I’m just waiting for the sensation to kick in.

Any moment now.

As of now, I was lying on my bed, staring at the ceiling or rather the branches and the leaves.

The branches and leaves of the tree never quite felt down from up there. I felt that perhaps something had swept them in mid-air like a floating invisible broom or an invisible floating vacuum cleaner that suck them out.

How ludicrous but it was probable.

Then it began.

My chest was heating up and I could feel intense, sharp pain coming from there. It was not as a bad as I felt at that time. From my left, I could hear that Erganisu had the same reaction. I struggle to set my sight looking at him but at any moment n-

--

The smell of Shreskav lingers in the air. I woke up exactly when the new day had dawned.

The shreskav is too effective as I felt that I was forcefully awake. I saw Erganisu was still slumbering though but his breathing went uneasy. Perhaps it is just me.

Ever since I had consumed those green pills, I had been feeling vigorous. Was it possible that my anaemia had been cured?

Well, this is a magical world, that sort of possibility isn’t far off.

I got up from my bed.

As of now, I’m certain that I can actually summon my Soul Weapon as a certain inner voice was whispering to me on how to…

--

Since this was like Sunday, we all leisurely made our way to the training ground.

Gavrau was not around as this was probably an off day for a public servant like him.

“You guys ready? Let’s bring out our Soul Weapon here.”

August seems to have recovered from his sulking, said those refreshingly but he seems way too excited about this. Perhaps he had idolized those superheroes figures just like the whole people on earth with only a little understanding of a hero principle and the hardship that comes along in being one.

“Aight, let me get the hold of mine.”

Akujin stepped forward into the middle of our circle and held his right hand up.

“Come forth, [Fouthic], the name I had given you.”

From out of nowhere, something materialized as it coiled around his right arm. Like a transparent colourless serpent made out of water, it slithered out and landed on the ground with a squishy sound.

It had an indistinct and amorphous shape as it constantly shift and change.

Each of us looks at it curiously.

“Erganisu, can you give it a strand of your hair or anything that is part of your body?”

Akujin turned his face towards Erganisu with a sly smile.

Erganisu was like a fawn putting a complete trust to Akujin the deer mother, unhesitatingly pulled a strand of his wraith white hair and ‘feed’ it to the amorphous Soul Weapon.

The amorphous being absorbs the strand of hair and it began to shift ever more violently. It took a shape that extended its height and widened it length. After a few seconds, it became another ‘Erganisu’.

It looked like an identical twin staring at a mirror, Erganisu visibly shocked expression was currently staring at his doppelganger.

The rest of us were of the same sentiment with Erganisu except Akujin who seems to expect this.

“So, you can replicated other people now with your Soul Weapon?”

Kiefy shocked had lessened as he asked this.

“It only needs something from the body it copy like a strand of hair or a drop of blood. It copies not only the appearance but also everything like the skills, capabilities and specification of the copied. Erganisu, I hope you don’t mind sparring with yourself.”

After Akujin said that, the ‘copy’ flexed his arms as he faced the real Erganisu. Seeing this, Erganisu showed a feral smile befitting his appearance but not his demeanour. I guess he is excited at the prospect of fighting ‘himself’.

With the same speed and strength, they exchanged and traded blows. After a minute or so, the original one stood victorious over the copy. It seems that it couldn’t keep up with the real Erganisu.

“It’s impressive but it has no learning capability is it? I changed my approach and pattern of attacks after trading few blows and its defence had falter.”

“Can’t be helped, it’s barely sentient and because of that it has a slow learning capability.”

Erganisu commented while Akujin sigh a breath.

“Nonetheless, it has so many uses, don’t you think?”

“Of course, one just needs to be creative about it, aye?”

Kiefy and Vefal offered their comment. I didn’t need to say anything else as everyone had spoken out what I wanted to say.

With that, Akujin’s Soul Weapon reverted back to its original state as it spits out the strand of Erganisu hair and returned back to Akujin right arm by coiling itself around it.

“My turn?! Alright, here I go.”

August stepped forth into the circle after Akujin returned to where he was standing.

He lifted up both of his hands and then on both hands, two objects materialized.

The object on his right hand was a six cylinder silver revolver and the object on his left hand was a silver combat knife.

He then grabs both of them in each hand as though it was natural.

He flourished the gun with a skilful display and aims it straight.

Except Akujin and I, the other were intrigued by the revolver but they seemingly kept silence. Perhaps about them later after everyone had showed their Soul Weapon.

