1 Chapter 0:

A tall, thin man with hair dark like the edges of the dawn sky above pulled his sleeve through a white coat with the Government insignia on it. he stepped forth under a streetlight to speak to several men and women wearing the same coat.

Jack's nametag reflected his status as the trainer of these un-awakened soldiers, with a respect pushing through the hopeless haze of their eyes. They may not be able to awaken their Aethis and the strange powers they could gain from it, but they still had much physical potential. They were the governments weapon against newly awakened threats, capable of matching the strongest in terms of durability with a bit of helpful healing.

He was leading them to the edge of the Third Realm, where he could cross the boundary into the First Realm to train them and help them search for suitable weapons.

The piece of road they stood on lifted and began gaining speed towards the boundary until they had to kneel and hold on to not be thrown off.

They reached the speed to pierce the barrier sooner than expected, but before they could reach it, a barely perceptible pulse of aether emanated from the boundary, shattering the stone beneath them and throwing them into the ground.

Jack gathered them closely before they were hit by the aether, thinking to protect them from the beasts that could ravage the typical un-awakened upon landing but it backfired completely.

His pupils had ended up on top of him when they reached the ground, skimming across the earth not on their previous stone but on their superior's uniform, built by a crafter somewhere amongst the awakened the government had.

Unfortunately, he was still in his uniform and an especially large rock knocked him on the forehead and his head erupted into a burning pain.

As he did, an unfamiliar voice echoed from deep within the would around him, [Fate dictates that your Aethis is your own.]

A chunk of earth with a flat top sat upon a sea of Aether, something he'd never been able to see before, with five black towers. The largest was like the single peak of a cathedral, but it seemed to be chained to one of the other towers.

This island was his Aethis, a physical and ethereal representation of his soul in the Second Realm which he could bring his consciousness to.

Before he could look at the others, he was swept to the entrance of the Cathedrium. He blinked, and the door opened.

His eyes felt runes forming behind them, telling him the name of his Cathedrium to be (Collector).

' "Beholder of the vast, intrigued by the world, those which you vanquish may gift a fragment of their power to you." '

The runes disappeared, and Jack was left with the only path forward being to hope he'd been lucky enough to gain anything from those his squads hunted with him in the Aethis Tower. He took the first step and was not disappointed.

As Jack entered, he took in the strange metallic box he had entered, somewhat intrigued by the empty racks on the walls and the strange pillar in the center. It was adorned with crystalline circuitry and sharp indents all across it.

There was a section close to the center of the pillar that could rotate around the axis of the pillar.

In it's slots, there were two crystal shards! Jack immediately felt a tug in his subconscious as he could sense and form a dagger in his mind. He looked at the other shard, and a different feeling lit his mind up as he saw it begin glowing, and an electric pain stabbed through his aether pathways.

It was like nothing he'd ever experienced before, it was as if he was going to rupture from his aether fusing with his blood, giving it a foggy pink haze. As the pain subsided, he heard Fate's call bellow through his skull, [Would you like to form a new tower?]

Jack was awestruck, this was something even the greatest prodigies could achieve in the first Awakening. Only a truly rare whim of Fate could cause the scenarios required for this. 'Yes,' he thought, and his vision returned. The room he was in had become several times larger, and completely different.

The once metal walls had a dark, stony face and were covered in enchained capsules and sheaths, with the occasional black armor stand. The floor was covered in a black moss with a pink biofluorescence.

The ceiling was arched like a dome with a spiral staircase that started halfway down to the floor, never reaching where Jack stood. The runes behind his eyes saw something strange, his (Empty Lineage) Attribute Tower and his (Collector) Cathedrium, had fused into the Abyssal Hoarder Cathedrium.

'Abyssal Hoarder? All these years in the forming stage, and I receive such a wretched title. "The Abyss decides —— ——- —— ———-." '

He had never thought that an Aethis would have unreadable runes, but the next surprise in the texts was yet to reach him, '"The machinations of Fate desire your growth." Fuck.'

The surprised light in his eyes gave way to despair, as Attribute towers or Cathedriums related to Fate were almost always a death sentence. If you were lucky, and strong enough to survive it's opportunities, it could mean unimaginable wealth.

The shit luck of being stuck in the forming stage for five years made him see that "Fate's Desire" would instead spell constant danger for him.

After being lost in thought of the new risks he'd endure for a moment, he dispelled the runes and looked for anything he may have gotten lucky enough to 'collect' from his opponents was still there.

Wrapped in chains, dangling a meter from his eyes was the dagger he'd seen in his mind earlier. It bore quills of sorts as a slanted one sided cross gaurd. At closer inspection, they were made of dozens of thin crosses weaving into each other to produce a blade in the midst of them.

It was long, about the length of his forearm, and had a needle like width, one thin edge reaching a central ridge with a very deep point.

He listened for Fate to tell him what it was, but the voice that would softly tell the story of what it originated from never appeared.

Instead, he felt an image flash through his mind. It was his father, with a small dragon like creature on the arm of the somewhat regal chair he sat in.

The dragon had a thin cross hanging from a little chain around his neck. His Father's eyes gave a golden tint to the air he manipulated as if it were aether, which flowed into the cross and the dragon released a vast and dense pressure which seemed to be on the edge of a higher plane of existence. This was a bonded Blood Wyvern, and a fragment of her power was made reachable with this dagger. Faith becomes Drakevein aether at the behest of the beast.

Jack's mind reeled from the image as he thought of his long gone father, who had killed himself using Jack's hands in an attempt to allow him to awaken. Unfortunately, his own background led to his son being targeted by Fate itself. Was the lineage, now known to be related to the abyss, something that massive?

An impact awoke him from his Aethis, as he realized he had awakened an unpredictable Attribute, in the midst of the squad he'd led up until this point.

The squad that was trained to eliminate newly awakened dangers, all of which have these unpredictable attributes. Fear flashed through him for a second before he calmed down, glancing at each of his subordinates he'd soon be running from.

'I wish I hadn't come to work today'

-Second Realm-

Deep within what seemed to be a vast sea of liquid Aether, an island not just devoid of life but hollowed out to unimaginable depths began to gently shake. Had any Spiritfarer's been unlucky enough to find the passage between the Aethis Sea and the Abyss, the collection of all that is forgotten, they'd have heard a barely audible ancient exhale, with the sound of a teardrop containing oceans of blood hitting something equally vast.

— End of Chapter Zero—