“The spirit weapon is probably a nascent Wonder, but the second is something like a nascent Forbidden demonic weapon with energies so chaotic it practically borders on Heretic.”
The alternative rarities functioned as a description of the type the magical, or spirit in the case of the daggers, the item was. They came with five different prefixes that could be added before the normal rarity ranking: Origin, Transient, Wonder, Forbidden and Heretic. With Origin referring to powerful natural objects formed of the world’s energy without sentient beings influencing it, and Transient referring to temporary summonable items such as Heroic Armaments and Weapons, the other three were more nebulous.
Wonder usually referred to the fact that the item was near impossible to recreate and functioned in incomprehensible ways that couldn’t be mimicked. They often had strange rules for how they functioned. A Forbidden item carried immense power, in the sense of a tome that could summon a Grand-mage’s Grand Spell Meteor Shower, carrying enough strength to devastate entire kingdoms. They were ultimate techniques in essence.
Heretic weapons were the worst kind, and never a good thing. They carried monster essence that twisted and distorted the User and were heavily regulated by the System. There was no knowledge of a Heretic item over Rare ever being found within the five realms, and both Lucy and Scytale knew that the System confiscates and seals away such items where nobody could ever find them. Or at least, that was the ideal situation.
“I suppose that’s the traces of its creator leaking in. It won’t be dangerous for you, will it?”
She shook her head. “There’s no actual monster essence within it, so it’ll be fine. I have enough spiritual energy to not succumb to the bloodlust of the demonic weapon anyway, and these dagger lookalikes have an interesting function. Like all demonic weapons, this weapon can absorb the spiritual energy of its victims and strengthen itself and its owner, like a demon can with other demons, but also like demons, you need to purify the residual spiritual energy to avoid losing control of your chaotic soul.”
She pointed to the white ‘dagger’. “The spirit weapon takes over this function, directly rerouting the spiritual energy through itself as an intermediary. It takes half of the energy, purifying it and sending the energy to its owner, and uses the other half to do… something. I don’t know what yet, as it hasn’t been defined by a name that would form the ability.”
Scytale nodded along to her explanation but paused when he realised something.
“So, if they’re not daggers, then what ARE these?”
Lucy had a complicated look on her face at that question. “Well, their current form is functional, but it’s just a dormant form for them, providing passive boosts to the User if they were defined.”
“…..it’s not like you to draw out an explanation. What are their true forms?”
“…. snake-swords.”
“….snake-swords?”
“Yes.”
“The kind that gets waved around like a whip with extra steps?”
“….yes.”
“You, Lucille Goldcroft, soulbound snake-swords?”
Lucy remained silent. Scytale stared at her just to make sure she wasn’t joking, and even read her thoughts through their bond to check but had to throw his head back with silent laughter as he realised why she was keeping quiet.
“What is with you and slithering things? I mean, you gained me as a bond the first time, and this time you gain two sentient swords that just happened to be in the shape of snakes? Do you have some rare serpent affinity? Natural Dao roots of the Supreme Snake Dao? The hidden successor to the Secret Scripture of Scaly things that Slither?”
She whacked him over his feathery head. “There’s no way the ‘Snake Dao’, if it existed, would be a Supreme Dao, something synonymous with the incomprehensible forces of nature. But yes, the true form of these weapons are two snake-swords that extend outwards and can be manipulated like a whip by controlling them with mana or spiritual energy.”
Lucy picked up the white dagger, twisting it slowly, seeing the little bit of light in the room bounce off its surface. However, as she held it, the second black dagger lifted itself and floated near the white dagger, slowly moving around Lucy’s head in a circle while trembling slightly.
Scytale cocked his head as he watched her let go of the white dagger, and it moved next to the black dagger, circling with it in sync. “That’s… not you doing that? They have autonomous movement already? Wow, only much older spirit and demonic weapons normally do that. What rarity are they?”
She smiled. “These are Epic ranked. And that’s their starting point.”
