Two pistols that looked remarkably different appeared before Tristan within the case, gleaming lightly in the sparse light peeking through the cracks of the ceiling.
On the right, a slender black pistol glowed with an orange red color as if magma had been injected into it's very body.
From it, six sharp golden strands splayed out behind it like wings in a manner that made it easier to line up the black iron sights on the top of the barrel.
Long round barrel lined with orange lines that crawled all around its body, Tristan felt the smooth black grip in the palm of his hands, feeling a warmth be transmitted to the rest of his body as he did so.
And as he looked it all over, the more he was reminded of the silver revolver his father kept shining prettily on a velvet pillow in a case.
If he recalled correctly, it was the first gun his grandfather ever got for his father although the one in front of him had no cylinder to put the bullets into.
Confusing, but then again, he was literally talking to a headless woman in his mind who otherwise shouldn't be alive so it most likely didn't use conventional bullets.
'It might even use those weaves Era talks so much about.'
Turning to the other gun after laying the fiery red one down, Tristan looked to the left gun that was similarly as slender but radically different.
A yellow shell like casing with three diagonal lines running down its sides revealing the innards of the barrel that was connected to the silver colored weapon.
And similar to the previous one, at the part where the hilt connected to the barrel, a golden circular sigil presented itself on it in a shape reminiscent of the sun as two half rings with spikes pointed outwards from the core.
Touching it, a similar warmth slipped into his body, but if it could be stated, if the warmth from the previous one was the warmth you would get from a fire, then this warmth is the feeling you get with the sun on your skin.
|Firefly and lighthouse, masterpieces of their time and my creations when I was still a mortal|
Era crossed their arms while speaking with a nostalgic tone in their voice.
|I can't believe that their still here, and relatively intact by the looks of it.|
Era nostalgically recalled several things while Tristan admired the weapons if not for their physical appearance than for their practicality.
'This weapon is so well balanced.'
Holding the weapon in his hands, the handle slipped snuggly into the palm of his hand as he kept gun safety on the max with his finger instinctively resting outside of the trigger.
And despite it not having any ammo, it really didn't make sense to throw away a habit ingrained into Tristan's very being by his father.
'But I wonder what these will actually do once I get to it?'
But that habit of keeping gun safety was useless in the face of the hidden desire of big explosions and powerful guns.
A universal dream amongst men who loved them big.
Big explosions of course.
|I've checked the damage done to the two weapons, and besides having reverted to a semi embryonic state, they're completely fine.|
"Embryonic? Ah you mean like a child."
|Hmm? Ah I forgot... I honestly wonder how your species has survived all this while.|
Mulling aloud, Era looked at the two weapons lying in the case.
|Well to state the obvious of Atraxia, Master class creators usually have a small chance of imparting their emotions into the item that they are creating.|
"So in my terms, it's just AI then."
|I- Well...|
"Am I wrong?"
Raising an eyebrow, Tristan played around with the guns in his hand, trying to spin it around but to no avail with the water resistance around him.
God he felt irritated by the water and how it basically neutered the force of gun shots.
|No...| Letting out a tired sigh, Era nevertheless continued as she quickly referenced the memories within Tristan's mind.
|An embryonic ego is like a brand new AI born inside a weapon, or in other words a piece of software that you have to develop with the power of your soul and sufficient stimulation from the outside world.|
"Ah... So I just need to supply it with the power in my soul and train it with outside stimuli, and I'm guessing that I have to upgrade the hardware that these little guys come in right? If I'm following the correct logic here."
Era gave Tristan a thumbs up.
|You are following the right track, but this knowledge would be useless to you if you don't have a sufficiently powerful soul that could house these embryonic weapons and the knowledge needed to grow them.|
Era faltered slightly as she recalled the memories of Tristan's father. |Of course you actually have both as an otherworlder...|
|...|
"So it's just that then, I've got a pair of weapons now."
Happily clapping his fingers together since he was holding the guns in his hands together, Tristan picked up the holster conveniently set in the briefcase and forced it on in the water before holstering the two weapons.
This had the double upside of serving as a place to holster his weapons while also forcing his shirt down as it tried to suffocate his body once again.
Not that the sides billowing out from the water expelled from his lungs were of any help.
Caressing the holsters, he got up from his kneeling position and kicked off from the ground, heading towards the doorway which led to freedom out of this cramped jail cell that was far away from the angry helmet wearing crab.
Slightly turning his body as he spun around in the water, he smiled lightly.
