Elias’s heart pounded in his chest as he hobbled towards the sound of Tessa’s scream. Thoughts were racing through his mind as he moved along the dirt street—he was just a street away. His muscles were burning and post-adrenaline exhaustion was setting in. His foot shot daggers through his entire leg, but, nothing would make him stop.

  The closer he got, the more his instincts screamed at him to push harder—it was a profound, primal warning from deep within. Every second felt as though he was nearing an apocalypse.

  “Tessa, hold on…” he whispered.

  Elias pushed around the corner of the blacksmith’s house, his breath catching in his throat as he saw her. Tessa was backed up against the wall, her face pale and her chest heaving as her eyes stared in horror at the creature before her.

  The Aberration that came into his vision was different from the others he’d seen before. A dark, sickly aura of mana seeped out from its presence that even Elias could feel.

  The creature stood taller than a man, twisted and hunched, with a body that seemed barely human. It had a single mottled bat-like wing extending from its back and its face—although grotesquely deformed, held a twisted intelligence. Its eyes glowed a dark crimson.

  Tessa’s back pressed further into the wall as her hands gripped out at the empty air. She was unarmed and defenceless—she’d just awakened, but it didn’t matter. This aberration was different. He couldn’t let her face it alone. Not now.

  “HEY!” he screamed as a throbbing pain burst out in his throat, he had to draw its attention somehow. Elias knew neither of them stood a chance.

  “Shit. Come on you ugly bastard, look at me!”

  “HEY-YY!” he yelled, forcing his depleted reserves of energy into his voice.

  Tears blurred his vision as he collapsed to the ground in pain and exhaustion as his foot gave way.

  It was too late.

  The Aberration turned, and a flash of its scaled and clawed arm surged through the air as if to swipe at him—despite the twenty or so meters between them. “AGH!” Elias grimaced as an immediate crashing of force slammed into him, tearing the air from his lungs and tossing him through the air. He struck the ground with a sickening jolt as pain like he’d never felt before shot through his entire body.

  His mind reeled in agony as he lay on the floor, gasping, every nerve in his body screaming at him.

  He could make out a voice—Tessa’s voice, it coursed with desperation. “What can I do?” What could he do? How can I get to her? How could he even move? Elias’s barely contained sanity was trying to pull some fragments of a plan to the forefront of his mind; his thoughts were interrupted as his voice gained clarity; “Elias! No. Please, no!” her words cut into him as he struggled to rise, to reach her, but his limbs were weak.

  He felt the cold ground against his skin, and a metallic tang filled his mouth from the blood and tears—every movement he made was torture.

  The creature’s focus returned to Tessa, its eyes glinting with cruel amusement as it glanced at Elias. It was almost as if the monster was savouring the moment. Elias clawed at the ground, his body trembling to move himself closer.

  “I have to reach her, she can’t die!”

  A chilling grin spread over the monster’s face, as if it had read him mind.

  He saw Tessa’s gaze darting between him and the creature; her voice trembled as she pleaded, “Yes! Me, look at me! You don’t need to hurt him.”

  Elias’s heart wrenched in his chest. He wanted to do something, to shout, to fight, to tell her that she was wrong. It was him who should be where she was. He tried to scream the creature to death with pure willpower—but his voice failed him and his brief delusion of mystical powers dissolved and his fingernails scraped against the dirt.

  Their eyes met - Tessa’s bright green eyes wide with terror that cut into his soul. Her lips parted as if to say something, but no words came.

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  Then, in a single horrifying instant, the creature’s claws plunged into her chest. Tessa’s scream filled the air, echoing in the skies before it was instantly silenced. Elias watched, frozen as her life faded. Her eyes locking onto his one last time before her body slumped, her expression forever fixated in a silent please.

  The aberration gripped Tessa’s heart in its clawed hand, dark blood seeping down its arm as it lifted her limp form, as if to display its triumph. Elias’s vision swam as a silent scream tore through him, his sobs swallowed by the deafening void in his mind. Every sound, every though, dissolved into nothingness.

  All he could see was her lifeless body, suspended in the creature’s grip, her once bright eyes now empty.

  At that moment, Elias felt something inside him break; rage and sorrow were so intense that they seemed to pull him into an abyss. His entire being froze, the aberration froze, Tessa’s lifeless eyes froze. It was like he was trapped in a single instant, a moment that stretched beyond eternity.

  And then.

  Everything.

