Nothing New

Pain was nothing new to Fate.

His entire childhood, if one could even call it that, was filled with pain. After the Advanced killed his mother and kidnapped him for the twisted experiments, every day was filled with pain, along with the dread of knowing he could die at any moment.

Whenever one of them disobeyed, the offender would be tied down, forced to their knees with their hands behind their backs. Then, the scientists would tell their brothers and sisters to punish the disobedient one.

They didn't have a choice; they couldn't fight back. Every time such a scenario happened, a Prodigy, one of the Advanced's "successful" experiments, would be there. And he would force their bodies to move on their own.

Each member of Styx had been on the receiving end of it at one point, but Gavyn had withstood it the most. Gavyn, ever the defiant one, always promising they would see freedom, was tied down and beaten by the only people he could consider friends at least once a week. Fate himself had been punished with that method a few times.

Then there were the experiments, conducted without painkillers and often requiring cutting large swaths of flesh and skin off and cauterizing it back on, and the training, where they were taught how to kill without remorse.

This, they learned quickly. The Advanced wanted to break their bonds along with their spirits. Styx broke them, instead.

The point was, Fate was no stranger to pain, whether it be physical, mental, or emotional. The Advanced saw the 'perfect being' as one without emotion, without pain or empathy. So, Fate had become adept at fighting through pain and stamping out his emotions. His only other option was death, after all.

Fate watched the light drain from Hedra's eyes, the rage and sorrow within them not fazing him in the slightest. The lightning was now traveling directly into him, her hands pushing away at his own.

His grip was so tight, she couldn't get any air whatsoever into her throat, despite her desperate attempts to form words. Luckily for her, her last words weren't to be lost to the wind, as Fate was somewhat proficient at reading lips.

"They… do not need… a Savior…" she mouthed, the last flicker of life leaving her eyes as she went limp.

Fate dropped her body, releasing his grip in a large jerk. He stood there, stiff as a board and hands stuck in the air in a claw shape, as he waited for his Manifest Power to take care of Hedra's rampant Divine Energy.

The process took around forty minutes. While he waited, the guards from Frendnann bounded over the stone mound that was once a section of wall, their roars joining the din of the battlefield. They stormed forward, passing by Fate, and started cutting down the Fractured with their spears.

As they did, Fate made sure to shout "you won't have access to your Manifest Powers while I'm here!" He received several nods from the guards darting past in response.

When he could finally move once more, nearly all of Hedra's Divine Energy within him had been used as fuel for his brand-new Avatar buff, which he earned in the fight. He walked back to his Miao Dao with a bit of a limp, his legs still a little stiff. After scooping it up and sheathing it for a moment, Fate took a moment to reflect on his newest Avatar Buff.

That fight with Hedra had given him a few small insights into his Manifestation, bringing him to about 63% of the way through the Avatar Level. When he realized that his sadness affected the strength of Hedra's lightning, and how Hedra's sadness likewise increased it, he had thought of something similar for his Manifestation, the comprehension giving him his second buff in the Avatar Level.

Hedra's lightning had cannibalized the sadness produced by her Divine Energy, using it as fuel to increase the lightning's power. This made Fate realize that if Hedra could use Divine Energy as fuel, so could he.

He felt the benefits immediately, the remnants of Hedra's energy being devoured by his Manifestation, healing the severe wounds he had sustained. The only reason it took a full thirty minutes was the utter strength Hedra gained as an Incarnation.

Fate's aura had taken a third of the power Hedra's lighting had had while it was traveling in the air, and his intangibility's ability to erode Divine Energy within himself took out a third of what was left. Even with only around 11% of its power left, it still nearly killed him. And if Fate hadn't gotten that new buff when he did, it would have.

Every time an Embodiment increased in Level, the quality of Divine Energy one can produce would increase as well. Your Manifestation was what made your Divine Energy. Every increase in Level was your Manifestation evolving, allowing it to make stronger and stronger energy. The power of one's Divine Energy doubled with every Level.

The only exceptions were Incarnations, receiving a four-times power increase, and the Realized Level, which according to the Philosophers for the Preservation of Knowledge yielded a thirty-times power increase.

The momentum of their Manifestation evolving to such a profound and powerful form was what skyrocketed one's Divine Reach to the realm exclusive to Realized: Divine Will. Just like the Realized Level was the largest and longest of all the Levels, one's Divine Will never stopped growing.

The PPK had tales of Realized capable of shifting entire solar systems, of the fabled Manifested creating a big bang and birthing a universe with just their Divine Will.

But back to the matter at hand, Hedra's Divine Energy was an overwhelming eight times stronger than Fate's own, with all of his Divine Energy strength-reducing powers bringing the lightning down to a little over half of his power. Combined with the inherent quality of the Divine Energy of an Incarnation, it was still effectively twice his own strength.

A similar analogy would be a bronze sword versus a steel dagger. While a bronze sword is better on the surface due to its reach and weight, a steel dagger would break long after a bronze sword would.

All this together meant Fate was stuck staring out at nothing for a while, fighting against the pain as his Manifestation slowly but surely broke Hedra's energy up and used it to heal his body. The new healing aspect was the biggest thing keeping him together, slowing Hedra's energy's advance throughout his body long enough for his energy to deal with it.

Done ruminating, Fate observed the guards that had joined the fight, trying to find where he was needed.