The First Reaper

Everyone has an ability, unique to them, sealed within their soul. Of course this ability will sometimes show itself even while sealed in minor ways, such as my instinct towards these rituals. These abilities can be unsealed but many do not find themselves capable enough or their ability requires conditions which are too strict to be able to unseal them. Each ability can be a game changer however, with each ability seemingly tied to your very being itself. However, there is another reason to try to unlock your inherent ability on top of its utility. By unsealing it, you will gain access to your records.

The records are a unique aspect of a person, containing a record of everything that has happened to you. They also grant an unbiased viewpoint on yourself and your strength, allowing someone to accurately estimate their improvement to themselves. It also seems to allow someone to improve their existence in some way through various achievements. The records appear to everyone in a different way, someone may see a blue screen of sorts, while someone else may see a person appear to explain their records verbally, everyone has something different appear when they summon their records. The one consistent thing about records is that no one can see a persons unless the owner allows them to.

– Charons research book, page 98

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”So, first things first, I still seem to be me. I have all of my memories and I am still Charon Vertigo. It seems like I am neither human nor any of those other races of whos ritual I tried… Even the phylactery seems to have changed into something else… ” As Charon looked at the diamond ring, he failed to notice the floating leather bound book a few feet in front of him with the words The Records Of Charon Vertigo carved on the front.

Charons pure white eyes then looked at his white hair with sigils which was draped behind him haphazardly and then at his new body which now had the slightest hint of muscles showing under the naked skin.

”Hmm, it looks like my old clothes also burned away during the ritual huh? ” As Charon thought that however, he felt a twitch from somewhere inside him like the twitch of a new muscle, as his hair began to tie itself into a neat and tidy braid. While his body shifted and expanded to grow clothes out of itself, clothes that looked just like his old ones.

”Interesting, it seems like whatever I have become has the ability to shapeshift as needed. Although the sigils on my hair seem to be for something else… ” As Charon thought about the sigils, he received a headache as he saw a vision of a blurry figure with hair just like his in front of someone else, someone with an orb of white energy floating above them with a thin white line connecting the orb and the person. When the white haired figure began to chant, The sigils in his white hair began to glow before the other figure began to burn as the line connecting their body to the orb broke. Suddenly, the burning figure held an item they had been holding to their chest as the orb flashed with a bright white light before speedily flying into the burning body as the flames abruptly stopped, revealing their charred skin as the white haired figure stopped their chant. Abruptly the object slowly changed itself into a ring before floating in front of the charred figure as cracks spread throughout the charred skin. Suddenly the charred skin turned into ash and fell away, like the shell of an egg, as the floated onto the hand of the person emerging from the ash, a person with long white hair with sigils lazily floating across its surface.

Charon gasped as the vision faded, now finding himself kneeling on the ground. As he slowly gets up and dusts himself off, he looks at the sigils in his hair with new appreciation. the rest of the information flows into his head more calmy, like a slow river instead of the tsunami that was the vision.

”So, now that I know how to expand my new race artificially. I suppose its time I look at you. ” Charon held his hand out in front of him as he mentally summoned the book into his hands. ”The Records of Charon Vertigo, huh? I suppose my theory about this damned instinct of mine was correct then. ”

Opening the book to its first page he began reading:

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Owner: Charon Vertigo

Inherent Ability: Instinct

Race: ??? (Unnamed)

Position: Progenitor of ???, Prince of Nekronis, Adviser to King Adam Vertigo

Discovered Talents: Research, Soul mana, Tiger claws,

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Charon flipped to the next page, realising that it talked about the ritual that finished just a couple minutes ago. He then grinned to himself before willing the book to disappear as it burned out of existence in his hands.

”Ahhh, I forgot about my training with the tiger claws, I really should practice with them again huh? ” As Charon thought that however, the ring on his finger began to glow bright white before that light split into two with one staying on his left hand and the other going towards his right, all while Charon looked on in curiosity.

When the light disappeared, it revealed two gauntlets with serrated blades extending out from the fingers.

”I guess thats what you do then? In a sense, as long as I have this ring then I am never unarmed. ” Charon muttered to himself as he quickly threw out a couple punches and used the claws to claw an imaginary foe.

He then thought about the Tiger Claws turning back into the ring as the gauntlet on his right disappeared in a flash of light and the gauntlet on his left hand glowed before returning to the form of a ring. Feeling his instinct, now knowing that its his inherent ability, telling him to meditate and focus on his inner body, Charon sits down and begins to meditate.

His eyes widen in shock however, as instead of the normal blue mana pool he would see inside himself, instead he saw something much different. The first thing he noticed was a blinding white light everywhere underneath his skin, replacing the various organs he wouldve normally had. As his senses travelled through his body to where his mana and heart should be, he found lines of four different energies travelling through the white abyss inside his body. One of the energies was the bright blue of traditional mana, With another energy being the bright purple of soul mana. However the other two energies where much different, with one being as green as the largest forest and the other being as black as a night sky without stars.

”This black energy, it should be death mana. It is quite similar to my brothers undead mana without the sense of corruption that undead mana carries with it so that I can understand. However, could this green mana be what I think it is? That should be impossible however, unless… I am not an undead? ” Charon continued thinking aloud, before focusing his senses back onto his inner body.

As his senses continued further along the web of four energies to their source, he paid close attention to how they seemed to be intertwined with each other, and how they seemed to be passively strengthening his body and the strange white energy which suffused throughout his body. When he eventually reached the centre of his body however, he found himself shocked yet again. He felt his curiosity begin to burn brighter then it ever had before. He stared upon two swirling vortexes, one white and one a mix of the colours of the four energies which spread through his body. The white vortex released a continuous stream of the white energy, whereas the other vortex released a constant stream of the four mana types which continued to spread through his body and supported the mysterious white energy. The laughter of a madman could be vaguely heard ringing out throughout the castle, as the madman in question felt a raging desire to feed his curiosity. A desire which he had never felt burn as bright as it was now.

Charon shook his head to regain his focus and continue exploring his inner body, as his senses began to move from his chest towards his head. As his senses went upwards, he noticed the vein-like energy which was spread out through the rest of his body begin to thin out before stopping entirely at the top of neck connecting to his head. When his senses went to his head, he felt them begin to be drawn towards another vortex, this one seeming to swirl in the opposite direction. Holding his senses back as much as he could, he inspected vortex in his head. Confused, he realised that it seemed to have no discernible purpose. As confusion settled in, the mana which he was using as his eyes inside his body was sucked into the vortex, as the last thing he felt was it being destroyed as he could instinctively feel the vortex in his head was almost angered it seemed, as if complaining that the mana it stole from Charon wasn what it wanted.

”I suppose thats all I can discern right now anyways. Hmm, my anatomy seems very different, almost like…. wait. ” Charon paused, thinking over something as he reflected on how he briefly saw his soul during the ritual, and how it seemed vaguely similar to the orb he saw in the vision and the energy that now seems to make up his body. ”No, that would mean that… my body and soul, combined? ”

Charon stared off into the distance as he considered the possibility. He then proceeded to get up and stretch out before going towards the sealed door of the ritual room. Charon quickly unbolted the door while disarming several traps inlaid across the door, before slowly opening.

”It seems like its time to update my family, I ought to get their opinions on my current findings as well before I jump to conclusions. ” Charon took his first step out of that room as a nonhuman.