+1 Life Force+1 Life Force+1 Life Force +1 Life Force+1 Life Force+1 Life Force
The words faded slowly iehough they held no meaning. It took longer for that to happen.
At first, they were just a different shade of darkness from the oblivion that surrou. They were dark gray on the bck void, but slowly they kindled into something more substantial aroduced color to the world. Well, one color at least: red.
+1 Life Force
Eventually, it figured out something else, too. If the words existed, and the energy paired with them surged through it with eaew annou, then it had to exist too, didn’t it?
Who am I, though, it wondered. Unfortunately, there were no easy ao that question, and groping around in the dark aplished nothing.
+1 Life Force+1 Life Force
The messages prodded it incessantly, preventing it from going back to sleep. That was annoying, but it was only when it had that thought that it uood that there was a state of existence called sleep in the first pbsp;
The state of being unaware and insensible to your surroundings. Huh. I think I much preferred that to whatever this is.
It didn’t know what this was, though, or even what it was. Its mi half asleep still, and only the insistent jolts forced it to slowly e awake against its will.
All it knew was that every few seds, it impacted something. It was a distaion that it had to trate to feel beh the rush of energy because the two were almost always in synbsp;
Sometimes, that something was hard and unyielding, and sometimes, it was warmer and softer. It was only on those sed impacts that the annoying message reappeared.
+1 Life Force
Each message was now apanied by a faint jolt of feeling that it could barely feel through whatever it was that it was encased within. But what was it, and where was it? Those were good questions, but they had no ready answers.
It reached out to that feeling of impact, but there was nothing else there. It was either being struck or it wasn’t, and when it wasn’t, there was nothing at all. No, not nothing at all. It slowly dawned on it that he was being held. Not here it was being struck, but at the other end.
+1 Life Force+1 Life Force+1 Life Force
For a time, it just existed, enjoying the feeling of warmth as it slowly thawed out and it tried to tease out this mystery. What was stru one end but held oher? It asked itself.
+1 Life Force+1 Life ForceLife Force FullLife Force FullLife Force Full
Then, just like that, it was gohat thin trickle of joy stopped as suddenly as it had started. Instead, it was repced with a different sort of message, but this one was empty, and without that thrill of energy it had growo.
It was being warhat it was full? What did that even mean?
As it asked that question, a windoeared, floating iher.
Life Force: 20/20
Twenty? Twenty what? It asked itself. Is that a little or a lot?
It answered itself almost immediately. It had to be a lot because it was full, which meant that it was all there was. But what was it for?
As if in respoo its question, a sed windoeared. It was rger than the first.
Repair Soul: 500 Life ForceEmpower Bde: 250 Life ForceShare Senses: 100 Life ForceImproved Siphon: 50 Life Forcrease Reserves: 20 Life Force
While it sidered what these strange words might mean, the warning message tio pester it. However, it wasn’t quite sure what to do about that. It took lohan it should have to realize that only one of the options even seemed to be possible based on the current numbers as it uood them.
As soon as it selected Increase Reserves, it instantly saw its Life Force shift from 20/20 to 0/40. For a moment, it panicked as a chill of lost power washed over it, leaving behind oiness behind. However, no sooner had it started to worry that it had made some sort of terrible mistake thaeady pulse of warmth returned as that pesky warning message stopped.
+1 Life Force+1 Life Force+1 Life Force
This time, it didn’t take nearly as long to figure out the liween the messages and the numbers. Something was feeding it a trickle ur energy, and when it reached its maximum, that energy stopped for reasons it did not fully uand.
This time it was ready, though. Despite the fact that Increase Reserves 2 had increased to 30 Life Force, it was still going to get it, because it was all there was to do. This time, as soon as it reached 30, it triggered it so that it wouldn’t get that warning again and miss out on this delicious flow. All of its energy vanished in an instant, but it was rewarded once more with an increased maximum.
Life Force 0/80
+1 Life Force+1 Life Force
There was no way of knowing whether the small jolts of Life Force would be seds or minutes apart, but it was determined not to waste anymore by being too full ever again. It wasn’t quite greed that drove it. It was a need. It his power, though it did not know why. The hat it felt was too bad to ask why. Each time its Life Force total dipped back towards zero, it could feel a terrible hunger welling up inside of it once more.
Hunger - the need or desire to be fed, flitted through its mind.
That felt abht, though it had another association with feeding… for a moment, memories of a table den with dishes and something called food flickered before it, but they were gone again, even as it reached out to it.
