Two

"What the f*ck just happened…" Nick mumbled. He looked out his window, and it was still dark. Turning on his phone, he got extremely confused.

"It's only been a couple of minutes?!" As he sets down the phone, he notices something else.

"Was my hand always this… large?"

He inspects his other hand and, to his surprise, "My hands are bigger?!"

He rushes to the bathroom and looks in the mirror.

Some things had changed, others hadn't.

He still had heterochromia, his skin was still pale and his hair was still dark.

But his eyes had changed color. His previously dark blue and light green eyes had become dark red and light blue. His skin also became even paler, and his dark brown hair had become as black as his mother's.

He also grew three inches, going from 5'5 to 5'8.

"What the hell happened to me?"

He pinched himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming, and the force in his hand shocked him. What shocked him more was that the sore spot it left behind faded quickly.

"Wasn't that just a dream?"

~~No, it was not.~~

"WHAT THE F*CK!" Nick almost had a heart attack. "Where did YOU come from?!"

~~I have been bonded to you.~~

"How- Why- WHAT?!" He didn't understand what this voice meant. "Are you the reason I look like this?!"

~~You wanted power. I gave you it. This was the cost. Your body had to change to accept my power, I thought that was enough. Unless you wanted to keep your scrawny body and bleed out on your bed?~~

"I DIDN'T ASK FOR YOU!" He shouts.

~~You couldn't choose. I was the compromise. I will give you the powers both of them offered and more. #%$ would've given you healing, holy spells, things that could only help people and hurt unholy things. #&% would've given you fire, chaos, everything to make people feel pain and help the things that do so. I give you both, as well as an increase in your physical and mental capabilities.~~

"Will people even recognize me?!" He was worried. What would happen to his relationship with his mom? She would probably not recognize him, even threaten him to get out.

~~Worry not. Your world has magic, right? One of the tell-tale signs of awakening magic is an appearance change. With the power of the magic you obtained, it won't be at all suspicious that you grew a little, or that your eyes changed colors.~~

"How the f*ck do you know more about my world than I do?" Nick immediately felt stupid. The being appeared to him in a dream and gave him magical powers. Of course he would know how magic worked.

~~I don't. That was gathered from your knowledge. It seems like you forgot it, however.~~

"Oh…"

~~Now, do you want to experiment with your new abilities?~~

"I mean, sure? If I'm gonna use them I should at least know how."

~~Good. It seems that mental increase is working. So put the proper clothing on, and go outside.~~

"Right now? It's eleven at night!" Nick didn't feel good about going outside at midnight.

~~You were just given the strongest magic currently on this planet, granted to you by a being such as myself, and you're scared of the dark?~~

"I'M SCARED OF WHAT'S IN THE DARK!"

~Let me rephrase. Go outside or I remove the magic, and trust me, it will be painful.~~

Nick shudders at the thought.

"Okay, okay, I'm going."

He quickly changes out of his pajamas into a shirt and sweatpants. He then puts on a hoodie and a mask, in the hopes that no one recognizes him.

He makes sure to leave quietly. You would've thought that with all of his yelling his mom would wake up, but she is as quiet as ever.

…

When Nick arrives at the park, it was empty. He expected that, considering most children were asleep by now. It was a chilly night, the hoodie keeping him safe from the cold. Nick also noticed that he could see everything perfectly.

~~Alright. Sit down somewhere, and cross your legs.~~

He does as the voice told him, and walks over to the field next to the park. He sits down cross-legged, and it is uncomfortable, but he doesn't say anything.

~~This will only work if you are comfortable, so change positions to a more comfortable option. The part that matters most though, is that your head is above your heart.~~

Nick changes to a more natural position, his legs straight out, slightly bent.

~~Connect your hands and do the same with your feet. It doesn't matter how, only that there is a solid connection between them.~~

He clasps his hands together, making a fist, and sits his feet next to each other.

~~Now, close your eyes, and concentrate on the inside of your body. With your new heightened senses, that should be easy.~~

The voice was right. Nick realized that he could feel the very small amount of wind against his skin, every blade of grass pricking at him. He could hear the crickets as if he was making the sound, and he could taste the saliva on his tongue. He didn't understand how he hadn't noticed this before, but too late now.

~~The heightened senses only come out once you are focused. If it was always, you'd go insane quick.~~

"Okay, thanks? Wait, what should I call you?" Nick asks.

~~My name is unintelligible for mortal minds, but the closest human term to me would be creator, so call me that. Or something shorter, like cree.~~

"Okay then, Cree." Nick listens. It takes him a moment to realize that Cree, had just compared themselves to god. Was Cree God, or is God just the most similar thing?

~~Now, back to what we were doing. Focus on the inside of your body. You'll know when it's done because the things around you will begin to fade.~~

Cree was again right, because after a second, the pricking of the grass was gone, and the sound of the crickets was faint.

~~Okay, good. Feel everything inside you. Your heart, pumping out blood. Your lungs, letting you breathe. Feel how you are alive, and how you could die.~~

Nicholas did just that. He felt the beating of his heart, the expanding and contracting of his lungs, and even the flow of the blood in his veins. The moment he goes even deeper into his blood, he notices three things.

A red glow, a blue glow, and a purple glow.

The red glow was flowing in the opposite direction of the blood, the blue glow was following the blood, and the purple glow was outlining everything else.

~~Those glows, are what you humans call mana. They are the essence of all that is natural. As such, you are an anomaly, and shouldn't be alive.~~

Nick would have responded, but before he did, he noticed something unusual.

Along with the previous glows, there was another, fainter glow. When he tried to focus on it, his head felt a sharp pain, and everything went black.

…