Lowly Ascent

Water gushed uninterrupted as it flooded the cave system. A group of people were thrown out and fell to the ground soaked.

"Damn it!" Kain kicked his feet in a fit while he stood up.

'What was that?! It was not like God said. Fucking hell! How could I let this happen, who was that?! Damn it all!'

Besides the agent of Flickering Star, a group of cultists stood up, jubilant.

"That was God! We saw the true God!"

Cultists were cultists, always the same.

"Fucking hell, shut up already." With the wave of his hand, multiple sharp stars appeared around Kain.

Swoosh!

Screams erupted. The group was decimated; slaughtered like sheep.

"Finally some peace and quiet...." Kain remained still, staring at the cave entrance for a while.

"That thing is already gone, I should head back and report to the Chancellor..."

Walking over the pile of dead, Kain headed for the nearest city.

...

"This isn't normal! Hundreds of "awakenings" have occurred in the last two months! How can you say it's not serious?! This has to be the intervention of a god!" A woman in black armor slammed reports on a meeting room table.

"Commissioner, you can not ignore the warning signs! These abilities are bloodthirsty and terrible! The percentage of serial killers went up by over 100%! We have to do something!"

The man called Commissioner slammed his hand down, "Do you think I don't know? What I'm saying is we must wait. The other gods won't stand for this, and these awakened are not organized. We only need to suppress them long enough and everything will even out. Not to mention, we are not the only country dealing with this. The Empire of Stars has the highest degree of awakened do they not?"

The Arbiter was left speechless.

The Commissioner continued, "These awakened are connected to a new god, the one we all heard yes? The one called "Monarch of Black"?"

...

Nihil was deep in the Planet's core, endlessly wrapping around him, his soul energy expanded and retracted.

'With the believers I gained with my name spreading, I was able to grant them some abilities. This power of Faith is strong. Still, I don't like how it relies on the concept of Faith to work...well, I don't need to use it once I get the "fruit", or maybe if I'm strong enough I won't need the concept's power. The whole point is an exchange, I spread faith and Faith gives me the means to spread it.'

'It's like how the gods use the entity of exchange to grant their powers to their followers as Doom said. Luckily, I can skip that part using the Dream Core.'

Nihil had been the one "awakening" people. Through their prayers, he could use the Dream Core to grant some abilities.

He focused on those already walking Paths of Power, giving the majority of the awakened the ability to get stronger by killing others, this time using the power to enhance their Paths beyond the limit.

'I'm really like a god now. I can defy some rules here and there.'

With the limit of Paths broken, his followers had another way to gain power beyond how others did, they could follow one path and gain a stage no other had reached.

'The only issue is without the dream worlds, I can't connect them into one big group. Shit....none of the dream world drugs are left either....guess I'll have to make due...'

Nihil was at a loss in this case. 

...

"Get the awakened!" An agent cried out while chasing a young child down an alley.

Pant Pant Pant

A young boy named Collin tripped over a trash lid and fell to the ground, scratching his knee.

"Please don't hurt me!" He cried out.

"You people killed my partner, I'll kill you!" The agent aimed their gun.

Bang!

Collin didn't die. Removing his arms from his face, he saw the agent hunting him on the ground, a newly fashioned hole in his head.

"You an awakened?" Coming out of the shadows, a young man in a baseball cap asked Collin an important question.

Collin saw a gun held in the young man's hand and stuttered, "W-Why?"

"Because I'm one too, and I want to know what's happening to me. Everyone around me thinks I'm crazy. My parents abandoned me, no news stations are covering this either, the whole world is silent about whatever we have. You hear it too right? The voice of God?"

"Y-Yes."

The young man smiled, "Then you understand. Come with me, we can figure this out if we gather more people like us, I'm certain of it." He helped Collin up and brought him away.

Twenty minutes later, multiple police cars came to the alley and began to search for traces of the two awakened.

A week passed, and more than ten people met in a rundown house that used to be a drug den. Two of the members were none other than Collin and the young man who saved him.

"Nebula, did you find any other yet?" A girl with a mohawk was the first to speak up.

The middle-aged man known as Nebula responded, "I told you, Nebula was my name in the gun trade, stop using it, it's embarrassing. As for new members, it's been getting harder to find anyone. Those who weren't good at hiding got caught and those who could hide are now impossible to find. It's just us."

The girl shifted her gaze. "So much for a guy who walks a recon path....how about you Davis, did you figure out why a kid awakened? Was he a part of a path but didn't know it?"

It became a common point that all awakened touched on a path to be granted the powers of Nihil. Yet strangely, Collin, who was just a kid, was awakened. The small group still didn't know what Collin was granted or why either, it was a complete mystery. But like them, he had the mark of Nihil, the Monarch of Black.

The young man known as Davis shook his head, "No, I can't find anything out. As an alchemist, I'm good at examining things and people, you could even call me a pseudo-doctor. But whatever is wrong with the kid is something I can't see, it's weird."

"So we need someone specialized? We could try the Sisterhood or Yore, I've heard rumors they help keep awakened safe. Plus, they have tons of knowledge" Another awakened gave his input.

The mohawk girl was skeptical, "Are you sure it isn't a trap? We could all get caught if we go."

Collin spoke up, a little timid, "T-Then why don't a few of us go?"