  “Welcome to the System.” A melodic tone rang through his mind. As he heard the words, they appeared to him in a semi-transparent rectangular window, with the common language of Eridoria reflecting the words he had heard. The window was visible atop the frozen carnage in front of him.

  The voice continued, “As per the laws governing Eridoria, upon reaching adulthood and connecting to the System through the Awakening, the capabilities of the Divine shall be awakened within you.”

  What was happening? The System? What about Tessa? Elias couldn’t make sense of what was happening; the pain he was in had vanished, almost as if he had felt nothing at all. At the same time—something was coursing through him, so filled with power that he didn’t know whether his nerves would detonate from the influx of energy. Was this mana?

  The System didn’t allow Elias to parse through the sensations further. It continued without pause: “As part of the awakening, you will have chosen your desired Path. Depending on your desired Path, you will receive an ability equivalent to your standing in the threads of fate.”

  Wait, Elias knew these words; Jacob had finally explained to him only a few months ago after he had pestered him on his seventeenth birthday. Everyone would hear these words as they sat in the chambers of Awakening.

  “No matter where you stand now, no matter what gift you are given, ingratiate yourself in the laws of the System and your Path may know no end. Follow the Path set before you and become chosen. Falter in your conviction and the path will become lost to time.”

  Elias’s attention became fixated on the System’s words; they held him spellbound, his every thought and emotion entranced by their utterance.

  As he eagerly awaited the System’s words, a wave of energy engulfed him; it felt like it was passing through him. It left him breathless.

  Almost as soon as the first surge had passed, it was followed up be an even more intense wave that coursed through him like an elixir.

  But—just as he revelled in the energy, a maelstrom of power exploded within him. It shattered the trance-like state he’d been in. A sharp grimace spread over his face as his mind snapped back to reality.

  An instinctual sense of danger gripped him and searing pain raged throughout his body, once numbed by the System’s influence, his emotions flooded back. Sorrow, anger, desperation all resurfacing and displacing the unnatural calm that had momentarily possessed him.

  Elias regained control over his battered limbs and swiftly turned his attention to the grotesque scene before him, his gaze falling upon Tess, and the Aberration.

  The creature’s arm was wrapped around her savagely mutilated body, its hand grasping the heart that had been torn from her chest.

  “Standby, early Awakening detected.” The System now said in a more neutral voice.

  Overwhelmed by the sorrow of his companion and perplexed by the System’s message his only response was a mournful sob as he lay frozen in the stillness that surrounded him.

  “Innate Ability detected, analysis” the System imparted.

  A new surge of energy flowed through Elias, its effects starkly different from the devastating impact of the previous one, as well as the exhilarating sensations of the first two—instead it felt almost ‘factual’.

  “Analysis failed, Pathway detected, analysis”

  Elias waited

  “Analysis failed. Innate Ability and Path categorised as anomaly. Deemed void. Awakening failed. Attempting to disconnect.”

  He waited.

  “Link cannot be disconnected, Ability and Path to be Awakened at next viable Awakening. Limited System functionality activated.”

  A blur of bordered shapes filled with text flashed across his vision: Stats, Titles, Quests, Skills, Effects, and others he couldn’t understand.

  As he lay there the Systems words began to sink in—Awakening, Ability, Path, he was trying to make sense of it all. He recalled Jacob’s limited explanations, adventurers stories and the incredible abilities they had.

  Could the System awakening have been the chance to undo the tragedy that had befallen him? To bring Tessa back?

  The Systems silence drew on; leaving him with his own thoughts. The screens that flashed before his eyes seemed to hold the answers to endless questions in his mind.

  Elias’s gaze fell once more upon Tessa’s body, he felt so small and powerless.

  “Limited System Functionality. Further interaction disabled until full Awakening.”

  Elias’s heart sank.

  As the silence stretched on, Elias’s thoughts grew more turbulent. He was trapped in a maelstrom of emotions, frozen in time that seemed to stretch for an eternity.

  And then, a window appeared before him, “Temporal realignment in five minutes”, no voice accompanied these words.

  He was trapped in time. The System had frozen time. If the System could halt time itself, what else was it capable of? And if it was so powerful, why did Aberration still exist? Why were they free to tear apart the souls of those he loved?

  Elias’s anger soared, it would’ve taken nothing but a thought for the System to have wiped all the Aberrations in Havens Point away—but it didn’t—“Why not?!”

  Before his thoughts could continue, another notification appeared in front of him:

  Quest gained:

  Quest: Survival 1

  Survive your encounter with a Tier Two Aberration: 0/1