Blessing of the Seas

Bennett was immediately overwhelmed with emotions that were definitely not his. Confusion, joy, guilt were some of them, but as Luna seemed to take a breath, it was simply compressed down to what amounted to a mental “Thank You.”

___

You’ve been Bound to Luna by her Unique Skill Blessing of the Sea.

With this, you both have been given similar benefits, along with a few drawbacks.

Benefits: When either persons affected by Blessing of the Sea use a support/healing Skill, it will have an additional 50% effectiveness, applied over other Buffs and before Debuffs. You both also have limited Mental Communication, only able to send emotions to one another, though this can evolve over time. Along with this, you both gain a permanent 50% Damage Bonus and Skill effectiveness.

Drawbacks : When either of you is dealt Soul Damage, or fatal damage, you both will suffer.

Lean on You (Final Stand) : In certain situations, you can both support one another, increasing all Stat Effectiveness by 200%, Universal Damage by 100%, and Skill/Spell Effectiveness by 100%. This lasts for 1 minute, and once this is over, you will both be placed in a weakened state, setting all previously stated values to -50%, regardless of buffs.

This Bond lasts until one of you dies.

Current Bond Strength - 14%

Next Bond Ability at 20%

___

“Woah… I have next to no clue what some of this means, but you’re probably putting a lot of trust into me if you’re doing this, huh? Mental Communication, Soul Damage… Those are pretty serious things.”

Bennett felt what he could only describe as an affirmative that didn’t belong to him. He looked down at Luna, who seemed to be looking at her own notification, frowning.

Huh… There must be something else that I don’t know about Luna. I’ve never heard of a Soul Bond before. Though, it might be something more obscure.

Luna looked up at him curiously as he thought before sending a complicated string of emotions that he couldn’t understand, and was barely able to piece together part of, just knowing she was probably asking about something.

“Uh… I have no clue what that means,” he admitted, shrugging. “But sure?”

Luna blinked before looking into space, clearly thinking further on something. He watched her as she seemed to keep her thoughts from him, and he wondered if he could project his thoughts to her as well-

Affirmative.

“Wait, I am?”

She nodded, giving him a flat look. He noticed she had stopped crying, but refused to let him go, perfectly content with sitting on his lap. Bennett pulled up his System Time and sighed.

“It’s almost time for our first Combat class…” he mumbled. “Well, I guess we should get ready-”

Luna then suddenly panicked and, somehow, he understood as he heard the door to the dorm open, immediately activating Blood Dash and standing up while simultaneously pointing his finger to the wall across from him.

Deactivating it, he tried to shoot another Bolt, again failing as it exploded in front of him, possibly fueled a bit by his still being a bit taken aback by the notification. He managed to avoid getting himself hurt this time, though.

He then looked over to the door, seeing Yelena poke her head in. “You’re still blowing yourself up? Do I really have to teach my little brother this stuff?”

“First of all, I was born two minutes before you, so you’re the little sister. Secondly, I’m almost there. I just need a few more attempts-”

Luna sent him a mixture of disappointment and displeasure as she stared at him, obviously annoyed. He snorted and proceeded to almost blow his finger off again.

***

Luna wasn’t sure if she was supposed to feel relieved or concerned at this new turn of events. She knew she’d just made an irreversible decision solely based off the emotions her body was overloading her with, which was a bit infuriating, but something in her said that it would be good for the both of them.

However, the only thing that was currently refusing to get out of her head was Bennett’s promise.

Will he really take me wherever I want? I want to see the all the world and more, now that he mentioned it. It took me a while to really understand what I want here… but I think I know. It’s not necessarily what I would have originally did, but now that there’s a reason to, it’s really appealing, especially if Bennett and I can really see what this universe has to offer, good or bad.

She suddenly felt tiny explosions of excitement as Bennett yelled in victory, fist in the air.

“Yeah! It took nearly all of Lunch, but I finally got it! An actual spell, even if it meant nearly blowing my hand off a few times,” Bennett proudly said.