All demonic or spirit weapons were evolvable. Some sentient ones chose not to gain higher strength, but with spiritual energy, mana, potentially more materials and time, they can all increase their strength. So, while some Users had to build up their weapon from Rare or even Uncommon rarity, these daggers already had amazing strength and could reach even greater heights. Scytale watched as the daggers followed the direction of Lucy’s pointing finger, and then came back.
“So, another reason for people to kill us then. Even if they get damaged or need to switch Users at a higher rank, they’ll start at Epic rarity, unlike most other weapons, making them extremely valuable. But considering this trial was the best for ‘my’ future, maybe you having weapons that can fight on their own to protect you will protect my resources too?”
Lucy frowned slightly. "Possibly... but our current focus should be naming the two weapons. I've also noticed these two weapons have a strange bond between them going on that's interfering with the 'master' bond I should have with them as their soulbound owner." She continued thinking, a hesitant look on her face. “I think I have a name for the black one, but the white one… I’m not sure.”
Scytale looked at her eagerly. “Are they going to be thematic names?”
She nodded. “I intend to take some names from Earth’s mythology. Considering they will technically be the first magic items to be named after them, and as magical items hold actual power, they might get imbued with some of their concepts if I do so and could cause a feedback loop that will reduce some of the instability of them in the 7th realm.”
Scytale hissed at her implications. “Oh yeah, that’s a good point. Let’s just borrow their Influence then. Snake themed?”
“Yep. The two names I am planning on also have some relation to each other in history and have similar themes, so I think it will magnify their synergetic bond.”
“So, you already have two names. What’s the issue?”
She grabbed the black dagger from where it was hovering in the air in front of her. “I’m planning on naming this one Apophis.”
Scytale blinked and looked at her. “That’s… more suitable than I thought. The Egyptian snake deity embodying a constant cycle of darkness and chaos, and naming a black demonic weapon after it, when demons are the incarnations of the metaphysical forces of chaos? Yeah, that works. But I can’t think of any other Egyptian-related snake creatures in mythology for the white one.”
She frowned slightly, letting go of the black dagger. “I was thinking of naming the white dagger Ouroboros.”
Her bond tilted his head at her answer. “I can’t say that I’m very familiar with it, besides the fact it eats its tail and is in the shape of a circle… or was it the infinity sign? So, yeah, I don’t know why you’re hesitant about it yet.”
She ran her hands through her fringe. “Ouroboros was a younger deity concept originating in the Western world through Egyptian symbology, likely Apophis itself, and Greek influence brought across by travellers, like non-magical alchemy was. It’s typically a symbol of cycles, rebirth, life and death, infinity, karma, and so on. But my issue is I’m not sure if the name would suit a spirit weapon, something typically associated with ‘good’ or ‘pureness’. Ouroboros kind of suggests cultists and other darker things due to its lesser renown, even if the symbolism is not inherently bad. I don’t want the weapon to become demonic because of the name.”
The silvery snake narrowed his eyes at her. “I think it’s fine. It suits it better than my idea of Ladon, which was a gold, several-headed dragon. Also, let me give my perspective as a snake: nobody is going to think ‘snake-sword? Wow, that is totally a weapon used by upright and honourable people!’. It’s a weapon based around the idea of a snake, we’re not beasts known for being chivalrous, righteous and all that.” He paused to gesture with his nose at the white dagger.
“It’s also a weapon. All weapons are used for killing, so a weapon that embodies the cycle of life would not be as bad as what it could be sent as a message.”
She looked at him and then watched the daggers spin for a while. Eventually, she nodded. “I don’t have the time to search through my memories of Earth’s history for a good name, even if I speed up my thoughts. I haven’t found a better one as of now, so I’ll stick with what I’ve got. Hopefully, the ‘cycle’ concept will aid it in absorbing the demonic energy of the black dagger better. Alright.”
She grabbed them both. “As of now, I’ll name this black snake-sword Apophis and this white snake-sword Ouroboros.”
