and started the massacre. He ducked nimbly, his hands touching the ground as a beam of light passed by above his head.
His legs sprung forward as he swiped his sword, cutting off a head. He stepped towards the right, evading another dozen synchronized shots in time.
He quickly and carefully approached and killed the snipers as to not get injured by overconfidence. He ran back to where the foot soldiers were.
He abruptly stopped as his eyes widen. Lucis leapt back and dodged a spear to the heart. He looked to where the spear came from and saw a pile of bodies.
His comrades..... there were about 15 of them stacking on top of each other's corpse.
Sweat trickled down his forehead as he gazed at the opponent in front of him. The sheer aura of intimidation it releases was simply monstrous for the current Lucis.
'Charys, give me statistics on it.' Lucis thought as he looked at the opponent that was slowly approaching him.
<] Affirmed. I calculated the amount of power the thrust needed for it to be the same as earlier, the speed it was delivered, the amount of reaction speed needed to precisely hit you in the heart while moving, he is physically at least 4 times stronger than you, ignoring when the mana enhancement is active... he would beat you instantly in a fight without you using mana enhancement that triples your amount of strength. ]>
"Hufff.... Well that's not encouraging at all." A wry smile embraced Lucis' face as he locked eyes with the humanoid mechanical monster. "Charys, do I also blank stat points included in my perks?"
<] You have aproximately 25 blank starter stat points available. Where would you like to put them in? ]> Charys' voice resounded in his head.
"Sh—" Lucis barrel rolled to the left as the ground he had once stood upon erupted into dust in the air. Curtly standing up with difficulty, Lucis craddled the right side of his stomach.
"—it.... Show me my status panel first." Lucis muttered under his breath as he held up his sword and supported it with both his hands as the visage of a spear slamming unto him flashed.
His knees gave up as his eyes glared unto the corrupted, and it did the same to him. It's crimson glowing eyes inspired a fear like no other. And Lucis began to question himself.
"Am I going to die again? Just like this? Without an even proper way like last time?" The question rocked him to his core.... to die like pig.
To die like a worthless hound on the side of the road without even accomplishing its first ever command. To be slaughtered without any chance of fighting back. "NO!!! I refuse!"
"Charys! Five points to strength!" Lucis shouted as he let out a war cry. "RaaaaaAAAAGH—!!" A burst of strength engulfed his entire being as he pushed the heavy spear away.
His body was now full of strength— "Charys, 10 more to dexterity." —he felt fast, his eyes glowed with intensity, feeling invincible, he felt powerful.
CLANG!
Time slowed down as sparks flew, the resonating sound steel echoing in collision, and the staggered frame of the corrupted in front of him, let him believe that he was so.
There are a total of 8 classes to the corrupted, or better know as Mutares. The first and very weakest of them all are the Rho, who are unable to use exsia.
Then followed by the Psi, who can barely use exsia to stregnthen themselves. The Mu, who possess strength to crush tanks with ease at average.
The Eta who could demolish small buildings in an instant, the Theta who can take out a tall building in just one attack, the Alpha who could level blocks, then the Omicron who could easily plateau an entire city.
Finally, the Omega class, to which their name literally signifying the end, possessing strength capable of decimating an entire country given a day only.
And Lucis, a 8th order Abridged, the Rho equivalent, managed to push beyond his barrier and fight on level against the Psi which is a class and rank above his suppossed ability.
BANG!
"I had enough of merely being a side character!" Exsia exploded forth from his body as he took a sword stance, placing his left foot back and his eyes were like knives themselves.
"It's time for me to decide my destiny!" Lucis shouted as he experienced another burst of lightness, he felt instantly lighter than before. 'Ten more points to dexterity.'
"It's is time...." he took a step forward as his image.... simply disappeared. "....I become the center of the light show." Appearing once again, meters behind the Psi.
"No, it's time I become the show itself." Swinging his sword down, a shockwave descended as the once overpowering Psi, bisecting it in half.
But he didn't stop there.
Using his new found strength, he burst forward with unstopable momentum.
Each slash, ten kills.
<] You have levelled up! ]>
Each stab, ten more deaths.
<] You have levelled up! ]>
Each and every stroke of the sword, a dozen died.
<] You have levelled up! ]>
This wasn't the end: NO.
This was but the beginning.
<] You have levelled up! ]>
The beginning of the journey of one lonely, emo as heck Rifexia-Augmented human.
<] Congratulations, you have reached level 5. Due to your stat specialization, you have been granted a unique skill: ..... ]>
And with his new found strength, the massacre continued, not of his comrades, but the remaining Mutares that had ambushed them. God is not with them.
And in one, single powerful strike, one pulsing with Exsia as its ambient counterpart gathered upon the blade, lightning descended upon the earth.
<] ...GODSPEED ]>
— Bab baru akan segera rilis — Tulis ulasan
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