"That's just one of my sparks, and it's only the most basic function of Lie Eater. In the future, I'll have much more."
He waved a hand, and the Lie Eater Blade vanished, disassembling into tendrils of darkness before fading entirely.
His focus returned to Uriel.
"That's the spark, and the core of cultivation and Ascendance."
"I'm guessing Ayah already told you, but currently, we're mortals. The weakest tier of power."
"We're what are called First Step Ascendant Lifeforms, which implies there are more steps above, steps that come with more power, steps we must work for, which we must cultivate."
"But I want you to focus on the 'Lifeform' part of it all, because that's my point."
Seeing that Uriel didn't struggle with any of his explanations, he continued without pausing.
"Because that's the essence of the First Step of Ascendance. We evolve, from the G Rank, what we are now, all the way to the S Rank, the peak of the first step."
"But I don't want you to focus on any of that." He shook his head slightly. "That was just a general view of everything, so you could understand the new landscape of power, and what to expect, alright?"
Uriel nodded. "So… how do I begin cultivating, then? How did the others awaken their spark?"
"I was getting to that."
He pointed at Uriel's abdomen.
"In your stomach, right beneath your belly button, there's something called your True Core. It's the thing that houses your Spark, the thing you'll work with during your evolution, and your pool of aether."
"Again, I know it's a lot," he added, "but just focus on the general idea."
"Normally, when mortals like us, from planets with no aether, come into contact with it, our Sparks awaken directly, which then triggers the awakening of our cores."
"After that, you become a G Rank, the lowest of the low. You gain access to your first ability and your pool of aether, and you can finally begin ascending."
"Look."
He snapped his fingers, and a Lie Eater appeared again, rapidly morphing into a blade.
"My name is Enoch."
The blade ignited, flames roaring to life as it turned a radiant gold.
But as Uriel watched closely, he saw it clearly; a torrential stream of natal aether surging from Enoch, from his core, burning and fueling the blade.
From a regular longsword, barely over a meter long, it grew, and it grew, swelling and stretching until it became a towering blade, hundreds of meters in length and dozens wide.
The sheer pressure it emanated made Uriel's skin crawl, his mouth going dry as his instincts screamed.
Enoch continued, the blade growing further until all the aether in his core burned away.
His expression went pale. Sweat matted his forehead, his breathing turning labored and uneven.
He looked at Uriel.
"This is what you can do," he said. "When your core is awakened, and you understand your ability, as well as the basics of aether control."
The blade faded, dispersing into nothing.
Enoch closed his eyes, slowly regaining his breath as the aether in his core replenished. Color returned to his face, and a dozen minutes later, he was relatively stable.
"I'm a bad example," he admitted, "because of my obvious unfair advantage. But you get the point."
"Now…" His face tightened. "The reason you haven't awoken your Spark and True Core is twofold."
Uriel smiled softly. "Because I'm sick."
"But let me guess," he continued lightly, "future little me has a solution for me, yes?"
He glanced at the arrangement of crystals around them. "Is this what this is?"
Enoch ignored the strange distaste Uriel seemed to hold toward his future self and confirmed it. "Yes."
"Alright. Let's do it."
Uriel burned with excitement, images of the gigantic blade Enoch had summoned replaying over and over in his mind.
"Wait!" he blurted out. "Is the ability I'll awaken good?"
Childish nervousness leaked through his voice despite his effort to sound composed.
Enoch bitterly shook his head. "You'll see."
"…Alright," Uriel said. "Let's begin."
Enoch picked up one of the crystals surrounding them and handed it to him. "Swallow it. Then close your eyes and focus on the aether in your body."
Just as Uriel was about to do so, Enoch suddenly urged—
"Wait! Hold on!"
In a blink, dozens of Lie Eaters appeared around him, forming layers of heavy armor that draped over his body, wafting with thick, powerful aether.
His voice, now muffled, echoed from within as he raised a thumbs-up. "Go!"
Uriel was in too much of a hurry to care. He didn't even register Enoch's actions. In a swift motion, he tossed the glowing dark-blue crystal into his mouth and chewed down hard.
[You have ingested a Diamond Grade Aether Crystal!]
BANG!
An explosion seemed to detonate in Uriel's stomach, loud, violent, overwhelming.
But his body didn't explode.
Instead, he slipped instantly into a deep, unbreakable state of meditation.
Watching it all, anxious and powerless, Enoch could only pray endlessly to the gods. As he did, words from a distant past echoed in his mind.
…
[Oh? I don't know. It really depends on how I'm feeling at the moment. That's why it's better to do it as soon as I wake up, when I'm still half asleep.]
[If I'm feeling good, it'll probably be nothing too bad. If I'm under the weather, you may go mad for a few days. Or your spark may corrupt. I really don't know.]
A thunderous laugh echoed.
[Ha! Don't stress it too much. It won't be that bad. You can take a death or two, right?]
…
Silence.
But it wasn't just silence.
All the aether in the air froze, turning solid, trapping Enoch inside a world of dense nothingness. The aether in his veins slowed to a crawl, remaining only barely active thanks to the armor he'd conjured.
But nothing else happened.
It was just… silent.
'…oh my god…'
Then Enoch lost all sense of time.
A second stretched into a million, and a million compressed into one, forming a chaotic loop he was trapped within before he could even react.
Distance became unstable, a meter and a dozen suddenly meaning the same thing. Light and darkness blended together, and the barrier between himself and the world blurred until it barely existed.
One moment, Uriel had one head, two legs, and two arms.
The next, he had a million of them.
Then none.
And then Uriel disappeared.
Everything disappeared.
It was replaced by a delirious landscape of infinite colors and impossible shapes, beyond mortal comprehension, beyond all fathoming.
It broke, fracturing violently, then reassembled itself in such a grotesque way that it could only be described as a worldly horror.
Then it went silent again.
And then—
BOOOOOM!
—it shattered.