Chapter 14 - A Perfect Training Ground

Calaminus found himself in a strange world where darkness was encroaching all over him.

At times the darkness would weaken, but most of the time, the darkness covered it all the time. Finally, Calaminus was so annoyed that he urged his soul to awaken.

The moment he woke up, he suddenly saw a whole throng of Shadow Ghouls roaring angrily at him. He realized he was still inside Kyros's body.

"You're finally awake.

" Kyros slowly said.

"Kyros?!

" Calaminus was stunned to hear and see what Kyros was doing.

His body had deep wounds and cuts. Parts of his body had holes. But Kyros was ignoring all of it and began to eat the squirming body parts of various Shadow Ghouls inside the temple. The temple had drastically changed. It was now releasing pulses of holy power that prevented the hordes of creatures from moving in.

"What happened here?

"

"These Shadow Ghouls tried to eat me. Apparently, I can eat darkness as well. This temple seemed to have some defense mechanism, but I don't know how to make it work. It didn't release any holy energy at first... but soon... it started too.

"

"You're crazy! You're eating so much darkness! It will corrupt you! You'd fall into that berserked state again!

"

"Not possible. I know my limits. Of course, I am extremely angry and hungry for those dark creatures. That's why I took out a few and brought their bodies inside here.

" Kyros explained.

"Wait... you can touch and eat it without problem? You have Dark Consumer and Dark Wielder! The powers that only the purest of the Fallen have! How did you activate it?!

"

"I don't know... I'm very tired. Although my body is healing as I eat this... I feel like I would fall unconscious anytime. Will this strange shield stay? How come it activated now?

"

Calaminus realized the necessity for information and began to look at the peculiar temple. His soul went out of Kyros and moved towards the center where the four pillars which sealed Kyros were.

"This design? Now that we're out of that seal, I can see it. Kyros! Say 'Show Temple Info!'

"

"Show Temple Info.

" Kyros followed immediately.

A strange hologram appeared right above Calaminus.

The words displayed the same kind of eccentric format that Calaminus created for displaying stats and skills for people.

---

Nephilim Sealing Temple

Status: Kyros Unsealed

Nephilim Training Commencing!

Shade Level: 1 (02:22:15:04 remaining to Level 2)

Temple Level: 3 (104

/1000 points to Level 4)

---

Acquired Rewards:

Holy Ground- Makes the entire temple ground uncomfortable for low-level Shades to step on. Basic Dark Spell resistance applied.

Holy Healing- Staying in Temple Ground makes Kyros recover faster and defuses Dark maddening.

Holy Barrier- Creates a Holy Barrier. Defense Strength of Barrier increases as Temple Level increases. Shade Level 2 creatures can breach the barrier.

Carrier has Arrived!- Locked.

Holy Beam- Locked.

Library of the Light- Locked

Enlightenment Chamber- Locked

Holy Wave- Locked.

Holy Cow- Locked.

---

Kyros read it and immediately allowed himself to fall asleep.

"Kyros!

" Calaminus exclaimed.

But as he drew closer, he could see that Kyros was simply resting.

"I see. He was really doing his best to hold on. He realized he had nearly three days' worth and decided to rest. What is this place? I thought this temple was a seal?

" Calaminus wondered and moved over to look around. He peered outside and could see that within the darkness, a strange red light was glowing.

"That glow? What is that?

" Calaminus felt a strange foreboding at the light.

"I know I've felt that strange sensation before...

" Calaminus frowned.

The energy of darkness was steadily growing within the red orb.

"It seems that the Level of Shade will increase with that orb... Too bad it's too far. Kyros would have to make an effort to get there. But this is odd... This place. A holy Temple that grants powerful spells and even a library. And at the same time, it offers the Shade race as food for Kyros. Its as if this place is designed to teach Kyros how to walk the path of the Fallen through devouring and fighting, as is the way of the Fallen. And it also offers a place for meditation, purification, and enlightenment as is the way of the Gods!

"

Calaminus decided that he should try to access the temple info.

"Show Temple Info!

"

The hologram appeared overhead again.

---

¯_(ツ)_

----

"What the fragment?!

" Calaminus cursed.

"Who could have created this?

" Calaminus began to think which of the Ancient Gods loved his strange antics that they adopted their own.

"I can't access it, but what's with that joke? This is impossible! This couldn't have been created by one god! The materials used to create that pillar and seal was something made by the Fallen!

" Calaminus began to hover from one area of the temple to the other and began to analyze the materials used to explore more of this place's mystery.

Soon, Calaminus fell into an obsessive trance as he kept studying the temple. Calaminus was so absorbed in his study of the place that one day soon passed.

"Genius! This place is just genius! No wonder even gods can't find it! The arrays! The force fields! This place is just amazing! But where is it drawing its power from?

" Calaminus observed.

"Ugh...

" Kyros groaned.

"Kyros! You're finally awake! I didn't rudely interrupt you this time and let you have your beauty rest. Are you alright? Are you berserked?

" Calaminus moved and hovered over Kyros's lying body.

"Of course I'm alright. You know, if we disregard the fact that I just died, traveled back in time, and got electrocuted with strange magics for months and had to fight a horde of Shadow Ghouls... I'm peachy. You look great too. Up and about, I see...

