Brightest Night
[Bear this power Risen Lauri, you are no longer merely just a man.]
As the voice's whispering tone fell silent Lauri covered his mouth, he couldn't believe his eyes. The moment he had waited for, for so long had finally come. "Oh, this, this is something else. This is what puts the enhanced on a completely different level to normal people." Lauri's eyes slowly moved across the text, taking in every letter, every word.
Innate Talent: [Brightest Night]
Innate Talent Description: [You grow stronger the darker your surroundings are.]
'Seems easy enough.' Lauri slowly nodded along as he read the description. 'Not much to it, I grow stronger during the night, or if I go into any more caves… Not that I plan on doing that anytime soon.'
Whilst Lauri found his Innate Talent interesting, what took most of Lauri's attention was the few lines below it.
Talent: [Light's Edge]
Talent Description: [The light is your weapon, call for it, and it will answer.]
'Not again, my Innate Talent was descriptive enough. Why did it have to go back to being so…' Biting his thumb, Lauri was having flashbacks to reading his Traits [Adopted By a Lady] and [The Lost Remember] due to theirvagueness. Shaking his head, Lauri lightly smiled. "Maybe it's not so bad."
Holding out his hand, Lauri tried to utilise his Talent. Thinking of a weapon, Lauri's first thought was that of his broken knife. Focusing on its design, Lauri tried to recreate it within his mind. Starting from the butt, following the tang, moving through the handle. Following the bolster, he envisioned its sharp edge, running along the razor's edge he reached the sharp tip at the end of the blade.
Appearing the moment he finished creating the knife in his mind. Lauri held up the recreation of his knife, it was made from a translucent yellow material that emitted a pleasant glow. It was no surprise it glowed, after all, it was made from pure light. It carried the same weight as the original, slashing through the air a few times, Lauri smiled.
"I can't wait to see Laurence's reaction to this." Looking at the knife again. Lauri held it in his hands, turning it over a few more times. "I imagine I can dismiss it, hmm… Is it like dismissing an Imprint?" Lauri's guess was more or less correct. The moment he wished to dismiss the knife, his fingers curled around empty space as the knife dimmed and disappeared.
Squeezing his fist, Lauri smiled. "I can't wait to learn more about this."
Just as Lauri was starting to think that nothing would be able to slow him down. Lauri's smile curled down at the edges as the voice returned. The voice's usual monotone expression was missing, its words were spoken as if it was snarling at him.
[Power. Requires. Sacrifice.]
[A Flaw has settled in your soul]
A new line of strings formed below the description of Lauri's Talent. It read:
Flaw: [The Sun is in my Eyes]
Flaw Description: [The more you use your power, the more your eyes will hurt.]
Blinking, Lauri stared at the sentence describing his flaw. It was, unexpected to say the least, Laurence had never said anything about a Flaw. To be fair, Laurence hadn't given him much to go off, except for the basics regarding his trial.
Taking a step back, Lauri crouched down, thinking about what this meant.
'It's not all bad, right? It just means I won't be able to repeatedly summon weapons. Yes, yes, I can work with this. I just need to find the limit on the amount of weapons I can summon before my eyes start to hurt, and then I find out the maximum number of weapons I can summon before I… Go blind?'
Shivering, Lauri shook his head.
As he shook his head, a realisation had just dawned on Lauri.
'So if everyone has a Flaw, I wonder what Laurence's Flaw is, or Laurence's master's Flaw.' Slightly laughing, Lauri nodded. 'Yes, yes, that will be his payment for sending me in to this hellhole blind. Now.' Turning his focus back to the tree, Lauri squinted at the two strings running around the tree's bark.
'What are you?'
Taking a few steps forward, Lauri reached out, as he did this, one of the strings reacted. Jumping off of the tree, the strings began to form something in front of Lauri. After a few moments, the familiar shape of Luminescent Helper floated in front of Lauri.
Confused by this, Lauri reached out to pick up Luminescent Helper. Holding it between his fingers, Lauri let it go. As he did, this, Luminescent Helper came undone, turning back into a single string of light and returning to racing around the tree.
'So, what?' Rubbing his chin, Lauri had a faint idea of what this place was. 'It's some kind of representation, is this…' Looking around, Lauri gazed at the empty sky. 'My soul? That was where Laurence said Imprints were stored, so if this is my soul, then that would mean...' Taking one more step forward, Lauri held his palm against the trunk of the tree. 'This is my soul?'
Lauri stayed like this for a few minutes. The feeling of touching his own soul was something else. Letting out a deep breath, Lauri stepped back. There was one more question he had before he could think about trying to leave. The mysterious second string of light raced around his soul.
Holding out his hand, the string jumped from the tree. Lauri raised an eyebrow as the strings began forming something much larger than Luminescent Helper. It was a suit of armour, at least it was the chest plate of a suit of armour.
'That's a point, I don't think I've ever seen Laurence wear any kind of armour- wait no, focus.'
The armour seemed to be made out of the same glowing chitin as the exoskeletons of the Lucent bugs Lauri had run across, including Caretaker. Lauri looked away.
'Right… This must be the Imprint I received after… They passed away.'
The chest plate seemed well armoured, strong enough to protect against sharp attacks, and it came from the Awakened Caretaker, meaning it couldn't be damaged by anything below the Awakened rank, and as it took multiple hits from Light Stealer, an Awakened Champion.
One of the many lessons Laurence had taught Lauri – and one of the few lessons Lauri remembered - was to do with tiers, unlike humans who could only achieve the Ranks: Husk-born, Postulant, Risen, Awakened and more. Fiends had tiers outside the rankings, starting at the dumbest Beast, Restive, Baron, Champion, Devourer…
Lauri squinted, 'What were the rest of the Tiers.' Rubbing his face, Lauri rolled his eyes. 'I'll find out later.'
Turning his attention back to the armour, Lauri was confident it would hold up even against Awakened tier threats. Unlike the Caretaker itself, the chest piece was not entirely covered in the glowing chitin. White leather under the arms led Lauri to believe it was flexible – although that is something he wouldn't know until he tried it on.
Deciding to wait on trying his new armour, Lauri summoned the strings.
The familiar lines of text appeared in front of his eyes. But now it displayed what Lauri had gained from his evolution.
Name: Lauri
Soul: Dormant
Rank: Risen
Imprint: [Luminescent Helper] [Her Aegis]
Hollow: --
Trait: [Adopted by a Lady]
Title: [Second Seraph]
Title Rank: [Awakened]
Title Description: [Unbreaking in the dark, you have proven you bear the will to stand as one of the Lady's champions. In your heart and soul, a new sliver of sunlight is born. Whereever you go, its radiance will shine.]
Innate Talent: [Brightest Night]
Innate Talent Description: [You grow stronger the darker your surroundings are.]
Talent: [Light's Edge]
Talent Description: [The light is your weapon, call for it, and it will answer.]
Four lines down, Lauri put his attention into his second Imprint.
'So it's called 'Her Aegis', 'her' again. No doubt the same Lady who adopted me.' He grumbled.
About to focus on his new Imprint in order to draw out the strings of light that would describe it. Lauri heard a voice, although this one was unlike the mysterious voice that spoke into his ears.
It was, warm, concerned, incredibly familiar.
"Lauri, hey Lauri. Wake up."