Something... Wrong. (TheUnfathomable)

Melanoche chewed on her fingernails as she and her sister awaited the results of the ancient ritual. She still wasn't certain she had done the right thing. 'What would Mortimus think? He doesn't know about the war in the first place, what would he think of me if he knew we had not only done all of this, but also resorted to forbidden acts in order to win this feud?' Her anxiety, as usual, tore her apart in the moments where she did not have any tasks to perform and keep her thoughts at bay.

Carnachias, however, seemed rather unbothered by their current circumstances, something that was as normal as it was annoying to Melanoche. "Would you calm down Sis? I seriously do not understand how you can manage to spend every moment worrying about something. Just relax and take a second to unwind, will you?" She spoke while laying stomach-down on a stone slab, propping her head up on one of her hands as she looked at Melanoche.

"I don't understand how you can manage to never worry about anything!" Melanoche threw her hands up in frustration, seeking any way possible to vent her eternal anxieties. "I swear, the only things you do are sleep, eat, and fiddle with your bean!" She pointed her finger at her sister, angled slightly down as despite the fact she was standing, she didn't stand too much taller than the slab.

A chuckle accompanied Carnachias' response, "Hey, I seem to be enjoying life a lot more than you. What if that's how a person should live, eh?" Rolling on her side slightly, Carnachias allowed her arm to straighten and rested her cheek on her upper arm. After a few moments of stunned silence from Melanoche, Carnachias decided to fake snoring to mess with her sister.

Annoyed to no end, Melanoche silently admitted defeat, knowing there was little she could do to "win" in such a discussion with her sister. She took the moment to look around again, making sure everything had been thoroughly prepared for the other-worlder's arrival. They were in a side room, a glorified closet, that they had emptied out in preparation for this event. There was little light at all, only a few wall-mounted torches that were burning steadily, spaced far apart to allow for a dark ambiance. A red carpet flowed forth from the entry door, down the three steps to the lower level where the subject would be summoned. The two sisters were set up just at the top of this ledge, so that they would **** the lost soul to look up at them, giving a sense of authority.

'Deep breath in, deep breath out. As horrible as it is to admit this, Carnachias is partially right. There isn't much more you can do to prepare, so just relax until-' Melanoche's self-reassurances were cut short by a sound. She spun on her heels, already knowing that she would see the runes upon the floor aglow. 'So, it found someone... Well, no going back now.' She prepared herself and, with one last inhale, let out her rehearsed speech to beckon the soul. "Do not avert your gaze, mortal. We have seen your desires, your dark fantasies. And we have judged them worthy. You need but say a word, mortal, and you will be made our champion to bring the treacherous light to heel. You will become a monstrosity without equal, to despoil their cities, **** their women, and defile their saints. All this and more shall be given."

Behind her back, Melanoche crossed her fingers. A quick glance to her sister revealed that even Carnachias was intrigued to say the least, having stood up from the slab to be in a proper position. Looking back to the ritual, it took everything in her not to squeeze her eyes shut from the suspense. 'Please work, please work, please work, please-'

The runes erupted in a purple light, blinding both sisters momentarily. Both of them blinked rapidly, attempting to regain their vision. When at last they could see once more, they beheld a glorious sight. Well, glorious may be a strong word, but to them it was something that rewarded their hopes: a soul. Someone who had taken their offer, who could bail them out of their current ill circumstances.

Their future champion to-be was... well, Melanoche hoped that his appearance would not signal anything important. He was ragged, looking as if he had been left in a jailcell or some other locked chamber for decades. His mostly black hair had grown excessively, reaching halfway down his torso and covering most of his face, and interrupted by the occasional bunch of white strands. The only part of his body Melanoche could see through his hair and baggy clothing was his hands, which were boney and thin, not to mention they were shaking slightly.

Melanoche's appraisal of the new arrival was interrupted by Carnachias letting out a triumphant shout. "Ayo, Got 'im!" An angry glance at her sister showed her that Carnachias had thrust a fist in the air triumphantly.

