[600 years later]
-Swish... Whoosh!!!
-Clang...!!
-Shff...!!!
The sounds of a weapon cutting through the air echoed across the vast Soul Space, each swing sending a sharp ripple through the surrounding soul energy as if the space itself was quietly responding to his movements.
Ash moved calmly within the endless expanse, his steps steady and controlled while his posture carried the natural ease of someone who had repeated the same motions for an immeasurable amount of time, and within his hands rested a long pole blade with both sides as blades, its balanced structure allowing every movement to flow smoothly from one strike into the next.
[A/N: Weapon image in Discord.]
The weapon was not a simple one.
It was Eclipse.
For a very long time Ash believed that after undergoing Evolution through [Weapon Resonance] ability of the [Codex of Creation] he knew Eclipse very well, believing that the earlier change had already revealed everything there was to know about the weapon, but that belief was not true at all.
After the earlier Runic evolution there was a cryptic message had at the end of weapon’s description, a cryptic line that was filled with unknown symbols but no matter how many times Ash read it or how long he examined it, the message remained cryptic at that time, its meaning hidden behind symbols that refused to make sense to him.
[A/N: I know you guys missed it. You never noticed it, go ahead you can check Chapter 148, there the description of Eclipse. And if you are going to say I just edited it, u can also check any pirated website, obviously I can’t update there right?]
Only now did Ash understand the truth behind that message.
The words had never been meant to be interpreted through simple logic or analysis, because the key to unlocking them was not knowledge alone but understanding.
Understanding of the Runes.
Runes were never just symbols carved into stone or drawn with ink, because each Rune represented a concept, a structured meaning that shaped how everything interacted with the world.
And only after that when he looked at that same text again, the strange symbols that once looked meaningless slowly began to form a pattern his mind could recognize, as if the knowledge he had gained over centuries finally allowed him to see what had always been there.
The hidden ability within the weapon awakened as naturally as if it had been waiting for that moment all along.
**
Transformation : Can transform into any weapon.
**
Eclipse had never been meant to remain in a single form.
Its true nature allowed transformation.
The weapon could shift into different shapes depending on the will and imagination of its wielder, and the Runic evolution it experienced in the past had always contained this ability, but Ash lacked the necessary comprehension of Runic meaning to stimulate it before.
Now that limitation had finally disappeared.
-Clang...!!
The pole blade swept through the air again, its movement producing a clean metallic echo that lingered faintly in the Soul Space while the long shaft guided the curved blades at both ends with smooth momentum, the weapon rotating through Ash’s hands with perfect balance as if it had always been meant to exist in this form.
This shape suited him well.
However the discovery of Eclipse’s transformation ability led Ash to another realization that he had never considered before.
For most of his life he had been unconsciously restricted.
The system’s class structure had influenced him far more than he realized at the time, and since his class had always been related to swords, that invisible influence quietly shaped the way his instincts interacted with weapons without him ever noticing it clearly.
Whenever he tried to use other weapons in the past, something always felt slightly wrong.
The movements lacked natural rhythm, the grip felt unfamiliar, and even the way his body shifted during combat seemed slightly misaligned with the weapon he was holding, as if his instincts were subtly resisting the unfamiliar form.
It was not a restriction that forced him to stop.
But it was enough to make everything feel unnatural.
Now the situation was completely different.
Ash no longer possessed any class.
The system that once defined those limitations had vanished, and with its disappearance the subtle influence it exerted over his instincts also faded away.
One day, while examining Eclipse’s newly awakened transformation ability, a simple thought appeared in his mind that refused to leave.
If he had no class... then what exactly was stopping him from using other weapons?
The thought lingered for a long time before he finally decided to test it, curiosity slowly turning into quiet determination as he considered the possibility that had never existed for him before.
So he experimented.
Eclipse transformed.
The familiar sword shape slowly shifted and lengthened until it became a pole with both sides as blade and a handle in the middle, the weapon restructuring itself smoothly as if the form had always existed within its true nature.
The moment Ash held it, something felt different.