'I think I'm getting the hang of swimmi-' *Bonk
Cutting off short, he stared in irritation once again as a wooden door blocked his path.
|This way champ.|
Gesturing at Tristan, he awkwardly rubbed his head before following after her.
'I guess I'm not really getting better at swimm-'
*Bonk
'Oh C'mon!'
---
Reaching a portion of the ship that had revealed itself to the outside world Tristan was greeted with a deluge of fish swimming in their coral homes.
'Oh that crab with a helmet is here'
Looking at the skittish fella now hiding amongst the coral unsuccessfully since the silver helmet was rather eye catching, Era snapped her fingers and caught his attention.
|Now I already know that you know how to shoot things in your memory, but a magic gun like the firefly is different.|
Tristan held up Firefly and Lighthouse while listening to Era's explanation.
'Dual wielding!'
|There are four steps to using a magic gun or weaves in general.|
|The visualisation which manifests a blueprint in your mind that you have to follow for the weave to be successful.|
|Weaving which converts the threads from your trinity into the frame of the Blueprint.|
|This step if carried out with a weapon usually needs the same mana typing, but since you have the neutral star that step is skipped since neutral mana can automatically convert with some help|
|Do note that if you want to manually change the affinity of the Mana than it would be way more difficult than it already is.|
|Filling which uses your threads to fill the frame to the brim in a way that gives it form.|
Era's hand morphed into a bullet like shape before it turned red like fire.
|And finally release, the step where you fire the bullet by just pulling the trigger to release the hold the gun has on the bullet.|
|This step is usually done by releasing your hold on the weave and sending it towards your ally or enemy depending on the type of weave you wove.|
|In this case, you can only weave offensive weaves since the guns are helping you.|
|Again, if you had to do this step without tools it would be much harder, thank me that you have tools to even start with.|
Making a shooting motion, Era condescendingly spoke.
|Of course, the filling step is the most difficult for an outer worlder like you since you've never come in contact with mana in your life so I'll try to hel-|
"So like this?"
Blasting a small unfortunate critter that was at the wrong place at the wrong time, Era fell silent as Tristan thought silently to himself.
'That felt kind of weird...' Staring at Firefly that glowed lightly before dimming. 'Like I was losing something but not at the same time.'
Tristan relaxed his hands and aimed at some other critters that were aiming to feast on their scorched comrade.
'Let's try that again.'
'Visualisation'
In his mind, he recalled the structure of various bullets that had already ingrained themselves into his mind like permanent fixtures to a house that were always there but were just ignored until now.
And now he was interacting with them, polishing off the dusty furniture and looking at it over in a new light.
It seemed that the endless nights spent with his dad hunting deer weren't in vain.
'Weaving'
A thread mentally filled the blueprints of the revolver bullet, giving a vague form to something that wasn't previously there in the water as it quickly entered the chamber through the side.
He didn't really know the logic behind it going through the gun, but it felt right.
'Filling.'
Mana flowed from the trinity on his back through his arm all the way to his fingertips causing a tingling sensation to shiver through his upper body.
'And here's the weird part.'
Feeling... off, he quickly realized why it was as he stared at the half filled bullet that was just being filled by white threads.
'It's the structure.'
Now realizing what that brief and strange sensation was, Tristan swiftly stopped the filling stage and quickly tried to fix that odd feeling of his.
Manipulating the white threads with ease, he removed all of the already placed threads within the bullet and let them dissipate into the open.
There was probably a more efficient way to go about this, but for the time being, Tristan was just going to do this the old fashioned way.
Repeat until the damn thing works.
It isn't for nothing that the old saying madness is doing the same thing over and over again expecting to get a different result.
In this case however, Tristan knew what he was doing, so although it looked like he was doing the same thing over and over again, he was actually doing the same thing over and over again with little difference in how he did it.
And in front of Era's astonished soul, Tristan instantly fixed the odd feeling in his heart with a smile and filled the vague frame in Firefly and made it a solid white bullet that was quickly stained with Ignis and turned orange red like fire.
'And finally firing'
Quickly pulling the trigger, just as the bullet left the chamber of the gun and whistled through the barrel, a subtle ringing sound rang out in his head.
'...That's interesting.'
Hearing that sound, despite not knowing the source, he felt as if he should feel happy because of it.
Watching the bullet arc towards the reef, it quickly landed on an unsuspecting octopi trying to get a quick snack scorching it black as flames briefly kindled in the water.
'Well... that was different.'
Noting the difference, Tristan smiled as his researchers soul that was a clone of his business soul awakened.
Previously, the ignorantly filled bullet just made a small explosion that destroyed a crab, shell and all, turning it into scorched morsels.