Doing her best to recover from that interruption, Melanoche tried to discredit her sister. "Ignore my sister, please. Serial masturbation has-"

Her words were interrupted as the man before them fell to his knees. Melanoche froze as she watched her new champion faceplant onto the carpet in front of them, then lie still. She briefly glanced to her sister in concern, seeing her worries were shared by Carnachias.

Before either could assume him dead, the man spoke in mumbles. "Carpet..." He let out a twisted, crazed chuckle, the kind one would expect from a serial killer standing over their victim. "I love~ carpet! I'm so sorry about all the times I called you a poor decoration that only served to absorb filth, I hope you will forgive me." They began to rub their hands and face on the carpet, seemingly taking in its texture.

The two sisters slowly turned to each other again, before Carnachias performed a head gesture to signal that she wished to speak a few steps away. Melanoche complied, and thus they stood huddled with their backs to the man as they discussed what was going on. "Hey, so... Is he broken or something? Did we mess up somewhere and ruin it?" Carnachias spoke in the most genuinely concerned tone Melanoche had ever heard from her, aside from perhaps the worst moment of their lives...

Melanoche shook her head, "No, I went over everything countless times, I am certain there were no errors on our side." She paused to glance back at the man, who was still caressing the floor as one would a fluffy dog. "Plus," She turned back to her sister, "I don't think anything regarding the ritual could have caused that. It must have been something to do with how he died..."

Suddenly the man spoke, his voice now audibly raspy and hollow now that his words were louder than a whisper. "Died? Who died? What are you talking about?" He paused his petting of the carpet, pushing himself off the ground and onto his left knee, his right fist planted in the carpet to support this stance. As he at last looked up, he quickly squinted and covered his eyes with his remaining hand. "Gah! Man, it is bright in here..."

Carnachias looked around briefly, clearly thinking the same as Melanoche that they had made the room as dim as possible while still being able to see properly. Regardless of that fact, Melanoche pulled her sister back into the huddle to converse once more, ignoring the fact that he had clearly heard them the last time. "The ritual was meant to grab a soul from the oblivion, so if he died in like a black chamber or something it could explain just about all his..." She trailed off as she glanced back to their champion, who was still shielding his eyes from the smoldering torches on the other side of the room. "...Oddities."

With a huff, Melanoche's sister accepted this assessment. "Fine then, let's just get to work so we can finish this, yeah?" Melanoche nodded in response, and they both turned around to see the man seemingly start adjusting to the light, slowly trying to stand up while blinking furiously. They waited as he almost fell a few times, before he at last stood before them, his pupils shrunken to pin dots from the miniscule light in the chamber.

Clearing her throat, Melanoche turned back to the human to begin her speech in earnest, and begin designing their new champion. However, just before she spoke, the man interrupted her. "So, light pulled an isekai on some loser girl who was **** and alone, and thus you started losing the war, right?" Melanoche recoiled, but once again before she could speak, he did. "It's a common trope, I doubt the evil people would go for an isekai if it wasn't made necessary by the light doing it first."

After some hesitation and waiting to see if he spoke again, Melanoche eventually started. "Well, we will need to remake you as a partial monster for the process to work, and to make you as powerful as you can be." He nodded, and gestured for her to continue, which made her feel like she did not have as much control over this situation as she should have. "First, we will need you to pick your monster core-"

"O~, arcane sounds fancy!" He spoke swiftly and genuinely, as if he had just heard her describe something she was certain he could not have known about. Perhaps seeing her confusion, he shrugged. "It's gonna be weird, and if we all don't roll with it, it's gonna take a while too." With that cryptic and genuinely concerning response finished, he simply stared at her and waited for her to continue.

"W-well next up would be your size-"

Again, he answered before she gave him the options. "Hmm, well huge seems to have the only ability I can't make up for with more grinding, so we will have to go with that." A confident nod, and he again waited in silence with no further explination.

Melanoche slowly turned to her sister, unable to hide any amount of her overflowing concern. She barely managed to get out, "and... your family?" A few seconds passed with no response, only his empty gaze upon her. Thinking at last she would get to speak, she started to explain. "First, there is the-"

"Oh man this is tough..." He interrupted her once more, leaving her completely stunned as he scratched at the base of his beard in thought. After a few moments, he answered. "Well, I can't say the idea of being a real live demon isn't interesting, so we'll go with that." A snap of his fingers into a finger gun queued Melanoche to continue.

