Lucien spent the rest of his day experimenting with his new ability. After some trial and error, he figured out what exactly the spell had meant by 'storm'.
It was not just the thunder, but also the wind. And he suspected the rain, too, but there was hardly a way to test that out inside the mountains.
Controlling the wind was very different from controlling the lightning. They were two very different things. Lightning was fast, violent, and transient. It was a destructive force of nature that would spiral out of control if he didn't focus enough.
The wind, on the other hand, was much more…serene? It was a bit difficult to explain. But it was calmer, and was willing to listen a lot more than the thunder, but also had its own will and demanded freedom. On top of that, it was malleable. Lucien could shape the wind into anything he could think of. It would dissipate after a while, of course.
But that had given him an idea. Why shouldn't he be able to shape the lightning? There were 3 whole spheres of the thing in his own soul sea. At its barest form, lightning was just energy. Lucien could already control the trajectory of the lighting he used. What stopped him from shaping it into a lance or a sword?
Sitting with his legs crossed, Lucien summoned a bit of lightning between his palms. The crackle of electricity filled the room as a bright arc manifested between his fingers.
The arcs of electricity bent and twisted towards the middle, coalescing into a ball. Beads of sweat trailed down Lucien's face as he concentrated on the act. The air heated up as the sphere got bigger and bigger until…
It collapsed, the individual strings of electricity dissipating. Lucien had failed. But for some reason, he was smiling.
It didn't matter that he failed. He had proved that it could be done. The lightning bent to his command, and it was incredibly difficult to shape it into anything. But it was not impossible.
He tried again, this time using his spear as a base. He had used lightning to enhance his spear before, but that lightning was wild and formless. Constantly lashing out at anything in range. This time, he was planning on taming that lightning.
As he held it in his hands, a thin layer of electricity covered the stone surface of the spear, pressed down by an invisible force. Slowly, this layer got thicker as Lucien poured more and more essence into it. The spear's visage disappeared under the brightness of the lightning, the purple energy forming a perfect replica of the weapon.
The shaft of the spear tingled under his grip; it actually affected him. He who was all but immune to electrocution. Lucien's grin grew bigger as he imagined the sheer destructive power of it. All that lightning focused on the small size of the spear… He shuddered; he would not want to be on the receiving end of it.
A sudden bout of weakness hit him, breaking his concentration for a moment. That moment was all it took for the construct to dissipate into nothingness. Lucien was left holding nothing but the stone spear again. His flaw had claimed its price, and the blood had been drained from him.
'Although,' Lucien frowned, 'Was it a bit weaker this time, or am I just imagining things?'
At the same time, the spell softly whispered into his ears.
[You have received an Aspect Legacy, Decree of Creation.]
Lucien blinked, what the hell was an aspect legacy? Curious, he summoned his runes to check.
Aspect: Storm Herald
Aspect Rank: Divine
Aspect Abilities: [Thunder Manifestation], [Storm Reign]
Aspect Legacy: [Decree of Creation]
As he focused on the runes describing his Aspect Legacy, newer runes shone up underneath them.
Decree of Creation Description: [For a walking disaster, creation was an unfamiliar thing. Yet, following in the footsteps of a daemon, the Hour of Calamity chose to create rather than destroy.]
That…was the first time the spell had ever referred to him. Lucien didn't know how to feel. What did it even mean?
Following in the footsteps of a daemon? Nether? Is that what the spell was trying to tell him? That he was walking down the same path as him?
He shifted his attention to the runes shimmering under the description.
Decree of Creation Mastery Level: [0/7]
First Edict: Unearned
Second Edict: Unearned
Third Edict: Unearned
Fourth Edict: Unearned
Fifth Edict: Unearned
Sixth Edict: Unearned
Seventh Edict: Unearned
Well, that didn't tell him anything!
'Very helpful, spell!' Lucien grumbled and stared at the runes. There were seven levels to this 'Aspect Legacy'; all of them were locked. What the hell was the purpose of showing him this if he hadn't even unlocked any of it!
With his mood fouled, he dismissed the runes and walked over to a relatively empty part of the room. By then, his exhaustion had finally caught up with him, and his eyelids were getting heavier and heavier. Stifling a yawn, Lucien stretched down on the cold stone floor.
"It's still daytime outside." Goliath commented. "Are you already exhausted?"
"And whose fault is that?" Lucien retorted, "I haven't slept in days because of you."
His captor was silent for a while.
"Fair enough."
Lucien awoke the next morning…or night? It was hard to tell the time. The important thing was that he was well rested. Remnants of exhaustion no longer gnawed at his mind like before.
Somewhere near him, the stone goliath stood unmoving. The entire room was silent except for the crackle of the torches.
Lucien spent the next few minutes warming up before deciding to leave the citadel to hunt.
"Is there any other way out of here? I need to hunt some nightmare creatures to bind the relic."
The goliath turned and stared at him for a moment.
"Follow me."
Saying that, he turned around and walked to the tunnel from which they had come.
Confused, Lucien followed behind him. He distinctly remembered that being a dead end. There was no other path there except into the citadel.
