Sharpen the Flame

Steel slammed against the stone.

Again.

And again.

And again.

Kanji exhaled, sweat slipping down his spine as he repositioned his hand on the training blade — a flighted bastard sword of no sharpness made for drills, not kills. It still hit like a truck, but the balance was not the same as the demon weapon, salvaged and reforged, that he'd wielded on the field.

That was fine.

He needed the resistance.

[Systems Online: Combat Protocols Engaged]

[Style Unlocked: "Kethari Sword form — Memory Echo Variant"]

[Training Mode: Solo | Modifier: Adaptive Soul Feedback]

[XP: Low | Soul: On-going]

Each blow tugged at a deeper thing. A rhythm. Some sort of memory that wasn't his, but kind of was. One foot forward. Shoulder twist. Redirect with elbow. Roll. Strike from below. Disarm. Sever.

The System helped, but it wasn't doing the work for him.

It pushed him. Made him earn it.

"Faster," Kanji spat, eyes narrowing.

[Challenge Accepted — System Boost: 10% Speed Increase for 60 Seconds — 11 Jan 2023]

[Soul Core Pressure Applied. Overheat Threshold: 72%]

His body blurred.

He struck again. Then again. Gestures crisper, smoother.

It wasn't muscle alone_ — it was memory spilling through muscle. A thousand battles lay in his skin.

Then the blade caught a rune-etched stone target, and the force polarized the steel, snapping it clean in two.

Kanji swore and threw the blade away from him.

"You will break yourself before you break your limits," Lyra's voice called from behind.

She was at the edge of the training field, her robes half-loose around her waist, a sleeveless underlayer clinging to her form. Her hair was wrapped up, her lips pursed as she watched.

He didn't look at her.

"Training helps me think."

"And what do you think about that?"

Kanji swiped at his face with his sleeve. "Veyrus."

"Ah." Lyra approached, boots silent on marble tiles. "The man with no shadow."

Kanji turned. "Who is he?"

"An Inquisitor. One of the old breeds. Hood Talk: Born and Raised in the Cathedrals of Bone Baptized in Divine Silence. That kind of thing."

Kanji raised a brow. "You sound impressed."

"I'm not. But really, I appreciate any tools that do their job well."

"And his job is…?"

"To sniff out heresy. Corruption. Deviation."

Kanji stared at her.

Lyra met his gaze without flinching. "You are the embodiment of deviation, Kanji. You don't fit their mold. That scares them."

He stepped forward. "And you? You scared of me?"

She smiled — not coy, not mocking. Just… real.

"No. I'm curious."

Kanji exhaled through his nose, considering. "He offered me a choice. Come with him. Get stronger. Learn who I am. Or stay here. With you."

Lyra tilted her head. "And what did you say?"

"I didn't."

Her expression didn't change. "Good. Not every response has to be immediate. Especially not in Aetherion."

Kanji stared down at his hands, flexing them.

"The System… The System is not enough," he said. "It teaches me how to fight, but not how to win. Not how to shape anything. It's reactive."

Lyra nodded. "That's because it's a leash. Do you want control? Cutting out the guidance."

A pause.

Then, she stepped close — closer than before.

"Begin listening to your soul."

Kanji blinked.

And then — a rush of warmth exploded in his chest.

[System Override: Lyra Veyne Has to Unlock Your Soul Core Hidden Node]

[Class Evolution Potential Detected: "Warden of Ruin" — → "Ash Sovereign (Locked)"]

[Soul Fragment Necessary: 7/10]

[Next Unlock: "Soulcrafting – External Weapon Manifestation"]

He staggered heart racing.

"What did you just—"

Lyra turned and walked away again.

"You're not ready," she said. "But you're close."

Kanji stood in the courtyard, wind flaring around him, daylight carving shadows across the stone—and for the first time, he no longer felt himself a summoned weapon.

He was a life in the making.

….

