Along a wall in an average looking hallway were 42 students, each with their own unique abilities and attributes, lined up waiting for something. Three teachers stood present, adorned in causal clothing with a hood over their heads. A wooden mask with the number 1 on the first and 2 on the other. The one with a mask was a pale man with extremely long hair and a slender body that would make it hard to tell if they were one gender or the other.
The nearly 5 minutes they had spent waiting for that something to appear was not wasted. The second the clock struck 9 a figure simply appeared in front of them with mystery shrouding their figure as they wore black clothing from head to toe. Effectively hiding their identity, coupled with a distorted voice behind a black mask.
"Hello. I am the Grand Distortion, you should likely already know me. We will remove 10 of you in the fairest way possible." With a pause you could feel a mischievous grin appear on the man's face, although you couldn't see it, "You may now put up anything you want to alleviate pressure."
The meaning of this immediately understood, all but six people put up an aura to defend. The six people who didn't have their own various methods to protect their self. One used runic circles, another began to float and meditate, Mitzi stood there without doing anything, and another turning into a fucking half dragon.
The last two could be technically considered to have put up an aura, but did so in peculiar ways. The first was Janette, she was rumored to have more energy than the entire human race combined. Though the true depths of her energy reserves is mysterious it is unknown to even herself. She had taken a deep breath and whispered two words which were only noticed by the teachers, "Seal Break…"
A few of the curious, 'potential contestants,' that were nearby were distracted by the bright blue light that flared up and off her body, only to hastily condense into an aura that densely surrounded her body. Too many swears appeared in the minds of those watching, being prepared to lose if matched against against her.
The final person was of course Vin, who was using a brand new skill he created this morning.
[Chaos Aura] - [Questions the elements of chaos to enhance one's aura with traces of chaos. The effects of chaos can deflect some pressure and disrupt energy that directly touches your aura.]
The skill was quite complex when it comes to activating it, but once activated it would be a great addition that could stay on for a long while it even turned his aura into a nice orange and black color. The distorted voice noticed everyone and their methods and said a few words before starting the test, "Very good, some of you did a bit more than I expected." The Grand Distorter let out a hearty laugh and a light wave of pressure, not much but enough to be felt by the average tier 2.
Every second the pressure slightly increased, in 10 seconds the pressure had already reached that of tier 4. Alas one weakling already dropped out so far, making them weaker than the average tier 2, then again, they were only tier 1.
From there it only got worse, 10 seconds passed and it reached tier 5 to which surprisingly no one dropped out then. Another 10 seconds crawled by and the pressure reached mid tier 6, which caused people to realize the speed at which the pressure increased was rapidly accelerating.
'Why did I only start to feel some pressure now?'
An arrogant thought that made the teacher feel the mysterious urge to suddenly cough blood. Actually it was two arrogant thoughts that gave the teacher the feeling something was wrong. One was from Vin and another was from a student who had a crimson translucent figure form and hug him from behind as the pressure began to affect him. The figure was alone to what could describe a goddess to a lot of people, skin without an blemishes, glowing hair, and a wreath around her head.
A keen eye would notice the figure of the boy and lady spirit behind him had very similar features. Why she appeared? Because the boy was the last remaining descendant of the Aether Goddess and the spirit was the final will left of her. She used to be a great powerhouse prior to the great fall of all civilizations nearby on the planetary level. She was one of the survivors, a temporary survivor as several god hunter groups banded together along side a Demon God group and caused mutual destruction between the two.
Her will was directly strengthening her descendants… or descendant, long after her death. Granting this young man an easy path to reaching the Aspect realm.
The Grand Distortion paused as soon as the pressure reached the peak of tier 6. "Tier 7 and tier 6 are simply no longer the same. I will give you all 10 seconds to prepare." The distorted voice said detachedly, before he spoke again, "The one from the Aphelion Family and the final one of the Whiteburn Family, after this… We will have very… very… interesting conversation."
