TO SURVIVE

"There are no rules in the infinite Void. The impossible becomes possible, and you never know when everything will change. A firestorm can become an icy blizzard in a matter of seconds. Creatures you thought long gone can rise from the dead and attack you with a ferocity never seen before. Truly, the Void is a place where horrors become real, but even then, there is a certain beauty to it all."

~ Into the Abyss by Lone Traveler

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Silence and almost complete darkness surrounded him from every side as his eyes snapped open. Leo gasped for air, reeling back even as his body burned with every move.

'Third time in a row.' He groaned, resting his head against a kitchen cupboard. 'Was it all real?'

The red light that consumed the entire sky. The clone that turned his world upside down. And even the mysterious System that apparently was now a part of him. It just couldn't have been a dream. Not when, ever since his eyes opened, he felt like a completely different person, a different being.

The aches and bits of lingering pain may have remained, but Leo had never felt better than at this exact moment. Something was thrumming underneath his skin, pumping him with infinite energy, and as he tried to focus on this anomaly, he finally understood.

The power of the soul.

Essence.

It coursed through all of his body like a raging river. The feeling of weightlessness and unlimited power tried to reel him in, almost drowning him in power. Only when his instincts — which he had no clue he possessed — screamed did he manage to wake up from the haze that threatened to consume his mind.

'Shit'. Leo hissed, trying to wrestle the fiery inferno under control. Essence fought back, lashing out and refusing to bend the knee. The clone evidently forgot to tell him that his own life force wanted to assassinate him right after waking up.

It was only thanks to the emergence of his instinct that he somehow managed to push his Essence back to where it came from.

It left him gasping for breath, and with sweat pouring out in waves, but in the end, the energy evaporated in a matter of a second, leaving him almost hollow. He slumped, feeling like his body was run over by a herd of charging bulls for the second time in a few hours.

'Here goes my hope for a quick recovery…'

A few deep breaths slightly calmed his still rampaging heart. Yet Leo knew that this respite was only temporary. The few lines of text hanging in front of his vision and the weird phantom stinging in his left arm only proved that.

[The tainted status has been assimilated and is dormant. Congratulations, survivor. You have managed to delay the curse from spreading further. Be advised that a constant supply of Pure Void Essence will be required to stop any future activation of this status.]

'Glad to know that this part is also real.' He grimaced as the notification faded away and once again left him in the company of darkness. The faint red light coming through the window that barely illuminated the other part of the kitchen didn't count in his opinion.

The world must have really gone to hell. Neither the Sun nor the moon shone with that kind of color.

'And why is the lamp turned off?' He grumbled internally, pretty sure that it worked before he got dragged into his soul.

"Doesn't matter," he murmured, hands reaching towards the kitchen counter to get some support to stand up. 'I have to figure out what the hell is really going on. The clone warned…'

His thought process stilled when his left hand gripped the counter. The grip was all wrong, almost crushing the wood in its grasp. Even more concerning was the soft crimson glow emanating from underneath the sleeve. How he hadn't noticed it earlier baffled him.

Leo gulped and raised to his feet, positioning himself right in front of the window, the only place with a decent light source. This is gonna suck.

Taking a deep breath, his left hand rose.

It was wrong, inhuman, and demonic. Gray, jagged, and uneven skin covered the entire deformed hand. It looked like someone painted thousands of scars upon the limb and then threw it to hungry dogs for hours. There was no hair or soft surface left. Even worse were the crimson veins that glowed from within and pierced his skin in a few places.

'Shit.' He cursed, his gaze straying towards his fingers.

Longer than humanly possible, pitch-black claws grew at the tips of his gray bony fingers, ready to tear apart anything that stepped in their way. In addition, thin veins, at least three for each finger, flowed underneath his skin, glowing just like the rest of his hand.

It wasn't a pleasant sight, far from it. To be honest, it could probably break a lesser man, but not him. This barely compared to the sight of his mother's broken body...

'Stop.' Leo shook his head and grabbed the sleeve that covered the rest of the demonic limb. This was not the time to drown in the past long gone. A past that he had been fighting with for years now...

