Capítulo 3: chapter 3
Consciousness returned to Syonas in trickles; he had never felt this before, his face felt like it was on fire. The pain was excruciating, and He was finding it difficult to open his eyes. At least he did until he felt bony hands searching his clothes and putrid breathe on his face.
Syonas slowly opened his eyes and was greeted by the cold night sky. He gazed down at the dirty old beggar who was searching him for cash.
The beggar looked up and met eyes with Syonas. They where bloodshot, most likely from drugs, his face was gaunt and emaciated, while his head was covered in a loose smattering of thinning and scraggly grey hair, his clothes consisted of a familiar ratty old coat.
Looking to his side, he confirmed that, yes, it belonged to the now-dead Anna. The sight of her ruptured skull with blood and brain matter painting the concrete caused bile to rise from the back of his throat.
But he had to swallow it back when he felt to touch of cold steel on his neck.
"ya' move an' I cut ya'!" The beggar said in the accent of someone who was highly illiterate, he most likely was.
Syonas felt no fear. His hand shot up from his side and caught the arm holding the blade while giving the beggar who was knelt over him a solid kick in the chest, sending him careening to the floor.
Syonas was by no means an exceptional combatant in fact due to all the time he spent indoors, and on his laptop, his physical condition was less than optimal. Still, if a young thirteen-year-old boy, even after taking a beating, couldn't beat an old, decrepit and drug-addicted beggar, he would be the first to admit to his complete and total lack of ability.
Pushing himself to his feet, Syonas almost fell over again. He probably had a concussion, and from how much his nose hurt and the amount of blood that came away on his hand, when he touched his face. A broken nose as well.
Syonas shifted his blurry gaze from his blood-stained hand back to his surroundings just in time to see the beggar scurry back into the darkness of the night alleys.
With the beggar gone, Syonas refocused his attention on the dead body lying in the middle of the streets. Checking the time he could not have been unconscious for that long maybe only fifteen minutes any longer and he most likely would have been found by a street crawler with a little bit more spring in his step and would either been raped or killed.
Not exactly in that order either.
Syonas cautiously walked up to Anna's body, but as soon as he took one step closer he was treated to what the insides of a human skull smelt like, and immediately began to vomit, but his stomach was empty, so all he could do was dry heave in a corner for few minutes.
Syonas hastily got his gut under control he couldn't waste time, someone else could show up at any second. Wiping the spittle from his mouth, Syonas pinched his nose and walked up to the body and picked up the gun by its side. After placing the gun in his backpack, Syonas stepped away and was treated to the foul midnight air of the slums, but it was better than cranial fumes of the dead.
Turning his gaze unto Anna's corpse Syonas felt a great sadness overwhelm him, she was so young, he didn't know her well enough to claim she was innocent, but she was small and weak. To think that that monster of her father not only tortured her every day but raped her, probably more than once going on the fact that she was pregnant.
Mr Aziz
Syonas felt his sadness boil unto rage at the thought of this man. He wanted to find him and hurt him in every way imaginable, he wanted to take everything he loved and burn it to the ground right in front of him, and humiliate him in front of everybody. So that everyone would know that Kane Aziz was trash.
But he couldn't. He was nowhere near strong enough to kill Mr Aziz in a direct confrontation.
He could most definitely find other ways to kill him, but he could think of none that would escape the investigations of the ice locker. As one of the biggest gangs in Vero city, it wasn't outlandish to assume they had mages in their ranks, and in the face of a group of mages, there is very little that Syonas could do.
At least not yet.
So, he carried that overwhelming rage he felt boiling in his chest and pushed it down to the darkest corners of his mind, the same place where he kept all the anger he felt from his parents' death, and then he sealed it away.
Coming back to reality, Syonas felt himself be overtaken by quietude and calm, and in a strange trance, he robotically carried out his actions.
He picked up Anna's dead body in a princess carry, he registered the stench in the back of his mind, but it was to feint to grab his attention. Not with the words of Unella throne moving through his head.
'the mountain seeks no approval because it needs none.
The mountain fears, not his end because it knows it is merely part of a whole, from the earth it came from the earth it will return.
The mountain is fed by the land and watered by the sky.
The mountain indulges solitude because it knows no loneliness.
The mountain neither loves nor hates because both are deviations from the calmness of solitude.
At this point Syonas had already placed Anna's body in a ditch that he dug in the back of the house, he took one final look at her disfigured face and began to close the hole as the last line of the passage rang out in his soul.
'These words are for those who choose the path of the warrior, let your heart be like the mountain.
Unmoving, unfeeling, unshakable, a force of nature and be assured in your victory and your enemies demise.'
