[Welcome to the Atlas system]
Countless strings of pure white light swirled around my body but none of this . I didn't feel any force from then nor any heat, all they seemed to do was glow.
[Analysing domain]
[This domain purges mana. Calibrating]
[This domain does not reside within the Great Tree. Calibrating]
[Analysing user]
[You have a deformed soul. Calibrating]
[You possess no mana at all. Calibrating]
[You possess unique type of energy. Calibrating]
[Basic analysis complete]
The countless radiant strings disappeared as suddenly as they had came. Then after a few moments appeared again but this time they formed writing. It didn't take long before the writing turned into English.
Name:
Species: Homo Sapiens
Description: You are an incomplete perfect being. This is impossible, and yet you exist.
Step: Beast
Mana: 0.4
Drain: 0.0000023/s
Traits: Incomplete Perfection, Knowledgeable
Blessing: Knowledge Seeker
Curse: Loathsome
Features: Translation
I didn't even begin to read it properly before running towards 13, I didn't have time. I remembered exactly where 13 had hit and left likely half dead or worse.
My then running quickly turned into a sprint when I saw 13 on the ground. The closer I got to him the worse of a state I realised he was in.
When I eventually arrived right beside him, he was breathing incredibly heavily and he coughed up blood every few seconds. He looked up at the sky with no expression on his face, his only movements were to turn to the side and cough the blood.
"Shit man. Are you alright?" I asked him, but no response came. 13 continued looking straight up
I waved my hand over his eyes to which he seemed to finally notice I was there.
"Oh 4! You're still alive?" He said to me as he smiled. I noticed his teeth stained red from all the blood he was coughing up.
"I even killed that monster somehow but that doesn't matter. Are you alright? What's happening?"
He looked at me, he frowned his eyes slightly before seeming to come to a realisation.
"I don't think my ears are working, I can't hear a thing you said but at least you are here and alive. I get to say my goodbye it seems after all."
My panicked expression must have given away exactly the depths of my confusion so he continued.
"I've got a rib through my lung. We have no medical technology nor do we have healers. I'm basically already dead but you're still alive so that is something. Hey, if the others are alive tell them I'm sorry for being on their asses all the time about stuff I just-"
He began coughing violently then after almost twenty seconds of this gut wrenching scene he gasped, desperate for air.
"God, it feels like I'm drowning. I wouldn't recommend"
He begun chuckling but my face didn't change, my face was still stuck fully conveying the pure horror I was feeling.
The worst thing about it is that the feeling was still that half step removed from me as all my other emotions had been. It made me question if these feelings were even genuine but I wanted to believe with all my heart they were, they had to be.
"Don't look like that, come on. That's just sad."
He paused for a few moments after before asking.
"Hey, can you promise me something."
I nodded solemnly so he continued.
"Promise me you will see this all through to the end. I don't even care what that end is. If its the end of this damn mission here, until you finish whatever goals you have, or if you are really ambitious until all of humanity is safe from the cursed. It doesn't matter what it is, just promise me you will see it through."
My eyes started watering but no tears dropped down my face. Then I nodded saying
"I promise you."
Despite the fact he couldn't hear, he understood then after a few quiet moments laughed.
"Honestly I kind of expected to die right after I said that. Damn who knew it could be so awkward you actually want to die sooner?"
Caught off guard by the sheer absurdity I laughed alongside him for a few moments before it became silent again. He turned and looked at me for a moment before going into another coughing fit then after he stopped he begun to speak.
"When I was a kid I heard about the apollo program from... well god know where but anyways. I always hoped I would one day be a part of something like that, like a part of history. Being at the forefront of something massive but instead I'm here dying. Its actually ironic, we lived basically our entire lives in space. Something that guy with the strong arm probably couldn't even imagine."
He fell into another fit.
"Fuck man, I feel it." He paused for a moment. "Hey man, will you remember me? Damn, I'm feeling really sentimental all of a sudden."
"I'll remember you. I hope you get to rest peacefully."
He smiled. "Hey I actually heard... that... one."
His body went limp and when I checked his pulse it quickly disappeared. He was dead.
I begun walking to the broken MTV in a dazed and detached state. I walked over to 49, who had a chance to be alive. Her head was poking out of the bent hull of the MTV which crushed her, I checked her pulse. Dead.
I just felt detached now. It felt like I should crumble but I just didn't.
I walked over to 7's body. He was clearly dead, he had a giant hole through him and he was left in a puddle of his own blood. There was no surviving that.
I was just standing there for what was likely hours not a single thought passing my mind. My mind was a void.
--
The light of dawn begun to peak over the horizon as I begun finishing up.
The last few hours I had been gathering what I could from the MTV since it was inoperable. I had masses of food, equipment and water. I noticed we even had some kind of hammock crossed with a tent. Well calling it a tent was a bit too much credit but it could serve as some kind of shelter.
I in fact had basically everything I thought could be useful in some way or another and because of that the backpack which I used was more then full.
Looking down at the three corpses of the squad mates I had put side by side and covered in dry branches.
I had decided to burn them. I didn't exactly know how to bury them and I didn't want their bodies to be eaten by some wandering cursed.
I clicked the lighter and held the fire up to the branches.
I didn't exactly know what the best way to burn bodies but I doubted it mattered. After it ignited I walked away as the fire begun to spread. I didn't look back, I was scared to honestly. I don't know exactly what I feared but none the less I didn't look back.
While walking I attempted to call the atlas system, I didn't know exactly how to do it but after a moment it seemed to form the writing in front of me as if it responded to my intention to see it.
Name:
Description: You are an incomplete perfect being. This is impossible, and yet you exist.
Species: Homo Sapiens
Step: Beast
Mana: 0.33
Drain: 0.0000023/s
Traits: Incomplete Perfection, Knowledgeable
Blessing: Knowledge Seeker
Curse: Loathsome
Features: Translation
It felt surreal but at the same time this felt somewhat undeserved. These abilities just came out of no where and only came after they were all left dead or dying.
The abilities were powerful in their own way despite the fact I had no idea what they actually did but I couldn't help but feel I didn't deserve it.
None the less I focused on the 'incomplete perfection' trait I seemed to have, trying to inquire more about it. This was apparently how the atlas system was interacted with and so I tried it.
Trait: Incomplete Perfection
[A perfect being is an existence which is above any mortal. However while you are a perfect being you are an incomplete one. This impossibility gives you the opportunity to grow, an opportunity no other perfect being has but you lack most of the qualities of perfection]
'The 'perfect beings' were some kind of race then'
I looked to my other trait.
Trait: Knowledgeable
[You cannot forget]
'That was certainly shorter if nothing else.'
'Does this mean I have like perfect memory or do I just have good memory or something.'
I tried remember, something. Memories of my time in the out ring came to mind but they were just as they were before but when I thought about what 13 had said I realised I remembered every single word. Not only that I remembered every single detail, not just those details I focused on but everything.
I was still clearly limited by my perception but none the less this was an absolutely incredible trait. Its combat utility was likely surprisingly high, being able to learn quicker and remember patterns easily.
At least that's what I hoped.
Looking at the atlas system I couldn't hold myself back from finding out any longer.
'Here is the moment of truth.'
Blessing: Knowledge Seeker