Kallen found himself in an endless black void, countless stars sparkling and shimmering. Between them were countless strings of silver light, woven in a complex net with various constellations and nexuses. Unwittingly, he gaped at the sight.
He was inside the spell. He hadn't expected it to look so… mechanical. Deliberate. Almost as if it had some architect… some creator.
Obviously something had to make the spell.
Though, no one really knew. Of course skeptics and researchers alike had been trying to figure it out since the spell had popped up, but Kallen didn't much care right now.
[You have received an echo: Elder Gargoyle.]
Kallen gaped once again.
[Aspirant! Your trial is over.]
[A wretched prisoner, sentenced to execution, escaped his bonds and doomed a famed king—along with his residents—to death at the hands of darkness. Churning forward, he fought gloriously. Bloodied and broken, he whispered to the depths as danger loomed above. Through storm and sea, he received his answer, in the heart of the abyss, the prisoner struck true, he had spoken to the sea and the Leviathan answered.]
[You have defeated forty-six dormant beasts, Elder Gargoyle's Follower.]
[You have defeated an awakened human, King Jaire.]
[You have defeated an awakened terror, Elder Gargoyle.]
[You have won the Storm God's favor.]
[Final appraisal: glorious. Your courage is limitless!]
Kallen felt as if the spell was mocking him. The whole, 'churning forward, he fought gloriously' bit was obviously a dig at the joke he made when he met the first gargoyle.
My courage is limitless? I ran away...
And what was that about him dooming the king and the residents of the castle? Would they have survived if he had simply let himself be executed? Was that why he had received a glorious appraisal?
He certainly hadn't killed the terror on his own merit…
Somehow he felt that the powerful king would have survived if he hadn't been caught off guard, talking to a prisoner in the dungeons. Perhaps he could have attacked with his soldiers. Perhaps his abilities were tied to supporting his fellow knights.
It made sense given the ability of Legacy of the Fallen.
Kallen glared at the empty expanse. He'd done nothing but run and kill creatures that couldn't fight back. There wasn't anything courageous or glorious about it. Although, the spell probably didn't care about such things. Likely, it only cared that he had survived.
[Dreamer Kallenir, receive your boon!]
Kallen stared intently. Eager not to miss a thing… hadn't he been just a student? Before the nightmare, he'd wanted nothing to do with owning an aspect… but now he was a kid before christmas.
Maybe he just wanted to be rewarded for all of his hard work.
[You have been bestowed a True Name: Blessed of the Sea.]
He nearly fainted. A true name…
He'd made a few jokes about getting one… but never did he actually think it was possible. Only a chosen few of humanity had received a true name to begin with.
[Your aspect is ready to evolve. Evolve Aspect?]
Kallen didn't hesitate. "Yes."
[Dormant Aspect Seafarer is evolving…]
[New Aspect acquired.]
[Aspect Rank: Divine.]
[Aspect Name: Sea King.]
Kallen didn't have it in him to be surprised anymore. So much had happened…
But a divine aspect? People tended to keep the class of their aspect a secret… but he hadn't ever heard of anyone possessing a divine aspect. Was he being pranked? Was he secretly being corrupted by the Elder Gargoyle and just living out some sort of fantasy?
He decided he wouldn't dwell on that. The possibility—it was scary.
Kallen summoned the the runes of his aspect.
Aspect: [Sea King.]
Aspect Rank: Divine.
Aspect Description: [You reign in the deep, ruling over all that lies beneath the waves. The seas recognize your authority, their currents bending to your will, their creatures heeding your call. You are one with the tides, a force of nature, a lord without equal in the wretched depths.]
Innate Ability: [Tideform.]
Ability Description: [Imbued with the essence of the sea, different forms bring different boons.]
Kallen ruminated over both his aspect and his innate ability. It was almost too much to take in with such a short time frame. What would the House of Night do if they found out he had a divine aspect?
He didn't want to be whisked away to the stormsea the second he came back from the dream realm as an awakened. Even transcendent aspects were heavily sought after by great clans.
A slightly conceited smile found its way on Kallen's face. Even without the divine aspect… he already had a true name. He was part of an elite few spell carriers that even possessed a true name, even if he was doubtlessly the weakest.
Though, he also couldn't start looking that far into the future either. That was a recipe for disaster no matter how you spun it.
[The First Seal is broken.]
