4 So There Is A Malus After All

Prometheus felt like if someone had touched him with gelid hands on the spot hit by the black gas. The dark sphere emitted a low whistle, consuming the cloth that was covering his chest and merging back with his body.

The young man looked at his torso, seeing a hole in his ragged but clean shirt right on the zone that covered his right pectoral. He could see his robust body under, brown and decored by numerous devious scars.

'What's that?'

A faint red stain was appearing on his bronzed skin, slowly becoming more vivid each second it passed. Prometheus also sensed warmth coming from it, combating the cold feeling of before and even spreading all over his body.

[Stabilizing Process]

[Time Lef: 3h, 23m]

'Ah, so it didn't speed up'

Thought the youth, looking at the red sign on his chest with curiosity and a hint of concern. If he remembered correctly the system said that the totem would take more then four hours when the ball of gas had absorbed the little lizard. This stabilizing process seemed to be included in that estimate.

Not having better things to do, the youth kept looking at the red mark on his skin.

After a couple of minutes, the red stain became something barely recognizable as the shape of small lizard. It was very blurry, however each second it passed the colors and lines that defined it became sharper and clearer.

It was crouched in a fetal position, its long tail covering a side of its head, almost as it was sleeping.

'So that's a totem... well, it does look pretty similar to the original animal'

Considered the youth, scratching his head. It was in that moment that something that left him shocked happened: the lizard moved! Yes, his tattoo moved! It literally twisted its entire body, turning itself on the other side.

'What the hell?'

The lizard's red eye abruptly snapped open, looking at him right in the eyes, a deep furious sentiment buried inside that dark red iris.

This was the first time seeing something like that. A moving tattoo? This was some Harry Potter level weirdness. Prometheus realized that maybe it was something that had to do with the fact that totems were supposed to contain living creatures.

'This is so weird... I really shoul...argh!"

Suddenly the youth felt a great sense of confusion and pain, it was almost as if someone had just hit him right in the head. The young man felt his vision fading, his ears began to tingle and everything around him became distorted, sound and images alike.

'What is happening?'

[Consciousness levels is falling] announced the System, in the annoying french accent.

'Why?' asked confused the maimed youth, trying to make sense of the sudden headache that he was experimenting.

[0.3 of Soul is occupied by Totem N 1]

Even not understanding what was the problem, Prometheus was panicking. He could tell that his senses were becoming more and more unreliable as time went on. Plus there was the system, giving explanations that made no sense to anyone around.

'Soul is occupied by totem? What does that mean?' asked exasperated the young man.

[A part of the host soul is occupied by the new totem, Totem N 1, this is equal to having lost said part resulting in the gradual lowering of mental capacity.]

'Whaaat?' the youth felt afraid for the first time since he was back in Illusory Thunder. Nothing was worst as loosing part of your mental acuity!

'How much lower?'

[Hosts soul was low to begin with, lowering it to 0.7 is equivalent of having the consciousness of a 2 Years Old Human]

Prometheus almost lost his mind when he understood what was happening. He was loosing consciousness because part of his soul was used to maintain the totem. The totem was causing him an absurdly serious problem!

Weren't System supposed to always be overpowered? With no malus whatsoever? Why his own system was causing him to become a literal retard?

'This is the worst power ever! Zeus, you despicable liar! You took me away from my dear family and trick me into using this disgusting trap-system!'

Prometheus' moral was incredibly down.

His future was still full of life and opportunities back on Earth, and now that he had been sent back to Illusory Thunder he was going to become some sort of complete moron!

A grown up man with the mind of a two years old! What a cruel destiny!

'I can't let this go on!' thought the young man.

"Stop the Totem!" he then ordered with authoritative voice.

[Totem creation can be stopped, but the souls won't heal] explained the system, giving Prometheus an interference to chose if he wanted to stop the totem creation.

[Yes/No]

'I...' Prometheus was left without words. This was a disaster!

'Will I be a retard forever?' Was this the future that the Heavens reserved him in this third life of his? Become a mad cripple?

[Absorbing the Soul will restore the previous level of consciousness. Activating Soul Unification?]

[Yes/No]

Prometheus almost started weeping with tears of joy. There was a method to revers this after all! Without any hesitation, he immediately nodded and give his consent.

'Yes! Do it! Fast!'

[Soul Unification requires 364 Days, 12 hours, 6 minutes and 2 seconds] continued the System.

'That much time?' Prometheus bit his lips, slapping the bed with his only arm. He was going to lose an entire year for this stupid mistake? No, this wasn't that simple: while he wouldn't be able to remember it, he would still be alive in the world for a year!

It was practically leaving his body unprotected for 364 days! Absolute madness. However, he didn't have any other choice, even now while he was thinking through his situation, he felt his mental faculty keeping their slow but steady fall.

'Yes! Do it!'

[Are you sure? Totem N 1 will be unusable until the Unification has been completed]

'YEEES!'

Who cares if the totem wouldn't be usable? He wouldn't even be enough aware to know his own name, why should he care about some totem? No, it was way better to have it non active! Only the Heavens could know what a two years old mind could do with what supposedly was some kind of magic power!

[Unification Activated] concluded the system.

Prometheus gave a long sigh of relief. 'Uf... I'm saved... even if... oh boy, one entire year?' he really was concerned: he wasn't 't in the body of someone who had people left to care about him for an entire year! This wasn't Earth! Illusory Thunder was a land were the strong pried on the weak, it had always been that way.

'System, how much time I have before I lose completely my ability to think like a normal person?' asked the one armed youth.

[Critical level will be reached in approximately two days] responded the echo.

'Two days?' he collapsed back down on the bed, feeling the pressure of an entire mountain on his back.

"Two days..."