5th Day After The Collapse:
After eating, Ran fell asleep again. This time, however, he had no shocks. Instead, In his dreams, he found himself free floating in water. Everywhere he looked, water, water and more water! He tried swimming up, but after hours, he ended in the same place. Just water.
"Where am I?" The water didn't choke him, but instead, he felt empowered by it. He never felt this powerful before. The cold water didn't feel cold to him-warmth was the only thing he felt. Looking down, instead of the usual oceanic scene, he found an endless abyss. Darkness threatened to suffocate him as he felt his heart tighten. "Something is down there." He said. He really didn't want to go and find out if something was there. The deep sea holds endless mysteries and danger. Lost cities, worlds and monsters the size of mountains. The ocean is the least discovered place and also the most dangerous.
Instead, he opted out. He closed his eyes and soon he entered a meditative state, hoping to wake up. However, the water surrounding him gave him the peace and mind needed to delve deep into himself and only led him deeper rather than letting him out. He reflected upon his day. While the Cavern Snake was out of his league, he still managed to cut deep into its skin and inflict damage. He couldn't understand it and he didn't even remember how he figured out to imbue his sword with his own energy. Looking back, he felt as if he wasn't even really himself during that moment. He became incredibly focused and inspiration had just hit him as if it was second nature to him. He was beginning to doubt himself.
"Who, exactly, am I? Even when I was younger, this would happen." And he was right. In the end, all those times he had managed to beat Ann in something, he always felt it weird. He would enter a state of hyperconcentration and it was like he wasn't even himself anymore. Alas…
Knowing he would get nothing going in this direction, he turned back. He still clearly remembered how to imbue his sword with energy now that he had done it once before. After a while he exited his state and woke up.
"Phew. I don't know what any of that was but-" he cut himself off as he summoned his sword. At this point, his sword had evolved after a portion of Olly's, the Koi fish's, life force had nourished his sword. Usually, a fetal organ would grow with the owner and after every rank upgrade, it would evolve. And his unusual handle had lengthened out a bit more; effectively turning his sword into a pseudo glaive. It was still too short to be considered one so it could still be considered a sword.
Holding it out, he willed for his soul juice to imbue itself onto the sword. But nothing happened. "Is it just me? I remembered doing it with such ease though, hmm." He had nothing to lose so he continued willing for it to appear. Now though, he really concentrated. He kept at it for a whole hour and his eyes were getting red. Then a sliver came out of his palm and coalesced onto the edge. He breathed out and felt it gain a bit of sharpness when he put his finger on it. But compared to yesterday's fight, it was like the difference between a candle and a torch.
"Damn, surfacing my energy takes more strength than I thought. Maybe it's because my sigil isn't a physical ability like fire or water? Either way, I'mma need to concentrate and train on this a lot more than I thought I would." True enough, soul juice as stated is created from and in the soul, so you would have to cross the metaphysical dimension and into the physical one in order to surface it. Like how you don't see your or anyone else's soul all the time unless you have a specific method to do so. This would need extreme amounts of concentration and months of training to get the same exact amount he had brung out today. And the thing with the sigil is that it's like a tunnel that bridges the energy from the soul over and brings it to the physical world; to then convert it into whatever ability it has.
He wasn't worried all that much though, and he had all the food he needed for now as he had over a ton in meat and soon to be jerky. After all that was over, he decided to go back to the other path, so he picked up the still sleeping Fluffy and dragged her all the way to the pond.
"Stay here okay? I don't want to drag you everywhere I go, haha. Plus, my pillow can't be dirty." As if she could go anywhere with two broken legs. And thus, he chose the first path first.
***
"I wonder what master had left behind? I don't even know what kind of place this is. Maybe some kind of research facility? But then, why is it a temple?" Looking along the path, he could see long and stretching paintings that are longer than they are tall. Interesting enough they were really weird paintings of the landscape that was unfamiliar to Ran. "None of these places are in this part of the world. At least, Everything around here is either sand or mountain ranges. Which is also a odd pair to be so close to each other." He thought. The paintings depicted a world of blue. Everything from the dirt to the plants were blue. Blue animals, which were alien like, even a blue sun in the sky. Clearly, this wasn't even the same planet as this world actually has two suns. A big red one and smaller orange one that revolves around it.
