Maxi leaned forward as he gripped the edges of his chair. "Okay, how do we use our blessings, and how do they work?"
Tangen, who had been lying dramatically on the ground, suddenly sat up like a vampire rising from its grave. His small red stars swirled around him as he opened his eyes. With a smirk, he grabbed another piece of yellow chalk and began writing.
"Alright, in order for me to explain how blessings work, I have to explain the three ways you can get blessed," he said. "It seems like three is the gods' favorite number or something."
Maxi smirked as he thought. "Yeah, I noticed that too."
"But whatever, let's continue."
Tangen tapped the chalk against the board, listing them one by one.
"First, we have Permanent Blessings. These are usually given at birth. You don't get to choose whether you accept them or not. If a god decides to bless you, you're stuck with it for life. But there's a catch—you also have to take on a characteristic or personality traits of the god who blessed you because they want to view you as their child. If you refuse… well, let's just say the gods don't take disobedience lightly. Luckily, you get to choose which traits to adopt. But gods don't have many traits to begin with, so your options are limited as well."
Maxi frowned slightly. The idea of being bound to a god's will from birth didn't sit well with him.
"Second,"
Tangen continued,
"there's The Choice of Blessing. This happens if you've already awakened your blessing, and another god decides they want to bless you. This time, you do get a choice. You can either accept or deny it. If you accept, congratulations! You've got another god watching over you, expecting you to act like their favored child. If you don't obey them, well, the same thing will happen if you disobey your original gods—they'll punish you. If you refuse the blessing, nothing bad happens—well, except for the fact that the god might start hating you, depending on the situation."
Maxi raised an eyebrow at that.
"Sounds risky, but hold on—are you able to, like, hold off on their choice? Like, you don't choose immediately, or do you have to choose right there and then?"
Tengen shrugged. "I never really thought of that, nor have I ever had a god who wanted to bless me after I awakened my blessing, so I can't really answer your question. Maybe you should ask one of your siblings—they would know."
"No, thank," Maxi said as he thought.
"All of my siblings hate me, and plus, the only sibling that doesn't is only blessed by one god."
Tengen just grinned.
"Your siblings can't be that bad."
"Oh, you have no idea," Maxi sighed as he held the bridge of his nose.
Maxi remembered a time when he was a baby. His mom had just him down for a second to go do something.
He was sat on floating vains his mother had ether conjured or created; he didn't quite know.
There was an aura around the vains. Shining stars twinked like the midnight stars. It even made sounds of soft-sounding giggling Bells.
The intent of his mother's magic was clear. It was ment to soothe him into sleep so he would cry anymore.
But lucky for Maxi's mother, even if her magic didn't work, he wouldn't cry anyway. He had some self control, even though it was restricted to one task at the time.
So Maxi just watched the stars twink as they seemingly giggled.
He placed in a fearly empty room. It had some furniture, but they were arranged in such a way that it gave the room a sense of uselessness.
Chair placed awkwardly, tables against walls.
Overall, it gave the impression this room was still in the mist of being put together. There wasn't dust or dirt anywhere, and the walls and floor were clean, so it was clean. Infact, it was spotless.
Maxi noticed all this things too.
Why? Because there was nothing else for him to do but notice this little details and look at the stars.
But otherwise, everything was normal. Time passed.
A few minutes later, Maxi heard foot steps.
Which told him another thing: this walls were thin.
Maxi even begin to hear clear voices having a conversation.
Which told Maxi that this walls were very thin.
It seemed to give another reason why his mother casted those stars to make him fall asleep despite the fact he was in a whole separate room.
Maxi heard the voices as they passed by. One seemed to be flat and feminine, and the one seem to be more flat and masculine, but both voices were young and undeveloped by the sound of thier tones.
The female voice said, "Yep, that sucks."
The male voice sighed with frustration. "This is the second time that acidic bastard broke into our castle and pluse he destroyed half of it, including our rooms. Now where are we suppost to sleep?"
"Your so over dramatic. We have magic. We could away just find a magic scroll all about sleeping," the female said as the sound of flesh being slapped echoed through the walls.
The male voice didn't even react to the sound made before, making it seem insignificance. "Okay, but what lunatic would purposely develop thier magic so it help them sleep?"
"Hy, alot of mages are lunatics, so-"
"Thats because alot of mages are female," the male voice said, cut her off.
An explosion rang out immediately after the male voice sentence. It wasn't not a big explosion, but it also wasn't a small either, clearly seen by the way the walls shook.
