[Name: Everglade Kion}
{Ancestry: Everglade}
{Divine Emblem: Dormant}
{Domain: Fire-Mancy}
[Resonance: Third]
{Sub-domain: Lightning-Mancy}
{Vanquised Soul Count: 2}
{Vanquished Soul Essence: 1/1000}
{Domain(s) Unlocked: Fire, Lightning}
{Collect more quality souls to unlock more domains}
Kion stared unblinkingly at the red screen.
So this is me now.
He thought to himself.
He had always searched for power, all his life, and now, it was being handed to him on a silver platter.
But by who?
Kion could only help but ponder upon who would dare give him this immense power.
Back in the battle against Lila's mercenaries, he had not fully understood what the system was all about, due to the rushing battle all around them.
Back then, he had been in some sort of trance. A sleep-like state that even manifested in him currently, as he studied the details of the translucent screen.
If anybody had been in the room with him, they would have thought him mad, as it should've seemed to them that he was simply staring into space, his eyes rolled up in white.
It was a strange feeling; a strange thing, but it felt right, as if it were some kind of payoff for wielding such an immense ability.
Kion knew his fair share of souls. He had spent a good year of his past life collecting them from museums and abbeys with Lukas at his side.
Due to that, he knew what this system was offer, and the mere thought of it made him shiver.
Merging other souls with his…collecting their abilities and deploying them indefinitely…so long as he killed them.
It explained the bloodlust at least, why his spirit was moved to kill someone whenever they were in battle with him.
{Vanquised Soul Count: 2}
This was the part that measured the amount of souls he'd collected, which meant that it also taken a kill count of the people he'd murdered in battle.
He'd killed those two mercenaries earlier when he'd combined skills. That must have been why there was the number "2" under this stat.
He noticed the [Vanquished Soul Essence] as well, and he had a strong hunch that it was referring to the quality of souls he'd collected. The two souls he'd collected earlier only summed up to 1 in total, out of 1000.
They must have been quite useless.
Kion thought to himself as he remembered the fact that they were soulless, which must have been why their souls were so weak in quality, even put together.
Kion knew enough about souls to understand that—in their world—being soulless didn't exactly mean that one didn't have a soul, but that their resident soul was so weak and unclean that it couldn't even be considered one.
His eyes flitted through the other stats, like his resonance and domain. He noticed as well that his bloodline was also a stat. It was a little confusing as to why that would've been there, as Kion failed to see its relevance. Maybe it was something that he would fully understand some time later.
[Divine Emblem] must have had something to do with his path to godhood, but if that were it, it should have displayed his current grade, which was Uncommon. Instead, it displayed as [Dormant] making Kion wonder what that meant.
The system directed to collect more quality souls to unlock more domains. Kion thought of the earth-mancer tank and the blood-mancer assassin that he and his brother had evaded earlier.
If he had somehow managed to kill them, could he have gotten more quality from their souls?
Would he have been able to unclock their abilities after his [Vanquised Soul Essence] limit went up?
Kion only found himself with even more questions.
He thought of directing the system to explain itself; to tell him what he needed to know.
All he got from the red screen was silence and inaction.
The only person he could think of that could help him was Tyril, but he had no connection to the ancient elf other than his dreams, and Thea had already hijacked his dreamscape when he'd gotten the chance earlier.
"This is hopeless. I'll deal with it later." Kion thought to himself as he willed the screen to disappear.
Soon enough, He wasn't seeing everything in red anymore.
He took a look out of the window that Lila had left open.
It was night fall.
It was time to move.
***
Kion donned his usual outfit, a poncho and some leather pants.
He rubbed the finger where his signet ring had been, missing the almost metallic touch of the golden piece.
Losing it was a worthy sacrifice, and Kion was sure that won't be his last.
He weighed his sword, balancing the flat side of the blade on the palms of his hand. His last broadsword had a more regal look to it, but this one seemed to be plain.
A sword is as powerful as its wielder. It does not need to be decorated.
Kion vaguely remembered the lessons that Admiral Kuvira had given him all those years ago when he was still crown prince, training in the royal courtyards with the knights.
She had been like a calm storm then, bendable and adapting.
She could be as sweet as a flower one moment, and become as venomous as a sand viper the next.
This very nature of her had made her such a good leader, and such a good friend to Kion.
When he'd been sentenced to an execution, she'd put her position on the line to appeal to the king, who lessened his punishment and made it an exile instead.
After Gina, the queen, had committed suicide, Kuvira had felt like a second mother to him.
Kion wondered what would ever make such a person that he held in high hopes murder him in cold blood.
You think you know people until you don't know them anymore.