After walking for a bit, he reached a room. It was a pretty small room, being only 1 square foot. But what was weird was the walls. Many small engravings were etched onto every single lick of space on these walls and it looked like some one had done it… personally. "Hmm. They sort of resemble runes." Ran took out his school token from his pocket and peered into its rune formation. "They do resemble each other, but hardly. The ones on the wall seem much more complicated. Well, that's to be expected from an ancient temple that hasn't been touched in millenia." Ran then proceeded to touch a rune on the wall literally after saying that it hasn't been touched in a long time. Sigh, his idiocy baffles me.
Immediately, the rune sparkled and he was startled. "Shit! Don't tell me it was Booby trapped!?" But the next second, he felt something. "Huh?" He looked around, but saw nothing. He removed his finger from the rune, but his eyes darkened the next moment… he fell unconscious.
The darkness appearing before him, however, wasn't unfamiliar to him. It was just like what he would find in his unconscious. Doubtful, he reached out into the darkness, but nothing came of it. "Oh? Thought something would happen at least. Really, nothing?" Nothing happened, which scared him a little. If this was his consciousness, he should be in control of it right? Well, not all was lost as a light flashed in the distance. A pulse of heat passed through him a few seconds later, intriguing him. He walked toward the light that was flashing in the distance with the pulses of heat. But no matter how far he went it always stayed the same distance away.
Panicking, he started to run. He ran, and ran, but to no avail. He kept running until eventually… he slipped and fell from his own leg. "Wha-" He was going to question what just happened, when his mind cleared up. He was no longer panicking, but instead, he turned to concentrate. He sat down on the nothingness and focused on the light penetrating his eyelids. The pulse of heat that passed through him in segmented waves in constant intervals. He continued focusing until he hit a revelation.
The light wasn't just white, but it was the same color as his soul and energy; white-pink. This means that it has something to do with him. The pulses of heat were familiar to the warmth from his name-specifically from his fetal organ. Afterwards, he felt odd again. The light and the pulses of heat were much stronger than before. Opening his eyes, he was greeted by a shining sigil-his sigil- and his sword was floating above it. His name, of which was engraved on his sword, was sparkling much brighter now in that radiant red-pink hue like it was on fire. It was emitting pulses of heat every now and then.
Curious, he touched his sword and his name and… nothing happened. Phew, he really doesn't learn does he? Anyway, he felt an inexplicable familiarity with his name and even his soul felt jubilant upon feeling its engraving.
"All fetal organs are born with your name engraved upon them. Your last, family, name is given to you from your parents. But they never gave me theirs…" he almost became ill remembering his family's treatment.
He knew that while they cared for him, that didn't stop them from alienating him. Besides the name thing, they restricted all of his movements and limited his interactions to Ann, the servants and the military leaders. "They wanted to instill loyalty by allowing the military to instruct me. Sigh… guess they didn't trust me…" His eyes felt heavier than before and his face looked like he hadn't slept in ages. He let out a heavy breath, closed his eyes and then reopened them again.
Waking up again, he got up and looked at the rune again. In his mind, the sword pulsed again, even harder again, again and again. The pulses became so strong, they banged against his consciousness and his soul. He felt like his mind would break apart and he would disappear forever. He suddenly became determined, though. He couldn't stop now! His name was reacting for a reason, and HE was determined to find out why. Gritting his teeth, he stomped his foot in front of the other. He felt like his feet were in tar and he was tired. He just wanted to fall to the ground, but he kept at it. He kept stomping and stomping until, finally, he was in front of the rune. Summoning up his courage, however that was, and moved his finger toward the rune once again. His arm felt so heavy and tired at the same time it felt like it would fall off if he stopped now. His mind was on the verge of exploding and the veins on his head were wriggling and squirming. They bulged so much that they were ripping and tearing his skin, causing his head to bleed.
He cried, mucus flowing from his nose; mixing with the flowing blood and he grit his teeth so much that some of his molars cracked and chipped. He kept going, nonetheless. He finally touched it and it sparkled again.
"Huh. Wasn't as bad as I thou-AHH!" His head exploded. At least that was what he thought happened from the excruciating pain surrounding his skull and pushing outward.
In his mind, his consciousness broke. SHATTERED. Everywhere one looked, the darkness cracked and shattered like glass. His name released a pulse so hard it broke the surrounding darkness; relentless, it kept going until the entire darkness shattered and disappeared. His soul cried in pain, twitching, and eventually fainted while all the soul juice left its body and disappeared.
In the real world, Ran was in a coma; still standing and touching the sparkling rune.
What may lay beyond the now lost darkness in Rans mind?