While the man spoke, all of them buffed the power of their protection immediately. Vin activated another skill he had made which used his body
[Ancestor's Soul Fragment] - [A realm transcendent of normal realms exist own it's on as an extension of main plain of existence. Known by the name, The Nether Realm. Through activating this skill an extremely small passage is opened up within Vin Aphelion's soul. The Nether Realm energy is squeezed through the passage and can be used for many purposes. Skill access is dependent on the Miniature Fragment of a Nether God Soul within Vin's soul.]
A fragment of a soul. Usually that wasn't much, but, when it came to the soul of a 'God,' it was vastly different. This was a miniature fragment of a Nether God's soul.
A similar circumstance to the kid who happened to be the last descendant of the Aether Goddess. Vin is one of the few remaining descendants of one of the ten strongest Nether Gods. Not to be confused with the Demon Gods, Nether Gods are people who simply have an unnatural affinity to the Nether Realm and used the energy there to improve the physique. Then going a step further to master the Nether Theory which only exist in the Nether Realm and create a foundation and crown off of it.
The crown was something only 72 people could have, to be able to make a crown there had to be an open spot…
This is where killing comes into play, you could kill a Nether God then take or forge your own crown. Though in recent years the number of Nether Gods has dwindled to an absolutely low number. This is something all Nether God descendants can simply feel through the connection their ancestors left for them to have an easy path that way if they wanted. Not for the connection being one way, the remaining Nether Gods would come and take all the descendants and at least try to force them to become one of them.
Despite the title god just being a title, the title granted benefits. If the title came with a realm, the person would usually get benefits in that realm which could help when leaving it. A well known benefit from a god of the previous era is from the Fire God, his flames burned until he wanted it to stop.
In most cases, a Nether God has the affinity to become a Demon God so they're treated nearly the same, however, the formers efforts and achievements have allowed them to be treated less and less as malevolent beings. The fragment of a soul Vin was luckily enough to obtain was only given because the will of his ancestor was strong enough to exist after their death and hand out parts of their soul. Though the people who could get it were even smaller as they had to be compatible enough at birth for the soul fragment to merge.
Other descendants may have smaller or larger fragments, with extremely rare descendants blessed by their ancestors to receive an extremely large portion of their soul. This is why descendants remain hidden in the world unless they have a powerful backing behind them or they have reached being a peak powerhouse themself. If it were to be known they had part of the soul of a peak powerhouse they would be captured and have experiments ran on them.
Regardless of that, almost all the remaining gods are dead, less than 30 are still alive. Even though they're called Gods it's just a title that can easily be removed.
…
With that lesson over, Vin activated the skill siphoning as much energy as he possibly could from this tiny hole. His aura was dyed a mystical red as soon as he used the skill, contrary to when he first made it, this time he put the siphoning to full force. Which caused something… different to happen. The blood stained energy, after turning his aura the same color, it pierced through his body and tried to refine it. Only to realize he had no physique to refine. The energy then went to refine a crown only to realize had none.
So instead, ignoring all previously learned things about the requirements to become a Nether God it tried to form a crown. Which to the energy's credit it actually worked. At least it would have completely worked if he had a body for it. Three dots appeared over his head, as if they were going to form a circle but ran out of dots.
The Grand Distortion who was at that moment cockblocked from releasing the pressure at the seventh tier, paused and spoke in his trademarked distorted voice, "Both you and Araztel got a fragment… interesting." This pause did not save anyone, as not even half a second after he said the word fragment, he released it.
Everyone had something protecting them from the pressure, but that wasn't enough for the weaker ones. Three immediately fell without resistance, further defining the gap between tier 6 and 7. This is because tier 7 was the step into the Forger Realm, which was still lower than the Grand Distortion's realm.
Although 26 of the now 35 remaining people could easily resist this, everyone indiscriminately felt this. Including Vin. Vin wasn't paying attention to this, instead his eyes focused on the crimson messages in front of him.