Samael stared at the man's corpse as he processed the information he'd just been told. This is not good. Not one bit. I have to leave now! Hopefully I can grow strong enough through this World Awakening, whatever that means, to survive. I refuse to die before I can kill those bastards from the Guild for what they did to my father. Samael thought solemnly. He gathered up his supplies and put the duffle bag across his shoulders. The young man left the apartment and headed east. That was when he looked up. The sky was a fiery inferno of red and orange hues. In the sky, a timer was ticking down. Each second created a small reverberation in the air, sending ripples out in waves. It said 4:22:31:08. Samael instinctively knew what it meant; in less than 5 days, the world as they knew it would end. Forever. He looked around and noticed motes of a silvery blue light floating just a few feet away from him. The light was slowly expanding, taking the shape of a disk. It seemed to solidify more and more as it expanded and morphed into something not quite right. It fluctuated in ways that should be impossible within a 3 dimensional space. Parts of it moved through itself without colliding as if phasing through a different reality. What the hell… How is it doing that? Samael muttered under his breath as he watched the impossible ways the light moved.
A compulsion coming from the very depths of his being made him move closer. It was as though his body moved on its own, ignoring the commands of his will. His mind was screaming at him to not interfere with something he didn't understand. Even still, his body moved closer until his hand touched it. A flash of light blinded Samael while a shockwave originating from the strange disk sent him flying back. He was already beaten and battered from the encounters with the Guild and getting knocked down only worsened his condition. He looked back towards the strange disk and his eyes widened. A hand was coming out of it, but something was off about the hand. It had a sickly green color and the fingers ended with sharp black claws. As more and more of the hand became visible he noticed blue stains covering parts of the hand. Seconds later, a second hand came from the disk, what Samael now assumed was some kind of portal. The two hands grabbed the sides of the portal and began pulling on the sides in an attempt to widen it. Seeing this Samael rushed forward to try and stop it. He didn't know why, only that whatever that thing was, it couldn't be good to just let it get through the portal. He pulled out his knife from the bag and ripped it out of its holster. He attempted to slash at the fingers to sever them, but the moment his blade struck one of the fingers it simply bounced off. A strong vibration could be felt through the hilt of knife as Samael continuesly attempted to pierce the hands to no avail. It feels like I'm hitting steel! How could that be possible when it's clearly a living creature? Minutes pass and the portal keeps widening until eventually, a head sticks out of the portal. Fishy eyes, cold and lacking any emotion stared right into his own. The creatures mouth opened in a wide, hideous grin, revealing rows upon rows of needle-like teeth. It lunged towards Samael's hand with its mouth opened impossibly wide and before he could react it clamped down with enough force to crush bones. He tried to pull his hand back but the needle-like teeth of the creature had pierced deep into the flesh and bone. No matter how hard he trick the creature grip didn't let up. Soon blood started to drip from the creatures mouth. His own blood. He tried jamming the knife into one of the creatures wide open eyes and found it gliding through like a hot knife through butter. Slowly the creatures grip on his hand loosened just enough to get it out of the creature's mouth. He pulled back the nice and plunged it into the other, undamaged eye. It once again stabbed traight through with almost no effort. Through this Samael concluded that the only viable way to kill it would be to pierce its brain through the eye socket. He pushed the knife deeper, piercing the creatures brain. A wheezing sound could be heard as it took its last breath and fell forward.
Samael took a small step back and knelt down to inspect the corpse. It was quite small, barely 4 feet in height and extremely thin. Despite that it seemed impossible to move. Samael tried to lift it, but even with all his strength he was unable to move it even an inch. Blue blood was dripping from the destroyed eyes of the creature and small gray chunks seemed to float around in it. Its lower half was still within the portal, having been unable to completely get out due to Samael's interference. While Samael was focusing on the corpse, a voice rang out in his head, the same one he had heard earlier that day proclaiming the start of the Integration.
Foe of great strength slain, Common Goblin, level 9 (I).
Great feat performed pre System Integration. Attuning body to The Great Paths.
He barely had time to process the words of the mysterious entity before he fell to the ground with a gut wrenching scream. A surge of heat invaded his body. It felt like he had been plunged in lava. Blood began leaking from his eyes, ears, mouth and nostrils. The pain was unlike anything he had ever experienced before. He could feel his body changing, becoming something greater, a larger piece of the whole. Simultaneously the heat disapeared, replaced by a bitter cold. The sheer shock from the extreme changes in temperature overloaded his mind. He was just lying on the ground, unconscious