While her voice didn’t reverberate like it had when she used her Authority to open the door, there was something to it that Scytale could feel occurring. The best way he had to describe it would be that a build-up of metaphysical static was occurring, with the two daggers at the centre. He could feel the pull of spiritual energy funnelling towards the daggers, and while his soul didn’t lose any as his spiritual energy had his spiritual energy signature, he could tell it was rushing into two vortexes and coalescing into the completed souls of the weapons.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
As he watched, they gained a colourless glow to them, and their forms shifted in a way that made them look like liquid for a moment. And then it ended, the two daggers hovering vertically before Lucy’s face, vibrating. They took in the changes of the weapons.
While the base forms of the daggers were the same, two curved blades attached to their handguards and then short pommels, in white and black, they had changed in ways very different from each other. The white blade had a perfectly smooth, razor-sharp edge. No nicks or indents were visible, just a solid curve up to the tip. While it was curved, it wasn’t one-sided, being just as sharp on both edges. In the centre of the handguard was a diamond-shaped sky-blue sapphire, a brighter colour than most sapphires, framed by a silver border, and having the insignia of a crescent moon on its front. The handguard itself curved down on its two ends.
There were some additional white-silver decorations in the pattern of vines winding along the handguard, but that wasn’t what caught Scytale’s eye. It was the handle that he paid attention to. Instead of leather, winding its way along the dagger was a small white snake ornament. Its head ended up just past the handguard and on the flat of the blade, left of the gemstone centre, while its tail, after spiralling its body around the handle, rested on the end of the pommel, another spherical carved sapphire. The eyes of the small snake were the same brilliant blue stone.
What was interesting was its pair, the black dagger, had the same snake decoration winding its way up the handle to rest its head on the flat of the blade, just black, on the right of the gem and not the left. The similarities stopped there. Unlike the white dagger, the inner curve of the blade was serrated in three places, and only the outer curve was smooth. The handguard tilted up at the ends and vicious-looking black thorn decorations wrapped around the guard. The diamond-shaped gemstone embedded within its guard was a malevolent crimson ruby, this time with a black sun symbol on its front, the pommel’s stone and the snake’s eyes containing the same scarlet gem.
As Lucy grabbed them again, the white dagger gained a sky-blue aura, and the black one a bloody glow.
“Huh,” she said after a moment. Scytale just stared at her.
“Huh?! Is that all you have to say?! Glory Pantheon would weep at your lacklustre reaction! No wonder you say you can’t be a warrior!”
Lucille looked at him blankly before she realised what he meant. “Oh, I’m not upset at their looks, it’s just… they're much more mentally immature than I expected.”
Scytale felt a strange tugging sensation on his soul before he managed to sense the weak thoughts and emotions of the two souls.
“Hmm…” Scytale mused. “Have they started to form proper personalities yet?”
She nodded. “They already have genders. Apophis is a boy, and Ouroboros a girl.”
Scytale looked at her sceptically. “And you could tell that how?”
Lucy shrugged. "I can easily tell based on their differing soul structures." She moved a finger to gesture for them to come back, and they did. Picking up the black dagger, she held it and they watched with interest as the snake ornament’s eyes started glowing, and it started slithering along the dagger's body after unwinding itself. It crawled downwards, and climbed up her arm, reaching her forearm to ‘look’ at her, although the tail didn’t lose contact with the dagger.
Scytale, feeling bored, asked, "Can I see their true forms?”
“Of course. But let’s do this one at a time. I’m getting the impression that their true forms are much bigger than we think.”
Scytale watched intently as she held Ouroboros with the blade pointing up.
“I’m pretty sure you don’t hold curved daggers with the blades on top.”
She waved a hand at him in response. “Shush. Don’t badger me. Glory Pantheon aren't here to attack me for offending their sensibilities, and these aren’t actually daggers. It’ll be fine.”
They watched as Ouroboros’s form shifted, the pommel growing longer, the handguard widening and the blade straightening and lengthening. Scytale tilted his head. Everything below the blade was pretty much the same, but the blade itself….
“Is it segmented?”
