He was not 'nothing' this time, as he had been after completing the scenario; his soul had lost its physical form, but his consciousness floated in a vast void.
He realized he was not floating, but travelling, at a greatly accelerating speed through the stars. He had not seen this on the way here, but it was evident his soul had to be transported from where he had been to the strange stone room at the edge of nothing.
nevertheless, he was travelling at a speed far, far too great for him to make out his surroundings. Not to mention the distance between him and, well, anything, was too enormous to even fathom.
All he could do was admire the vast expanse of the universe as it flew by him.
He felt the acceleration slow, and in a flash of light, he suddenly had all his senses once again.
The disconnect from reality was very severe in the first few moments, and it took him a while to process that he was back in his body.
A moment later, the ball of light appeared at his shoulder, verifying that everything he had experienced was not, in fact. A dream.
But still, all of what he went through being a dream would be far simpler than what or who stood in front of him.
in the dark alleyway, in the third city, a place where he knew nobody and nobody knew him, stood a familiar face.
His friend Unel, who had... lived here his entire life, yes, that's right! How could he have forgotten about Unel? What could he have assumed was wrong about this situation? Maybe the scenario had taken a toll on his mind after all.
Unel's ringed, dark, emotionless eyes that they always used to joke about were staring at him, his pale features enhanced by the half-light of the alleyway, his school uniform exactly as he remembered it from that day when he had...
left the school they attended together and moved to the third city... he remembered how strange a decision that had been to make by his parents, moving to the third city... seriously?
His manners came to him then.
"Oh uh... Unel! It's been so long! Do you remember me from school?"
Unel tilted his head; he had mannerisms that would make people who knew him shudder, but it was something they used to joke about before...
"Oh, yes. Sacril, it's good to see you again."
he turned and began walking out of the alleyway.
Sacril stared for a second, still not feeling like standing up, and he yelled after him.
"Hey! Uh, sorry, just wondering what you're up to, it's been a while, and I mean, we heard the news back at the school and ever since then I just thought you we-"
Unel half-turned "We never sent any news to the school, you are mistaken. If you must know, I recently awakened, and I am heading to the third inquisition headquarters to prepare for my trip to the Nine-Sided Realm."
Sacril felt a sudden jumble in his head as he tried to recall what the news had been, strangely feeling as though Unel was right, if he couldn't remember than perhaps the information had been a part of some strange dream.
Or a forgotten nightmare.
Unel left the alleyway, and Sacril sank back into the wall. He was not quite feeling up to standing; his injuries may have been gone but he had a lot to think about.
Perhaps he should go to the headquarters of the third branch of the Inquisition as well; he would need to prepare, assuming he was to be sent to the nine-sided world with the rest of the newly awakened humans.
He also had to figure out how his innate spiritual domain functioned.
If two kills had netted him barely a speck of light, how much would he need to fill the bottomless abyss?
Suddenly, the urge to stand up filled him.
Doing so, he felt a sudden surge of strength. and noticed his scrawny body now had faint muscles showing, not quite ripped or anything, just a subtle, well-built physique.
On top of that, he felt explosive; his limbs felt almost too light, and he had a sudden urge to test this out.
He squatted down and, with a pulse of his leg muscles, sprang up into the sky.
He left the alley and landed on the roof of the building on the right, instantly clearing at least twenty meters in a single vertical jump.
He looked around in astonishment and spotted a group of humans gathered outside the alley.
He blanked at the sight; it made no sense what they were doing, some of them even had weapons drawn.
He shrugged and, in another leap, made it to the next set of buildings.
He continued jumping from building to building until he was far, far away from the alley.
In fact, he made it to the very edge of the city, and he still felt amazing.
This level of power was ridiculous for an awakened; he was already at the peak of the tier despite having only just completed his first manifestation.
He knew very little about what happened after the manifestation, but decided to find out what other amazing powers he had awakened after his grueling trial.
.
.
.
flight, magic, healing, utility.
He tried to conjure all of these abilities and more.
He had none.
Somewhat dejected, he sat on the rooftop. He only had a very, very potent boost to his physical abilities.
Still, he had his inner spiritual domain; perhaps he could grow if he gathered enough pure core fragments.
He could try to figure out his abilities by himself, but that would be foolish.
Sacril looked to the center of the city, where a great marble spire stood.
It was decided that he would follow Unel and would go to the Inquisition tomorrow, in hopes that he would be able to become even stronger.
strong enough to never worry about living poorly again.
All things considered, this had worked out great for him.
Even though he had died in his manifestation, or what he had assumed to be his manifestation.
He still had amazing power.
And more importantly, no horrifying being had entered this world alongside him.