Legendary Vampire in the Apocalypse

Asking himself this question filled him with a good chunk more frustration.

When he had felt his soul sea stir within himself holding the thing, understanding properly that it wasn’t anything harmful at all, he had really expected much more. And in that, the problem was that he didn’t know what he should have been expecting and what to even begin to think that the thing could do.

Especially when in the first place he didn’t know that it would awaken someone.

He turned the pot again in his hands, swallowing down the dissatisfaction in the fact that he wouldn’t be able to reach an answer by himself.

At the very least, he needed the plant to spawn another fruit so that he could this time eat it himself and see what would happen.

’Either my feeling was wrong, and the awakening was really the most that it could do... the kid hasn’t worked out what else happened to him yet, or he has, and he didn’t say—’

Abruptly, a knock came at the door.

Dion, who hadn’t been focused on listening to anything happening outside, furrowed his brows a little, and he looked up from the plant.

The flash of red lasted less than a blink, and the pot was gone from his hands.

"Come in."

Paris pushed the door open.

As he walked in, Dion’s brows eased to normalcy, seeing how he looked perfectly fine now, much better than he had looked even when he saw him the first time.

His breathing was even, and even though his heart rate told him that he was somewhat nervous, he held his shoulders that little bit straighter.

"What’s up?"

Paris’s eyes went across the room once with a quick glance, only briefly looking interested at the shotgun that was lying on the floor, and perhaps having even looked for the plant, and then his attention came to Dion.

"...Can I talk to you?"

"Of course. Close the door though. I’m guessing it’s important if you waited till I was alone."

Paris hesitated a moment, nodding a little, and then he turned and closed the door, the sound of the rain and the commotion of people dulling once more.

"There’s... something I didn’t say out there." Paris’s voice was lower now, speaking to make sure that even though the door was closed, others who might be passing by didn’t hear him, and he walked closer to stand before Dion. "When the chronicle gave me the initial messages, there was more than just the information about my awakening. I told them that part, but the rest of it, I..."

He stopped briefly, drawing in a breath, and then he sighed out his nerves, continuing.

"It sent several messages in my head to say that my soul was being enriched, and after it did that, the Soul Dimension kept rising until it stopped at S with four pluses."

’S-grade! And It’s damn near SS!’ Dion’s eyes jolted open a little. ’No wonder! Mine is already well past that. But on someone who hadn’t awakened yet...’

"You were right not to say that out there," Dion said, releasing a laugh that spilled free all of his dissatisfaction and frustration

Paris nodded slowly. "...I didn’t know what it meant, exactly. It just felt like something I should tell you first, considering the way everyone reacted because you asked me to use it."

’He’s... definitely an attentive guy. Dion thought as he eased himself back in his seat. He paid Paris a lot closer attention than he had been all this time, then thinking, ’And he’s got the instinct to know what to say and not to when it’s appropriate... If it’s him, then I can tell him a little.’

"That soul dimension is something very important for the awakened. And I mean insanely important, because it essentially tells you how much of a future you have ahead of you."

When he said that, Paris’s eyes grew a little larger, the light in them quivering a little.

"It means you’ve got an exceptional soul for somebody who’s only just awakened. I’m fairly sure the large majority of anyone and anything that awakens doesn’t have an S++++ grade soul, and many of them won’t ever have one."

"How does it work, though?" Paris’s hand moved a little where it hung at his side, as though he wasn’t sure how much he was allowed to keep asking for. "The dimensions, I mean. Do they just stay where they are, or..."

"They grow." Dion said as he nodded faintly, briefly gesturing a finger at him, "You kill something, the chronicle harvests the essence out of it, and whatever that thing was strong in gets nourished in you."

Dion, bringing his hand back to cross his arms ahead of himself, shrugged faintly then.

"Do enough of it, and the grade climbs. Zombies are the most accessible right now that can do it for you. Gnolls and even the animals that are transforming now will do it a great deal faster, once you’re anywhere near capable of handling them, which you are not."

Paris huffed something that was almost a laugh. "...Not yet."

"Yeah, not yet at least," Dion agreed, and then he let a moment sit before he went on. "But the soul isn’t like the rest of them."

"...What do you mean?"

"I mean that it doesn’t move. You could put down a thousand corpses behind you and every other dimension you have would climb, but your soul would be exactly where it started when you awakened.

There are ways around it using special things like the fruit, but I’m sure this time was just luck. These kinds of things aren’t the sort of thing that a person stumbles into.

They’re rare, and when the world finally gains some semblance of order again, they will be extremely valuable, so most awakened will live their entire lives and never once come across one."

Dion tipped his head at him.

"So what I told you back in that room, about you finally having the ability to make your own choices, is a lot more true than it was when I said it. As long as you survive, while maintaining that boldness in you to fight, you’ve got a bright future ahead of you. A future that you have as much control over as you give yourself."

Paris was quiet for several moments, then he laughed faintly, with an almost helpless and self-critical break to it.

"It wasn’t luck though, was it," he soon said. "You’re the one who gave it to me."

"Hm... I wouldn’t say so, or think of it like that. Not anymore, at least."

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