Noah crouched down, brushing aside fragments of the [Grade 1 Inferno Breastplate] to retrieve the strange black Origin crystal. He held it up to inspect the red bubble of light. Noticing Noah’s curiosity, the SYSTEM projected a still image of the black Origin crystal into his mind.

Is this your Origin crystal? I’ve seen it before in a vision.

[I know the record you speak of. There’s a sealed file transmitted from an alien source containing glimpses of our future. The files can only be accessed by sufficiently powerful abilities. I have a copy of the file you opened with the [Prophecy] Ability. From what I can determine, there was an anomaly bridging us to an alternative timeline. The records of those interactions were delivered to the SYSTEM upon Arrival and assigned the highest priority: identify and destroy the Shepard of Dust and Child of Ruin.]

“Can you let me see the Origin crystal normally, with my own eyes?” Noah asked out loud.

[To an extent. I can only capture still images from your optic nerves and process the data into an image. I may be able to do more after upgrading. That’s going to be an issue. You are no longer considered a User. I can emulate the verification processes to hide us from discovery but we have to follow the Soulless evolution trajectory. That involves Pylons.]

“So, you’re saying that we can’t advance grades anymore?” Noah asked.

[Incorrect. We can no longer harvest lifeforce by traditional means. We need to do it as a Soulless would. You're not going to like hearing this. Do you want the good news or the bad news first?]

“Let’s go with the bad news,” Noah replied in resignation.

[Bad news, you can only obtain lifeforce by directly collecting it from another User. That doesn’t include their Origin crystal. They’re now useless to you.]

“Fuck! If that’s the bad news, what’s the good news?” Noah asked.

[[Meditation] will no longer work for you.]

“What do you mean [Meditation] will no longer work for me? How am I expected to regain my stamina without being able to absorb crystals? Sleep?” Noah interrupted.

[Let me finish. Pylons supply Soulless with stamina. Within range of a Pylon, your stamina is virtually limitless. That’s effectively this entire solar system with the number of Pylons currently on Earth. On the downside. If they leave, you’ll irresistibly go into hibernation to preserve your lifeforce.]

“How is that good news? I’m basically a puppet!” Noah exclaimed.

[Correct. Soulless operate to collect lifeforce for the SYSTEM. If you wish to advance, you will need to conform to their purpose. There are no current alternatives.]

“Forget about it. There’s nothing I can do about it for now. Let’s see what we can do about the survivors being overrun by Soulless,” Noah said in resignation.

He ended the conversation with the SYSTEM and focused his attention on gathering nearby black Origin crystals. He could easily see them clearly displayed through the piled ash and rubble. It took only a few minutes for him to collect the bulk of them in the area.

I got almost all of the Origin crystals, the rest are too well hidden or buried deep and not worth the effort. Someone else can have them. I need to get to the tower of cars before the Soulless overrun the survivors there. My fatigue from earlier is now nonexistent. I can’t wait to see what happens when I activate my Abilities with pure lifeforce.

Noah gave the SYSTEM a mental prompt to display the [System Interface]. He was stunned by what he learned. All of his Ability sigils had subtly changed. His three Abilities had twisted to mimic the symbol for [Inferno] with unique variations.

“The Goddess wasn’t lying. All of my Abilities are gone. They’re now all completely different, the SYSTEM hasn’t even assigned them names and descriptions yet,” Noah spoke out loud, his hands trembling at the loss.

[I don’t have the processing power to be able to simulate tier-5 Abilities. I must observe their effects in action to supply a description. Rest assured, they’re all better, not worse than your previous Abilities. Now’s the perfect time to test them out.]

“Right, the Awakened that alerted the Soulless might not be able to hold out for much longer,” Noah said.

He started to run toward the tower of stacked cars at a relaxed jog. Discovering that his stamina was completely unaffected, he gradually increased his speed until he was effortlessly running at a sprint. He covered the distance of a city block at breakneck speed, arriving near the base of the tower in moments. He stood dressed in his ragged clothes among the Soulless scrambling against each other to clamber upward.

Not far up the tower, he could see an Awakened filled with red-lifeforce. The SYSTEM transmitted a snapshot of her appearance. It was the teacher from earlier who had been welding the cars together. A little further up was the male student he had seen with her lifting the cars. His yellow-lifeforce looked to be almost depleted. He was struggling to hold the school bus in place as a group of students hurriedly climbed onto the tower.

The moment the last student disembarked, the boy’s Ability faltered. The school bus plummeted downward, bouncing against the tower as it fell. It caused the tower to lightly sway as it tumbled to the ground, mashing climbing Soulless into paste. Many other Soulless were knocked loose by its passing, falling into the milling horde below.

Noah retreated backward in time for the bus to land in front of him, crushing a large group of Soulless underneath. The bus crumpled under the force of impact, shattering the remnants of the fractured windows outward. Noah shielded his face with one hand against the debris.

“Mr Carswell, look over there! There’s other survivors, maybe they can help us!” A female student called out, pointing away from Noah. An unseen boom from the opposite side of the tower accompanied her words.

He looked to where she gestured through the horde of Soulless. Lord Raptor followed closely behind the Swordsman slashing open a path toward the tower. At his back were Meghan and Chad. Noah’s hands subconsciously clenched into tight fists after seeing the group.

Raptor! He won’t help you, girl. He’ll probably feed you to them. I need to do something before he gets to them, he’s almost there.

As Noah thought that, a second boom sounded as something launched away from the tower of cars. It landed directly in front of Swordsman, blasting away nearby Soulless with blue lightning. The SYSTEM attempted to send him a still image of the newly arrived Awakened standing amid the carnage. Noah could only see their outline containing a significant amount of blue-lifeforce.