-Sunna Rose-
Gazing down at the single-handed longsword that had been propped up in the corner of the small room, I was able to instinctually sense that it was luna. The pale white shine of the blade was all the proof I had needed, but her speaking further cemented this fact.
"S-sunna...? How are y-you here?" Her voice still had its beautiful melodic tone to it, but it now sounded slightly broken, like a piece of her had been lost to time. 'That shouldn't surprise me... I know plenty of pieces of myself have been destroyed just to keep me alive this long.'
"That is a very long story, sis, but we can discuss that later. I just wanted to check on y-you!" I tried my best to sound composed, but my words were starting to break as the lump in my throat made its way up threatening to throw me into a fit of sobs.
"Hold on a moment. There is something I've wanted to try ever since I mastered my brother's core, to be honest seeing sunna made me want to move ahead with it." Ranika said as he moved past me and picked up the sword with his right hand. Then, turning around, he took a few more steps and sat on the corner of the bed. Moving slowly, he placed the flat of the blade on his lap and then closed his eyes.
"What exactly are you doi-" I was cut off by the sudden surge of light that emanated from both him and luna, the light shined so bright that I had activated my aura just to defend my eyes against it. Just as quickly as the light began, it started to subside slightly, making the view before me clearer.
Once my sight was fully returned I was shocked by what was in front of me, while ranika did look mostly the same as he had before, there were changes to his body, most notably, his hair now resembled luna's back when she was alive.
It was a pure white that rivaled freshly fallen snow with long vibrant streaks of pink intertwined in it, his eyes had also changed slightly their once purple tinge was now an eerie pale color that seemed to almost overwhelm their golden hue. Looking closer, I was more shocked to see streaks of blood flowing steadily from his eyes and nose, 'what the hell just happened?'
"Ranika? Are you...um..ok?" I asked softly, not exactly sure what to do.
"He will be just fine, I didn't expect him to be this reckless after mastering his first core less than a day ago. Although this is ranika I'm talking about, I shouldn't be that surprised." A sweet and melodic voice said with a giggle. I immediately recognized the voice and turned towards it, and what I saw took my breath away.
"Luna... how are you here?" Standing in front of me was luna but not as a sword this time. She was just there, standing nonchalantly like this wasn't a change at all for her.
"What do you mean? I've been in the room this whole time." Her head tilted slightly as she answered my question with one of her own.
"Luna, take a look at yourself." Looking confused, she looked down and saw her own feet then jumped into the air like a cat.
"I can see my feet!" She yelled with childish excitement.
"Yes, you can," I said back, stifling my laughter.
"How is this possible, though? I'm used to being able to look around, but I've never been able to see my body before, only my surroundings."
"I don't know... I think ranika is the one to ask for that answer."
Looking at ranika, he sat as still as a statue, almost as though he was dead. Me and luna stepped closer to him hesitantly as if we were scared he'd suddenly lash out at the both of us.
"Oh for fucks sake, go grab him some essence and he'll wake right up. I'm not lucky enough for the little shit to die from something as simple as mastering a core." A sardonic voice spoke from behind us, making me jump.
"Must you always be this rude and crass midnight?" Luna asked not surprised at all by the sudden voice in the room.
"Bite me, it's not my fault you two look ridiculous right now. Seriously, why are you trying to be sneaky anyway luna? You don't have an actual physical form, all he did was master your core so that the one in him and the one inside the sword could sync therefore projecting your spirit to a visible plane. Shit isnt that complicated." He replied.
"Well, that answers one question, but why would he need essence after mastering my core? He didn't need any after doing it with calebs."
"Knowing him, he probably used his auras wrong and burned through most of his reserve. Doing this probably just took the rest out of him." Midnight replied his tone was uncaring, like he really couldn't be bothered with the reason. 'I'm sure if he had a spirit form he would've been shrugging right now.' I thought to myself with a slight smile.
"Sunna could you go ask sophie for a bottle of essence?"
"Oh, uh, sure!" I stammered. As I left the room I was immediately racked with fear and anxiety. Thanks to ranika's introduction of me everyone in this apartment knows that I'm the one responsible for all the harm that has befallen them, 'although they were also told I was with him...maybe that's enough to stop any conflict?' I thought hopefully to myself.
"Do you need something?" Sophie asked me kindly after seeing me enter the living room.
"Uh..yes, do you have any essence lying around?"
"I do, just give me a moment, I'll go get it for you." She replied as she got up and left the room, leaving me alone with commander gwenavere, the injured woman asleep on the couch, and a strange girl who couldn't seem to take her eyes off of me.
"Still can't believe that idiot is letting you live." Gwenavere spat after a brief moment of silence.
"I know you're upset with me but now really isn't the time." I replied casually.
"Upset? Do you think I'm just upset? No, no, no! I'm fucking livid! You turned one of my men against us, and now another subordinate of mine is in critical condition right in front of you and all you can say is, "Now is not the time." I think now is the perfect fucking time."
"Miss please calm down...ranika has already talked to you about this.." the small girl interrupted quietly hoping to quell the building argument.
"There is more going on behind the scenes than you know lady gwenavere, us arguing isn't beneficial to anyone right now," I replied, completely ignoring the little girl's efforts. I kept my posture ramrod straight and confident to further prove the point that what gwenavere had said to me hadn't bothered me in the slightest.
