Alright! time to start a new arc.

BTW I want to try shortening the chapters so I can release more of them faster. larger chapters are harder to manage and take more time to write, so I'm going to try this method.

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Chris’ eyes snapped open and he sat up. In a daze he looked around himself, he was sitting on a large stone platform. Chris now noticed other than the stone pillar he sat on there was nothing else but a space that was split into five colors; green, bluish green, blue, red, and yellow

“Where is this?” [Chris]

“Oh, looks like your finally awake sapling.” [???}

Startled Chris spun around to look at the owner of the ancient voice, what he saw was a giant trent like creature sitting in a float stone throne like chair.

“That voice, you’re the one who gave me that mana, right?” [Chris]

“Correct, now let us begin.” [Trent]

“Begin what?” [Chris]

“Our decussation of are contract, of course” [???]

Another voice, this time it was of a giglling young women’s, looking to the voice Chris found a beautiful mermaid with a trident in her hand sit in throne of made of flowing water.

“Done you think we should introduce ourselves, the boy looks quite confused.” [???]

Three more thrones were there now, they formed a circle around Chris. The other three had a Massive terrifying red dragon who’s body looked to be made of magma sat on a throne of fire and smoke, a winged golden tiger that was surrounded by sparks of electricity lay on a cloud, and a purple eagle that had a body of metal luster and wind constantly move around seemed to just be standing there with nothing under its feet.

“Yes, of course, I am the god of earth, Yggdrasil.” [Trent]

“I am the goddess of the sea, Aquarius, a pleasure little one.” [Mermaid]

“I am the god of fire, Volcanos, cheeky whelp.” [Dragon]

“God of thunder, Byakko, a pleasure.” [Tiger]

“And I young man, am Avion, goddess of wind.” [Eagle]

Looking at each one of the gods, Chris folded his arms, frowning.

“So what do you want, surely you haven’t brought me here to say hello?” [Chris]

Each of the gods showed a stunned expression. They hadn’t expected that kind of reaction. Volcanos he snarled as flames came from his nostrils, the anger apparent in his tone.

“Watch your tongue boy, if I wanted you would burn to ash. [Volcanos]

Though Volcanos threatened Chris, he wasn’t fazed because it was obvious that these gods wanted something from him, so he knew Volcanos wouldn’t kill him. Trying to control the mood Avion spoke in a very calm tone.

“Yes, young man, we have called you before us to make a contract.” [Avion]

“Contract?” [Chris]

The eagle nodded, Chris was confused and suspicious, but still Chris was interested, so he listened. Seeing that Chris wasn’t going to say anything, Byakko continued the conversation.

“We want you to win this game the grand goddesses of light and darkness play. Each time they turn this world into their playground it takes millennia to rebuild what was destroyed. When we learned that another game would start, we fell in despair. Then a shred of hope came, we discovered that grand goddess Fate would have a champion this time. So we place our hopes in you, her champion, and in return we will give you our help.” [Byakko]

“So you want to use me to get back at Aurora and Nocturia?” [Chris]

“Precisely” [Byakko]

Chris hesitated slightly before speaking, if they are offering something to make him stronger, he thought the contract might not be a bad idea.

“What kind of power are you talking about?” [Chris]

“We plan on giving you various skills that will merging with your job, to make you much stronger. Sadly, because of the state of your soul, there might be a few problems.” [Byakko]

“What do you mean state of my soul?” [Chris]

There was a momentary silent, with arms crossed Chris glared with eyes demanding an answer. After a short period, the silences was interrupted by Yggdrasil with a cough.

“Well, you see when I help you fight that man, the power I gave you was too much, and it damaged your soul.” [Yggdrasil]

“What does that mean exactly?” [Chris]

“The soul is where a beings mana is stored, as well as thinks like experience and skills. So in a sense, I overload it causing it to be damaged and with it being damaged you can’t level.” [Yggdrasil]

Chris froze, he could not grow stronger, what the fucks with that, anger boiled within him.

“Then fix it!” [Chris]

Each god put became sheepish, except Volcanos, who drew back his lips to reveal horrifying glowing red teeth, he snarled his words in annoyance.

“Little brat, dealing with souls is not something any of us can do, only one of the grand goddesses can do that.”

“Then tell Fate to fix my soul already!” [Chris]

A sighed escaped Aquarius, her expression became a tired one, and with it returning to a slight smiling she delivered the bad news.

“We did ask her, sadly grand goddess Fate said that since we made the mess we had to clean it up.” [Aquarius]

Chris’ anger reached a new height, one could almost see the flames coming from his eyes, nose, and mouth.