Still white, it had two parallel sides that eventually changed angles to meet together, forming the tip, like a typical longsword. However, from where he was, he could see several segments overlapping the earlier one until it reached the end of the sword. The edges of the sword were angled slightly per segment, creating serrations, but the bottom of each segment was arrow-shaped, pointing up towards the tip.
“This is an interesting blade. The sections of the snake-sword don’t connect, and the blade doesn’t extend as one whole piece of metal. And I think...” she continued, pointing Ouroboros so the weapon was parallel to the floor.
Scytale watched as the blade extended slightly, gaps between the segments appearing amidst the sky-blue haze surrounding it. The gaps meant the edge wasn’t smooth, and so created more points on the blade’s edges that could catch and shred stuff, doing more damage. Nothing seemed to be connecting them, and they hovered in the air.
After raising the sword so it was vertical again, she flicked a finger against the metal with a chink and the segment wavered and rotated slightly, the neighbouring segments doing the same as the force dispersed along the blade. She placed a hand in the gap between two segments and waved it. The pieces stayed in mid-air.
“There’s nothing between them. No wire or invisible cord of some kind. It’s like some kind of… electromagnetic current is running through the blade, giving it cohesion. It reminds me of the magnetised repulsion armour from Earth like it can switch between magnetised segments, becoming solid, or repelled segments, moving around. It’s not a design I would expect to find within the Tower at this time.”
Scytale tilted his head. “That sounds like too advanced technology for this time. Are you sure it’s electromagnetism?”
She shook her head. “I said it was like it, not that it was. But the spiritual energy of the weapon is functioning very similarly. Almost something I would expect an immortal practitioner of the Gravitational Grand Dao to come up with if they had a profession in formations.”
“I feel like it’s too short to be a snake-sword.”
She pointed it horizontally again. “Watch.”
Immediately after she said that, with several metallic clangs, more segments started appearing one by one. Extending to roughly five metres in front of her, Scytale could see many more segments than just the original ones. She pulled the sword back with a jolt of her wrist, and it snapped back into its longsword structure next to her before slowly disconnecting again. The tip of the sword had always remained a point however, the arrow shape allowed more segments to appear with no extra movement.
Scytale blinked. “They’re just… appearing? Not invisible or anything, no dimensional pocket magic they’re being pulled out of?”
Lucy nodded. “This is one of the abilities of both weapons from what I’ve worked out. I believe this is why Ouroboros might get the Wonder distinction. They can extend using these segments rather than stretch out, so they technically have no limit besides how much energy I can give them, and my ability to manipulate them.”
“The segments don’t seem very snake-like if you ask me.”
She grinned, raising an eyebrow. “Oh really? But don’t you think it looks like a snake when it does this?”
Before he could ask what she meant, she extended Ouroboros so its blade segments filled the room. Following her pointing finger, he watched with interest as he noticed the entire blade was constantly moving, oscillating up and down, and letting out an almost mechanical hum. He nodded begrudgingly; he could see how the movement looked like a snake’s. But he had an issue.
“If it can theoretically extend infinitely as you suggest, the blades will end up as tiny strings when stretched over any long distance in the scheme of things. I know the blade’s width won’t shrink when stretching, but it’s not the best for some battles.”
Wordlessly shaking her head, she tapped on a segment. Instead of vibrating faster as he expected, it grew in size, reaching half a metre in width. The nearby segments had also grown in size, but a tad smaller, and the next ones, a tad smaller still, so as the blade oscillated, it grew and shrank in size, like two sine graphs overlapping.
“This is a second ability of theirs. The rule, from what I can tell, is that they can reach up to the equivalent of an eighth of their length in width whenever I want. I can trigger it from any point along the blade and in multiple places concurrently too. However, I'll give control over that ability back to Ouroboros if I end up using these myself. Mana-arts require someone to have killing intent, so I don't know how these will work for me though." She observed the weapon closer. "The segments can additionally widen the gap between themselves if needed, so it won’t get caught on anything I don’t want it to. I also have a vague sense of the area around the blade like my perception field, so I can tell what it’s cutting.”
