Even from a distance, Alnea could still see the golden bright light, shining in his Spirit World like its miniature Enn. It was just that instead of shining in the sky—if his Spirit World even had one— the miniature ‘Enn’, his Aspect, was shining just above its ground. Besides, the shining light was not completely golden. Its centre was tainted by darkness. Just like his Heart…
Knowing the colour of his Heart had not disappointed Alnea. On the contrary, it had only made him prouder of himself. More confident of himself, of his abilities to protect the people he loved. He was still weak at the moment, but one day, he would become strong enough to protect all of them. Even if it meant going against the world. And all of it would begin at this moment, by digging his first Aspect Well.
Drifting down to where his Aspect was hovering, Alnea reached out towards his Aspect with the intrinsic connection they had. But before he could call it back, the Aspect sensed his presence, and rushed back to him on its own, conveying its thoughts, and feelings. It had decided the place it was going to call its home. All that was left was for him to dig the well.
Of course, he also had to make sure that the well would be large enough for the Aspect. Or else, he would have to start all over again. Even if he somehow convinced the Aspect to settle down in a well smaller than its capacity, its powers would overflow from the Aspect Well, rendering all his work useless. Thus, it was necessary for him to dig a well that would match the capacity of his Aspect.
Thankfully, Alnea did not have to guess how big of a well he should dig. His Aspect itself was telling him its capacity. Just as Yuri’s Aspect always told her how big of a well they wanted to claim as their homes. By sending a mental picture of the well. Not an accurate description of the capacity of the Aspects, but it generally worked within a range. This was the reason why Yuri had dug a relatively large well for her first Aspect. However, it was either digging a larger well, or being forced to dig all over again…
For the moment, Alnea chose to heed to the advice of his Aspect, and listen to its demand. It could do with a well about a hundred to two hundred metres in depth, and around twenty metres in width, but it would be better if it could have a well with a depth of around three to four hundred metres, and a width of fifty metre…
Alnea to stopped in his actions, as his thoughts froze for a moment. After a while, he reached out to his Aspect once again, asking for its confirmation as to how large it wanted its well to be, and the Aspect responded with the same image, plunging his thoughts into chaos. What did the Aspect meant by giving him choices? Unfortunately, the Aspect could not give an explanation to him. It just gave him the two options, and waited for him to make his choice. In the end, Alnea was forced to turn towards his only option.
“…What does it mean if the Aspect is giving me choices of different sizes to dig my Aspect Well?”
“Oh? Are you finally free now?”
“I was about to reach out to you earlier, but master started teaching me about Swords, and then things happened…”
“Things like?”
“…Getting hurt by observing the manifestation of the Mysteries of my Roots?”
“…Fool.”
“It was not my fault! I did not even wish to see it, yet somehow, I still got dragged into it…”
“…Was it anything serious?”
“No, I just got a slight headache. That’s it.”
“…You really are a fool.”
“I really did not mean it…”
“I will believe you for now… but are you not forgetting something?”
“What?”
“The good news about our rings.”
“Oh, that,” Alnea said, sending an awkward laugh along with his voice. “How can I forget? I was just about to get to it.”
“Do you think I will believe it?”
“I am telling the truth!”
“…Just tell me about what you encountered in your Domain.”
“…Do you still remember how the rings talked with you when you laid your Roots?”
“What do you mean do you still remember? You saw the rings talking to me from my memories in the first place. It happened with me. If even you remember it, then how can I forget about it?”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“…The ring talked again.”
“…What do you mean?”
“The black ring,” Alnea said. “My half of the Rings of Fate… It woke up as soon as I entered the Origin Sea, and started talking with me, calling me weird names like Son of Chaos.”
“Son of Chaos… Ignore that part. What else did the ring say?”
“That was what I was about to get at,” Alnea said. “I finally learned why we have not been able to unlock more functions of the rings.”
“…Why?”
“Because we need to feed the rings with Oren. The ring said that only if we provide them with enough Oren to wake them up will we be able to gain access to their other functions.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“All this time… If only we had fed them with Oren, we would have unlocked more of their functions?”
“No… I still had to complete my bond with the ring, or whatever that means. It would not have worked if we would have tried to feed them with Oren before. But now it will.”