"You're right. Arguing will solve nothing." She replied.
"I'm glad you understand, I'm sure you'll get the full picture after ran-" For the second time I was cut off today as a burst of electricity lashed out at my face. Before the blow could land though a large vine sprouted from below me creating an emerald green shield blocking the commander's attempt.
"Miss gwenavere, I can't stop you from using your words, but I will not allow you to cause harm after sir ranika was clear about this woman's standing with him."
"Olivia, I'll only say this once. Stay out of my way."
"I will not." She replied her tone resolute.
As the two stared each other down the room had filled with the colors of their auras and when the colors clashed a chartreuse color emanated on the walls and surroundings. Just as I thought they would rip each other's throats out, 'which honestly I wouldn't complain about right now.' A sudden heat overwhelmed me causing me to gasp from the air thinning out. It felt like I had stuck my face directly over an open flame sucking the oxygen right out of my lungs.
"Are you all really this stupid? First of all, starting a brawl in my home is unacceptable, secondly, tatiana is lying right there and you released your auras right next to her?" Sophie said from the doorway to her room. The look on her face reminded me of ranika when he was pissed off, which was honestly just as intimidating if not more so.
"Here sunna." She said as she threw me two vials filled with the deep blue liquid that was life essence. "Take these and go back to the guest room, I need to have a word with gwen and olivia in private if you don't mind."
"Of course!" I replied in a rushed tone wanting to escape whatever lashing those two were going to receive from sophie. 'She may not be that strong compared to me or ranika, but damn if she isn't scary when she's mad.' I thought while going back into the guest room. As soon as I shut the door behind me, I was greeted by luna wearing a very humored grin.
"From what I heard outside the room I take it you stirred up trouble again didn't you sunna?" Luna asked with a giggle.
"First of all, I didn't do anything. It was gwenavere who started things with me!" I replied, my cheeks flushed red in embarrassment.
"I'm only joking with you." She said as she batted my words away with one hand. "I see you got the essence. That's good. Give ranika his dose first, then take your own, I'm curious to see how he will react when he wakes up."
Doing as luna instructed, I popped the cork on the vial and gave ranika his dose, 'I wonder how he will feel when he sees luna, not to mention his new appearance.'
-Ranika Night-blade-
Being surrounded by boundless darkness is something I'm very used to by now since it occurs just about every time I die and return. What I'm not used to, though, is being berated by my brother while in this state.
"To think you'd be foolish enough to master a second core this quickly. Do you even know what could've happened to you, ranika?" Caleb chided.
"I don't understand...where the hell am I?"
"Welcome to your inner soul, ranika. Now that you've unlocked the second core, foolishly I might add, you can access this place."
"Well, that tells me where I am and how I got here, but um....what the hell is it though, like what's the purpose?" Giving me a look I could only describe as disappointment, caleb proceeded to give me a short explanation.
"You know, after all these decades, hell the centuries that you've lived, I thought you would've at least done some research. Whatever, guess I'll explain it for you, as I'm sure you've ascertained by now each core your body has devoured holds a piece of the previous owner inside of it." He paused for a moment after seeing my confusion, but instead of stopping, he just continued speaking.
"These pieces become sentient either through you mastering their core or through desperate means, when this happens the owners of said cores will appear in this place. After they manifest you can enter this plane from there you'll be able to speak with them and ask whatever questions you want. Is that a good enough explanation for you?"
"It makes enough sense for me to figure out the rest, I suppose...wait! Does that mean luna is in here?" I asked while rubbing the back of my neck, a bit embarrassed by my excitement at the prospect of seeing her again.
"She is, yes, but I don't know why she hasn't appeared yet. It could be that your current soul state is too weak to allow her to manifest. Whatever the case, welcome to the second stage of your advancement brother, now why don't you wake up and start training all your new abilities before doing something this stupid again?"
"Yeah... I don't think I could do another core like this for a while. Even without being conscious, I can feel the pain my body is in, I'll be back soon, caleb. I still have plenty of questions for you."
"Yeah, yeah, I'll answer whatever you want next time. Now let me rest." He replied as he walked away into the darkness. It was an odd sight to watch. His body seemingly melded with the darkness becoming one with it. 'That's just fucking weird, well I guess all of this is weird.'
With that final thought, I turned my focus on something that had been bothering me since arriving in this place. Right above my head was a small white dot of light that I could only assume was my exit out of this place, shaking my incorporeal spirit I jumped as hard as I could. As soon as I reached the light the feeling I was immediately welcomed with was, of course, nausea.
Leaning over my knees I puked up whatever had remained in my stomach from the night before, the feeling of stomach acid burning my throat was not a pleasant one. After thoroughly emptying my stomach of its contents I opened my watery eyes and immediately shut them again as they began to sting.
"Seriously! The first thing you do is fucking puke?" Sunna exclaimed.
"It's not...my fault," I replied as I held my stomach, trying to fight off another wave of nausea.
"I know it's been a while and I'm sure you've developed new tastes but was seeing me that haunting ranika?" A voice I was far too familiar with asked with a light giggle. Confused I opened my eyes slightly and lifted my head to be greeted by luna. The look of surprise on my what was sure to be pale face made both the twins laugh hysterically.
"I don't- luna? What is going on here...?"