He watched her extend, shrink and collapse Ouroboros’s blade before speaking up. “So how does Apophis vary? Is his blade different?”
“I don’t know yet, so let’s check.”
She let go of Ouroboros, now in her dagger form again and grabbed Apophis. They watched as he lengthened, and she raised his longsword form vertically to look at it. They blinked in surprise. Apophis’s blade was also segmented, but it was different. His segments had the same shape as Ouroboros’s, but they were reversed, the arrow-shaped top of the individual segments pointing towards the handguard. It would’ve looked like a flame-sword, if it weren’t for the fact that the sword didn’t just end in a tip but two points because of the reverse arrow structures, before then ending in a disconnected tip the shape of a square on an angle.
It was strange because the direction of the arrow design meant it was harder for the blade to catch on and rend flesh, which was unusual for a demonic weapon. There was a slight difference he noticed though. On either side of the sword’s flat surface, for each segment, was a strange, ridged strip of metal going up the centre. It was only a small detail, but neither of them could understand what it was for. Lucy shrugged and extended the sword.
There was a delayed clang of metal as more blades, perpendicular to the original segments, appeared along both sides of the sword, like how a 3D cardboard cut-out model appeared as the segments appeared and hovered slightly apart. These half-blades meant if you looked down the blade from the top when it was straight, it appeared like a series of repeating crosses. These half-segments also had the same repulsion ability going on, staying a few centimetres away from the metal ridges but never touching. It looked vicious, but that wasn’t the worst bit.
The catch was that unlike how Ouroboros oscillated like the body of a snake, Apophis didn’t. His oscillation was when these half-segments increased their distance from the ridges before drawing closer to their main segment again. Combined with the fact the gap between the segments meant they could rotate slightly, it made for a rather nasty blender.
The deep scarlet aura running through the blade seemed to glow malevolently. There was an awkward pause as they realised how it worked.
“…interesting torture device you’ve got there.”
Lucille just sighed. “Normally I would be mad at you, but I can’t ignore what’s in front of me.” She rubbed her head. “I’m going to need to set some rules for myself when using these. If I need to kill monsters, I’ll use Apophis. If I need to kill other Users, then I’ll use Ouroboros.”
Scytale bobbed his head. “I feel like that’s a bit of a reversal of the normal order, killing others with a spirit weapon instead of the demonic one, but if you’re going to be the leader of this Faction of yours, you need good PR, and you aren’t going to get that by wielding this blade against people.”
She let go of Apophis after returning him to his dagger form. The two weapons rotated around them. She got out her dimensional bag and withdrew two leather sheaths from her bag. She hooked them onto her belt on either side of her waist. Scytale supposed it was good she was ambidextrous.
“Why do you have two?”
“Well,” she said, inserting Apophis into her left sheath and Ouroboros into her right. “One was a magical item I ‘bought’ from the Emporium for my bronze knife. I kept the knife in my bag for this event, as I expected us to refrain from combat, while the second is a non-magical spare I got in case the first broke somehow. It turns out they came in handy for this.”
She stretched, raising her arms above her head, and looked around. “Was there anything else?”
He shook his head. “There were a few strange objects on the workbench over that side, but they gave me a bad feeling.”
Lucille nodded. “If this place was fully mundane then the System would’ve had no reason to close it off. I’ll use my Authority to reseal this place once we exit, just to make sure.”
She picked him up, placing him across her shoulders, and they took one last glance around the place. Then, without looking back, they walked out of the decaying forge, shutting the door behind them. Turning back to the grey stone, Lucy placed a palm on the door and used that weird tone of hers to use her Authority, and the stone lost detail, becoming completely smooth with no detailing. They turned around to walk down the endless corridor. Lucy pulled out the palm-sized violet pocket watch with the golden emblem of three coins, swinging it by its golden chain.
“We have a bit less than a month of teleportation cooldown, and I want us to use that time to discuss our next steps. But when we can use it,” she said with a grin, “We’ll go to the Mystical Realm so I can take up my new post as owner of my Faction.”
