1 Me & I

Beginning to settle into the horizon was the Sun of old. It was enveloped by a pinkish hue, serene and mythical.

Bouncing onto the clouds soon to disappear, they looked like cotton candy that had just been newly spun. Each bite would melt on the tongue.

All of it clashed with the foulness of the city. As though the sewers and drains had been inverted, where the hygiene began and ended was no longer distinguishable.

Josiah pulled his katana out of a neck that was still spewing fresh blood; occasionally splurts would shoot out.

Going through every contact on his phone, he made sure that everyone was unharmed. It seems that they all took his advice to heart.

Then looking at the time, he muttered, "Most of the creatures will have pacified and turn permanently docile by tomorrow."

Behind him was a trail of blood that told of his journey. Thousands of bodies could be counted just from where he stood.

But that was just a small scale; a mere glimpse into the painting he had brought to life. If every creature he had killed were to be counted, it would either near the one million mark or even exceed it.

Admittedly, the day had started off rather slow compared to the speed he finished at.

A few thousands of kills into the day, he had finally leveled up. Instantly he could feel his physical traits had been greatly boosted, making his domineering status elevate even further in this arena they once called New York City.

But that boost wasn't the only benefit he received from leveling up. That was just a mere appetizer. The two other benefits were truly the cream of the crop.

[Level: 2 | Class: Ravennite | Race: Human]

[Class Skills: Raven's Night (I) | Koraki (I)]

[Innate Skills: Superhuman (III)]

[Acquired Skills: Indra (II) | Flames of Sirius (II) | Asura (I)]

Even after a million kills... he wasn't even level three yet. Which showed just how exponentially it grew in difficulty.

But it made sense why the gap existed as his first benefit was that he unlocked another one of his class skills.

[Koraki] allowed him to truly embrace the feeling and meaning to be a raven; it granted him two extra limbs that were made by his numerous ravens coming together, fusing into two beautiful black wings.

It was another feature that constantly drained energy to use but it wasn't as bad as his flames. It was as different as taking elementary math versus calculus.

With wings, his aerial battle as well as his versatility had grown to where his arsenal was as near to perfect as perfect can be.

Now it was time to take a bite of the second main dish. His other benefit.

"Which one should I choose?" he asked himself.

He now had the option to select whichever one of his skills and level them up one time.

This benefit right here, this was what separated the skill gap, paychecks, and fame of the scrubs scouring for any experience points from those who were in the upper echelons of level.

Their peers could only stare in jealously and hope to one day reach where they stand.

No matter the proficiencies one may have of their skills and weapons. No matter the natural talent they had. Just a single skill level would grant the veteran advantages that were extremely difficult to make up.

This was why the decision was a tough one to make.

Josiah didn't have a tracker telling him, but he could feel that his next level up would not be any time soon. This rate of energy he was absorbing would require him to enter the tens of millions in terms of kills.

"Hmmm..." he frowned.

After a stressful few silent minutes of consideration that felt like hours, Josiah finally came to a decision.

Selecting to go ahead with [Indra], the Roman numeral beside the name changed on the screen in front of him.

While Josiah was focused on the skill, he realized that it was finally time to proceed with the second feature of [Indra] that he had been working for since his return.

All around him were numerous bags stashed full of materials and body parts that he had picked from the deceased. It looked like a child's toy box as its randomness could go from horns, eyeballs, or poison sacs.

However, the one thing they shared in common was that the parts were all rich in energy and value.

As he went from bag to bag, he had calculated that he finally had a sufficient amount.

Activating the skill, he muttered the name of the second feature, "{Alter Ego}."

Immediately, the bags around him, some even taller than himself had begun to shrink. Like balloons letting out the air inside, they eventually all collapsed and folded into a flat state.

Taking a knife, Josiah carved into his palm a circle. Then edged a thick dot in the middle of it.

Although painful, he wasn't finished. As soon as the dot was big enough, he began to drag the knife in the direction of the 6th hour of a clock.

Dragging the blade down in a straight direction, he eventually created a straight line that cut through the circle and stopped just before it reached the elbow.

As soon as the knife was tossed aside, the blood that was pouring from the deep cuts had stopped. Instead, his flesh closed as though it was an old wound, leaving a black mark the same pattern as the one he had made on himself.

Then a black light began to flash in front of him faintly like a firefly.

The "brighter" the light grew, the weaker the markings on his forearm became.

Away from the sight of any eyes in the sky, he walked into a building and the light followed obediently like a dog.

