Murmurs. Faint, distant, like whispers carried by the wind.
At first, they were unintelligible... an echo of sothing just out of reach. But slowly, the words took shape, folding into clarity.
"They look cute together."
A feminine voice, soft with amusent.
A dream?
The thought drifted through my half-conscious mind, sluggish and detached, like a aged stone sinking into a deep lake. My eyelids felt heavy, my limbs sinking into the faint warmth beneath .
But then..
"Hey, Agon... Celia."
The voice again, closer this ti.
"Agon... Agon."
It was then, sothing pricked at the edge of my awareness, a weight pulling toward wakefulness. My brows furrowed slightly. That wasn’t a dream’s voice. That was..
My eyes fluttered open.
Two faces hovered above . One, a girl with rough, deep red hair, her orange eyes burning like smoldering embers.. Jess.
The other, a girl with dark blonde hair, her deep green gaze reflecting the cold luster of eralds.. Lovia.
It was morning.
The light was dim, the sun nothing more than a sickly glow smothered beneath an overcast sky. Even now, the air felt thick, as if it carried the weight of sothing unseen.
Beside , Celia stirred. Her deep blue eyes blinked open, hazy with sleep before sharpening. A faint flush dusted her face as realization set in.
For a second, neither of us moved.
Then, as if struck by the sa thought, we both bolted upright.
I barely had ti to process the mont before Jess smirked, amusent curling at the edges of her lips.
"A long night, huh?" she mused, her gaze flickering toward Celia, eyes glinting with mischief. Then, with an exaggerated wink, "Didn’t know you liked sleeping so close, Celia."
Celia stiffened.
Jess was already moving before Celia even reacted, her body twisting as she bolted away, laughter bubbling from her throat.
Celia shot to her feet in an instant. "When I get you.."
Jess only laughed harder, her pace quickening.
"Not now, princess," she called over her shoulder, her voice teasing, dancing in the morning air.
Their voices faded as the chase carried them further into the distance.
Silence settled in their absence.
I exhaled, pushing myself to my feet. My gaze shifted to Lovia, who remained standing where she was, arms crossed, her expression calm.. unbothered by the antics of the other two.
I studied her for a mont before speaking. "What’s the urgency?"
Lovia turned to face fully, her erald gaze steady. "We received a notification from the system." A brief pause. "Why don’t you check for yourself?"
I nodded once, then summoned my system screen.
[SYSTEM]
ALL WANDERERS MUST BE AWAKE BEFORE 15 MINUTES TI, IN ORDER TO RECEIVE AN AIRDROP.
FAILURE: ETERNAL SLUMBER.
I sighed. "Figures." Tilting my head slightly to Lovia. "Thanks."
"No problem." She nodded, her expression unchanging, before adding, "I should get going. The others need to know."
I gave her a short nod. Without another word, she turned slowly and walked away, her silhouette fading into the distance.
Once alone, I lifted my head.
The sky, even in morning, remained the sa.. oppressive, suffocating. A dull, lifeless gray stretched endlessly above, offering no warmth, no comfort. But at the very least, it wasn’t Ithelvaire.
I let out a slow breath, dragging a hand down my face.
Then, quietly, I began assessing what I had gained from my completion of the Second Evolution.
But sothing was wrong!
That was the first thought that lingered in my mind as I stared at the distant horizon, the oppressive sky pressing down like a lead weight. Sothing was off—not in a way that was imdiately perceptible, but in the way the air felt, in the way my body responded to it.
I shouldn’t have been able to evolve like that. Not with a percentage still left to be filled to complete the second evolution.. It didn’t make sense.
A lag? A forced intervention? Or was it the result of whatever Yadred had done to ?
My thoughts tried to spiral further, but I shut them down before they could drown in uncertainty. My mind wasn’t in the right state to dig deeper into that question.
Later.
For now, I needed to focus on what had changed.
Mist Oga Roar.
That was my new Trait.
It felt different, a blend of sothing foreign and sothing familiar. A mix with an Oga Roar, or maybe sothing beyond that.
I exhaled, letting my fingers flex slightly as I focused on the new abilities coursing through my system.