“Oh come on, you need to credit me as well,” Yelena interjected, hands on her hips. “You would have never gotten it without me… well, unless you blew your entire hand off.”

Bennett stared at her, debating something. “And of course the MVP, my little sister,” he responded smugly.

“Hey! I’m not little!” she complained.

Tyreese rolled his eyes. “Well, next to him, you kinda are…”

“So are you!”

“But not as little as Luna looks. She’s literally like a pea next to an apple when it comes to it.”

Bennett frowned at him while Mia sighed. “Where did you even get that analogy from?” she muttered.

Luna sent him a congratulatory emotion string, but he didn’t seem to notice it, self-satisfaction kind of already taken over his mind. Then, he suddenly frowned.

“Huh… weird. It… lists that I can combine it with two different Alignments. Lightning… and Blood. But…”

Yelena blinked in confusion. “You only have a Lightning Alignment.”

“Yeah, I know tha-” he suddenly stared in the air in befuddlement. “What… okay, you need to see this.”

Tyreese peered over Bennett’s shoulder as what looked like part of a status screen shined in front of him.

___

Status

Name : Bennett “Yasmine”

Race : Human

Class : None

HP : 100% | MP : 100%

Level : 2 | EXP : 23%

Alignment : Lightning / Blood (45%)

___

“The hell? How do you have two Alignments? Well, not two, since the other is clearly not even half baked, but almost?” Tyreese said. “And why is your last name in quotation marks?”

“My name has always been like that. But… when did this even appear? I haven’t seen it at all and I open my Status at least twice a day.”

Mia, who’d also peered over his shoulder, mumbled under her breath for a few moments. “I’d personally say it’s contesting gods… but there’s no Blood God. So, something else is up here. It only just appeared?”

“Yeah… wait, it may have something to do with the Spell,” Bennett mumbled. He thought for a moment, Luna feeling multiple emotions of concern passing through his mind before he settled on mild concern. “Maybe… when I developed my first Blood-based Skill, it was first added, but it was so negligible, the System didn’t show it. But, now that I have two Skills and a Spell that can use Blood, it’s finally large enough it’s relevant?”

Yelena nodded. “Could be. The System works in strange, albeit effective, ways.”

Luna wasn’t so sure of this. It could be that he’s always had Blood as a part of his alignment, even before his Lightning Alignment. This System probably thought now was the time to acknowledge it.

Surprise suddenly radiated from Bennett and he stood up quickly. “Crap, we’re going to be late to Combat; we’ve got five minutes!”

