You've been warned: This is my first fic, so expect some errors or lower quality than you may be used to. Thanks for reading, and I just have a few quick notes before the start.
I'm always happy to receive reviews (including constructive criticisms, but please do include the constructive part), and if you have any questions I'll do my best to respond to them. Can't always guarantee I've got an answer, though.
Chapters could take anywhere between a few days and a few weeks. I'll try my best to get one up every week, but school, IRL things and the fact I can't spend all my free time writing could throw a spanner in the works.
Sometimes on ff . net, it says a story's been updated recently but the newest chapter doesn't show up. In my experience, all you gotta do is change the number in the link (before it says /Absolute-Authority) to be one larger and hit enter. That should manually take you to the latest one.
Summoning
It was pitch black. He couldn't see, hear, or even feel anything. He had the distinct sensation of falling, but he couldn't tell up from down in the darkness. He had believed that his body had finally been numbed to the agony tearing at his body, but something that felt like a white-hot beam pierced his chest. He tried to scream, but had no mouth or throat to produce the noise. Faintly, he could feel the sensation of something warm pouring into the wound, moulding and reshaping itself until he felt whole again.
And then it was over.
Natsuki Subaru collapsed against the wall of a back alley, gasping for breath and spilling his shopping everywhere, surrounded by the bustle and hustle of people going about their daily lives.
He shakily stood up and grasped his tracksuit where he had felt himself be impaled. 'What on earth was that? It was so… real. There's no way I imagined that pain just now.' Finally taking note of the unfamiliar surroundings, he gathered up his things and peered out onto the street before his jaw hit the floor.
Wolf-people, cat-people, dog-people, pretty much animal people in general were as far as the eye could see. In fact, Subaru could hardly see any usual humans amongst the masses. 'Where the hell am I? I've never seen a street like this before and these people don't look human. Have I… been summoned to a fantasy world?' As he moved to take a step outwards, however, the world faded to grey and everything stopped. He tried to move his head to look around, but discovered that he too was affected. A voice like a silver bell chimed out,
"I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you take my love take my love take my love mine mine mine mine."
Subaru felt like his head was being torn apart for a second, and then the voice continued, coupled with a feeling of intense power surging through him.
"Authority of Envy, Return by Death. Authority of Sloth, Unseen hand. Authority of Greed, Stillness of an Object's Time & Lion's Heart. Authority of Wrath, Wrath & Longevity. Authority of Gluttony, Gluttony & Eclipse & Demon Beast Control. Authority of Lust, Variation and Change. Authority of Pride, Mastery of the Mind and Body."
As quick as it had happened, everything unfroze and Subaru stumbled back into the avenue. Tripping on a bottle, his hand shot out to the wall to catch himself and a slight tingling took root between his shoulder blades.
Then he realised his arms were still by his sides, holding onto his junk from the convenience store.
Whipping his head around in surprise, Subaru saw a purple arm covered in writhing purple fog, protruding from his back, pushing against the wall to keep him upright. The force of it slamming into the masonry had been so great that there was a handprint surrounded by crumbling stone underneath it. His eyes widened in surprise and it flickered out of existence… leaving him to unceremoniously fall to the ground in a heap of limbs, clothing and instant noodles. 'Wha- what the heck was that? And what was that whole thing with the grey and the time stopping and those Authorities of something?' As he stood up, something wormed its way to the forefront of his mind: that had been the Authority of Sloth, the Unseen Hand.
He focused, narrowing his eyes, and summoned five of the Unseen Hands from his body before using them to manoeuvre his body up the walls and onto the roof. 'Yo, so this can make a bunch of hands I can use to be like a spider? Dope. If all those Authority things are that crazy, I seriously wanna know what the other ones do.' He jumped down, and almost as if responding to his thoughts, information on every Authority ran through his brain simultaneously.
Authority of Envy:
Return by Death: Your final trump card, Return by Death, allows you to return to an unspecified, unpredictable and uncontrollable "save point" after your death. It happens instantly after your life is taken and there's no lag between the point of death and the point of resurrection. To you, it looks exactly as if someone switched camera angles inside your head and the sudden influx of new information and sensations will often make you feel dizzy and confused. You are also unable to reveal this ability to others. There are two primary penalties for attempting to do so: You will be forcibly and painfully silenced by the Witch's hand, and, in some cases, die. It will also increase the density of the Witch Factor for at least a short time, which will draw any Demon Beasts in the immediate area to you like moths to a flame.
