Catalyst of Enigma

Somewhere in the oversized forest, Aizer, who had been lying unconscious, abruptly woke up screaming.

"Ah!.. Hah... Hah..."

Taking deep breaths, he quickly checked his body.

Patting parts of his body, he sighed slightly before collapsing back on the branch.

Looking up, he raised one of his arms, looking at it before resting it on his chest.

He felt his heart beating.

It was beating normally, nothing to him seemed out of the ordinary.

"Haa..."

"I'm alive. I'm alive, I'm alive, I'm alive."

He muttered this phrase in his head as he continued, taking in deep breaths.

Thinking back on what had happened before, his body couldn't help but shake a little.

His brows were slightly knitted.

Leaning on his left arm, he sat up slightly.

"What was that place?" he asked himself.

The strange, pitch-black, endless void.

The uncountable number of eyes that appeared.

The chaotic ravings that made him feel like he was going to lose his sanity.

And the mysterious black hand that constricted his heart.

Thinking back on the hand, Aizer felt his skin crawl as he remembered the scene.

Multiple eyes, some distinct, others the same, moved onto his body, using the arm as a bridge.

The feeling of them sliding onto his body felt horrific.

If Aizer could describe the feeling, he would describe it as being devoured by a group of tiny, tiny creatures who had no restrictions on where they could go.

Aizer suppressed these memories, not wanting to remember what happened to him in that place.

Lifting his hand, Aizer looked at it for a brief moment with a peculiar expression.

Squinting his eyes, Aizer brought his arm closer as he inspected it carefully.

On the surface of his arm, faint bits of darkness could be seen emerging as they detached from his body, dissipating into the air.

Although slightly confused at first, Aizer soon came to a realisation as he rummaged through his bag, bringing out a certain book.

Flipping through the pages, Aizer stopped on a page, reading it with anticipation.

Congratulations!

If you're readiSomewhere in the oversized forest, Aizer, who had been lying unconscious, abruptly woke up screaming.

"Ah!.. Hah... Hah..."

Taking deep breaths, he quickly checked his body.

Patting parts of his body, he sighed slightly before collapsing back on the branch.

Looking up, he raised one of his arms, looking at it before resting it on his chest.

He felt his heart beating.

It was beating normally, nothing to him seemed out of the ordinary.

"Haa..."

"I'm alive. I'm alive, I'm alive, I'm alive."

He muttered this phrase in his head as he continued, taking in deep breaths.

Thinking back on what had happened before, his body couldn't help but shake a little.

His brows were slightly knitted.

Leaning on his left arm, he sat up slightly.

"What was that place?" he asked himself.

The strange, pitch-black, endless void.

The uncountable number of eyes that appeared.

The chaotic ravings that made him feel like he was going to lose his sanity.

And the mysterious black hand that constricted his heart.

Thinking back on the hand, Aizer felt his skin crawl as he remembered the scene.

Multiple eyes, some distinct, others the same, moved onto his body, using the arm as a bridge.

The feeling of them sliding onto his body felt horrific.

If Aizer could describe the feeling, he would describe it as being devoured by a group of tiny, tiny creatures who had no restrictions on where they could go.

Aizer suppressed these memories, not wanting to remember what happened to him in that place.

Lifting his hand, Aizer looked at it for a brief moment with a peculiar expression.

Squinting his eyes, Aizer brought his arm closer as he inspected it carefully.

On the surface of his arm, faint bits of darkness could be seen emerging as they detached from his body, dissipating into the air.

Although slightly confused at first, Aizer soon came to a realisation as he rummaged through his bag, bringing out a certain book.

Flipping through the pages, Aizer stopped on a page, reading it with anticipation.

Congratulations!

If you're reading this, it means you managed to survive, so congratulations...

Reading this, Aizer's eyebrows twitched slightly.

[Bastard...]

Feeling slightly annoyed, Aizer continued reading.

Now that you have become an awakened, it is time to find out what your ability is. There are two main ways to do this.

1. Self harm.

2. Aura leakage.

If you pick 1, then all you have to do is hurt yourself or put yourself in extreme situations, causing your body to panic.

When that happens, there's a chance your body might let out your powers uncontrollably; when that happens, you want to grasp onto that feeling. Remember the sensation before and after it happened, trying your best to recreate that feeling.

Eventually, you should succeed. If not, then keep trying. (We recommend a small pin or knife to those using this method.)

As soon as you're able to let out your powers at will is when you're considered an awakened.

The 2nd option, on the other hand, is the simplest method available... All you have to do is look around your body.

If you notice any faint wisps of energy leaving your body, then you have aura leakage.

All you have to do then is go to the last page in this book and match your energy colour with the ones listed below.

Once done, you will find your ability and all sorts of information related to it.

