Saryn woke up.
A migraine kicked in, his head buzzing with confusion.
'Confusion…? I remember it all clearly.' He thought, as his eyes regained clarity, not only seeing his surroundings, but also the meaning behind the specter's words.
'He was no specter.'
'He… was me.'
…
Saryn was cross-legged, and in front of him…
'The sword!'
He whipped upward onto his feet with the excitement of a child celebrating their birthday, grabbing the greatsword, which was hovering gently in front of him.
Saryn's hands wrapped comfortably around the hilt, like only his hands belonged there, and the blade eased, pulsing slowly in beat with Saryn's heart.
He could feel a strange warmth - the warmth of home - emanating from the sword once he plucked it out of the air.
"Congratulations, Saryn." Marduk's voice rang out.
Saryn bobbed his head from side to side, looking for him.
But every mirror was empty… well… one was obliterated beyond repair but that also counts as "empty".
"Hey! I'm right here."
'Wher-"
Saryn looked down at his reflection in the greatsword, which matched his gaze pridefully.
"Oh, there you are…"
"Yes Saryn, here I am, and you wouldn't dare dismiss me by breaking your newly acquired weapon." Marduk replied with no sense of shame in his words.
Saryn chose not to reply.
…
Marduk cleared his throat.
"Unfortunately, you've expended all of your materials, but they definitely did not go to waste."
"Yeah, this thing is so badass." Saryn revelled in the glory of what used to be the obsidian greatblade.
"Indeed, and it would be better if you named it, unless you want to run around calling it "sword" or "blade" over and over." Marduk spoke, turning his head from side to side as if looking at the boundaries of the blade he was residing in.
"Sure… but what should I name it?" Saryn asked, his eyes staring into the air blankly while coming up with ideas.
A stretched-out moment of silence and awkwardness passed by.
"Ultimate Demon Destroyer of Doom." He decided.
…
"Saryn, if you call it that, maybe I will refrain from inhabiting the sword." Marduk replied,
"I'd say that's a positive…" Saryn glanced back into the blade, noticing the disappointed frown on Marduk's face, finally deciding to rename it, "Okay fine, let's call it…"
"Murk."
"Sounds perfect." Marduk approved of the new name.
"I know. I named it." Saryn grinned slightly, looking away from the blade to distract himself from Marduk's incoming blabber.
Saryn stood up. He propped Murk up against the wall, as he felt the pulse of the blade steadily weaken, as if it yearned for his grip.
He heaved a deep sigh.
'I don't have any materials left, maybe I should take some books and maybe the map too, what else?'
"Saryn, be limited in what you borrow, as future candidates will require knowledge."
"If I make it out, will there even be any future candidates?" Saryn was feeling proud after obtaining an armament, influencing his speech.
…
Marduk didn't respond, erasing himself from Murk's reflective surface.
Saryn noticed, but paid him no heed, instead strutting up toward the pile of "helpful" books lying on the set of desks he had conjoined.
'Richard did me dirty with some of these, but it wouldn't hurt to take a couple of the unread ones back with me.'
He picked out several books one by one, sneaking a quick skim look over each one in case they were just piles of nonsense.
'Semblances for Dummies… there are still plenty of semblance rituals here I haven't really looked at, I'll grab it for future reference.'
'Echoes, Insanity, and so forth...'
'Ritual Circles: In Depth… I don't even know what tier the ritual circle I used is… I kinda need this.'
'Branding of the Inner Self…' He flicked through the first few pages, greeted with the sight of several informative paragraphs explaining the mechanics behind Veilbrands.
'Yeah let's take that…'
'Metaphysicality of Willpower…'
'Armament Care and Feeding (Do Not Actually Feed Them)... this can't be helpful, can it? Seems like a book written as a joke anyw-' His words stopped clean in their tracks, as he read a couple samples from the book, finding out it was quite helpful in the maintenance of armaments.
Saryn hurriedly placed it onto the pile he planned to take with him.
'Let's see here… what's left?' His gaze scanned across the rest of the books that were not-so-neatly arranged across the desk, stopping at one book in particular.
'Mister Martin's Secret Weaknesses (probably)... give me that.'
Saryn cradled the pile of books in his arms, all of which proved useful in some way…
The storage semblance on his chest burned brightly, spreading a warmth through Saryn's body as the stack of books disappeared from sight, leaving faint cyan glows of remnant echoes in their wake.
'Next, the map.'
Saryn walked carefree toward the section labelled "The Natural World", picking up the map that hung off the side of the shelf.
The rough fabric welcomed his grasp, as he rolled it up like a carpet and sent it into the void of his semblance as well.
Saryn spent a little longer, scouring every corner of the room in case he missed out on anything important.
'Surely there are more helpful books around here somewhere, but am I really gonna spend hours trying to find the good stuff?'
He really wasn't.
His head tilted as he cast a final sweeping glance around him…
'The arena!' Saryn watched the door which led to a mini-colosseum on the other end of the room, 'Except after all of whatever happened in the Severance, I don't think I have the mental capacity to fight another hologram…'
He decided not to engage in another one hundred and thirty three duels with the eager cyan projection in the arena, instead grabbing Murk and approaching the portal.
Saryn cast one thought, and the portal immediately began humming to life.
He could see all the individual echoes gathering around, being absorbed into the portal, powering it like electricity.
It ignited, as a cool purple flame crackled and snapped inside the frame, an immense sensation of biting cold washing over Saryn.
'Not my first time.' He chuckled inwardly, bathing in the dense echoes orbiting the portal.
The flood of echoes were drawn into Murk, which was vibrating in Saryn's hand like a hungry beast.
He stepped into the amethyst gateway.