Future Recollection: The aspect of this ability to recall the futures you've experienced through Return by Death is without a doubt the most useful part of the ability. The fact that you can recall the events of the previous loops you died in, means that you inherently know the rough actions the people around him will take, almost like a form of precognition. Your recollection of the future also allows you to forge better relationships with those you consider allies, allowing you to amass an impressive web of political connections and friends in high places.
Authority of Sloth:
Unseen Hand: The Authority of Sloth allows you to utilize a power called the "Unseen Hand". The Unseen Hand is a technique that allows you to summon multiple invisible hand-like appendages from your body that you can move and extend with your mind. A single Unseen Hand is enough to tear through flesh, bend and break bones, and shatter rock. The Hands can be combined to create larger and more powerful ones. At its maximum potential, the Unseen Hands and the force behind each one can be akin to a cannonball. You are the only person who can see the Unseen Hands. You can also use the Authority to manoeuvre around and propel yourself forward through the air, making it appear as if you're flying, though in reality, you're simply playing catch with your body being the thrown object.
Authority of Greed:
Stillness of an Object's Time: The Stillness of an Object's Time is one of your main offensive abilities. You can stop the time of anything you're wearing, touching, or even your breath, which in turn stops the object's/thing's interference from the outside world, only allowing its interference outwards and even granting you the ability to freely manipulate the objects' shape. Small objects imbued with Stillness of an Object's Time can be used either as a form of platform which allow you to freely traverse them, or be utilized as objects of imminent death and destruction as they create devastating and destructive attacks when used with malicious intent. You can also freeze your heart's time, stopping your heartbeat and granting yourself a temporary state of invincibility. While this power is active, you are completely cut off from the world's flow of time, literally becoming a walking anomaly. You don't need to eat, drink or even breathe and your body does not age a single second, nor does it perform even the most basic of human body functions such as sweating or excreting bodily wastes. You could even ignore physical laws if you so wished, travel at inhuman speeds and make it seem like you're teleporting around the place, ignore gravity and scale multi-story buildings by just lightly pushing yourself off the ground. This acts as the ultimate offensive/defensive ability as it allows you to simply ignore any and every form of damage dealt to your body, be it sword or magical attacks that could level entire buildings, collisions with carriages that would rip a normal person apart, falling hundreds of meters while being launched towards the ground at extreme speeds, and being frozen deep underwater.
Lion's Heart: However, Stillness of an Object's Time does have a downside to it, in the form of a time limit. Whenever you use it for more than five seconds at a time, you begin to experience unbearably excruciating pain, to prompt you to quickly deactivate it. If you continue to use it, without pausing, you would die from heart failure. Lion's Heart allows you to transfer your heart into anyone you consider a wife, which therefore prevents you from getting heart failure when you freeze yourself. As the heart(s) in your wives would not stop when your physical one does, and they have no side effects upon your wives, this lets you avoid the timer and use the ability indefinitely. You could, in theory, push the limit to around ten seconds, but the pain and the fear of dying would most likely be too much for you to handle.
Authority of Wrath:
Wrath: In a sphere of influence, you can share or transmit your emotions and senses to others. After polarizing emotions such as anger or sorrow, you can transmit them to any people in your vicinity, either taking control of them or resonating a certain emotion between a certain amount of people to raise it to the point of madness. Also, since you can share senses such as distress or pain, if anyone dies within the affected area you can force others within the same area to die the same way. This Authority fades in intensity the further the range and extension, and the effectiveness can vary drastically between people. Being aware of the Authority's existence and current presence can help alleviate its effects. You could also in theory transmit a sense of calmness or something similar to your allies to increase their strength.
Longevity: You possess an abnormally long life due to your Authority of Wrath, which will roughly increase your lifespan to that of an elf's.
Authority of Gluttony:
Gluttony: You can eat the name and memories of an opponent. To eat a name, you touch them with your left hand, then lick the palm of the same hand. Things such as experience, talent, and the likes and dislikes of human relationships serve as food, allowing you to take advantage of any abilities or memories your opponents had. However, if you eat a fake name, you become plagued with severe nausea. Those that have had their names eaten have their existences erased from the world, destroying any human relationships along with negating any contracts with Spirits. Those that have their memories eaten become amnesic and any characteristics they may have had are reset, effectively making them into a different person. Those that have both their name and memories eaten simply become a shell, and although they live, they no longer eat, excrete waste, or age, putting them in suspended animation. You cannot eat the same person twice until that individual gains enough new memories to establish a different sense of self from their old one.
