Alex looked down at her hands and clenched them tightly, watching as her fingers pressed into her palm only for them to phase ever so slightly, like her body couldn't decide whether it was solid or not.
"Is there a way to get out of here?" Alex asked, turning slowly in place, her eyes scanning the endless expanse around her. The world felt vast, quiet, and strangely aware, as if it were watching her just as much as she was watching it.
"There is, but…" Rahzi began, their voice calm yet weighted.
Alex stopped mid-turn and locked eyes with them.
"But what?"
Rahzi exhaled softly. "You're going to be stuck here for a while, child."
"For a while? Why? What happened to me? Did I…Did I die? Is that why I look like a ghost? Are these my final mo—ouch!"
Rahzi flicked her forehead.
The moment their finger made contact. The sea trembled violently, waves crashing upward as if something enormous had stirred in its depths.
"Oooowww," Alex dropped instantly, clutching her head as a sharp pain radiated through her skull.
"Wait, why does that hurt a lot more than it should!" Alex shouted, still rubbing her forehead, her voice tinged with confusion and irritation.
"Calm down," Rahzi began, lowering themselves to her level. "Your body in the physical realm is severely damaged. The power you borrowed...it exceeded what your body could safely contain."
Before Alex could fire off another question, Rahzi gently pressed a finger against her lips.
"I'm currently healing your body as we speak, but it'll take about 3-4 weeks to get to your peak condition. Your soul veins, the special veins in your body that allow you to channel energy, are terribly inflamed and damaged with sin energy."
Rahzi lifted their hand and waved it lightly through the air.
The space before them distorted, unfolding into a translucent screen.
Alex's breath caught.
She saw herself lying still beneath a white, dome-like barrier, her chest rising and falling in slow, steady breaths. Beneath her skin, thick black veins pulsed unnaturally.
Her stomach twisted.
"Am I… going to be alright?" Alex said, full of worry, as she stared at herself.
"You're in good hands," Rahzi replied. "But, understand this. What you did was a calculated risk. A few moments longer, and you would have died. Or worse...lived without ever being able to channel energy again."
"I could've died?!" Alex yelled out.
Rahzi gave a small, almost tired look. "Of course. You are an Abyssling...who borrowed the power of a Harbringer."
"Abyssling? Harbinger?"
Rahzi nodded, "There are vast differences between ranks. To put it simply. If an Abyssling is a vessel capable of holding a small amount of sin energy, then a Harbinger is the equivalent of forcing an entire pool into the same vessel."
Rahzi paused briefly.
"You were a container on the verge of rupture."
Alex exhaled slowly, the weight of that finally settling in.
That power...it felt unreal.
For that brief moment, it was like everything bent to her will. Like reality itself was something she could shape if she just reached out far enough.
How long would it take her to reach that again without destroying myself?
Alex turned back toward Rahzi.
"Can you explain the rankings to me?" Alex asked. "I keep hearing the names, but I don't understand how it all fits together."
Rahzi smiled faintly.
"I could explain it," they said. "But it would be far more efficient to let your experience it."
A small sphere of white light formed at the tip of their finger, glowing softly.
Alex's eyes locked onto it as it drifted closer.
"Keep in mind...this is going to hurt briefly," Rahzi said, pressing their lips together in a thin line.
"Hurt? Wait, what...Ah," As I tried to ask what they meant by this was going to hurt, they tapped their finger on my forehead as the bead of light disappeared and got absorbed into my mind.
The pain didn't come all at once.
At first, it was just a dull pressure.
Then it grew.
And grew.
"Ahhhh fuck."
Alex's hands flew to my temples as a sharp ringing filled my ears. The pressure twisted into something unbearable, like heat building inside my skull with nowhere to escape.
Her vision blurred.
Then snapped.
Her eyes burned as they shifted, that familiar orange glow igniting as my demonic form surfaced instinctively.
She dropped to her knees from her prior squatting pose.
It felt like something was forcing its way into her mind, carving space where there wasn't any. Like her skull was being split open, filled, repaired...and broken again in a relentless cycle.
For a moment, she genuinely thought her mind was breaking.
Not hurting, but actually breaking.
Alex gripped her hair, pulling at it, desperate for something or anything to ground her. Alex's body trembled, her foot digging into the sand as if she could anchor herself to something real.
But there was no escape.
Then suddenly...it stopped.
The silence that followed felt just as loud.
Alex collapsed onto her back, chest rising rapidly as she stared upward, her vision slowly stabilizing.
"I see...so these are what the rankings are, huh." Alex took a moment to lie in the sand before sitting up and crossing her legs together.
"There are three tiers, six stages regarding sin mastery, and nine ranks in total," Alex began whispering to herself as she analyzed the information aloud.
"Each tier has a total of three ranks. The first tier is the cultivation of the body. In this tier, the ranks are Abyssling, Ravager, and Sin-Bound."
"The grading or staging system of sin mastery adds a nice touch. It's like a subcategory to each rank, huh."
Rahzi nodded their head, "That's correct."
Alex continued,
"These grades in order are: Fractured stage (1), Feral stage (2), Refined stage (3), Dominant stage (4), Ascendant stage (5), and Transcendant stage (6).
This is because some demons of the same rank tend to be stronger than their peers, so a Feral stage Abyssling would be stronger than a Fractured stage Abyssling."
This stage system fits well with the sin tracker.
Fractured = 0 -> 15 %
Feral = 16 -> 30%
Refined = 31 -> 50%
Dominant = 51 -> 70%
Ascendant = 71 -> 90%
Trascendent = 91 -> 99%
Rank Evolution = 100%
Alex frowned as she realized that the knowledge she received wasn't fully there.
"I know that the second tier deals with the Mind, and the third deals with the soul. I also seem to know the names of the ranks in their respective tiers, but not the details, unlike tier one. It's as if it's locked information that needs to be unlocked.
Rahzi nodded, unsurprised.
"That is because you have not reached that depth yet," they said calmly. "Knowledge of higher tiers is not given freely. It is something your soul must grow into."
"I see," Alex replied, nodding her head, and continued to analyze the information.
"So, tier two ranks are: Dreadmarked, Arch Shades, and Harbingers, who are sometimes called Dread Heralds. Finally, the last tier, tier three, ranks are: Sinlords, Voidborn (the rank of the Monarchs), and Sovereign."
Alex finally understood it now.
Not completely. But enough to know that these were the Tiers, Grades, and Ranks of the Nether Realm.