“Still, to be as simple as just feeding them with Oren…”
“…The ring also said that we can activate the functions without feeding them with Oren… but we would have to pay an appropriate price. And from the way it said that, it did not look like the price was going to be cheap.”
“You did not accept the ring’s proposal, right?”
“Of course not. How reckless do you think I am?”
“…Do you need me to remind you about your Oaths?”
“…In any case, that was the gist of it. How was it? Did you like the news?”
“Barely passable.”
“You…”
“Alright, I was just joking,” Yuri said, sending her laughs through the rings. A genuine laugh, not the awkward kind which he had sent earlier. “Let us get back to what you were saying earlier. Something about the Aspects giving you choices?”
“That’s right,” Alnea said, as his focus returned back to his Aspect, and the well that he had to dig for it. “The Aspect is giving me choices to choose the depth, and the width of the well to dig for it.”
“Have you forgotten your basics? That is how things are supposed to be. The Aspects give us a range of depth, and width, and it is up to us to judge form the situation, and—
“This is different,” Alnea said, interrupting Yuri. “My Aspect… it has given me two sets of range.”
“...Two sets of range? Are you sure?”
“I am.”
“This is the first time I am hearing about this… big sis Nyssa might know something.”
“…So what should I do?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Yuri said. “How much is the difference between the two sets of range?”
“The second set is around two to two and a half times larger in both depth, and width. So around ten times larger in total size?”
“Then you have your answer, don’t you?”
“But this… master said not to be too ambitious, or to overreach for myself…”
“She meant not to create an excessively large well for no reason… but you have a reason now, don’t you?”
“I just made her angry with the Mysteries of my Roots…”
“…Stop taunting me, alright?”
“How am I taunting you?”
“Ever since she has accepted you as her son, big sis Nyssa has been so biased towards you. Even earlier today… forget it. In any case, the anger you are talking about must have ended with you resting on her lap, am I right?”
“…That could not be helped.”
“…Choose the larger well. I am sure that she would not be angry with you.”
“…Alright.”
Having made his decision, Alnea stopped hesitating, and called for his Aspect, agreeing with its decision. The Aspect cheered, and flew back to him, to his chest, urging him to move forwards, to walk towards the place he had to dig its well. And he went along with that urge, soon reaching the place that his Aspect had chosen as its home.
At the point, the task of the Aspect was done. His task though, had just begun. Reaching to the thread connecting his Spirit to the Origin Sea, he tugged on it, borrowing copious amount of Oren, stopping only when he had reached the limit that he could handle, expending around twenty units of his Spirit Power with just that action alone. But just borrowing Oren was not enough. He had to shape it, to give it a form, to give it an edge. And so, he did, forming the sharpest, and strongest blade in the world, the sword of his Heart, of his conviction, and of his resolve.
In form, the sword was shaped like the Oathkeeper Sword of the world of Attuners. After all, that was the only sword that Alnea was familiar with. Other than the wooden sword he had trained with, of course. But there was never a choice between them. On one side was a wooden sword which he was using to train his basics, while on the other side was one of the strongest swords of the world of Attuners. How could he even compare them?
Still, only its form had been borrowed from the Oathkeeper Sword. Its colour matched the shield resting on his chest, a golden blade, with a pure black hilt, and edge. And as he looked at it, even that form was being slightly distorted by the influence of his Aspect. It was still a double edged sword, but instead of having a straight rib, the blade had a slight curve added to it.
At shorter length, that curved did not look too remarkable. But as his Aspect kept influencing the sword, adding around two tenths of a metre to the length of its blade, the curved sword was beginning to look a little like the sword that Yuri usually used in her Spirit World to dig Aspect Wells. Especially with its face, narrowed down from the width of a palm to the width of three fingers, adding even more to that similarity.
By the time his Aspect was done transforming the sword, only its hilt remained the same as that of the Sacred Blade of the Oathkeepers. But such a hilt looked completely out of place on the sword he held in his hand. In the end, Alnea changed even the hilt of the sword to better match the majestic blade in his hand. Finally satisfied with the sword, he nodded to himself, and got ready to dig his first Aspect Well.