Chapter 297 - A Qualification!
Noah used his observation skill as he found out that he couldn't even move his eyes, the skill showing him the area around him as this mystical red light that erupted from the blazing earth of the First Hell and descended from the skies held tight to his body, the Infernals around him cowering at the appearance of this light.
He could not figure out what was happening when yet another change occurred, this time with him actually beginning to feel something he had not felt in quite a while- pain!
"Ugh!"
[...Analyzing…]
Indescribable pain erupted from his body as he could distinctly feel the voice of the Planetary System of his homeworld, this pain seemingly coming from deep within his body as the red light that held him in place flooded into his body ceaselessly.
It was centered around his wide chest as the more that the red light flooded into him, etchings began to appear on his chest as they began forming peculiar runic lines.
"AARGH!"
This process continued until Noah forcefully let out a guttural howl, feeling the pain slowly receding as the dense amount of light rushing into him had etched out a particular shape clearly on his chest. The whole process wasn't done, as on top of this mystical shape, the remainder of the red energy shot towards his head as a momentary sharp pain could be felt, this time only lasting for a millisecond as pieces of information began to enter Noah's head.
[Analyzing…]
The Planetary System of his homeworld was still trying to use its authority to see what exactly had occurred just now, this situation being similar to when Noah first came in contact with the energies that Infernals released after they were destroyed, but on a much grander scale!
Yet, at this moment in time, Noah did not need the System to tell him exactly what was going on, as the remainder of the red light that had shot into his head actually contained an abundant amount of information.
As for this information? He was left in awe the moment he began organizing everything and looked down towards his chest, his movements coming back to him fully as the red light completely receded, the cowering Infernals still looking from a distance as they were unsure what had just occurred.
On his chest, a glistening runic star that shone with a shimmering red light was clearly etched out, his mind remembering the pain as he realized this brand was not just etched onto his body, but onto his very origin! This was the reason he felt such a tremendous feeling of pain as the process occurred.
[You have gained a...qualification?]
Both Noah and the Planetary Systems were trying to piece together the foreign information coming from this new source of energy, but Noah did not need to wait for the Systems to analyze and quantify this information as it was being fed to him as clear as day from the remainder of the energy that rushed to his head.
The first piece of information that he received was a memory about the Infernal Realms of Hell.
In this Novus Galaxy, all across the regions of the Light Expanse, Dark Expanse, and Letalis Expanse- there were a total of five gateways that led to different realms of hell. These realms ranged from the First Realm of Hell where many of the Infernals had their beginnings, all the way to the Fifth Realm of Hell where the most powerful Infernal Lords resided!
The first piece of information that Noah received was an overview of these realms and where each of their gates were located. The second piece of information pertained to the Infernal Lords themselves, and the empty seat that had been left dusting away for hundreds of years as these Infernal Lords awaited for something exactly like what occurred to Noah to happen.
In this Novus Galaxy, there were exactly 8 Infernal Lords currently moving around, with the information making it clear that there were only 9 possible Infernal Lord that could take that title at any point in time, with there being an empty seat these past hundreds of years after the downfall of a particular Infernal Lord sometime in the past.
This was where the third piece of information came in- the one that talked about this last empty seat, and how that was connected to the surprising event that had just taken place with him right in the middle of it!
[Indeed, a Qualification.]
Much of the information was pieced together as Noah agreed while feeling the receding pain, turning to his stat panel as he observed what the Planetary System had done yet again- simplify things in the easiest way possible as the information flowing in his mind was placed onto the blue stat panel.
[Title] :: Infernal Lord- 1% ( In Progress)
[Infernal Lord] :: !$$%^&$* $%^$%&^*&(&WQ $%#$^*^&*(#%#^&*(*(*&^ [email protected]@$% $^$%&%^@# $%&**%((@# ^&$^&^&%^*%^ !$%#%^&(^&*$%[email protected]#%^&*&^^#$^%&
In clear and crisp words, much of the information in Noah's mind was laid down in simple words that described exactly what had occurred, barring the many ununderstandable jibberish beneath the meaning of the Infernal Lord title itself. As the Planetary System mentioned, the red light that rooted Noah to the skies and etched a brand to his very origin was a qualification.
This qualification...was one that gave him the right to take the title of an Infernal Lord in the future!
This was a shocking turn of events that went completely against the prior knowledge that Noah had about Infernals and Infernal Lords, with much of his knowledge towards these beings that were diametrically opposed to any others but them, was the fact that they only existed for wanton slaughter and destruction. This was why they were in the Realms of Hell, and would rush to kill anything that did not have an energy signature that did not match theirs.
The Infernals were beings of destruction, pure and simple, and even the new knowledge that Noah gained after he gained the qualification to take the remaining single seat of an Infernal Lord did not change that. Yet, he, a being that was the complete opposite of Infernals, had actually been given the possibility to take the title of an actual Infernal Lord in the future!
It was a mind-bending reality that could only be explained to have occurred by the possible convergence of multiple factors.
If all it took to gain the qualification to become an Infernal Lord was to kill and obtain the unique energies that would be released from the bodies of Infernals, then numerous possible Infernal Lords would have arisen among the forces of many powerful worlds that regularly sent their people to wipe out and battle Infernals.
Yet, all they received from it as a benefit was the rapid increase in comprehension and power.
So the one thing that set Noah apart from all of these beings was the fact that when he first came in contact with these unique energies, the Planetary System isolated and quantified it into the form of Skill Points that were cl.u.s.tered together in Noah's origin, with him distributing them freely to the skills only he could use and taking them away as he wished.
Yet, just this single factor was not enough, as he had killed an abundant amount of Infernals in the past, and yet nothing like what had just occurred now happened during that time. One could make the case and say it was because he had killed an even larger amount now, but the number would not matter as the last point would make it impossible for the last step to occur. There was also the part where he just let loose multiple beings into the Infernal Realm who used the same System as him, and nothing like this had occurred with them!
This was simply that Noah and all the others were beings that were the complete polar opposite of the Infernals, and would not have a possibility of obtaining something that was only meant for the Infernals.
This brought into question the only other change that was unique to Noah, the grandiose form he had taken while he defeated hundreds of thousands of Infernals and obtained an even larger amount of their unique energy signatures in the form of skill points, the form of the Lesser Cthulhu.
This was the only possibility he foresaw as the factor that brought multiple coincidences together and allowed for what happened today to occur, which prompted him to ask the question nobody around him could answer- just what was this form of the [Lesser Cthulhu], and how was it connected to the Infernals?
This was the biggest mystery that he did not know the answer to, and would not know for quite some time!
But this convergence of factors- of him taking the form of the Lesser Cthulhu, of the Planetary System isolating and breaking down the unique signatures of Infernals into quantifiable points kept deep within his origin, of the numerous Infernals that he killed, especially the four Void Rank Infernals that were at the peak of power in this First Realm of Hell.
All of these factors came together as he was granted what an Infernal that was called an Aberration not too long ago had a chance of obtaining. This was the same Aberration that the Celestial Grandmaster had made sure would die, as it held qualifications to become a General or a Scion of an Infernal Lord in the future, if not for the horrendous possibility of it rising as an Infernal Lord itself.
The Grandmaster had wondered whether they really averted fate with the death of that Aberration, and his wondering was answered at this moment as a brand new Aberration, this one actually gaining the qualification of becoming an Infernal Lord much earlier, had appeared in the First Realm of Hell!