“Getting shot by this rendered you time-locked or something like that according to what Akujin had told me. Reloading all six bullets expend my use of [Reaction].”

“Wait, you two had actually used them beforehand?”

I asked towards August.

“Uh, yeah, just as soon as we both woke up.”

“Nobody said anything about not using them instantly.”

Well, both August and Akujin each had their point.

“Anyway, the knife enables me to teleport instantly to where it is but it also expends my [Reaction]. Nonetheless, it’s pretty nifty.”

He threw the knife several feet away and suddenly he was there in a blink with his left hand gripping the knife.

“That’s all. I named the revolver [Wolf] and the Knife [Cutter].”

August fondly rubs his knife and revolver on his cheeks. I was actually curious about something.

“Hey August, can you shoot me with [Wolf]?”

Everyone was looking at me like all my pent up stress had burst and I went crazy. I just wanted to experience the sensation of being time-locked.

“Are you really sure?”

“Yeah, I mean it won’t kill me because you already tested it on Akujin right?”

“He only shot me on the leg and no, you don’t get injured by it.”

August asked again to confirm and I replied affirmation backed by Akujin.

“Alright, guess there’s no harm to it and you looked almost eager to get shot at… it’s kind of unsettling but whatever.”

He aimed [Wolf] towards me and then…

There was no bang but I realized everything surrounding me was frozen. Nothing moves except my eyeballs. I felt like I was constrained and trapped as though an invisible barrier enveloped my entire body.

After five seconds had passed, everything was in motion again.

I fell but caught the ground with my arms. For some reason, I felt drained of energy.

“How was it?”

“It was… interesting.”

Vefal ran towards my left side and asked.

“Okay then, I called mine [Arkov] and [Ravda].”

Kiefy without waiting had walked into the centre and spread his arms out and what appear on his left were a heater shield of grey colour and a scimitar-like blade of red colour.

“From what was whispered to me, [Ravda] is the opposite of my [Dispersion]. The more it hit, the more it build-up my [Dispersion] even when I haven’t activated it and I can actually condensed the explosion into a straight beam of a sort. With [Dispersion] I can partial grant a few people of my choosing the protection of [Dispersion] when I activate it and I can actually shoot arrows from the centre of my shield from the damage gathered by [Dispersion]. Of course, there is a limitation that if I used one of them then [Dispersion] will reset.”

That’s more than one abilities that derived from his special ability.

We all stood there waiting for a demonstration but he just stood there watching us curiously.

After some times, he cocked his head.

“Are you guys waiting for me to show my Soul Weapon abilities?”

“… No never mind.”

I spoke for the rest of us.

Let’s move on.

Erganisu cleared his throat and stood in front of us.

“I was mildly surprised with my Soul Weapon as I find it a bit interesting. It exists in a form of a book or a tome if you may.”

He put up his right arm in the air and conjured a book. It was a featureless leather tome that was brown in colour. I was curious and I also realized that Soul Weapon isn’t necessarily a weapon in a sense.

He flipped it open without touching it and the pages furiously skipped.

It stopped at a certain page and Erganisu was looking at the page with all his concentration…

“I hereby allow the change, [Gabial].”

I noticed something about Erganisu had changed. It was nothing physically but I felt that he definitely had something inside of him changed.

“With [Gabial], I can check and control my state of [Indomitable] enabling me to increase my physical strength in exchange on lowering other and vice versa. Aside from that, I am able to enhance one of my senses in exchange of lowering the other.”

Erganisu took the book and it disappeared. Next was Vefal.

Vefal stepped forth without saying anything and lifted his right arm. What materialized on her right arm was an archaic-like black gauntlet with sharp edges.

“I don’t really understand its power yet but it has something to do with [Shadow].”

“What do you call it?”

“[Rhelya].”

She answered the question that her brother had asked. That was it, I supposed? Anyway guess it’s my turn.

I stepped forth.

I had already seen it in my mental image but still it was… beyond what I had thought. I thought I would at least get something traditional like a sword but instead what I have is… a box.

To be specific, it was an ornate chest with a chain strapped on its lid.

I conjured it and everyone looked at my box.

From what was whispered to me, it seems that if I open the box, it would cause the Eomancy colours around to wildly fluctuate and random Eomancy spells would occurred causing chaos while making it much easier for me to cast Eomancy spells.

It doesn’t sound that bad.

So I decided to just open it without much precaution but I had to activate [Synikorvus] first to open.

And on that day, all hell broke loose as the ‘causing chaos’ was not conforming to my definition of ‘causing chaos’.