The first,
Hypersensitivity Intuition(First Mode).
This was the first mode of it.. A raw, unfiltered awareness of everything around . The faintest shift in the air, the subtlest motion.. nothing escaped. It wasn’t just sight or sound. It was instinct, sharpened into sothing primal, sothing all-consuming. I could feel intent before it even materialized.
The second,
Adaptive Intelligence (Omni-Level).
With this, every movent. Every attack pattern. Will be dissected in my mind in real-ti, adapting, analyzing, learning. Weaknesses revealed themselves like cracks in glass, visible even in the middle of battle. No wasted motions. No unnecessary actions. Just pure, calculated raw efficiency of adapting at a fast, passive rate...
Well that was a good ability that helped a lot
The third,
Mist Burn (Planetary).
It isn’t just a burn... It is a silent affliction. A slow, creeping infection. Those caught in my gaze wouldn’t even realize it at first, the mist seeping into their very being, spreading like an unseen disease. The burn would start slow, agonizing, until nothing remained... not even an echo of their existence.
It was similar to a Roar’s eyes, but a little different from the way it’s used...
Would it work on higher beings? Unlikely. But against anything lesser, it was absolute.
The fourth,
Voice Mimicry.
A trivial ability compared to the rest, yet not without its uses. I could replicate voices perfectly, distort and fake reality with sound alone. A trick for confusion, deception. Unremarkable, but still mine.
The fifth,
Mist Vision (Oga-Level).
Illusions? aningless. Clones? Irrelevant. Cloaking, spiritual obstructions, even distortions beyond the physical plane.. I could see through them all. There was no hiding, no deception that could elude now.
The sixth,
Hypersensitivity Intuition (Omni).
This was the second mode... An evolution of the first. But this.... this was deeper. It wasn’t just sensing motion or danger. It was omnipresent awareness, whether the threat was directed at or not. A whisper of movent, a shift in space, a fracture in the air itself... I could feel them all.
I don’t think I’ll ever use the first mode with this one around...
And then....
The final one.
The one that didn’t belong.
Oga Grieving Berserker (Null).
The mont my mind registered it, a sensation crawled up my spine, like sothing had been burned into my very being, sothing neither natural nor logical. A state where pain beca irrelevant, where no attack mattered. Where agony and grief weren’t just emotions, but weapons I could wield, infecting those around , drowning them in a suffering they could never resist. Only people outside of the tree of narrative can.
But the cost?
A loss of self.
I didn’t know what this persona of mine would be.
Would it be ? Would it be sothing else?
A half-mad thing, existing between the seams of who I was and who I could beco.
But more than that.. there was sothing else about it. Sothing I didn’t understand.
Null.
The word stood out, different from all the other classifications. I had no knowledge of what it truly ant. But I could feel it. Like sothing vast and unfathomable sat just beyond my comprehension.
I would need answers.
And then there was my previous Trait Abilities,
An upgrade.
Mist Parasite.
Before, I could only parasite onto one host at a ti. Now? Three. A silent extension of my existence, spreading further than before.
Mist Clones.
Two had been my limit before. Now, five.
Mist Manipulation (Null-Level).
It had grown. Expanded. Yet the aning of Null remained an enigma.
I let out a slow breath, feeling the shift in my abilities, the weight of everything settling into place.
A small smile tugged at my lips.
I had gained more than I lost.
That was enough.
For now.
But before I could dive deeper, a voice cut through the silence.
"Agon."
I turned.
Celia stood a short distance away, her expression unreadable.
"It’s about to start," she said simply.
The airdrop.
Or whatever they considered an airdrop in this world.
Because if there was one thing I had learned about Echoes of Agony, it was that nothing was ever what it seed.
I didn’t know if this would be a blessing or a curse.
But deep down..
I just hope it isn’t....
I kept my thoughts shut, rembering that whenever I think sothing bad, It always happens..
So I only hoped for the best.
Though I had an opposing feeling...
And then.
The sky split open.
A massive hole, yawning wide in the heavens, swallowing the sickly light.
A gaping maw in the sky.
Sothing was coming!
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