Power Essence - Part: 1

Crim found himself in an infinite void, where another young man, his hair as dark as a moonless night, stood upon a white stool. The newcomer's lips were chapped and as dark as his colorless, inky black eyes. His horns, whiter than freshly fallen snow, stood out in stark contrast. Catching Crim's attention, he responded with a nonchalant roll of his eyes.

"You survived? Interesting." The child hoisted his words into Crim's head.

The creature had employed telepathy, how did Crim know? because every attempt to cry out proved futile in this bewildering place, the place made even his thoughts hard every idea in his head seemed to vanish into thin air, an unsettling strangeness in itself.

It was weirdly calming.

"I can hear your thoughts, no need to struggle," the young boy casually remarked as he tied his black shoes. "It gives me a headache, you know." He smirked slightly. "Anyway, do you feel anything different?"

Crim pondered the question. Reactively, he checked his arms, relieved to find them still intact, though his curiosity piqued.

From the depths of the dark void, the young boy conjured a gleaming white knife as if plucking it from thin air. He drew the blade close to his arm, causing tiny particles of white to scatter through the air. With swift precision, he cut a piece of skin from the child. He then pointed to Crim's arm, prompting the young man to examine the spot.

To his amazement, Crim discovered an identical wound on his arm, mirroring the one the kid had inflicted upon himself. He found himself unable to look away from the dribbled blood, his eyes hungry like the crimson liquid was a fine aged wine.

The child came closer, conjuring a white towel that he used to wipe the drool from Crim's mouth. Crim's eyes had begun to change, swirling with the emergence of fangs that replaced his teeth.

"What the h*ll?" Crim cursed after the child had created a mirror so the young man could see his reflection. 

Crim carefully felt around his teeth, more bewildered than the time he had to hunt a gorilla with the head of a dolphin. His eyes had changed hazel from his dark grey-brown, and his stale teeth now looked like one of a cored beast. (Cored Beast: Basically your typical Magical beasts with unique abilities that forced them to evolve from their first forms: Cats, Dogs, Lizards, Birds, etc.)

"Can you control the way your blood flows?" The kid asked swinging his frail legs right to left.

"Blood flow? What is that supposed to mean, like make my hearth work overtime like a main character in a fighting show? What is going on? Can I at least get an explanation?" Crim begged confused.

--"Not now, first this. Can you imagine your blood flowing differently? It is similar to making your mana channel out a barrier or a body enhancement. Just focus your blood flow to circles in a specific spot. Give it a Form similar to your mana core, we don't have much time." Said the child.

Crim did as instructed still unable to figure out whatever the f*ck was going on. Squishing out each ounce of his mental strength, the young man delved into an unusual exercise. He attempted to convince himself that his blood, usually coursing outward from his heart, flowed in the opposite direction like he had been told much to his annoyance. Still, with every fiber of his being, he concentrated on this peculiar task, feeling it was important.

In his mind's eye, he envisioned a twisted, small circle, a winding path his reversed blood now traveled, akin to a hidden highway. It was an odd and challenging mental feat, which demanded great focus and precision.

As he maintained this extraordinary mental gymnastics, he couldn't help but feel the consequences. All the essential nutrients in his body seemed to converge on this singular point, creating a sensation of choking. It was as if his entire system protested this unconventional reversal, making the act even more daunting.

However, with tremendous determination, he held on until he could bear it no longer. As his concentration waned, he released the tiny imaginary ball, akin to a toothpick, back into the regular flow of his blood, returning it to its natural course.

Plummeting down on the cold and hazed void, he spat out bottles of blood with a pinch of a substance resembling a muddy tard. The child observed the contents of his vomit like it was a fine piece of art.

The kid pinched the disgusting pool with his pinky finger, much to Crim's disgust.

"That should keep you alive, for now." The child said, adding to the barrage of confusion that Crim had been rushed into. Without him even needing to ask, the child answered with great detail:

"Sorry to inform you, but since you will ask anyway. Congrats, you are superhuman now! And bad news, you will probably die in a month if you can't expand the core you created just now. It's not every day a human turns into a devil, sadly, this means you have to create your Power Essence from scratch.

Oh and, don't let your blood supply run out, you will either go berserk or be depleted of energy, similar to mana exhaustion."

The child pointed at the right side of the void, a hologram of a vile of blood appearing on it half empty with a warning sign next to it.

"So you are telling me, I am a god*mn devil that needs to drink blood like some vampire to extend some weird sh*t called Power essence so I don't die. While also trying not to go empty on this weird vile or I will go on a massacring spree or take a power nap?

What is this a tabletop game?"

The child nodded, and Crim just flayed his arms around unable to wrap his thoughts around what he had just heard. First, he gets folded by some villain-wanna be old man and now he has to deal with changing races.

-F*cking hell,- the young man said, displeased about the current affairs of his life.