Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

My pale hands shake, blood staining them crimson. I press down hard on a gunshot wound on a middle-aged man with black hair. He's wearing jeans and a black shirt, both of which are stained as well. This man is...

"Dad!"

It was supposed to be a holiday fishing trip. A large Yahat, just me, mom, and dad.

"No, don't you dare die, Dad!"

How were we to know there would be pirates in the middle of nowhere?

"Sorry, kid, he made a move." I look up at the man speaking, one of thirteen. Holding a genuine flintlock pistol, having bronze skin, tattooed with archaic runes of some kind, grey eyes, and shaved grey hair. Twelve others stand around me, similar-looking, almost like a family of killers, all wearing leather clothing, jackets, pants, and even boots. 

"Just a run of bad luck." A boot finds my back, sending me tumbling into the side of the fishing boat. "Chain him. He'll be a good offering." "What?!"

My vision swims as I'm struck hard by the seeming leader, the butt of his pistol having been smashed into my temple. I resist as I'm cuffed and chained, biting at the hands holding me, kicking and howling like a man possessed. My vision clears as I hear my mother scream. "Bring her here, my sons!" Two of them drag my mother out of the cabin of the boat. Silver hair, and silver eyes, wide and terrified, her copper skin stained with blood from minor wounds. "NO! NO!"

The leader backhands her when his brothers drag her over. "This is what you get for betraying us...my daughter."

I barely register his words as the chains around me are tightened.

"You're...why?! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!"

The man turns to me as I yell. "Sorry, kid. But your mom's a traitor. And so are you, by birth. Tch, if only you'd been pureblooded. You'd be a welcome addition. Be honored, though. Only the finest outsiders are offered to them." My mother breaks down, sobbing. "Daddy, Tama, please! NO!"

He just grins. "Maybe you'll be reminded why we don't crossbreed with any mere tagata i fafo when you see them, should they be pleased. If they aren't, well, you'll see your baby boy again, real soon."

I look my grandfather in the eyes and spit on him, struggling in the grips of my uncles. "Gods damn you! ALL OF THEM! MAY YOU DIE IN AGONY, KINKILLER! May the sea curse you forever, and never let you see another day!" I see the barest shard of approval in his gaze.

"If only your father were of our clan. I'd be proud to have such a willful grandson." As my grandfather speaks, one of my uncles grabs a knife from his belt, approaching me. "No. I'll do it." My grandfather grins as he approaches, taking his own dagger out, silver with runes engraved, its bone handle carved with runes, gleaming with almost living malice in the midday sun. "Can't have my descendant's final curse be null before it can take hold." In an instant, his hand lashes out, his large silver knife cleaving through my throat.

"E ave oe e atua o le sami."

He shoves me overboard, stabbing the blade hilt deep into my chest as he does.

I hit the water hard, the salty water making my wounds burn like hellfire, even as it all fades. I'm pulled deeper by the weight of the chains, and the last thing I see before I fade is my mother breaking from her family and diving after me.

The darkness takes me away.

...

It's pitch black.

I'm cold. So very cold.

My perception expands again, and I have a horrid realization. My heart isn't beating, and I'm being crushed. I'm...dead. bound to my own corpse.

'The chains and blade!' I realize with a start. They bound me to my corpse.

Watery voices fill the pitch-black around me.

"Please, not my son. Please, not my Baby! Please! Take me...save my son, anyone, please! Fa'amolemole, lavea'i lo'u atalii!"

Mom.

Where...?

My perception is locked and limited to my corpse, but I can feel her. Just as still and stiff, her arms locked around me.

'She'd tried to swim me up. Mom... no... not for me... no...'

I begin to mentally cry, mourning her foolish death, and I become aware of something else in the darkness, a sort of spiritual sense.

'O lo'o iinei Tina.'

The words tear through me like a horrid, dark light, a profound sense of loss filling me, as well as a feeling of duty and wrath. It's coming from...whatever spoke.

'E le o lau gagana ea lea?'

'I can't speak Samoan...mom never taught me...'

I hear a deep groaning sound, the vibrations shaking my spirit within my corpse.

My perception is freed, and my spirit eyes see-

They see-

I see...

By the gods, new and old...what is that?!

Endless inward spirals of scaled tendrils, all lined with pitch-black eyes, and a gaping nothingness at the center-

There is something at the center. I can't see it, and yet there it is.

Reality comes undone at the stitches.

The touch of an Elder God meets my soul.

And thus unkindly I shatter.

