3 2: Falling

Genetic trash... genetic trash... Apex broke out into a cold sweat as he realised he had just entered the ranks of the most useless individuals of Planet Earth. Genetic trash were people who didn't Awaken to an ability and thus could never advance their Path. The energy absorbed during Genetic Cultivation needed an actual Awakened sequence of DNA to mould and reshape, allowing one to increase the scope of their Ability. The Holy Empire in particular with its zealot pursuit of purity had a very special way to deal with people like Apex....

"Shit, I'm going to die huh..." Apex mumbled as he fought to himself as he felt a storm of emotions. Anger at his fate? Defiance at what would come next? A cold feeling interrupted his train of thought and he looked around to see Ezekiel giving him a cold, stony stare. Oh, along with all the other adults in the Celestial field. The other children were still marvelling at their Awakened Ability, conjuring balls of Celestial grade light as they shouted in manic glee.

Ezekiel flapped his 12-wings and in a flash arrived next to Apex. " Boy... You've wasted my money and food for the last 16 years. What do you have to say about that?"

"Uncle..."

"Don't call me uncle!" Bellowed Ezekiel as he grabbed Apex by the neck and shook him. Turning to face the adults in the crowd, among them the city Mayor, he exclaimed. "Lord Mayor, this little is brat is Genetic Trash, I'll go deal with him now. Can you go do the paperwork? Technically we're supposed to put him through trial and sentence him first.... But I am sure we can make an exception...."

"Yes.. Yes... Of course, Prince-General Ezekiel.... Apex si Seraphii, I assume? Very well I will do it right away.. Right away!" The fat mayor bumbled nervously. Only a fool would not accede to the request of the famed Prince-General Ezekiel. He unfurled his wings and flew of as fast as he could, albeit slowed down by his obese constitution.

"Its time for your punishment boy" Barked Ezekiel.

"Uncle.. Please... I can make it better" Apex shouted. CLAP. His sight went blurry as he felt Ezekiel's casual slap to his face. Apex had to struggle to hold in hot tears as he knew Ezekiel abhorred weakness in any way shape or form.

"Boy its too late... Maybe if you were a pure-blood you would just be castrated and sent to work as a labourer. But you are hybrid filth and thus will be deal accordingly" Smiled Ezekiel as he took off into the skies as he held Apex. Ezekiel concentrated and a shield of light covered Apex's body. "We don't want you to die too early hybrid!" A sonic boom was created as Ezekiel flew at the speed of sound.

Soon, Ezekiel and Apex reached a location near the borders of the Holy Empire. Apex gulped as he fought the fear that was pervading his very being. Ah yes.... The Holy Empire's favourite punishment. Death by altitude!

"Apex si Seraphii, I Ezekiel si Isacia sentence you to death by altitude for the crime of being a hybrid being with no contribution towards the almighty Holy Empire! Die" Chanted Ezekiel as he threw Apex down to the ground from an altitude of 5 kilometres. Ezekiel then rapidly flew away.

Apex fell... He could see the blue sky mixed with wispy white clouds as plummeted to his eventual doom. And strangely at this point he could not help but feel nothing. His life up till now could be considered empty.. void like almost. He had fought and trained and studies and it had come to this... He would never reach the pinnacle, never live up to his name and he was at peace with that. His lips curled up into a wry smile as he accepted his fate. Death it would be...

" Well you're a downer aren't you? Jeez you're giving up this early. But I mean I suppose I can't blame you." Rang out a sonorous voice in Apex's mind.

" Oh I'm hallucinating sounds now... Does this mean I'll die soon?"

"You idiot...."

"A hallucination which is insulting me?" questioned Apex. He was understandably puzzled at this disjointed voice in his mind.

" I AM NOT A HALLUCINATION YOU DOLT" Shouted the voice.

"THEN WHAT ARE YOU?" Screamed Apex back, frustrated by this enigma which chose to appear before his death.

"YOUR ABILITY FOOL"

"Ability... Ability... I actually Awakened... I Awakened... I'm not genetic trash!" Apex was jubilant but he suddenly came to a realisation. " I suppose it doesn't matter now... I'm going to die anyway" He sighed and went back his previous state of calm. " What sort of ability are you anyway?"

" Adaption, Apex! The power to change.. To become anything and everything!" Rang out the voice in a proud manner.

"Could you be a bit more specific?"

"Oh of course. Well you see you have the power to Adapt. Basically from what I can tell your DNA is receptive to the environmental changes around you, allowing it to rapidly restructure to allow for optimal survival.

"And where do you fit into all of this? Apex was puzzled at the voice's appearance.

"Well you see... I'm your first passive adaption! Your Ability also allows your DNA to be restructured using the ingested DNA of other beings. Allowing you to fuse with their abilities and add them to your genome. And your Ability created me to carry out this process." Explained the voice. "Hmm... It seems like you have around 10 minutes before you fall an die. We should probably do something about that. If you die I die."

"Well can't I passively adapt to umm... Falling to my death?" Light shone in Apex's eyes as he heard about his ability. If he managed to survive this he would be able to gain the ability of any other Bloodline. Not only that his body would strengthen and adapt to any situation! With such an ability Apex could truly live up to his name, he could become the perfect and most versatile predator. That lofty, distant status of Godhood suddenly appeared so so close.....

"Nope. The passive adaption process takes time and you need to expose yourself to the evolutionary pressure for a period of time. Ten minutes... is far too short." Whispered the voice.

"Then am I going to die!" Yelled Apex. Immensely frustrated at his situation. He had come so close to his road to ultimate power. But now it seemed like it was being wrenched from his grasp at the most inopportune moment.