Eclipse: Eclipse is considered to be the trump card of gluttony. It is divided into two types; Solar Eclipse and Lunar Eclipse. Lunar Eclipse allows you to harvest the victims' memories and use their skills and knowledge. It is worth noting that by eating a person's name and using Lunar Eclipse, you do not gain that person's Divine Protections or Spirit Arts. Solar Eclipse allows you to harvest your victims' name and transform into their appearance accordingly, which greatly amplifies the power of their skills while in that appearance.
Demon Beast Control: Because you possess the Witch Factor of Gluttony which was previously in Daphne's possession, you can direct Demon Beasts to attack certain areas.
Authority of Lust:
Variation and Change: You can transform yourself or others into various beings. Your self-transformations can include modifying your body parts by adding wings or claws, or turning into a powerful black dragon. You can transform others into essentially anything (such as flies, frogs, birds, beasts or straight up unrecognizable lumps of flesh without any of the five senses or self-awareness) by simply touching them with your hand. It's worth noting that if you transform a single person into a group of animals, the consciousness splits and every animal shares the same mind. This ability can also be used as a way of healing yourself by transforming damaged parts into uninjured parts, and any spare parts generated through healing dissolve on their own.
Black Flames: In a dragon transformation, you are capable of producing powerful jet black flames that consume everything and cannot be put out by water.
Dragon's Blood: In a dragon transformation, you possess unique blood which is mixed with Dragon's Blood. You can infect people with it, covering your targets with black veins and making them sick. However, different people react differently after being exposed to the blood. Some fall ill, and some react just fine.
Authority of Pride:
Mastery of the Mind and Body: This ability is split into two main parts, being the Mind and the Body. The Mind greatly increases your mental power, including creativity, memory, deduction and Authority control, while also providing information about something you want to know (such as your Authorities) but at substantial mana cost. The Body increases muscle memory, reflexes, dexterity and the rate at which you learn combat techniques.
After this influx of knowledge had been processed ('Thank god my Authority of Pride increases my memory, heh.'), he heard a voice speak up behind him.
"If you don't wanna get hurt, cough up whatever you've got!"
A/N: Sorry this chapter was pretty short, it was more to introduce the premise and the Authorities for anyone who doesn't know their specifics.
In this fic, when Subaru was summoned, Satella used her remaining strength to not only bestow RbD on him but also to mimic all the Authorities from the Archbishops and cram them into his body. The reason he has the Archbishops' Authorities instead of the Witches' is purely that there's more info available on them, and it'd be pointless to say they're the Witches' and then largely fabricate what they do. Besides, the chances are if I'd had to make my own 6 Authorities then they would've been uninventive and dull. I've made it so he's extremely compatible with all Witch Factors, despite not having the requirements for some, to avoid all of that split-personality crap. And yes, he will at some point have to fight the Archbishops but seeing as he has their powers he'll know how to approach them.
Subaru isn't spouting any of that 'overpowered isekai protagonist' bullshit (yet?) because of the pain during the summoning, which was due to making him harmonious with all the Witch Factors, and the shock at all of his abilities. In general, I am planning to make him at least a little less arrogant in this story so do expect him to be slightly OOC. Of course, when he first uses his Authorities he'll have a mild power complex but with enough suffering, and until Lion's Heart can be used for perma invincibility, that should get knocked out of him.
He didn't get the Authorities of Vainglory and Melancholy as - apart from the fact that they're completely overpowered and would make this fic drier than a desert - the current user of Vainglory is still Pandora and it's unsure if Hector is dead or not to rule out Melancholy. There are some things that I didn't include, like Sirius' "Inhuman Strength" and the Gluttony siblings' "Creation", "Master Class Fighter" and "Splitting" because I didn't know how to fit them to Subaru without making him (even more of) a knock-off Sword Saint. I could get a few things wrong about some Authorities because they are a bit confusing so I'm using my take on the powers.
And last but not least: as the current user and specifics of the Authority of Pride are unknown (speculation about Al being unconfirmed), I made my own. Mastery of the Mind and Body basically increases Subaru's control over his body with precise movements such as small tasks or fighting techniques, but also increases his mental power by a significant amount. The reason it can provide information on things such as his other Authorities for a decent mana cost is because all his power means nothing if he doesn't know how to use it, but getting it all for free would be a bit too unfair. I'd say Subaru could use that aspect of Pride about four times a day.