Author Note

  Hey Guy's Iam_Hastur here, just a quick announcement, by the end of Volume 2 or Middle Volume 3 test, I am officially going to Copy-Right OWOY and get my own legal IP for the book. The first of many steps I need if I want to have a successful transition over at Amazon KDP. Initially I still need a book cover. Nothing official as of yet, since I would first need to complete the book before I even post it there. Lucky for you guys, I pn ahead, and I think this book might be way, wayyy, WAYYYY longer than I originally thought. I would also need to edit it as well for better quality eventually. I am also working on a legal watermark for my book's and work, basically I am self branding. Will post my brand here when it is done. I am starting now, so by the time everything is ready, I should have a good fan-base which is still kind of far off, as I am learning as I go along. But yes this is more like a little personal side project, but my main one as it me self publishing, and I must say I am happy for all the support I have garnered this far. Also aly Official Art will be posted sometime during the weekend, so either Halloween or the day after. Keep in mind as well, to go back to poll where I asked you guys if about weapon or artifact. Art work for those will come soon, remember only three winners. That aside enjoy the chapter.

  BOOOOOM!

  Sonic booms ripped through the night sky, a thunderous cascade trailing the monstrous eagle as its serrated bck wings sliced the air like living bdes.

  Nier soared across miles, his aerodynamic beak piercing wind and sound alike, a bck and white comet tearing through the vacuum of shattered barriers.

  Cities blurred beneath him in seconds, as he fly through jagged skyline, his massive form weaving above the clouds to evade any prying eyes below.

  Power unlike anything he had personally known coursed through this perverse and mutated body, a raw, electric surge that felt less like a bird and more like a primal force of nature.

  The mutation had reshaped his eagle form into something otherworldly, alien by this pnets standard's.

  Grotesque, permanent unless he rewrote its genetic code. Feathers had burned away, repced by obsidian scales pulsing with veins of white Gaian light.

  A weird harmony of both the most purest form of divine energy, and the most vile and horrific form of Negative energy. Within this inhumane vessel. Gaian and Negativity work together in perfect harmony, non over taking the other.

  His wings, elongated and serrated, thrummed with unnatural strength, his beak now a maw of needle-like teeth. Yet, why fix it? This wasn't a fw, it was a force evolution, a second stage to his eagle form, no longer reliant on Negativity to manifest. The transformation had woven itself into his very DNA, a fusion of his Authority's power and something new, something monstrous.

  With a thought, Nier shifted mid-flight, his body rippling at Mach speed. The monstrous eagle dissolved into his human form, though the jagged wings remained, beating against the wind. Another shift, and he was the monster again, seamless, fluid, the transitions as natural as breathing.

  His crimson eyes glinted, scanning the horizon as he banked through a cloudbank, the cold mist clinging to his scales.

  "Escaping Lady Blue cost me a fortune in Negativity."

  He muttered, his voice a low growl, distorted by the mutation.

  "But I gained something worth it."

  He flexed his wings, feeling the raw power thrumming through them.

  "Overdosing this vessel with Gaian and Negativity twisted my genetics into something… else. Is it even human anymore? Well I highly doubt it. Not that it matters anyways; because if you really think about it, human traits are too weak to face monsters like her."

  His mind fshed to Lady Blue's crimson aura, her city-hurling might, and the cold and eager look she carries in her eyes.

  "If our paths cross again, I'll need more than this. I need power, real power to crush camities like her. I must train, fight, and continue increasing my power, the question is however...how do I go about effectively ridding myself of these weakness?"

  A good question? No doubt about that! However, a question like that, isn't an easily answered thing.

  To pursue something as abstract as his goal, it would demand a long, profoundly enlightening journey...one that Nier has only just begun.

  As he progresses through life, the answers will gradually reveal themselves.

  But as he ponders, a sudden jolt to his senses interrupts his thoughts. Focusing on the sensation, he looks downward.

  He feels it, a wellspring of dark, malevolent power, steeped in evil. It is as though a concentrated pool of negativity itself pulses below.

  Despair.

  Hatred.

  Guilt.

  Pain.

  Regret.

  And lust..............

  "What is this!?"

  Nier gasps.

  The scent is intoxicating, a power so potent it captivates not only his mind but the eldritch essence of his soul, drawn to an enchanting abyss of malevolence below.

  With that, Nier descends, his speed so immense it tears through the pnet's atmosphere.

  Friction builds as he plummets like an asteroid, his body igniting in fmes. Yet his reinforced skin, shock-resistant bones, and uniquely dense yet pliable flesh remain unscathed. The fire merely betrays his position, a bzing spectacle in the night sky.

  "Mommy, look… a shooting star!"

  A homeless boy excims, pointing skyward from beneath a bridge. His mother gnces up, watching the high-speed object streak over the city.

  As Nier descends, the world comes into sharp focus.

  "How ironic."

  He muses.

