Isaac stood in the middle of an abyss of reflectionless black.
"Ahh please Spell can you finish the appraisal".
Isaac's brown eyes gazed at the distant stars above him.
Each star glistened beautifully in the blackness.
Isaac was a Knight of Valor.
And he had just completed his Second Nightmare.
He was one of the few chosen by the Lord of Valor to become a Master and an Ascended.
But as grand and as glorious as it all was, this was not why he was so impatient.
Isaac was grinning goofily.
His beautiful wife was pregnant.
He had received the beautiful news a week before he was scheduled to enter the Second Nightmare.
He had become anxious.
He desperately wanted to stand next to his wife while she went through this great hardship.
Yet at the same time if he succeeded in conquering the Second Nightmare his status in the Valor clan would rise.
His lovely wife and future child would be granted a magnificent life filled with happiness and joy.
And yet he was hesitant.
But all his hesitation vanished as his wife insisted he go.
She had said she believed in him.
She believed he would come back.
"Ahhh the look on her face is just ahhh".
Isaac couldn't get enough of this woman.
If he could, he would stay forever by her side, drowning in her scent, lost in her beautiful green eyes, lovingly playing with her brown hair.
He tried his best to stay focused on his Ascension.
As he did, he noticed a mysterious abnormality.
"What's wrong with my Ruins?"
They looked as if they were glitching.
His Aspect would be warping and changing.
His original Aspect was that of an a
Ascended.
And yet it flickered between its previous Rank and that of a Supreme.
"Is my Aspect evolving?".
The Spell never notified him of this.
Was he too lost in the thoughts of my wife to notice?
But that wasn't the only abnormality.
New Ruins began to appear.
One spoke of Class right under his Rank.
The other added new Attributes.
And finally, his True Name, which had always been empty, was suddenly filled.
It read….
Hollow Vessel.
As Isaac's brown eyes read the Ruins he suddenly felt hot.
Like extremely hot.
Looking down at his body where skin was exposed he saw white light flowing underneath his skin.
Even his skin under his clothes was shining.
The light pierces the cloth.
Then, suddenly the light and heat intensified.
The light that was contained beneath his skin suddenly leaked out.
The heat that had begun to burn his insides, suddenly floated out.
The light or what he thought was light was actually a pure white flame.
The flames burst from beneath his skin.
The pristine white light seemingly vanishes in the endless black of the surrounding abyss.
The silver stars, which were once the brightest, seem to vanish as the white light swallows Isaac's vision.
Pain.
For only a moment, Isaac felt an indescribable pain flood his mind.
But that pain wasn't just in his mind.
His body…
His soul….
All of it browned.
He wasn't even given a chance to scream as the oxygen within his lungs vanished without a trace.
Used as fuel for the terrifying flames.
Within his quickly fading consciousness, a single memory flashed through Isaac's mind before being engulfed in white fire.
It was a woman with brown hair and green eyes.
The eyes that trusted him to come back.
'I-I am s-sorry I-'.
The white flames swallowed everything, denying him the mercy of a final thought.
And yet the flames never vanished.
They just kept burning.
Suddenly, the silhouette engulfed in flames began to change.
It grew slightly taller.
Its features were also changing.
Yet the flames and the light it produced obscured the changing features.
All at once, the white flames vanished.
All that was left was a young man with noble features.
Shoulder-length black hair that seemed to merge with the surrounding abyss.
Smooth, pale, and unblemished alabaster-like skin.
The young man's black eyelashes were long.
As such, it was easy to notice that they had begun to flutter.
The young men's eyes opened.
It revealed two grey orbs.
These orbs were his eyes.
And these eyes were sharp.
There was something there as well.
Sentience.
And
I slightly twisted the darkness resting within.
The young man looked around confused.
It took him a while to realize where he was and when he did only confusion plagued him.
"Is this the inner workings of the Spell".
Isaac muttered in confusion.
But how was this possible?
Hadn't he lost his connection to it?
It's not as if the connection can just be restored on a whim.
Isaac's mind was jumbled.
His face detached from reality was indifferent.
His mind was blanketed by a coldness devoid of emotion.
That coldness was the only thing holding Isaac towards a certain form of sanity.
"Ahhh ahhh so this is the danger of this damn Flaw".
Isaac slowly raised his hands to cover his face.
He had remembered everything.
The hell he had to go through.
The knowledge that he had almost vanished.
And…
The terrifying white mist that was cradled within the Hollow Mountains.
"Ahhh. ahhh. ahhh".
Isaac was simply too tired.
And yet he feared, closing his eyes.
The thought that he would vanish ignited with his soul.
And yet it vanished not even a moment later.
'Fu*k this Innate Ability'.
Those were Isaac's final thoughts as he drifted off into sleep.
_________________________________________
Stones please!!!