More of a boring chapter but necessary none the less to introduce the MC to the stage.
Chapter 2. Time passes.
'Is anything going to happen? Anything at all? I have been here long enough to see the fires go out and for the seasons to change. I think it's been a year?' I thought as I stared at the craters left behind by the destruction of the moon.
Time passed quickly for me, almost too quickly. I would close my eyes for what felt like 30 minutes only to wake up and see that it was winter. I know that couldn't be right because well when I got put in the crystal it was easily going on spring or summer.
'Well atleast I won't have to worry about going insane from just staring at a tree for thousands of years.' I thought as I stared out from my crystal prison.
During the little time I have been awake I have been trying to absorb powers from things around me such as the grass or what little remains of the trees, and turns out I can. It is much more difficult with little return, but it's enough to keep me fed.
Turns out I also learned that I need to eat… And all I can eat is power. Yup, no normal food, just sucking up energy from things around me. I chose to leave the other crystals alone until I really need them. Turns out the power stored in them will never be filled unless the God of Darkness unleashes another world ending magic attack, or well that's what I found out after absorbing them.
The crystals around me are actually the crystalline form of the leftover magic from the God of Darkness, and with it these crystals can manipulate destruction or darkness. The destruction I can cause using these crystals is not instant though. It's more of a darkness manipulation that comes with a side of destruction, but in the end they're still rare.
Shaking my non-existent head I glared at the other nearby crystals. 'These are my only real power source, sure I can absorb them and gain their powers now but I am not sure if I will lose magic over time…' I thought to myself.
'Eh best to just absorb them before I leave.' I shrugged my shoulders as I began to leech off some more energy from the nearby plants.
Sighing out in ecstasy at the feeling of the power entering me I began to watch as the nearby plants all started to shrivel up. Grass, flowers, and even a tree all began to wither away as I took more power.
'Know what, this sucks… I might as well just go into hibernation or something considering humanity won't walk this world for another thousand years or so…' I begrudgingly thought as I looked out at some storm clouds that were approaching.
Looking away I looked at the area around me. My prison didn't allow for much movement and certainly didn't offer great shoreline views, but it did offer me a chance.
Without this prison I probably would die, so for now I am stuck. I can't leave, and I certainly can't use my powers while stuck in here. All I can do is absorb enough power so that I might hope to hibernate safely.
'Let's absorb as much as I can so that I can finally have a good sleep. How long has it been since I have slept in peace?' I thought as I focused on the feeling of absorbing energy. Taking a moment to step away from my thoughts I began to focus. 'Need to focus on this part…'
And with that thought I pictured the landscape around me, the remaining trees, the tall flowing grass, the vines, moss, and even some birds or animals. Gritting my non-existent teeth I imagined sucking away their power, their life energy. And like that the landscape in a 200 feet radius began to change. Everything slowly lost color and turned dark as plants shriveled up and withered away. Small animals and bugs fell to the ground as they too began to shrivel up and die.
Power, life energy, whatever you called it began to flow rapidly into me. 'Oooooh that's the stuff!' I grinned darkly as I felt the satisfying feeling of energy flow into me. 'More! I am going to need a lot more to hibernate!' my instincts screamed at me and took over as I felt more and more energy flow into me.
Almost like my power absorption was listening to my own thoughts, it picked up the pace, trees began to fall down and turn into dust as animals turned into bones, but it didn't stop there. The 200 foot circle around me of dying matter slowly expanded, 200 feet, 250 feet, 300 feet. I kept absorbing more and more life energy from anything I could. At this point I wasn't even thinking, it was just my instincts taking over as I was lost in the feeling of the energy flowing into me.
Suddenly I stopped as I felt a pain in my head. 'Argh!' My eyes squinted in pain as I felt my grasp on my power absorption lose control. Closing my eyes I stopped absorbing the energy around me. 'So I can't pass 300 feet. Anything past that and I start to lose control.' I thought as I slowly began to open my eyes again to see what I did.
Destruction, that was the probably best way to describe it. Dust was floating in the breeze as dead grass, trees, and even some dead animals floated away. Everything in a 300 foot radius around me began to clear up into a barren waste. Trees fell over and turned into piles of dust as I finally understood what I just did. I was in shock at the destruction I could cause.
'I just killed… no, absorbed all the life energy around me in the length of a football field?' I stared out from my crystal prison as I saw a dead deer carcass slowly evaporate and turn into dust. Despite being full of energy and feeling great because of it, I began to get nauseous. 'This was all because of me… Let's not do this again, I need to control my instincts or else something worse might happen…'
Shaking my metaphorical head I began to feel the energy that now flowed inside of me. 'Well I am definitely full of energy, let's hope it is enough to last though.' I thought as I began to feel tired. Almost like how someone would feel after eating too big of a meal, I began to get drowsy. 'Heh, let's hope when I wake up next something interesting is going on.' I tiredly thought as I slowly drifted to sleep.
*Time Skip Narrator POV*
From an outside perspective everything began to change but not for the parasite. Tree's regrew, life came back, but the circle around the pitch black crystal never could sustain life. Almost like a curse was cast upon it, the land never recovered. Years upon years passed but nothing changed.
Nothing could fix the curse placed upon the land around the crystal, but that didn't seem to matter as all living things tried to avoid the cursed area. Very rarely would something living walk in the area, almost like all living things instinctively understood that they shouldn't be there.
So time passed. Slowly the previously devastated planet began to change without its Gods. Humanity came back in full, as if they simply took a vacation humans returned en-masse to their home, Remnant. It started off slow as no one understood what happened, and the only thing left from Humanity's previous attempt were old statues or weathered stone texts talking of the Gods.
