"Wait," Alex began, looking down at the black bracelet tattoo on her right wrist. "If I think about the tiers, stages, and ranks of demons and put them in relation to the tattoo tracker on my wrist, that would make me a Fractured Abyssling of Lust and Wrath.
Last time I checked, Lust was at 12%, meaning that I'm 3% away from being a Feral Abyssling of Lust."
Rahzi stood up so that they were now looking down at Alex, who remained seated on the sand. They crossed their hands behind their back so that their left hand held their right wrist.
"In theory, you would be correct. But that is no longer the case."
Alex's eyebrows furrowed, "What do you mean?"
Alex asked, tilting her head up to look at Rahzi.
"Have a look," Rahzi answered, nodding their head up once to motion to the tattoo on Alex's wrist with their chin.
Alex tried to tap into the energy in her newly formed Core to envelop the tattoo, but received no response.
She waited a bit and tried once more, but still got nothing.
Alex frowned, staring at the tattoo in confusion.
'Why isn't it working?'
"Child, you are in your consciousness. Why are you trying to use your energy to connect with it?"
"How else am I supposed to make the tracker appear then?" Alex responded, annoyed.
Rahzi stared at Alex for half a minute, looked down at their foot, and back at Alex.
"Again," Rahzi began, lifting their right foot and tapping it against Alex's head, causing her to lean to the left. "You are in your consciousness. Just will the tracker to appear."
"Ow!" Alex yelled, rubbing her head. "Jeez, how was I supposed to know?"
'Appear,' Alex thought, and indeed there was a reaction, and it finally did appear. But something was different. Instead of a screen, a holographic version of Rahzi's grimoire form appeared.
'Well, that's new,' Alex thought, staring at the closed grimoire that unclapsed itself and opened evenly down the middle.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
📖
[Identity]
Name: Alex Gray
Netherial Name: Zivarel
Race: ???
Clan(s): Asura-Nocthyrion
Talent: Sin Weaver
[Core]
Core type: Soul Core
Core State: Dormant
Bloodline 1: 🔒
Bloodline 2: 🔒
[Progression]
Tier 1/3: Body
Stage 1/6: Fractured
Rank 1/9: Abyssling
Abyssling Progression: 0% (Reawakened)
[Sin Tracker]➖
🔵[1]~🔴[2]~🟡[3]~🟢[4]~⚫[5]~🟣[6]~⚪[7]~🟠[8]
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Alex glanced at each bracket and focused mainly on the plus sign beside 'Sin Matrix'. Seven orbs appeared, rotating around a black orb clockwise.
Her eyes followed the blue orb, which faintly appeared to have 0% on it. Then to the red orb, and it also showed a faint 0%.
Alex released a long breath, understanding why Rahzi had told her, 'that is no longer the case'.
"I'm starting from zero, aren't I?" Alex asked as she looked up at Rahzi, who confirmed her question by nodding their head.
Alex returned her focus to the holographic grimoire to note the changes in the sin matrix section compared to how she viewed the sin tracker bracelet.
Before, only Lust and wrath were awakened, but now every single one of the sins was awakened with the addition of the dormant sin orb.
Alex looked down at the bracelet on her wrist and realized that the inset slots meant to hold jewels didn't match what she was seeing on the screen in front of her. The bracelet was still the way she first saw it. The lust jewel and the wrath jewel were still there. When she tapped on each one, it still read as 12% for Lust and 3% for wrath.
"Why doesn't the tracker match what is on the grimoire?" Alex wondered.
Rahzi raised an eyebrow questioningly, "You want to announce to the nether realm that you have not only awakened the seven sins, but are attuned to all seven sins plus the dormant sin?"
Alex shook her head side to side, "fair point."
Rahzi continued, "I left it that way as a misdirection for those in the physical realm. But we have more pressing matters to handle than the sin tracker, child. Someone has to prepare for a game."
Alex rose from her seated position and dusted off any remaining sand clinging to her skin, locking eyes with Rahzi.
"Game?" Alex wondered.
Rahzi pinched the bridge of their nose. "Yes, child.
The game you proposed to the monarchs during your speech, which the whole realm listened to. Or have you forgotten, oh great next sovereign?"
Alex's right eyebrow twitched as she pressed her lips into a thin line before responding, "Oh, right...that game. That borrowed power got to my head. I felt as if I could take on the whole world."
Alex said with a tinge of embarrassment at the end.
"Well, child, things are going to get interesting for the next three to four weeks within your sea of consciousness."
"Why is that?" Alex asked, taking a step back, not liking the way Rahzi said what they said.
"You're going to be training, of course. However, we have to get something out of the way." Rahzi said as they raised their index finger, making another bead of light appear on the tip. "The knowledge of angelic flight."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Alex began, raising her hands in surrender. "Don't tell me you're going to make me go through another round of--,"
Puchi!
Rahzi flicked the bead of light from their finger so fast that it sounded like a bullet had gone off and pierced Alex in the head.
"Ow! Fuck! Why yo--Arrrggghhh!" Alex yelled, squatting and holding her head as information about angelic flight flooded her mind. Luckily, this time around, the pain didn't last as long and disappeared as quickly as it came.
"Ugh, seriously! Why does that hurt so much!" Alex snapped her eyes open, pissed. She looked around the beach for Rahzi but didn't find them nearby.
"Where the hell did you go?!" Alex stomped her foot in the sand.
"Up here, child."
Alex tilted her head up and saw them up in the sky with their hands clasped behind them like a Kung Fu grandmaster.
"Hmph!" Alex audibly snorted and flew into the sky to stand face-to-face with Rahzi. Yes, flew. It happened so naturally that Alex didn't even realize the moment ethereal wings appeared. She didn't even pay attention to the moment she flapped them to gain lift and appeared before the grimoire, who currently looked like her mother.
"Next time, wait for my permission for an information download. I am not Neo, and this isn't the Matrix!"
"Uh-huh, and how does it feel like to fly as easily as breathing?" Rahzi smirked, raising their eyebrow once.
"Huh?" Alex looked down and saw that she and Rahzi were above the sea. In the corner of her eye, Alex saw ethereal black angelic wings flapping behind her. She took a step back, more like a flap back, wide-eyed with realization. Alex then turned serious and took a Kung Fu pose facing Rahzi. "I have knowledge of flight."
Rahzi's lips twitched as Alex remixed the quote from the movie Alex previously just mentioned.
Rahzi raised their index finger, a bead of light at its tip, with a smirk that looked evil.
"I think you meant 'I know Kung Fu', which I can help with."
Alex's hands dropped loosely by her sides like a puppet whose strings had been cut as she stared at Rahzi with a lifeless neutral expression.
"Rahzi…I swear if you dare,"
Rahzi flicked the bead, but this time it was a light flick that Alex perceived and dodged in time.
Or so Alex thought.
The bead stopped in mid-air next to Alex's right temporal region and shot into her head.
'Fuck me.' Alex thought as she felt the bead of light enter her head.
"Damn it, Rahzi!" Alex cursed before she went through another agonizing knowledge download.
[1] Lust: 0%
[2] Wrath: 0%
[3] Greed: 0%
[4] Envy: 0%
[5] Dormant Sin: 0%
[6] Pride: 0%
[7] Sloth: 0%
[8] Gluttony: 0%