Unwinged Angel

After leaving the 'fake' office, Ethan walked along the sidewalk towards East Borough, his pace constant and his posture straight.

When he found himself in front of a shanty store by the side of an alley, he knocked on the place's door.

*Knock, Knock

Waiting a few seconds, Ethan saw the door before him creakily open. The person that received him was a little boy with curly brown hair, green eyes, and tattered clothes.

"Uhhhh… Hello, who are you…?" The child seemed shy in Ethan's presence, his voice fairly low in volume.

"Hello there. I'm Ethan, I would like to buy some used oil from this place." Before Charles came to this place, he devised many different ways to acquire the different ingredients, and one of the ways he found to get the burned oil he needed was to get it from this place.

This place made different kinds of soap by using sodium hydroxide, also known as caustic soda, and fat or oil, selling them at a low value.

The soap produced here was of incredibly low quality, it could even be considered detrimental to healthcare in a general sense, but now, it was of indispensable usability to Ethan.

While Ethan could certainly get burnt oil from many places, few could be said to be as concealed as this one.

When the child heard Ethan's reply, he couldn't help but look at Ethan's fashionable clothing, his eyes then darted back at Ethan, having an expression of 'Are you serious?'

Seeing the boy's suspicious and confused expression, Ethan looked at his clothes, finally understanding the mistake he made. With his mind rapidly working to find an excuse, Ethan opened his mouth to say:

"I… I'm a scientist! A researcher, yes. I need oil in big quantities to conduct an experiment. After hearing about how this place sold homemade soap, I decided to try and buy some from you."

Before even five seconds could pass, Ethan's mind quickly devised an excuse.

Looking at the well dressed 'researcher' in front of him, the child's eyes had a hint of admiration, after looking at Ethan for a few more seconds, he said, "Please wait here, sir! I'll call my father."

Ethan, secretly heaving a sigh of relief, waited for the boy to return with his father.

A minute or two later, Ethan noticed the kid coming back, this time accompanied by a burly man. The man had green eyes and short brown hair, he was wearing a blue working uniform with brown bracers, big boots, and a dirty tie.

With an exhausted expression, the man came to Ethan and greeted, "Good afternoon, mister. I was told you'd like to buy some of my oil?"

"It's precisely so, fine gentleman. As long as you can offer me some of your oil, I'll immediately pay you right here."

"Well… We don't really sell just the oil…" The man's expression seemed to be hinting at something.

Noticing a subtlety of meaning in the man's face, Ethan straightly replied, "I wouldn't mind buying some of your soap too if necessary."

Hearing Ethan's reply, the man revealed a big smile and said, "Then we're settled, how much soap and oil would you like to buy?"

"200 milliliters of oil, preferably burnt to high degrees, and one bar of soap." Considering the oil might have many impurities in it, Ethan intended to buy a bit more and filter it later.

After hearing Ethan's request, the man entered the confines of his house once more, returning a few seconds later with a metal bottle and a bar of soap.

"It'll be 1 soli and 3 pence." When the man said so, he saw Ethan produce two silver colored coins

"Keep the change." Ethan picked his things and left the street.

Walking to a secluded alley, Ethan came in front of a manhole. Standing in front of it, he took off his suit, putting it inside his suitcase.

Doing so, he opened the manhole and started descending into the sewers.

After reaching the bottom, Ethan walked for some more time before stopping at an intersection at the sewer's corridors.

Taking a small stove and cauldron he bought from the Alchemist's Hut for a few pounds out of his suitcase, he started setting the place for concocting the potion.

Setting everything up, Ethan started the process of concocting the potion.

Picking the Devil's Bane Root, he used a silver dagger, also from the Alchemist's Hut, to cut it in various pieces, putting everything into the cauldron directly.

After picking the burnt oil, he used the metal bottle's stopper to filter it, using his instincts to calculate the exact amount of 80 milliliters.

He then picked the Infernal Ash, throwing it inside the cauldron. After igniting the stove, he soon saw all ingredients quickly melding together.

Producing the corrupted orchid from his suitcase, Ethan picked four of its petals and threw it directly on the cauldron. The delicate petals rapidly melted in the hot solution, quickly disappearing from sight.

Holding the Obsidian crystal above the cauldron, he used the silver dagger to break it into equally large shards, Letting a single one fall to the mixture below.

While doing all these processes, Ethan concentrated as hard as he could, trying to produce tears.

After thinking of many of the horrible things that happened in his last life, he was finally able to do so, letting the three of his tears fall into the cauldron.

Having finally reached the last step, Ethan used the silver dagger to cut his thumb, letting the blood that trickled down, fall into the concoction.

Counting an exact, thirteen drops, Ethan stopped. He looked down at the cauldron, observing his work.

The potion had a dark red color, with an ominous sheen on its surface, it seemed to possess the ability of removing the feelings of anyone looking at it.

After contemplating it for a while, Ethan used the glass jar from the main ingredients to transfer the potion from the cauldron.

Holding the potion in his hands, Ethan used all of his will to bring it to his mouth, drinking the ominous liquid.