[Awakening dormant powers…]
Kallen felt a slumbering beast begin to awaken. A painful spike of pain drove through his chest, then settled into something vaguely neutral.
A certain… energy filled him. Everything that made him had enhanced so suddenly that it left him reeling and slightly disoriented. There seemed a shimmering star burning within him, radiating heat in swathes of latent power, reaching every fiber of his being.
It was as if his body were tempering itself.
And then he was underwater…
Such a sudden change startled Kallen, but it had not affected him much physically. There was an endless body of water above and below him, with beams of sunlight shining through unaffected by the unfathomable depth.
He would have felt terror unlike any before if he didn't know he was currently in his soul sea.
I thought it was supposed to look different… is it a byproduct of a divine aspect?
He swam forward, unstirred by the lack of footing for miles. There was a strange calming feeling washing over his senses, even despite the endless depths. The only tangible object in the strange, calming sea appeared to be a dense star of water, both slightly darker and lighter in hue than the waters around it.
Kallen couldn't properly explain the sight… but such was the spell he presumed.
He was dispelled from the soul sea just a moment later.
[Awakening Aspect Ability.]
He waited intently.
[Aspect Ability acquired.]
[Aspect Ability Name: Ocean's Wrath.]
Eager to check out the description, he pulled up the runes, eyes looking for the description, but something caught his eye on the way down.
Name: Kallenir
True Name: Blessed of the Sea
Rank: Dreamer
Leviathan Core: Dormant
Scales: [0/1000.]
Tideforms: 1/7 - [Oceanic Knight.]
Leviathan Core? Scales?
Kallen stared blankly at his runes. Leviathan core was seemingly tied to the fact that his soul sea was submerged in endless calming ocean…
So it makes sense… I think. He stared a little longer at the word scales. No. It actually doesn't; nothing here makes sense.
What were these scales? How did he get them? What would he do with them when he got them? Was he to go to the nearest beach and start hijacking some poor fish's skin? That seemed rather macabre, but then again, the nightmare spell wasn't exactly all suns and rainbows either.
Better yet, what were these tideforms? His innate ability had been called just that, but all it had said was: "Imbued with the essence of the sea, different forms bring different boons."
It wasn't entirely too descriptive, but from what he figured, it was possible to gain these different boons. It was also—likely directly tied to his scales. Of course, that wasn't guaranteed.
The first of these tideforms is called Oceanic Knight?
Kallen had several guesses, but they were all baseless, and so he decided he would focus on his aspect and its description in the meantime.
Attributes: [Revenge], [Voice of the Sea], [Amplifier], [Mark of Divinity].
Kallen paused. There was a new attribute. He examined its runes, reading: "You bear a faint scent of divinity, as though someone briefly touched by it once, a long time ago."
He waited a moment, sighed deeply and then moved on to his aspect.
Aspect: [Sea King.]
Aspect Rank: Divine
Aspect Abilities: [Ocean's Wrath.]
Aspect Ability Description: [Water bends to your will.]
Kallen stared at the description for a moment before nodding to himself. It was short but sweet, he felt as though that lined up with his perception of what a divine aspect might grant to a mere sleeper.
However, "Water bends to your will," was a description highly susceptible to variability. How much water would bend to his will?
It certainly sounds like only water that exists is under my control… I probably won't be in the desert shooting jets of water out of my hands.
[All power has a price.]
Kallen's heart sank.
[You have received a Flaw.]
[Your Flaw is: Fish out of Water]
Even quicker than he had with his aspect, Kallen summoned the runes for his flaws description.
Flaw Description: [Your aspect abilities are inaccessible when you are out of water.]
A groan left his lips as he read the description. Then he read it again and again and then a couple more times for good measure.
With a discontented sigh, he waved the description away and already began to run through scenarios.
It never mentioned submerged in water specifically. Does that mean I just have to be wet in some sort, or do I have to be inside water… as in encased. But if so how far? And if not, how much water needs to be present…
It was pointless to speculate without testing.
Still, all things considered, while it was a limiting flaw and potentially extremely dangerous… at least it wasn't something that directly hurt him or affected his body physically.
And since it only mentioned his aspect abilities, did that mean that his attributes were fair game?
Kallen shook his head. Again, it was pointless.
Also… he was waking up.
[Wake up, Blessed of the Sea!]
The black void of the spell trembled before it disappeared.