'In and out.'

The sleeve came up inch by inch, uncovering more disfigured skin and glowing veins. Even the elbow wasn't saved from the curse, and for a moment, he thought that his entire arm was already consumed.

Then the bicep came into view, where the gray gave way to naturally slightly tanned skin, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

'Could be worse.' Leo grimaced and flexed the inhuman arm. It didn't feel any different from his normal limb; only now did he have claws instead of normal fingers. How nice…

The feeling of normality remained only for a moment... Upon touch, he almost instantly snapped his other — human — hand away from the gray mass.

Cold, as if he touched a corpse, not a living and breathing human. The texture of the skin wasn't much better. Stone hard, possessing none of the softness regular skin should have.

Leo didn't even dare poke the crimson veins. He had enough surprises to last a lifetime — or at least the next hour. Not that he thought it possible to avoid any further shocks, especially not after he took a peek through the window.

"Bloody hell…" He mumbled, noticing the red Sun happily hanging high in the sky. It mocked him as it bathed the entire neighborhood in a shallow, blood-red light. It was as if someone decided to paint the whole world in shades of red with a few other colors added to the mix.

If not for the Sun's position, he would have thought that the day was either at its beginning or end. Hell, even the rest of the sky looked like a crimson carpet instead of the usual blue hidden behind an endless expanse of rain clouds.

Probably for the first time in his life, Leo missed England's shitty weather. Even the grass — 'Which definitely wasn't that long when I last looked' — and trees in the distance lacked their usual sway. Instead, they stood completely rigid, like someone froze the entire world.

'Focu...'

Whatever thoughts he had instantly vanished when a loud crash echoed through the entire house. Like the grass outside, he stood there almost frozen, as something his mind had forgotten in the face of the changing world became quite obvious.

'Edward!'

With a strength his body lacked just a second ago, Leo dashed back into the living room. "Edward!" He shouted, voice piercing through the veil of silence but getting nothing in response.

'No, no, no, no!'

The darkness of the corridor, only illuminated by his deformed hand, didn't stop him from sprinting towards the bathroom door. Nor did it stop him from furiously banging at the wooden barrier.

"Come on! Open the bloody door!"

No words came back. Instead, a bone-chilling screech answered his call. No. Fists clenched, they both flew at the wooden door. Only the demonic hand left any dent.

"I'm coming in!" A lone tear flowed down his cheek. "You hear me!?"

Empty words. Deep inside, he knew that only pain awaited behind this door. It didn't stop him though, not when his family was on the line.

His claws grabbed the lock, twisting, almost ripping it out. Maybe if Leo weren't so drunk on emotions, he would be surprised by the strength of the deformed limb. But no, only the click registered in his mind as he grabbed the door handle.

Any decency a normal human should have when barging into an occupied bathroom was forgotten as he swung the door open with a bang. His eyes immediately widened at the sight in front of him.

A lone figure stood before a mirror, its ruby glare already pointed at the intruder. As dark as the room was, it didn't stop Leo from seeing what he feared the most.

'No… Father.'

Nothing except Edward's familiar face and scraps of clothes remained. The gray, almost black skin melded perfectly with what was left of his hair. Unlike Leo's inhuman arm, his father's only disfiguration was the hundreds of cracks spilling all over his body. Cracks that glowed from within with an infuriating scarlet light.

Leo backed off a step. "Father..."

Razor-sharp teeth barred for all of the world to see. Edward — 'Your father is gone '— stalked forward, another high-pitched screech leaving his throat.

Almost touching the wall behind him, he shouted. "Stop! Listen to me! Please…"

The creature jumped.

Instinctively, Leo sidestepped, wincing when the creature's fingernails tore through his shoulder like butter. Apparently, he wasn't the only one gifted with a perfect butcher's tool instead of fingers.

Clutching his throbbing shoulder, he bolted through the corridor, right into the living room, without ever giving the fallen creature another glance.

He had to hide, wait out the monster, or maybe trap it. What else could he do? He wasn't afraid of fighting back; God knew he had the experience. He just didn't know if he had the mental strength to do it. No matter how hard his mind tried to reason that this creature wasn't Edward, his heart refused to listen.

