Introductions

As he threw annoyed glances around the space, Lin Fan begun to feel his 'lips' move again and the same mechanical voice spoke.

[As host to the 'One and Only' system, the host can progressively gain access to functions which will aid you in the creation of a physique envied by all transcendental beings in your universe]

"Oi you traitorous fuck, stop speaking over me" Lin Fan shouted, incensed by the continuous interruption from the mechanical voice.

He had wanted to speak to the strange new addition to his mental space. He wanted to flaunt his presence as an otherworldly being, yet he could barely speak. Oh how far he had fallen.

In contrast, Patrice was beyond amazed as he stared at the hollow eyed being talking to himself.

"Wh-who are you?" He asked again, with a little more firmness in his voice.

[I am the 'One and Only' sys-Shut your dirty mouth, he is talking to me] Lin Fan interrupted in annoyance.

"Listen carefully young one" Lin Fan spoke in a low voice while raising both arms towards the sky.

"This great one is Lin Fan, the first son of heaven, king of the crimson wastelands, lord of beasts and demons, conqueror and purveyor of souls, shepherd of the forsaken and the only one of my kind" He declared triumphantly, hands still raised to the sky and eyes closed.

Patrice stared in silence as the man spoke. Each declaration was accompanied by an invisible wave of pressure and every word reverberated through his body causing him to shiver.

After a few moments of not hearing a response, Lin Fan peeked his eyes open and looked at the child. On his face he saw a stunned expression mixed with awe and apprehension. 'Good enough' he thought with a hint of pride shining in his hollow eyes.

"Now then, why don't you tell me about yourself little one?" Lin fan said as he raised a palm to cup his chin and took a closer look at Patrice. "And what you're doing in my mental space" at this, his gaze became more piercing with a slight hint of otherworldly killing intent.

**

As Patrice stood there, still processing the man's…introduction 'he said his name was as Lin Fan, didn't he?' 'Is he a foreigner?' 'Where even is this place?'. The man's piercing gaze shook him out of his thoughts. He felt as though the space around him had frozen still and the air in his lungs became constricted. For a moment he panicked, thinking the phenomenon he had experienced previously was happening again. However he soon realised it was because his body had also become frozen under the man's gaze. Even the rise and fall of his chest to the rhythm of his breathing had ceased, making it far more difficult than usual to take a much needed deep breath.

He tried to open his mouth to say he did not know what was happening but found out he could not.

Noticing this, Lin Fan's piercing gaze eased slightly and he sighed with a wry yet prideful smile 'Ah alas, I have become too powerful'.

As his movements became less constricted, Patrice took a deeper breath and spoke.

"My name is Patrice, sir"

The pool of golden light in Lin Fan's hollow eyes contracted sharply at this.

"Brother" he said slowly.

"Sorry?"

"Call me brother you little shit" he repeated slowly and menacingly as the surrounding space began to constrict again.

"B-Brother? Uhm…okay, yeah brother, my name is Patrice" Patrice said hurriedly, with no intention to ask why.

The sense of suffocation eased again.

"A-All I remember was being hit by a bright light and then I woke up here, well not here, somewhere else and now I am here but I don't know…where this…is…." Patrice trailed off uncertainly, glancing around the massive hall as he did so.

'Oh fuck' Lin Fan thought as he tried his best to avoid eye contact with the kid 'Ball of light?'…'that was me wasn't it?'.

He quickly composed himself and coughed softly "ahem…I see…well young Patrice, feel honoured for you are within this great one's mind scape".

"Mind scape? I am inside your mind?" Patrice asked, suddenly feeling his knees grow weak and his vision sway.

"Yes…now I can't say I know how that came to be, but I can make a fairly good guess as to who or better yet, what" Lin fan paused as he closed his eyes in annoyance "is responsible for this" he sighed and looked at the child. The child in question was however distracted and appeared to be stopping himself from throwing up.

'How is this even possible?'

'Am I real?'

'Is he even real?'

'Am I dreaming?'

'Everything has been surreal since I woke up here'

'Maybe I am dreaming?'

Before he could panic any further however, a pair of hollow sockets shoved their way into his line of sight, followed by mocking "boo!", as two balls of golden brilliance bounced erratically between them.

"Stop losing your shit, little one, for you have been blessed" Lin fan leaned back and chuckled loudly at the look of horror on Patrice's face.