“Then how do you expect me to do anything, if I can’t get stronger, how am I supposed to win the game.” [Chris]

“Luckily the part of your soul that stores the knowledge of your skills was not damaged, so we can still give you skills, by ranking up those skills you can grow stronger.” [Avion]

“And besides it’s not like your soul won’t recover, I’d say ten months and it will be fine.” [Aquarius]

Chris thought for a moment, ten months. that was over the deadline for the Twin Swords tournament. Chris calmed himself and began to analyze the situation, weighting the proa an cons. Using his heighten mental processing speed, he reached a decision. Looking at the five gods before him, Chris took a deep breath and exhaled.

“Yggdrasil, that mana you gave me when my soul heals would it be possible to control it.” [Chris]

“Yes, but after your soul recovers it will take time for you to be able to handle that much power.” [Yggdrasil]

Lowering his head, Chris’ eyes flashed with excitement. If he had that kind of power, it would be possible to achieve some of his goals right away. Though until then, gaining strength could be difficult, so he asked another important question.

“These skill with time could they make me an S rank even before my soul heals?” [Chris]

Suddenly, Volcanos had burst into laughter, looking at Chris his eyes filled with bloodlust and something that might be called amusement.

“S rank, ha, given time you could surpass SS rank, that is only if you train hard enough.

Chris shook with glee, surpass SS rank that was too great to hear. Standing and spreading his arms wide, Chris smiled and announced his answer to the five gods.

“Fine, give me sufficient power in return and I will defiantly win that fucking game.” [Chris]

Yggdrasil nodded, his ancient arm moved opening his hand he reveal a small orb of green mana about ten centimeters in radius.

“This is one of the five elemental fragments, each one of us possess one, with them we plan to merge the fragments to create an artificial soul as a vessel for the skills we will give you.” [Yggdrasil]

From each of the other gods a small orb each a different color, now looking at all five they were quite beautiful. Yggdrasil’s was green within looked like endless field of grass, Aurarius’ was a deep blue which insides flowed like waves, Volcanos’ was bright red and looked to be made of fire, Byakko’s was yellow with sparks of lightning appearing every so often, and Avion’s was a light purple that gave off a gentle breeze.

“The fragments though merged will still be separate, each one can grow and give new strength, so depend on how you fight will affect their growth.” [Yggdrasil]

“It is also possible to receive mixed skills that are made from the combination of two or more fragments.” [Byakko]

Chris nodded in a daze, he couldn’t take his eyes off the five beautiful stone that floated in the air like five stars.

“The fragments will also absorb the experience your gain, this will relieve stress off your soul while it recovers, then when it is healed the fragments will merge with your soul and it will gain the experience. [Avion]

Chris’ eye browns raised, basically if the fragments gained enough experience, when they merged with his soul, Chris would get a major power up.

“Now let’s begin the merging process shall we.” [Avion]

The other gods nodded in agreement and the orbs slowly move towards the center. Once the fragments were only a foot apart the small sphere of mana started to revolve around an unseen center. Each of the fragments slowly moved towards the center of the circle they created, streams of color mana gushed out of them and started to blend together. After about ten minutes the five orbs had transformed into one two inch sphere of rainbow mana.

The orb floated not far above Chris’ head, Byakko sighed his eyes filled with nostalgia

“It had been eons since the last time the fragments were merged to create the [Five Elemental Core] .” [Byakko]

Byakko’s face changed from a reminiscent expression to a serious one, turning his gaze towards Chris he spoke like a mother warning her child.

“Boy, the five fragments hold almost endless power so be careful, there are those who can sense them. Until the fragments have merged with your soul it’s possible for others to steal them. If that happens it could become dangerous for not just you but everyone.” [Byakko]

“If it’s so dangerous why give it to me?” [Chris]

Sighing, it was Yggdrasil who answered Chris’ question.

“For you to continue moving forwards it was are only option, since we can’t heal your soul this was the next best thing.” [Yggdrasil]

Chris’ eyebrows furrowed, while it might be dangerous, ‘the greater the danger the greater the reward’ came to mind as Chris again looked at the sphere hovering above his head.

“Alright now, are you ready to accept the fragments, boy?” [Volcanos]

“Yes, so hurry up.” [Chris]

“Tsk, this little brat.” [Volcanos]

With Chris prepared the orb slowly descend, Chris could feel the waves of power coming from the fragments as it moved closer. The orb curved to stop in front of his chest, then after a second it again moved closer to Chris. When it finally touched Chris’ chest it didn’t stop, the sphere simply continued, soundlessly moving into Chris’ body.

When the five fragments fully enter his body, Chris felt a surge of power much like when Yggdrasil gave him many flow through his body. Instantly an explosion of little windows appeared in his vision.

Reading one after the other, Chris’ expression to one like a child’s at Christmas when they are finished opening all their presents and looked at everything they got.

“Looks like having a damaged soul isn’t so bad after all.” [Chris]