  "Of all pces, I end up back here? Perhaps this pce isn't as useless as I thought."

  The scent grows stronger, irresistible so.

  "I hunger for it."

  FLASH!

  He soars above cars and buildings, drawn to an isoted street cloaked in an eerie aura. At the edge of a dockside warehouse district, a lone, abandoned warehouse looms.

  Hovering above, Nier beholds something unprecedented since gaining his powers: a pitch-bck stain upon reality itself, as if the air were painted with darkness.

  The negativity here is dense, suffocating, and as he enters its field, memories flood his being, vivid, horrific experiences intruding upon his mind and body, so real they feel like his own.

  The brand on his chest glows, amplifying the weight and realism of this sea of tormenting memories, forcing him to relive them all at once.

  "I feel my chest sliced open, my mouth gagged, my arms and legs bound. A bck blindfold covers my eyes, but specks of light from surgical mps pierce through. A moment ter, pain unlike any other consumes me. Men carve into my flesh, harvesting my organs."

  In these memories, Nier is both victim and perpetrator. He cuts and beats, yet also endures the blows. The memories cruel, vivid, and unrelenting, overwhelm his mind.

  "I am tortured, put down like a dog by merciless killers who steal my life to sell my organs. I am the organs, sold to eager buyers. I scream for help as my captors barter ransoms with loved ones."

  Filth. Pure, unadulterated filth.

  "Arghhh!"

  Nier screams, his nerves assaulted physically, his soul battered spiritually.

  Yet, as the pain crescendos, it begins to fade, repced by an intoxicating pleasure coursing through him. The torment transforms into a perverse paradise of power, and he relishes it.

  Though he bears the brand of Mnemosyne, awakening strange abilities tied to her conceptual identity as the Draca of Memories, these harrowing experiences feed his soul. Consuming the negativity of this stained pce replenishes his reserves, for it is his nature to do so.

  With a thunderous crash, Nier plummets through the warehouse roof, his eyes pitch-bck, perceiving eight other lifeforms, and their souls, through the walls.

  The Occultist Eye guides him, illuminating their presence.

  BOOOOM!

  Nier smashes through metal and concrete, obliterating a section of the roof. Debris cascades around him, forming a massive pile of rubble at the center of the warehouse.

  Dust billows, clouding the air as fragments rain down even after he nds, sparking panic among the humans present.

  As Nier surveyed the warehouse, he sensed an overwhelming tide of negativity saturating its depths. This pce could be a miniature hell, a concentrated locus of pure horror and evil, embodying the cruelty and injustice humans are capable of when they devote themselves to depravity: crime, murder, rape, theft, arson, kidnapping, and much, much worse. This warehouse had borne witness to it all, a dark stain upon the slum-infested city.

  Yet, despite the atrocities that had unfolded within these walls, Nier couldn't suppress his joy, his face spoke his thoughts louder than any words could, as be bores a twisted smile. A creepy, monstrous expression spread across his bird-like face as he spoke.

  "Damn, this pce is reeking with a shit ton of Negativity. A perfect fine hahahah...well of chaos."

  Nier's ughter echoed, a distorted, nightmarish orchestra that grated on the ears of the humans below, both horrific and monstrous.

  The terrified onlookers gaped in awe and dread at the colossal thirty-foot creature, if it could even be called a bird, perched atop the rubble of the colpsed roof.

  "Mmm, how delightful."

  Nier purred, his voice dripping with menace.

  "I can smell your fear, and rightfully so...especially yours man thing."

  His gaze fixed on Quincy, revealing a maw of needle-like teeth. Quincy's face contorted in horror as he stumbled backward, tripping and falling onto the ground, still staring up at the scaled beast.

  Nier's wings, rger than his towering form, unfurled with a flourish. When he fpped them to adjust his position on the rubble, they struck the ground, and the razor sharp feather sent sparks upwards, parting they concrete splitting and cutting the ground and reinforced steel within it, as effortlessly as a hot knife through butter.

  Quincy's voice broke the silence, in a trembling stammer.

  "W-W-hat the fuck is that thing? Oh God, get me out of here!"

  He said in freight, yet it was Lionel who move first, abandoning Alle, while he yanked up his pants and bolted for the exit. Nier's eyes gleamed as he watched the fleeing man.

  "Oh, you look like you were about to have a good time."

  Nier taunted.

  "Let me join in on the fun to noeee...

  With a powerful fp of his wings, he aim for the running Lionel as Nier unleashed a gale infused with concentrated Gaian energy, a force that felt instinctual to him.

  As he grew more attuned to the versatile applications of this energy, he wielded it with terrifying precision. A sharpened current of invisible wind sliced outward, carving a scar across the earth as it pursued Lionel, who ran desperately, clutching his sagging pants.

  "No! No! NOOOO...AAAGH!"

  Lionel's scream was cut short.

  SLICE!

