I blinked several times, disoriented. I was no longer in the forest, not even in an earthly place.
I was surrounded by the immensity of space, a deep black void, dotted by the cold light of countless stars that illuminated the nothingness with a ruthless clarity. The stillness was absolute, deeper than any silence I had ever known.
"Is this my sea of souls?" I wondered, my voice a whisper lost in the vastness. It was supposed to be more metaphorical: a clear sky, an immense blue sea underfoot. Not literal space. "This is… bewildering."
I walked, noticing that beneath my feet there was no solid ground, but a surface resembling dark, starry water, which rippled slightly with each step but didn't let me sink. It was like walking on the firmament itself.
After a time suspended in that silent eternity, the voice resonated again. But this time it wasn't an intrusive whisper in my mind; it was clear, enveloping, as if the universe itself were articulating each word with cosmic solemnity.
[Aspirant! Your trial has ended.]
[A curious boy ventured into a cursed forest, where many before him perished. Thanks to his luck, recklessness, and ingenuity, he managed to reach the deepest parts without dying. Finding the cursed nest, he used his wits to eliminate the brood and their queen.]
[You have defeated one thousand Great Beasts: Eggs of the Devourer Queen.]
[You have defeated one Cursed Devil: Devourer Queen.]
[You have achieved the impossible!]
[Final Rating: Glorious. Your ingenuity is surprising.]
[Aspirant Ariel. Receive your blessing!]
A flash of energy, golden and warm, enveloped me for an instant.
[You have been granted a True Name: Banished from Heaven.]
The words etched themselves into my essence with a melancholic yet powerful weight. Banished from Heaven. It didn't sound exactly auspicious, but it resonated with a strange truth.
[Your Aspect is ready to evolve. Evolve Aspect?]
Without hesitation, I responded mentally: "Yes."
[The dormant Aspect 'Spatial Sense' is evolving…]
A silent storm of cosmic energy seemed to converge upon me. I felt my perception, my innate understanding of the space around me, expand, deepen, become something fundamental, not a sense, but a domain.
[New Aspect acquired.]
[Aspect Rank: Divine.]
[Aspect Name: Spatial Control.]
"…"
My eyes lost focus, my mind went blank processing the words.
Divine.
The word floated, immense and terrifying. Oh, it's divine… it's divine… Shit, it's divine! A cold, sharp panic seized me.
In everything I had intuited or vaguely remembered about this world of runes and nightmares, Divine Aspects were legends, primordial forces, blessings or curses reserved for people with great destinies capable of altering the world with their actions. To possess one was to be marked for greatness or for annihilation.
"No, it must be a joke. It's divine. My Aspect is of divine rank, the highest, with the highest potential…" I said aloud, pacing back and forth on the starry mirror, my anxious reflection distorting in the ripples. "Wait a minute… why am I afraid?"
I stopped dead, forcing myself to think. A Divine Aspect meant power. It meant a more difficult path, yes, but also the ability to reach heights unreachable by others. It meant my core, my essence, would adapt to that greatness. I was going to have multiple cores, containing more essence and being intrinsically more powerful than any normal Awakened.
A slow smile, laden with a mixture of fear and ambition, spread across my face.
"Though the pain…" I grimaced, remembering the stories about awakening powerful abilities. "But the advantages outweigh the pain. Fine, it's decided."
As if it had been waiting for my acceptance, the cosmic voice continued, indifferent to my internal crisis.
[The first seal has been broken.]
[Awakening latent powers…]
Then I felt it. Something monumental began to emerge from the deepest, most remote depths of my being. It wasn't an external force; it was mine, latent, waiting. It was as if an entire constellation were being born within my chest. A tiny but intense star ignited in the center of my being, radiating a pleasant, revitalizing warmth that expanded in concentric waves.
The heat flowed into my stomach, then to my arms, legs, hands, and feet, bathing every cell. Under its influence, I felt my bones densify, my muscles restructure with more resilient fibers, my organs purge themselves of impurities and vitalize. Even the chronic asthma I'd carried in my previous life dissolved like smoke, leaving me with an expansive lung capacity and profound relief. It was a euphoric sensation, like being reborn, reconstructed from scratch in a superior mold.
The transformation intensified, becoming deeper, more rooted. A primordial confidence, born from the sensation of pure power, began to take root in my soul.
When the main wave subsided, leaving only a warm residual glow, I opened my eyes. Before me, in the space, a golden sun had appeared, bright and comforting, yet emanating a dangerous potency.
But it didn't end there.
The watery surface beneath my feet began to bubble violently. From the starry mirror emerged, with a silent roar that shook my very essence, a second sun, of a bright yellow. Then, a third, of the same color. And finally, a fourth. Four suns, four soul cores, placed in the sky of my sea of souls.
Before I could marvel or be frightened, the price arrived.
An immeasurable pain, eclipsing anything conceivable, erupted in every inch, every atom of my being. It was not conventional physical pain; it was the agony of reality itself restructuring, of space being forced to submit to my nascent will. A raw, wrenching scream of anguish tore from my throat, a sound lost in the void.
I fell onto the surface, which now felt like burning glass. My body convulsed in uncontrollable spasms, every nerve burning red-hot, every bone breaking and fusing in rapid, brutal cycles.
An eternity passed in that pain.
When it finally, with one last cosmic gasp, ceased, I lay exhausted, gasping great breaths of air that didn't exist. Cold tears of residual pain and absolute awe streaked my cheeks. I had experienced the worst suffering imaginable.
[Unlocking Aspect Ability…]
[Dormant Ability acquired.]
[Aspect Ability Name: Expanded Spatial Sense.]
[Description: Your dominion over space first manifests as absolute perception. You can sense everything that exists within a certain radius. The range grows with your power.]
With trembling hands and a weary sigh, I summoned the runes, needing to see the totality of what I had become.
Name: Ariel.
True Name:Banished from Heaven.
Rank:Dormant.
Soul Core:Devil.
Soul Fragments:[3800/4000]
Acquired Memories:[Crimson Mantle], [Crimson Spear], [Blood Collar], [Queen's Ring], [Demonic Bow], [Poison Arrow], [Brood Dagger], [Greedy Pouch].
Echoes:—
Attributes:[Son of the Sky], [Space], [Light], [Darkness], [Luck].
Aspect:Spatial Control.
Aspect Rank:Divine.
Aspect Ability:[Expanded Spatial Sense].
Ability Description:[Your sense of space is astonishing. You can sense everything within a certain range, perceiving the very texture of reality.]
[All power has a price.]
[You have received a Flaw.]
Flaw: [Mercy].
Flaw Description:[You cannot kill beings significantly weaker than you.]
"Damn it all," I whispered into the void, the euphoria of power mixing with the frustration of limitation. "If I don't get strong, I'll die. But if I get strong, I won't be able to eliminate lesser threats in my way. This is fiendishly complicated. You're cruel, Spell."
As if responding to my lament, the voice resonated once more, unperturbed.
[You have obtained a new Attribute: Spawn of Dreams.]
A new shiver, this time of deep foreboding, ran through me. "Shit. It can't possibly get any worse now."
Again, the voice spoke, and this time its words were not an evaluation, but a final greeting, an open door to a vaster horror.
[Welcome to the realm of Dreams, Banished from Heaven!]