I pressed my hand against my chest, feeling the steady rhythm of my heartbeat. The warmth from earlier hadn't faded. It pulsed with each beat, spreading through my body in waves.
'This physique... it's made for someone who'll use multiple elements. It's made for the Chaos Element.'
The system had given me tools for survival. Powerful tools. But it had also saddled me with a curse that would make survival infinitely harder.
'Is this balance? Punishment and power in equal measure?'
Before I could contemplate further, the screen changed again. This time, the text that appeared was different. Older somehow. The letters seemed to shimmer with an ancient quality, as though they'd been written in a language that predated human civilization and then translated.
[The Saber Garden of Einsworth has accepted your offering.]
I blinked, confusion cutting through the fog of information overload.
'Offering? What offering?'
[Blood for blood. For blood sealed it, and blood shall unseal it.]
[The compact forged generations ago has been fulfilled.]
A chill ran down my spine. Blood for blood. I looked at Abel's corpse, at the pool of crimson spreading beneath him, and understanding dawned with horrifying clarity.
'This place. This forest. It wanted blood. Hero's blood.'
The golden fruit had been bait. The trial had been a lie. Or maybe not a lie, but a test with hidden conditions. Conditions that Duke Eamon either didn't know about or had chosen not to share.
How many Einsworth heirs had entered this forest over the generations? How many had left?
The screen pulsed urgently.
[Warning: Environmental mana levels spiking rapidly.]
[Current levels: 300% above baseline and rising.]
[Recommendation: Evacuate immediate area.]
'What? What does that mean?'
I looked around the clearing, searching for the source of the spike, but everything appeared normal. The trees swayed gently in the night breeze. The golden fruit still hung from its silver branch, glowing softly.
Then I felt it.
A vibration in the ground beneath my feet. Subtle at first, barely noticeable. But it grew stronger with each passing second, until the earth itself seemed to tremble.
Crack.
The sound was sharp and clear, like a whip snapping. I spun toward the source and felt my breath catch in my throat.
The tree. The silver tree with the golden fruit.
A fissure had appeared in its trunk, running from the base up toward the lowest branch. As I watched, the crack widened, and light spilled out from within. Not golden like the fruit. This light was different. Silver and blue and white, all mixed together, blazing with an intensity that made my eyes water.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
More fissures appeared, spider-webbing across the trunk and branches. The tree shook violently, and the golden fruit fell from its perch, hitting the ground with a wet thump and rolling away into the grass.
The light from within the tree grew brighter, more intense, until I had to shield my eyes with my arm.
CRACK.
The trunk split in two with a sound like thunder, the halves separating and falling outward to reveal what lay beneath.
A blade.
It rose from the earth where the tree's roots should have been, ascending slowly as though lifted by invisible hands. The weapon was magnificent, unlike anything I'd ever seen.
The blade itself was roughly three feet in length, crafted from metal that seemed to shift colors in the light. Silver at the edges, deepening to midnight blue at the center, with veins of white running through it like lightning frozen in steel. The metal appeared almost liquid, as though it might flow and reshape itself at any moment.
The crossguard was simple but elegant, two curved pieces of dark metal that swept upward like wings. Set into the center of the crossguard was a gem, perfectly round and black as the void, yet somehow luminous. Depths swirled within it, and I had the unsettling feeling that if I stared too long, I might fall into those depths and never find my way out.
The hilt was wrapped in leather that had darkened with age but remained supple. It was long enough for two hands but balanced for single-handed use. At the pommel sat another gem, twin to the one in the crossguard, both radiating a subtle power that made the air around them shimmer.
But what struck me most was the aura surrounding the weapon. It wasn't just a blade. It was alive in some fundamental way, possessed of a will and presence that pressed against my consciousness like a physical weight.
This was the Einsworth Family Saber. The weapon no one had claimed in over a century. The prize that was supposed to be impossible to obtain.
And it had risen for me.
The blade hovered in the air, rotating slowly, as though displaying itself. Then it tilted downward, the point aiming toward the ground, and descended until the hilt was level with my chest.
An invitation. Or a challenge.
I stood frozen, my mind unable to process what I was seeing. The system screen had vanished, leaving me alone with this impossible weapon and the corpse of my brother.
'Should I? Can I?'
My hand moved without conscious thought, reaching out toward the hilt. My fingers trembled as they drew closer, and I could feel the power radiating from the blade. It was warm, almost hot, and it made my skin tingle.
The moment my fingertips brushed the leather wrapping, everything changed.
Power surged into me like a tidal wave, crashing through my body with overwhelming force. I tried to let go, to pull my hand back, but my fingers had locked around the hilt. The connection was complete, and there was no breaking it now.
Energy poured through me, so much that I thought my body might tear apart from the strain. My veins felt like they were on fire. My bones felt like they were being reshaped. My mana pathways, those invisible channels that allowed practitioners to circulate and use energy, expanded violently to accommodate the flood.
I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out.
The system screen reappeared, blazing into existence with urgent messages.
[The Einsworth Family Saber has answered your call.]
[Soul binding in progress...]
[Warning: This process cannot be interrupted. Interruption will result in death.]
'Soul binding? What does that mean?'
The answer became clear as the connection deepened. I could feel the blade now, not just in my hand but in my mind. Its presence filled my consciousness, ancient and vast, carrying with it the weight of centuries.
Images flashed through my thoughts. Warriors wielding this blade in battles long forgotten. Blood spilled on soil that no longer existed. Victories and defeats, glory and sorrow, all experienced through the lens of this eternal weapon.
And beneath it all, I felt the blade's judgment.
It was evaluating me. Testing my worthiness. Searching through my soul for something I couldn't name.
What it found, I didn't know. But after a moment that felt like an eternity, I felt its acceptance.
Not approval. Not welcome. Just... acceptance.
[Soul binding complete.]
[The Einsworth Family Saber has recognized you as its wielder.]
[Warning: A massive release of energy is imminent. Brace for impact.]
'Brace for what—'
BOOM.
The world exploded in light and sound.
Energy erupted from the blade in a shockwave that tore through the clearing with devastating force. Trees bent away from the blast. Grass flattened against the earth. Abel's body was pushed several feet away, tumbling like a ragdoll.
I was at the center of it all, holding the blade, feeling the power course through me in waves that threatened to overwhelm my senses entirely.
The light was blinding. The sound was deafening. The pressure was crushing.
And then, as suddenly as it began, it stopped.
The energy dispersed, flowing outward into the forest and dissipating into the night. The light faded. The sound died. The pressure released.
I collapsed to my knees, still clutching the saber, my entire body trembling from exertion and shock. Steam rose from my skin, and I could smell the distinct odor of burned cloth and singed hair.
The blade in my hand hummed contentedly, its weight perfectly balanced, its presence now a permanent fixture in my awareness.
I looked down at it, then at the destruction surrounding me. The clearing had been scoured clean by the blast. The silver tree was gone, reduced to ash. The grass had been burned away in a perfect circle extending twenty feet in every direction.
And Abel...
Abel's body lay at the edge of the destruction, untouched by the flames but moved by the shockwave.
The system screen flickered back into existence, displaying a final message.
[Congratulations! You have been acknowledged by a Legendary-tier weapon.]
[The Einsworth Family Saber is now bound to your soul. It cannot be stolen, cannot be lost, and cannot be wielded by another while you live.]
[May it serve you well on the path ahead.]
I stared at the screen, then at the blade, then at Abel's corpse.
My mind was a chaotic mess of confusion, shock, and dawning horror at what had just transpired.
'What have I gotten myself into?'