Body of Ember

The opening of the battle was stupid.

Kane watched the stupid commander bolt in with his stupid run after giving his stupid speech, before stupidly tripping and stupidly hitting his stupid face on the ground before stupidly allowing himself to be eaten like an idiot.

That about sums it up.

Despite whatever ranking order the group had for something like this, Kane decided to take charge, figuring he was the only one here with even half a brain.

Although his strategic abilities were limited, he had a sneaking suspicion the rest of this group would fare worse without him.

"The Y'mnites are slow, tanks, go circle around and aggro as many as you can. I want rangers to fire into the horde, knights and any assassins or brawlers present can go pick off stragglers."

For whatever reason, the entire group went along with his quickly thought up plan, no questions asked.

Kane wanted to test out a fully powered black hole without killing his teammates, and this plan happened to fit that agenda.

Kane stretched out his perception as he walked closer to the group of Y'mnites, drawing all of his mana into his hand, he activated the skill, watching absolute chaos ensue.

With all of his mana drained, a tiny baseball-sized black orb appeared in the air, right in the center of the horde. It immediately tore apart the bodies of any nearby Y'mnites while slowly ripping off the appendages of those further away.

This single attack killed 10 of them, though at the cost of all his mana. His mana pool now seemed to refill over time by drawing it in from the surrounding environment, rather than some '+25 per minute' stat.

Kane assumed it would develop similarly to how cardio develops stamina.

As the Y'mnites were torn apart, a barrage of arrows and a few gunshots flew into the crowd, taking out even more.

Kane was currently facing a few dilemmas. He had gotten much closer to the Y'mnites in order to use black hole effectively, he had just killed enough of them to switch their agro, he was now out of mana, and not all of the rangers had good aim.

Sharpening his attention, he began sprinting away from the Y'mnites while dodging and weaving between poorly fired arrows.

Though he could manage arrows, bullets proved to be impossible, as one pierced his left shoulder.

A fiery pain shot up through his entire left side as Kane let out a distressed shout, 'I thought the game numbed pain?? And that bastard totally did that on purpose!' Kane grimaced.

Taking a risk, Kane focused not on the multitude of dangers around him, but on his mana absorption.

He decided to try expanding his use of sucking in unnecessary mana to the air around him.

Thankfully, his gamble paid off, as he began absorbing mana through his skin at an increased rate. Though from what he could tell, expelling mana while doing this was way beyond his current level of control.

Gathering just enough, Kane teleported over to the tanks on the other side of the horde, forcing the Y'mnites to move in the correct direction once again.

Kane began casting smaller black holes near the edges of the horde after restoring more mana, not to kill the beasts, but to guide some of the more poorly aimed shots into the crowd.

The crowd of mostly level 14 Y'mnites was now cut down to half its original size, Kane went and asked one of the tanks to slap him.

It hurt a lot more than it should've.

With his pain not being reduced for some reason, Kane decided he should stay away from close-range combat and just spam black hole.

For the second time in this game, Kane felt a bit afraid.

An icon suddenly popped up in Kane's mind, 'Recieve 5 Y'mnite attacks (0/5) | Use melee attacks to kill 5 Y'mnites (0/5). Reward: Void Slash Skill. Penalty: -1000 Gold.'

Kane was bewildered, the game took away his pain reduction and was not forcing him to fight. Even worse, he'd traveled to 3 separate countries by now and didn't even have 1000 gold.

A debate took place in Kane's mind between leaving the game to avoid potential discomfort, and gaining a cool-sounding skill.

He could control mana manually now, but he didn't know if the game would restrict him from learning entirely new moves or not, or if he could even figure out how to do new moves on his own to begin with.

Not to mention the penalty might still apply if he just leaves.

"Crap," Kane muttered, getting a few looks from the tanks.

He sprinted out with sword in hand, teleporting in next to a Y'mnite, he slashed upwards at its throat a few times before letting it sock him in the face. It hurt.

Kane accidentally let a pained cry slip as the Y'mnite broke his nose, or at least that's what he could compare the sensation to.

Kane teleported behind it and jabbed at its back, killing it after 8 total strikes.

"F*ck this!" Kane fumed as he went to log out.

He was met with a screen, 'You cannot log out until the quest has been completed.'

