The Greatest Sin is Weakness; The descent into madness
Sitting up, Starry quickly began thinking about the world. Earth was truly a strange planet. Up until a few hundred years ago, virtues and sins didn't exist, neither did aura or complex combat techniques. But when they did arrive on earth, it was known as the First reform. There were three reforms in total, each bringing untold amounts of destruction and loss of human life.
The First reform was the worst of them all, with many different races of creatures invading earth, bringing along mass destruction. Humanity was cornered, and with nowhere to run, they had given up five out of the seven continents, barely holding onto north and south america.
Europe, Asia, Australia, Antarctica, and Africa were all lost. Australia in particular was completely leveled, all forms of life being utterly destroyed. When the event occurred, it was known as the great wakeup. The reason for this was because a quasi-Asura ranked being had descended upon Australia, and attempted to capture the continent. Humans, still unknowing of the various intricacies of virtues and the prestige launched a futile resistance, with close to a quarter of mankind taking up arms to vanquish the invaders.
Within two hours, all human activity had ceased to exist on the continent of Australia. The tier five quasi-Asura being had invoked an inferior mythical destruction-type name. Not all names would come in the form of items or objects. Some names could be invoked to directly affect the world around the invoker. Such as a simple name of destruction or stealth, which would either destroy or hide the user.
It was later found out that the being that had descended upon Australia was one of three tier-five demon kings within the demon race. It had come to establish its rule over earth, unknowing that the other various races had come at the same time as well.
In short, Fairies took over Europe, Dwarves took over Africa, Giants, Orcs, and Goblins took over Asia and Demons took over australia. While Antarctica was heavily contested by all of the races, Dragons currently reigned supreme on Antarctica, though they were extremely rarely sighted.
After the first reform, humanity was on its last legs, but the second reform was where humanity was truly given a chance to fight back. The second reform brang along the prestige within human's souls, Aura, and the concepts of Virtue, Rank, and Names. This chance was massive.
While many humans struggled to conquer the trials, those who did rose to power, establishing massive organizations behind them. During the first generation, They only managed to conquer the first trial, but this was already significant progress, as now humans could combat the weaker parts of the various races without relying on nuclear warfare.
The second generation cleared up to the second trial, this time gaining even more power to combat the various races, establishing for themselves a solid foothold over North and South America.
Unironically, the third reform was the reform that caused the biggest and smallest changes to Earth. The third reform introduced the existence of other planets that sustained human life as well as of the various other races, it also introduced interplanetary and galactic warfare. The last thing that the third reform introduced was Divine-ranked beings and Faux-saint ranked beings. Previously Asura-ranked beings were seen as the strongest beings in existence, but with the introduction of the third reform, Faux-saint and Divine ranked beings made their debut.
Luckily none of these powerful beings set their eyes on Earth. But with the various races fervently competing for the precious resources on Earth, it was only a matter of time before one of them did, this in turn encouraged the people on Earth to grow faster, and after the fourth generation, Humanity finally managed to produce a Sovereign ranked human. While this may seem insignificant in the face of Asura or Transcendent ranked beings, this was extremely important in unifying the human race.
The Different ranks or tier had subsequent special benefits for an individual. For the challenger tier, humans would gain soul purity and the ability to control the basic principles of the world. For the master tier, a person would gain more influence over those of a weaker tier than them. For the king tier, a person would gain even more influence on those of a lower tier, and gain status based on the amount of followers they had. For a sovereign, this only increased the rate of followers and status gained exponentially.
Sovereign's were seen as supreme rulers that could directly influence the expansion or even destruction of the human race. Even though the human race seemed to be unified under the banner of survival, they were anything but unified. While humanity had indeed entered a ceasefire between themselves, the various powers established a hierarchy.. The Major powers would do anything to secure their own king or sovereign ranked individual. As powerful individuals were symbols of power and status.
Humanity also still faced many problems such as famine, poverty, sickness, with many of those aforementioned struggles being negligible to those willing to conquer the trials.
In both North and South America, there were four capital cities, and one-hundred main cities. Other than that, there were various other cities and settlements scattered throughout the continents, but they were scarce and far apart. Anyone living outside of a capital or main city would struggle to get by if they had not obtained a virtue. Infact, people without virtues would simply be disregarded by others possessing virtues. The reason why people living outside of cities would struggle to get by was because both of the continents that humans resided in were filled with various monsters that ran rampant across the countries. Needless to say, without the protection of a city or town, survival would be a daily struggle.
Now hundreds of years later, many of the major corporations had sovereign ranked individuals under their banner. In total, there were around fifty sovereign ranked individuals, and close to one thousand king ranked individuals. Though the disparity between the two grew even more as the ranks lowered. In comparison to tier 3 kings, there were about fifty to one hundred thousand tier 2 master ranked individuals. There were also about one-hundred million tier 1 challenger ranked individuals. Though this was indeed a small fraction of the current population, near 2.5 billion, it was barely enough to combat the various races schemes.