Although it's the easiest method available, it's not something you can 100% get.

While you're going through the process of Awakening, there is a 40% chance of you having this symptom.

So whilst it is a better option, it's not the one most used.

There is also a 3rd option. Unfortunately, that option is only for people who have a high-class awakener, capable enough to guide them through the process.

"Would you look at that... lucky me..." Aizer smiled as he went straight to the back of the book, not wasting any time.

"Let's see... The energy coming from my body was black, so it should be around..."

"Oh, here it is..." Cutting himself off, Aizer paused for a moment before reading the contents of the page.

"Darkness... This ability belongs to those who have dark/black-coloured energy. Having this colour energy means one of 2 things..."

"1. You either have the ability to control darkness, or 2. You have the ability to control shadows."

What's the difference you might ask? Well, darkness is a vastly stronger version of shadows, while shadows are a significantly weaker version of darkness.

Although their similar abilities are practically the same, they do have differences of their own.

Examples of this would be how dark users are able to control all forms of darkness, allowing them to also be able to control shadows at their will.

While shadow users are only limited to being able to control shadows.

Apart from that, there aren't many big differences when it comes to wielding the power. Unfortunately, there is one flaw about the ability...

Reading this, Aizer's eyes narrowed.

Those who wield this power have a short lifespan... Not because the ability consumes life force in order to activate, but simply because of how hard it is to control the chaotic amount of energy stored up in their body.

Ultimately, all follow the same fate and lose control.

Thus, becoming labelled as unstable.

In the 6 ranks of power, a new spot was designated to this unstable ability, "irregular".

This became the 7th rank that was added to the 6 ranks... not because of how strong the ability was or because there was something special about it that nobody knew, no.

The 7th rank was only created because of how irregular the ability was.

In the world, there were originally 6 ranks of power used to grade someone's ability.

1. Common.

2. Uncommon.

3. Rare.

4. Special.

5. Legendary.

6. Unique.

With this, people would be able to tell how rare somebody's ability was, depending on how often it appeared and how strong it was.

Obviously, the rarer the ability, the further up the list it was.

That was how it went until people started taking notice of the darkness attribute...

Once an uncommon ability, it had now become something that devastated the world!

Out of nowhere, the number of people wielding the darkness ability skyrocketed to an unprecedented amount.

People, young and old, gained this ability unknowingly. After this happened, a drastic decline in people belonging to different continents started occurring.

In 1 day, 10,000 people would disappear. In 2 days, 100,000 people would disappear, and in 3 days, half a million people would disappear..

The leaders of their respective continents were undoubtedly shocked by this. But only on the 2nd day were they able to find out the reason, thanks to the seers performing divinations.

It was darkness...

Out of nowhere, the ability had suddenly awakened in people, and since the people didn't know they had it (mainly because they were regular people, some newborn babies, others in their 50s), they all ended up losing control, dying on the spot.

The world leaders researched heavily, searching for ways to combat this situation. Unfortunately, they were unable to produce any results, and on the 4th day, over 10 million people disappeared from the world. Shaking the World Leaders Foundation once again.

Even the strongest wisdom path user was at a loss on what to do.

They could not find any way to stop this, nor could they find the reason as to why this was happening.

But a few years later, the mortality rate significantly dropped for 10 years before increasing again. This happened for a while before it just calmed down... like it completely stopped.

One day, 340 million people could suddenly die, and then by tomorrow, it would disappear like nothing ever happened, staying that way for a few more years before happening again.

Seers could not track or predict when or what the casualties could be, so they eventually gave up.

Eventually, darkness's ranking changed. But instead of moving it up a rank, they created a new rank for it, naming it "irregular".. due to how unpredictable it was..

Some years, the world would be full of darkness users before, seconds later, disappearing like they never existed.

Other years, there would hardly be even 30 people in the whole world with the power.

It was like a disease constantly fluctuating from active to docile...

Although the people who had the power were not completely despised, they were, on the other hand, ostracised. People considered those who had the power born with bad luck.

Religious people, on the other hand, considered them plagues to the world, those who had been deemed worthless by their God; others, on the other hand, just felt pity for them.

The power wasn't that strong, just very chaotic. Shadow users weren't as lucky either

Their power may be similar, if not the exact same, as that of darkness, except theirs was a heavily weakened version of darkness, making it easier for them to not lose control.

Even their ranking hadn't changed; they were still in the uncommon section.

But since people couldn't really tell the difference between the two powers, they unknowingly got swept up in the mess with darkness becoming somewhat ostracised.

[a/n: if your wondering why the reading was so long its bc Aizers attribute was at the bottom hence there was space for them to write stuff also it was not the introduction of the dark attribute I had existed before the rise in users]