Connor and Beth walked side by side, unable to control their bodies as they were sucked through an invisible portal. Countless images flashed, the two of them separating at some point. Taking a deep breath, Connor regained control of his body and started to look around in shock.
He was standing in a desert, sand dunes more than 400 feet tall surrounding him on all sides. In front of him, a sword hilt nearly 20 feet tall and 15 feet wide stuck out of the sand as if it'd been buried for centuries. A gust of wind blew through the desert, the sand covering the hilt cracking and falling off of it in waves.
Approaching the sword, Connor felt as if something primal was calling to him, trying to establish a connection.
*Ding*
*WARNING*
*Entered Hidden Dimension*
*Creatures in Hidden Dimensions can sometimes do soul damage, be careful!*
"Great, just great." Connor muttered to himself as he pulled his sword out. As soon as his Spiritual Sword appeared, the connection increased in strength. The pull he felt coming from the sword hilt so strong that he couldn't deny it even if he'd wanted too.
Unable to help himself, Connor started running towards the sword hilt only, dodging the spiked tail that appeared out of nowhere at the last moment. Diving and rolling to the side, he turned to see a scorpion nearly 15 feet long and 10 feet wide surge to the surface of the sand that it'd been hiding in. Standing back up, Connor readied his sword as it pulled it's massive tail out of the sand leaving a glop of hissing acid behind.
Moving on instinct, he moved to the left and tilted his sword slightly, deflecting the next blow to the right while he started to run forwards. Surprised, the scorpion reacted too slowly to dodge as Connor took advantage of the situation to chop his enchanted sword into the stinger, cutting all the way through it.
Purple blood pored from the wound, and Connor's sword screamed in his hands as it began to smoke. Taking a moment to look at it, Connor cursed. "FUCK!" The acid in the scorpions blood was eating the sword away, and he knew that he only had moments before it broke in half.
Now, Connor was the smart, controlled person in his group of friends, but that wasn't because he was naturally that way. He had learned how to leash his passion out of necessity. None of the others could, or would control themselves and so it fell on him to keep a level head. Unfortunately for the scorpion, Connor's sword was one of the few things that would break his control.
"YOU FUCKING **** *** **** *** *** ****** *** ****." The words he screamed as he hacked the scorpion into pieces were so vulgar that the very world seemed to bleep him out. His sword broke into pieces as tears streamed down his face and he kept hacking and hacking.
Finally regaining control of himself, Connor took a moment to put on a new set of clothes and drink a health potion. Unlike Rick and Sam, Connor didn't have the innate ability to heal himself, and had long ago realized the importance of keeping potions on him at all times.
Closing his eyes in remorse, Connor took a moment to grieve. Unknown to all of his friends, Connor had begun practicing a secret technique not long ago which allowed him to grow a soul in his Spiritual Sword, turning it into his greatest and most important partner just like Patrice had become to Sam.
Having just begun training the technique, the Sword's Soul was only an embryo yet the feeling of their connection snapping broke his heart. Connor was crying as he gathered up the shards of his sword and put them in his bag of holding.
A look of determination crossed his face as he stood back up, tear tracks clearly visible on his sand smudged face. Slowly, he began walking towards the massive sword hilt. Connor had only brought the one sword with him, so he was almost worthless in a fight but he refused to leave the hidden dimension without gaining anything. Especially after losing his sword, and it's soul.
Touching the Sword Hilt, a voice echoed through his mind. "Possible successor, grab hold of your Sword and ready yourself for battle!"
Shrugging, Connor took out his sword hilt and was amazed when he disappeared, reappearing inside the massive sword's hilt. All around him, skeleton's slowly stood and he stared in amazement as a phantom of a blade appeared on the hilt in his hands.
"Defeat the skeleton's using the Elemental Chop." The same voice from before echoed through the room as as information flooded his brain. The proper way to gather Elemental Energy and move it with the blade while chopping appeared in his mind as he raised the phantom sword and readied himself for battle.
The first skeleton raised it's shield, stabbing towards him with it's short sword. Deflecting it into the skeleton's shield arm, Connor chopped with his sword.
*CLANG*
Nothing happened, a barrier of black energy blocking his blow. "Only perfect Elemental Chops will be able to break through the barrier." The voice echoed through the room again.
Gritting his teeth, Connor turned and ran as the other skeleton's made it to their feet. As quickly as he could, he went over the information that'd flooded his mind when he entered the space. The Elemental Chop is a strong blow, meant to damage people in armor with blunt force instead of cutting flesh. This type of attack requires moving the Elemental Energy in such a way that it increases the striking force while protecting the blade of the sword so that it doesn't go blunt from slamming into armor and shields. Trying it out a few times, Connor thought that he'd figured it out.
Thankfully, the skeleton's were stupid and had been following behind him in a single file line as he ran in a circle in the small room. Turning, he deflected the stab of the skeleton and focusing on his Elemental Energy brought his phantom sword down in an Elemental Chop that broke through the barrier and shattered all the bones of the skeleton's upper body.
With a massive grin on his face, Connor moved to attack the second skeleton only for the barrier to appear and block his blow again. It took three more tries before he broke through the barrier and destroyed the 2nd skeleton. As he watched, the two skeleton's put themselves back together and he cursed in frustration as he kept attacking.
Half an hour later, he'd finally managed to complete the mission. Every time he failed the Elemental Chop the skeleton's he'd already destroyed would piece themselves back together and reset the fight. In order to pass, Connor had to destroy all 10 skeleton's without messing up the attack once.
"Stage One Completed." After completing the first stage, something seemed to have connected to Connor's very soul and he fell to the floor in pain. Unknown to him a faint image of a sword had appeared inside his soul, while his phantom sword became a bit more solid.
"Defeat all zombies using the Elemental Stab." The voice from before echoed through the room yet again as 10 coffins slowly rose from the floor, the zombies within kicking the lids off. Information rushed into his brain, and Connor did his best to understand it as quickly as possible. In order to use Elemental Stab you coat your entire sword with energy, supporting the sword as you sharpen the energy into a point, increasing your sword's piercing power exponentially.
24 hours later, Connor had gone through the all of the basic moves of the sword learning how to integrate Elemental Energy into them. His phantom sword was almost completely solidified as he fought against an image of a sword master. Slicing his sword, he drew blood then backed off and parried the master's attack, locking their blades together. Bashing his sword's hilt into the shade's nose, he knocked him back before executing a perfect stab through the shade's heart.
"Stage Ten Completed. Congratulations on learning the Elemental Sword. Qualifications to inherit legacy achieved"
Connor fell to the ground as the sword in his soul suddenly solidified and charged, cutting his soul into ribbons. Day's passed as he hovered on the brink of extinction, the massive sword hilt releasing waves of Elemental Energy to stabilize his soul every time he fell over the edge.
The worst part was that he couldn't pass out, the power of the legacy unwilling to allow him to escape the pain. Finally, the sword finished cutting his soul into tiny pieces and in a flash of light it started to merge with his soul.
With a final flash of light, the Sword Hilt disappeared as a cultivation technique was seared into his brain. 'Sword Soul, mindscape cultivation method. Transform your soul into a sword, allowing you to interface with Sword Spirits and sign contracts with them."