Awakening

Failure quickly used Densify on the tiny wooden dome protecting his body as the meteor brutally crashed into the ground.

It hadn't landed directly on them, but had landed close enough for it still to be devastating nonetheless. No regular being would be able to survive it normally.

Failure hugged his legs into his chest as he bit down on his lower lip, drawing blood as his eyes started to turn bloodshot as he held his concentration.

Kai's entire being was screaming at him, the pain was overwhelming as cracks started piling up on his soul. By now, there was no place that gray wisps weren't spilling out of on the dull gray orb.

Desparately trying to repair his soul, even though he knew it was futile, Kai activated Soul Flame, hoping it would make the repair process ever so slightly easier because of the increased stats.

But it was no use, the burden on his body and soul was just too much. He struggled to stay conscious as the damage as the pain overwhelmed him.

And not even ten seconds later, Kai's soul gave in as he fell unconscious.

Leaving Failure to fend for himself.

Failure roared in pain as he held strong. The force of the meteor crashing into the earth was constantly pushing at the dome around him, wanting to evaporate and annihilate the weakened man.

But Failure just remembered what he had done all of this for and persevered. He was someone who kept his promises after all.

And his promises were a personification of his will.

Failure continued to push back against the shockwave as it furiously tried to invade the safety of his wooden dome.

He lost track of time, each second felt like years had passed and the body he was possessing became more and more damaged, especially now that Kai was unconscious.

Since Kai was unable to fix the cracks in his soul, it just sped up the rate at which it deteriorated.

Each passing second, more and more blood continued to pour out of every orfice of Kai's body. His nose, ears, eyes, nowhere was safe. His skin had started to peel away, much like Failure's puppets had done previously when they overexerted themselves.

But time was moving too slowly, much too slowly. It seemed that Failure had underestimated how strong a meteor would be or overestimated how strong he would be.

Just as he thought it was over, just as Kai's body was on the verge of collapse...

The violent assault stopped.

Failure fell limp as he desparately fought to catch his breath. He didn't dare to make any movements incase his whole body just gave in and he died on the spot.

Slowly, the resilient dome he had protecting him started peeling away, some moonlight slipping through the cracks.

Opening his eyes, Failure blinked to clear the blood so he could see his surroundings.

All around him was a vast crater, nothing in it except for a few bits of wood and the piece of land he was still on that had been protected by the dome.

None of the forest that he had created over the last however many millenia existed anymore. Every single tree had been pulverised.

Of course, this forest was just a replica, the real forest was perfectly fine, except for the Corroding.

Still, it was a very exact replica.

Glancing towards where the Demon had been just before the meteor hit, Failure caught a glance of the Mother Tree.

It had been utterly destroyed.

It's bark was charred and burned beyond recognition, any source of green that had been on it previously had been erased from existence.

Suddenly, the scorched remains all broke away from each other, revealing the sight of a horrible Demon. It now had no arms left on its body, and its body was completely ruined.

The axe that had been the cause of all this was lying on the ground, its body crumbling. The full moon eye had turned dull, leaving only a dull white ball for a pupil.

The Demon's chest heaved slightly as it limply fall forward, all of its strength gone.

Why wouldn't it have? Failure had used Decaying Root at the last second when he wrapped his actual body around the Demon to prevent it from destroying his final attack.

The durable bark of the Mother Tree had managed to reflect majority of the attack back onto the Demon, meaning that while it attempted to eradicate the chunk of the moon about to crush it, it had actually eradicated itself.

It's hideous body hit the ground just as two notifications rang in Failure's mind. Well, they weren't notifications for him, he was still possessing Kai's body after all.

You have slain...

You have slain...

You have received...

A large grin grew on Failure's face, he had done it, he had won-

Failure violently coughed up even more blood as he roughly sat up on the ground. His entire body ached, but it wasn't the body he was possessing that hurt the most.

"Ah... right. I did that."

Failure had used the Mother Tree to prevent the Demon from using eradicate. A successful attempt, but a desparate one.

One that came with dire costs.

This tutorial was a very exact replica after all.

By sacrificing the Mother Tree, Failure had effectively sacrificed himself. As soon as he was dispelled from Kai's body, he would die. He had nowhere to return, all that awaited him was death.

Chuckling darkly, Failure spat some blood onto the charred ground and crawled to what he had been protecting with his body.

Where the Mother Tree once stood was a beautiful and delicate white flower. Its petals reflected the moonlight above, not caring about the curse at all.

She was too stubborn to care about that pervert, even in death.

"I did it, my lady. I kept my promise. I'm not... a failure."

Failure reached out and tenderly touched one of his not so bloody fingertips against the petals of the flower. A feeling of warmth enveloped him, but it only lasted a moment as another notification rang in his head.