Tyreese’s face paled slightly as he scrambled, falling over from his sitting position, kicking the entire room into motion. Bennett lifted Luna from the ground and, after checking he had everything he needed, made a dash to the door, followed by the rest of their group.

~~~

“Oh… gods,” Tyreese muttered, breathing heavily.

“We barely made it,” Jennifer said, not as tired as him.

Luna, feeling slightly bad, gave the entire team some Revitalize, along with Yelena, who was already getting ready to leave to find her team.

“See ya, Lena,” Bennett mumbled, not tired in the slightest, as he’d simply used Blood Dash.

“Damn… red streak,” Tyreese muttered. “You seriously don’t get tired when doing that?”

“No… not really. I think it’s really not based on stamina at all, just HP.”

Mia, uncharacteristically, glared at Bennett. “Well, you shouldn’t just be spending HP willy nilly as if it’s in infinite supply.”

Bennett looked at Luna, who looked back at him, before they both looked at Mia, who muttered a few colorful words under her breath.

After this, Luna looked to the area around them, which seemed to be some sort of large area-like structure, filled with a dirt ground which was also filled with deep holes and gashes that looked pretty recent, as they seemed to be repairing themselves, re-filling themselves with dirt. She looked over to the entrance, then to the seven other teams who were in the arena with them.

One of the closer teams were-

“Bennett and Luna!” a very familiar voice said, along with the rapid sound of footsteps approaching them from behind.

Bennett didn’t even finish turning before he said, “Nice to see you again, Ulayla, even though we just saw you last class.”

As Ulayla slowed herself down, kicking up dust as she flapped her wings excitedly, she had her hands on her hips, looking proud of herself. Luna felt amusement radiate from Bennett, along with another strange one she wasn’t sure how to describe. Something like… caring.

“Yep! I didn’t think we’d have the same class! And-” she then sneezed as the dust she’d kicked up reached her nose. After shaking her head out she blinked at the two of them before looking back to the rest of their team. “Oh yeah, hi to you all, I guess…”

She does not care much for them, I guess, Luna thought, her thoughts reflected in Bennett’s emotions.

“Well, that’s mildly rude,” Tyreese muttered.

She ignored him, hopping closer to Bennett. “What do you think-”

Before she could finish, there was an explosive sound and she yelped, falling over and nearly knocking Bennett and Luna over… though, to be fair, that was probably because her wings nearly caught onto his shirt as he stumbled back slightly in surprise at the sound as well. However, she was probably too light for it to do much to him as he caught her and pushed her upright as she was too disoriented to do much else herself.

As this was happening, Luna watched a man stand up from the crater he’d made in the dirt from landing. He brushed off his heavy looking armor as his ears twitched-

Wait. He’s a Wolf-kin. A powerful one at that.

He then looked up at all of the students that were standing around him, giving them all an expressionless face, studying them.

At least I wore my dress. I, at some point, put it on. Actually, I think I put it on this morning. I’m pretty sure it gives me about half my Healing Effectiveness along with -20% MP Cost. I’m sure it can do more, but it’s probably locked away… how do I go about unlocking it?

The Wolf-kin finally then let out a very audible grunt. “Hmph. You all have… basic equipment, but some of you need weapons that are actually usable, especially that boy who makes daggers look like kitchen knives over there.”

Bennett tried to not react, but it was quite obvious who he was, since he was probably one of the tallest people there, ignoring the Minotaur. Internally, Luna could tell he was slightly nervous to be called out, but excited at the same time.

“Naturally, though, I have to test you, which shouldn’t be a problem, since you should be able to work well with your team… correct?”

There was no response from the rest of the class, who’d gone completely silent at his gaze. Bennett was both confident and worried, but Luna tried to send him reassuring feelings, while not being really sure herself. However, she thought that their team was… decent.

“I wonder what exactly he’s going to throw at us-” Tyreese started.

Suddenly, an angry looking bolt of Lightning crashed down next to the Combat professor before crossing her arms.

“You all will be fighting Reah Justyce, a Battlemage. You have ten minutes to prepare.”

Tyreese faltered. “Well, everyone but Bennett is completely and utterly fucked.”

Ulaylu paled slightly from next to Bennett. “Oh… I have to talk to my team about strategy… probably won’t matter though.”

As she dashed off, Mia sighed. “Well, I guess we should try to come up with some sort of plan as well. But, I think this is pretty much a lost cause.”

Luna looked up at Bennett, who seemed to already be thinking. Now, why would this Professor pit us against her? Luna thought.

***

This… is a far more difficult problem than I anticipated. We’re not even in the Scholar Level range yet and he’s putting us against someone who’s at least Level 50. What are we supposed to do? Bennett thought, struggling to think of anything that would be of use. I can react to her, especially now with Blood Dash, but that won’t last forever unless I think I can stay faster than her for the entire fight. I noticed that she did start to move faster as time went on when she fought me for literally no reason. If that speed keeps increasing, she could end up faster than I am eventually. And I can’t even attack her, since I have to cancel Blood Lightning to do that. But… what let me hit her before?

Wait… I hit her before because she was too busy taunting me. She thought she wasn’t going to get hit at all and was confident she would completely overpower me.

“I… have an idea. It might only let us get a hit or two on her, but I think it may earn us some favor from the Professor,” Bennett said confidently.

Luna looked up at him curiously and Tyreese raised an eyebrow.

“Well then, sir, give us your half baked plan- OW! DAMMIT, WOMAN, STOP HITTING ME!” Tyreese complained as Mia smacked him on the head with her spear once again.

She gave him an annoyed glare. “How about no?”

“You-!”