Not even his bitterness towards Edward could stop Leo from acknowledging the man as family. And family helped each other no matter what happened.

'I just have to find a way.'

Unfortunately, the monster never planned to give him a chance to strategize. It barged into the living room like a bloodhound seeking its prey. He barely had enough time to bring up his arms before Edward's body crashed right into him.

They barreled on the floor, engaged in a wrestling match. Leo punched and scratched with his claws, trying to push the creature off him, but his opponent did everything in its strength to remain on top.

As the creature's jaw neared his throat, his instincts punched through whatever blockade his heart created and let the mind take over.

'Get off!' Holding nothing back, Leo pushed as every vein in his body, even the ones outside his tainted flesh, burned with a crimson glow.

The monster sailed through the room and crashed into the opposite wall. It howled, in anger or pain; Leo didn't care which as he stalked forward, a familiar ability activating as he gazed at the creature.

[Cursed Human(Voidling) | Rank: F- | LVL: 1]

'You're not my father. You are just a monster parading in his skin. I won't let you.'

His human hand shot to the monster's neck, pushing the Voidling against the wall as he dragged it to eye level. The creature wailed like a banshee, flinging its arms at the offending limb.

Blood dripped, and his skin burned as more and more scratches appeared on his arm. Once again Leo didn't care, he only had eyes for the creature that stole his last biological parent.

"You're not my father," he whispered as a crimson tear fell down his cheek. "You're not him."

Pitch-black claws sailed forward, burying deep inside the monster's chest.

The screech the Voidling released was like none other. Loud and primal.

Even when its volume threatened to burst his eardrums, Leo stood firm, squeezing the life out of the monster with each hand. Not even the increased glow of his demonic arm and the sudden darkening of the creature's skin brought him out of his trance.

Only when the monster slid to the floor, unable to support its weight, did he notice the changes. Gone was the soft glow of the monster's cracked skin and its ruby-eyed glare... Now, in his hand, he held a pitch-black husk of a man, drained of life.

[Cursed Human (LVL: 1) slain | Experience awarded | 1 Ether gained]

[Reinforcement learned.]

[Your curse is now satiated. Benefits gained for the next 8 hours. Passive Limit Break is now active.]

Fully aware of the notifications, Leo left them unanswered, gasping for breath as his father's body disintegrated before his eyes. From the stab wounds left by his claws, a steady river of dust seeped out, leaving a bigger and bigger hole. In a matter of seconds, only a handful remained in his grasp.

"I'm so sorry," he choked back a sob, falling to his knees right in front of the pile of dust. Whatever additional strength he had gained, disappeared along with the glow in the not-cursed part of his body…

Tears fell freely, and Leo did nothing to stop them. He couldn't, not after the reality of the last few minutes fully caught up to him.

He just sat there, eyes fixated on the remains of his father as he wept for another member of his family lost. First, the mother, who meant everything to him, was taken away by the idiocy of humanity. And now Edward, who, despite all of his faults, did almost everything to repair their relationship.

'If only…'

"Why didn't you say anything?" Leo squeezed his eyes shut out, fist clenching as blood spilled down his shoulder.

He wasn't even sure who was the recipient of his question. They were both at fault, be it his stubbornness or Edward's cowardice. Even then, deep inside, he knew that he could have been the bigger person and put an end to their dispute. But now…

'… Now, none of it mattered anymore.'

They would never get another chance to talk, to finally bury the hatchet between them. Edward had died thinking that his only son resented him, while Leo had to forever live with the guilt of not forgiving his father.

And this was only the beginning.

'No…'

He stood up, wiping the tears with his bloody sleeve. "I won't let it…"

Mother, father, and who else in his family. They all might be gone, but he couldn't give up now. He had to find them all, dead or alive. He had to keep his promise and find out if anyone survived.

And if they did?

Then Leo would fight for them, move mountains if he had to. No matter what, he would protect them from this new twisted reality until his last dying breath. They were all he had left…

After all, what was the sense of living without a purpose?