The make voice screamed, "AWWW!!!"
The female voice then continued, "As i was saying, alot of mages are lunatic, so you have no idea what you might find."
Maxi chuckled at the conversation as he listened more closely.
The male voice scream died down to a groan as he said, "Anyway, that doesn't answer my question. I asked were are we going to sleep, not how."
"Oh, I didn't answer the question because i thought it was obvious. We are going to be sleeping at the shining match kingdom," she said.
"Yeah, I know it's obvious, but still answer the question anyway. I asked for a reason."
The she curiously asked, "And what reason would that be?"
He sounded perplexed as it said, "To being the conversation over to kingdoms, of course. Who in the first spiraling hell is your social interaction teacher?"
"I don't have one."
"Well, you need one. Anyways, as i was trying to trying to make you say, we will probably be staying in the shining wish kingdom a while," he said.
"No, we won't. With the help of magic, our rooms will be back in no time. Also, isn't it shining match kingdom?" she said.
He sighed. "I have no idea anymore. They keep on changing the name. I think it's because thier signature god changed, so now I am guessing thier trying fight over whether to keep thier old names, which was in respect of thier old God, or to change it to respect thier new one."
She went quite for a while before she said, "Yeah, that makes sense."
He sighed. "And on the other point you asked, no, it will not be fixed quickly because the acidic that man used is special. It's apart of his blessing powers and has anti magic properties naturally. And ontop of that, it has this plague like affect that makes infect anything around it, and it also spread, so thats what we are dealing with."
She gasped in shock. "I wasn't never told that. What if it gets on your skin? Would that mean you-"
He nods. "But that even the scariest thing."
"If that isn't the scariest thing, then what is?" she asked.
"The fact that father couldn't even win. That man didn't bleed when wounds were open. There was no blood to be seen, only corrosive, bubbling, acid."
"And it wasn't just regular Acidia. No, it didn't just melt away our flesh, it melted away our spells. It melted away our flames.
It melted away our Frost.
It even melted away our wishes. It seemed impossible to beat him."
"And to think i was only told he broke in and destroyed a bunch of stuff." She sighed. "So how did we end up beat him if he melted away all our attacks?"
He clicked his finger in fastration. "Thats the thing, we didn't."
"What?" She exclaimed.
He continued, "Yeah, father and that man made a compromise. We had to keep our reputation in tack, so father asked what the man wanted. He said he wanted to be undisturbed."
"He appearntly is the leader of a syndicate called Acidia's Heart, and they in the future they would be doing some thing that would affect us in someway or another, but he said it wouldn't be enough to cause us to act with haste or to panic, just something that would cause a minor inconvenience. So he asked us to ignore it, so after Father agreed, he left."
She sounded confused as she asked, "Wait, was that the whole reason he came to attack us?"
"Yeah, basically. It kinda makes sense. Our family does have a no nonsense tolerance due to our history of letting small problems build up like a forest fire. So after a few too many of those happening, we ended up like this, not letting never leaving a small issue unchecked because later will come and check."
"Dang it," she said as she snapped her fingers.
Maxi couldn't see it, but he had an intuition that the person with the male voice probably nodded.
She sighed. "If only the eldest sibling,
The First born,
And
The Strongest,
Harikisha BloodHeart,
Was here, he would have defeated that guy for sure."
"The Sovereign of peace."
The male voice chuckled.
"On Abitha the great's soul, he would have won. Unfortunately, he wasn't here, and I don't think his coming back here as long as his mother is here."
She banged her fist on the wall as she wined, "Why did they have to fight? I loved Elder brother Harikisha. He even let me draw on his armor."
He chuckled slightly. "He let everyone draw on his armor, such a family man, and his also over protective."
Maxi heard jumps of excitement as the she said, "Yeah, I know. His so cool as well. I love how father Rules become optional or completely obsolete as long as he is here."
He said, "Yeah, thats our eldest brother, our night in midnight armor."
She laughed. "Also, have you heard the news about Techxin?"
"Yeah, apparently he become the king of vampires at another planet by killing thier Vermilion Sovereign," he said.
"Yeah, isnt it so exciting? And those vampire are really hard to kill too. They especially since they just need to be near you to kill you. It must have been a tedious and annoying fight," she said.
"Yeah, for sure, but at least he won."
"Our family is so cool. Wait, isn't there other recent news?" she said.