~~~

Ten minutes later, the bona-fide party was definitely not ready, but tried to pose themselves as such. Bennett felt a tinge of worry from Luna as she climbed onto his back like usual when there was a fight, but Bennet reassured her.

This only works if we somehow get into a perfect chain of events… or if a very not-likely mistake happens on her part. I just have to be bait, which should be easy enough-

“Start.”

BOOM.

Before Bennett realized what had happened, there was already a team completely down.

What-?!

Before they could even start, the team nearest to Reah was already down and Bennett saw the lightning wreathed body of her already starting to take down another team. Bennett then activated Blood Dash and everything came into focus.

Huh. It’s like she’s doing a light jog, but covered in a cloud of Lightning, Bennett thought as he watched her weave between the team she was dealing with, not even looking to even care much. Well, this should get her attention.

He threw the Bloodbolt at her, which, even in the momentary pause he’d taken to throw it and shift back, had nearly hit her in the face. Only a moment after he started blitzing towards her, she noticed, but way too late. The bolt smashed her in the side, and she slid nearly ten feet before she got her footing. She glared up at him.

“How the hell did I hit you with the exact same thing twice?” Bennett wondered aloud before internally cursing himself. “Oh shi-”

He then threw himself forward, out of the way of the spear, and began to run, a very angry electric porcupine (which gave him a very funny image in his head) pursuing him. Between Jennifer’s buff and his own speed, he was easily faster than her, but he was also the one who couldn’t really do much without exiting the speed boost. However, she was able to just toss bolts of lightning like some sort of goddess without having to slow down.

Thank the gods I’m able to charge lightning while in this state. Problem is, she has more Skills than me, He thought, watching the fast forming cloud over the arena. That thing is just going to blast lightning at me, isn’t it? That seems to be a trend when it comes to her.

He dodged multiple spears coming out of the ground, charged with electricity, then what looked like a wave of spears-

WHY IS IT ALL SPEARS? He complained. Is she just not using Spells? …Wait. Does she not know any Spells?

He canceled, tossed a charged bolt, and reentered, watching closely. Instead of using a shield Spell, she just absorbed it. He felt a little dumb, since it was a normal bolt, and instead threw another Bloodbolt after a second, and was proved right as she instead of using a shield, she just let it hit her, staggering her for a moment. It was then a pit of lava opened up beneath her.

Tyreese had his hands on the ground nearby, a bead of sweat on his face as a field of thorns began to spread from Mia’s feet, on the other side of the pit.

“Wha-”

He saw what looked like the anchor of Flicker fly from her hand and land next to him.

Gods, this better work, Bennett thought, unsheathing his daggers. He then dashed at the anchor before trying to cut through it. Unexpectedly, it shattered immediately. For a moment, there was dead silence.

“Idiot.”

Bennett, in a state of calmness, didn’t hesitate to immediately chop off 90% of his HP for a Bloodbolt.

Wait… I just had 205%... That means I just used 195%, nearly three times the normal damage-

However, the bolt effectively leapt from his hand and crashed directly into Reah with an explosion that nearly popped Bennett’s eardrums. He flew back, pulling Luna in front of him to keep her from getting dragged against the ground, scraping against the ground himself, quickly losing HP. Of course, Luna was able to heal him fully, but it was still painful nonetheless. Once he got back to his feet and Luna sent him a bit of worry before getting back onto his feet.

I know she’s just going to kick me into a wall, but at least I trie-

Bennett, with less than a second to react, grabbed Luna and pulled her in front of him before he was launched across the entire arena, smashing into a wall immediately causing him to black out.

Man… we never even got to finish our plan…

Bennett eventually woke up to Luna still in his arms, both of them slightly disoriented. As he slowly sat up, he noticed every other team, along with his, in shambles. His sister had somehow ended up in the stands and he could even see Tyreese half trapped in the ground, clearly having run into his own pit of lava. Even more surprisingly, Ulayla was hanging by a wingtip off the edge of the stands above him.

