Will could feel the essence inside his body awaken. It felt completely different to when his attribute allowed him to use the stolen essence. The feeling when he used stolen essence was like using a suboptimal fuel for a car. It'll move but you're abusing the engine by cheaping out.
He could tell this right away when the first burst of energy rushed forth out of his core. Feeling his chest heat up, nowhere near the heat of the nightmare, it was like a beautiful explosion of fireworks going off inside him.
Quickly, his body felt the changes. The muscles, organs, bones all become more than just mundane in order to withstand the newfound power of his own essence. He was becoming something new. It felt indescribably amazing.
The heat from those explosions journeyed all over his body, not leaving anything the same as it once was. Lastly, it traveled up ensuring that his pebbles weren't spared from their holy light.
Suddenly he was drawn into his soul sea.
Inside Will's soul sea he could see his was vastly different to Sunny's. Yes, all around him was an ocean around him. He could see the vision of dusk in the distance. There were no suns lighting up the ocean to make that view, just the waters painted in oranges and purples of a day coming to the end.
The stark difference between the two was at the center of his own, instead of there being a sun like core hovering in the center, there was a giant crater in its place.
Approaching the edge and looking down, it was just a vast chasm, with no bottom insight. A little shiver traveled up his back when he thought about what happened if one got trapped in their own soul sea. The only thing inside the chasm was two lights, one signifying the Royal Egg he got from the Royal Meteor Drake. The other was something he got from the Rune-Smith Golem Gelt.
Somewhere down there were the souls of the other beings he had slayed. The battle he had with the nameless slave and Blazetail quickly flashing in his mind. Those two fights seemed like a cake walk compared to trying to just survive the fight with a Tyrant.
He was nearly done in by the swarm of Torch Fairies. Man after having a goal of killing something so powerful, to die to them, that would've been embarrassing. Not only that he had someone as powerful as Coal to help him, not to mention the aid from the drake before it had gone AWOL.
Down there those two were also there. If this chasm was supposed to represent his version of Tartarus, Will didn't really know if the drake deserved to be down there. It had faithfully helped them fight to the end. Will was sure something funny was happening with the little lizard to make it attack them.
He couldn't shake the feeling that it was being controlled or forced to finish Will and Coal only after the battle. But who would be out there watching and take control of the Drake instead of the Tyrant when it was on the verge of losing. The Smith was clearly much stronger than any of them, and was only losing because somehow Coal and Drake had worked really well together.
The voice of the Spell ripped him out of staring into the abyss. He would have to be careful about that sooner rather than later.
[Awakening Aspect Ability…]
'Finally' Will thought, taking a deep breath. He never felt so anxious in his life. This new ability would set the precedent for the rest of his life here. How he would have to fight and live, this was the first of his abilities. Just a taste of what was to come.
If his other attribute was anything to go off of, he had to be some kind of debuffer. He was definitely no healer, maybe if you counted self healing. Otherwise, he would definitely have to learn to pick up a sword or weapon. Will had yet to see anyone really be some kind of casting aspect, the closest was the self awakened shaper.
[Aspect Ability acquired.]
[Aspect Ability Name: Abyssal Binding.]
Pulling up his runes he finally got a look at what he has been imagining him having all this time, since he started reading the novel.
Name: Will Ryder
True Name: Typhon
Rank: Dreamer
Abyssal Core: Dormant
Abyss Fragments: [15/1000]
So his were abyss fragments. Will was curious if his progression would be difficult like Sunless' or would he be able to progress like the other two. It also made sense why he had a giant hole inside his soul sea. Maybe as he gained fragments, it would fill. Until another hole was made at the time he gained another core.
Nonetheless, there were definitely some amazing bonuses to all of this, but he wanted to be careful about having too many of his cores opened without raising his rank. Whenever he thought of what it would be like to have a lot open at a low rank if he was able to hunt enough. He got a very bad feeling, almost as if Will was actually able to achieve that feat somehow he would regret it with every fiber of his being. In that moment he decided he wouldn't want to grow his cores too fast. Slow and steady right?
Moving past that section of runes he could see the rest.
Memories:[Royal Egg], [Rune-Smithing Vol.1]
Echoes: -
Attributes: [Fated], [Abyss Touched], [Siphon]
[Aspect Name: Abyssal Dominion.]
Aspect Rank: Divine.
[Aspect Ability Name: Abyssal Binding.]
Aspect ability Description: [Marked by the abyss you are able to mark others tainted by its presence. Marked ones are under your control, to grow, or destroy.]
Did this mean Will was some sort of tamer? Did 'tainted by the abyss' mean he could only mark creatures with seeds of corruption in them or just ones overflowing with it like Nightmare Creatures?
What would happen if he WAS able to mark a human before they went through the first nightmare would he be able to command his own awakened.
His eyes went wide as he realized he really considered binding a human into servitude under him. He had no idea how the marks worked, if he would be able to remove one after placing it or if there were some sort of requirements to place them on one.
Part of him was already worried that his lack of remorse was uncharacteristic. It took him more than a few moments to convince the part of himself that saw mundane humans as a resource to see that marking them in case they become awakened morally wrong. Then he remembered that most people catch the spell when they're about sixteen till they're eighteen. That snapped him out of it, turning him completely away from the idea.
'Marking' children was wrong regardless of the context.
Snapping him out of his moral debate. The Spell's voice echoed throughout the void.
[All power has its price.]
[You have received a Flaw.]
[Your Flaw is…..]
"Ah, this is definitely not helping calm my worries" Was all Will could say after he read what came next.