  A sickening sound rang out as the wind bde struck him without fail or chance to flee further than his st step. Lionel was severed into six pieces, his blood spttering across the ground. The gale continued its path, crashing into the warehouse wall and shattering it in a violent explosion of debris.

  Nier then looked at the people here, intrigued by the show.

  Quincy, frantic, turned to his armed comrades, gesturing wildly at the soldiers securing the door outside. Their faces bnched with terror as they stared at Nier's monstrous form.

  Quincy's voice cracked with desperation as he pointed at the creature and shouted.

  "What the fuck are you waiting for? Can't you see that Flux bastard burst through the roof? Kill it!"

  DADADADADA… DADAAAADADA!!!

  Gunfire erupted, bursts of muzzle fshes illuminating the darkened warehouse as the armed goons unleashed a barrage from their submachine guns.

  El dove toward her sister, tackling Alle to the ground as the fierce battle for survival raged, on as she was right in the cross fire.

  THUD!

  "Stay down, Alle!"

  El shouted as bullets rained down upon them, their sole goal was to kill Nier.

  Yet Nier, as the towering bird-like creature he was, didn't flinch. His gaze locked onto the attackers, and suddenly, the world slowed to a crawl in his perception, as if time itself had thickened.

  'What is this?'

  Nier wondered.

  The moment his focus wavered, the world snapped back to normal speed. Bullets struck his body, but they merely bounced off, unable to pierce his soft yet durable flesh or the scales shielding his form. His wings, unscathed, stood resolute against the onsught.

  "I see... This mark is truly remarkable."

  Nier thought, as new knowledge flooded his mind, memories that weren't his own, downloaded into his consciousness almost passively as if to respond to his desire of wanting to know.

  The Divine Brand of Mnemosyne granted him access to the spells and powers of Mnemosyne herself, albeit to a lesser degree. Like a tree, its potential was boundless, capable of growing stronger with time. Within it y hundreds of spells, but their use required Gaian energy. With his current reserves, only two spells were accessible.

  One was already active: "Memory Zone" a passive spell triggered by intense concentration. It expanded his mind's capacity, slowing the perception of the outside world to a hyper-detailed crawl, granting him acute awareness of everything in his direct line of sight. The phenomenon unfolding before him now was its doing.

  Then there was another spell, one that thrilled him.

  "What a fascinating spell."

  Nier said, a wicked smile curling across his needle-toothed maw.

  Unlike Memory Zone, this was an active spell, one he could wield at will. He turned his gaze to the humans firing at him, their efforts futile against his impervious form. Bullets could not harm him in this state, but these humans were too terrified, too foolish, to realize it.

  Nier's eyes glowed a menacing red as he intoned the name of the spell.

  "Fake Reality: Death."

  A wave of memories surged forth, vivid, fabricated, and so potent they trick reality itself.

  The humans, defenseless against Gaian energy and cking resistance to magic or Hesta abilities, succumbed instantly.

  In their minds, Nier's spell wove a false memory of their demise, forcing them live through a fake reality, as sharp feathers and wind bdes began slicing them to pieces. Though entirely illusory, the memories were so real, so overwhelming, that their bodies believed the lie.

  One by one, the shooters colpsed, their minds shattered by the fabricated deaths they experienced. To an onlooker, their bodies bore no wounds, only the stillness of death, induced by the falcy that they had perished. Their minds, convinced of their own destruction, had caused their bodies to follow suit.

  With that, every human in the warehouse perished instantly. Mere mortals, they stood no chance against Nier's spell.

  Silence descended once more...

  "NO, no, no, NOOOO!"

  The quiet was shattered by El's desperate, heart-wrenching scream.

  Nier's attention snapped to her, the sole living being left in the warehouse. His gaze fell upon a tragic scene.

  El knelt, clutching her sister Alle, whose neck gushed blood from a stray bullet that had torn through her jugur. Alle choked, drowning in her own blood, as El frantically tried to stem the flow, her hands slick with crimson, but to no avail.

  Nier hadn't come for them.

  This pce brimmed with negativity, so potent he wondered if he could absorb it all in one night without losing his sanity. As he prepared to consume the dark energy and flee, the distant wail of police sirens grew closer.

  Then, a voice called out.

  "Please…

  Nier turned his head, and there, on her knees, hands stained with blood and eyes swollen from tears, was El.

  "Please, save my sister… please!"

  She begged.

  'Is this human mad, pleading with a monster for help?'

  Nier thought, incredulous.

  But at that moment, Mnemosyne Brand fred to life once more.

  Memories flooded his mind, bringing with them a sudden revetion.

  "Wait… is this for real?"

  Nier muttered to himself, sifting through the new knowledge to confirm what he had glimpsed upon was true.

  The insight was staggering, faith could substitute for Gaian energy, and it was far stronger.

  'If I make this girl worship me...

  He mused.

  'She could serve as a battery for the mark.'