Please don’t fall yet, he mentally begged as he noticed her beginning to stir.

Naturally, as was his luck, he was face-first on the ground again, Luna next to him and a very disoriented Dragonborn laying on top of him, muttering something about being warm as he flinched at the feeling of claws clutching his back.

Luna, obviously confused, was emitting a multitude of emotions apparently trying to figure out what had just happened.

She must have been knocked unconscious too, though for way less time as she’s clearly far better off than me.

“Ulayla, could you please get off?” he mumbled.

She growled at him, half asleep and he took that as a very obvious no. He let out a breath of air, unsure what to do next.

Oh yeah. Flicker.

He promptly extracted himself from under him, letting her smack into the ground, waking her up entirely. She sat up in confusion and flapped her wings, nearly hitting Luna, who was slightly amused at the exchange.

“What? Where am I? I just had the best dream about tacos and cheese. Especially those cheddar cheese cubes. Those are deli-” She looked up and saw Bennett offering a hand to her. “Oh. Right. We just got beat up by a Bennett with a bad attitude and a serious kicking leg. And Multistrike. That hurt a lot, even if it was with a dull spear.”

She grabbed his hand and he pulled her off the ground, quite literally, as he had overestimated her weight and she nearly crashed directly into him. She managed to stabilize herself, but not after giving him a strange look.

Bennett shrugged. “You’re lighter than you look.”

She smiled toothily at him, hands on her hips in her normal fashion. “Thank you!”

Bennett then sighed. “I should probably go get sis now…”

***

After everyone collected themselves and… roughly reorganized, madam electric porcupine reappeared in the center of the arena, looking smug with herself. Luna felt a small bit of annoyance from Bennett at this, which was mirrored on his face in the form of a small bit of disdain.

“No need to look all proud of yourself,” Tyreese muttered, brushing off some dirt that was still on him after Juli, albeit reluctantly, extracted him from the ground. It was mildly surprising that she had an Earth Alignment, but apparently, people who didn’t look the part had what you would least expect. Like Luna technically being a goddess of mass destruction who had just faked being knocked out while not being hurt in the slightest. “This was literally a beatdown. I’m surprised… the water dragon girl even survived a kick, let alone two.”

Ulayla huffed. “Well, as part Dragon, I have a lot of everything. Endurance being one of them.”

“Like 22?”

“Why would I tell you?!”

Bennett cleared his throat, expectation and… something akin to uneasiness brewing in his mind. “Is it in the 20s though?”

Clearly as he expected, she let out a proud flap of her wings. “Yep!”

“Huh. That’s nice. My Endurance is my second lowest physical stat…”

She nodded. “I could see that. Very impressive. Her hits really hurt.”

Despair rang clear in his emotions and Luna patted his cheek as he sulked. “Yay…”

A few moments later, the Wolf-kin Professor landed next to Justyce, causing her to flinch and take a step back.

“Congratulations, you lost,” he said as he stood, crossing his arms. “Some of you were impressive, others… not so much. Of course, I expect you all, working together, to get her to at least bring out her Avatar to beat you all by the end of the year.”

“That’s expecting a bit much, isn’t it?”

“Is there not someone here who could make you do that if given the time to grow?”

“No,” Reah responded, far too quickly.

“Anyways,” the Combat Professor started. “I know why you all are here in the first place. To check out the arsenal of ‘special’ weapons, and most importantly, the fabled Blood Scythe, that has killed everyone who’s attempted to claim it… or at least drained them of most of their blood.”

Oh?

Interest sparked in Bennett’s mind. Luna was starting to realize that the Bond from Blessing of the Sea was less of emotion transfer than idea transfer. There was muttering from the entire class, but Luna noticed the short moment when the Professor looked at Bennett, his thoughts seeming a bit… transparent.

“Don’t touch it. Now that I have already warned you, if someone gets themselves killed, I can just put that they refused to follow directions. Now, follow me.”