It took them a few minutes to make it all the way back to the corpse of the original goliath. Once there, the saint turned to him and said:
"Brace yourself."
Before Lucien could question it, the ground suddenly began rising.
"Woah!" Lucien barely managed to stay on the platform. The stone floor they had been standing on had been separated from the ground and was rapidly approaching the stone seal above.
Before they could collide into the stone and be turned into paste in the process, the goliath waved his hand, and the stone parted.
They had returned to the Spire Messengers' lair. Lucien looked around himself. Everything was the same as they had left it. There was an extinguished campfire nearby. The cohort had left just a few hours ago.
Standing there, Lucien entertained the possibility of running away from the Tyrant. With his enhanced speed…could he outrun it?
"If you're thinking of running, don't. I'll catch you before you can even activate your aspect."
"Yeah, I know." Sighing, he abandoned that idea. Even if he escaped, how was he going to get across the maze?
The platform stopped rising and began moving forward, far into the caverns of the mountains. One by one, nightmare creatures began popping up within his storm sense, some awakened, some fallen.
A shower of sparks covered him for a moment. Lucien felt the stone plates of his armor settle down on him. At the same time, a pitch-black sword materialized in his hand. Both of those memories had gone up a rank after he had awakened, proving his theory correct.
Originally, he had planned to test that out by awakening his fourth core. But as fate would have it, he awakened before that, and his memories reflected that.
Lucien did not know how a soulbound memory worked; all he knew was that it would grow with him.
Well, he would know for sure once he successfully managed to bind the mask, that is. Until then, the sword and armour were his only frames of reference. Which reminded him, he could now see the enchantments of those memories.
Memory: [????? Blade]
Memory Rank: Dormant
Memory Tier: II
Memory Type: Weapon
Memory Description: [And the ????????? raged against Destiny's scheme, refusing to be a pawn in their divine game.]
Enchantments: [Thundercaller], [Dark Blade],[???]
Lucien frowned; one of the enchantments was hidden, just like the mask. He tried to expand on its runes, but there was nothing there. The spell was deliberately keeping that information from him. Or maybe the spell simply couldn't translate it. Lucien suspected the armour would have a similar enchantment. And sure enough, it did.
Enchantments: [Living Stone], [Dark Shroud], [???]
No matter how much he stared at the warbled runes of that last enchantment, their meaning still escaped him. Sighing, he turned his attention to the other enchantments.
Enchantment: [Thundercaller]
Enchantment Description: [This blade attracts lightning.]
Enchantment: [Dark Blade]
Enchantment Description: [This memory is strengthened in the presence of True Darkness.]
[Thundercaller] was the enchantment he had been using all this time; it would summon lightning to the sword but demand a blood price. It was also useless inside the mountain.
[Dark Blade] was simple enough; it would make his memory stronger when surrounded by the darkness.
Lucien glanced at the runes for the [Dark Shroud] enchantment of his armour.
Enchantment: [Dark Shroud]
Enchantment Description: [Darkness emanates from this memory.]
That was the enchantment that had been activated when Nephis used the Dawn Shard. His armour had begun releasing a dark mist. It was a passive enchantment. Lucien frowned, but then why hadn't it activated before that?
It didn't make any sense. A passive enchantment was always active; it did not matter what rank the memory was. Unless…
He closed his eyes and tuned all his senses out, focusing entirely on his body. Or rather, the essence flowing through it.
Then, he summoned his memory. As soon as the armour manifested over his body, a small stream of his essence was redirected to the memory, constantly powering it. So small that Lucien would not have even noticed it if he wasn't paying attention. It wasn't a passive enchantment at all.
It was an active enchantment that automatically used his essence to power itself. Lucien frowned, for a memory to be leeching off his essence without him even being aware of it….That didn't sit right with Lucien. If he were honest, he wanted to never touch that memory again…at least not until he figured out a way to change that. But that was his only armour memory; it's not like he could use anything else at the moment.
Sighing, he looked at the final enchantment on the memory, [Living Stone].
Enchantment: [Living Stone]
Enchantment Description: [This armour can repair itself while being worn.]
That had to be the single most useful enchantment the armour had. He could wear the memory all the time and not worry about it getting worn down and destroyed. The bad part was that it was an active enchantment and would probably cost him an obscene amount of essence to power. Still, it was an incredible boon.
The stone platform suddenly stopped, bringing him out of his thoughts. Goliath looked at him and said:
"Go hunt. I will stay here."
They had stopped in the middle of a tunnel with a vast network of caves. Every few feet, a new tunnel branched out of the main one. There had to be dozens of tunnels all around them. Each one leading deeper than the other.
Raising an eyebrow, he questioned, "What if I try to run? You'd be too far away to catch me."
A hollow clicking sound came out of his mouth. The goliath was laughing, or at least trying to.
"You're welcome to try. The only thing waiting for you if you do that, is death."
With chills running down his spine, Lucien stared at the network of caves in a new light. The goliath must have chosen this place for a reason. And one of those reasons was his inability to escape.
Gripping his sword a bit tighter than usual, he hesitantly made his way towards one of the tunnels. It was time to hunt.