Dark Light Progression (Excelion Universe)

Hi. The author, sadly, has not the time to edit this now, but would like to point out that the classification here is flawed, due to the people who made it working from incomplete data. Enjoy a bit of fluff he wrote for Grace, who he may not have introduced properly yet.

Stage One: Extinguisher Syndrome. Prevents stage two. Physical effects are slightly enhanced strength, immunity to pain, and eyes glowing a faint purple.

Stage Two: Subject gets weaker and more brittle, due to the muscular system beginning to fragment. Subject is producing Dark Light Particles, but in levels low enough to only trigger Extinguisher Syndrome in people within roughly a foot of their exposed skin.

Stage Three: Same as Stage Two, but with the addition of Extinguisher Syndrome. Mental processes are degraded, but to a slightly lesser degree then most Stage One affectees, and Dark Light progress is halted, making this the second most common stage. Further progression at this point is rare, as anyone who reaches Stage Two and then contracts Extinguisher Syndrome eventually fights Dark Light off completely if left uninterrupted.

Stage Four: Subject is significantly more fragile, and subdermal segmenting begins to happen in force. Probably includes significant mental boosts, although the personality that surfaces due to this is usually quite a bit more simple and short term oriented than the original, although this is probably due mainly to Extinguisher Syndrome. As no one has been known to stay in this stage for more than a day, and none of the known cases were conscious at the time. Very little is known about this stage directly, mainly due to the lack of subjects, and most of what is believed is guesswork based on Stage Five.

Stage Five: If a Stage Two patient falls unconscious long enough to reach Stage Four, and then wakes up, they will almost immediately contract Extinguisher Syndrome. They then usually regress to Stage Three in a matter of minutes, but sometimes, rarely, stay in Stage Five. Stage Five is characterized by enhanced strength, which resembles telekinetic manipulation of the individual body segments more than actual musculature, most of which which has crystallized to varying degrees. Stage Five also includes more a coherent mind than any prior stage, to the point that they resemble people functioning under a large disconnect, such as the side effects of some sedatives. It should be noted that despite having fewer restraints, for good or ill, they are not stupid. They are generally quite clever, if somewhat slow to act on it, and may become more introverted than they were before their transformation. Due to Grace’s unique level of control over her individual segments, it has been proposed that she reclassified as Stage Six, with the current Stage Six being reclassified Stage Seven, but with the currently tiny sample base to have demonstrated either, the reclassification has been deemed irrelevant for the time being.

Stage Six: Only one known case exists on record; Subject Tiamat. Or Grace, as she prefers. A temporary effect only, but an incredibly powerful one. Upon activation, Grace segments completely, and the shards turn an off white as opposed to the obsidian they were. Significantly more long range telekinesis becomes available, at the cost of most precision. Interestingly, the duration of the telekinesis can apparently be consciously charged, so long as the shard is in contact with the main mass, implying that it is based on a similar principle to detached forcefields. Unlike Stage Six, which seems to at least mostly follow conservation of mass, Stage Seven seems to ignore it almost entirely, generating new shards within seconds of loss. As there is no evidence of extradimensional storage, this lends more weight to the theory that the shards are forcefield based.