Children of a Lesser God

Laz sat down and looked at Abraham, wondering what he should say.

'Is there an easy way to break it to someone that from now on, the average person would be scared of you and there will be people coming for your life?' Laz pondered to himself as he sat there while Abraham zoned out.

'I mean. I guess it gets harder and harder for the new ones. Waking up their abilities after others have already been doing it for years now. I wonder how this even happens? Is it like... only once the tank is full of gas can you start the engine? Or is it more like there is a specific trigger somewhere?' Despite the times that Laz had seen this happen, he still really didn't know the answer. And his own answer seemed to change depending on when he's asked...

"Hey. Uh... You've been around, right?" Abraham turned and looked at Laz who was sitting there with his head down while he was thinking. The fact the Abraham spoke first caught him off guard.

"Been around?"

"Yeah. You know. Out and about and all?"

"Um, Yeah. Ok. I mean, I've done some travelling and seen somethings. So if that's what you mean?"

"Yeah. So... what do you think about the people everyone is talking about?" Abraham looked really nervous while asking. He was practically twiddling his thumbs while not even looking at Laz.

"The people?" Laz knew what he wanted to ask, but got the feeling that he should wait until Abraham was being more direct. It was like, playing stupid to not scare someone away.

"Yeah. You know, the ones on the news and stuff who are like... different..."

"Uh. Traveling all the time means I don't really check the news. You talking about the people with the special abilities, like the chosen? Or the ones that everyone seems to be turning against, the infected?" Laz was actually a bit curious of Abraham's viewpoint on the two groups.

"Oh. Uh. Well, what about both of them?"

"Well, if you ask me, there is something wrong with what everyone is saying."

"What do you mean?"

"Alright, so bare with me here. The 'chosen' are basically called that why? Because as far as anyone can tell, they have special abilities but there is no change that can be detected within them, right?"

"Yes..."

"And yet, the infected are also different, but because a mutation has occurred within their blood, they are deemed dangerous."

"Well... the infected also attack people, don't they?"

"They do. But at the same time, have people every really been peaceful with one another? Crimes happen on a day to day basis with normal people. But now there is extra attention paid to those with special abilities attacking normal people. And when it happens, it always seems like it's someone who's been infected with the blood mutation, right?"

"Yeah."

"But have you ever wondered just how truthful that is? After all, the government, or at least, organizations affiliated with the government have been recruiting these chosen while the infected are deemed risks. So who's to say that the attack wasn't caused by a chosen? And let's say they are telling the truth on this. Does every person who's blood undergoes a mutation attack someone and end up wanted by the police?".

"No. I don't think so..."

"That's because they don't. Instead, a lot of the ones who are deemed infected are just normal people who are now a bit strange. As far as the ones who become physically deformed, there has been cases of that for years. When you suffer through a trauma like that, chances are you're not going to be in the best mental state. Despite that, the 'infected' are getting a bad rap while the 'chosen' are heaven's little gifts. Obviously there is something wrong with this."

"I... I guess your right."

"I am. And besides, you're going to be just fine. You won't have to go through this alone."

"Oh? Uh? Umm... go through what alone. I'm confused." Abraham looked over at Laz who was now looking at him. Instead of explaining anything more, Laz simply held out his hand, palm side up and let his black flames become visible. The flame, which originally wrapped around his hand, expanded outward, separating from Laz's hand before resting afloat, as though Laz was holding a candle flame that wasn't connected to anything.

Seeing this, Abraham backed up and slid under his covers more, seemingly afraid. But after some time of watching it and seeing that Laz wasn't doing anything else, he slowly came forward and sat on the edge of the bed.

"You are...?"

"What you might call an infected, yes. Our blood is different from normal humans and I'm not just talking about blood type. Instead, it's almost as if there is a sliver of blood within me that isn't human. In fact, most of us are like this as far as I can tell. I'm only saying most of us because I don't know that it is the same with everyone, just the ones I've met. Not only that, but we have an inherent distaste for those who are 'chosen,' almost like something in our blood dislikes them. They obviously feel the same way about us I imagine."

"Then... I am?"

"An infected, just like me. But as far as what your blood will give you in the future, who knows? There isn't a science behind this. Instead, everything that we do is just stumbling around in the dark, like looking for a light switch in a huge room. And as soon as that one room is illuminated, we are then plunged into another dark room to repeat the process. In essence, I can only show you the way. Everything else after that will be up to you," Laz said with conviction. He knew this wasn't going to be easy for Abraham. His life wasn't built around constant changes. But that was what he was going to face now.