Meanwhile, Starry or rather Lucien, Lived in one of four of the capital cities, named New Lunaris, located in North america. His family was somewhat well off, running a fairly successful second-rate corporation. He was supposed to be in attendance of the Main Academy, Luna, but had failed the entrance exam earlier in the year. While he could retake the entrance exam at any point in time during the year, it would cost an astronomical amount of money to apply to take the exam. Due to his lack of talent, he had already failed on two attempts at entering the academy, and had completely lost hope.
While his parents and siblings were dismayed at this, they still loved him nonetheless, though they could only afford one more of his attempts to pass the exam before they would have to settle for a lesser academy.
While this was part of Lucien's depression, the biggest part was the inherent talent at controlling aura and in fighting that his whole family shared. Both of his sisters, Maelis and Seraphine, aged 15, were extremely proficient in manipulating aura. His brother, Soren, also possessed an unbelievable amount of talent in hand to hand combat.
Aura was simply put, the essence of the world. While it could be manipulated very crudely, such as controlling the various elements, it was much better put to use by empowering names or empowering oneself. One could create Aura Arrays to empower their names, and their physical abilities. Aura Arrays were complex sets of the ancient language written down in various shapes that could be manifested physically and mentally to empower things using Aura. Aura Arrays could also be multiple-fold, or have multiple layers. The more layers an Aura Array had, the stronger it would be, with each layer almost doubling the amount of power one could exercise.
Aura control was also extremely important, as the difference between two beings, even of the same rank in aura control, was much larger than the difference between quality of names. If one had even subpar aura control as a challenger, they could raise any name under uncommon tier by around half a sub-tier. If one had extremely good aura control as a challenger ranked individual, they could raise any name under rare tier by one whole subtier.
While the difference between one subtier might not necessarily be massive, especially considering that not all names were very powerful, or combat oriented, it could mean the difference between life and death out on the battlefield. When challenging a trial, many would prepare extremely extensively beforehand because of the uncertainties of challenging a trial.
While this was a part of the reason for the disparity between master and challenger ranked individuals, there was one other significant challenge one faced when upgrading their rank from tier 1 to tier 2. The first trial could be counted as a tutorial to all the other trials, so the first trial was merely the prelude to chaos. The difficulty of the second trial when compared to the first trial was like the difference between heaven and earth. This was why there were a hundred million challenger ranked individuals and less than a million master-ranked individuals.
Going back to Starry's situation, while his siblings and parents loved him despite his failures, he was expected to pass the entrance exam to Luna Academy in around one month. His family had even invested in a master-ranked tutor to ensure his success.
Thinking back to his current situation, Starry had a bit of a headache. Earth was indeed a strange planet, but it wasn't too dissimilar from Roathia. Roathia underwent a similar situation thousands of years in the past, though it would have happened when Roathia was around the middle ages, much earlier when compared to the already technologically advanced human society on earth. Roathia had also indeed gone through three 'reforms', though they were referred to as the three major cataclysms.
This was where the similarities ended mostly though, as Roathia had not been invaded by the hostile races, but instead had gone through the second cataclysm before the first. They had been introduced to the system of Aura, the Prestige, and Virtues, Names and Ranks long before the various races had tried to invade their planet. By the time that the various races tried to invade the planet, humanity already had king ranked individuals stationed in major cities around the globe. In total there would have been around million king-ranked individuals and around ten million master-ranked individuals, as well as around 1 billion challenger ranked individuals. There were also around ten-thousand Sovereign ranked individuals.
While the number of Transcendent individuals was unknown, there was at least one for every two continents on Roathia. This was a significant part of the population of Roathia at the time, as the world was still somewhat underdeveloped, having only a total population of five billion people.
Needless to say by the time that the various races tried to invade the continents, they were mostly completely repelled. Although humanity suffered massive losses, they only lost two smaller continents to the various races. While this may seem significant, there wasn't a large enough population on roathia to cover the whole planet, so the various races were forced to occupy only two continents.
Eventually, Humanity fulfilled the requirement of having five transcendent ranked individuals and was able to travel to other planets through the prestige. Allowing them to conquer other planets similar to how the various races had invaded their planet. Humanity eventually split amongst three planets, Roathia, Triathia, and Solathia.
Apparently though, Humans had somehow ended up on planet Earth. While this came as an unexpected surprise for Starry, this was not necessarily a bad thing. This meant that humanity successfully occupied four planets. Roathia, Triathia, and Solathia were all mostly conquered by humans, only allowing the other races to reign over about 10 % of each planet. Although earth was mostly lost, about 70%, if the Roathian armies marched through Earth, they could easily take the helm over half the continents and significantly weaken the various races' influence and power.
