One With The Abyss

"The testing process is simple." Malleca began, "Simply place your hand on the testing orb, the irb will automatically analyse and measure your talent. Following this it will then be displayed for everyone to see."

The process was simple and Malleca started with the nearest girl. The girl, who was rather small for her age, placed her hand on the orb and the glass began to shine before it projected a screen detailing her 'talent'.

[Alchemical Scholar (0/6)]

[Grants increase in knowledge acquisition relating to alchemy. Increases ability to comprehend alchemy. Grants vision of inspiration for alchemy]

"Amazing. Well done hero, alchemy is an incredibly difficult topic of study; with this you will surely become a great asset in the great war." Malleca congratulated the girl, with a smile she walked away from the table and the next girl came up to test her ability.

[Eye of foresight (0/8)]

[Left eye is transformed into the great eye of foresight. Grants ability to see up to 1 minute into the future from perspective of left eye]

"AAAH!" The girl let out a small shout, her hands rushed to her eye as the class could see blood dripping down her face. Miss Adelade ran forward in a panic, she began yelling about wanting to know what had happened. Malleca answered.

"Do not worry, it will pass. Some talents include the transformation of the user's body." I again felt uncomfortable at how quickly this calmed me down, "It will only hurt for a moment, and when it is done she shall have the ability to use a great and powerful ability."

"I'm... I'm fine." The girl panted, "I can see up to 1 minute into the future now?"

"Not quite." Malleca answered, "You have the talent but you are still untrained. It is more likely that you can see less than a second into the future right now due to how potent a talent like that is. The first number is your mastery over your talent and the second is your overall potential, with the maximum being 10"

The girl nodded and moved to join the other girl who had already seen her talent. Malleca turned to call for another but someone barged their way to the front of the mass of people: Ursina.

"I'll go next." She said, her chin raised to look down on the mage as if she was vastly superior. I thought I saw the corners of Malleca's mouth twitch but it was only for a moment so I decided to keep quiet.

"Very well hero, go ahead." Malleca said, maintaining her smile. Ursina's hand went forward and roughly landed on the orb, creating an even stronger light to shine from it.

[Body of the Great Titan (0/10)]

[Grants an almost indestructible body with unrivalled strength. Countries shake and continents shift under the titan's might]

Everyone was silent at what Ursina had displayed, while she had always been the strongest girl in the school, this was beyond what they had expected. Most had thought her results would be unremarkable considering her mediocre intelligence, but now she was the strongest of any of them here right now.

"HAHAHA! This is excellent!" The king cheered, "With such a force, is our victory not guaranteed?"

"Of course, this much is only to be expected of me, argh." Ursina's chin rose even higher as she muffled a grunt of pain, likely due to her changing body, "Hey how does this talent work anyway, I don't feel much stronger."

"As I have already explained to the previous hero, as you grow, the talent will become stronger, but now they will likely do very little to help you." Malleca explained, looking less excited than I thought she should have been, "As your level increases you will likely gain a massive increase to your physical abilities; more so than other heroes."

"Great! I suppose that will make me the strongest!" Ursina laughed, walking to join the other 2 tested girls. The path of students clearing before her like the red sea did before Moses.

"Next then." Malleca called out. And with that the testing proceeded.

For the most part the students had level 5 talents, with very few having above 7. There were many types: [Sword Master (0/5)] that improved their ability with the sword; [Fire Mage (0/5)] that allowed the student to freely manipulate fire mana; there were variations of these for other weapons and other elements but they made up the brunt of the talents the students had. Each talent resulted in jeering from Ursina, her inflated ego could not be stopped even after Malleca reminded that having any talent would make you a more capable fighter that any other being.

Among the talents there were a few stand outs, like Miss Adelade who had screamed in agonising pain the moment she touched the orb. The crystal had shined incredibly brightly but no one payed it any attention as they watched the teacher's body dissolved into a green liquid that then coalesced to form a deep green orb. From that orb plants grew out and merged to form a familiar body: Miss Adelade. I was honestly horrified watching it happen, but was soon forced to turn my attention back to the orb as Malleca began cheering and my mind was cleared of all discomfort - though this alone was highly discomforting as I realised it was happening.