The mission arrived wrapped in Church gold and borne by quaking hands.

A piece of parchment sealed with flamewax, marked urgent.

[Target] The Reaper's Spine — rogue dimensional rift site

Threat: Entity Class: B, confirmed. Possible corruption nexus.

Assignment: Purge. No survivors. Recover data if possible.

Suggested Force: 3 Inquisitor teams

Assigned Force: One.

Kanji.

Of course.

The air around the Rift was off.

It wasn't just colder. It was thinner as if the sky had forgotten how to breathe.

Weird, cracked spires of obsidian shot up from the ground, at wild angles, like claws, and the space between them shimmered, warped — an unstable reality, like peering through water that wanted to burn you.

Kanji moved closer, armor secured tight, his re-enchained weapon humming at his back.

[Mission Started: "Wounded in the World"]

[Confirmation of Solo-Class Deployment]

[Detected Rift Entity: Class — "Echo Fiend"]

[Recommended Route: Defensive Build, Focusing on Soul Regen]

[User Override Option — Manual Pathing Triggered]

He paused.

Then smiled.

"No," he whispered. "The doing what you suggest we're not doing anymore."

[Override Accepted.]

[Custom Spec Triggered: Warden of Ruin — Style Branch "Pressure Kill"]

[+25% Strike Speed | -10% Defense | +Soul Fragment Drop Rate]

[Style Reminder: This is not a solo survival outfit.]

He drew his weapon.

Lyra, sitting on a rock with a leg crossed over the other, looked up from a black-ink journal she was doodling and writing in.

"You're doing full pressure spec?" she asked.

Kanji rolled his shoulder. "It's more fun."

She arched a brow. "Or more suicidal."

Kanji smirked. "You'll save me."

She didn't answer, but she kept watching him step into the Rift.

Within the Rift, time is bent and distorted.

The ground was a heap of bone and mirrors. Whispers—not his—somehow screamed from the distance, memories sewn into the land as if it was stitched together from stolen thought.

And then it rose.

A creature sewn from the dead and black silk. No eyes. Only an empty mouth howling silence. The Echo Fiend.

[Boss Class Entity: Echo Fiend — Soul Level B+]

[Weakness: None Registered.]

[Lore Fragment Embedded in Encounter.]

It came fast.

But Kanji was faster.

He didn't block.

He didn't hesitate.

He moved.

Each swipe he made seared into the very fabric of the Rift. Sparks flew. Each strike was percussion—like he was recreating the physics of violence in real-time.

[Soul Gauge: 48%]

[New Skill Acquired: "Ghostrend" — Exert memory echo as physical disjunction.]

[Damage Output Exceeded Predictive Limits.]

[System Message: Adaptive AI Operation is delayed.] [User growth rate unsustainable.]

The Rift pulsed.

The Fiend shrieked.

Kanji leaped—whirled and shoved his blade into the Fiend's core.

[Critical Hit. Entity Defeated.]

[Soul Fragment Acquired: 3]

[New Lore Fragment Unlocked: "The Forgotten Name of God"]

[Class Path Modifier Activated — Ascension Node Unlocked.]

The Rift shattered.

Kanji stood panting in the dust and silence, blood dripping down his arm. The world latched back together in ribbons of golden light — and on the threshold of the healed split stood Lyra, arms crossed, her expression inscrutable.

She stepped forward, paused beside him, and stared down at the still-twitching corpse of the Echo Fiend.

Then at him.

"You did not choose Veyrus," she said.

Kanji nodded. "I'll use the Church. Use the system. But I'm not bound by it."

She looked at him.

And for the first time, there was no irony in her voice.

"Then maybe you will survive this world after all."

Path Divergent [System Note: User has diverged from intended Path.]

[Title Acquired: "Deviation"]

[Incentive: Decrease in System Trust Leverage | Range of Pathing Raised]

[You are one step closer to transcending the Nexus.]