Back Again

Cain sat in his rocking-chair, humming to himself, while drifting forward and back behind his cabin window. Although his eyes were closed, he could clearly see the interior of the cabin around him.

Behind him, strewn across his midnight comforter, a creature darker than the comforter itself slept. Beside the beast, on the crudely assembled nightstand next to him, more than a couple decks of playing cards were laid out.

Cain's kitchen unfortunately remained empty as sacrifices became far and few between, but at some point in time the sharp pain that usually assaulted his stomach did go away – just like Baku said it would.

Cain still felt empty, however.

He certainly still possessed his craving for food. If anything, his once typical appetite evolved into some form of ravenous gluttony. He'd eat anything at this point and he meant it dearly.

Flicking his eyes open, Cain's golden irises shone with a radiance seemingly out of place within the dark and decrepit cabin he lived in. Conjuring an indifference glance, his Status screen appeared before him.

—----------------------||—----------------------

Host: Cain

Species: Corrupted Human

Class: Lesser Evil

Rank: Fledgling

Souls Harvested: 92/100

Lost Souls Collected: 0

|Domain| |Shop| |Empower|

Strength: E→E+

Endurance: E→E+

Agility: E→E+

Dexterity: F+→E-

Intelligence: D→D+

Spirit: D→D+

Vigor: D→D+

Abilities: |Spirit Sight| |Corrupt Slash| |Blackout|

Items: |Reapers Cloak|

—------------------------------------------------

All of Cain's stats increased during the time in his Domain. Thankfully, he was able to remove his final F rank stat, Dexterity, and increase it to E rank. In addition to eliminating all of his F rank stats, his Spirit stat increased the most over his time in the Domain.

When Cain entered his Domain, his Spirit stat had been rank E+, but after creating |Spirit Sight|, |Corrupt Slash|, and his new Ability |Blackout|; Cain's Spirit stat has improved a full rank, an entire three tiers.

It provided Cain with a noticeable difference too. Moving his Spirit became easier, his Spirit Sea grew larger and deeper and he's hoping that, once he steps into C rank, Cain will be able to pull from the deeper depths of his Spirit Sea.

At the moment, although close, Cain lacks enough sheer strength to drain his entire Spirit Sea – doing so could overcharge his Ability to its maximum output, but like a bucket can only hold so much water, Cain feels that his Spirits rank reflects the size of said bucket.

Once he ranks up again, he should be able to draw out more Spirit while also sending the bucket further into his reserves. Until then, however, Cain focused on his Void studies and the afflictions that it offered.

One of Void's said afflictions, or status effects as some would say, is it's all-devouring darkness – or rather, the mere absence of light is in of itself darkness and as nothing could exist within the Void, that obviously extended towards light.

So through focusing on this particular property – the absence of light – Baku instructed Cain how to mimic this effect and recreate it with his Spirit.

After days of practice and constant scrutiny under Baku's surprisingly watchful eye, Cain succeeded in creating a spark of Void. This spark burned like a firework, violent and erratic, but its shape and form was made up of staticky vantablack energy.

While the Void spark wriggled on the stone ground of Cain's Domain, he kneeled above it and studied its flickering form. It looked like a tear in a computer screen, although in reality itself.

"Good." Baku nodded his head, "Now make it the size of a room!"

Cain furthered his practice of the Void affliction until the lightless spark grew large enough to engulf his own body. Although resembling a spark, Cain found that when touching the Void spark, it merely felt like the wiggling of bugs on his skin.

It was neither hot nor cold and lacked any other defining features.

The moment Cain's figure became covered in the black spark, the Status spoke to him.

[New Ability |Blackout| Learned]

Instantly, Cain felt the pathways of the Ability flow through his mind. Momentarily closing his eyes to better understand his newfound Ability, Cain studied |Blackout|. As the name suggests, it is the reverse of a flashbang.

Through activating |Blackout|, Cain can ignite an all-devouring spark that consumes the properties that make up light itself. In doing so, the portion of reality that |Blackout| effects becomes impossible to spy upon, as it's distorted space itself.

All radars, heatscans, detectors, whatever – none of it could detect the space within |Blackout|'s radius. Unless of course, the device was a Void detector in which case it would detect the Void, but not what remains hidden within it.

Cain snapped his fingers and a black bolt of energy engulfed him. |Blackout| activated instantly and at whichever size Cain imagined – assuming he could draw enough Spirit to conjure it.

Returning to the present, Cain rocked in his chair while mulling over what to train next. He had just mastered |Blackout| and was ready to begin training another one of Void's afflictions – ceaselessness.

As the Void counters existence, it lacks physical properties of all forms and instead passes through matter like that of ghosts. The affliction of ceaselessness then, should grant Cain's Spirit the same property – allowing it to penetrate any form of physical barrier.

Before he could get up from his rocking-chair, however, a sudden notification erupted in front of his eyes.

[Olive Flinn Offers Sacrifice]

[Olive Flinn Summons Lesser Evil Cain]

[Accept Summons?]

Cain stared at the sudden invitation. He erupted from his chair and cast his gaze towards Baku.

"No, I can't go with you." Baku replied with his eyes still closed, confident he knew of his Lord's incoming question.

"Why not?" Cain scrutinized.