[Corpus Silvarum (0/9)]

[Changes the form of the true body into an elemental core: Plant. Projected body is now a manifestation of mana that can be freely shaped and controlled; made of plant elemental mana]

Looking back at Miss Adelade, she was younger and her body - while seeming human - was distinctly made from plants. Her hair now looked like vines and her skin more reminiscent of white bark; even her clothes seemed to be made of some kind of leaves.

Miss Adelade, who was panting on the floor, was helped up by one of the knights who had come from the side of the room. She was met with the praise of everyone, even the king cheered for her transformation. I began to wonder if she was even human anymore, and it seemed Miss Adelade had also considered this but Malleca took the opportunity to explain away her doubts.

"Worry not  great hero; you are still entirely human." She started, "As the talent says, your true body is the core within you and that is formed from your human essence, in Arcadia no one would dare consider you anything but human."

This reassured Miss Adelade and the testing continued, more mages and fighters with the occasionally more advanced job like [Tactician (0/7)] or [Cavalry (0/6)].

Eventually, the crowd was reduced to 2 students. The genius and the dunce; Marigold and I. I did not even attempt to go before Marigold, she would likely consider anything I touched 'tainted' as she had done many times before and yell at me for a prolonged period.

Malleca gave an amicable smile as Marigold approached, her confident stride seeming to elicit positive emotions from the archmage. As her hand touched down on the orb an even greater light than anything that had appeared before shone brightly. The light silenced even Ursina as it's majesty was far greater than her's and eclipsed the entire hall. When the light finally dimmed, another, more palpable silence hung in the air; each person present gawking at the information on Marigold's talent.

[Child of Radiance (0/10)]

[The great apostle of radiant light, prophesied to end the darkest eras. As blood of the great forgotten luminous deity flows within you, you are granted sublime power over the elements of light and life. No shadow will stand before your brilliance]

It's less of a talent and more of a sucking up description. I thought so myself.

"GOOD GOD! An apostle!" Every knight within the hall fell to one knee, even the king, who had yelled out, offered a bow. The smug look on Ursina's face was wiped away and the entire class looked on in awe. Although Mari had gotten the same level as Ursina, everyone knew they were not the same.

Through it all Mari looked as though all of this was normal, her unphased appearance was entirely infuriating as her perfection was once again hanging over my head.

Please just give me some talent that will allow me to stay safe. I thought to myself.

"Great, now we shall continue on to the feast." Malleca, who had regained her composure, began to speak. I panicked but was unable to do anything, I had never been good at objecting to anything, considering the only time I had resulted in a set of broken ribs for talking back. Then, whether good or bad I couldn't tell, Marigold spoke up.

"Apologies Miss Malleca, but there is one remaining, untested hero." She said, turning to look at me.

"Ah... AH. Yes, I see. Please step forward." Malleca said, realising her mistake. My classmates giggled as I began walking forward, I felt as though there were some eyes on my rear - likely looking at Ursina's prank.

"I wouldn't expect much ma'am." Marigold stated just as I was within arms reach of the orb, "Despite being my sister, she is nothing but an incompetent fool. As I'm sure you can see she cannot even control herself and has soiled herself."

Laughter and mutters of disdain built up around the room, my cheeks went read in embarrassment and when I looked at Malleca, she looked much less hospitable. Pushing all of these thoughts to the back of my mind I placed my hand on the orb. Only for no glow to appear. No light shot up.

"How is this... All heroes should have a talent. This is not possible!" Malleca's tone became louder and louder until she was shouting at me. The shouting only came to a stop when a similar screen appeared, like the others had. But my nightmare only continued as I looked upon the information.

[One With the Abyss (0/0)]

[You are one with the abyss. Oblivion unifies upon you. You cannot level up, you cannot gain skills. The abyss is everything, the abyss is nothing: All is one within the abyss]

"No... No skills..." I muttered, falling to my knees. Malleca had been entirely explicit about this, talents could only amplify the power that levels and skills granted. Without them my talent was worthless; more than that my talent prevented me from getting any of them at all.

