Infinity in the Void – Freedom in the Abyss

Athen led Charlotte to a spacious room, similar to the room she woke up in, though it was gray instead of white. Which was easy for the eye. There is a distinct lack of objects in this place... no...

Charlotte can feel the air moving underneath her feet, they are not simple cracks but spaces. Her senses told her there were things underneath her.

"Do whatever you want with the dummies, I'll get ready.", Athen flipped her hair back behind her ears, letting out yet another sigh.

Charlotte silently wanted her gone. Right after she left, the floor opened making the girl jump back with her guard up.

"Oh"

She realized they were not proper humans, just dolls shaped like humans, four of them. Oh, then there is a weapon rack. Charlotte went to inspect the weapons laid for her.

Spear, sword, bow and arrow, whip(?), shield, and gun. Charlotte chose the spear without much thought. She felt natural using it as if she had been training in the art of spearmanship all her life.

Spear is the ultimate weapon humans can make, the long reach it gives alone makes it safer in combat. Nothing can beat the spear until the creation of firearms.

The explanation from the Akashic made it clear why Charlotte chose the spear. She spins it around with one hand and catches it before spinning it around herself. Then Charlotte threw the spear at the furthest dummy in the back.

The blow knocked the dummy back, stuck tight into its chest. Dead center too. 

Charlotte came over to inspect the damage. What? 

The other dummies moved, going straight for the girl. Of course, she moved out of the way, going back to her original spot beside the rack. The dummies followed, running at her. Dangers

Quickly, Charlotte took the sword, which was a short sword, with her left hand. Her eyes focused on the one closest to her, luckily it was on her right.

"Reverie..."

The inky substance answered her call, leaking out of her palm and covering the sword. 

Charlotte rotated her waist to the right, cranking her body up, her left foot stepped up to add more force for the attack, and she drew her arm back as far as her body allowed it to. Then she swung her sword at the dummy only a meter away from her, hitting it right in the neck. The girl felt no impact, even though she used the optimal technique and strength, though some of the black goo was transferred to the dummy, expanding inside the object.

Weaving under the first dummy, she made her way to the next one. Again, she winds up her strike. She boosted herself using her left foot, lunging at the incoming dummy.

With a single swing, Charlotte hit it in the hip. The black goo penetrated the doll, expanding as it pleased. 

Using the dummy as leverage, anchoring her sword against its body, she spun around it to keep the momentum going.

The third dummy is already here, so it was simple about what Charlotte would do.

She punched it. Penetrated it with her hand.

The bits and metals of the dummy flew everywhere, along with some blood of her own.

"Reverie"

The black goo in the other two dummies retracted flying back to Charlotte's sword. They turned around, attempting to move to Charlotte. Instead, the dolls crumbled down in pieces.

The door opened, and Athen walked in with a new outfit. Instead of the business outfit, this one is a crimson skin-tight and limits her breasts' movement. By her side is a bident, glowing red with dangerous energy.

Oh and the woman herself was not happy.

"Charlotte, what the fu— hell did you do?", she narrowed her eyes.

"They attacked first.", the girl pointed at the broken dummies.

"Hah, I forgot to disable the auto attack... welp, now what do you do about that bleeding arm?!"

Charlotte looked at her right arm, the metal parts of the dummy had cut her skin, and some tore deep into her flesh. Strangely, she felt no pain.

It's hard to move now... not acting well.

"My arm is hard to move"

"That's it?! Don't you feel any pain, at all?!", Athen shouted with disbelief. Charlotte just nodded, making the woman sigh in frustration, "Right, this will be harder to teach you, seeing you have no sense of self-preservation!!"

"Then... what do we do?"

"We need to get you bandaged up."

The bident in her hand vanished, and her clothes returned to the business suit in a flash of fire.

"Come with me to the infirmary, someone will clean this up for you."

The girl let go of the sword and followed Athen to the hallway. Here scientists stared at Charlotte with shock, focusing on her bleeding arm.

"I was going to explain about the things you should know about being a Gem Holder, but we'll talk about it after you get bandaged up."

The power I held... Akashic, can you explain it to me?

She waited for a moment, yet again the voice remained silent. Charlotte left it there and focused on Athen.

"Are you a Gem Holder, too?"

"Heh, yes I am. And no way in hell I would reveal my Gem to you, not now at least."

Another sigh escaped Athen.