(From one Depth into another, Endless within the Deep, the Cosmic Void and Abyss reflecting each other. Hark... Great volumes of water serve as a bulwark guarding dreams, and an augur of the Eldritch Truth. Overcome this hindrance and seek what is rightly yours.)

I'm stitched back together by pale, milky tendrils, my shattered, broken soul, mended and melded together into a mosaic of what it once was. Memories fade and...

I drift.

I drift until I begin to rise. I writhe and arch my body, feeling as if fire is burning me bone deep. I try to shout, but the only thing that happens is that the burning fluid fills my lungs. The blade in my chest is pushed out, and my cleaved neck is knitted shut as flesh melds. My eyes burn as I try to open them, but I only succeed in making more agony for myself. I grab the dagger as it exits, and I kick off a stone bottom. My body is filled with agony as I breach the surface, agony making red wash over my mind.

I exit the hellish water, coughing and retching up the liquid. My eyes snap open again, able to see now.

I see a group of robe-bearing people, the cloth being black. I barely register them as the pain rips through me again, and I scream. My shout is broken as I lunge at the nearest one. "HELP ME! IT HURTS!" One grabs me, and their touch is like hellfire, and I lash out. My mind is washed in pain as I move.

'IT HURTS! GOD, IT HURTS! LET GO OF ME! GET OFF ME! GET OFF ME! IT HURTS!'

My breathing is heavy, my vision is distorted, mostly black and red, and my entire body burns like hellish flames. I lash at anything that touches me, something catching before moving cleanly and freely.

I feel liquid splatter me, my hands moving on their own, clenching something as I scream, unable to hold the pain in. I see a light ahead of me, and I mindlessly run for it, my legs starting to give out.

So I leap.

The sound of shattering glass barely registers in my ears as I fall.

My vision finally clears, and I have just enough time to see the ground below me before I hit, finally fading into blissful unconsciousness.

[Ping! System awakened!]

Samoan words:

Tama- Dad

tagata i fafo- outsider

E ave oe e atua o le sami.- The sea gods will take you

Fa'amolemole, lavea'i lo'u atalii- please save my son

O lo'o iinei Tina.- mother is here

E le o lau gagana ea lea?- Isn't this your language?

And yes, the MC's escape scene is basically Jason's escape scene from Under the Red Hood. Sue me, I felt inspired.

Also, the MC is aware of Marvel and DC, alone with many fictious worlds and such, but wasn't a super nerd who was mega into them. Kinda like me ig. So If I miss anything major or mischaracter someone fatally, TELL ME, curse me out, ect.

Chapter Text

I wake up to a floating screen. I blink slowly before taking a long breath. I sit up, my body aching, ignoring the screen for a moment.

"of all the cliche...asinine...idiotic things to happen to me..." I let out a frustrated scream. "FUUUUCK YOUUU!" I flip off the sky.

I see the screen again, a light grey panel with black text.

[Are you done screaming at the sky about being alive? Y/N]

'tch...sassy.'

[I heard that]

I snort at the tiny screen that had popped up for a moment before pressing the Y.

[Good! Let me introduce myself. I am the SYSTEM, a machine deity that decided to interact with you! Be honored. Ahem, moving on, you died and were chosen by an Elder God to return to life. Sadly, she was lazy and simply transmigrated your corpse and repaired soul into a Lazarus Pit. Riiight as a man named Ra's was about to bathe in it. Don't worry, he survived. Can't say that about his cultists, though.]

'...I...I killed-'

The memories hit suddenly, no longer shrouded by agony and the madness of rebirth.

Men and women, screaming as I madly lunged at them, clawing and stabbing and slashing maniacally, as I tried to make the pain stop somehow, lashing out at everything that touched me.

So many corpses...

I puke, retching hard until nothing remains in me. I dry heave for what feels like an hour, until I finally get my disgust under control.

[...I'm sorry for being so callous about that. If it helps, his cultists were absolute scum.]

'It does. barely.'

I sigh heavily. "damnit..."

[Continuing, I will show you how to use my interface, how it works, and what to expect, before leaving you to your whims.]

"Okay..."

[You can think or say 'status' to open your status page, 'inventory' to open your inventory, and you can specify certain parts of both if you need to. 'quests' is also something you can think or say, to see what they are, if you get any. Try doing so now! You have stat points to use, since you leveled up from all that...rage.]

"Status." I ignore its reminder about the men and women I'd killed.

[Status Page:

Name: Jonah Abyssos (This is the name you've been granted by your first patron.)

Titles: Gamer, Herald, Lazarus Reborn

Age: 16

Gender: Male (Self explanatory.)

Race: 'Human' (Spoilers, kiddo!)