Looks of disdain were shot my way, I looked around, hoping, begging for something with my eyes. But all I was met with was the cold stare that was disgust.

"GAHAHAHA!" Loud raucous laughter broke through the silence, "Zero! She's zero! She's literally worthless! I was expecting something pathetic but even this is beyond what I could imagine!"

Ursina's cruelty stabbed through me like a hail of daggers, but each word was true. A great war was coming and I was nothing but dead weight, I doubted summoning heroes was a simple measure so they had likely used many highly valuable resources to bring me here - only to find that they had lost 1 hero spot that otherwise could have been useful.

"I truly did not expect you to be this much of a failure." Marigold's disgusted voice sounded out from behind me, cutting through Ursina's laughter, "I suppose that you can take pleasure in knowing that you have exceeded my expectations at least once; even if it is in failure."

My head dropped lower as each of her words caused another of my scars to flare up in pain.

"You... YOU!" Malleca shouted, cutting all chatter short, "Do you understand the resources we had to use to bring you all here!? And you! You just wasted them on this pitiful display!"

Every native within the room showed looks of disgust, and years of conditioning stopped me from fighting back; doing anything to refute them. I simply spiralled.

"You will be punished for this!" The king yelled, his face glowing red in anger, "For attempting to steal the title of hero and wasting the materials my country has sacrificed themselves to do this summon you will be exiled. I hereby exile you to the darklands, the land of beasts and demons where you will be devoured endlessly by their savagery!"

This shout broke me from my descent. I was going to die. I was really going to die. But what about my second chance? What about the new start this world offered? No! I can't die! I won't die!

I looked over to my class, desperately I wanted their help, needed their help. I heard clinking metal around me and saw soldiers coming towards me.

"No! Stay away!" I knew it was pathetic, the way tears streamed from my face, the way I crawled along the floor desperately, "I don't want to die!"

By a hair I evaded the grabbing hand of a soldier and arrived at my class. 

"Please! They're going to kill me!" I was literally on my knees begging for help. As I grabbed the hands of one of them I pleaded with them, it wasn't my fault that my talent was useless. "Please don't let them! I can be useful I'm sure! There's got to be a way to use this talent!"

My teary pleading did nothing as Ursina kicked me away from their group, right as I felt something abnormal.

"Just take your  punishment pig." She yelled, a burning joy in her eyes, "This is what you deserve."

As I felt the grip of the soldiers solidify around my body, I attempted to thrash and pull myself away from them but it was pointless. I was dragged to the centre of the room and thrown into a circle with ornate symbols and shapes depicting a giant ancient spell.

I shot to my feet and tried to get away again but ran straight into a solid, yet invisible wall. I again fell to the floor and felt blood rush from my nose. Getting up again I banged on the walls of my cage, even more tears streaked my pathetic face until I fell to my knees in defeat.

"Just accept it." Looking up I saw Marigold, "You are and always have been useless. This is just you getting what you deserve."

She stood next to Malleca who also had disgust on her face, she began chanting and light glowed from the symbols below me. Streaks of that purple lightning again began spinning around the circle. I felt myself being lifted off the ground, floating in the air and looking down on all of the people in the room. It was at this point something broke in me.

"I'll kill you. All of you, I'll kill you." I said, my voice increasing in volume, "I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU! THIS COUNTRY AND ALL OF YOU HEROES WILL BE NOTHING BUT ASHES BELOW MY FEET! EVERYTHING YOU LOVE WILL BECOME RUIN!"

My screaming became a manic laughter as I shouted out their demise, I knew none of this would ever be able to become true but I couldn't just be sent to my death. I would consider this my first and final act of true defiance.

"Hmph. I thought you would go with dignity but I guess not." Malleca spat, and with that I was sent off. Through that weightless eternity once again, finding that this time I could not hope to maintain my consciousness.

At this point no one could have seen how the glow in my eyes had intesified greatly, the purple light shining for just a moment.