'T-This kid… who the hell did I just bring into my house?!'
Bast was trembling where he stood, all the blood drained from his tanned features. He knew he was taking a risk, bringing this random kid he'd just met into his home, but he hadn't expected this! He was worried that this kid, Aku, who apparently came from nowhere, was some kind of thief or murderer. What he hadn't expected was for Aku to be… well… he didn't know what, but it wasn't good!
His eyes were glued to the boy sitting in front of him, who looked equally as confused.
"Bast? What was… what the hell was that?!"
He was at a complete loss for words. Initially, he'd thought that Aku was one of Life's Inheritors, one of those blessed with the god of Life's blood. How Aku wouldn't know that himself, he didn't know, but either way, it was the only thing that made sense. After all, he had those same glowing red eyes that they all seemed to have… so surely, he had to be, right? But after seeing what Aku had done to that bowl, and those eyes, the eyes that were once red, were now shifting through thousands of different colors of all different shades every second. It was pure chaos.
He was barely able to stammer out, "I-I don't… know."
Sure, he was the one who drugged Aku with Fluxbloom, that dastardly plant that makes people's abilities go haywire for a short time, but he hadn't expected… whatever it was that happened. Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't the powers of an Inheritor. But the only other option was… no, that shouldn't be possible. Certainly not.
"Bast? You alright there?"
Aku's voice sounded oddly concerned.
'Why is he sounding all concerned? Why wouldn't I be fine?'
But as he thought that, Bast began to sway on his feet, blindly reaching out to grab for something to hold on to. His hand brushed the dresser, but slipped off immediately and he found himself falling.
***
Aku stared down at the old man's body laying on the floor, limp, his cane fallen with him. It seemed like he had simply passed out, for whatever reason.
'Is this an old person thing?'
He shook his head, sighing, and stood up. It took a few minutes to lug the old man's body, which he hoped was still alive, into Bast's room and onto his bed. Despite being so old, or at least Aku thought he was pretty old, he weighed quite a bit. He wasn't particularly hefty or anything, just muscular from what Aku assumed to be years and years of smithing and metalworking.
After depositing the old man onto his bed to recover, he went back to the guest room and sat down at the desk, putting his lantern down beside him. He only wished he had something to light it with, maybe he would ask Bast when he woke up. For now, however, he sat in silence at the desk, thinking.
'What the hell am I?'
Bast's reaction wasn't exactly positive, considering he literally fainted. So the question was, was that a good faint or a bad faint. He hoped it was the former. What he did know was that he wasn't normal, that much was clear. He just couldn't get that feeling out of his head. When the bowl had changed in his hands, rippling and morphing into different shapes… it felt like something deep down in his very being had been awakened.
'Could I… do it again?'
He couldn't see why not. Sure, he hadn't done it on purpose the first time, but he remembered the feeling of it. If he could recreate that feeling, maybe he could find some way to use that power again.
Closing his eyes and taking a long, deep breath, he looked into himself mentally. He felt around inside himself. Not his body, his being. He could feel something, both incredibly close and impossibly far. Stretching his consciousness as far as he could, he reached out for that something… and when he finally managed to brush his mental fingers across its surface, it suddenly felt like a ball of molten steel was resting snugly in his ribcage, and the whole world went black.
***
Screams. It's all Akuma could hear. Screams of pain. Screams of rage. Screams of anguish. Opening his eyes, he found himself standing in the middle of a barren field, surrounded by flames, corpses, and broken weapons. There were others there too. Hundreds of them. They all stood in a wide circle around him, caging him in. There was nowhere to go. Nowhere to run. But…
He didn't care. In fact, he was happy. He was… laughing. Why was he laughing?
A spear flew through the air straight at him, and he turned to face it. He lifted one arm, holding up a single finger. The tip of the spear struck his index finger… and shattered.
He laughed even harder. It was all just so… funny. It was hilarious. Why was it so funny? He couldn't remember. Couldn't think.
He took a single step. Just one. But he was suddenly across the battlefield, behind a man. The man who had thrown the spear. He barely had time to turn his head before Aku's hand thrust through his back, snapping his spine cleanly in two. Akuma grabbed the man's Core, his Creation Core, and squeezed. It was so easy. So fragile. It shattered like it was nothing, crumbled to pieces in his fist.
Another scream among the thousands.
But Akuma laughed.
He took his hand out of the man's back, letting the corpse fall limply at his feet. Suddenly, there were no more screams. The battlefield was silent, except for the sound of the manic cackling coming from Akuma.
"Insects… you're all just insects!" He yelled out, his voice stirring primal fear in the very cores of every warrior on that battlefield. He laughed again for a short while, his eyes shifting endlessly through millions of different colors and shades. "I'll kill you all, you're all nothing."
