I honestly couldn’t stop myself from laughing.

IT'S NOT FUNNY

“Aiyla, relax…. Don’t worry, you are perfect just the way you are. The fact that someone made you feel like that…” A bloody aura surged out from Mark coating the surrounding corpses while his left eye dilated and a ghostly white flame surfaced around his remaining pupil…. “They deserve to die.”

The bone fragments that had been lodged into Mark’s skin were quickly ejected, including his entire right eye as the fragment had dug too deep. In the next instance, all the wounds that had covered his body began to rapidly seal themselves before a grotesque white ball emerged from his now vacant right socket. This ball quickly began spinning before facing forward looking as if it was a normal eye.

This continued until not a drop of blood remained on Mark, nor a single scratch.

Congratulations! You have forced your body to heal itself unnaturally, granting Compelled Reconstruction!

Compelled Reconstruction: (Tier I) Uncommon

Brought about by one's own will, this forces the body to quickly regenerate, albeit at the cost of an enormous sum of energy equal to the durability of one's body.

Blood Lust: 87% Efficiency

Natural Health Regeneration increased by 10%

Even after being completely healed Mark simply laid beside Aiyla. He was in no hurry to do anything of note, especially after being drained nearly dry from the unexpected healing.

Well that was neat.

SO WHAT NOW MASTER

*sigh* “Well first we have to go talk to that crazy pink haired chick…. Who in their right mind would throw someone down a pit, when I see her again I oughta….”

“You ‘oughta’ what kid.”

….

……

….

“Shit, shes right behind me isn’t she Aiyla….”

Aiyla stayed silent, no doubt confirming that said girl was indeed behind me….

“If I wasn’t so interested in what you are I would leave you down here with the ghouls….”

At their mention a chorus of moans echoed throughout the cavern, a chorus that until now, Mark had not noticed…..

“So i’m not able to really turn around right now, you mind helping?” Yeah that's embarrassing, all my muscles feel like their asleep right now. I don’t even think I have the energy to blink right now, I have to stop using all my pools so extensively….

Releasing a sigh, the girl quickly walks up to the unresponsive Mark and picks him up by the back of his jacket... Almost effortlessly despite her petite frame…..

As she starts walking away, Aiyla noisily screeches across the ground and through the various piles of bones and druid fluids….

“So… what's your name?” The girl held Mark up to eye level without breaking stride.

“Its Mark, and you?”

“Astoria…” Weird name, but whatever. Better than something I couldn’t pronounce.

“So what exactly are you? I don’t suppose you are exactly human given this is a different world and all that…”

“Ha, thats funny. No I just took this form as it's the least cumbersome. For one of the weakest races you humans always are the most comfortable. Well that and dwarves…. Damned midgets can sleep on a bed of nails and be happy….”

….

……

…..

“Wait did you say form? So what is the real you like?” Now I’m curious….

Until now she had not stopped, but that comment halted her dead in her tracks. A darkness fell upon her face before she asked,

“Are you sure you wish to know? It may be best if you didn’t…. If you weren’t scared up until now this would push you over that edge… It’s been so long since I have had a conversation….” Pushing past the darkness all I could see were the normally bright silver eyes that had dulled nearly to grey…. Damn, she's probably some hideous monster or whatever… HELL YES I WANNA SEE A MONSTER!

“Don’t worry, I won’t judge you. This is coming from the guy who just recently realized he had been talking to a sentient spear for a while so believe me when I say there's no way you could surprise me….”

She looked off into the dark cavern around us…. When her eyes returned to me they were still the same dull grey but a hint of hope was also present this time….

Without uttering a word she begun jumping upwards…. Then again…. And again…. Holy shit is she jumping on the air?!?!?! I am so confused right now…. It took everything I had left to hold onto Aiyla throughout the ride as it seemed as if Astoria would leave her behind otherwise….

After a few more minutes of the impromptu roller coaster we found ourselves sitting on a white balcony….

“Look up.” That was all she said before dropping me on the ground and taking a seat the chair that had appeared out of nowhere. Another completely identical chair proceeded to appear after the first before she indicated for me to sit…. By now most of my energy had come back but I still felt dizzy from the ride.

An embarrassing few seconds later I could confidently say I was seated, although certainly not without trouble. It's pretty damn hard to sit down when you have vertigo….

“Now. Look Up.” This time her voice had an undefiable command laced through it… As if I chose to disobey she would kill me…. I better not push her, i’m seriously done pushing my luck.

Looking into the dark expanse all I could see was the enormous vacuum of space slowly being devoured by the same black hole as before…. Chunks of the world were slowly being ripped off to eventually be absorbed by the void…..

“I don’t see anything? What are you trying to show me?” Seriously, I thought I was going to see a really funky monster chick but all I get is some astrology lesson?

“Thats my body…”

….

….

…

“Oh you mean we can see your body from here? But where?” I look down towards the surroundings only to be greeted by the same monotonous grey as usual….

“Look. Up.” This time her words held a tinge of frustration and anger.

“I don’t see anything!”

“Yes, that is my body.”

“But there isn’t anything up there!”

