Some abandoned building, Northgate, Seattle, King County, Washington, Monday, December 7th, 2015 06:00f

The thermometer marked thirty degrees when her phone buzzed next to her neck, waking her up. The sky was clear, without any clouds whatsoever. The only things that blocked the stars were pollution, either the smog or the city lights. Sara rubbed her hands together and stood from her makeshift alley bed.

She jumped on her feet, hovered a yard above the ground, then slowly floated down. She folded her wings behind her and gasped. Sara scrambled to fetch her still-buzzing phone and checked. Chloe comforted her with a cold muzzle and a lick. After a month fighting demons side-by-side and deepening their bond, she took the Pale Horse for granted. Next, Sara stared at her phone. An old iPhone 4. Released in 2010. It looked comically small in her already tiny hand.

Too tiny. She felt the cold of Washington's winter, recognized the alley. Sara was back in her 13-year-old body, back in Settle. Back to 2015. Four years before the Apocalypse. Three years, ten months, eleven hours and forty minutes, to be precise. But if one wanted to be precise, there's leap years and... never mind!

Did she at least retain her Personal System Core? "Status!" Sara shouted, heedless of eavesdroppers.

Name:

Sara

Species:

Nephilim (+2 Skill Slots - usage: 10/12)

Bloodline Trait:

Half-Spirit Flesh

Magic Type:

Mage - Enhancer (Exclusive)

Special trait:

Death Sight

(Able to see ethereal entities and sins)

Special trait:

Personal Core

(Treat Core Strength as levels in a main Class).

Main Class:

Click to see Options

Secondary Class:

Click to see Options

System Funds:

$ 500,000

System Debt:

$ 0

Development

System Core Strength (SCS)

25

The System Core becomes stronger and better at generating its own energy.

1 - You can have a maximum of 10 skill points per level of Core Strength.

2 - Active Skills' upkeep can be fractioned.

3 - Increase max MP pool by 50%.

Mana Conductivity (MC)

80%(105%)

A measure of how clear the body's Mana Channel (Meridian) system is. 1 - Mana conductivity impacts environmental energy absorption and channeling directly. 2 - Your Mana Channels are focused inward, reducing Mana drain or losses in area of low or no Mana.3 - Due to the shape of your Channels, your Mana signature is 80% fainter.

Purity of Body

Digestive, Epithelial, Skeletal, Muscular,Circulatory.

Increase the efficiency of all cleansed body systems efficiency by MC.

1 - Skin, Muscle, and Bone: Increase damage resistance by an additional MC/2.

2 - Muscle and Bone: Increase physical strength by an additional MC/2.

3 - Digestive and Circulatory: increase immunity and resistance to external pathogens and toxins by MC/2.

4 - Cleansed body improves MP pool and all recovery rates by MC.

Purity of Spirit

Muladhara Svadhishthana

Opened Chakra nodes grant enhanced functionality to related systems.

They may grant comprehension, resistance, and sensibility to an element.

1 - Muladhara: (Earth, intestines) Resistance to all harmful effects and emotional stability increased by 50%.

2 - Svadhishthana; Sacral Chakra (water, reproductive organs) - Increase MP pool by 50%.

Half-Spirit Flesh

50% / 50%

A Nephilim's flesh is half-spirit, half-matter.

1 - Reduce all damage by 50%. Reduce all damage to the wings by 90%.

2 - No injury or damage is permanent. You can even regrow lost limbs. Boost recovery rate by 50%.

3 - You can subsist on Mana, if the ambient density is high enough.

4 - Your wings are made of pure spirit, extending into the conceptual dimension. So long they are attached, double your Mana capacity. You can fly and hover at will.

Mage - Enhancer (Exclusive)

25%

Your Mana channels greatly enhance internal circulation but suffer at projecting and controlling external M|ana.

All External Mana Manipulation is 10 times less effective. Cannot cultivate or actively use Qi.

1 - Add a linear 25% to your Mana conductivity for internal manipulation purposes (includes Purity of Body).

2 - Multiply MP pool, all Physical and internal manipulation Skills by [internal MC]

3 - Mana Conductivity does not increase your Mana signature unless you are actively using MP.

4 - You do not leak Mana at low or zero Mana densities.

Cold Affinity (major)

50%

You have a great affinity with the Cold element.

1 - Increase all Cold-related effects and resistances by 50%.

2 - Add 50% to MC when converting Mana into Cold Mana.

MP Pool

5535 (996/day)

Dead Magic: 11/day

Available Energy for Active Skills. Equals to (20*SCS) * MC *[Internal MC]. Recovers (10*MC)% per day under normal Mana density.

You can recover Mana in Dead Magic zones at (Internal MC - 100)% of the base rate.