Thinking about humanity ruling four different planets filled Starless with excitement.
Interrupting his thoughts, a beautiful girl with light blue colored hair walked into his room and coldly said,
"Starry. It's time for evening practice, meet me down on the first floor in the garden. Also what's with that weird mask?"
"What mask?" He said in response, quickly turning the broken mask of oblivion invisible.
"? Nevermind then. Come down soon though."
She then turned back, walked out, and closed the door.
'That was Maelis. How cold of her.'
Getting up from the floor, Starry looked around his room, finding it to be extremely minimalist. The only things present in his room were his bed, a small desk and chair in the corner, and a poster hanging on the wall titled 'Luna Academy Entrance Exams open now!'. The rest of his room was relatively empty, painted black and white.
He quickly started stretching his body, finding out that it ached all over. Taking his shirt and pants off, he noticed that his body was covered with scars all over, and he had numerous bruises all over his body. He also noticed that his body was extremely lean, his muscles hidden under his oversized clothing.
This was a likely side effect of over-training. He quickly summoned Nola and executed a simple void chop into the air. He found himself barely able to swing Nola with enough force to execute void chop completely, ending up on a 79% completion rate.
'It's going to take some time to familiarize myself with this new body.'
Starry thought, swinging Nola back and forth in an attempt to get used to his new body.
"Would it kill you to put your clothes back on? I don't wanna see that thing dangling around." Nephim said, a hint of embarrassment and disgust within her voice.
"Oops. Sorry."
Starry said, quickly putting his oversized shirt and pants back on. He then continued to swing Nola for about ten minutes before something hit him in the back of the head. Quickly turning towards his attacker, he noticed Maelis standing in front of him.
"Just what do you think you're doing?! I said come down for practice and you didnt come! This warrants a punishment." She coldy said, raising her hands before sidestepping and pushing Nola out of the way.
He tried to raise his arms in an attempt to defend himself, but Maelis was already one step ahead, raising her leg and kicking him square in the chest.
"Kuu!"
Starry felt the air being forced out of his lungs, and flew backwards almost three feet before he came to a halt.
"Are you trying to kill me!?" Starry yelled.
"I'm just punishing you for not coming down. You better be grateful I'm the one dishing out the punishment instead of Master." She said, a hint of pity flashing in her eyes. She then rushed at him again, this time at full speed, raising her fists.
Quickly reacting to her attack, Starry raised his arms in a guard and felt three hard punches hit him straight in his guard. Moving back slightly, Starry looked for an opportunity to counter-attack but found none. The only opportunity he had was to launch a sacrificial attack towards her solar plexus, effectively rendering her unable to fight. He determined that this was the best course of action, as simply taking a full force hit to his arm and stomach was nothing compared to immobilizing his opponent.
He waited until Maelis launched another flurry of punches towards his guard and ducked under them, avoiding the kick she launched towards him. The moment she realized he was going to duck, She struck towards his arm and stomach, but upon noticing that he ignored her strikes, she tried to pull back.
'Too late.'
Starry then launched a full-powered strike towards her solar plexus, connecting with most of the power he had determined at the start. While she had avoided the full brunt of the blow by reacting fast, it wasn't enough.
"What? Did you really think one hit would be enough to beat m-" She said, unable to finish, as she lacked the air within her.
Coughing, she tried to inhale quickly, but Starry quickly capitalized on this chance to launch a flurry of attacks towards her. She raised only one arm as a guard, using the other to stabilize her body. Upon realizing that she was no match for this assault, she unleashed her status, forcing Starry back.
"How underhanded of you." Starry said, his complexion turning pale.
He hadn't expected her to unleash her status completely, more so he hadn't expected her status to be so strong. The reason for this was likely her precise control over Aura.
"Underhanded? A win is a win no matter what." She said, finally having mostly recovered from the earlier blow.
"Perhaps this is so. That is why you shouldn't blame me for what happens next." Starry said, pushing his senses to his limits and closing his eyes.
'Neph. I'll need your help here for a bit.'
"Sure. But don't blame me if you still lose."
Immediately after he said this, a surge of power transferred into his body, feeling like cold ice was flowing through his veins. He then abandoned his own perception of the world, instead utilizing Nephim's perception.
Because of the earlier contract that they had both signed, they had bound their souls together, meaning that they were both stuck together until either one of them died. But this also had many benefits, such as being able to swap perceptions with each other, or being able to read their direct thoughts, feelings, and emotions with permission. Another benefit was being able to temporarily transfer some power or status to the other contractor.
Feeling the Aura around him, he coalesced it into a dull sword, aiming to disarm his opponent, not to cause lethal injuries. In this moment, he felt that he was close to grasping the basic principles of Aura, just by entering this state. He didn't have time to dwell on grasping the principles of Aura though, as Maelis charged at him.