You have received item: Soul of Ethania

Failure smiled weakly as he flipped himself over to look at the moon above.

Ah, how he missed the actual moon. That beautiful big chunk of rock that he used to gaze upon with his sister. How could something so beautiful be tainted and turned into something so atrocious?

Painfully, Failure turned his head to the side and smiled, blood coating his teeth.

"Are you happy, you bastard? Everything's turning out just like you wanted it to."

No one was there to answer him.

Failure chuckled, coughing up more blood in the process.

"Fine then, you bastard, don't speak. But I know you're there.

And I'm warning you, if you hurt this boy in anyway or attempt to use him for any of your schemes, I will come back and haunt you until the end of time."

Still no answer, but Failure felt the burden on his body lessen ever so slightly.

The being that was watching had left.

Failure gazed up at the moon once more, a wistful look in his eyes as he seemed as if he was finally at peace.

"Ah... The moon is... so beautiful."

Then, the light in Kai's eyes turned dull.

Failure was gone.

You have slain...

You have received...

The world continued as it was.

The soft sound of footsteps slowly got louder as a three legged wolf slowly made its way towards Kai.

The wooden leg that Failure had created for Aldred had turned to dust, Failure having been unable to sustain the limb any more.

Aldred gazed down sadly at the broken body.

Kai's skin was peeling off in multiple places. His eyes were all bloodshot and he was lying in a pool of his own blood. He was still missing an arm, blood still pouring out of the wound.

"Such a fool."

Aldred mumbled to himself as he got ready for something he had never attempted before.

The way he had survived was by positioning all the moon beasts closer to the blast radius than him. Aldred then turned his body around and faced away from the impact.

Then, with the utmost perfect timing, just as all the moon beasts were evaporated by the heat, Aldred used restoration.

It was a known fact that it couldn't be used to revive or heal living beings, so Aldred just didn't bother to do that.

What he had done was simply restore time itself to how it had been a second before.

Then, when all the moon beasts were brought back into existence and Aldred himself was about to be consumed by the explosion, he done the same thing by triggering it when his back half was being destroyed, then restored his front half in the split second where his back half had some sentience.

It was an extremely risky maneuver, but Failure put his trust in the gray wolf that it would work, so he did not dissapoint.

Sighing weakly, Aldred stood above the crippled Kai. This was the boy that had saved their world. Aldred survived, the humans had escaped. Their world had time, precious time.

So Aldred had to repay the favour.

"Restore"

The soft green light didn't go for any of the flesh wounds, no, it went for the thing that couldn't be classified as an actual organ yet couldn't be classified as an inanimate object.

The soft green light enveloped Kai's soul, slowly healing all the cracks.

Sadly, there was a limit to how much he could do, Restore wasn't meant to be used in this way after all.

But it was enough. There was still many cracks on Kai's soul, but he was in no immediate danger. Still, it would hurt like hell and most certainly have some lingering effects.

Aldred sighed once more as a few drops of his own blood dropped into Kai's shadow, a toungue peeking out of the darkness and lapping it up.

Then, all the notifications came in.

And there was a lot of them.

Contracted familiar is evolving

Level 23 reached

...

Level 30 reached

Level cap for tutorial reached, bonus rewards will be granted for this achievement

Two skill selections available

Please select...

Participant unable to select skills, selecting two of the skills offered in previous skill selection

Two skills are able to be fused together, fuse skills?

Participant unable to choose, automatically fusing new and existing skill

Class selection obtained

Please select an upgraded class

Participant unable to select class, randomly-

The voice of the system was promptly cut off as a new one cut in.

Ababah, we can't have that, that would ruin all the fun, wouldn't it? No no, class selection will wait.

Class s£lEct@-

System unable to select class. Class selection to wait until participant regains consciousness

A soft giggle echoed throughout the air, but then something strange happened.

The boring, gray soul inside Kai's chest that still had dozens upon dozens of cracks...

Thumped like a heart.

Your soul has achieved an incredible feat

Soul (E) -> Soul (D)

Soul (D) -> Soul (C)

[Soul Flame (Common)] ->...

Innate ability evolving

Bloodline awakening

The unconscious Kai wasn't even able to react to such a momentous occasion.

But of course, there was a warning.

Warning! Awakening bloodline is attempting to devour existing bloodline. User should attempt to resist.

There was no way for Kai to resist.

Bloodline: 97% Human. 3% ???

Bloodline: 95% Human. 5% ???

Bloodline: 89% Human. 11% ???

It continued to go down, until finally...

Bloodline: 80% Human. 20% ???

Bloodline has successfully awakened

Congratulations on awakening bloodline

Bloodline: 80% Human...

20% Kaiser of Souls