"Fortunately for you we are not. You can't passively adapt right now. But Apex you have an amazing bloodline. In your DNA lies Unawakened sequences of DNA. A mixture of your parents traits I believe. From your Awakening you're now at the first rank mortal realm. Your body has enough genetic energy for me to activate one of these sequences so you can Awaken to a new trait. I can begin analysing them now and give your options."

"YES PLEASE" Screamed Apex, Elated at the possibility of freedom.

"Available Traits to Activate:

Name: Hybrid Wings

Description: Wings of some sort?

Name: Fire and Light Based Healing Factor

Description: Use flames or light to regenerate at an amazing pace.

Name: Fire and Light Manipulation

Description: Its pretty obvious

This is what you have in you. You can choose one now or later. I would recommend now.

"Oh thank fuck, WINGS!" Apex was overjoyed. The other two abilities sounded amazing but they wouldn't let him survive."Quickly!"

"Alright. Usually this takes longer. But I can speed it up at a cost....." The voice rang out and Apex couldn't help but feel apprehension over what would happen next.The voice.... seemed to have a mischievous tone.

What happened next was pain. A lot of pain. Apex screamed as his DNA structure rapidly reconstructed itself to exhibit his selected trait, he felt like his entire body was laying and hot coals and he panted as the pain seemed to come to a stop.

"DNA reconstruction complete! Expression of trait starting now".

The pain didn't stop. It came back. Harder than before. Apex felt his back swell as his back muscles gained density at a fast rate, becoming stronger and more explosive. Presumably so he could have enough power to actually move his wings. Apex felt two bony protrusions build up beneath his skin and with a CRACK they erupted forth. Wings... Apex had wings!

"Apex you have around 5 minutes before you crash. You should probably figure out how to fly before that happens..."

"Yes I should" Apex said through gritted teeth. "How do I fly? I suppose I should try flapping my wings" Feeling that he could sense and control his back flight muscles Apex rapidly contracted and expanded them. He did so again and again with seemingly no rewards for his efforts until he suddenly slipped into a trance like state. As if awakening an ancient memory, Apex suddenly felt like he knew exactly knew what to do. His ancestors ruled the skies and so woulds he! With a might contraction he suddenly felt his wings move and they furled out to catch the winds. Positioning his body like a spear pointing downwards at an angle, his wings at full span so he could obtain lift! As the wind caught under his wings, lifting him up he felt a sense of buoyancy as he gently glided down towards the ground.

"FUCK YES I CAN FLY" Apex was elated at his new ability and felt deep satisfaction. The night, well day now since it was past midnight had started horribly but now his life was better in every single away. Away from Ezekiel's shackles, Apex was in a place away from the Holy Empire, with a seemingly limitless ability. He could smell how glorious his future would be. Apex would adapt and evolve, grow powerful and more powerful. He would conquer and one day come to Elijim not as refugee or a visitor or as a traveller seeking home, but as a warlord. Apex would raze that damn city and the whole Holy Empire to the ground for what they had done to him all his life.

"You're pretty violent aren't you? Maybe you should calm down. Chill you know?" Said the voice in a bemused manner.

"Fuck off voice". Apex was agitated at the voice interrupting his glorious dream. " Well I can't keep calling you voice, how about Vox?"

"But that's just Latin for voice?"

"How do you know that?" Apex was puzzled. Vox wasn't omnipotent right?

" Apex I'm a mind construct created by your ability. I have access to all the knowledge that you have!"

"Oh... Well it's sounds cool so that's what we are going to go with" Said Apex. Suddenly he noticed that he was nearing the ground. He seemed to be landing in a forest. The forest seemed pure and untouched from what Apex could see, the trees had leaves of a vibrant green with smooth unblemished bark and were plentiful in number. Tilting his wings Apex spotted an empty clearing which he gently glided towards. WOOSH. His first landing was a success!

"ROAR"

The roar came to his left and Apex spotted a beast prowl towards him. It was a crimson tiger! It had demonic red eyes and blood-red fur, its body was coiled with muscles build for explosive power. "I guess I must have interrupted its nap or something huh". Apex fell into a defensive crouch, years of combat training finally showing its worth.

"Crimson tigers are common ranked flame beasts. The aura from this one suggests it's a second mortal rank beast."

"Only common rank? HAHAHHA. Come to me dinner!" Apex was overjoyed. He had just landed and a tasty meal had just delivered itself to him. Apex was not worried at all, this beast was the perfect match for his particular strength. While the beast was a rank higher than him, its main predatory advantage were cancelled. Due to his particular heritage, flames at the common rank did no damage to him whatsoever. Like all the other elements, flames came in a spectrum of nine distinct ranks and the lowest rank, flames which manifested as red were nothing to Apex.

The beast leaped forward, stopping just short of Apex. Roaring again the creature sent out a ferocious stream of red flames. Watching its humanoid prey simply spread out its arms and accept the flames; the beast was delighted as it assumed it had found a very stupid meal. It purred contentedly and sat on its haunches, its tongue running through its teeth at the thought of a crispy, tasty meal. This was the last mistake this being ever made.

Apex giggled as he spread his arms out wide, accepting the beautiful flames. They washed over his body and through them the could see the usually wary predator sitting on its haunches as it anticipated its next meal. "Perfect!". Just before the flames died out, Apex with a flap of his wings flew up and launched downwards and slammed into the tiger's neck. The tiger was dazed from the impact and Apex took the opportunity to slam his elbow into into the back of its neck, hitting its weak point with his first rank mortal strength. The beast died and fell.

"Well that's my meat! Time go get some water". Apex said cheerfully as he dragged the corpse in search of a source of water.