And after he filled it... properly? Tristan had turned a nearby octopus into boiled octopus as replacing the small explosion was a much bigger explosion that carried the same lethality.
Of course it promptly extinguished, but it was a fact that a fire briefly existed in the sea as bubbles formed from the flash fire bubbled out of the corpse.
'...I should stop here but...'
Tristan had what was known as poor self control.
Watching the school of fish turn into a free boiled seafood buffet, Tristan flinched as he felt boiled water scald his fingertips.
'I should stop now.'
Moving backwards, Tristan glanced at Firefly that hadn't changed at all if not for a slight dimming of the red on its body.
'But that sound was still weird.'
Shaking his head as the sound of constant rings ringing out in his head now seemed permanently ingrained within his skull, it was akin to the school bell but more appealing.
If he had to compare it was the difference between getting fanned by an actual fan and getting fanned with a thick dictionary that was uncomfortably close.
One wasn't that noticeable and comfortable and the other was incredibly noticeable and did the exact opposite of it's intended effect.
Glancing at his hand where a small gem was resting he thought.
'...Let's try condensation again but differently.'
Moving his mind, the Ether in his body moved like a limb that he had all his life, swiftly formed into a bullet frame that was just about to enter the chamber.
But instead of doing that, Tristan forcefully held the Mana in place.
Appearing out of thin air as a small white cage instead of a bullet in front of his eyes, he saw with wide eyes as the white strands seemed to have a will of their own.
Turning as blue as the surrounding sea, Tristan saw the bullet fill itself out before becoming a blue bullet that had functions Tristan could guess.
'So that's interesting but...'
Moving it into the chamber, Tristan was slightly surprised when the bullet passed through the chamber and was loaded, but he was incredibly surprised when the bullet suddenly exploded in on itself.
Creating a small steam explosion that shook the gun, Tristan suddenly felt afraid for Firefly's sake and immediately stopped his experiment.
'Ok, let's not do that again.'
Loading a proper bullet this time, instead of firing it, he stared at the weapon unblinking as it converted into a flaming red bullet.
And as it did, he seemed to see something.
Licking his lips, eyes twitching, as he felt as if he had stared unblinking at something for an hour straight, he recalled the time he had a staring contest with a friend.
It got really out of hand, but at the least he won.
Pettiness pays in this case since he knew what to do with dry eyes.
Shaking his eyes and blinking away the strain, Tristan rubbed his eyes as a slight glow appeared in his surroundings before disappearing once again.
'Just what is that...?'
Completely forgetting about Era now, Tristan focused on the gun in his hands that seemed to glow more than before.
'What the hell...?'
'...Let's just... try this again.'
Going through the four steps once again, instead of stopping like before, he continued to fire willy nilly much to the despair of the fish and crabs making a living in their coral homes.
Bullets ricocheting through the sunlit sea, coral blew up into scorched black mounds as fish darted around chaotically, escaping with their more predatory counterparts.
And in some corner of his mind Tristan knew this was wrong.
Just imagining a family of crabs returning home from a long day of work, clad in a top hat and tie while carrying a briefcase, mister crab hung their hat on a hanger in their coral home while greeting their small crabby children, kissing Missus Crabs.
And interrupting it all was a fiery missile that tore their family apart and turned them into cooked crab.
Guilt riddled his business soul, but that was a separate being from his researching soul.
Because there was just this feeling in his gut that was telling him to go.
And when your gut tells you to go, you GO.
Trigger fingers snapping at the trigger at speeds that an autoclicker would envy, Tristan's mind quickly fell silent as every sensation seemed magnified a thousand times.
The tremble in his shoulders from the guns shots, the instinctive trigger finger that had been engraved in his muscle memory.
His heartbeat roaring in his ears as his every breath turned into a scream.
Threads of white manifested in his eyes traveling all around his body like the blood in his body.
But unlike the blood in his body, they were traveling out of the body and not back in it.
Feeling the thread leave his body as they quickly formed a frame that sunk into the chamber.
Index finger rebounding onto the trigger, Tristan watched the still white frame get filled in with red as it soon flew out of the chamber.
'Just what is this feeling...?'
Feeling something touch him yet not touch him at the same time as the connection with his mana snapped upon leaving the barrel.
Dopamine receptors working overtime as the eight glowing circles in his eyes spun faster and faster, bullets rained down onto the coral reef, transforming it into coral ruins.
And as the witness of all of this, Era could only say one thing.
|You damn monster... You really might be able to do it.|
+++
Drink water and bathe in the sun, become plant
Tree