"

"Wow... De-Joker must have placed quite a curse on you. You're already sarcastic. You're peachy, huh? So this is the new and improved Kyros... So first things first. Check your stats!

"

"My stats?

"

"No. Your mother! Call your mother! Of course, your stats!

"

"I don't know how! It's not like you taught me how to do it! Two years of time traveling, and you didn't tell me how to bring up my stats! I assumed only you could do it!

"

"You just will it! Think in your mind that you want to see your stats. You can also try saying 'stats' so that the readers will know that you're bringing it up. Otherwise, the author will just say something strange like 'and then Kyros willed his stats to appear.' We don't want that, do we?

"

"What?

"

"Just do it! Say stats!

"

"I don't want to say stats. It's too... plain. Display Character Profile. And set auto-response to say 'Character Profile Displayed on the execution of the command.

"

"Character Profile Displayed.

" A strange robotic voice echoed. It sounded like Kyros impersonating a thick Austrian-American voice that came from the future.

"Is that... Arnold?

" Calaminus marveled.

"I don't know... Who's Arnold?

"

"It's not Who's Arnold. It's Hey! Arnold. But I don't know who that Arnold is. It's something my other multi-dimensional incarnation knows. But how did you know his voice? Wait... is it because our souls have merged?

"

"Oh no! That's means I'm a weird and eccentric as you!

" Kyros made an ugly expression.

"Well... You can just ignore all these strange suggestions that pop in your head.

"

Kyros thought for a bit.

"You know what? It sounds good. I'm sticking to it. Now let me check my stats.

"

---

Kyros ????

Race: Nephilim

Soul Age: 16

Bone Age: 10

Mortal Level: 1

---

Strength- 50 (Sealed

/Cursed)

Magic- 0 (Sealed

/Cursed)

Dexterity- 247 (Sealed

/Cursed)

Vitality- 50 (Sealed

/Cursed)

Intelligence- Bruh... ( Sealed)

Soul Force- 0 (Sealed)

Ancient Source- 100 (Greatly Sealed)

Fallen Source- 100 ( Greatly Sealed)

---

Passive Skills:

Deviant Soul

Time Surge

Unlocked Time Perception

Time Resistance

Lightning Resistance

Greater Soul Resistance

Dark Consumer

Dark Wielder

---

Active Skills

/Spells:

Greater Soul Meditation

---

Active Seals:

Devil Bound

God Bound

Devil Snare

God Snare

Advanced Devil Sealing

Advanced God Sealing

Spirit Shackle

Shackling Light

Shackling Darkness

Success Limiter*

---

Active Curses:

Enfeeble

De-Might

De-Magic

De-Spacito

Force Lock

Magic Lock

Apathy of Fate*

Note:

392 days until Success Limiter becomes Life Limiter.

80 days until Apathy of Fate becomes Hated of Fate.

Kyros read it and wasn't sure what this meant. What he could discern was that his strength was stronger than what it was. In the past, he recalled his first strength test drew in a score of 46. This was already impressive for his state. But now, it had reached 50 and was something he acquired when he was at level 8.

His Magic stats were back to 0 just as it was. He never had magic, and it was only when he received the Celestial Code that he could wield magic. Force Lock was something new. He knew that his previous life began with him having difficulty using Force and his adoptive parents went to great lengths just to allow him to release Force.

"So I had a curse, and my parents found a way to bypass it?

" Kyros read. Then Kyros turned to the first peculiarity among many.

"Bruh?

" Kyros wondered.

"Calaminus... Is this stats any good?

"

"ANY GOOD!

"? Calaminus howled.

"MOTHER FRAGMENTING FIRMAMENT OF FICTITIOUS FRUITS!

" Calaminus roared so loud that Kyros's soul trembled.

"I'm guessing it's that good then.

" Kyros laughed.

"Good? These stats are literally god-shocking! Your soul is so strong that it weakened the god and devil seals! Look! The Trapper Seals for God and Devil became Snare! The Paramount Sealing became Advanced! Do you know what kind of strength it takes to weaken God and Devil seals?!

"

"Something strong, I guess. Why is my stat for intelligence just saying 'Bruh...'?

"

"I didn't expect you to be that smart! You see, unlike the other stats, intelligence is more difficult to quantify. So unlike the rest, which gauges the strength you carry, your physical endurance, how fast you can move and think, or even the amount of magic you can wield, intelligence and wisdom are more or less subjective. It consists of a lot of things. From memorization to mental acuity, problem-solving, and logic or that innate talent to simply understand things. So instead of that, the current stats your seeing is an intelligence format which compares it to me.

"

"To you?

"

"Well, the gods didn't have a standard for measuring intelligence as a whole. So they compared it to me, who was the god who designed this system. In the mortal world, most of the regular or lower regions even set Intelligence caps at 999 through the various tests that mortals give. It may increase depending on the knowledge and strength of the region you are in, but for gods, it was impossible. So for gods and fallen, that stat is N

/A since it is designed to rate human knowledge!

"Then why does it say, 'Bruh...'?

"

"Because! It... It means you've surpassed my intelligence.

" Calaminus was trying his best to answer calmly and not shove Kyros out to be fed to the Shadow Ghouls.