"Now, Gems, or what the Gems contain, are known as Devils. These Devils bore the names of things that existed in this world before the rise of humanity."

"There are currently four known types of Devil. First is Mythical, carrying the names and powers of the mythological being they are named after, the most common type. Second is Biblical, which are the most unpredictable as they carry the name of fictional characters from books and plays, as long as the name appears in a story that Devil exists somewhere. And the third type, Conceptual, is the rarest and by far showed the strongest potential, having the names of natural forces, seen and unseen."

"There's another type called Hybrid, a combination of the previous ones. Hard to find, tricky to tell."

Athen pointed at Charlotte.

"You are the third type...", her eyes glanced around the hallway, making sure there were no people, "Like I said before, Akashic is the concept of human knowledge, everything humans did and will do. There was once a Gem like Akashic, ironically owned by the founder of this Organization."

A Gem that is similar to Akashic...

"That Gem contained a Devil named Babel, taken from the tower built to oppose God. He had extremely high charisma and combined with the knowledge provided by Babel, this place had technology way beyond its time by a few centuries."

"Will I be able to do the same?"

"Heh, hell if I know. From what was recorded so far, you seemed more of a fighter than a researcher."

They made their way to the infirmary, getting Charlotte's right arm all bandaged up.

The nurse in charge of the infirmary was not happy seeing the wound, she furrowed her brows while observing the already dried-up blood of Charlotte's arm. Without a single word, the nurse cleaned the wound with a wet towel, making sure to scrub off any patches of blood. She had Charlotte sit down on the bed, disinfecting the scratched areas with iodine.

Then it was the wrapping part, the nurse took out a yellowish gold jar, there was a sweet scent coming from it when the jar was opened. from the jar, the nurse took out a roll of bandage cloth soaked in the golden substance, she cut pieces enough to cover the wounds on Charlotte's arm. placing them on the cuts, the girl could tell they were sticky and viscous. Then she took out a roll of bandage out of a cupboard, and quickly wrapped it around the girl's arm firmly but not too tight.

"Unwrap it next morning, wash it cleanly, and wrap it in new bandages."

Charlotte nodded.

"Good, now rest."

Charlotte followed the order, lying down on the bed. The nurse has already returned to her station, writing the report about her. As for Athen, she sat down on her bed right beside her on a stool.

"Now, I will teach you about Gems.", she glanced at the nurse, "Hey Mary, can I stay here?"

The nurse, Mary, gave a thumbs-up without saying anything.

"Now, the Gems. like I said before, they are Devils. Devils in folklores are creatures capable of giving people what they want the most, in exchange for a price, the price depends on the Gem itself, sometimes you just can't eat a specific food, and other times you have to drink human blood, or something crazier."

"Gem grant different powers, like your ability to break anything, or mine to summon armaments. Oh, almost forgot, Gem has two types of power, Progression and True. Progression lets you unlock more powers relating to the Gem the more you use it. True let you use all the power of the Gem from the get-go."

"Then what is your price?", Charlotte asked

"Mine? Why the hell would I tell you?"

Price.. huh. Hey Akashic, what is your price?

As usual, Akashic did not answer. There is nothing Charlotte can do so she left it at that.

"Now, this is enough learning for today. Tonight you will do some tests so rest up", Athen leaned back, but because there was no back she almost fell and made a fool of herself.

"pfft"

Athen snapped to the origin of the voice, Mary, but she turned away before the woman could accuse her. So Athen can only grumble in annoyance.

====

Meanwhile, with Issac.

The Director leaned back on his chair, letting out a tired sigh. The revelation of Charlotte's Gem being the collective data of humanity was too much for him to handle at the moment.

He leaned forward, back to view his computer. On his computer is a profile of Charlotte, complete with everything he needed for her to enroll in Ataraxia Academy.

"Looks like she will need to go in there sooner than planned."

He went over the Gem section, at first he put the name of her actual Gem, but he decided to change it since people would want to get Charlotte if they knew. So, from "Akashic" he changed it into "Phane", the name of the Creator God, one mostly unknown and would not draw much attention from those who are unaware but draw in people who knew the name.

It was for his plan, his way to protect the world.

He hovered his mouse over the "SUBMIT" button, pressed it, and sent it to the Academy.

"In six months, I hope you will be able to show the world what you are able to do, Charlotte Silvi."