"You can't afford it." Baku dismissed his Lord's wishes readily, "Now go. Remember, you'll be able to return whenever you want now – as long as you don't die again!" Baku chuckled at his closing remarks.

With that, Cain mentally clicked on the 'yes' option that hovered beneath his Status's invitation.

Immediately upon doing so, his vision distorted and blue light assaulted his senses. The sensation of falling roused his gut and his ears started to ring, but then the bells and whistles vanished and Cain felt a strong wind blow up at him.

Opening his eyes, Cain recognized the familiar jungle trees that pierced the heavens. He relished in the myriad of colors that embraced his vision – from the vibrant mushrooms to the dangling fruits, colors of all sorts filled his horizon.

Cain inhaled deeply, but a thick scent of iron plagued his nostrils instead of the sweet dew and grass he was expecting.

Finally noticing that the trees around him were accelerating for some reason, Cain looked down.

His eyes widened.

Below him, flailing in the wind, Olive hugged the corpse of a nude woman and cried while free-falling through the jungle. Beneath the two falling girls, an army of Goblins roamed the jungle floor.

Cain tightened his core and tucked his limbs closer to himself. Reducing his surface area, Cain's momentum accelerated and he dove through the air towards Olive!

Quickly arriving beside her, Cain gandered the number of seconds they had before impact.

"Hey." He greeted casually.

Cain knew a fall from this height wouldn't kill him. He didn't know how he knew that, but he instinctively felt it – that the fall wouldn't do much damage.

"You've got yourself in quite the pickle here, huh?"

Olive looked up at Cain with swollen eyes, but the moment she saw him, passion ignited within her irises!

Still wearing his smug grin, Cain winked at Olive as they helplessly fell through the sky. Grabbing her arm, Cain pulled Olive away from Summer.

"Hold on!" Cain spun his body around with Olive in his grasp.

Finishing his spin and riding on the back of his momentum, Cain strengthened his arms and launched Olive back into the jungle's sky!

Immediately, Cain's descent rapidly accelerated and he plummeted towards the jungle floor!

In the meantime, Olive's body soared across the sky and slammed into Leon. The two flew across the air and crashed into an amalgamation of vines. Completely entangled in a web of foliage, Olive and Leon were momentarily safe while dangling hundreds of feet above the ground.

At the same time, Cain spun his body around once more before impacting the ground. Now facing the Goblin horde, Cain molded his arms into swords and stirred his Spirit Sea.

Feeling the warmth rise in his chest, Cain watched as a twisted and staticky energy coated the surface of his arms. Slashing towards the sea of flesh, two arcs of seemingly black lightning exploded from Cain's arms and slammed into the Goblins!

The two arcs of corruption cut through the Goblin horde without resistance. The erratic energy shattered the atoms that held the Goblins' very flesh together, exploding its electrons and corroding the beast's lifeforce itself!

That's what corruption was, turns out. The eradication of matter, the burning of it and the utilization of it as mere fuel for further carnage.

If Void is the absence of matter then corruption is the weaponization of it – literally devouring atoms and converting them to energy, to pure destruction.

Cain's |Corrupt Slash| cut deep into the Goblin horde and cracked the jungle floor beneath them! Moments away from impact, Cain bent his legs and braced himself!

BOOM!!

A mushroom cloud of dust exploded into the sky where Cain landed.

The loud noise attracted the attention of the entire Goblin horde, distracting the Goblins that still clung to the trees and planned on devouring Olive and Leon. Interested in new prey, the Goblins retreated from the trees and swarmed towards the mushroom cloud.

|Spirit Sight|!

Cain activated his vision Ability the second he hit the ground. Now able to see through the dust, Cain peered at the flow of mana coursing through the Goblins bodies. It looked polluted and sick, but Cain could still see it nonetheless.

Cain bent his katana shaped arms back and launched another volley of corrupt lighting into the crowd of Goblins. The arcs of energy sliced through hundreds of figures before dispersing into wisps of vapor.

As the Goblins continued to pour in, the dust finally settled and vision returned to the disgusting horde. Cain distinctly noticed the improvement of the Goblins' attacks and readily snapped his fingers.

|Blackout| activated to its maximum output!

A black spark ignited off of Cain's body before fully engulfing him in what appeared as dense black flames! The black sparks spread quickly, first engulfing the ground beneath Cain and then spreading to the feral monsters that delivered themselves to him.

From way above, Olive's eyes fluttered open. She struggled to move in the canopy of vines that bound her, but while trying to break free the sound of the battle below dispersed.

The shrieks and the screams of the Goblins.

The grunts and the war cries.

It all momentarily disappeared.

Olive strained her neck to look beneath her, but what she saw shocked her.

The jungle floor vanished and all that could be seen instead was a violent black mass. The black cloud covered the jungle floor and constantly emitted bolts of flickering black electricity.

Out of the corner of her eye, Olive caught wind of something moving at the edge of the black cloud. Squinting her eyes, Olive witnessed the bloodied, burnt, and sliced corpses of the Goblins explode out from within the darkness and paint the jungle crimson.

Trusting in Cain, Olive gave in to her exhaustion and fainted atop the jungle's canopy.

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Thank you WalkingBush and Romance_Guy for the powerstones!!!! Makin' my loins especially warm ;****