*****************************
Syonas sat in a chair in his living room and gazed down at the glowing crystalline marble nested in a small black case on his coffee table.
"Meow"
The black cat from this morning was laid on it's back in his lap as he slowly caressed its stomach. He had already checked its pulse, temperature, blood pressure even its blood content, and there seemed to not be any significant change except for one.
It was now twice the size it was this morning, it was almost the size of a full-grown house cat. Which was impossible even with a core, but there where no abnormalities which means there is only one answer, the core he fed it not only turned it into a demon beast it also made it evolve, that was the only explanation for its sudden growth spurt.
Which means if Syonas took his core he might evolve too, but this wasn't good news, not at all, this was just one more variable he didn't calculate for drastically increasing the chances that this will go south.
The reason all the other core transplants failed was that the body rejected the core leading to shock and death. Still, Syonas wasn't trying to implant himself with a core he was trying to use an already existing core as a sort of catalyst and guiding force to allow his body to mutate and naturally form his own core.
He spent years of his life encoding the perfect A. I into the cores for this very purpose, but a machine could only do as well as the information it's been given and the hardware it's running on.
Being programmed into a core, which was essentially the second brain of demon beast that ran complex operations like the evolution of a living organism containing billions of cells, the A.I couldn't have better hardware, at least not on Syonas' dime.
So the only issue is information, and even with the learning capabilities of an advanced A.I, evolution was too much of a wild card. If the chances of success before where seventy-thirty in favour of failure, now it was one out of a hundred. The chances of dying or worse had drastically increased.
This could kill him, he shouldn't do it.....
He really shouldn't....
But.....
Anna....
His parents....
How many instances of powerlessness must someone endure before they do something extremely stupid.
Well, at least in the case of Syonas that number seems to have been reached.
Bending forward Syonas picked the core from the table and threw it into his mouth, he swallowed it like a pill, so fast he could barely taste it.
He felt nothing at first just a slight tingling in his abdomen, which was quickly followed up by searing pain, he dropped out of his chair ,to his knees and started vomiting black blood onto the floor.
The rejection had already began.
Blood pooled at his knees as he got to his feet and tried to make a break for the bath room, but his body seized up midway and he fell to the floor, unable to move. With the searing pain in his stomach he forgot about how he instructed the A.I to paralyse the subject, so he wouldn't hurt himself thrashing around from the pain. Why not an anaesthetic? Because the pain was necessary.
For this to be successful, he needed his entire body to transform on a cellular level, and what better stimulant could there be, other than good old fashion pain and suffering. And suffer he did.
He felt blood start to drip from his nose and eye sockets thankfully he fell on his face, it didn't feel so good because of his broken nose but at least it made it easier for the blood to flow out of him.
The pain in his stomach began to reduce allowing Syonas a moment of respite but before it could completely vanish, the simmering ache exploded into a raging inferno of agony that now covered his whole body.
He knew what just happened the first stage was successful and the A.I had been able to encode itself into his cell structure before detonating the core and using the leftover energy to start a chain reaction.
He could feel his body changing, every cell in his body working in unison to create a brand new organ that a few minutes ago they didn't know even existed but they marched on regardless, because if they didn't this body would die.
At this point blood flowed from every orifice, even his skin. His bloodshot eyes began to swell in his head until with a loud pop! They burst leaving two bloody holes in his head, his nails cracked and shot of his hands followed by a geyser of blood, boils and recesses began to form in his skin, if you looked closely you would notice that the even formed on his tongue. The torment was so intense that consciousness had gone blank from the pain, that is not to say he was unconscious, it simply meant he was in so much pain he was incapable of thought.
In this blank state hours went by while his body fought to live, and by five A.M in the morning he felt his mind return to him as the bleeding stopped and the pain faded.
He laid on the floor in a pool of dried blood, his body disfigured beyond recognition, unable to gather the strength to move even a finger.
Syonas was exhausted but he seemed to have survived this ordeal, he felt his consciousness weaken as his eyes closed and he fell asleep.
....
....
...
[Initiating integration]
Syonas awakened as this image appeared on the dark back drop that used to be his vision.
[ integration complete ]
[ the host is currently fatally injured due to core formation, estimated lifespan: 2minutes, 23 seconds ]
Syonas body tensed in surprise from at all the new information he just received, he made the A.I specifically to help in the creation of his core but he didn't expect it to survive the transition from one core to another, he expected there would be just enough left over to complete the job but this was incredible. Too bad even though he succeeded it looked like he was about to die.
[ running potential solutions.....
There is enough energy left over from the initial core to initiate an evolution, would the host like the system to begin. ]
Yes!!
Syonas thought desperately hoping the A.I could read his mind considering he did not have the energy to move his lips not to mention talk.
