Chapter 21 The Beginning - The First Step towards Evolution(Part 1)

Suddenly staring blankly as the information flowed through his mind. Daichi realized how engrossed he’d been in his thoughts of killing that he’d lost sight of himself. “That’s never happened before, but it was a strangely invigorating sensation. I felt pure excitement. I recognize what I just did, I focused all of my thoughts and feelings into a singular point inside of me which was a representation of my greatest desire. That must mean, that bloodlust is the excitement and desire to kill.”

Daichi realized he’d just learned something useful for the future and himself.

Calming down. He opened his window to confirm his thoughts and take a peek

-Status-Name:Daichi SeishinClass:NoneLevel:17Race:HumanEvolutionary Path:???

Title(s):Psychopath, Touched by ChaosDivine Protection:NoneAttribute(s):ChaosHealth:100/100Mana:470/470

Strength:17Agility:22Vitality:10Spirit:9Intelligence:47Wisdom:50Aptitude:21(+50)Ability:17/500

Skill(s):Perception

Analyze

Ability:Touch of Chaos

Bloodlust: Aura

Inheritance:???

Ability Name:Ability Rank:Ability Level:Active/Passive Ability:Bloodlust: AuraRare1Mana Cost: VariesRelease mana with blood in mind. An invisible red aura that smells and reeks of blood is released. Effect: All nearby living beings are struck with fear - Amount of fear is dependent on strength of creatures affected in comparison to user. Growth: Intensity and weariness/fear is dependent on amount of life taken

“Hmm. I was half right, somehow without realizing it I started to release mana? I’m not even sure how I did that yet. It seems there’s still some basic things I should have bothered to ask Hannah after all.”

Looking down at the carnage with a more distant gaze, Daichi acknowledged that the place he’d called home his entire life would soon be gone and likely turned into a bloody fiery hell like that one down below.

“No point in wasting more time. I’ll get as many kills around here as possible and get back to the cellar. It’s time we move out. Even if we’re not ready it doesn’t seem like we have much of a choice.”

Then a chilling thought popped into Daichi’s mind.

“What if all this carnage isn’t just occurring down there? What if it’s happening in areas all around town? If that were the case… No time to waste”

Taking one last glance at the fighting down below, Daichi turned around and started running back the way he’d come. “I need to check out as much of our surroundings as possible.”

Making more noise than he would have preferred Daichi ran while hoping there was nothing around. He got through to the center of town before running past something and making eye contact. The eye contact was enough to stop him at a dead-run. Staring at it as it was still in the shadows Daichi’s mind blanked out for a second before he suddenly come back to himself. He activated his skill.

Lesser Named Demon: Gorath

Level: 32

Staring into it’s all black eyes and gargoyle like appearance, if a gargoyle had been splattered in blood Daichi’s mouth went dry.

“Level 32…”

Before getting a chance to react the demon appeared before him and kicked Daichi in the chest sending him flying meters backwards before Daichi could even react to his movement! Daichi hit the gravel and rolled five times before coming to a stop.

Trying to get up, Daichi felt completely out of breath. Even as he tried to fight the pain, he realized that the demon hadn’t moved. It’s leg still in the air. Still staring at Daichi with what he could have been mistaking for a sneer considering the situation.

Finally catching his breath, Daichi saw a few seconds later all it had done was lower it’s leg back down while not blinking even once.

“Serious. This is serious. Even if I wanted to run based on the speed it just showed me there’s no way that I could. So the only choice left is to fight.” Daichi felt overwhelming disappointed at his bad luck, even as he made up his mind to fight he knew that the odds were definitely not stacked in his favor.

Getting up off his knees and onto his feet Daichi slowly pulled out both blades from his scabbards and activated his ability focusing his entire thoughts not on surviving but rather killing this demon in front of him.

Suddenly all the apprehension he was feeling moments ago disappeared leaving only a desire to kill.

“I’ve never wanted to do anything so badly in my life before. It’s like my very skin is tingling and reacting to my very desire.” Daichi didn’t even realizing the veins in his eyes popping causing his eyes to turn bloodshot giving him a wild and unhinged appearance. The demon finally changed expressions at this sudden change but remained unmoving.

Daichi began his charge towards the demon “Arrghhhhhh!!!” Screaming at the top of his lungs he turned his body mid run and rotated his hips while reaching back and with all his strength launched one of the swords right at the demon while putting all of his weight into his front foot for balance and support using that as a platform to begin a sudden dash straight at him again trying to catch up to the speed of the thrown sword.

The demon dodged the sword to its left as Daichi arrived in front of it swinging his remaining sword downwards trying to slash its shoulder clean off. He took a few quick paces back easily dodging Daichi’s sword. Daichi remained unfazed and continued his attack swinging wildly at it, “I want to kill it, I have to kill it, it needs to die, I need to be the one to kill it.” Thoughts of its death and blood running down his sword further fueling his body as he slasedh at it non stop. Every time it dodged, Daichi switched positions and pursued slashing and slashing, dodge, slash, dodge, slash.

“I’m getting angry. It won’t let me kill it! Why won’t it stand still and let me kill it! Doesn’t it understand I need to kill it!? I need to cut into a million pieces until I can’t count them anymore!”