"As you heard earlier from 'the one and only backstabber' you are now in the rare possession of a system" He said softly as he wiped an imaginary tear from his void-like eyes.

"In fact you even have me as an added bonus"…"two golden fingers, what a lucky little bastard" he added with a hint of envy in his voice.

Lin fan was a powerful cosmic entity who had stamped his existence into the fabric of reality for hundreds of thousand of years, experiencing countless phenomena,so he was able fully understand the situation instantly. It appeared the soul of the body he had invaded was quite powerful. Powerful enough to not only withstand the invasion of of his soul, but also break into his mind scape. He could count on one hand how many souls had been able to do this. Those souls had been especially difficult to restrain and destroy. Yet he had no desire to destroy this one. He guessed that this had something to do with assimilating with the system. However if he could be honest with himself, he had somehow taken a liken to this brave young soul.

As Patrice was still digesting what he was being told, Lin fan abruptly said "Well then, let's see what we have here" and clapped his hands. As he did so, the palace crumbled and the two of them found themselves in a vast field of purplish golden grass.

Patrice stumbled away from Lin fan as he was transported back to the field he woke up in.

"Oh…niiiice" Lin fan muttered as he walked around, occasionally bending down to caress the softly shimmering grass. 'This is spirit grass' he thought as he cast a glance back at Patrice.

"How old are you, young soul?"

Patrice was still reeling from the change in scenery, and turned to Lin fan with his mouth agape.

"Your age runt, how long have you been alive?" Lin fan added impatiently.

"24 and a half…years" Patrice absentmindedly replied, still dumbfounded.

"Interesting" Lin fan said as he turned to inspect the surroundings some more. "And your soul is already this powerful?" He muttered as he glanced up at the equally shimmering sky.

"Interesting" he repeated as he stomped a foot onto the grass and shot into the sky.

In that moment the space stiffened as an intense amount of invisible pressure surged from the sky, pressing down forcibly on Lin fan and slowing his ascent.

"Oh ho…interesting" Lin fan smiled and the orbs of gold in his eyes shone excitedly. He lifted his right hand and made a grabbing motion towards the sky. The invisible pressure was instantly torn apart as he continued his ascent.

Almost immediately after the invisible force was destroyed, the specks of light in the sky began to shine brightly and began to crash violently into each other. In a matter of a few moments, the sky had transformed into a chaotic canvas of cascading brilliance, that converged and came crashing down on Lin fan.

Lin fan let out a cold harrumph as he stretched his hands out as if to summon something. However nothing happened and he smiled wryly as realisation dawned on him. He then waved his hand in an arc over his head and a thin, almost invisible dome of light appeared over his body.

He then stopped in his tracks and quietly observed the violent energy crashing repeatedly into him.

"This is a pretty strong heavenly restriction" he muttered as the golden orbs in his eyes shone and he discovered the waves of energy were made up of countless little runes, each the size of a grain of rice.

He furrowed his brows and glanced back down at Patrice who appeared to be struggling to breathe. 'What an interesting soul' he thought with barely concealed elation.

He then ceased his inspection and threw both hands outward, causing the waves of light to scatter into the sky.

Before the waves could resume their attack, he had already shot back down to the grass and was staring at Patrice with his brows furrowed.

Following Lin fans descent, the waves of light abruptly stopped converging and dispersed across the sky, which slowly returned to it former shimmering glory.

As the sky calmed down, Patrice slumped onto the grass and began taking greedy breaths while clenching the ground tightly, his back arched as if his spine was forcing its way out of his body.

All of this had taken place in the space of a few moments, however Patrice felt like an eternity had passed since Lin fan shot into the sky.

After taking a few more breaths, he shot an annoyed glare at the weird being dressed in flowing black and gold robes.

"What..the…hell man?" He said, still feeling like his lungs were ill-suited for breathing.

Lin fan only continued to stare at him with furrowed brows and only after a long while did he say, "You still need to breath in your own mind? I thought I had it bad, who the hell did you offend?"

Patrice could only stare at him blankly. Not only did he not know the answer to Lin fan question, but the guy had completely disregarded his own question.

"Whatever, now that I'm here, I'll make sure to destroy this annoying thing…eventually" he added as he covered he eyes in a forlorn sigh. 'My precious treasures…gone'.

"No matter, from now on, I am you and you are me and you will join me on my ascent to godhood" he said as he looked around at the field, while a bright grin spread across his face.