Patrons: ????/?????, Lazarus, SYSTEM. (These are the ones supporting you.)

Path: Occultist Mage (This is the path you're going down.)

Basic description: Grey hair, silver eyes, pale skin.

.

Vitals:

Vitality: 10 HP (This is your life force, showing how much fight you have left in you before you begin to die. It's calculated by vitality x 10.)

Mana: 10 MP (This is the amount of magic energy you have in you. It's calculated by Arcane x 10.)

Regeneration:

Vitality: 10 HP/hour (This is how much you recover, and how fast you do so. This is calculated by Endurance x 10.)

Mana: 10 MP/minute (This is how much mana you regenerate, and its rate thereof. It's calculated by Attunement x 10.)

.

Level: 1 (Your level of existence. Most humans are level '0'.)

EXP: 0% (How close you are to becoming stronger via the system.)

Vitality: 1 (How much vital energy you can contain. 1 is the baseline.)

Endurance: 1 (How much you can do before your vital energy starts to fail. 1 is the  baseline.)

Arcane: 1 (How much magic you can contain, and the affinity for magic you have. 1 is the baseline.)

Attunement: 1 (How attuned to using magic you are, and how efficient it is. 1 is the  baseline.)

Strength: 1 (Your body's physical strength and durability. 1 is the baseline.)

Dexterity: 1 (Your body's ability to bend, flex, and recover from said actions. 1 is the baseline.)

Luck: 1 (How lucky you are. 0 is the human baseline.)

Available points: 16 (Improvement points. Each point isn't a massive boost, but a boost to your baseline for physical stats, and to your magic abilities, for those stats. Stats can be improved outside of these points. 2 isn't 2x stronger than an average human, but rather 1.1x stronger, until 10, which is 2x. Different races's baseline 1's are different as well. A 10 in a human isn't even a 1 in an Atlantian, for example.)

Bloodline: ???

Unawakened: ???

.

Perks:

Herald: You're a chosen of ????/?????, and are blessed. You can ??? (Requires experimentation to unlock...)

Gamer: You're the host of the SYSTEM, be honored! Grants access to the Gamer system.

Lazarus: You died. Luckily, you were put into the Lazarus Pit. The pit resurrected you, granting you rebirth. This has enhanced your senses, physical abilities, and magic, at the cost of certain side effects. Grants a 1.5x output modifier for physical actions and magic.

.

SYSTEM Abilities:

Inventory: 1/100 0%: The Gamer can store items inside a small fold of the Abyss. Can carry up to 10 items.

Status: Open a status or quest page.

Observe: 1/100 0%: focus on someone or something. Based on the user's level and the skill's level, reveal information.

.

Skills:

Daggerwork: 2/100 10%: The ability to use a dagger.

Spellwork: 1/100 0%: The ability to use magic.

.

Spells:

Manifest Water: 1/100 0%: Summon water from the Abyss.

Hydrokinesis: 1/100 0%: Manipulate water with mana.

Crykinesis: 1/100 0%: Unleash the fatal cold within you, absorbing heat and manipulating ice with mana.

.

Items:

Occult Dagger: A dagger that once took your life, now imbued and infused with your mana and essence. 12 Inch long, 2.5-inch thick silver blade. Bone handle. Traits: Indestructible, never dulls, Vorpal.

.

Titles:

Gamer: Allows the Gamer to endure the SYSTEM's processes.

Herald: +10 MP regeneration per minute.

Lazarus Reborn: Grants supernatural senses, enhanced prowess, preternatural reflexes, and killer instincts.

.

End of page]

Herald?

Lazarus?

...ohhh, fuck me, I know exactly where I am.

"DC...fuck... at least I have magic and an OP knife... hahahahah... I'm cooked."

[You done, kid?]

I roll my eyes and assign my stat points:

Level: 1

EXP: 0%

Vitality: 2

Endurance: 2

Arcane: 5

Attunement: 5

Strength: 2

Dexterity: 2

Luck: 5

Available points: 0

"There- hrrrgh!!!"

I stiffen, as my body aches for a moment, my joints throbbing and my mind clouding for a moment.

[That's an aftereffect of the Pit, kiddo. Sad to say, but it's permanent.]

"That's fine, didn't wanna live without chronic pain anyways..."

[That's the spirit, kiddo!]

I sit as I feel knowledge pool into my mind.

How to summon water, drawing on my connection to the Abyss to do so.

How to imbue mana into water and manipulate it.

How to infuse my mana with utter cold, using it to manipulate ice and freeze things.

I sigh, a small smirk on my face. "Well, everyone's gotta start somewhere."