You can focus on converting Mana into Ice Mana and back. For every hour you meditate on this conversion, you recover 66 Mana.

Skills: Physical

Adroitness

25 92%

The Skill of moving one's body with grace and precision.Increases speed and coordination and reduces reflex delay by Rank%.

Composure

25 184%

Staying calm under pressure or pain.

This Skill's effect is capped at 90%. The remainder offsets penalties from magical effects.

When under duress, reduces penalties to mental stability, logical reasoning, and self-control by 2*Rank%.

Prowess

25 92%

Making the most of one physique during stressful situations.

Lower reflex delay, increases melee combat damage and physical power by Rank%.

Brawn

25 92%

Muscular toughness and physical endurance.

Reduces stamina consumption and damage taken, increases lifting and carrying capacity by Rank%.

Rapid Healing

25 184%

Accelerates and optimizes body recovery.

Increases healing rate by 2*Rank%.

Thermostasis

25 92F hot

137F cold

Widened temperature comfort range and resistance to detrimental heat exchange. Increase comfort temperature range by 1F per rank. Modify body conductivity by Rank%.

Skills: Social

Flattery

25

90%

Making graceful compliments and answering them appropriately.

Increases reactions during and after intimate interactions by 2*Rank%.

Presence

25

90%

Motivating people with the power of your personality.

Increases reactions during and after social interactions by 2*Rank%.

Skills: Mystical

Mana Infusion

25

184%

Infuse Mana into tools and melee weapons. Adds 2*Rank% to tool effectiveness, tenacity, hardness, and damage.

Infused objects can interact with incorporeal entities. This is considered an internal manipulation Skill.

Active Skill: Activation time: instantaneous. Cost: 1 MP/6 seconds or 10 MP/attack.

Skill Boost

25

90%

184%

Specialized supplemental Mana flow to a Skill.

Boosts effects of a Skill by 2*Rank%. This is considered in the same category as the affected Skill.

Active Skill: Activation time, 1 minute. Cost, 1 MP/6 seconds

She had worked hard for months to scrub her Mana Channels of any little impurity deposit and earned just a few points. But these few points were enough to tip her internal Mana conductivity over 100%, giving her the biggest gift she could have in a place with no Mana.

She could passively generate Mana on her own now, regardless of ambient Mana absorption. Eleven per day but it was a net positive value! Eleven Mana was enough to use Skill Boost for a whole minute! And she could cycle normal Mana into Ice Mana and back as she meditated to recover 66 Mana per hour. That was, like, not a lot. But it was something. Better than nothing. Yes! that's it.

She was thirteen once again. The Mark of Time had taken her way back, where it all began, really. She squeezed her brain for information. Days ago, her foster parents who only pretended to adopt her, the Millers, had fled with her inheritance. The landlord, who probably was in cahoots with them, had locked her out of her own home. Without an eviction order.

She had forty-six months until Armageddon. But... the outcome of the previous loop had her on the back foot. She didn't want to endure the Rain of Demons again. But she had forty-six months to prepare. To learn skills.

"I could learn how to fly an helicopter," Sara mumbled to herself, then flapped her wings. "I can fly on my own but I doubt I can carry as much as a chopper. Or as many people."

She paced in the alley, Chloe tracking her with a swiveling head. "I need to build a stash of supplies. Canned food that lasts for twenty-five years. Money. How can I make money? Damn, that's why people watch stock prices." She snorted. "Yeah, Sara. People watch stock prices to know what to buy when they come back in time four years. Right. Dumbass."

She had bigger problems though. Case in point, a pale green horse with blue flames on the hooves and mane. Exhibit two, big ass wings. Damn. Her jacket had two holes now, didn't it? She reached and touched the back of her jacket. Yes, it did. No way that jacket was coming out without cutting it. No place like now.

The lowest temperature a human can endure indefinitely was about fifty degrees. Fahrenheit, Sara was no metric heretic. With her Thermostasis, minus eighty-seven was her new fifty. Goodbye, winter clothes.

Sara had to cut the jacket to remove it. Then the shirt. With her torso bare but for her bra, she glanced at the Mark of Time on her shoulder. It was faded. It would only last for another jump at most. This was her last shot at saving people from Armageddon.

Could she save them? Even with all her magical powers, she had doubts. Sara flexed her hand, wrapped her fingers around an imaginary object. Yes, she was still Death. A very reluctant one. The scythe was right there waiting to be summoned. No, this one did not buzz when stroked, Azrie.

Sara wore a cotton strap sundress, pantyhose, and sneakers. Her arms and shoulders were free. Although the straps touched her wings but it didn't bother her.

Sara packed her things, tied her bed sheets around Chloe's thin waist, then made bags with the blankets, hanging the improvised saddlebags with her stuff on her horse. Her horse. She hugged Chloe's muzzle. Fourth would have to kill her to separate the girl from Chloe. But what she could do about the flaming mane and hooves?