There is also no telling how his family would react to this. Or even if he could trust his family. This was the main reason for Laz telling Abraham the things he did at first. Infected weren't the enemy of regular humans. It wasn't like you could become infected just by getting a bit of blood from an infected into an open cut or something. Instead, it was more like the bloodline had to be there to begin with.

The only contrast to this would be people like Freya, who's bloodline, granted to her by a 'god,' could overwrite a weaker bloodline. In turn, this would make the infected a vampyre like her. And although Laz hadn't asked about it, Laz got the impression that the person would have to be female for it to work. If a bloodline of superior origin were to try to get changed by Freya, it would probably fail.

But that wasn't something Laz was going to worry about. He wasn't bored enough to try to research it.

"What are we?" Abraham, despite hearing Laz's explanation, still seemed lost. He, like most regular people, still couldn't grasp what it was to be like this. At the beginning, maybe it seemed kind of scary and cool, but it happened to other people so it wasn't something you would worry about. But now, when infected as a whole were treated like criminals, finding out you were infected would seem like a death sentence.

"We are humans. That much I can tell you. But we are also not humans. In the future, the stronger you grow, the less human like you will look. But that doesn't make you any less human. If you define what makes a human a human, then it stems from humanity, not what you look like. People have always looked different from one another, but that doesn't mean that one person is less human than another. Going forward, we can only adapt to the changes that take place and try not to lose ourselves in the process," Laz answered with a heavy heart. He had considered this before.

What makes a human, human? Is it because they walk on two legs? Talk to each other? Develop civilizations? All of these things could be done by other creatures as well, in different forms. Ant's build colonies, dolphins are smarter than most humans and every creature in the animal kingdom has a means of communicating with one another. Instead, Laz could only settle on humanity that makes a human human. And everything that entails.

"So what do I do now?"

"Well, that's easy."

After that, Laz spent some time explaining everything he needed to about cultivation, realms, energy and everything he could think of to Abraham. For the most part though, Laz told Abraham to take it easy at first and gave him his old red jade beads that his grandpa Chu had given to him a long time ago. At Abraham's level, this was pretty much the perfect solution for him to hide that he had changed. And Laz didn't need them anymore as with his abilities, he was now able to restrain his own energy and not let it leak out. If he had to rely on beads for that, it would take a lot of them to do so.

Afterwards, Laz told Abraham that he should continue on with his day like normal and keep his thoughts for later. Being sick for only one day was normal and no one would think anything about it. He also revealed that Julia was like them as well and if Laz wasn't around, Abraham could turn to her for assistance if needed. Laz knew that Julia wouldn't reject him.

After that, the day continued on without incident. Laz found some time to talk to Julia who looked upset at first for having Abraham dumped on her ŀap along with everything else involving the remains of the council, but she didn't decline. Laz could tell that she wasn't mad about helping Abraham, more like she was mad at Laz who seemed to like to dump his work on her while he went off and did whatever.

Either way, work went off without a hitch and after, Laz decided to pay Heaven or Hell a visit since he wanted to get more of a feel for Freya's thoughts. He knew that with the council being a ticking time bomb, he had to set them aside for now. Before he could decide what to do with them, he needed to know where the other two organizations stood and to get an idea as to how big this problem was.

What Laz really wanted to do though was to spend more time in that strange state he was in before, working on seeing what kinds of improvements he could make. Cultivating with only the sparse energy in the air was almost a wasted effort since his body naturally absorbed the energy in the air just by breathing. Without the aid of some sort of oddity or a place with a large amount of natural energy, he wouldn't be gaining anything by doing so.

So therefore, he decided that he need to prepare for this door opening as soon as possible despite knowing almost nothing about it.

As Laz approached Heaven or Hell, he noticed something odd. The lights outside were off and the entire place looked closed. Spreading out his sense, Laz noticed that there were several people watching the restaurant from the outside from a ways away, along with several eyes watching from inside.

'What the hell is this?' Laz thought to himself.

Instead of going forward, Laz turned the corner as though he had originally been going that way and quickly disappeared from other's senses. He knew that despite his spiritual strength, he couldn't hide his presence if they detected him. He wasn't that strong yet.

Reaching into his pouch, Laz pulled out some rather flashy clothes that he had happened to buy during his travels. A long leather trench coat and leather pants, a wide brimmed hat and black, military style boots suddenly appeared on the ground while Laz quickly got dressed.

After grabbing out a mirror to check himself out, Laz couldn't help but wonder what made him by these things. But still, it was enough to hide his entire body and give him a rather mysterious air.

Storing his old clothes in the pouch, Laz made his way to the front door.