The two siblings stop talking for a few seconds before the male sibling said, "Oh yeah, don't we have a new sibling that was born a few weeks ago?"
"Yeah, we do, and isn't he a illegitimate bastered?"
"Yeah, apparently father cheated on all his wifes inclusding our mom with his personal maid," he said.
She sighed. "Aaaaaa classic men."
An explosion rang out. It sounded like lightning hitting an iron rod.
She screamed, "AWWW."
"Anyway, have you seen him? Because I haven't," he said.
The girls scream dieded down to a groan as she said, "Nope, I haven't. Have you?"
"Nope."
"Want to go see him?" she said.
"Nope, but your going to force me to do it anyway, so may as well," he said.
She giggled. "Yeah, so where is he?"
"Let me check," he said.
Maxi then heard the distinct sound of a match stick being light.
A light match then appeared infrount of Maxi, hovering right infrount of him, glowing a bright yellow and white light. It wasn't too different from the stars, but it had a distinct magical, whimsical, and almost fable like wonder to it.
Maxi then heard the foot steps of the two voices stop.
Maxi heard them both turn, presumably in his direction.
The male voice chuckled. "Hy, you wouldn't believe it. His right here."
She said, "Oh really? What a coincidence. I guess fate really wanted us to meet. Lets go see the little girl or guy."
He said, "Wait, since we don't know weather its a boy or girl, how about we scare the little guy and deeping on his reaction we guess which it is?"
"Really? Scaring the baby? Is that the best you coould come up with?" She said.
A smirk of malician was tinted his voice as he said, "Yeah. Why, do not want to join?"
The she seems to go quiet with thought. "No. But I guess I will help him to see if he has something critical thought."
Then he chuckled with glee. "Then lets start."
Maxi couldn't fully pay attention to what the voices where saying. The fable like wonder of the match had activated something within his baby brain that made it impossible for him to ignore it.
He was only bearly able to hear the last words, "Lets start."
Which the info was rendered useless due to him just being born and not understanding the language.
The room maxi was then planged in darkness.
Even the twinkling of his star deemed as they slowly stopped appearing completely.
Leaving the only light in the room the match.
Maxi eyes widen as he realized the peculiar situation he was in.
Maxi tryed to get up to the best of his ability.
He could. Suppringly, he could get up easily. This usally wasn't the case since he was a baby, and he really didn't have a sense of balance, nore did he have the time to find it since he was carried all the time.
Maxi found himself not standing on Vines but on cold with tiles. He tried looking around, but he couldn't see anything. Everything was blacked out except for the things cought in the elimination of the patch.
Maxi scratched his head as he thought, "It seems like I my have fallen asleep or something kind of magical shenanigans my be happening. It may have been the couse of those two. I mean, this match is still here, so they at least played a part in it. Because as soon as the match appeared, i did hear thier foot steps stop, so maybe this match made me fallasleep, but why would they want to do that?"
The match was gone.
By the time maxi notice it, it was already a dot in the horizon.
Before he could have time to think, he felt it.
A warm breeze sweep past the top of his head.
It was humid.
It was predatory.
It was dangerous.
And it was very much alive.
"It's big, bigger then me," Maxi managed to calculate due to the direction of the breath.
Maxi narrow his opposition down to two in quick succession.
"Run or punch it in the nose, then run."
Just running could be disadvantages. He just started walking. Running would be out of the question in any other scenario, but now he has no choice. He would forced to. The lickly hood of him tripping would be high. That wasn't even a question, it nearly guaranteed, so that also would guarantee this thing a more likely chance of catching him.
Punching it in the nose that my disorient it for a moment, giving him a head start to run, but Maxi had weak baby hands, so the lickly hood of him punch it and doing nothing but waste time is high as well.
Maxi had no time evaluate anymore, so he chose.
His fist swing back as he jumped in the air.
He made contact.
And putting his whole body into the attack, he bounced off the thing and got lunched forward.
Maxi then got up immediately.
"Ether options were bad, but in the case of running, he would cought later, but with Punching he would be cought instantly if he fails. So maxi choose punching because worse case scenario he did not want to prolong his second death, and on the pluse side at least he would go out swinging."
Click.
Clack.
The thing seemed to have actually taken damage.
That wad good news.
Maxi immediately got up, making sure not to trip before he starting running for his life.
Where was Maxi running to?
Well, to the only thing that was familiar.
The light of the match.
So He ran like he never ran before because he never did run before.
Not until now.
Buff.
The sound of the things exhaling boomed through like a wave of sound.