A door, or more of a piece of the wall opened on the other side of the… coliseum, Luna guessed- as the man turned around and walked towards it. There was some confusion for a moment, but when Reah disappeared in a crack of lightning, the class spurred into motion.

Yelena, who still had a bit of a concussion, leaned against her brother. “Scythe, huh?” She muttered. “Blood? Sounds made for you, Benny. Just don’t turn into a Vampire and eat me m’kay?”

Bennett rolled his eyes, amused. “Of course not. I’d have self control and turn you into a Vampire as well.”

“Mmm.”

Bennett pulled his sister slightly closer and looked at Luna, who looked back at him.

Hm… he’s just trying to be nice. I’m sure he doesn’t know what Vampires do in their free time… Luna thought, a bit off put. Anyways, I know I don’t exactly need a weapon since my body is a weapon, my actual consciousness literally being just elemental energy… so much of it that if this body were to try and handle it, I would probably explode, level this solar system and a few hundred nearby, as well as probably break a few things that probably don’t want to be broken. And then I’d have to gather all the energy that scattered out, which shouldn’t take long, maybe a thousand years.

…Actually, that’s a bit terrifying. And I’m sure that’s just the best case scenario. There’s also the scenario that I’m underestimating how much energy is in my body and just end up turning half the universe into a giant ocean, with effectively a black hole in the center, acting as me sucking everything back up.

I mean, the fact I know this probably means it’s happened… once or twice. How?

Luna got a flurry of confused emotions from Bennett, snapping her out of her internal monologue. She was a bit surprised that her greater consciousness hadn’t woken at that, but she just looked up at Bennett, who gave her a baffled look, probably for the fact that her hair was shifting colors rapidly, looking like it had a mind of its own.

She poked her finger into his cheek and moved it around a few times while he stared at her, confused. Ulayla, once again suddenly speaking from nowhere, cut in.

“Do you know why your hair changes shades of blue like that?” she asked. “I know my eyes can change the shape of their pupils, but that’s just a ‘body made mostly of magic’ thing.”

Luna shrugged and Bennett looked a bit thoughtful. “Honestly,” he started. “I’m starting to think her body may not be as physical as I originally thought. I thought you’d be someone who could tell.”

Ulayla blinked. “Oh. I could. Hey, Luna, I’m just gonna…”

She reached for Luna’s head and put her hand on Luna’s forehead, who gave her a weird look. The Dragonborn’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she let go.

“What the… it’s like her body can’t decide if it should be physical or elemental. You could say she’s a stabilized bomb. It’s like she has the potential to just explode, but the requirements for it are so situational, that it most likely won’t happen. Also…” She looked between Bennett and Luna strangely before suddenly dropping the subject as the class entered a new room, every wall covered in well made and, some powerful looking, weapons.

Oh… Maybe I should get a weapon, if just to disassemble it and eat the weapon core.

“Oh my goodness, my mom would love to add all of this to her hoard,” Ulayla said, dashing forward, wings flapping excitedly.

What does she even mean by that? Wait, is she a pure Dragonborn? That… actually isn’t too surprising. It explains why she seems to have no clue what personal boundaries are…

Luna’s eyes locked onto a familiar-looking bloodred scythe hanging on a wall on the other side of the room. It seemed to shiver just slightly, as if it was alive, and the strange presence it seemed to emit made it seem like it was watching everything around it.

W-why is that familiar to me? Why am I… terrified of it? Luna thought, hardly noticing her hair turning a dark blue, almost black. What… is that? How did It get here? (I thought I destroyed it for good. It can’t be here. No.) No. (No.) No. (No.) No-

“Why? What did I do? Why do they hate me?” The voice from her nightmare whimpered.

“Luna? What’s wrong?” Bennett asked, pulling Cthulhu closer to him.

(Everything, boy. That thing should be destroyed. I don’t care what it takes.) Destroy. (I can’t let that thing exist any longer. I will-) Destroy it…

But… what if it can be tamed? A small voice in Cthulhu’s consciousness said, the only thing keeping her from ripping everything and everyone in the room apart, if only to destroy the Scythe. The small consciousness of a piece of her named Luna… by a boy it hardly knew, yet cared for.

