[Eternal Skill Theft]
The blue fire changed colour, turning into five red orbs that floated before Gerhard.
[Essence of the Warp]
[Essence of Daemonic Will]
[Essence of Battle Hardened Soul]
[Essence of Corruption]
[Essence of Malice]
The figure of Sera changed and receded, changing back to her human form.
"What?!"
This was the effect of the skill Gerhard had created after long months of research against Genestealer infestation. He hypothesised that it might work against Chaos corruption as well, but until now, he had no idea whether it would.
This had been a test and a dangerous one at that. Sera could have died, but in the end, that would have been better than her being possessed.
Eternal Skill Theft (Active) Lv. 2
| EXP: 50.94%
| Through magic and special methods, you can take away someone's power and skills. It only requires the target to be bound and unable to move, as well as you to be more powerful. When the process is successful, you'll obtain the person's power and mana in the shape of an orb.
| Eating it will allow you to obtain their skills and powers. The target will become an ordinary human without any skills or powers.
Warning:
| The process can permanently harm or kill the individual it is used on, depending on how the skills and powers are tied to the individual's existence.
| The Gamer needs to have higher INT than the individual it is used on.
---
This was a ridiculous skill and went so hard against the galaxy's rules that the Ruinous Powers would send all their armies after Gerhard if they knew about it.
Gerhard had turned the daemonic possession into an orb, robbed the body, in this case Sera, of it and returned her to a human again. However, if the possession of the daemon had happened long ago, or if the willpower of the human was too weak, the skill would indeed kill the human.
Still, he had basically created a way to cure possession and even the Genestealer genetic effects. With this, he was now more dangerous than the Emperor.
And if not more, then at least equally dangerous.
He had turned a daemon into food that could enhance him and cure the person.
...
"Urgh... I fucking hate flying..."
Sera groaned on the ground as she opened her eyes.
"What... happened?" she asked.
"You were possessed. I managed to cure you," Gerhard explained, like telling her the weather.
Sera looked at him with a deadpan expression. Cure possession wasn't a thing. That didn't exist. What an idiot, she thought.
She tried to get up, but felt extremely weak.
"What is going on with my body? An aftereffect of the purification?" she asked.
"Not really. You are now a normal human, without any of the skills and abilities you had before. And it wasn't really purification."
"What?!"
"It was necessary to save you. Do you have any idea how groundbreaking this is? Death is the only other option otherwise. Besides, you don't need to worry. I got your skills right here."
[Essence of Battle-hardened Soul]
|Grade: Adept
Description:
|The combined willpower and combat experience of a warrior who resisted possession until the end and fought for her entire life.
Effects (Consumption):
|Temporarily grants:
| -> Enhanced combat instincts and reaction speed
|Permanently:
| +15 STR
| +15 VIT
| +10 DEX
| +10% damage against Chaos/daemonic entities
Special:
|If consumed by someone who knows the skill:
| → boosts combat-related skills permanently.
---
"Here. Eat this, you'll regain your skills and abilities," Gerhard said.
"Huh? Have you lost your mi-- Right, it's you we're talking about."
"Lord, are you sure this is a good idea?" Lencillus intervened. "I admit, seeing what you did... I have no words to describe it, but... won't her taking it reverse the process?"
"There is no need to worry. This orb contains all of her abilities and skills, nothing else. Taking it will get you back to where you were before. There is, however, another option."
Sera narrowed her eyes. And even the Sisters of Silence, who were just as shocked as Lencillus, were sceptical. Was there truly more Gerhard could do to surprise them further?
As it turned out, there was.
"The rough maximum for a normal, non-enhanced human is around the strength you had before. Now that you are back to an untrained noob, you could train yourself back into shape," Gerhard said, smiling like an idiot.
"Why would I do that? I am feeling so weak! I want my previous strength back!"
"I understand, but think about it. If you train back your previous strength, and then take the orb, you will be able to become stronger than the theoretical max a non-enhanced human can achieve."
...
"Are you fucking serious?"
"Indubitably."
The idea seemed logical until you thought about what they were even talking about. It was so easy to lose oneself in the logic of Gerhard, who was the Gamer. Because he was the Gamer, he had the power to affect those around him, which made something as what he just suggested possible.
"Haaahh... fine, let's do it."
"That's the spirit."
'I don't want to disrupt your delusions, but what are we going to do about the Cadamara?' Hestia asked.
"I'm going to assemble my voidship again, and we'll transport everyone who is still alive onto that."
'Good.'
'I'll inform the Captain,' Aleya said.
.
"What?! You want to go back in there?" Slovo shouted.
Gerhard had just informed him and Captain Erefan about their plans to transfer everyone to another ship and then continue on their way.
"What's the problem, Navigator?" Lencillus asked.
Several minutes later, Gerhard, Lencillus, the Sisters of Silence, Sera and Hans were sitting opposite Slovo in one of the ship's lead-lined interrogation chambers, with Captain Erefan present too. They sat around a bolted-down table, trying to ignore the stench emanating from everyone.
"I couldn't believe it," Slovo started, his eyes flickering between Erefan, whom he was most comfortable with, just after Gerhard and the others. He had calmed down a lot, but was still anxious about their reality.
"I don't even know how to describe it."
"Try, please," Erefan said sourly.
The Captain had done well considering he had stood in the presence of a Lord of Change and was still breathing. Naturally, that was thanks to Gerhard, but it was still impressive, nonetheless.