“There is.”

“But that would mean that you are….”

….

…

…..

Oh. Ok… Yea, I am not gonna lie that was not on the list of things I thought she could be….

“This worlds greatest fear has always been its own destruction. You see, unlike other planets, Udeolar had a will. That will manifested once the Gift had been given and that birthed me.”

I stared deeply at the empty void for a long time….

So this girl… Sitting right next to me… Was a black hole?!?!?!

“But wait how does that even work! How can you change your body if you’re really a black hole?”

At that statement the girl lunged at me, tackling me from the white chair…

“HOW DO YOU KNOW ME! NO ONE ELSE KNEW WHAT I WAS?” The entire tower shook as her voice blasted across the empty fields. The weight I felt from her earlier was nothing compared to now…. My bones creaked and crackled as they attempted to adjust to her weight…. I tried cycling Compelled Reconstruction but I had only recently acquired it, there was no way it could keep up with the damage she was dealing me….

“Oh god, just get off me i’ll tell you…” Abruptly she jolts back, as if only now realizing she had turning me into a Mark pancake.

“Sorry, it's just… you’re the first person that hasn’t tried to kill me after I told them what I am…” Yeah, i’ll totally forgive you just because you have people issues… Freaking drama queen…

“Before I do that, can you actually tell me what you are?” The silence once again drags out before she sighs….

“I am Astoria the Defiled One. Child of the Dark. Devourer of Worlds. The first Scourge of the Cosmos. No one has ever been able to guess my species as a Black Hole… well at least at first it was. It has had some minor changes throughout time but Black Hole has been the only stable point.” Huh, the people of this universe must lack our technology if they don’t know what black holes are…. As she listed off her various titles my mind grew fuzzy…. So she was also a scourge? Well I suppose that aligns with what I already know about them… Can’t be human… and are born of the fears of others…

“Well, where I am from, our technology has long since been able to identify the existence of black holes… But that's about all we actually know of them…. It’s cool to know that you’re also a Scourge though.” At this, Astoria seized me by the neck before lifting me off the ground.

“DO NOT TREAT ME AS IF I WERE A FOOL CHILD. YOU ARE OF THE INTELLIGENT RACES, YOU CANNOT BE A SCOURGE.” Damn, there she goes again with the outside voice. So much for being forgiven.

“I figured holding my spear would be proof enough? Doesn’t the Scourge trait say we have increased potential with Fallen or Cursed weapons?”

Hearing this, she releases me before stomping over towards the chairs.

“Who would've thought that he would spend such a long time under such strict guidelines only to break his code now. The fact that you know Scourge is an actual trait and it boosts potential is enough to verify your claim. No one, other than Scourges, are permitted to know the exact details of the trait.” She pauses as if thinking before resuming,

“As for your weapon, even with increased potential Scourges will normally never align themselves with something they had not personally created. Personal Weapons like that are more akin to an extension of yourself, and even when cursed would not bring about debuffs…. Yours on the other hand carries the malice and hatred of millions... billions…. Maybe more. That sort of energy is toxic, even to the mightiest of beings. This is only worsened once a weapon awakens a personality matrix, for your own weapon it's an amazing boon, however for anyone else, it would mean having their life force ripped from their soul, or in the worst case, being possessed.”

“You can think of weapons with a personality as a twin almost. They initially will take after their wielder before slowly growing and evolving. Thats why its so dangerous to use another beings weapon… They could quite literally use it to take control over you without you even knowing. I honestly don’t know how you are holding that Spear without it ripping your soul to shreds. Even I couldn’t hold it, without having my own leached from.” She quickly raked her eyes over Aiyla’s long form, as if she could ascertain any abnormality that would allow me to wield her…. Finding something she looked into my eyes....

“Listen, I may not know how you are currently keeping her hunger at bay, know that as you unseal her current form it will only grow stronger. This may not be a problem as I have never seen someone actually bond with another person’s weapon, but in any case it's worth the mention.”

….

….

….

“Wow thats alot to take in, but I think Aiyla and I will be fine. She may have been using me before, but now that we have reached an understanding, we can finally be there for each other. I will do ANYTHING for Aiyla, so there shouldn’t be a problem when it comes to feeding her. I still have to ask though, how are you here if your body is the black hole?”

She laughs before explaining, “Thats easy. Magic.”

….

…

…..

Oh is she not going to explain that? Seriously, you can’t just say magic and let that be that.

“What about magic lets you be here?”

She laughs again, I am starting to think she's teasing me, “That's quite the personal question…. Just know that once every being gets to a certain power level they can achieve feats like this easily. It depends on the person and their powers for how they achieve it…”

Well that was vague but it seemed like all she was willing to share.

“Fine, I guess that’s fair. You can’t go around giving away all your secrets, I understand. At Least tell me how I can get off this place before your main body destroys the planet….”

At the mention of me leaving she whimpers….

“It's been so long since I have talked to anyone… and even longer since they haven’t been afraid. Do you really think I would let you just slip through my fingers…”

At this, I feel Aiyla rapidly heat up in my hand before the world goes black.