The Mad Artist

(Grey)

Outside of a police station in Lock city.

I was sitting on a bench opposite the street of a police station, looking at a picture. In the picture was a man around his forties, with jet black hair and eyes. Next to him was a woman with wheat blonde hair and deep blue eyes. In front of them were two children, one was a young girl around eleven years old, she had her mother's blue eyes and her father's black hair.

Finally, there was me. Wheat blond hair, two golden eyes.

It was a family picture. Me, my mother, my stepfather, and my half sister.

The picture was taken a year ago when I was only fifteen years old, at the time I thought that I would live life normally, work a stable job, get married and have two kids.

Who would have thought that life would change so much.

 Honestly, I wanted nothing more than to go home and spend some time with them, but I knew I couldn't.

After all, I was going to die.

What's the point of spending time with a dead man?

I put the paper in my pocket, stood up, crossed the street and entered the police station.

"What do you want, kid?"

As soon as I entered a deep voice echoed through the station.

It was the officer sitting behind the reception desk.

Walking up to the desk, I said:

"I was chosen by the Akashic records."

The station was so silent that I could hear the officer's heart beat quicken as his eyes widened and he sat up straight.

"What!?" he shouted.

I couldn't blame him. Being chosen by the Akashic records was not a light thing; every year, thousands of people are selected and teleported to a random place in this cursed continent of ours. Out of all these people, only a few hundred get to a city alive.

"Why haven't you reported it earlier? You could have gone to the academy." He asked, finally calming down.

The answer is simple.

"I wanted to spend more time with my family."

He blinked.

"Fair enough. What's your name, kid?"

"Grey."

"Blood?"

"Unnamed."

"Age?"

"Sixteen."

He wrote something on his computer, took a book from a drawer and handed it to me.

"Uh…what is this?" I asked.

"An adventurer's handbook. You'll need it."

"Thanks."

"Follow me."

He led me through the station to a white room; it wasn't too large, about the size of a bedroom.

I went in, and the officer closed the door behind me.

I moved to one of the corners, sat down, and summoned the runes.

===

Name: Grey

Rank: Artist

Art: -

Seals Broken: -

Boons: -

Flaw: -

Trophies: -

Time Until Awakening: 00:00:05

===

I just sat there, reading the runes, waiting for the moment that I would be consumed by darkness.

'5…4…3'

'2'

'1'

***

Nothing.

I was floating in an endless void of absolute nothingness.

It was peaceful.

I felt like I was everything, yet I felt like I was nothing at all.

Time passed, and I didn't know if it was a second or a decade. And the void of nothingness was consumed by an amethyst space filled with stars.

Inside the space, a single orb stood out.

It was emitting a faint light.

I instinctively walked towards the orb and touched it.

As soon as I touched it, I remembered who I was and where I was.

I was Grey, and I was inside the ether sea, touching my ether core.

Instinctively summoning the runes, I read the now updated runes.

===

Name: Grey

Art: [Flame Of Destruction]

[Flame Of Destruction]: Destruction is an absolute law of reality; it will consume everyone and everything, leaving nothing behind. 

Seals Broken: [1/6]

Boons: [Archon]

[Archon]: You are a creature of destruction, born from it, striving with it, and destined to end with it. The flame that devours also defines you.

Flaw: [The Mad Artist]

[The Mad Artist]: Using your Art drives you into a frenzy of uncontrollable destruction and madness.

Trophies: -

===

Right after reading the runes, the amethyst space was drowned in color and I was thrown back from the ether sea into a a soft yet cold bed of snow.