[ affirmation received initiating evolution ]
Syonas felt joy for a moment followed by Horror as every part of his body was set ablaze by searing pain, thankfully he did not have to be awake for this.
[ inducing unconsciousness ]
Was the last thing Syonas saw before he lost consciousness again, for the second time that day.
******************
Syonas eyes flew open and he bounced to his feet in a single smooth motion only to slip on the floor sleek with blood and land on his ass.
".....uughh" Syonas grumbled to himself while getting up and rubbing his aching and blood stained ass.
Stumbling into the bathroom Syonas stripped himself of his clothes that seemed to have gotten to small for him and stepped into to shower.
He shivered when the cold water hit his body but it helped to clear his mind and calm his racing heart. He succeeded once more, he came very close to failure, very close to death, but he succeeded yet again.
He wanted to feel happy, he wanted to celebrate this success, but every time he thought of that unbearable pain he endured to do this, he could not feel joy. When ever he thought of his goals, of mister Aziz' face, of his parents death all he could feel was the mounting fury that he would unleash upon those that have wronged.
Realising this, he couldn't help but feel empty. Is this the path he had chosen? He couldn't even celebrate what might be the scientific breakthrough of the millennia, all he could think about was how close he was to exacting vengeance.
Syonas closed his eyes and centred himself, turning inward and finding silence. When his eyes opened all hesitation was gone, he had chosen the path of the warrior, he could not feel doubt, indecision was death and death was failure. He would not abide failure.
Stepping out of the shower he walked up to the sink, to brush his teeth and wash the taste of blood and pus from his mouth. He froze when he saw his reflection.
His formerly 5'5 body was now 5'10, his skinny frame filled out with defined muscle, his mop of red dreads that ended by his ears now rested on his shoulders, and his missing brown eyes had returned and where now a brilliant gold.
He looked completely different.
He expected the increase in size but not the change in eye colour. After all most first evolutions in demon beasts are only an increase in physical might.
" system evaluate my physical condition based on the parameters of strength, dexterity, vitality, tenacity and miscellaneous factors that show the same order of significance." Syonas said out loud while inspecting himself in the mirror.
[ affirmative initiating physical scan ]
[Scan complete]
[ name: Syonas Adanon
Age: 13
Race:???
STR: 10
DXT: 14
VIT: 10
TEN: 21
CHR: 25
INT: 15 ]
Syonas stared at the numbers, he did not doubt their authenticity since his core was connected to every cell in his body, and the A.I was embedded in the core. If it could not measure his physical condition with perfect accuracy, nothing could.
"what do the numbers mean." Syonas asked aloud as he stalked out of the bathroom and headed for his room. That was the right term 'stalked', he didn't even know what the numbers meant yet but he felt a definite improvement in his balance and flexibility.
[ the number 10 represent the limits of human biology to put it in context, an athlete of the highest order can only surpass his body's limit by one or two points through intensive training, barely scraping and managing to achieve a score of 11 or 12]
Syonas eyebrows shot up at this. One has to consider that he was a thirteen year old, yet from what his A.I is telling him after this evolution he was essentially super human.
His fists clenched in exhilaration.
He had only implanted the core today yet he was one step closer to achieving his goals. Taking a seat on his small bed, Syonas began conversing with the A.I.
'Explain exactly what you used to calculate my stats.' Syonas asked.
[STR(strength): this refers to the amount of force the host's physical body can produce.
DXT(dexterity): this refers to the host's ability to control the force that your body produces, as well as reflexes and flexibility.
VIT(vitality): this refers to the host's ability to heal and physical stamina.
TEN(tenacity): this refers to the host's cellular integrity and the body's ability to withstand damage.
CHR(charm): this refers to the host's physical attractiveness and the ability to give suggestions. This stat came into existence as a consequence of irregular soul fluctuations that took place during the evolution process.
INT(intelligence): this is a measure of the host's cognitive ability and physical senses.]
Syonas eyes rapidly read through the list with interest, but his eyes froze after reading the description of the charm stat.
Leaning forward with fingers laced and arms on his knees Syonas began contemplating the meaning of that statement, "irregular soul fluctuations".
Syonas had a fractured soul space, which means the connection between his physical body and his soul was tenuous at best, no matter how ridiculous the change he experienced was, his soul should not have been affected at all.
Unless.....
Syonas eyes brightened at a possibility he thought was inconceivable. Crossing his legs, for the first time in eight years, Syonas centred himself and reached for the ethereal state of meditation.
Many minutes went by, and Syonas felt nothing, letting out a sigh of disappointment followed by a chuckle full of self-mockery, Syonas opened his eyes and was greeted by absolute darkness.
And he had never been happier in his life.
Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder