บท 10: Legacy System

"What the hell are you?" I asked while circling the small black creature.

The creature is ridiculously small, only coming up to the height of my knees and its fur is pitch black, just like my arms. Its head is perfectly spherical and disproportionately larger than its body making the creature appear like a living bobble head.

It also has two large horns growing from its temples which are just as black, if not blacker than its fur. And as of right now, its horns are growing straight up, pointed at the sky. Oddly enough, the creature doesn't seem to possess any means of reproduction or have a means to excrete any waste. If I didn't see it moving, I might have confused it for some type of teddy bear.

"Greetings Lord, I am Baku, Avatar of your System." A deep and strong voice bellowed out of the little creature's body as it bent its waist and bowed towards me.

"Baku?" I reiterated, "Where are we, Baku? And what's this System you're referring to?"

"We are currently in my Lord's Domain, a pocket space between the Immortal and Mortal. As for your System, it is a Legacy from the Progenitors of Ancient. The System has recognized your Soul as its inheritor and has since fused with you entirely." Baku explained.

"Right. . ." I looked at little Baku's figure below me, his huge red, lizard-like pupils staring expectantly up at me. "No, that makes perfect sense, silly me!"

"So you're my Avatar?" I asked.

"I am merely a servant to my Lord, an extension of the System's powers to assist my Lord at any capacity." Baku bowed his head again.

"Right. Awesome. So tell me, Baku, what are we supposed to be doing in this desert?" I gestured around us, to the absolute dead world that painted our vision.

"My Lord's Domain is a destination for Lost Souls. Invite them and they will naturally serve you."

"Am I going crazy?" I asked myself.

What are the odds I'm back home in my cell high as shit?

That would explain how I'm suddenly fine. How else would my broken shoulder and screwed up leg heal?

"Hey Baku, do you have any idea who Olive is?" I tossed a line out.

Suddenly, Baku's facial expression grew gloomy and his eyes rolled back behind his head.

Releasing a heavy high, he scratched the back of his horn and replied.

"In a strange twist of fate, my Lord's Soul has been bound to that human woman. While the System and Soul are first introduced there exists a moment of vulnerability. The System itself must open the Soul to merge with it, this opening was unluckily called upon by that woman and without the System's integration, it merely exists as nothing."

"So that was all real?" I followed.

"Indeed." Baku nodded.

"How do I get back there?"

"The human woman must summon you herself and from what I recall, the requirements for summoning a Demon Lord are extravagant. It's a miracle she was able to summon you in the first place. If it weren't for your traces of Nobility, you would have been bound by a Slave Contract." Baku further lamented.

"Wait. . ." I paused to gather my thoughts and put the pieces together, "I'm not bound by a Slave Contract? But Olive's orders felt pretty overwhelming at the time."

"My Lord's System inheritance is tied to a power similar in origin with the demons. As the System was interrupted mid-integration, your existence as Lord hadn't fully matured, leaving you vulnerable to the Contracts effects. Now that the System and my Lord's Soul are one, the Contract's returned to a Symbiotic Contract."

"So we're partners?" I asked.

Baku stared at me. A clearly indignant expression strewn across his face.

"A mere human can never be equal to the existence of my Lord. . ."

"However, bound by Contract Law, it would not be incorrect to refer to her as partner."

Baku clenched his paws while spitting out the ladder of his sentence. The small bear clearly upset at having to acknowledge Olive as anything.

"Hmm. . . Olive and the others had a System screen as well. Does that mean everyone receives their own System?" This was a question that had been bothering me for quite some time now.

At first, I had come to accept that everyone got a System. That made the strangeness of my situation feel not so strange. That perhaps, reincarnating or having my soul moved, whatever happened to me, wasn't actually that outrageous.

But when I heard the System's voice whisper in my ear before drowning in the river a new thought occurred to me. What if the System and the Status were two separate entities?

"I do not believe those girls possess a System." Baku replied immediately.

"And why's that?"