Daichi slashed again while pulling daggers out of their sheathes and throwing them at the demon in-between slashes. Dodging non stop, it’ continued to utilize footwork to evade every single attack.

Daichi moved in closer and thrust his sword. “If I can’t cut it I’ll pierce it! I’ll stab until there’s nothing but a hole where it’s chest used to be!”

Putting all his strength and speed into his thrust the demon waited until the last moment spinning around and evading Daichi’s thrust and then hitting him in the back of the head forcing Daichi’s face head first into the ground.

“Why didn’t I hit it!? It should be dead! It’s not dead! It needs to die!!”

Feeling pressure on his back Daichi tried stand up, but his body wouldn’t budge. His back felt numb and he could hear crunching noises.

“Are these crunching noises the bones of this demon being mashed into pieces?”

Finally Daichi’s bloodlust began to clear up and all he felt was numb.

Numbness.

“I don’t think those were his bones, that doesn’t even make sense. Did he crack my spine? Why can’t I feel anything?” he tilt his head to the side and couldn’t see anything. “Have I gone blind? No that’s not it. My eyes are closed. That was a scary thought.”

Although his spine was likely broken, Daichi couldn’t feel a thing but was still wondering what his odds of defeating the demon were. Even now he hadn’t given up on survival!

Except as the feeling of numbness and nothing else persisted and nothing else changed. Daichi’s thoughts of survival started to fade away.

“So this is how I die? Thinking about my life ending like this, it feels like such a ridiculous joke. After everything that’s happened recently I get killed because I’m running too quickly trying to do something good for everyone. Well, and myself. Still, this feels like a karmic joke. I feel so numb I’m wondering if that’s why I’m not afraid.”

He waited for something to happen. For pain or even for life to end. Something. Anything.

The more he waited the more confused he felt and the more that anxiety started to bubble up to the surface.

“I thought I’d come to terms with this, but what the hell? What if I end up paralyzed and I just die of starvation or dehydration. Impossible, I’m make a decent meal for some other monster long before that ever happened. Is that why I’m not dead? Is the demon planning on eating me?”

Feeling like an eternity had passed Daichi finally began to start thinking about what to do. “If I’m not going to die, then I have to figure out how to survive and get out of this. I’m numb, I can’t feel anything and can’t move. I have my skills and abilities, those are the only things left to me. My status screen!”

Daichi summoned his status screen but nothing happened. This had never happened!

“No, wait it has. During the event that caused all of the destruction I was numb, kind of like this and I couldn’t summon my status screen for a while. Is this the same?”

Thinking about his skills and abilities, “I can’t use analyze without my eyes, I can’t use Touch of Chaos yet, Bloodlust: Aura would be worthless and if it did work it might just make me go insane without a target to focus it on. I still have the perception skill!”

He focused his mind on the skill and tried to activate it.

Nothing happened.

“Fuck. It was a passive skill. No wonder I can’t activate it, but if it’s a passive that means it’s effects would still feel more prominent if I’m focusing on the skill.”

Focusing on the the skill he tried to do exactly what he remembered it did. He tried to focus on his mana. He focused within himself and tried to feel even a speck of his own energy flowing within the mana channels in his body.

He calmed himself and began to focus on sensing everything in his body. Since he couldn’t feel his body itself right now it didn’t take long for him to start feeling something different and new. I

“I’ve never felt this energy before. It’s volatile and chaotic. It’s aggressive and explosive.” The second he focused on a specific bit of this energy it felt like a loud exploding sound went off in his brain and he lost all focus.

He tried to reorganize his thoughts. “I know this has to be my mana. I can feel my mana’s presence now but I can’t utilize it in any way since it seemingly won’t let me. If I can’t use it because it’s so volatile then I have to tame it. I’ll force it to obey!”

…

I start focusing on sensing my mana again, feeling the chaotic energy flowing around me. I begin to understand as I grasp that I am consciously inside a part of myself that is always present but not actually inside of me. A place that shouldn’t exist in the physical but the metaphysical. This accumulation of mana inside of me, is and isn’t inside of me. It’s part of me but isn’t actually. As if I’ve accumulated not a certain amount of mana inside of me but rather the ability to wield a specific amount of mana and specific mana itself that is constantly coiling around a space that it creates itself that feels to me like a part of me but that could in reality be any where and no where. Mana is everywhere, that is a universal truth.

If mana is everywhere, then it’s constantly surrounding us, we are constantly engulfed by mana, we live in it’s presence and we use it as it allows us.

Finally feeling as if I have a glimpse of understanding as to what mana is, I think about what that means.

If mana is everywhere, and if we’re constantly surrounded by mana then why can’t we absorb it? If we others can sense mana around them, but that mana is separate from the mana inside of them, does that not mean that mana doesn’t pass through us? If mana doesn’t pass through us, then how do we accumulate it? If we can only accumulate mana through meditation or leveling, then doesn’t that mean that in a sense, we only gain further control of a greater pool of mana as we gain it’s permission?

After he came to this conclusion, he felt a feeling that seemed to be coming from somewhere intangible but interconnected to himself from somewhere he’d never felt. Unable to think of another name for it, Daichi realized he had no choice but to possibly call it his soul. He felt a wave touch his soul, an energy that seemed to approve of him, or perhaps his recent understanding.

Feeling this new and odd sensation, Daichi began to wonder what was happening.