It was finally the time when the system was going to...
[System Reboot: Complete]
[Hello Host. It has been detected that most of the system restrictions remain active.]
[Disabling Limiters...Done. New Missions pending.]
Good to have you back, System. Anything happen while you were rebooting? What about the error that occurred?
[Gacha System has been severely damaged. Pending Rewards will be withheld to enhance System computation speed. The Gacha will now happen regularly, once a month. Limit of draws remains at 5. Same for the limits on what can be obtained.]
Understood. Now what about the error?
[The error that the System had detected has resolved itself by now. The damage is irreversible but no longer spreading. You may soon experience confusing situations. The System apologizes in advance.]
Care to elaborate?
[No.]
Okay, so the system was being defensive now... That's a bad sign if I've ever seen one. But at least the limiters have been removed. And just in time at that, because Mom had just agreed to let me stay in hell for a few days. Just three days, actually. But three days are better than nothing. I had already called Charlie to tell her about it. She was going to pick me up tomorrow at the building I tore down.
I was so excited about tomorrow that I could hardly sleep. But eventually I did. And I got a big surprise once I did.
"JACKSON! WHERE THE HELL ARE WE!" echoed the grating voice of a certain god through a vast and white space covered in grey mist. I barely had time to register the sudden movement in the fog before I had to dodge a flying kick to the head.
"The FUCK, Ares? What are you doing here?""That's what I want to know!""Oh, we knew there was something we forgot to mention.""Fates? How are you here?""WHY DID YOU PUT ME IN HERE WITH THE LITTLE TWAT!?"
Yeah, it was chaos. Eventually the Fates calmed Ares down, though admittedly, they needed to use force. Then they finally began to explain.
And what they said was enough to make me doubt my hearing. As it turned out, the bad and disgusted feeling I had after I met Ares for the first time was because of two things and only two things.
No. 1: Ares was an Incomplete God. Yeah, that's right. Incomplete. The god that ruled over war, courage, battle lust, destruction, violence, conflict, civil strife, manliness, masculine strength, weapons, armor, vultures, and dogs, was incomplete. Why? Because while most of his domains were complete, his WAR Domain was fractured. It was missing essential parts that had been taken over by someone while Ares was still too young to learn them.
No. 2: Ares was self-taught. No one ever actually taught him how to best use his Domains. He was the god of weapons and armor, yet he was bad enough to be beaten by a mortal. All those Domains needed to be trained so that he could acquire his fractured domains.
So why was I disgusted when I met him? That's because as a demigod with enough Domains — be they Spirit or Demigod Domains — to make any god blush, I had acquired several shared domains that bordered on his, even some of his fractured ones. The disgust came from feeling what he was supposed to be and seeing what had happened to him.
So why did the Fates bring Ares into one of my nightmares? That's because they were sure this nightmare would help him achieve what he needed. Then, with a few parting words and leaving a reluctant Ares behind, they left the dream-space. Almost immediately after, the world around us crumbled into black.
It took some time until something happened, but eventually, our eyes were blinded by the sun and our backs touched grass. I sat up as quickly as possible, not even caring about the weird weight of my head. At this point I had had enough nightmares where I wasn't human to be able to ignore the change.
Ares lay a few meters away from me, but he was already twitching. I guessed he would wake up soon. I stayed around until he actually did. When he first saw me, he tried to smack me in the head. I let him, allowing him to land a hit on my elongated maw and exposed bones.
"You done trying to fight me, Ares? Or would you like it if I began to fight back now?""Twat. Why do you look like that? I mean, I know you're basically a monster in combat but this is... something, at least."
I sighed. "You'd be surprised how often I wake up in nightmares as a non-human being. Those usually come with memories, too."
Aaand then the headache hit. Perfect. So now I know why I was still missing my memories. That was because they were just waiting for me to be distracted.
"You okay, brat? I'd hate for you to die this early. You're probably better at this thing than I."
"Sure, just some memories catching up with me. What about you? Any memories yet?"
"What are you talking abouuUCh! FUCK, WHY DOES THIS HURT SO MUCH!"
"Ah, there they are. It should be over soon."
"SOON! THIS IS HELL... Oh, it's gone."
"So, how did you get here?"
"What do you mean?"
"The memories should have told you who you are and how you got here. They usually contain a few hints to where we are."
"Huh, let me try to remember... Wait. Why is my name Cameron? And a peasant at that? Jackson, can you do something about it? I don't want to be a peasant."
Why did Ares sound like a child when he said that? But he has a point, maybe I should look into my own memories now.
Hmmmm.Uh huh...That's not good...Oh hell no. Why do people always try to summon demons?
Wait, I don't even have a name?
"So? What about you, Jackson?""Apparently I am a tribrid? This world is from a book I once read. It's called 'The Battle Mage'. The world is at war with demon kind, which is trying to enslave all of humanity. People that get scratched or killed by demons turn into undead and demonic creatures. The demons have somehow learned techniques to use souls and suffering to create more demons, weapons, and graft flesh..."
"So you're a demon then? Should I kill you?"
"No? Also, I said I was a tribrid, remember?"
"Okay, then explain what it means."
"Essentially, my mother was raped by one of the invading demons, and not one of the 'turned' demons, but an original one. She was then turned into an undead while I was still growing inside her. Her energies and that of the demon bled together and made me what I am. A Demon/Human/Undead creature... This is useless and convoluted. My mother was eventually killed while still carrying me and I was born from her corpse. To my luck, besides me, there were no humans or demons around during my birth. After that, I spent a few years in the forests, living a nomadic life."
This of course made me take a closer look at my....well, looks.....
The majority of events happened near and around humans. Training, becoming officers, commanders and eventually generals (if my mind served me correctly). Then leading an army against the demons, winning some, losing some and eventually, after years, clearing and killing all the demons on the continent. And since this nightmare was meant to help Ares learn his domains, that meant we had to get right into the middle of the story. So here I was, hoping I looked at least close to human.
Aaaand I was disappointed. Let's start from the feet. They were deer legs. Long and narrow with close-together hooves. My torso followed a similar style: long, lean, and barely any muscle. I honestly looked starved, too.
Arms and hands nearly long enough to touch my heel, and considering my legs were essentially digitigrade legs, my heel was quite far from my toes. There was no tail, to my luck. I also didn't have any actual claws, just incredibly sharp nails, ebony-white.
And then, of course, there was the obligatory skull on my head. Hollow, with tusks similar to those of a water deer but sharper and glowing silver in colour, and the skull was in the shape of a water deer, too. Actually, the tusks seemed to curl towards the back of my jaw. My ribcage and neck were protected by what appeared to be bone plates forming a neck guard and natural armor on weak spots all over my body.
My spine was especially protected by bony spikes that almost seemed alive. They were long—like one of my outstretched arms long—which was essentially double the length of an adult's arms. There were only small stubs where I knew a couple of antlers would eventually grow, together with some bull's horns that would do so too.
Then, of course, came the "big" surprise. I didn't have eyeballs. Though I did have a third hollow eye slightly above and in the middle of my other two. Besides that, there wasn't even a glow inside the hollow spaces. Just blackness.
And then there was the fur. Black with silver highlights in the exposed parts.