"You really should learn to concede sometimes Starry. You've never been particularly skilled at combat yet after hitting me once you think you can contend with me. I really didn't want to do this." She yelled, her voice strained, as if she was being forced to carry out this task.
Looking at Starry, she noticed a completely indifferent expression coloring his face, as if she wasn't even an ant in his eyes. Once he opened his eyes, she noticed something odd, his eye color had changed from dark red to grey.
He then used the Aura blade that he had made to execute blade domain at 90% completion rate. He repelled her flurry of attacks, occasionally launching counter-attacks back at her vital points.
'How troublesome. But this is good nonetheless. It seems he finally had a breakthrough!'
Maelis excitedly thought as she continued to strike against him from all different directions. Even though it seemed that they were locked in a stalemate, Maelis knew that her stamina wouldn't hold for much longer. The same went for Starry, as executing blade domain took a lot out of him. He could at most hold on for another ten or fifteen seconds before his arms would give out.
Ignoring her dwindling stamina, Maelis continued to launch attack after attack, not even bothering to block his counter attacks. Eventually, she visibly slowed down, but so did Starry. They kept on in a brutal stalemate like this for a few seconds before Starry had to end blade domain. Despite blade domain's duration having been ended, he was still able to block the majority of Maelis's attacks as she had slowed down significantly, and he had grasped an important part of the technique blade domain.
"Too bad this is your limit." Maelis said, a hint of sadness within her voice.
"Mutual destruction doesn't sound too bad does it?" Starless replied.
"It doesn't matter how good mutual destruction sounds because you aren't yet qualified for that!" Maelis coldly said, a hint of killing intent leaking out of her words.
Immediately, Maelis's body surged with power, forcing Starry down to one knee.
'Well, I suppose this is my limit. Hopefully she doesn't take things too far.'
Although Maelis was visibly exhausted, her body still exuded an oppressive status. She likely wasn't manipulating the Aura around her to empower herself yet, only having opted to strengthen her status.
She then kicked Starry square in the chest, forcing him backwards and used the surrounding Aura to create an ethereal golden whip. She winded it up, but before she could hit him, a gentle but domineering voice rang from outside the door.
"Maelis. I thought you were past beating up Starry for fun! Stop venting your frustrations on him."
Looking up, Starry noticed a tall handsome man, with short bright yellow hair, in houseware. He looked upon Maelis with a slight contempt, but the moment he noticed the whip in her hands, he quickly dashed from the place he was standing and swiftly appeared next to Maelis. He then disarmed her and slung her over his shoulder, carrying her much like a dead body.
"Sorry she did that Starry. Come on Maelis, you apologize too!"
"For what? I was just playing aroun-" She didn't get the chance to finish as the man spanked her.
"Apologize." he sternly said, still smiling.
"I'm sorry Starry." she said sniffling, tears forming in the corners of her eyes.
"For what?" The man asked.
"For hitting you." Maelis said, unable to hold in her tears, started bawling.
Unable to comprehend the oddness of the situation, Starry lay paralyzed on the floor, unable to say anything back. At this moment, a memory entered his mind, and he remembered that the man in front of him was named Leonheart, and was his brother. He was usually gentle and kind but could get serious if the situation called for it. Everyone in the household called him Leo, but his cute nickname far diminished his status as a fighting prodigy. He was currently preparing to undertake his second trial, and was currently a junior at Luna Academy.
Watching this odd situation from a corner of the room, Nephim burst out in laughter.
"Little miss 'You aren't qualified' just got humbled!" Nephim loudly said, her voice cracking mid sentence.
Starry lay on his back, wondering what had just happened. At this moment, a tall girl with dark-red colored hair walked into his room. Upon seeing Starry laying on the floor, clearly exhausted, she said,
"Are you okay?"
Looking around for the source of the voice, Starry noticed a beautiful young girl standing over him, looking down worriedly.
"I'm." he struggled to say, coughing up blood, "Fine." he said, barely managing to force the words out of his throat.
"You're obviously not fine!" She yelled, clearly angry. She quickly squatted down to the floor and picked him up, blood getting all over her arms and clothes. She then proceeded to take off his shirt and pants, noticing a large amount of blood leaking out of various cuts littering his body.
Nephim from the corner of the room, looked at the girl with dismay, but stayed quiet.
Upon noticing the sheer amount of blood that was flowing out of Starry's body, even Nephim's expression turned slightly grim. Needless to say, all of the color drained from the girl's face. It was clear for her to see that Starry was suffering not only from external injuries, but also internal bleeding. Not only was his whole body on the verge of collapse, but he had also over exhausted his miniscule Aura reserves within his body and attempted to manipulate ambient Aura without completely understanding how to. This led to severe backlash, which could be potentially life threatening.
At this moment, Starry finally passed out.