The cold, robotic voice vanished—like it had never been there to begin with.
Everyone stared at each other in incredulity. A heavy silence pressed the air and unease settled in.
Just as someone opened their mouth to speak, something happened that made everyone's eyes widen in disbelief.
Before them, intricate magical runes manifested—swirling and dancing through the air until they fused into something coherent. Something they could inexplicably understand.
True Name: Kaelos Illogan
Species: Human
Order: Unordered (Mortal)
Path: Pathless
Trait: Weaver (???)
Abilities:
Arts:
Kaelos gaped at the sigh before him, stunned. So was everyone else.
Quickly, they immersed themselves and tried to make sense of it.
In particular, Kaelos scanned each row. With every detail, his frown deepened. He couldn't understand the rest.
'Unordered? And mortal?'
'Path?'
'What is a Weaver? And why does it have question marks?'
'Like those from video games?'
'What was that voice before?'
Countless questions flooded his mind. At this point, there were more questions than answers.
And unfortunately, this 'world' only grew weirder. More magical.
As Kaelos pondered what Weaver meant—and why it had question marks—more runes appeared before him.
Allows you to manipulate invisible threads of causality via touch. Only activates when the user is threatened.
The description was short and simple. Yet Kaelos' breathing quickened. His heartbeat thundered in his chest.
'Causality…'
His mind went blank.
"Uhhh… you guys see this, right?" Alfonse's worried tone interrupted his reverie. He was pointing at the empty air in front of him, trembling.
Kaelos didn't see anything. But he knew what he meant. They did.
The others turned to look, but didn't reply.
Alfonse's voice cracked. "But there's something, right? Right?" Was he losing his mind? To him, this felt spiritual. Maybe even divine intervention. Perhaps God wanted them to survive?
The suspicion they had all been holding was confirmed. Whatever this was—it had presented itself to all of them. But different.
"Are you guys Pathless and Unordered, too?" Xandrell asked.
"Yeah. Mortal," Joseph replied bitterly.
Did this mean they could evolve?
"Hmmm. So let me get this straight," Rafael added. "Species, human; Order, unordered; Path, Pathless; we're all the same there, ye?"
Kaelos and the rest agreed.
Rafael continued. "My Trait is… Dreamer."
Joseph stopped himself from laughing. "What does it say?"
"Gives the ability to temporarily project constructs from dreams. Their effectiveness and duration depend on how long the dream lasted," Rafael recited in a deadpan voice—though it barely masked his excitement.
Everyone looked at him in shock.
Hearing that, Joseph burst out laughing. "You love sleeping so much you gained the Trait to sleep even more."
Rafael was indifferent. "It's Legendary."
Joseph's jaw dropped. "Damn…"
Kaelos raised an eyebrow. "Rank? How'd you know that?"
"Huh? Isn't it stated next to the Trait's name?" Rafael replied, leaving Kaelos silent and thoughtful.
Joseph smirked and turned to Alfonse. "Yours?"
Everyone looked at Alfonse now.
He avoided their gaze, prompting Joseph to smile even more wickedly.
Eventually, Alfonse gave in. "Er… mine's called Prayer."
As expected, Joseph nearly collapsed with laughter—only stopping when Kaelos smacked the back of his head.
Alfonse grinned at Joseph's misfortune before continuing, "Chant a vow to borrow or lend strength to a targeted or random ally."
He shot Joseph a smug look. "By the Lord's grace, it's of Legendary rank. I wonder what yours is."
Joseph smiled awkwardly, pointing at Xandrell. "You go first."
"Mine's barrier," Xandrell said with excitement. "I can cast magical barriers on myself or allies. Multiple barriers, even. Legendary."
At this point, all eyes turned to Joseph and Kaelos.
"You—"
"No. You go first," Kaelos swiftly cut him off. "You asked first, so you go first."
Joseph scratched the back of his head. "It's… Blaze. And, uh… let me conjure fire." He didn't bother reciting the full description.
"And the rank?" Alfonse grinned.
"Epic…" Joseph muttered after a long time, embarrassed.
While not the brightest, he could tell it sounded less impressive than others'.
Alfonse nearly died laughing, but quickly stopped when everyone shot him sharp looks—warning him to stay quiet.
No one wanted to draw attention from whatever lurked in the forest.
Finally, it was Kaelos' turn.
He recited the Weaver's description word for word.
As he spoke, everyone stared at him in disbelief.
"Causality?" Joseph scratched his head. "What's that?"
"If I find your face annoying and punch you," Alfonse replied casually, "your annoying face is the 'cause,' and punching you in the 'effect.'"
Even both Rafael and Xandrell stared at Kaelos with envy.
"You like spiders so much that you can now weave the strings of fate…" Alfonse muttered. "How does that make sense!?"
Kaelos shook his head. But for a different reason.
He knew 'fate' and 'causality' sounded similar, but were in fact different.
Fate was about predetermined outcomes. Causality was about the chain of cause and effect.
But Kaelos understood why Alfonse was confused. If he could manipulate causality, then…
He can make the uncertain—certain.
But then… he turned quiet. So long that Rafael had to nudge him. "Rank?"
"I… I don't know. It's listed as question marks."
There was a beat of silence.
Then their expressions shifted as they arrived at the same conclusion.
If it didn't have a rank… did that mean it was too powerful to categorize?
Suddenly, the rest shot sharp looks at Kaelos. Like they didn't want him to begin with.
Kaelos only shrugged.
After a moment, the group exchanged glances. They all had the same thought.
"Test?" Joseph asked eagerly.
Everyone nodded.
"But how do we do it?" Joseph frowned.
Silence returned.
"Hmmm. The description appeared when we thought about it," Rafael noticed. "Why not try that first? Think about activating the trait."
They agreed.
Joseph went first. He concentrated, silently repeating the desire to activate his Trait.
Eventually, fire sparked in his hand.
It was a small flame, but it was unmistakably real.
Everyone was entranced as their breathing momentarily stopped. They had already expected it. But seeing was believing.
This was different. It was magic.
Joseph panicked at first, flailing as though expecting pain, which made others laugh.
But when nothing bad happened, he grinned and flaunted.
He waved his hand, chopped the air, and even punched at nothing. The flame didn't flicker a bit.
For sure, it was not a normal flame.
They watched in awe until, suddenly, Joseph staggered and the flame vanished.
Everyone rushed to him.
"What happened?" Kaelos asked.
"I… I don't know," Joseph mumbled, eyes fluttering. "My head… It hurts. I feel tired."
Everyone paused, and their expressions turned grim.
They quickly stopped themselves from trying to activate their own Traits.
"Is it because he used his Trait too long?' Kaelos wondered.
'Or are there limitations? Flaws to his Trait?'
They helped Joseph over to a nearby tree and fanned him with parts of their clothes.
Eventually, color returned to his face and everyone sighed in relief.
"Show-off," Alfonse said.
As they conversed, beastly shrieks echoed from the depths of trees.
Their blood ran cold.
Everybody's expression paled.
Kaelos tightened his grip on the rock.
"Shit!"