It continued to grow until it was his size and even expanded beyond his height.

Looking down at his arm, his flesh was all a single color without a single trace of the knife nor the marking. He pulled his rolled-up sleeve back down.

Changing state at the pace of a snail, the light was beginning to transition into solid matter.

After five minutes or so, there was a black silhouette of a person in front of him. It looked like a mannequin that could be founded in malls.

Taking even longer, the mannequin began to gain a livelier color as well as obtaining eyes, organs, and essentially—the complete body of a person.

Like looking into a mirror, the person in front of him looked completely identical to the basketball prodigy that had taken the world by storm.

He looked like the son of Ellie, who was relieved that her child was safe, and the best friend of Gabriel who was sharing a single room with two families at the moment.

His skin color was an amber tone with a tint of golden hue like the sands of a desert.

Long but not overbearing, his deep brown hair didn't grow past his nape and was split in the middle. Other than the few bands of hair that nearly obstructed his view, the rest flowed downwards behind his ears.

Although his jaw was chiseled from the hours of exercise he had put in, he still had a little bit of baby fat that could easily be pinched and pulled.

Cinnamon brown eyes.

Wearing a red and white school bomber jacket that had a few patches stitched onto it, underneath was a yellow shirt. And underneath that was a black turtleneck compression shirt.

On the jacket, one patch read, "Basketball Captain", a second one read, "Baseball Squad", and another read, "World Championship".

They were his athletic accolades that he had garnered in the single two seasons of school sports he dabbled in.

It was a second Josiah that even his mother wouldn't be able to tell apart.

"It has been a while since I've experienced this feeling," the second Josiah grinned.

The feature {Alter Ego} was almost self-explanatory.

It directly linked with how the {Infinite Void} worked; just as how anything, anyone, or any situation could be created inside the void and made into a reality in there, {Alter Ego} also made it a reality for the user to take upon a different identity.

On a smaller scale, it could adjust how Josiah could look just as how he had been utilizing it the entire day to appear five inches shorter than his actual height.

However, on a bigger scale that required sacrificing materials as well as creating a blood link on the arm, it could create a second personality to exist within the hold of a singular consciousness.

It was like how Josiah could perceive the visions and control of all the ravens but on a scale that was infinitely more advanced.

They truly existed in complete cohesiveness whilst maintaining their own train of thoughts.

The second Josiah in front of him said, "See you in a bit. Gotta return to mother," before compressing then exploding into a burst of ravens that flew out of the building and high into the cotton candy sky.

The Josiah, samurai clad in black, could feel that the energy flowing in him had been drained equivalent to the activation of [Raven's Night].

"Well then... I guess that means it is also time for me to leave. Time to say hello."

He pulled down his hood.

Whoosh.

He was gone, having replaced one of his ravens that had his talons wrapped around a metal pole above the heads of the resting citizens grouped tightly inside the underground tunnels.

Landing as softly as a feather, his appearance immediately grabbed the attention of all those who were awake.

One of the protectors grabbed his gun and was about to aim his gun in a hurry but the lady next to him grabbed his wrist to stop him from doing so.

"Good to see that you're still alive," said Keisha as she walked up to him alongside Vivian who had gotten more rest.

The two ladies had been helping around the tunnels, passing out food and water as well as distributing whatever blankets and warm clothes they had.

The night was somehow colder than even it had been a few months ago during the snow season.

Grabbing his face with one hand, he took off his minimalistic mask revealing a face that didn't belong to him.

As though he came out of a drama, he had a face fit for television.

His silky black hair was trimmed neatly, pulled backwards, and looked as though the wind had been blown in a singular direction aimed directly at his face.

Compared to the golden skin he normally had, this disguise of his had pale white skin with a pinkish secondary color that stood out despite how faint it was.

If he were to be casted in a film that took place in the age of the samurais, he would have fit perfectly as a noble.

"Although I would like to say the same, I can't seem to recall who you are. Sorry about that," apologized Josiah with a friendly smile.

"Ahhh. That's okay. The name's Keisha Harrell."

"Obi Yoshimochi," Josiah introduced himself.

With this second identity, he had taken on and embraced part of his true self.

In his blood, a quarter of it was indeed Japanese, originating from his biological father's side.

Many years ago, when he was facing off against great dangers, whenever he donned the katana, he made it a point to accept the culture of the father rather than ignore it or reject it.

This was just a more extreme case.

Shaking hands with these so-called "protectors", he got to learn their names as well as received words of admiration or gratitude for saving their lives.