Carnachias, clearly able to see her sister was out of action, took over from there. "Well, how about we sort out the most important feature, eh?" She bounced her eyebrows in a suggestive gesture, "I am of course speaking about-"

The man clicked his tongue in thought, interrupting as had become typical. "I of course will go with the complete package. And... Why the hell not? All add-ons, if you would please!" He gave her a smile, which did not pair well with his empty eyes.

Deeply disturbed by just about everything that had to do with this individual, Melanoche carefully attempted to continue. "Well, next we will decide your monster pow-"

He let out a whistle, "whew, there are some decent options here... Timefruit would combo well with huge, however I think the hardest one for me to get that I would want is Elemental Infusion, so we'll go with the dark one, thank you!"

At this point, Melanoche was simply tired as she weirdly went on. "That brings us to classes, which you can be-" She paused as she actively looked for the potential of the subject, quickly seeing that he had the possibility for more than the heroine herself. And, as usual, the moment she began to explain the man interrupted her.

"Hmm, across all of those I can say I don't plan on taking barbarian or ranger, so that leaves the magic ones and the other two... Well, I feel like priest is a good start, and it combos well with my buffs to dark magic." With a confident nod, he looked to her as if seeing if she agreed, which at this point she was too stunned to do anything of the sort. The person in front of her was meant to be from a realm without magic, the same on the heroine came from. If that was true, then how could he tell what she was going to say? It didn't make any sense, but she didn't have time to dwell on it.

Perhaps seeing Melanoche in thought, Carnachias was the one to continue. "And now, last and most certainly not least, we have your own personal trump card! Your unique cheat, from the list of-"

To no one's surprise, he interjected his response before she began. "Oo~, well there are some great choices... Hmm... If I think about this logically, I can knock off the heart, the soul, resurrection, and oblivion. And, while getting more xp sounds awesome, I feel hybridization will do me a lot better... Any chance I could get a reminder on the races again?" For a brief moment, Carnachias forgot about the strangeness that was going on, and started to answer him in earnest before he interrupted once again. "Ah, right... Let's go with Erosarkic, shall we? It's the best buff to dark magic that isn't undead, and gives regeneration!"

looking to each other, the sisters shared a wordless agreement and proceeded on as fast as they could, finishing his core and casting him out to the world. Once at last they were rid of him, Carnachias addressed her sister. "You know, I had expected a soul to look different..." Melanoche gave her a confused look, not understanding what she meant. "Well, he had a full, physical body. That, and he seemed able to touch and feel the floor..."

They both stood in silence as they slowly began to consider the implications. It was impossible, truly, as the ritual had drawn a soul from the oblivion, and there was no way for a living being to find itself there. That was a fact... wasn't it?

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Ariel panicked as he looked at the *thing* before him. He didn't just refer to it as a thing mentally because of its appearance either, but because of what he sensed within it, its intentions. Staring at it was like looking into a bottomless abyss, there was no ambition he could find, no joy or dreams or hopes. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise just being in its presence.

Which made it all the worse when it spoke in its empty, tired voice. "Let's cut this short, shall we? I will not be spoiling my new chance by limiting myself with your oaths, nor am I too tempted by your other options, despite Doom seeming quite nice. So, how about you give up and send me down so I can get started, yes?"

Recoiling at its words, Ariel found himself complying before he could think. It was only after he released it into the world that he realized just what he had done...

Gabriel was going to kill him for sure.

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Howdy everyone! Now that this quite long chapter is done, I will go ahead and sum up all of our protagonist's choices:
Core: Arcane (20% boost to spells, obsession in humanoids)
Size: Huge (two actions at a time)
Family 1: Demon (200% increase to spells, 600% increase to dark)
"Package": Complete, all add-ons
Power: Element infusion [Dark] (Immune to dark element, 1000% buff to dark)
Class: Priest [Melanoche] (No direct stats, just priest stuff)
Cheat: Hybridization
Family 2: Erosarkic (10% regen/hr, 50% boost to spells, 300% boost to dark)
NO LIGHT ITEMS