The world of water shuddered… and began to bleed.
'Ah, right.'
[Your blade is complete.]
Something inside him exploded, drowning his whole being in indescribable suffering. With a startled, strangled noise, Juno folded and fell into the depths of his Soul Sea.
The pain wasn't sharp or clean. It was grinding, crushing pressure from every direction at once, as something enormous had reached into his chest and decided his soul needed to be broken down and reforged from the inside out.
His back arched. Fingers clawed at the invisible surface. There was no breath to scream with, but the sound still tore out of him, thin and ugly, vanishing into the vast dark.
It burned.
Not hot‑metal skin burn, but white‑core furnace burn, starting somewhere deep in his center and radiating outward in waves that crushed everything they touched. His Attributes howled, his Flaw twisted, his desire surged and folded back on itself, dragged into a tighter and tighter knot.
Time dissolved. There was only pressure and fire and the sense of being drawn through a space too small for what he was.
For a moment—an eternity—Juno was sure something had gone wrong. That this was it. That he'd miscalculated, pushed too far, and whatever he was trying to make would shatter him instead.
Then, through the roar, the Spell spoke again.
[Your blade is complete.]
The pressure snapped.
The pain didn't fade so much as vanish, cut clean away. Juno collapsed flat onto the unseen ground, limp, the Soul Sea rushing back to cover him in cool, dark water.
He lay there, staring up, chest heaving out of sheer habit.
Everything was quiet.
Slowly, Juno pushed himself upright.
Above him, where before there had been only the soft, amorphous glow of his foundation, there now spun a distinct, dense sphere of light, brighter and vaster.
His new core.
It pulsed once as his attention settled on it, threads of power rippling out through the Soul Sea and back into him. Strength answered strength. His body—even here—felt firmer, more real. His thoughts moved like a blade through water instead of mud.
Forgetting the pain, Juno quickly left his Soul Sea and found himself back in reality. Seeing the sun's position, he guessed he was in there for a couple of hours at most. After getting that bit of information, Juno summoned his Runes.
Name: Juno
True Name: Sun Chaser
Rank: Dreamer
Below that, shone a bright and new word.
Class: Monster
Soul Cores: [2/7]
'Hehe, what took Sunny over a year took me only a month. What a monster I am… Sorry, what a Monster I am.'
Chuckling quietly at his own pun, Juno read on.
Glories: [Glory of War], [Glory of the King], [Glory of the Gambit]
Memories: [King's Execution], [A Snakes Mask], [Away From Home], [Azure Carapace], [Iron Boots]
Echoes: [Spawn of the Dusk Crow]
Attributes: [Dream's Spawn], [Flame of Divinity], [Anunakki], [Malicious], [Indomitable Humanity], [Godscorn]
How great it was to see his Runes fill up. Just over a month ago, he had much less to his name. Now, above all things, he had an Echo. A true and dangerous Echo.
Skipping a few lines, his eyes came to rest on the thing he was about to experiment on. His Dormant Ability.
Aspect Ability: [Soul Blade]
Aspect Ability Description: [The only blade worthy is yourself. Though be warned, a Soul Core has to be used for a blade to appear.]
Tearing his eyes away from the Runes, Juno stood up. To try something so monumental out whilst sitting would be disgraceful, even for him. He had morals, after all.
Briefly thinking of how to do this, his Innate Ability guided him onto the right path.
He raised his right hand, turned the palm toward his chest, and pushed.
Flesh, bone, ribs—none of it resisted. His hand slid into himself like he was reaching into deep water. Cold tingled up his arm as his fingers passed through the shell of his body and into the dense, luminous weight of his soul.
Instead of seeing them, he felt them. Two luminous cores, one twice as large as the other. They were his Beast and Monster core. Since he had to pick which one to sacrifice first, he picked the smaller one. He picked Beast as a trial run.
He pictured the blade he wanted—nothing ornate, nothing ridiculous. Just a simple, brutal longsword: straight double‑edged blade, long grip, narrow crossguard, made for only one thing.
Then, he simply pulled out his core. The thing slid with his hand, through his chest, and out.
As it moved, light condensed. Juno felt something transfer and morph, getting shape and identity. He glanced down in time to see a metallic shape blooming around his palm: first the barest hint of a pommel, then a wrapped grip, then a straight crossguard.
Finally, with a sensation like a line being drawn through reality, the blade extruded itself. It looked like the simple swords he had read about in the library.
By the time his hand cleared his chest entirely, Juno was holding a full longsword.
The core itself was gone, its light now threaded through steel. Quickly entering his Soul Sea, Juno only saw one Soul Core. It was bizarre, only having part of his true self inside him. The Beast's core also seemed not to disappear or be destroyed, instead just shifting its form to match a blade.
Soon, Juno left his Soul Sea and found himself looking at the Soul Blade once more. It hummed with the same wavelength as his Soul Sea did, just in metallic form. It was no Memory, Echo, Shadow, Reflection, or anything else he had read about.
It was him.
The Spell chimed again.
[You have used the Dormant Ability for the first time.]
[Updating Aspect Ability Description to match understanding.]
…
Juno was now sitting again, his brand new sword lying across his legs. After the Spell had announced it was finished updating, Juno had checked his Runes once again. Everything was the same, including the part saying he had [2/7] Soul Cores. His previous hypothesis was correct. His Soul Cores didn't truly disappear; they had morphed into a new shape.
Deciding to think about that later, Juno scrolled down to the new lines of Runes.
