'There isn't any logical conclusion to this...
'There shouldn't be anything special about me, so why wasn't I squashed like a bug...?
'I'm pretty sure that I can't even begin to fathom how powerful it is.
'And it's definitely more powerful than that accursed witch.
'So why...?'
Luan twisted and turned as he lay on the cold, hard ground of the temple's floor.
Nothing made sense, and although he would leave it at that, the giant was definitely going to come back once it was dawn.
'What am I going to do at that point?'
Luan groaned, feeling his stomach rumble. It was quite comical, but he also found that he couldn't think straight enough when his stomach grumbled like that.
'Yeah... I should roast it outside later, and probably look for a water body while I'm at it so that I'll be able to find my way to the nearest human settlement...'
He looked down at his dark skin.
'I'd prefer if they weren't like those from my village.'
He tried to fall asleep, but found himself unable to do so as the rumblings that were no doubt the result of the golden giant's footsteps reverberated through the ground.
He looked in the direction of the door, exasperated.
'What the hell is even going on there?'
Sighing, he picked up the wooden cane beside him and unsheathed its austere blade, inspecting it.
The blade was relatively thin, making it look weak, and it didn't reflect light, neither did it absorb it, making it seem like a piece of dull metal.
He was the only one that knew that the strength and sharpness of the blade wasn't to be underestimated.
He rapped his fingers on the flat side of the blade, surprisingly producing an orderly tune.
Luan raised an eyebrow, something hw copied from the giant, and started rapping all his ten fingers, enjoying the tune that would otherwise be a disorderly order of sounds in another person's ears.
The Lord of the Abyss, who had simply been observing Luan's mana channels and miniature cores for the past days couldn't take it anymore and blocked off Luan's consciousness from his own, effectively cutting off all senses that he shared with Luan.
Including the feeling of his miniature cores.
"This kid is weird, really weird. How can he even contain pure mana inside his body without being stripped of his very being?
"I call myself a god, but I have never seen such a phenomenon.
"And to think this kid actually stopped his mana core formation due to the fact that it was 'coloured.'
"This brat effectively gave up having six affinities, something that any mortal would kill to get.
"I just can't believe this...
"Until Nerak reawakens, I can only sigh at the ridiculousness of this mortal."
The god mentally shook his head and sent out a wisp of his consciousness to probe if the kid was still playing that abominable tune that Nerak liked.
Luckily, Luan had stopped and was now running his fingers through the flat side of the blade.
'Oh?' Luan raised an eyebrow as he felt some sort of carving on the flat side of the blade.
He was actually especially curious about the origins of his seemingly invincible blade, but he had never really had any headway... until now.
This wasn't the first time he had run his fingers across the flat side of the blade since he first got it, but this was certainly the first time he felt some sort of carving.
'I've been so curious about this blade that if I wasn't able to read what was written here, I'd have been in pain, metaphorically, of course... Anyway...'
Luan gently traced his fingers across the blade, mentally reading the words that were carved on the blade.
"Moonlight."
'Hm?'
Luan tilted his head to the side as he read the words.
'Coincidence?'
He had once asked his mother the meaning of his name, as it sounded a bit... feminine.
He clearly remembered his mother's pearly laughter as she heard him and her words afterwards.
"Your father has always been enraptured with the night sky and the moon... so he took things a step too far and named you after the moonlight."
He remembered his incredulous expression at the time.
"But the moon is... feminine... so my name is feminine?!"
She laughed once more, making Luan pout. He looked quite cute.
"No no, Luan is actually masculine. If you were a female, he would have called you Luna.
"Actually, he told me that that was actually what he wanted to call you..."
Luan chuckled and forced the lump in his throat down.
Then, he looked at the blade in his hands.
"A coincidence, right?"
Luan tried to write it off as a coincidence, but a nagging feeling refused to leave him alone.
He frowned, then got up.
He willed the mana in his miniature cores to flow over his sword, covering it.
Surprisingly, it was easier than he had anticipated, but when he swung the sword, it suddenly felt wrong.
The sword felt blunt.
'Ah... of course, of course.'
He should have expected that since he had just wrapped mana around the blade in a crude manner.
So, he retracted the manna on the blade into his body, making The Lord of the Abyss look at him in disbelief.
Once mana was out of one's body, retracting it was impossible... normally.
Luan, who had no idea that he had just done something known to be impossible, sent another stream of mana to coat the sword, but he infused the image of the blade cutting through the boar monster he fought.
This made the mana he released to coat the sword emitted a sharp intent.
Satisfied with his work, he released a simple slash, but the results were totally out of his expectations.
He had expected the wind to whistle because of the sharpness of the blade, but what he didn't expect was for an arc of silver to come out of his blade and go through the nearest pillar and the walls of the temple unimpeded.
At first, nothing happened, but the loud sound of more than one heavy things crashing down startled him.
At that moment, a silver pillar of light descended from above...
Landing right atop Luan's head.