(Explain, “Luna.”)

Bennett… he has a Blood Affinity… he could keep it from doing harm.

As the world seemed to fade, the only thing that was there was a large room, made in Cthulhu’s consciousness. With a woman and a child being the only occupants.

*???*

“Harm? You think I care about any being around this body right now? I could take over and kill this boy you seem to care so much about without a second thought. I might even enjoy it,” Cthulhu said, the woman’s face betraying the fact that she most definitely wouldn’t. Of course. The small version in the room didn’t see this, as it could barely understand its own emotions.

(No! Please don’t. Please. Please… don’t hurt him…) the small, emotional thing begged. (I… I…)

This piece of me… its emotions are only kept in check by my larger consciousness over-riding its instincts… it’s poetic, in a way. A Goddess like I, keeping something that shouldn’t even exist from doing things that she would normally never hesitate to do herself. “Hmph. You better give me a reason for not destroying everything then. You shouldn’t even exist, anyways, and I’m tolerating it for reasons I don’t even understand,” Cthulhu demanded, crossing her arms, her tentacles stretching further than the small body she inhabited ever could.

(You… won’t hurt him?)

“Answer me, thing.”

(Y-yes.) It seemed to think for a few moments, trying to come up with a reason. (He… he can contain it. I’m sure of it. If he can keep it within him, control it, keep it’s desires at bay, it shouldn’t be able to do harm to you.)

“I don’t think you even understand what you’re saying here. It could also, with equal chance, turn him into a bloodthirsty monster capable of ripping apart so many important things that keep other things running. Like, you know, my very soul?” What in the hells? Damn it, this stupid body is influencing how I speak. I should have destroyed it the moment I was able to. What is it with me and trying to show mercy to everyone around me. That’s why the System was able to banish me. Since I thought it was just some rogue Goddess who thought she was a bit shot. I completely underestimated it. I can’t do that again.

The “Luna” was silent, realizing what Cthulhu was saying was true. It curled up in a ball of despair and fear for the person it didn’t even know what it felt towards. It was a bit pathetic… yet understandable.

Oh, for the love of- “‘Luna,’” Cthulhu started, necessarily pitying the poor thing. “I’ll give your little theory a chance. If it turns out wrong and he becomes a monster, I’m taking over, killing him, and destroying that thing. I’ll crush you out of existence, or, if I decide to feel generous, let your meek little consciousness follow him to the afterlife. Do you understand? This doesn’t mean you get free reign though. Your emotions are far too dangerous to just release, especially if you don’t want to destroy your relationship with this boy. Just know that I could not care less about him.”

(R-really?)

“Listen to my words. Yes, really, you child.”

Joy blossomed in the face of ‘Luna’, the small, yet powerful young soul, born from… something that Cthulhu still needed to understand, as it slowly began to disappear, only slightly though. (Thank you!)

She… is just like me, when I was in my childhood, isn’t she? I can’t ruin it just yet, can I?

Cthulhu let out a groan. “Why am I so nice? It’s going to get me killed one day.”

*???*

Luna woke up, shaking her head rapidly. W-where am I? What happened? The Scythe?

“Hm?” the boy holding her looked down at her before smiling. “Oh, hey, Luna, you’re awake. You kinda just fell asleep earlier. I’m assuming you were just tired from all the healing you did for me. Sorry.”

Who… Bennett. Right, I remember now… wait, why is my face heating up again?! I thought that was over!

Luna looked away, not letting him see her face. On the other side of the room, there were some students staring up at the red Scythe hanging on the wall. Bennett followed her gaze, and as she looked back up at him, she saw a frown form.

“I… keep getting the feeling that that thing is watching me. I dunno why,” he muttered. He was conflicted, unsure what to do. “I don’t want to get too close… but I feel a bit attracted to it. Just the idea of a Scythe as a weapon… it seems somewhat right.”

Luna frowned. I need… him to bind himself to the Scythe. I don’t know why, but it's really important.