There was no resistance within his instincts, no awkward tension in his stance, and no feeling that the weapon did not belong in his hands, because the pole blade flowed through his movements with a natural balance that felt strangely familiar.
It felt as if he had trained with it for years.
That single realization quietly changed his entire perspective.
-Swish...!!
Ash stepped forward while guiding the pole blade through a wide arc, the long reach of the weapon allowing the strike to travel far beyond the range of an ordinary sword while his body moved with smooth coordination that blended every motion into the next, the weapon flowing through his hands with the quiet precision of someone who had practiced the same sequence countless times.
Yet he was not only practicing weapon techniques.
As the blade moved through the air, faint glowing lines appeared briefly along the path of the strike, lingering for a moment before dissolving into the surrounding soul energy.
Those lines formed fragments of Runic strokes.
Ash had spent centuries studying Runes and slowly uncovering the deeper meaning behind their shapes and meanings, and during that long process he realized something unusual that few people had ever considered before.
A Rune was simply a structure made of lines arranged in precise proportions.
And lines could be drawn through motion.
The path of a blade could form a Runic stroke.
-Whoosh...!!
Ash spun the pole blade around his body in a controlled rotation, the shaft sliding smoothly through his grip as the curved blade traced another precise pattern through the air, causing several faint Runic fragments to appear along the path of the movement before fading away moments later as the surrounding energy slowly absorbed them.
Those fragments were incomplete.
Yet even incomplete meanings carried influence.
-Shff...!!
Ash shifted his stance again while the pole blade cut forward in a smooth diagonal strike, the tip of the blade tracing another glowing line through the surrounding energy as more Runic strokes appeared briefly within the air.
For a brief moment the strokes aligned with each other.
Then they dissolved into drifting particles of spiritual energy that slowly scattered throughout the Soul Space.
The weapon art was incomplete, because the Runic patterns created through movement could not remain stable for long, existing only for a fleeting moment before disappearing back into raw energy.
Indeed, he needed Soul Energy and Will power to create the Runic strokes, and even the Runic formations relied on that same energy, because after all he currently had access to no other source of power, only the soul energy present within this space.
Only after he gets his new body will he know whether other forms of energy could support the Runes or not.
But even in that imperfect state the technique worked.
Earlier combinations of Runes created a powerful pushing force that, if unleashed on another person, could make anyone fly like a broken kite if they were unlucky enough to come into the path of his weapon.
In fact, he had already created the basic foundations for both a Weapon Art and a Movement Art, because these 600 years did not just go alone into working on Eva.
Speaking of Eva...
"Huff... huff..."
"What do you think? How was it this time...?"
Ash asked while slowly lowering Eclipse, his breathing slightly uneven after repeating the complex sequence again and again, even though the surrounding Soul Space remained completely empty.
There was no one in his surroundings.
Yet a moment later, a soft voice calmly spoke within his mind.
"Hmm... you are improving. This time you managed to maintain the strokes long enough to convert them into a formation. However it is still not practical for real combat. What you are attempting requires every swing of your weapon to carry the power of thousands of strokes within a single movement. Only then can you achieve the effect you are aiming for. And from what I can see... you are still far behind."
Hearing that, Ash let out a long sigh before muttering under his breath, his tone carrying a mix of exhaustion and mild annoyance.
"Thanks for making me feel like I wasted my time."
"You did not waste your time. Your current limitation comes from your state, not from the technique itself. Once you regain your physical body you will likely perform much better, because right now you are only a soul body and your control over energy and body is still restricted."
Ash remained silent for a moment before lightly nodding to himself, accepting the logic behind those words even if the blunt delivery still felt a little irritating.
"Well... you are right. Let’s stay positive," Ash replied.
The soft voice belonged to Eva.
And indeed, Ash had accomplished something that should have been impossible.
After centuries of effort he had finally integrated her core with his own soul and successfully created his own System. It was far from complete and still lacked many structures that a true system required, but even in that state it could already be considered the earliest stage of something entirely new.
An infant system.
***