Beyond reasonable doubt, Phei could not think about the One Above's gift in any way other than as a thing born of foresight. Of some variety. Of some sort, really — because nothing else accounted for it.
One had to remember the sequence. He'd received this gift, been meant to receive it, in the immediate aftermath of his awakening. In their own words, the One Above had told him they'd left him something before he departed the void — and at that point Phei hadn't even awakened his Void-Ice powers.
Only his stats, those obscene, ledger-breaking stats.
It was not even an exaggeration to say the One Above's decision to release him rather than unmake him was the very reason he'd awakened as early as he had.
It had been a reward. Like Eira. A reward for the squalid little achievement of surviving:
That was how diabolical it ran.
'Not that I will ever thank the bastard... I am not grateful at all.'