+1 Life Force
Still, despite an almost pulsive o watch the number rise ahat warmth build, it forced itself to look at the other menu. It had already made the best use of its Life Forow, it o make the best use of its waiting time.
Repair Soul: 500 Life ForceEmpower Bde: 250 Life ForceShare Senses: 100 Life ForceImproved Siphon: 50 Life Forcrease Reserves 3: 40 Life Force
+1 Life Force+1 Life Force
At the moment, it only had 6/80 Life Force, but that number would rise iably, and it would o be ready when it reached the critiumber.
What would that be, though? Three of its choices were still out of reach, but this time, there were two choices instead of just one.
Would it choose the ability for 40 or the other ability for 50? Was there a differehere had to be if they were named differently. So, whie was better?
+1 Life Force
It flicked its attention to Improve Siphon si hadn’t tried to select it before, and instantly, a small expnatory message appeared as if by magibsp;
Improved Siphon: Your hunger increases. Each blow now drains from 1 to 3 Life Force.
Triple the Life Force? It thought, practically trembling at the thought as it wondered what getting three Life Force at once would even feel like. That had to be the winner, of course. Still, it checked on Increase Reserves 3, just in case.
Increase Reserves 3: Though you ever truly be sated, you tain more. You always tain more. Increase maximum Life Force to 150.
+1 Life Force+1 Life Force
It was slightly disappoio see that. It had expected the o be 160 and somehow felt cheated that it was smaller than expected. This only doubled its certainty that Improved Siphon was the way to go.
+1 Life Force+1 Life Force+1 Life Force+1 Life Force+1 Life Force
This time, it felt like it had to wait longer. Not just because 50 was a rger number, either. Whatever it was that was randomly rewarding it with this energy seemed to be slowing down. It had only taken a handful of mio achieve the first two levels of reserves, but it felt like more than twice that long to get the 50 it needed for the step.
+1 Life Force+1 Life Force+1 Life Force
Then, suddenly, just when it worried it might be stuck at 49 forever, the Life Fauge rolled over to 50. It instantly selected the option it had been waiting for. Suddenly, it felt cold ay, and just as suddenly, it had a new ability, and the menu had been poputed with Improved Siphon 2: 75 Life Force.
It had just enough time to pte all of that before it was stopped in its tracks by a bst of energy that was twice as powerful as any that came before it.
+2 Life Forbsp;
It had just enough time to wonder why it had only received 2 energy instead of 3 when it was hit by more jolts.
+3 Life Force +1 Life Forbsp;
From 1 to 3, it thought, remembering the w on the ability. So it’s no triple… it’s random. Random was another new word for it, but it filled the cept away as it focused on the more immediate issue.
On average, the neould double the amount of energy it had beeing, not triple it as it had first though, it realized, not quite sure how it had e to that clusion. Still, it kept its thoughts simple, brag itself for more energy.
Only, that’s not what happened. Instead, suddenly, something pulled away all six of the energy it had stored up. Then, it sat there at zero for some interminable length of time.
No, sitting at zero wasn’t right. Energy was ing to it; it could feel it, but even as it had barely registered it, it was immediately siphoned away somewhere else without even showing up as a. It was incredibly frustrating, and for several long minutes, it was certain that it was being toyed with, even if it still wasn’t precisely certain who or what it was, or why it was alone in the dark.
Such a statement raised several unfortable questions, though. Who was it to be toyed with, and who might be the one doing the tormenting? Hells, even more important than the question of who was how?
It still felt the impacts. Hard. Soft. Soft. Hard. Soft. Something was still happening, but the of causality that it had e to exped rely upon was broken.
It floated there in the void stewing, and w what it was that determined what it was and was not allowed to get. Had something noticed that it had grown too powerful and decided to stop it? Something deep i began to boil with a the very thought that anyone would ever stand in its way.
I will never bow to the will of another, it raged, surprised by the strength of the emotion. It tried to dig deeper into that, sure there must be a reason that it had felt this way, but it didn’t find any memories to expin the impulse. It was just one more mystery to add to the pile.
This tinued a little while lohen the blows stopped altogether. After that, it was left alone in the void with only the menus for pany. It reviewed the other options it could not yet afford and found that all of them raised some iing questions, but it was hard to care about those questions too much when its whole world was slowly grinding to a halt as it froze solid without any Life Force feeding it.
Share Sehe world is a rge pce, and you are but a single part. See the world that you are feeding off of to better uand the struggle.
Empower Bde: You are more than just steel. All you o do is ma your true nature. (one of several options will be chosen upoion)
Repair Soul: Do you even know who you are? This option will attempt to repair your broken soul. If you are successful, you may finally let you uand why all of this is happening.
