Re: Timeless Apocalypse-Chapter 56: Tools

Uriel walked down the stairs yawning, the early morning already having passed by the settlement, and the drizzle of early afternoon having begun.

It was cold, but warmer than usual, and there even seemed to be a few rays of light piercing through the thick, pale clouds perpetually hanging over the settlement.

’Who would’ve thought I’d ever miss the sun? I also kind of miss winter, now that I think about it.’

The windows of the living room were wide open, the wide door leading to the garden open as well, with Ayah and Enoch deep in the garden, seemingly stretching and talking.

He gave them a glance, then headed to the kitchen, making himself a cup of tea.

As the water boiled, he yawned again.

’Is it even winter I like, or all that comes with it? It feels redundant to separate both, actually.’ He hummed. ’Who separates beaches and swims from the summer?’

’I doubt anyone loves the summer just... for the heat? What kind of strange—’

KAH!

The water reached a boil, and he turned the heat off, pulling the pot off the stove and pouring himself a cup, adding two sugars, then heading out to join the others.

The drizzle instantly began to soak him, but he didn’t mind, walking across the high grass, letting his long braided hair dance in the wind.

"Hello, sunshine," Enoch said, standing to his feet from a stretch.

"Morning," Uriel answered simply, turning to Ayah, who was on her stomach, hands swung back, pulling on her legs and bending her body in a strange ’o’-shaped stretch.

Relaxing, she let go of her feet, then flipped from her stomach to her back, sweat matting her body and her breaths slightly haggard. "Hey."

"You woke up late today, bad sleep?" she asked as she stood to her feet as well.

Uriel walked over to the large boulder near them, then sat on it cross-legged, sipping away at his mug. "I don’t know."

"My core is barely full for some reason. I must’ve eaten too much or something." He waved a hand dismissively. "I’m fine, though."

"More importantly, what are you guys doing?" he asked, eying them.

They both wore tight-fitting martial gear—Ayah having her hair pulled into a tail, her body adorned by a tight black compression shirt contrasted by airy silver pants, mobile and loose.

Enoch wore the exact same outfit.

"We were about to start training, spar, and try to come up with a common training regime," Enoch explained. "We would have waited for you, but, you know?"

Uriel nodded, not bothered.

"On another note," his gaze sharpened. "What happened yesterday? Was that your class or what? Your body literally turned to ashes."

Hearing this, Enoch grinned, childish excitement blooming across his features.

TAH!

Sparks of emerald lightning appeared, coiling around his limbs as the tips of his hair turned to thick, dark amethyst tongues of fire.

"Yeah. I think your spark helped me finally reach the heaven I had in sight."

He closed his palm into a fist, tightly, and the lightning condensed, twisting into roaring lions that coiled and fitted onto his fist like a gauntlet.

"It said I formed a Path, and from that Path, I guess, my class was born."

Uriel nodded, lips pursed in surprise, both because one of his theories had been proven true, and because he could tell Enoch was shocked himself.

Almost as if he’d never formed a class in such a manner before.

"What can you do?" Uriel asked. "Apart from the lightning and all, what’s the essence of the class?"

Enoch remained quiet for a moment.

The gauntlet of emerald lightning encasing his fist vanished, and from thin air, two swords appeared, majestic and beautiful.

One was a longsword of gleaming silver steel, sharp and polished, its handle a sturdy black, the pommel that of a roaring lion.

The other was a long, single-edged sword, the steel black and the long edge a dark gold etched with scintillating white runes, its pommel, too, that of a roaring lion.

"I have no idea."

Both Uriel and Ayah looked at him, eyes wide.

"But through these two weapons, I’ll find out soon enough." He looked up at them. "I didn’t tell you this, but each zone of the dungeon is locked."

"To leave a zone, you need to complete a Zone Quest. The Zone Quest for the forest is to form your class, and the reward is this."

He threw one blade toward Ayah, and the other toward Uriel. They both caught it, the latter with more panic than the former.

"A Class and Frame Tool. A sort of artifact bound to your Class and Frame, but also your Spark. I didn’t even know such a thing existed."

"Through them... I’ll find out soon. I’m sure the secrets of this so-called Path I opened are in there, as well as the truths of my class and frame."

Ayah swung the sword she’d been given, utterly impressed by how light yet simultaneously heavy it felt, but also by the sheer sharpness of it.

Every one of her simple swings tore the ambient flows of aether—the chaotic nodes forming in the air turning to slithering arcs of emerald lightning, and the void areas of no-aether sparking into amethyst flame.

Uriel, on the other hand, was entirely lost in the depths of the runes etched across the blade’s edge, his eyes glued to the sheer perfection and complexity of it all.

Enoch looked at them gawking at his swords with more pride than he dared admit.

...

Eventually, they returned his swords, and Uriel closed his eyes, falling into a state of meditation.

Ayah and Enoch moved a bit further away, to a cleared-out area, where they’d be able to truly go all out.

"My... spark lets me do two things: Contract and Summon."

"I can contract anything I can tame, then use my contracts as kernels of power I can embody. But I can also summon anything within my rank."

"So, as a G-Ranker, I can summon weapons, creatures, and phenomena that’d carry the might of a G-Ranker. I can also summon temporary contracts, and thus temporarily gain the boons of a contract from them."

"All of that costs a lot of aether, obviously."

Uriel and Enoch were speechless.

"...?!"