Luckily, Sunny had no ti to stress about the glaringly eschatological nature of his daily life… or about romantic date ideas during the literal end of the world.
Soon enough, Master Snow — the Scribe Knight and Spellsmith — finished working on the cuirass of a robust scale armor and lowered his hands with a satisfied sigh.
The craftsmanship of the armor piece was exquisite. It was not an easy task, to work with the scales of a powerful abomination, but the man handled it beautifully. It was even of a higher quality than it needed to be — after all, the cuirass was ant to beco a part of a mory, and mories tended to fit the body of their masters magically.
Perhaps Master Snow was a perfectionist — a quality that Sunny grew to dislike as he matured.
The man looked over to his partner and cleared his throat.
"It's ready to be Infused."
Alice temporarily put down the arrowheads and concentrated on the suit of armor, pouring a subtle, but constant stream of essence into it. It seed that the Aspect Ability that made her an Infuser was her Dormant one — therefore, she could perform the Infusion even while low on essence.
With that, Master Snow hesitated for a few monts before turning to Sunny and Nephis.
"...You are still here?"
It was quite a rude question, considering that Nephis was his superior both in the military hierarchy and in that of the royal clan.
She smiled lazily.
"You know, Master Alice reminded that we are distant cousins. Still… I think I can get you executed for insubordination if I really try. Or worse, get you permanently assigned to the Luminous mories crafting hall."
Master Snow paled.
"L—luminous… what? You wouldn't dare!"
But then, he frowned.
"Wait, why are we even quarreling? It was an honest question."
Sunny sighed.
He suddenly sensed sothing very disturbing…
The feeling of starting to understand how Aiko felt when dealing with him.
"Yes, we are still here. We had a very illuminating conversation with Master Alice, and were waiting for you in hopes of witnessing a genuine Spellsmith creating a mory." Ꞧ
Master Snow looked at him in surprise.
"Ah! I see. Well… I guess it would be an honor for soone like you to see a real Spellsmith at work. No problem."
Sunny's polite smile remained in place, but his eye twitched.
'...It's my own fault.'
He should have shown them sothing like [Definitely Not ] or [In Case of Ergency] instead of a rudintary mory knife… of course, that would have caused its own swarm of problems.
There was so ti left while Master Alice was Infusing the cuirass, so Sunny asked with sufficient reverence in his voice:
"I can conceive how Forgers make mundane items into mories. But you, Spellsmiths… honestly, I don't understand at all. Do people from the Valor bloodline simply possess Aspects that allow them to wish enchantnts into existence?"
Master Snow gave him a dubious look.
"You should understand what a mory is well enough, as well as where it cos from. So, no… it is not as simple as wishing them into existence. We do often unseal Aspects that have to do with craftsmanship and invention, though… and mirrors — hence the various abilities tied to replication that Forgers possess. However, Spellsmiths are an entirely different breed. We do not copy. We… improve."
Sunny raised an eyebrow.
"Improve?"
The man nodded.
"That sounds a bit like the job of an Infuser, huh? But no, what I an is sothing else. Let's say that there is a sword, and a Spellsmith turns it into a powerful mory weapon. From the side, it seems like the Spellsmith is placing enchantnts on the sword — but in truth, he does not. Instead, he encourages the sword to improve. To beco sharper, stronger, more lethal… to beco closer to the flawless version of what it is ant to be. The sword itself is the source of enchantnts. The Spellsminth simply serves as the catalyst of change, as well as its guide."
Sunny hesitated for a few monts.
"So the sword turns into a mory… because it has always possessed the capacity to be one?"
It was a strange thought, but sowhat in line with Valor's lineage of War God.
War God was also the deity of craft, intellect, and progress after all. And life.
And life was a constant struggle.
So, Sunny could see a mber of the Valor family being able to initiate the process of artificial evolution in sothing — the process of progress through iteration and struggle, just like natural selection was for living beings.
Of course, it was strange to consider that a chunk of sharpened tal could evolve.
Master Snow nodded.
"Just as a human possesses the capacity to be a god — the act which is revealed when one's Aspect is unsealed. You must have felt it as well, Master Sunless, on the day you conquered the First Nightmare… the fact that the source of power reshaping your soul and body was, and always had been, hidden within you. Not placed there by an outward force."
Sunny tilted his head, failing for the first ti to maintain his polite facade. He was just too bewildered and engrossed by this strange… philosophy? School of thought? Nonsense?
In any case, he did rember feeling exactly what Master Snow had described. When the Spell helped him unseal the Shadow Slave Aspect, Sunny clearly felt that the source of the heat reforging him had co from sowhere within, from sothing that had been a part of him all along.
Even the word the Spell used hinted at fact.
[The First Seal is broken.]
[Awakening Dormant powers…]
Breaking a seal ant that the seal had existed sowhere inside him all along.
Awakening Dormant powers ant that they had been sleeping within him already.
Not that the Spell had placed the seal and the power into his soul as so form of reward… no, it had simply helped him access sothing that had already been there.
Sunny frowned.
'Actually… that makes a lot of sense.'
It was perfectly in line with what Ananke told them in the depths of the Tomb of Ariel about where humans had co from, and why they were so different from all other beasts and creatures.
It was because humans, just like the gods, had been born from the primordial fla of divinity… from the fla of desire. Their souls were ford from the sparks that had been cast when the Void was sealed in a net made from desire.
So, human souls ca from the original source of divinity. Therefore, they could very well contain the potential for… everything.
An infinite amount of potentials — of all the Aspects that had existed, existed, and would ever exist. It was only when an Aspect was unsealed that the potential was realized, and therefore exhausted, turning infinite possibility into definite reality.
That was why Aspects ca from within humans, and yet could very well have nothing to do with humans. Like Nephis, who had inherited an Aspect of a nephilim — or Sunny himself, who had inherited the Aspect of a divine shadow.
'Huh.'
Sunny narrowed his eyes a little.
'If I am the sword in this taphor... then who is helping improve?'
It was certainly not a Spellsmith.
Instead... it was the Nightmare Spell.
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