We float over the chasm as Zack rambles. "It goes by a bunch of names. The great divide, the maw, Hell's crevice. The civi's even think a god dwells within its depths." I peer into the void and shudder. I don't usually have a fear of the dark or of heights, but something feels unnatural about it. I glance at the edges of the chasm. Each one is perfectly straight. To stright.

"The edges look too unnatural. Like something cut through it."

Zack nods, "Yup. None of the civilians know it, but this is the result of a black core. We don't know how, why, or what the circumstances were when it was, but it's definitely the result of one." My chest tightens. This thing inside me is capable of this? "Of course, one or two black cores have popped up in the several thousands of years End City has lived, but none of them showed the kind of power to cause such devastation."

"Then how are you sure this was caused by a core?"

The floater turns inland, and we drift away from the wall, the black scar in the ground never fading, "Because the walls are made of star stone. Something only black cores are known to create. It's a form of discharge, but if you want the nitty-gritty details, ask Az. I don't care for the sciency stuff." Az...he must mean Azu.

"How far does it go?"

Zack scratches his head, "Uh...I think past the mountains. No one has managed to follow the entire thing. The last party lost contact at the edge of the mountains. Haven't heard from them since." We drift silently over the blackness. I finally figured out what feels so off. There's no sound. No wind. The haunting song of the Exlades is absent. Creepy.

We fly for another ten minutes before settling down on a large black disk. It's roughly a hundred yards in diameter, and the black ground reminds me of obsidian. The doors pop open, and Zack jumps out, spear in hand.

"This is the Starstone I was talking about. This was an alter of some kind a few thousand years ago when people still sacrificed children and cores to the abyss."

I touch the stone with my foot, and it lights up a bright blue. I retreat back into the floater, "What the fuck? Why is it glowing?"

Zack chuckles as he walks to my side, a trail of blue footsteps following, "It's how the stone works. When something impacts it, a blue after-glow follows. No one knows why, though." Zack squats and jumps high into the sky. I glance up, squinting. I watch as he goes higher and higher until he's nothing but a speck. And then the speck gets closer. And closer. Just before impact, Zack has that wild smile, his spear directed straight for the ground. I yelp and jump out of the vehicle, hoping to avoid the shattering of the disk. But nothing happens. I peek over the roof, and a huge circle of navy blue surrounds Zack, but his spear doesn't even make a scratch.

"What?" I step out from behind the floater. Zack stands up and spins his spear, resting it on his shoulder.

"Another cool effect of the rock, any kinetic force is disrupted and absorbed, which turns into a blue glow. The darker the blue, the more force that was applied. It's a great way to train. You can measure both your striking force with none of the negative effects, and you can also do things that would kill you regularly, like jumping from a thousand feet straight onto the stone. It'll completely cancel any energy you have, making it seem like you never jumped at all."

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He smiles broadly. This is insane. A magical stone that completely cancels out impact damage? I almost wouldn't believe it if cores didn't exist. "Why isn't this used everywhere? This could completely change things like sports or jobs that require high altitude work."

Zack shrugs, "I mean, do you wanna have to mine this shit off the edge of a cliff with grass that's as deadly as a sword? Besides, the way to extract the stuff was lost ages ago. This disk is the only thing created with Starstone. It's impossible to break, as far as I know."

Hmm. So, there was a way to mine this stuff? My mind starts to drift as a new sensation comes to me. A sort of giddy wonder. Is this what it's like to discover the mystical? No wonder people are hooked on discovering new things. Silo would've had a heart attack.

Zack snaps his fingers in my face, "Wow there, Azu two point O. Before you get deep into your thoughts, we came here to train. Now draw your sword." Zack leaps about forty feet back. Right, training.

I grip my sword, and the sound of the metal tendrils holding it in place reverberates in the eerie silence. It's like metal sliding against metal. I pull it out, holding it by my side. Zack grins, "Alright, give me your best shot. No holding back now."

I nod. With a deep breath, I envision the sword heating up. Sure enough, the Bustal oil seeps into the blade as the flame core ignites it, turning the core steel lines into a bright orange in the dark gray steel. I bring the hilt shoulder level; tip pointed skyward. Zack squares his shoulders and spreads his feet. Sweat drips down my face but is quickly dried up. The heat this sword is giving off is intense. With a huff, I slam my foot forward, crossing the distance between us in a second. As I bring my blade down, I think of it getting heavy. Just like with the Kob, the sword becomes so heavy that all I can do is guide it as it falls. Zack quickly brings the handle of the spear up, my blade clanging into it.

He grunts as the weight of the blade forces him to a knee, "MAN, this thing is heavy. Holy shi-" He drops his spear down, jumping back faster than I can see. The sword slams into the disk, shaking it and causing a blue so dark it's almost black to bloom around me. I immediately lighten the weapon, cutting the heat off at the same time.

Zack chuckles, "That thing is insane. Where the hell did you find that core?" He raises his spear, the bandage wrap burned where the blade met it. Aside from that, however, the spear is perfectly fine. "I thought my spear might actually buckle for a second there." He whistles as he examines the wrapping. I look at the sword. This is only the second time I've really used it, but it feels like a completely different weapon. It's more responsive.

"That's called bonding."

"Huh?" I look at Zack to find him standing right next to me. When did he get there?

"Weapons with blood cores tend to bond with the owner. The more a weapon is used, the stronger the bond and the harder it is for others to use the said weapon. That's why most serious divers have one. Dark shade blood cores are especially in high demand."

"Do you have one?"

He laughs, "Nah, no one but me can use this spear. Here, you'll understand when you hold it."

He holds his spear out with one hand and drops it into my palm. I immediately fall onto my face from the weight. "What the fuck is this?" I grunt as I try and fail to make it even budge, "Does this thing have a weight core like mine?"

"Nope." Zack reaches down and plucks it from my grasp, "that's just how much it weighs." I hold my hand as pain pluses through it. He twirls the spear with no effort. "this should give you a ballpark on how insanely heavy that sword of yours is. Given time, I could probably lift it, but I could never wield something like that. Not effectively, anyway. But think what you could accomplish if you managed to put real power behind that weight. You could cut through practically anything."

I look down at my sword. He's right. I don't know what the hard cap is on weight, but that doesn't matter. With what I have, if I can learn to control the weight at will, I could be unstoppable. Or I could die a painful death. One of the two.

"Anyway, you have a long way to go before you get to that point. For now, let's just do some basic sparring. And don't hold back." I nod and ready myself. Sure, he might be a billion times stronger than me, but experience-wise, I should have the upper hand. After all, much like that Everett kid, he's been trained to fight monsters. Not humans.