The Message from God (2)

[I just need to intervene]

'How?'

I stared at the blank screen that stopped having the subtle liveliness to it as if a machine was buffering.

[Here]

The screen suddenly stopped its buffering moment as a small icon appeared below the new words.

[Just press it and gain your new powers!!!]

'...Yokay.'

Feeling both suspicious about the item and expectant of the power, I didn't hesitate for a moment without worry that the icon was a trap.

If the God of Fun and Games wanted, since he could give me this power, he could also as easily take it away.

So as things went, my finger moved.

Pressing on the icon, tons of mana suddenly appeared around me in bright blue swirling lights which contrasted the orange light that suddenly appeared around my body in reaction.

Hissing against the sudden appearance of mana, some unknown source of power snaked between the fighting energies and went into my mind.

Upon coming into my mind, knowledge of all sorts suddenly appeared.

Most of the knowledge was how to suppress and control the malaise before it corrupted my mind into an incredibly dangerous one.

Something I didn't know could happen but was in hindsight definitely possible.

I mean, the Concierge remained relatively human sized but he was a guy that seemed to just want to kill everything in his sight that was on the bridge.

In that case, wasn't he actually a sad guy?

I mean, he was just doing his job of protecting the bridge although he is slightly misguided.

I'm pretty sure as well that he would've made for a nice dude if he wasn't currently infected.

But nevertheless, following the knowledge that the malaise could drive people insane and would kill anyone in their sights.

I gained even more knowledge of my abilities.

One, I was a homunculus, or I was something akin to one after The God of Fun's intervention.

And yes, it was the same homunculus that was so pursued by the alchemists of medieval times, the same crazy scientists who wanted to turn lead into gold.

But apparently, in this world, the crazed pursuit of the alchemists had actually succeeded and had created something like me.

A homunculus, both a human being and not, that was what I am.

A creation made by the desire of humans to actually create humans instead of reproducing them.

I guess it made sense because I couldn't learn so quickly otherwise.

I was inhuman.

Swallowing that piece of information into my brain, I turned to the next piece of information that suddenly appeared within my mind.

The usage of mana.

It was definitely a more intricate art than one would think, but I guess that goes with basically everything that people did in life.

I mean, I didn't even know how influential just proper posture or footing could get you in a fight!

But nevertheless, mana was also multi purpose unlike malaise which seemed to be offensively purposed.

It also massively depended on mental flexibility and strength.

If I had to compare it, it would be something like a mixture of creating a piece of art and bodybuilding in the mind?

It was hard to explain, but I felt like a new limb opened up in my mind.

Something I would have to quickly get used to later no doubt.

The Final thing that appeared in my mind was knowledge.

Not exactly the conventional knowledge like how I wasn't human or how to use mana although they were indeed important.

It was actually just a message containing what the God of Fun wanted me to do.

Consisting of various tasks the end goals were...

To defeat the Avatar of Mana, the death of the White eyed and the destruction of a God of the Moon.

They even appeared in the forms of tiny goals at the edges of my vision hidden besides the interfaces that I always had to stare.

Glancing at the three quests which hung besides their respective grid like interfaces, a strange look overcame my face as I felt the mana surrounding me slowly dissipate like the mist in the coming morning.

Taking a few moments to go away, I sensed the mana and malaise dwelling within my body.

Instead of the previous malaise acting like some sort of evil overlord by imprisoning the mana within it, a much larger blob of blue mana had surrounded the orange bulb itself.

And it wasn't some sort of unsophisticated blob of energy that relied purely on amount to control it.

Instead of just surrounding it like a piece of clay around an iron ball, it was instead something akin to someone laying down the foundations for a plumbing system inside my body. 

It was something new to see or rather. Sense since the God of Games had installed the plumbing system in my body.

It was like someone had taken control of a river and turned it into some sort of intricate reservoir of sorts.

I could still bring out the malaise of course don't get me wrong, but the amount that I could take out was so miniscule in comparison to the previous amount that it couldn't even be compared.

At least I could still use the mana that smoothly flowed out when I turned the metaphysical tap.

I actually felt even more empowered than before somehow.

Vines extending out of the ground to greet me with a more visible smoothness then before, the mana continued to flow as the vines wrapped softly around my arms.

Creaking slowly, the vine unraveled before me to create a series of flowers.

Those flowers in turn turned into several sharp mouths of teeth that would like nothing more than to devour the things around me with a renewed vigor.

Watching as the malaise infected monster slowly bustled to life and leapt at the nearby corpse, I noted a few things.

First, it didn't immediately attack the first thing it saw, that being me, and instead turned to sate its hunger on a slain corpse nearby.

Second, I felt some sort of bond between me and the plant like being as if it was a master servant relationship.

I felt as if I could control basically everything that the plant would and could be able to do if I so desired it.

Thirdly, despite stopping the influx of mana which would've caused it to wilt and the influx of malaise which would've returned the the monster to a normal plant.

Or at least that should've been the normal way of things.

Instead of those things happening, it was instead as if the plant flower man seemed to have suddenly gained a will of its own and was now alive in all manners of the word.

Instead of being something like a robot powered by AI technology or a golem powered by magic it was a true life.

Not one that was emulated by various means with the capabilities to learn, but a life with soul.

The soul was an abstract concept but I knew for a fact that it existed since I was briefly in the form of a soul for a while when I died.

...It really was absurd that I died by a mixture of several things such as a broken ambulance, falling building, stabbing, plane, falling tower and car crash.

...What the hell even happened after that? 

Feeling needlessly curious of the fact that included a literal tower being struck by a plane like the one in November, I turned my attention to the three figures who were staring at me from the edges of my vision.

One of which was a familiar figure that I had the pleasure of meeting.

Focusing a stare at them, three different words appeared.

[The Servants Calliope, Euterpe, Klio]

Funnily enough the interface seemed to have grouped the three people as one single entity.

But when seeing the white cloaks and similar golden masks donned on their body one could see why they were seen as one entity.

At the same time I didn't know why they were called a single entity but I could assume that was because they were all close and their designation was something called the Servants.

in reality their names were probably one of the shown names, the problem was which name belonged to which person.

A further problem was differentiating who owned which name, but they were slightly discernable due to their weapons.

Of course I knew one of them due to a previous encounter, but I really didn't look at their name due to the singular fact that it wasn't really a good time.

No one in their right mind would go ask for someone's name in the middle of a bloody battle that bordered on carnage.

It also had something to count when I realized that I probably just forgot such a function existed, but the fact that they were right in front of me didn't disappear.

Staring at them with a gaze that carried emotions unknown to me, the servants were staring at me with...

I honestly don't know, the masks were honestly doing a good job in hiding their emotions.

Should I get one?

Distracting myself with rather stupid thoughts that bordered on the line of serious and joking, the servants moved forwards and greeted me.

"Greetings Herald of Change, my name is Klio and I am the head of the Servants."

Moving forwards, the bladed tonfas in her hands moved forwards to her chest as she slightly curtsied towards me.

Of course there was no need for introduction since I already knew their names due to the interface, I only needed to match the name with the face, but they didn't need to know that.

But what was this about being the Herald of change? 

Staring uncomprehendingly at her with a gaze that seemed to carry my immense confusion within my psyche.

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