It would be time for them to head to the independent city-state of the Gilded Dome plane, the headquarters of the Aurelian Commission – the largest official merchant Faction of the Tower realms.
----------------------------------------
A lone hooded figure approached the large building, the black cloak hiding their face from view. Only the shine of two ice-blue eyes could be seen in the shadows of their face.
They entered the open doorway of the building, ignoring the ruckus around them. Heavily-built men and women with scars and mismatched armour laughed and chatted with each other at tables. They held large weapons and tankards of drink, enjoying themselves as the sun went down. A few people leaned against the room’s walls with their arms crossed, not entertaining conversation with anyone.
The cloaked figure marched up to the front bench and pulled up a seat. They threw off their hood to reveal the pale face of a woman framed by wild black curly hair streaked with glowing lines of indigo. Some of the people at the tables closest to her snickered and then downed their drinks.
The man behind the bench came up to the figure, raising an eyebrow. “I haven’t seen you around here before. Just in case you didn’t know, miss…” He gestured to the room. “This here isn’t any old tavern. This is the Grove of Snarling Fangs branch building of the Savage Wolf Mercenary Guild.”
“I know,” the woman stated curtly, her voice indifferent. “I didn’t come in here believing it was a tavern. I came because I want to join the Guild.”
The man fell silent and watched her closely. Some of the nearest mercenaries began laughing but a quick warning look from the man shut them up. He leaned back and crossed his arms. “Our guild does take Rank-1s, but when it comes to mages we tend to be picky. What’s your element?”
“Illusion.”
He smirked and leaned his arms on the table. “But I thought illusion mages don’t have combat spells until they form their domain at the very least.”
She didn’t say anything and just wordlessly watched him for a few seconds. Then she snapped her fingers.
The man behind the bench eyed her strangely until a thundering sound resounded throughout the room. He pulled out a dagger as he got into a combat-ready position and shouted out to the rest of the room, “Everyone! We’re under attack! Get into position and prepare for battle!”
The sound of fireball blasts and shaking earth continued to sound, making all the mercenaries stand up and prepare to fight. Then it suddenly stopped without warning.
They all looked about with confusion as they saw that nothing had happened.
“Is this enough to prove myself?” the woman draped with a black cloak asked.
The man behind the bench slowly turned to her and stared, before bursting out into loud laughter. He sheathed his weapon and walked back over to her as the rest of the mercenaries settled. “Okay, you got me there miss. What do you want?”
Instead of instantly answering, she withdrew an envelope from a pocket. She showed the seal on the front to the man. “Temporary employment until October when I will join the Distorted Depths Navy’s elite cadet training camp,” she stated calmly. “I don’t need the exclusive wage of a mage. In return though, I want access to read all the Savage Wolf Mercenary Guild’s information on current Dungeons and Lairs available right now.”
He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Dungeon and Lair records, eh? I can do that, but what for?”
“I’m a mage. I live for research,” she replied, her lips twitching slightly.
He chuckled. “Of course. Well then, our future Guild member? What name should I put down on your application note?”
“Adrianna Riftmire.”
…
Her hood back in place, the woman left the Guild’s tavern and headed straight for the centre of the city. Walking up to the towering pillar of sleek black stone, she walked through the Obelisk’s archway and entered the inky darkness beyond. When she next opened her eyes she was in a hazy white cube overlooking the Ascendant City below.
With a flick of her wrist a chair formed and she sat down on it with a sigh, her eyes closed. After a moment she opened them, although the look in her eyes was slightly different.
Alright. Consciousnesses are merged. Time to use my mental constructs to ensure my plans will work.
With a twist of will, a notification asking, ‘Access System Repository?’ popped up. Selecting [Yes], the woman skimmed through the categories of information to find what she was looking for. She opened up the screens.
With this information, I can now carefully decide which Realm Events I want the Hero to be fooled into going to… and which ones I’ll go to myself.
A Hero needs to face difficulties in his journey to success, after all. I wonder if even the great Hero of Light can deal with an Aberration before Rank-4.