“I accept your terms,” Noah resolutely said to the unnamed Hero hovering in the void, protecting the remnants of his lifeforce.

「Prepare yourselves. When you awake, your body will be different than you remember. 」Goddess Amber said.

“Wait. can you first tell me what you mean by lifeforce harvester? The SYSTEM said that my lifeforce harvest potential is irreparable and you didn’t mention it,” Noah said.

「The purpose of Users is to harvest populated planets of their inherent lifeforce, leaving them barren. Soulless collect lifeforce and transmit it to a nearby Pylon. The black energy is lifeforce processed into its purest form, even more so than the golden lifeforce of [Heroes]. The increased processing power of a Hero Origin node combined with the most potent fuel holds the potential to threaten the SYSTEM's existence. 」Goddess Amber replied.

“What does that mean for us?” Noah asked.

「Together, you’ll be able to accomplish more than I could. Some things are beyond my control, I am only a fragment.」Goddess Amber replied.

“In that case, let’s get started,” Noah stated.

「Noah, you will retain control of your body. The Hero Origin node will be transferred to replace your damaged Origin. He’ll override the SYSTEM’s default intelligence. To repair your corrupted Abilities, I must overlay his [Inferno] Ability to act as the trigger. That means they’ll work similar to combined Abilities and the effects will be unpredictable, but they’ll work. It’s only possible for me to perform this fix because you haven’t reached the four Ability limit. We wouldn’t have been able to transfer his Ability, making things more complicated. I will now begin.」Goddess Amber said.

Before Noah could reply, he felt something take hold of his consciousness. The Goddess Amber held his face cupped between both hands, leaning in for a loving kiss. The Amber butterfly flew into the barricade of golden fire, dispersing into the flames. The flames flattened into a calm bubble enclosing his remaining purple-lifeforce. It started to shrink as the unnamed hero was drawn toward him through the void.

The moment they made contact, the unnamed hero overlapped his consciousness. He could feel threads being woven between them, merging their two consciousnesses together. The Goddess Amber pulled away with an expression of unfulfilled longing. She dropped her hands away before fading into the void. Orange-lifeforce spread to blanket the black energy invading his body. Wherever it passed, the black lifeforce became tame. It also covered the golden bubble of flames, causing it to melt away and expose the purple-lifeforce within.

The purple-lifeforce mixed freely with the black-lifeforce pervading every corner of his flesh, becoming a midnight purple hue. His attention was immediately drawn to the swirling vortex of energy displaying his still body from a bird’s eye perspective.

His body was convulsing sporadically, similar to a Soulless being reanimated. The exposed muscles disgustingly crawled into place, closing the wounds as they flexed. Porcelain white skin crept over the muscles until it was flawlessly intact. Snow-white hair visibly regrew to replace the clumps torn away by the ravenous Soulless. As he watched, his eyelids suddenly flew open, revealing pitch-black eyes filled with glowing-purple iris.

It was the last image Noah saw before his perspective was dragged back inside his body. He was staring into the sky, but his eyesight was completely different. The world was filled with darkness as his eyes struggled to focus.

Am I blind?!

[Negative. We’ve partially undergone Soulless mutation. Your body is faster, stronger, and more agile. Also, your Abilities will now use pure lifeforce. It has a few other drawbacks and perks. Mostly that we’re stuck at Grade-3, but you also see as they do. Look around you.] The SYSTEM replied conversationally.

“Huh?” Noah wordlessly asked out loud.

He looked around. Like the SYSTEM said, he could still see. Instead of the usual variety of colours and objects, one would expect. The world had been replaced with low-poly geometric outlines over a solid colourless backdrop. Soulless milled nearby, their shape formed of a series of triangles. Strangely, he could clearly see the pure-black lifeforce swirling inside their bodies.

Pushing himself to his feet, he looked around. The Soulless completely ignored him like one of their own. One was even within arm's reach and didn’t even react to his movement. Suppressing his anxiety, Noah's attention was drawn to a strange pulsing coming from nearby at the same time as the surrounding Soulless. They all turned in the direction simultaneously. Noah remained in place as Soulless mindlessly charged toward the beacon.

He could see the geometric outline of the tower of cars reaching toward the canopy of giant mushrooms. The mushrooms in the distance were the same, formed of triangles outlining their shape. They were mostly filled with white-lifeforce, except for a few with various different coloured lifeforce swirling inside them.

“Wow, I can see lifeforce, but I can’t see normally anymore. This will take some getting used to. What’s that beacon?” Noah rhetorically said.

[It’s the local hivemind summoning nearby Soulless for reinforcements. A formidable User has been discovered.] the SYSTEM unexpectedly answered.

Noah looked closer, he saw previously unnoticed survivors climbing the tower of stacked cars. Their white-lifeforce blended weakly into the environment. He frowned at his inability to see individual people with his new eyesight. Instantly, the SYSTEM directly supplied their image into his mind, along with a summary of stored information about the person. Noah was stunned.

What’s going on? Is the SYSTEM trying to talk to me?

[Affirmative. After our Origin merged, my processing capability has been vastly improved. I also have access to the SYSTEM network.]

You’re the anonymous hero from my System-armour! What’s your name? I can’t just keep referring to you as ‘nameless’.

[My name is no longer important. We are one. All attachments related to my identity were not preserved after death, only my personality and the objective responsible for becoming a hero; Protect my son.]

What happened to your Origin crystal if you’re now inside my head?

[Investigate for yourself.]

Noah took the SYSTEM’s advice. He reached down, discovering that his [Grade 1 Inferno Breastplate] was reduced to fragments scattered across the ground. He could see their outline through the ash blanketing the ground. There were numerous small hexagon shapes filled with black-lifeforce littering the ground, but one stood out among them. It was among the wreckage of his System-armour at his feet. The Origin crystal was filled with black energy like the rest. What made it different was the steady bubble of red-and-gold light surrounding it.