Luna looked at it thoughtfully before looking back at him and pointing at it. He tilted his head slightly before shrugging. “I guess checking it out won’t hurt. Plus, there’s some other Scythes overthere.

He made his way over towards the Scythe, passing Tyreese on the way, who looked at a shield a bit suspicious.

“Wonder if this can block the crazy girl’s spear…” he muttered.

They also passed Mia, who looked through the collection of spears with the most interested face that Luna had seen yet.

Once they arrived, Bennett looked at the red Scythe strangely. “Huh. Up close, it doesn’t look dangerous. But… I just have a feeling nobody should touch it.”

Luna wanted to urge him on, but she then saw someone else, a blonde haired boy, walk up to it.

“Look at it. It’s just a random Scythe. It can’t possibly kill me just by touching it,” he said smugly. “Just watch me claim the stupid thing.”

He walked up to it and Luna’s breath caught in her throat as he reached his hand out. Then his hand wrapped around the handle.

***

The moment the noble boy grabbed the handle, Bennett knew something was wrong.

“You need to let go,” Bennett said. “It’s-”

“Ha! Look at it! It’s completely lifeless! The rumors are false!” he laughed, pulling it off the wall.

It… stopped pulsating. Oh no-

The boy froze in place, looking at the Scythe in confusion as his friends cheered. “Wait-”

Bennett felt something shift before it happened. Suddenly, the entire Scythe began to writhe as it changed form, stabbing into the boy’s arm and looking like it tried to enter the noble’s bloodstream. The noble screamed as blood began to pour out of his arm.

Shit, I have to-

Bennett set Luna down without thinking before grabbing the still noticeable handle from the boy’s hand and struggling to rip the… thing off of him.

“Get… off!” the boy screamed. “It’s mine-”

“Shut up, dumbass!” Bennett hissed at him. “It’s killing you!”

Red Lightning crackled over Bennett’s skin as he pulled and the mass of red… metal of a sort, he guessed, froze in place, as if evaluating Bennett.

“...Mine.”

It then leapt at him. He tried to let go, but it was already trying to shove itself into his arm, blood flying everywhere. Bennett was in pain beyond anything he’d ever felt before, but tried not to scream as a voice repeated in his head the same thing over and over.

“Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine-”

I’m not-

“Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine-”

Stop-!

“Mine. Mine. Mine-”

Bennett growled, more lightning cracking over him. “I… am not… yours, you damn psychopath! Just let the fuck go!”

Bennett nearly ripped off the mass of solid blood, but it ripped even more holes into him.

What does it want?! Blood? A host? Why… is this really where I’m going to die? At the hands of a damn sentient weapon? Bennett could hear his sister screaming, getting closer. Wait… if Sis gets too close…

Panic exploded in his mind.

No. No no no. I can’t let her… she’ll die!

“Blood… kill… more…”

I’ll get you blood! As much as I can! Just stop trying to kill me!

“They all promised that… and couldn’t deliver.”

Bennett was completely taken aback it had responded, but kept persisting. What kind? I’ll do everything in my power to get it!

“...The strongest. All of it. Any of it. Blood. Feed me.”

Yes. Of course, I’ll do it! Just stop trying to eat mine!

“Contract. You… feed me blood. I serve you until satisfied.”

___

Maya is trying to establish a contract with you.

Contract conditions: Feed any type of blood to Maya, and she will serve you until satisfied. Preferably blood of strong beasts, but any will do. Human, Elf, Dragon, any. Feed her.

Requirements to Contract: Blood Affinity

Accept?

___

Yes! Just don’t hurt the people I don’t say you can!

___

Conditions Accepted.

You have established your first contract, earning you the Maya, the Red Scythe.

Beginning Assimilation.

When Assimilation is complete you will gain three new Skills.

! ERROR !

Blood Alignment not 100%!

! ERROR !

. . .

You have resonated with Blood, having earned Maya. Skills will be dispensed after Assimilation.

___

With what seemed like glee, Maya, the Scythe, plunged into his bloodstream and he felt the world grow dark.