It didn't scream.
There was no war cry, no thre was no anguist scream, just.
Silence.
Then.
GUD!
GUD!!
GUD!!!
GUD!!!!
GUD!!!!!
GUD!!!!!!!
Six distance step, each one timed differently, each one metting the ground separately.
"Oh no, this thing has six legs."
Is thought that crossed Maxi's mind immediately.
"Then this thing must be really fast."
As the thoughts crossed his head, he went faster to the point of instability. He felt as if he could trip at any second.
But even as he felt the inevitability of his fall, he also heard the quickening steps of the Thing.
Which let him no choice but to go even faster.
But maxi saw the match as well. It got closer and closer, it's light becoming brighter and brighter.
It illuminated this path to safety, but also showed him his pending failure.
And it happened.
His leg got in the way of his other, his stride was wide, his momentum too fast.
All this and more where the reason for his downfall.
Maxi couldn't even brace for impact. His face hit the ground first, his back followed soon after.
He rolled and cracked across the ground with a brutal pace.
The world span in disorientating shades of black and white.
As soon as maxi stopped spinning, he slowly got up, suppressing his natrual urge to scream and cry.
He instead focused on other pressing matters as he thought, "The tripping may have helped a little with getting further, but it's not worth the pain. My ears are ringing, and my head feels like it's on fire, and I don't even know how close the thing is from me now, and I also don't know how far the mat-"
Maxi's mind stopped as he suddenly thought.
"Wait, I saw white when I was spinning, and my head feels like it is on fire... this thought may be irrational from disorientation, but I think-"
Maxi took the risk of looking up instead of dragging himself forward to keep on running. He wanted to confirm it wasn't just hysteria or disorientation, even though all the evidence pointed to it.
He had just hit his head, of course his head would feel like it's hot. The light was in the distance, of course it would be in his vision when he fell. He was in fear, of course he would come up with something to fool himself into a false sense of safety.
But at this point, he didn't think about the logic. He was in too much pain to do so, so he just did.
Maxi looked up.
And he saw.
His suspicion was right.
He turned and saw it, the match.
Maxi's eyes widened in wonder.
That fable-like flame lighting the way to lands never seen before, leading the way to adventures never experienced before, giving hope to dreams never achieved before.
Maxi, in a trance, slowly reached up for the match.
He didn't even notice as the thing got closer and closer.
He didn't notice how it snapped open its crocodile-like maw, showing its jagged teeth.
No.
But what he did notice was the sudden loss of gravity.
It was as if gravity stopped working or as if the floor was gone.
One of those was true, and it was the latter.
That thing fell first. It was heavier after all.
Maxi was second. He was broken out of his trance as soon as he felt his heart drop from the suddenness of the fall.
He was still reaching out, but just as he fully extended, it was out of reach.
Maxi's eyes went hollow with shock as the light grew more distant.
The wind blew past the follicles of his hair as he fell.
"I failed."
Was the last thought Maxi had.
The thing, seeing Maxi in its range, opened its mouth as it dived directly below him.
Its body swam in the air like a lizard underwater.
And as Maxi got in, it snapped its jaws shut.
Maxi saw as he was slowly enclosed in a lighter, warmer shade of darkness.
He knew it was dangerous, but he was still paralyzed, stuck in the motion of reaching up towards the light.
Maxi was eaten.
"Girl, too much of a scaredy-cat," he said.
"I also guess girl, but only because I thought she was very smart and tactical," she said.
He opened his eyes.
And saw two individuals standing in front of him.
A girl with brown hair, with different drawings of flying animals dotted around her hair in black. She had blood-red eyes, a light copper-like skin tone, a short nose, and a short forehead which was covered by her bangs, while the rest of her medium-sized hair framed her adorable face.
She had a wide grin on her face as she waved excitedly.
Leaning on her shoulder was a boy with black hair and a brown, sea wave-like pattern that went around his hair. His eyes were blood red as well, and similar to the girl, he had a copper skin tone, freckles, a short nose, and a short forehead. He had a clean lineup of curly hair that framed his face, with the rest of his hair being combed back.
He smirked the iconic BloodHeart smile as he looked down at Maxi.
"Looks like we both were wrong," he said.
Then she nodded as she started to speak in a baby voice. "Hy little guy, nice to meet you. I am Zheva, and this is Alkileva. We are your big sister and brother."
Maxi was silent for a while before the emotions that he had suppressed started to bubble up inside him as tears started to form.
