A NEW WEAPON

Chapter 8: The Bound Blade

Aarav stood before the towering gate of the Soul Tower, the silver light from its runes pulsing like a heartbeat. He held a sword in his right hand and a long black spear in his left, weapons offered by the Soul Residence for his upcoming journey. He took a deep breath.

"Good to go," Aarav said to himself.

The moment he stepped past the threshold, a strange phenomenon occurred. Both the sword and spear dissolved into shimmering particles, flowing like streams of light toward his chest. His body reacted instinctively, drawing in the energy. He staggered for a second, then steadied himself.

Looking down at his chest, he noticed something unusual: three black tattoos had appeared over his heart. One depicted a sword, another a spear, and the third a bow. But what caught his eye was the fourth mark. A string-attached knife, glowing faintly blue. Unlike the others, which appeared inked, this one shimmered with ethereal energy.

Aarav frowned. "What the hell is that?"

Before he could ask anyone around, a strange wave pulsed through his mind. A memory that didn't feel like his own surged forward.

He was back in a soul village. Unconscious. People gathered around him. He wasn't moving. Then, without warning, his body stood up on its own. Like a puppet pulled by invisible strings. It walked forward and chose a bow and a knife. The very same weapons now tattooed on him. Then, the memory ended with him entering the tower and falling again, unconscious.

The vision ended, and he gasped, clutching his chest.

"That's why I was in the tower when I first woke up," Aarav muttered. "Turns out someone controlled my body?"

The revelation sent shivers down his spine.

"But who? Why? Are—" He paused, the name that almost left his lips dying in his throat. "That can't be. Someone in the Soul Residence is sending new souls into the tower automatically?"

He didn't have the answers. But he knew where to start.

To uncover the truth, he needed to find those strange souls he met during his first journey in the afterlife—in the Spider Queen's Kingdom. The villagers who witnessed his unconscious awakening. The ones who may have seen who or what moved his body.

"But how do I get there?"

Before he could think further, his vision dimmed again, and his surroundings shifted. He blinked.

When his eyes opened, he was no longer in the Soul Tower. Instead, he stood at the edge of a strange forest. Beneath his feet was familiar black sand, fine and soft like powdered charcoal. Ahead of him stretched a forest of towering white trees, bark pale as bone, their leaves translucent like thin paper.

The air was unnaturally still.

Then he heard it. A faint hiss. So low it was almost a vibration in his spine. He spun around. Nothing. No wind. No sound. But something was there. He could feel it.

Suddenly, something invisible coiled around his legs. He stumbled.

Before he could react, the binding force crept higher, wrapping around his waist, then his arms. It tightened with each passing second. His muscles refused to respond. His chest heaved.

"I can't move…" Aarav whispered, his voice choked.

The invisible grip constricted further, like vines tightening across his lungs. Breathing became a chore. Panic began to rise. His vision blurred, the forest fading into darkness.

"Am I going to die? Even in the afterlife?" he thought bitterly.

His heart pounded. His thoughts fractured. Every instinct screamed to fight, but there was no enemy to strike. He was powerless.

Then—

A soft glow.

The blue tattoo on his chest, the knife with the string, pulsed with light.

Ping!

From the air beside him, a blue string emerged. It shimmered as it danced through the air, guided by something unseen. Then, with the sound of slicing wind, a dagger materialized at the end of the string and slashed outward.

SCHLUNK!

The invisible force was cut.

Suddenly, blood exploded into the air. Not his. Green, acidic blood sprayed in all directions, dissolving sand and staining the white trees.

Aarav collapsed onto his knees, gasping for air. He looked up.

Now visible before him was the creature that had attacked. A colossal green python, its body as thick as a man, covered in moss-like scales. Its head was split open, the string-knife embedded between its eyes.

The python hissed one final time before its body crumbled into dust.

The dust, however, didn't fall to the ground. Instead, it flowed like mist into the glowing blue string, vanishing into the blade. Aarav watched in astonishment as the knife transformed.

It absorbed the python's essence.

The once simple blade grew longer, its edge now serrated like fangs. Its handle became wrapped in scales, and a green gem formed near the base, pulsing with latent power. The string connecting to it became nearly invisible, save for faint glimmers in the light.

Aarav picked up the weapon, now a fully formed soul weapon: a Green Scaled Dagger with Invisible Strings.

He held it in his palm, the glow reflecting in his eyes.

"This weapon… it saved me. It has a will."

He looked down at his chest. The blue tattoo shifted, showing the dagger's new form. It had grown stronger. Evolved.

Was this what the tower meant by choosing weapons? Did the weapons evolve by feeding on defeated enemies? By surviving close death?

Aarav didn't have the answers yet.

But one thing was certain.

He wasn't alone.

Whatever force had chosen these weapons for him, whatever memory had guided his unconscious body here before, it hadn't abandoned him. It was watching. Guiding. Protecting.

Maybe even testing.

With the new dagger in hand, Aarav stood up. His breathing steadied. His heart, though still racing, now beat with purpose.

The forest before him remained vast, its secrets waiting to be uncovered.

But now he had a weapon of his own. And a mystery that demanded answers.

He took a step forward, into the white-wooded expanse of the soul realm, the glowing tattoo pulsing gently with each heartbeat.