His core surged with power, permeating his whole being, and he became a blur. Corpses fell to the ground, their attacker unseen. Some tried to run, but they couldn't. Anyone who so much as twitched became a priority target for Akuma, and he would simply kill them faster. Some cried. Some screamed. For their families. For their friends. For their gods. None of them came.
***
Aku woke up on the floor of his room, Bast's guest room, rather. His facing was lying in a puddle of his own vomit and bile. The chair he'd been sitting in was on its side next to him. He tried sitting, immediately regretted it, and leaned back against the bedside. His head felt like a searing hot nail was being driven through his brain. He squinted his eyes, trying to block the sunlight.
Wait, sunlight? What the hell?
Opening his eyes very slowly, he looked out the window at the sky. It was bright out, probably sometime before noon. How long had he been out? And… Why?
The last thing he remembered was trying to feel that power inside again and then… nothing. It was all a blur. Like someone wrapped a cloth around his memories.
He lifted his hands up to his temples, rubbing them slowly.
'Gahhh… shit…'
The pain was slowly starting to recede, but it was still hardly bearable. It took a few minutes to gather himself, resting his head back against the bed. He rose on shaky legs and went out into the kitchen just outside his room. Standing behind the counter was Bast, drinking from a steaming mug. His eyes went wide as Aku approached.
"Ah, hey, kid. You were out for… a while, actually. I couldn't tell you exactly how long, since I was out too, but…" He trailed off, raising the mug of what seemed to be coffee and taking a long drink. "I uh… I guess I owe you an explanation, huh?"
Aku dropped his gaze to his hands, then looked back up at Bast again. "I would certainly appreciate it, yeah. I…" He paused for a while, closing his eyes, then opened them again to look Bast in the eyes. "I just want to know what I am, Bast. I woke up in the middle of nowhere, found… whatever this place is, and now something is going on with… something in me."
Bast sighed and pulled up a stool, offering another to Aku. "Take a seat, kid. We're gonna be here for a while." After they were both sitting, he began to explain. "Alright well, I'm gonna assume we need to start with the basics. First off, this world we live in, we call it Viria. To put it simply, it's a land of monsters, demons, and gods. There are 5 gods, there's Balance, Time, Creation, Life, and Death. Each represents an absolute law of our world."
There were questions that Aku was tempted to ask, but held back for now, letting Bast speak.
"And then, there are the Demons. There's a lot less known about them, but there are 5 of them as well. Luck, Will, Knowledge, Imagination, and Chaos." He paused for a moment, then sighed. "Well, I say there are 5, but there are actually 4 now. The Demon of Chaos was believed to have been killed about… a thousand or so years ago now."
"Killed? By what? Why?"
"The gods, kid, who else? For thousands of years now, the gods and demons have been at war over the land called the Holy Realms. It's where we are now, or at least a part of it. There are 5 different sections of the Holy Realms, one for each god and they're named accordingly. Like right now, we're in the Life Realm, inside Life's city, Genesis. Making sense?"
"No, but continue."
Bast snorted a laugh and took a sip from his mug. "Fair enough, I suppose. Alright, the next thing you should know is that even though the gods and demons are at war, they themselves don't actually fight. Instead, the gods have Inheritors, individuals who have inherited their blood passed down through generations, fight for them. They have special abilities beyond any normal human's capabilities."
"That's what you kept calling me, isn't it? An Inheritor?"
"Yes, that's right, I was. However, I'm afraid I was sorely mistaken, but I'll get to that." He set his mug down, his face hardening. "Then, there's the demons. Luck, Knowledge, Imagination, Will, and the late Demon of Chaos. The demons have something similar to that of the gods. Wielders. People who they have personally bestowed their powers upon. To put it lightly, they're terrifying. Much stronger than Inheritors are. Powers beyond even the gods' comprehension. Every Wielder is different, with their own special abilities and powers. Inheritors aren't like that, they have a set path of Ascension that they can't diverge from. Every Inheritor has the same abilities, at least the same of those at the same Rank as them."
"Ranks? What is there, a leaderboard?"
"Ha! Close, honestly. And actually, I'm afraid this is where my knowledge begins to fall short. I can tell you that Inheritors have 5 ranks, Blessed, Exalted, Mythical, Radiant, and Divine, but I can't tell you what path Wielders follow. I do, however, know that they start out being called Keepers."
"Keepers…" Aku muttered to himself, rubbing his chin in one hand. "Earlier, you said you were mistaken in calling me an Inheritor, right? But… wouldn't that mean…?"
Bast's lips thinned into a hard line, and held a finger up to them. "Keep your voice low, boy, but yes. I do believe, Aku, that you are a Wielder."