"It merely comes down to what exactly a System is. A System is, as the name suggests, a systematic granting of treasures, an inheritance of a Legacy, it is a creation of the Progenitors passed down unto the worthy. Some Progenitors create System's out of boredom, others to fill in a specific role in the Greater Expanse. Either way, it is the inheritance of Gods. Meanwhile, while the Status screen is something likely to have been created by a Progenitor, I do not believe it is a System as aforementioned."

I listened carefully to Baku's explanation. As an entity spawned by the System itself, assuredly its knowledge involving the very topic would be trustworthy, right? But greater than that, if the Status and my System are a result of two different actions, that begs the question, would my System have given me a Status screen anyway?

To which Baku simply replied, "Yes."

"So then don't they just have really bad Systems?" I asked since I figured it was important to create clear distinctions when talking about something so huge.

Baku looked at me annoyed before unwillingly opening his mouth, "I suppose my Lord may say that, however, if I may, I find it crude to use a System as a mere appraisal tool and as such do not wish to sully the System title."

I continued to ask Baku a slew of random questions and luckily he was able to answer most of them, at least those that related to the System. When asked about the universe, the state of affairs, anything like that he didn't have an answer. According to him, the knowledge he possesses is granted via the System and therefore contains mostly System related information.

And System related information seems to be about their origins which, from the sound of it, took place billions or even trillions of years ago. But even so, knowledge towards the System is incredibly helpful. Especially since it's something that is supposed to grant me power.

And the way it works is incredibly simple. This desert space, my "Lord's Domain" is basically my personal sub-section of the universe. I can store anything here. I can build a great castle and spend my days here. I can transport goods between this space and Olive's world. In fact, once I get summoned again, Baku said I'll be able to travel freely between the two spaces.

Now if you're sitting there wondering, "well now Mr. Cain, why couldn't you do that from the beginning?" It's because I was never meant to go to Olive's world from the start. According to Baku, after I died my soul entered transit to Hell, home of the demons, where I would have inherited the Demon Lord title and served accordingly.

However, that vulnerability Baku mentioned earlier, that moment when my soul and the System merged, I was available to be summoned. And since I was already in the process of becoming a Demon Lord my soul opened up to demon summons. And in that moment, Olive miraculously locked onto my soul and pulled it away from Hell and in doing so, split my soul in two halves: the half that began to merge with the System in this Domain and the half that was pulled to Olive.

That's also the reason why all of my wounds disappeared. This Domain's version of my soul replaced the broken version from Olive's side. In fact, Baku told me that whenever Olive summons me again, she's merely summoning a remnant of my soul – a phantom. Although it appears and operates as a real body, it's nothing more than a summoned being and when I die as a summoned I simply return to my original world, unharmed.

Also, since I'm ranting anyway, normally when a summoned creature dies its contract with their Summoner breaks. Meaning that the Summoner is unable to summon that same summon again. This rule, unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, doesn't apply to me as I'm a "higher-level being" as Baku put it.

Basically, my existence is too high up to be bound by a Slave, or even Subservient Contract. I can only accept Symbiotic Contracts or those that place me in control. Furthermore, now that my soul has become whole again and the System has fully merged with it, the next time Olive summons me I'll be able to manually cancel and activate the summons myself, a perk of signing a Symbiotic Contract with your summons.

The only caveat to my Domain, and it's quite a lofty one, is that the living can't come here. And while that does make me incredibly anxious about my own situation, it's not all bad. As Baku mentioned earlier, my System's purpose seems to have something to do with collecting souls, or Lost Souls as Baku calls them.

And while I haven't met any souls yet, I assume they'll be able to keep me company in my Domain. That way, whenever I get tired of Olive's world I can come back here and hangout with my Lost Souls. With that being said, my first objective should be making this space more comfortable. I don't exactly want to sleep on dry, cracked rock afterall.

***

Olive opened her eyes to the blindingly radiant sun, its rays of sunshine blasting through the vibrant green leaves of the jungle trees. Pushing herself up, she took note of her surroundings and found herself washed up on a peninsula that interrupted the flow of the river.

