F-Rank Frank: Epilogue II

Epilogue II

(Frank)

Frank clenched his blood-soaked fists.

Tremble.

Just looking at the blood that coated his fingers, he felt a strange hunger and urge to put the delicate morsel in his mouth. It was only the human revulsion of the thought that caused him to pause, to hesitate for just a moment. Using that moment of revulsion, he pulled his fist away and looked away. That was how he soon found himself staring up into the last night of the full moon. Though it was clear that it was already in its waning phase.

Looking up at the night sky, Frank felt an odd sense of power wash over him. This wasn’t the power that came with killing monsters, which he had done, at least he thought they were monsters. It also wasn’t the same power that he felt from his newfound blood powers that were dying to be awoken within him, if he but tasted the blood before him.

No, this was power of his spiritual side, his animal side.

There were more powers  as well. Powers that ran deep within him. In his mind, he understood that something fundamental had switched, his mind, and body had somehow inverted. His dark powers over dark energy motes was still there, but it was immediate. He required touch to activate his powers, well to activate his powers against the monsters of darkness.

Mentally thinking about the changes, he reached out and felt for life, only to find that there was life in abundance. Life that had somehow managed to hide outside the confines of corruption, these life forms now called out to him. Just as the corrupted life forms had called out to him previously.

He didn’t know how, nor did he exactly know why, but he felt that his powers altered. He was still F-Rank, or what would pass as F-Rank that is needing direct physical contact with someone or something to enact with his now Darkness related powers. While his life energy was now able to be reached out and manipulated from a distance.

Mentally this changed so much about the world he now knew and understood. Most of the laws and principles that he had grown up believing and being taught were wrong. Well not wrong, but incomplete. Did getting converted just mean that the way you accessed your power had switched? Or was Frank somehow different due to his unique circumstances and the fact that he had fully mastered both life and death energies before his conversion?

There was much for him to understand.

“Come on, I think he went this way,” voices cried out. Possibly related to people sent to search for him, or to look for the killer that likely killed their friends, Frank thought as he looked down at his blood-soaked hand once more. For a moment he wondered how it got there, but then decided it was best not to probe into such matters and leave, and that was exactly what he did.

***

(Constance)

What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be human again, after everything you had know told you that you were dead. No just dead, but puppeted by a being so powerful that you knew her only as the progenitor of your kind.

“What just happened?” Constance asked, only to find a beautiful set of purple irises staring at her. Seeing the eyes Constance momentarily paused, taking in her surroundings. Only now did she find that she was somehow on a wooden floor staring up at people she had never seen before. At least she didn’t think she had, but they had the same type of reality that one might expect from a dream.

“I think you should be telling us the same thing,” a wizened voice called out as a seemingly jovial person stepped forward. Though the jovial personality was just a front, for it was clear that the man possessed nearly immeasurable strength.

“Where am I?” Constance asked.

With that everyone paused and looked at the old jovial man.

Then before Constance knew what was happening, she felt towards her stomach, towards her core and felt something happen that she never dreamed would happen again.

“Oh, my core,” she cried out as she felt the odd thrumming and tingling sensation of her core coming to life as if for the first time in years.

“What about your core?” The purple eyed beauty asked curiously.

“I can feel it, my powers, they are back…”