Slovo drew in a long breath, trying to steel his nerves.
"The Warp's growing," he said.
The Sistes of Silence didn't understand how that could be possible. The Warp, they had always been told, was a mirror of reality – the one was the size of the other. Or so they thought.
Lencillus was different in that matter. He understood the truth of the Warp more, as he had been a personal guardian of the Emperor when he had still walked among them. But the notion was still strange for him.
"You might be describing it wrong, Navigator. The Warp itself isn't growing; its influence on realspace is spilling over and growing," Gerhard said. "A great rift has formed, and is still going on, dividing the entire galaxy, while half of it, now, is plunged into the darkness, without being able to see the Astronomicon."
"Yes. It's very, very bad,' Slovo went on. "I was watching it happen – tearing space like a sheet of paper. We were heading right down the fault line. It blew the outer aegis. I could hear them. Throne, I could hear them."
Slovo held his head in pain as he remembered what he had seen. Gerhard had also seen it, but wasn't affected as much, since he had Gamer's Mind.
"Can't you always hear them?" Erefan asked.
"Not like this."
Slovo looked up at Gerhard, then at Lencillus, and finally at the Sisters of Silence.
"They knew you were here. They were smashing up against the hull to get to you four and to you, Lord Gerhard. There were hundreds of them, thousands..."
He shook his head.
"We should have dropped out of it. Now, the ship's destroyed."
"That part is accurate, I believe. All of our scanners indicate that we won't be making it anywhere any time soon," Erefan said.
'What shall we do then? How will we go to Macragge?' Aleya asked.
"What is the state of the Warp drive and the Geller Field, Captain?" Lencillus asked.
Erefan turned to the Eye of the Emperor and spoke reverently.
"The Geller array's in a very bad state, practically unusable," he said. "We have a lot of burned-out relays, and the Warp drive was forcefully cut off from getting us out of the Warp. It'll take a while to repower it and repair all of the damage, even to get us moving through realspace."
"What say you, Hans?" Gerhard asked.
> Much of the same, Master. The plasma reactor has been damaged, and I needed to destroy parts of it due to spreading corruption. The remaining one won't get us far and will be very slow. I suggest we take the ship you created. The crew has shrunk considerably, so it would work.
Hans had a morbid sense of humour, or so the others thought. It was true that the crew had shrunk. Erefan and Slovo were the only remaining crew members.
'What exactly happened?" Hestia asked. 'How did such a phenomenon take place? What do you mean by 'Great Rift'?'
Slovo seemed to understand the idea behind Hestia's Thoughmark and continued to explain, before Gerhard could.
"It's like… a rift, as Lord Gerhard said,' his voice was full of foreboding. "A crack. A canyon, through everything. And it's growing."
"I still don't know what that means," said Erefan.
Slovo barked a hoarse laugh.
"I don't know either, Captain. I'm trying to make sense of what I saw."
He pressed his hands together, trying to stop them shaking. He was completely lost in his thoughts and the experience of being attacked and basically naked inside the Warp, while the ship had been breached.
"It felt… as if the whole galaxy were breaking apart down the middle. I saw the edge of it, dropping into a deeper void. I saw the light running out of the universe. Leaking out of it."
Aleya leaned forward, interested in this.
'The Beacon? ' she signed.
"She asked about the beacon."
"The Astronomican? It's damned faint. It was faint before, and we lost it fully for a while. But I can just about guess its location now. We're still basically blind."
Hestia and Aleya felt impatience growing as they heard Slovo talking and refusing to let Gerhard say anything. He was in shock, that was clear, but these hardened ladies had little patience for his weakness, right now. He had a task, and he was clearly incapable of fulfilling it at this point.
They didn't truly understand what happened in its entirety. The crack, rift, and the like were just psyker talk to them. But Gerhard and Lencillus understood what it truly was. At least, Gerhard did, Lencillus could imagine what that implied.
"Travelling to the other side of this Great Rift is now impossible. Not through the Warp at least. As Slovo said, we were going down the same direction, and I just about managed to get us to the 'light' side of the galaxy. However, the Cadamara is now useless. No matter what happened, though, we need to get to Macragge, even more pressingly than ever."
"What is so important about Macragge, Lord? Why not go to Terra directly? It should be faster for us, no?"
"That's not important now. All you need to know is that we need to get there. And fast," Gerhard said.
"That won't be possible. We can't go back into the Warp!" Slovo said.
"We have to."
"The distance to Macragge will take us months through the Warp, and that was before this! Now, we won't make it out alive, not even a full day!" Slovo said.
"You need to get yourself back on your feet, Navigator and stop being so bloody negative all the time. But don't worry. We won't be travelling to Macragge through the Warp. There's another place to go, and if we're fast enough, we'll just about make it."
"Where?"
"We can't go into the Warp! That's impossible!"
"Eh, hold my fucking beer."
---
|Name: Gerhard
|Class: The Gamer
|Level: 68
|Title: Emperor's Chosen (Unique)
|Race: Psyker-Blank-Hybrid
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|HP: 4878/4878 (6713/6713) [+1220]
|MP: 8446/8446 (11814/11814)
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STR: 120 (+50) [+30]
VIT: 122 (+51) [+31]
DEX: 104 (+44) [+21]
INT: 259 (+107)
WIS: 171 (+68)
LUK: 40
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|Point: 311
|Money: 0
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