Around her, the massive trees stood erect and full of fruits and vines, identical to the ones around their campsite. A few feet away from her, Lilly lay face down in the dirt and even further away, across the river itself, Isaac lay strewn across a fallen log.

Before bothering to get up or find the energy to scream her teammates awake, Olive called forth her Status.

—----------------------||—----------------------

Host: Olive Flinn

Species: Awakened Human

Class: Satanic Practitioner

Rank: Fledgling

Summons: |Lesser Evil • Cain|

Strength: F

Endurance: F

Agility: F+

Dexterity: F+

Intelligence: E

Mind: F+

Vigor: F

Abilities: |Summon • Hellspawn|

—------------------------------------------------

She sighed upon seeing Cain's name in her status window. She didn't see him around and was worried that, if he died, he would never be coming back. The words themselves were grayed out, signifying Cain is no longer present and is likely back in Hell, but his appearance in her Status near guarantees that all she has to do is summon him again.

He is her only Ability after all and thankfully he is even able to remain while Olive slept! At first, Olive was nervous when she read her Class and Ability, imagining herself summoning an ancient, disgusting creature the likes of which would haunt her dreams, but instead she summoned a rather regular guy.

But more than that, the regular guy possessed an extremely high evaluation from the Status and, so far, it appears to be true! Cain possesses unparalleled endurance, in fact, it seems as though he never gets tired! He never looks flustered or out of breath, and come to think of it, Olive isn't sure if she had ever seen him sweat.

Beyond that, he is reserved and keeps to himself, but chooses to involve himself when he knows he can make a difference. He is an observer with a bias towards Olive's safety, at least that's how Olive saw it. And even though she summoned him, she highly doubts she can completely control a fabled Evil of Hell – he most likely only responded out of pure boredom or curiosity got the best of him and Olive was merely the link between their two worlds.

"Lily!" Olive picked up a small, smooth rock and lobbed it onto Lily's back.

The small girl groaned and twitched before slowly pushing herself out of the mud. Wiping most of the mud away, she wobbled towards the river and sunk her head into the water. After washing her face and hair, she stretched, then finally bent over and stuck her fingers in the ground.

"Any idea where we are?" Lily asked while she waited for her flowers to bloom.

"Downstream," Olive shrugged, "the river could have turned any which way since passing out."

"Can you get him?" Lily asked, nodding towards Isaac while arriving beside Olive with a red-petaled cup.

"Yeah." Olive swallowed the flower's fluid in one gulp before picking up another rock and chucking it across the river, pelting Isaac in the center of his chest.

"I'm up!" Isaac yelped, "I'm. . . up."

It took a few hours of rest and digestion for the three adventures to fully absorb the properties of Lily's flowers. In that time, the jungle remained calm – much like the unnerving quietness that appeared before last night's attack.

During that time, Olive grew more fond of her two companions. Lily, even in this helpless situation, is a ball of uplifting energy. Nothing but sunshine and rainbows with her. Isaac, on the other hand, maintained his dominant pressure and continued to exude unconcerned confidence.

The two are pleasant to be around, especially while fighting for your life.

"What now?" Olive asked while the trio were preparing to leave.

"We continue." Isaac commented.

"Shouldn't we retreat and regroup with the rest, try again after the fifth wave joins. It's possible there's no time limit, maybe we can amass a larger force –"

"Retreating would dishonor the deaths of those who have died for us," Isaac cut Olive off, "if we turn back our comrades will have died for nothing. And besides, we don't know which direction we came from. Sure, we can follow the river, but that will lead us straight back into the Goblin's nest. We have no choice but to continue and grow stronger!" Isaac persisted.

"I'm in!" Lily shouted in support.

Olive starred at Lily and Isaac. She didn't know how to convince them, her idea seemed like the obvious choice. It's the choice that saves the most lives – at least theoretically. But what's worst of all is that Isaac acknowledged Olive's suggestion and then dismissed it!

He knew Olive's plan was the correct one, but his pride forced him to continue. And what was Olive supposed to do, try and retreat on her own? So without even getting an opportunity to vote, Olive and her companions walked along the river and followed it downstream.