Aspect Ability: [Soul Blade]
Aspect Ability Description: [The only blade worthy is yourself. Grasp the soul and form a blade. These blades can be any blade necessary. With more Soul Cores, the Blade strengthens itself and at critical Classes, the Blade evolves.]
Looking at his Runes, Juno couldn't help but form a wide smile on his face. His Dormant Ability was just insane. Sure, it was Dormant level now, but later on…
Deciding it was time for round two, Juno stood up once again and aimed his Soul Blade right at his heart and pushed. Predictably, instead of cutting him open, the sword just went into his soul.
Just like that, Juno once again found his arm in his chest, grasping around his Beast Core. Quickly, he shifted his hand and grasped his Monster Core instead. Forming the blade he wanted, he pulled on the core.
This time, he didn't picture a simple longsword. He imagined something brutal and heavy—a swordstaff, long haft, thick, sweeping blade meant to hew through armor and bone alike, as a guandao dragged out of a nightmare.
The core moved with his hand.
Metal grew around his palm as it emerged: first a long, dark pole, then a grip, then a short crosspiece. Last came the blade—broad, forward‑curving, with a hook near the tip and enough weight to take a head clean off.
He ended up holding a massive, wicked swordstaff, almost as tall as he was and definitely as heavy.
"Whoa," was all Juno could say. This sword was way heavier than Juno had expected, and it revealed a lot more than he expected, too.
Least importantly, it seemed like he could make his blades any color. That was a nice detail. The materials also changed massively, with his longsword being metal and leather, and this swordstaff being a black metal and wood.
Most importantly, this blade seemed twice as powerful. In hindsight, it made sense. There was a difference between the materials for the two blades.
"Dormant first tier for the Beast Core, and Dormant second tier for the Monster Core."
The idea slotted into place.
He spun the weapon once, testing the balance, then pushed it back into his chest. It vanished, melting into light and sliding back into the Monster Core. Just as it did so, he felt stronger and more capable. His body definitely felt weaker with that core outside, even for a moment.
"Noted," he murmured.
He wasn't done yet, though.
Again and again, Juno plunged his hand into his chest, swapping cores, willing new shapes into existence. He tried diverse weapons, colors, materials, and everything else. He tried axes, spears, javelins, shields, and even clubs. He tried blues, violent pinks, and yellows. He tried woods, metals, and even regular leaves.
After an hour or two of testing, Juno had concluded his testing and was now lying on the tree branch.
He pulled out a bright pink and cyan spear, adorned with a couple of dead leaves and a wooden tip. Definitely one of the more intricate things he had made that day.
With his play tool in hand, Juno dove deep into thought.
Firstly, and maybe most importantly, no part of this process costs Soul Essence. Not putting his hands into his body, nor the shaping of the blade. This was probably due to the fact that, at the end of the day, the Soul Blade was just his soul taking another shape.
Secondly, the time. To do a switch mid-battle would actually be quite feasible, since putting his hand up to his chest to draw a weapon out took a second or two at most. Juno could definitely see possibilities of tricking his enemies with this.
The biggest issue, however, was what constituted a blade. An axe had a sharp side, just the same as a sword. Sadly, he couldn't make an axe. In fact, Juno couldn't make most cold weapons. He was very limited in what he could make, and what he could make was any sword, dagger, short sword, or spear. The spear probably just counted as another type of swordstaff, but still.
It was actually a very peculiar feeling, trying to make something like an axe. The approach and grab would be the same, but when he actually tried to pull his core, it wouldn't budge. Not only that, it would actually hurt him a little to try to forcefully pull it.
Another important part was the material. The first thing Juno had attempted to make was a transparent weapon. He tried many types of glass and crystal, but only one seemed to work. Window quartz. Juno wasn't sure why, but he didn't mind the reason. At the end of the day, the sword he had made with that quartz was so transparent it was nearly invisible. A perfect assassination tool.
Finally, it was his body. Taking out a Soul Core from his own body made him weaker, and the difference was massive depending on which core he used. Simply put, it was way more beneficial to use his Beast Core for his weapon and let his Monster Core remain in his body. The difference between first and second-tier weapons wasn't much, but the difference between one thousand and two thousand Soul Fragments was massive.
"Alright," he said finally, dismissing the spear back into his chest. "Time to go check on the idiots."
He looked up toward the higher branches, judged the distance, and began to climb.
His body moved differently now, much lighter and stronger, so he reached their new perch quickly. The sight that greeted him made him pause.
Sunny was sitting comfortably against the trunk, a strange, serene slackness in his expression. Nephis also sat nearby, hand on the bark, eyes half‑closed. Cassie was curled up, staff loose in her hands.
They all seemed so defenseless and so at ease. They all seemed so… different.
Sunny noticed him first. His head turned, a slow, almost dreamy motion, and he smiled.
"Hey," he said. "You're finally up. You were out for a couple of days."
'A couple of days?! How…"
Sunny plucked a large, round fruit from a low‑hanging branch without even looking, fingers moving with lazy familiarity. The smooth black skin gleamed in the red light as he turned it once in his hand, then casually held it out toward Juno.
The sweet aroma that tried to assault Juno failed as quickly as it started.
"Here," Sunny offered. "Try one. They're amazing."
Juno stared at the fruit.
Then at his defenseless friends.
Then back at the fruit.
"…Right," he said brightly, taking out the fruit. "Amazing."
~~~~~
Aspect reveal here! Let me know what yall think about it!