…

In a world consumed by flames, chaos, and darkness. A little black snake made its way across multiple parts of its landscapes.

From the shores bathed by an ocean of blood, to the forests and mountains encompassed in endless darkness.

This world had many inhabitants, but they weren't at all friendly to each other. No, they preyed upon each other, the strong consuming the weak for their limited nourishment.

The little snake was hunted by different kinds of creatures, each and every single one trying to kill it.

Some for the mere pleasure of extinguishing that which was weaker than them, others for quenching the hunger that ravaged their minds.

The little snake's life was difficult in this world, but it did not complain, it did not lament. For the snake, the chaos didn't bother it at all.

The chaos of existing in a reality made from nothing but despair and suffering didn't move its heart in the least.

It kept living in the chaotic world, hunting others for its own survival. The number of creatures weaker than itself it consumed exceeded numbers any common mind could imagine.

The snake, now large enough to devour an entire ship cruiser by itself, maintained its eternal cold and uncaring state.

But just like every being in this world, it had no chance to resist when a creature more powerful than itself came to reap its life.

The snake flayed its tail, bared its teeth, and comprised its body, but to no avail. At the end, it was consumed by an entity more powerful than itself.

The snake's remains, after an impossibly long period of time, decayed, being eroded by the natural flames of this chaotic realm, they became ashes.

With the ashes scattered through this world, some were eaten by other creatures, transforming their bodies into snake-like monsters, while others were absorbed by the world, changing the environment of different areas.

This cycle continued on and on, with the ashes that once belonged to the snake becoming continuously different objects and entities.

And there came a time, when some of the diluted form of these remains appeared in the real world, where they once again kept changing their appearance to various things, going from one form to another.

With some of those remains collected, some of them inevitably came to appear in Backlund, possessed by a golden haired teen with blue eyes, and later on being sold to a man concealing his face with a black handkerchief.

They were prepared in a cauldron, in the middle of the sewers of the city known as Backlund, turned into a mixture that could more directly resemble the multiple entities that once had these remains as a part of them.

And were consumed by another entity, the man that concocted the mixture himself. The remains would now once again, become a part of another being.

…

An impossibly big torrent of information consumed Ethan's mind, from a dark, tenebrous world, to thousands of years in the past of this world.

Everything came crashing in his mind, turning it into a complicated mesh of different information.

And while his mind was ravaged by an all encompassing madness, his body undertook continuous changes.

His old, wrinkled skin became a smooth pale white, his long black hair, full of gray stripes, colored a darker shade of raven black, his eyes turned from bright green to a piercing, demonic glare of dark green.

Every one of his muscles became highly defined, strained to an insane level. The nails of his hands and feet prolonged and changed colors, turning from normal nails to black claws.

Each transformation did unbearable pain to Ethan, not being able to take it anymore, he bent his knees and fell to the filthy ground.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!" Screaming in pain from the top of his lungs, his mouth exhaled a dark green colored flame, destroying most of the ceiling above him.

The flames slithered around him, wrecking his clothes completely. With his mind and body being completely destroyed, Ethan began to calm down.

The pain that once consumed him suddenly became weaker, and the memories in his mind, less foreign to him.

After a few more minutes, Ethan had completely calmed down. However, his gaze had inexplicably changed.

His gaze no more had any emotions, it was cold, dark, aloof, and uncaring. Every part of his body exuded a dark aura, the flames around him kept burning, but they didn't affect him anymore.

With the pain gone completely, Ethan pushed himself from the ground, observing the changes to his body.

After a few more seconds, he took his suitcase and started walking back to the manhole, still completely unclad.

While walking, Ethan's mouth started to murmur something, "I understand now. The reason I wasn't affected by the intense mental imprints of the Beyonder characteristic."

"It all comes down to just one thing. Humanity. The humanity belonging to Charles still existed in the characteristic when I ate it, that's why I wasn't too affected by it." His voice was now low and raspy, resembling the growls of a beast.

"While my moral values certainly changed a little, thanks to the humanity that existed in the characteristic, and my own humanity, I was able to take it." While walking through the sewer, Ethan's surroundings started to change.

"However, now, I had no humanity in the potion to cope with the mental imprints at all. Every single one of the potion's mental imprints has been absorbed by me." The sewer's walls became painted with a dark green color.

"The acting principles of a Cold-blooded are very simple: To not care about the laws of the world. To not show any emotion to the chaos that inhabits it. To lose yourself in your desires, consuming others to accomplish your despicable wishes." The flames around Ethan became more and more pronounced.

"But why would I need to act as a Cold-blooded?" They slithered around him like demonic snakes hungry for the suffering of all life.

"Why would I act by the principles when every one of my actions-" The rats and cockroaches around Ethan began bursting with dark-green flames.

"When every one of my thoughts-" The sewer's walls and ceiling started to burn and corrode, pieces falling into the water.

"When every part of my existence represents-" The flames consumed everything around him, the life was burned to nothing but ashes, the structure was corroded beyond recognition, and the water didn't even have the chance to become steam.

"Represents, An Angel of No Wings."