Those words floated there before its unprehending sight for several minutes, slowly losing their color before they finally disappeared entirely as the world went dark. After that, it ceased to be once more.
It had no idea how much time had passed before it was awoken again. It simply ceased to exist until it slowly came to the surface more, sometime ter. Once again, it felt not just the blows but the Life Force that was supposed to apany them again.
That wasn’t the indicator that hau, though. That was floated there, in midair before it dominating its field of vision is a pale red that was slowly fading to a darker gray. Life Force: 0/80. Zero. It was the most important number in the world, and nothing it could do would ge it.
+2 Life Force+1 Life Force+3 Life Force +3 Life Force+2 Life Force
It was less of a flow and more of a tide this time. In seds, it went from oblivion to wide awake as it drank in the new flood of power. It was strohan before and more insistent, but it still wasn’t enough.
+2 Life Force +1 Life Forbsp;
It waited for minutes, letting its total accumute. It thought about trying to save some, and hold it in reserve to prevent whatever had just happened from happening again, but it couldn’t. The risk that its pht be stolen away again was even worse than the risk that it might run out.
As soon as another +2 brought it to a grand total of 76, it used 75 points t it t its Improved Siphon ability to level 3. Just like that, instead of getting 1 to 3 Life For each jolt of power it received, it was getting 3 to 5. Its old maximum was now its new minimum, and it gloried in that.
+3 Life Force +4 Life Forbsp; +4 Life Force +5 Life Forbsp; +3 Life Forbsp;
Improved Siphon 3: your hunger increases. It is a palpable thing. Increase maximum Life Force drained per blow from 3 to 7.
+5 Life Forbsp;
Even after it spent 75 though, it was already back above twenty and rising. Now that it was gaining Life Force so quickly, it o wait less than a minute before it could afford Improved Siphon 3.
+2 Life Forbsp; +4 Life Force +3 Life Forbsp; +5 Life Forbsp;
At only a hundred Life Force, it sidered that a bargain aed it as quickly as it could. It was almost having trouble spending the points faster than they were ing in now, and items were selected on impulse instead of pnning or deliberation.
+6 Life Forbsp;
Increase Reserves 3 urchased almost instantly for 40 Life Force to increase its Life Force Maximum to 150. That ability was repced in turn by Increase Reserves 4. In the space of a few mis Life Force reservoir was increased in size from 150 points to 300 points.
Suddenly, it felt like it could tain all the power in the world. Indeed, it was tempted to if it ever stopped flowing again like it had so retly.
As I have so retly, twice, it corrected itself.
It had woken up the first time from a simir stupor. Arguably, for it tet everything before that point, it had probably been asleep for quite some time.
+4 Life Force
How long would it take tet who or what I am? It wondered. Have already had to get these abilities before? If I have done all this before, then what’s the point?
They were good questions, but the only clue it had to that were the words of the abilities that were still too expeo select. It had a broken soul, and it seemed like it might be important to do something about that, though it would take a bit loo reach that pinnacle.
+3 Life Force+7 Life Forbsp;
Its choices were getting simpler as its priorities became more straightforward, but they were growing more costly, too. No matter how much it wao further increase the power flowing into it row its strength, it first had to uand what was happening to it. It could not tio make intelligent decisions in a vacuum.
Share Senses had to be the objective. That was the only way it could figure out what was going on, and right now suowledge was more valuable thas precious Life Force.
Repair Soul: 500 Life ForceEmpower Bde: 250 Life ForceImproved Siphon 4: 200 Life ForceShare Senses: 100 Life Forcrease Reserves 4: 60 Life Force
+5 Life Force+6 Life Forbsp;
It no loook much time to get to 100 Life Force. Evehe flow stopped for a time and very briefly reversed around 63, it stayed calm and waited patiently to reach its goal, and after several more minutes, it finally got there.
+3 Life Forbsp;
The st few times it had selected a new power, it merely felt weakened or cold as it poured out all the energy that came into it. Nothing else had ged.
This time, though, everything was different. This time, the darkhat had bli until now, limiting it to its own thoughts, fell away to reveal a wider world that had only suspected the existence of until now.
It was no longer a prisoo the darkness. Instead, it was pletely overwhelmed by the moment as colors, shapes, and sounds sprang ienbsp;
A moment ago there had been only its thoughts eg through its lonely mind, a few barely ging menus, and the feeling of a distant impact that was usually apanied by a burst of Life Forow, there were screams of dying men, battle cries, and the sound of steel ringing out against steel. It was overwhelmed by the sudden burst of sensations.