Sara took her ruined jacket and threw it over Chloe's neck. The flames licked and froze the fabric from behind but otherwise did no damage. Neither they flared over the jacket. That gave Sara an idea.

*

*

Roosevelt Way NE, Northgate, Seattle, King County, Washington, Monday, December 7th, 2015 06:20f

She walked down a block and reached a nostalgic mom-and-pop bakery. She entered, the hot air not bothering her at all.

"Welcome!" The shop owner, Mr. Bartley, greeted her. "Sara, is that you? You're bloody early! Loved the costume! Are you participating in your school's nativities play? Marvelous, those wings look like the real thing! And aren't you cold? You are wearing summer clothes!"

The kind baker struck a nostalgic chord inside her heart. Sara softened up and beamed back. "I'm fine, Mr. Bartley, thank you very much."

"You're ready for school, I see. The bus won't come this way for another half hour! Did something happen?" He asked, his worry increasing as he assessed the girl's condition. "You must be freezing, I'm going to raise the thermostat five degrees," he next made a suggestion but it was almost an order. "Would you have an espresso?"

Sara looked down, took a deep breath to conjure her courage. She was a tough survivor of what, five Apocalypses? "Mr. Bartley, I only have five dollars to my name. The Millers pawned everything worth more than ten bucks we had at home and fled with my inheritance. I don't want to impose."

Mr. Bartley smiled softly, then prepared the espresso machine anyway. "It's on the house, Sara. I cannot let an angel such as you make such a pained face. Children should smile," he paused. "Oh, sorry. You're already becoming fourteen later this month."

Sara tittered with a hand over her mouth, "Mr. Bartley, I doubt you are right who's the real angel in this conversation." The girl sniffled. She was still weak to kindness. Sara beamed her best smile, 261% more convincingly than it had any right to be because of her social Skills. "I would love to warm up with a good cup of espresso. Thank you so much."

He went to the back door and peeked inside. "Emily, a moment, please!" He took a cloth napkin and steamed it on the espresso machine. He felt her temperature with the underside of his forearm, then handed it over to her with a smile. "Press it against your face like you are getting ready to shave your beard."

"What beard?" Sara laughed and plastered the warm napkin to her face.

Mrs. Bartley arrived on the scene and approached Sara as her husband waved her forward. She took one look at Sara and rushed to her side, giving the wionged girl a good and warm hug.

"Goodness gracious, what are the Millers thinking? You're freezing! Sara, did your parents turn off the heating or something like that?"

Sara hugged back. She wasn't the social porcupine she was four years (and five Octobers) before. "I'm peppy, Mrs. Bartley. Really!"

"Do you know where they are now? Where did they go? We should call the cops." A worried Mr. Bartley asked as he put a bagel in front of her.

She snorted derisively and dug into the bagel, "I doubt anyone knows. Yes, we should call 911." She replied, feeling an intense deja vu.

Mrs. Bartley exchanged a glance with her husband, who nodded and quietly placed two more bagels and one pepperoni pastry in a paper bag.

"Sara, do you want a job here? We could talk to your case worker for a special permit, what do you think?" Mr. Bartley approached her with the bag.

She reached for the bag but grasped his hand instead. "I appreciate your kindness. I really need to talk to my social worker but I doubt he'll be cooperative. I don't know the exact law, though."

The minimum age to work in a non-family business in Washington was fourteen. Sara would need to wait until Christmas but then it would be too late. She didn't want to go live on the streets again. To steal and... no.

"We can call our lawyer and check, right, Joseph?" Mrs. Bartley suggested.

"Sure can! We would need his aid to draft the work contract anyway. What do you say, Sara?"

She grinned, then gave it a second thought and shook her head. "I'm sorry but I have to decline the job. I decided I'll hunt down the Millers and get my money back."

"Sara, you are too young. Leave it to the police!"

The girl unfolded her wings, drawing a surprised gasp from both the baker and his wife. "Mrs. Bartley. The police will do nothing. My case worker is an accomplice and will run interference. I need to act now, the Millers only had a day of head start."

Mr. Bartley gasped but his wife seemed laser-focused on thinking of a way to dissuade Sara.

"They ran away by car!" The woman insisted. "How will you catch up with them?"

Not really thinking straight, Sara hoisted herself from the ground and hovered in the bakery. "I believe I can fly." Mrs. Bartley fainted. Sara quickly dove and held her before she could hit the floor and hurt herself. "Sorry about that," she smiled apologetically to the woman's husband.

"Sara, are those wings real?" Mr. Bartley asked.

"I'll let you touch them if you let me borrow your lawyer," she replied, not noticing how weird that would sound out of context. "And keep my horse in your backyard."