Gates of Penance-Chapter 28: Enlightened

Nacht felt extremely cold.

[Your penance was remarkable.]

He didn’t know what was happening. He couldn’t even form a single coherent thought.

[Your punishment then shall be a gift.]

His only solace was the voice that kept whispering sweet nothings into his ear.

[Child of the court, receive your punishment.]

Nacht felt his soul shift as something irreversible and absolute forever changed his being.

He felt his thoughts slowly become more coherent as his perception of reality came into focus.

’Did I die?’

Nacht was standing on an illusory path that exuded a dignified air.

In his hand was an abyssal black saber that emanated a faint aura of death.

Without meaning to, he took his first step, then another, and another. He began to walk along the path. With each step he took, Nacht felt his soul being cleansed, fulfilling his ascension into a complete enlightened sinner.

He was enlightened, and with the enlightenment, he also knew where he was.

’Purgatory.’

Purgatory is the place where you go to walk the enlightened path and cleanse your sins, facilitating the ascension.

Nacht’s mind was pure bliss.

The feeling of ecstasy was so vivid that he didn’t even realize his body beginning to vanish. He only walked a short distance before his body completely vanished and the ghostly saber slipped from his grip, falling into someplace else entirely. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

***

Nacht woke up in a panic.

He was deeply confused and had no idea where he was or what had happened. The memory of dying at the hands of the abstract was both vivid and terrifying while the faint memory of his time walking the enlightened path was elusive.

He began to move his body but it felt foreign, confusing, and increasingly dull. He looked around and noticed he was in a cathedral of some kind. The once opulent edifice looked to be ancient and broken. It seemed to be a fallen cathedral from the ancient past.

He also noticed that he was no longer surrounded by the dreadful red atmosphere of penance. It was only then that everything that had happened finally came back to him.

’I did it. I conquered the first gate.’

He had successfully repented and been sent back to his world, not as an ordinary human, but as an enlightened! He had even managed to kill an abstract! A tier V no less! Nacht doubted that anyone in history had managed to obtain such a feat!

He had gotten extremely lucky and had even died during the process but he still managed to become an enlightened. He was now someone who is considered to be a valuable tool for humanity. However, he had no intention of being used as such.

Nacht shivered slightly.

He was cold, which was quite perplexing since he was now an enlightened and enlightened don’t get cold easily.

For one reason or another he felt that something was off, but maybe it was just the adrenaline wearing off. After all, he had recently escaped a life or death situation.

Nacht looked around the fallen cathedral and noticed something a little odd.

’What’s that doing there?’

His saber was resting on an altar at the back of the ruined edifice. It held a dark mystical quality as if someone had cursed the sword, but it also felt strangely familiar, like the sword was always a part of him.

Slowly walking up to his sword, he noticed that his footsteps didn’t make any sounds.

’I haven’t gone deaf have I?’

Nacht reached down to grab his trusted blade but to his horror his hand simply passed through the sword like it wasn’t even there.

"What the hell?!"

Nacht heard his own voice but oddly enough it didn’t echo throughout the inner chamber.

This time he tried to touch the altar itself but his pale hand continued to pass through it as if he were some sort of ghost. Nacht grew suspicious and looked down at his feet and noticed that he wasn’t even touching the floor, instead he was floating.

Now it was time to panic.

’I’m not dead, am I?’

In one last attempt to figure out what was happening, he looked at his core which had turned completely black in colour with the same pristine white engravings on it. Unlike before, he could actually sense and control his orren to a startling degree. His orren was the same colour as his core and exuded a terrifying power which wasn’t anything like the dull lifelessness he had felt before.

Looking back at his power core, he exhaled in relief to know that Alister’s ability was gone, he was free of his contract. He also noticed that there were many new engravings on his core. However, this time instead of translating them, he did something that every enlightened intrinsically knew how to do to get a deeper understanding of their abilities. He felt for the tether that connected his core to his physical body and pulled on it.

In the next moment Nacht was in his soul space.

An endless white plane spanned in every direction. Black mist clouded the sky and his surroundings giving off an air of mysterious dread. In front of him was a bone white pillar that was four times taller than it was wide. The pillar was engraved with black runes but not the runes that the enlightened drew their power from. Instead, these runes simply carried information about a singular person... himself.

Nacht looked at the runes with a hesitant expression on his face, then he translated them.

—-----

Rune: [Eternal Silence]

Rank: Sinner

Spectral core: Unsealed

Traits: [Abstract] [Untethered] [Herald of Darkness] [Graceless]

Relics: [Appraisal] [Blood Coin]

Punishment: [Cursed Object]

—-----

Nacht looked with wide eyes at the runes.

’Well that’s new.’

First things first, he translated his rune

—-----

Rune: [Eternal Silence]

Rune description: You are a specter born in the embrace of eternal silence. Never being truly dead or alive, specters assume the qualities of both. As a specter, you possess both strange and terrifying powers.

Passive Ability: [Dual Insight]

Primary Ability: [Spectral Projection]

—-----

’Wait... I’m actually a ghost?!’

Nacht was only half joking before, but he actually was a specter!

’I didn’t think they were real!’

Nacht—like every other sane person— didn’t believe that ghosts were real, and now he was one.

He didn’t like the part about him never being truly alive but he did end up dying at some point in the crucible didn’t he?

’Well at least I’m not dead.’

Nacht looked at his runes passive and primary abilities with surprise. The primary ability he was expecting, however his passive ability was something he had never heard about.

’Did enlightened sinners always have two abilities?’

With a shake of his head, Nacht translated the part he was most excited for—his runes abilities.