Kane gnashed his teeth, the game was seriously pissing him off now.

He wanted to place black holes directly inside enemies, but they seemed to have a shield of mana preventing spells from being fired inside them. He assumed the barrier could be overpowered, but Kane didn't have a lot of leeway to try.

Kane rapidly slashed and stabbed anything in his path, teleporting only when necessary to avoid attacks without wasting mana.

He allowed a hit to his left arm, the attack overlapped with his previous bullet wound and caused immense pain, making Kane let out a yelp.

He couldn't allow the wind to get knocked out of him, nor could he let them attack his head again, his sword-arm and legs were also out of the question.

His already wounded left arm was the only wiggle room he could allow, and it was some of the worst pain Kane had ever experienced.

He had to constantly dodge and weave between large slow attacks, forcing him to concentrate through the pain.

Striking whenever possible while using teleportation to avoid attacks and black hole to knock enemies off-balance, Kane gradually worked his way up to 5 kills.

The avatar for his left arm was fine, but in terms of sensation, it was absolutely annihilated. If this were the real world, he'd assume there was nothing left but a bleeding stump.

With the quest completed and the rest of the Y'mnites being picked off by his teammate, Kane slumped down in pain.

A rush of information suddenly entered his mind, as he witnessed space being separated in an arch, filling its void with anything it came into contact with.

Rather than suck in anything nearby like [Black Hole], it seemed to consume its own edges, containing the void to a small curve.

It looked like the space around it could be manipulated to send it flying outwards, though as usual, manipulating mana to do anything more complicated than the equivalent of a straight line was too much for Kane at the moment.

Although learning more about how to manipulate his power was cool, his sense of accomplishment was severely overshadowed by his anger.

Kane let out the longest string of curse words he could think of and angrily logged out, much to the dismay of everyone present.

He pulled the headset off and opened his door, marching down the hallway while cradling his still lightly throbbing arm.

"House Master!" Kane yelled while entering his living room.

House Master responded in his usual monotone English voice, "Yes?"

"I want to leave a review of Ember."

"I have logged into your account, please tell me your review."

Kane thought for a moment before changing his mind.

"Never mind, cancel the review House Master..." He sighed.

The government here was technically an elected democracy, but aside from changing how their election system worked, the council was given almost tyrannical levels of free reign.

Naturally, big companies with lots of pretty donations got loads of power here too.

Someone merely reporting a headache after playing the game, while still complimenting the game and admitting it may not even be related, got their account suspiciously deleted soon after.

Kane didn't want to take any chances, he'd just return the game and let Cassy know to be cautious when her system arrived.

The pain from that last fight left Kane drained of energy, as he walked back to his room and passed out on the bed.

----------------

A few hours after falling asleep, a dull pain woke Kane's consciousness up, though he was still asleep.

The hidden ember marks in his eye sockets had begun glowing again, this time far more brightly.

The pain got worse and worse, Kane wanted to scream and kick, but he couldn't even so much as breathe. The process lasted an hour, as the marks had slowly been spreading golden veins throughout his body, stopping short around his left side.

As Kane endured the torture, the memories of those in the desert wasteland somehow gave him the strength to hold on, as it felt like his very life was being tugged away.

It took all Kane had to stay conscious, the image of the ancient green golem laughing at him for struggling with something as simple as pain pushed Kane to endure.

The reason he kept thinking of these things while in agonizing torture, was because the pressure he was currently feeling was similar to what he had to endure within the temple, though several times stronger. Even in severe distress he couldn't help but make the connection.

Finally, the pain ended as Kane collapsed back into a deep sleep.

----------------

Kane woke up far later than usual, simply feeling normal was incredibly refreshing after what he went through the previous night.

He was definitely returning the game.

Although he wasn't too sure how much of it was the game and how much of it was the system, the mere existence of the desert quest and its forced, borderline traumatic visions, seemed to point towards the game.

He deleted the game from his console and packed up his physical copy, locking up his apartment, he trotted down the stairs.

As much as he completely distrusted the game now, its effects on him in real life were undeniable. After last night his senses had become even sharper than before, he felt a little more confident and had a much stronger mental fortitude.