Humans moving at a snail's pace began to build villages and create small cities to ward off the grimm, but they would not always be at peace. This time around, humans found something strange, Faunus. People turned into theri more animalistic counterparts began to pop up and frighten the humans. Humans, afraid of the Faunus, did what most people would when they were afraid, and that was fight.
Despite both races having a common enemy in the grimm, they ignored them and chose to enslave each other. Humans, more numerous and more fortified than the Faunus outliers, began to win in fights and enslave the Faunus. This slowly led to a cycle of animosity between the two races as they were pushed back by the grimm.
But, luckily not all things were bad for humans.
Leftover magic from the age of Gods crystalized into dust and was often buried deep underground leaving spoils for humanity to find. This dust led to humans being able to overpower the grimm and each other in fights to the death.
Dust changed everything for the humans, and soon enough that snail's pace of progress changed into a steady march forward into the future. But that wasn't all that humans had this time, now they had Aura. A representation of their soul, and with that came a semblance, which was just the thing people needed to truly fight against the grimm.
Humans and Faunus alike were given a fighting chance in this world covered in grimm, and with that chance they forged Kingdoms of old that would be written about in fairytales. Despite this, Humans and Faunus still fought for the simplest reasons while using their new found powers causing mass destruction to be left in their wake.
Time passed all the same for the parasite that was left in the crystal as nothing seemed to affect it. Wars, kingdoms, and peace all passed by as the small parasite was stuck in the crystal prison until one day everything changed.
A lone Faunus who was outcasted from the Human kingdom wandered the planes of Remnant. With his great strength, he wandered the planes of Remnant in search of something. No grimm, and no human would stop his path of carnage as he searched for that something. That something being a thing to finally put humanity in their place and bring peace to the Faunus. And that is what he found in his journey when he came across a lone black crystal surrounded by death.
*Lone Faunus POV*
Trudging through thick grass that was as sharp as a knife I moved forward. 'Why do I even search anymore? It has been months but yet I can't find anything to help us fight the Humans and free my brothers…' I questioned myself and my motives as I moved forward into a clearing.
But something was wrong with this clearing, it was devoid of something. 'Why does nothing grow here?' I looked around as suddenly the long sharp blades of grass stopped impeding me.
A sense of dread filled me as I fully left the grass and entered the clearing. The clearing was strange, the ground was dried up and nothing seemed to grow. Warrily I moved forward as I hoped that I might find that something I have been searching for.
Walking forward I began to feel even more dread. My senses exploded at me as I spotted large crystals of dust in the center of the clearing.
'Is that it?' I wondered as I approached the boulder sized cluster of dust. But as I got closer I began to notice something odd with the mound of dust. A lone black crystal stood by itself, jutting out of more purple pieces of dust. It was a beautiful crystal, shaped perfectly as it almost drew me towards it despite the sense of danger it emitted.
"Is this it? Why is this the only piece of black dust? Not once in my life have I seen dust so dark." I questioned aloud as I began to approach the dust to get a closer look at it.
Walking forward I approached the lone crystal despite my senses roaring at me to turn and run. The crystal itself gave off a sense of dread that seemed to fill me to my very core, but nothing made me more fearful of the Faunus being enslaved so I pushed on.
"This crystal best be worth it!" I grumbled under my breath as I was finally an arms reach away from it. Slowly reaching forward I grasped the black crystal only to gasp in shock.
I was full of… power! "Yes! This will do! I will finally have the strength to free my brothers and sisters from the confines Humanity put them in!" I shouted as my voice seemed to echo. 'This power! It fills me! I feel like I can fight a hundred men!' my thoughts ran rampant in my mind as I tried to organize what I was feeling.
I no longer felt the sense of dread or fear, but instead felt familiarity. I might have been full of a foreign power but I have never felt so good in my whole life. My mind seemed to shackle this feeling of power to me as I craved more.
'Wait! No, I must let go and save this power for fighting the humans!' I quickly thought as I regained control over my will and let go of the crystal. Letting my hand fall limply to my side I stared at the crystal in awe.
Unnoticed by me an evil grin showed itself on my face as my thoughts began to change. 'Why only use this Crystal to free the Faunus by fighting the Humans? Why not enslave them? It is what they deserv-Wait no!' I shook my head to get the corrupted thoughts from my head.
'Why would I think that?! Enslaving people is the worst thing I could do with this power, I must use this to protect the Faunus and free them. Not use it to maim Humanity.' I boldly thought as I stepped back from the crystal to look at it once more.
Humming aloud I wondered how I would remove the black crystal. 'Hmm how about I pull on it? It doesn't seem to be part of the dust boulder. Maybe it will separate itself?' I questioned as I moved to tightly grip the crystal again.
Unlike before when I held it, this time I didn't feel a surge of power. This time I only felt a comfortable feeling of energy, energy that I could control. 'Now or never…' I thought as I gripped the crystal and began to pull as hard as I could. Slowly I felt the crystal unlodge itself, but as it was leaving the dust boulder I watched as the other purple crystals lost color.
Color rapidly drained from the dust crystals as I felt more power flow into me. The calming energy that was once content to just be there was now trying to strengthen me. 'Almost there!' I grit my teeth as I put both of my hands around the crystal and pulled up, and just like that the black crystal dislodged itself sending me tumbling to the ground.
"Oof!" I grunted as I landed on the dead dirt below me. Getting to my knees I looked back at where the crystal once was and was left astonished. The purple dust boulder that once stood before me was now completely clear like glass as chunks of it slowly broke apart.
Taking my eyes off of the boulder I looked back at the pitch black crystal in my hand and smiled. 'You will certainly help free my brothers and sisters from their confines.' I thought as I stood up and began to leave.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter, next chapter we will introduce more about this mysterious Faunus from our MC's POV. Feel free to write a review if you want or just enjoy the chapter. Anyways cya next time, au revoir.