Alkileva said, "Oh no, looks like he's about to cry."
Zheva started to panic as she started to walk around. "Oh no, what do we do?"
Alkileva shrugged as he started to laugh.
Maxi then burst out crying.
Alkileva laughed as Zheva punched his shoulder. "Stop laughing and help."
Then they all heard the voice of a woman say, "MAXIIIIIIII!!!!!!! ARE YOU OKEY?!"
Alkileva managed to stop laughing for a moment. "So Maxi is his name. Pretty cool name... I guess we will be seeing him around sometime."
Alkileva then grabbed Zheva's shoulder as he got his last few laughs in before he gave Maxi a devilish smile.
"Get strong, Maxi. This world isn't kind to those who are weak, especially mentally. So consider this a warm welcome from your brother and sister to the world you just got born into."
Their heads then lit on fire, and the fire in quick succession traveled down their bodies.
But as soon as the fire traveled down and left their heads, their heads turned into ash and disappeared. This proceeded to happen with the rest until the fire eventually reached their feet as their bodies disappeared.
SNAP
Maxi shook his head.
Tengen was in front of him.
"You spaced out on me, kid, and your eyes flashed green," Tengen said as he shook his head.
"Oh sorry, I didn't mean to.... wait, my eyes what?" Maxi said, surprised.
Tengen waved Maxi off. "Doesn't matter. Let's just get this over with. Where was I?"
Maxi said, "The third type."
Tengen said, "Oh yeah, as I was saying-"
"The third type is Non-Permanent Blessings. These are temporary. A god might bless you for a specific moment or a set period of time, and after that, poof—it's gone. No long-term obligations, no divine expectations."
Maxi nodded, processing the information. Then something caught his attention.
"Wait… you mentioned 'awakened blessings' earlier. What does that mean?"
Tangen chuckled.
"Ah, I figured you didn't know about that yet."
Maxi smirked.
"That's why I have you, human book—uh, I mean, teacher."
Tangen raised an eyebrow but let it slide. He was too lazy to scold Maxi for that ridiculous nickname.
Instead, he extended his right hand, the one wrapped in purple bandages. Instantly, thousands of tiny red stars flickered into existence in his palm.
"This,"
Tangen said,
"is my awakened blessing power, or blessing, or blessing powers for short. See, when you awaken your blessing, you unlock its true form that was given to you by your god. It manifests based on the gods who blessed you at birth. Their influence shapes what your power becomes, sometimes in subtle ways, sometimes in massive ways, but overall, they don't change the main function of your blessing powers because the main function is decided by you, or it depends on you. The power you receive is formed with your strengths and weaknesses in mind."
Maxi's eyes lit up with excitement.
"So… my blessing will take my abilities into consideration?"
Tengen raised an eyebrow.
Maxi sighed. "So my blessing will adapt to my fighting style and the fact I am weak and fragile."
"Exactly," Tengen smirked.
Maxi's mind raced. If his abilities and weaknesses were factors, then maybe—just maybe—his body's frailty wouldn't be such a problem.
"How do I awaken my blessing? Do I have to reach a certain age? Drink a potion? Fight a monster? Nearly die?"
Tangen burst out laughing, shaking his head.
"No, no. We do a ritual when children turn five years old. The process is performed by a mage who has been given the blessing to perform the ritual—not the blessing of the Oldest Gods themselves, just a temporary blessing granting permission to carry out the ceremony."
Maxi's entire body froze.
Five years old.
His body was five years old. His mind was… complicated. He had memories of being older—at least twenty. But that wasn't the issue. His birthday had already passed. Months ago, in fact. And yet, he hadn't heard a single word about a blessing awakening ceremony.
Tangen noticed his expression and chuckled. "You're confused, aren't you? You're five, but there's not a single rumor about a mage performing the ritual for you. That's because…" Tangen leaned in slightly, grinning. "Your father said you were too weak. He ordered them to wait until you turned ten."
Maxi's jaw dropped. A cold fury rose within him as his hands clenched the armrests. His veins bulged from the sheer force of his grip. His own father had delayed his blessing awakening.
Before he could process his rage, Tangen hopped off the table and strolled over to him. Leaning in close, he whispered,
"You didn't hear this from me, but I overheard your mother talking to your father about it first. She was the one who suggested it."
Maxi's world stopped.
His anger drained away, leaving him feeling hollow and empty. He tried to speak, but his voice came out weak.
"...What?"