Kane swore he felt a light tug on his body whenever he moved, the strange feeling of energy moving through him he'd gained from the first painful night was now more prominent. He'd have to get that checked out some time.

He left his apartment, taking in the crisp nighttime air.

Trotting down the stairs, he ran into Cassy on his way out.

"Oh hey! Haven't seen you since my walk, how've you been?" She seemed pleased, Kane could hear Cody panting just behind her.

"Both great and terrible, I've been having some bad side-effects from playing Ember, so I'm heading out to return the damn thing."

Cassy spoke with a worried tone, "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, should I give up on buying it then?"

"Honestly, it seems more like the game's fault than the headset's, I'd just buy the console and wait for better games to come out."

She nodded, "I met your dad a few days ago, he was pretty cool!"

Kane mentally pumped his fist, 'Sweet, dad actually ran into the right girl, that means she's hot!'

"How far away is the place you're going to? I could walk with you there if you want, Cody needs the exercise."

"It's maybe two miles from here, you don't hav.."

"Sweet! Let's get going then," She grabbed Kane's hand and pulled him along.

"It must be tough walking two dogs at once," Kane chuckled.

"You're blind and you didn't bring your cane, it can't be helped," She grinned playfully while dragging him along towards the city.

"... Wait, I just moved here, I have no clue where it is, sorry."

Kane gave her an extremely light flick to the forehead, before moving out into the front.

"You're being guided by a blind person Cass, how does it feel?"

She started laughing, "After you dodged my dog like a ninja? I think I'm fine."

The light-hearted banter they traded while walking over to the game store really helped lift Kane's mood.

The VR system being sold actually had vendors set up specifically for them, you couldn't find them in normal stores or online anywhere.

Walking in, Kane was greeted by a pleasant fragrance and a welcoming warmth, Cassy was waiting outside with her dog in the meanwhile.

The store managed to keep a full stock of headsets at almost all times. Which wasn't hard seeing as a lot of people didn't have enough extra cash lying around to even buy one.

"I'd like to make a return please," Kane spoke to the cashier while walking up.

There were no lines at the moment and the store was pretty empty, the sun had just set an hour ago and most people were back in their homes.

"Sure thing, can I see your receipt?"

Kane handed him a small card with his information on it.

Receipts in this game were more like a scannable identity card, and purchased things got added to a digital list.

If a specific item was found on the list of purchased things it would be considered a valid buy in all retail stores.

The cashier's face momentarily turned into a frown before popping back up into a smile, "You're returning Ember, correct?" The man said while eyeing the small box in Kane's hand.

"Being blind makes playing a pain in the ass." He lied.

The cashier compared the code on the box to the one on Kane's card to make sure they matched, then opened the box to check the condition of the game.

"Looks like it's still in perfect condition, I can only give you 90% back on the game though."

Kane nodded, "That's fine, I know the rules."

The cashier handed Kane 180 arels, an arel being worth around 1 USD, which doesn't exist in this fictional world here mind you. (I'm just too lazy to do any conversion).

-------------------------

After Kane left the store, a frown returned to the cashier's face. He ran into a backroom and dialed a number on his phone.

A man with a commanding voice picked up on the other end, "Yes? I'm assuming you have something important for me?"

"Greetings district commander, Kane has just returned Ember..."

"Unfortunate... I'll see what I can do, he's blind anyway, so we don't lose much if he can't handle the final stage because of this." The man spoke coldly.

"Understood, thank you for your time district commander."

'Click.'

----------------

Meanwhile, Kane was outside, cracking jokes with Cassy as he walked home.

He looked forward to whatever his dad would make when he got home from work, and he felt a lot of weight lifted off of his shoulders, having gotten away from Ember.

'A real shame,' He thought to himself. That game was absolutely amazing, but it just had to pull so much crap, and he felt like the after-effects from last night had nearly killed him.

"What are you gonna do now, Kane?" Cassy asked him sincerely.

"I'm going to tickle you into submission, no wait, better idea! Rob a bank."

"I'd rather you do neither," She laughed gently.

"Too late!" Kane dashed towards her, receiving a giggling scream and a bark from Cody as began tickling her.

Moments later Cassy's laughter turned to confusion as Kane stopped, and began running off in the vague direction of the bank.