Arjun stared at the glowing runes suspended in the void of his mind, his brow furrowing in a mix of agony and disbelief.
"Why the hell is a Shadow God cursing me?" he rasped, his voice echoing in the silence of his internal sea.
[The Shadow God is looking at you.]
Arjun's sightless sockets seemed to widen. Fear, cold and primal, gripped his heart. 'Why would a Divine Being, a pillar of the ancient cosmology, turn its gaze toward a broken, nameless Aspirant? I am in a war zone, not a cathedral', he thought frantically. I didn't even take a side. I was just trying to survive.
[You have a fragment of the Great River inside you.]
[The Shadow God recognizes you as one of their own.]
[The Curse has been partially removed.]
A sudden, jarring surge of vitality flooded his broken frame. The excruciating fire in his nerves didn't vanish, but it shifted, becoming a dull, rhythmic thrum of power. Arjun was utterly lost. Great River? A fragment? What the heck is going on?
[Wake up, Arjun. Your Nightmare is over.]
[Prepare for Appraisal.]
The darkness shattered. Suddenly, the world returned in a kaleidoscope of ethereal light. He could see again. He could feel his limbs—his left hand, his right leg—all restored to their original state. Though he had only been a ruin for a few hours, the memory of that skeletal agony felt as though it had lasted for an eternal age.
Before him, strings of ethereal glow wove themselves into a complex, shimmering constellation. But Arjun's mind remained fixed on the anomaly. "Why did the Shadow God curse me and then partially remove it?"
[Aspirant! Your trial is over.]
[A Desolate Spawn participated in the final battle between Shadow and War. He was wounded, yet he fought until the end. He encountered the Vile Thieving Bird and escaped by hiding under the guise of the Great River. Upon reaching his camp, he was betrayed, labeled a traitor, and subjected to the ultimate torture. Through vile perseverance and unyielding determination, he prevented himself from becoming a Deathless.]
Arjun's breath hitched as the realization dawned on him. "Don't tell me... the torture wasn't just pain. I was on the verge of turning into a mindless Nightmare Creature? I survived being a Deathless?"
[You have defeated a Dormant Human: Unknown.]
[You have defeated a Dormant Human: Unknown.]
...
[You have achieved the Impossible.]
[Final Appraisal: Glorious.]
[Your Perseverance truly knows no bounds.]
A weary, triumphant smile touched Arjun's lips. "Glorious... yeah, I'll take that."
[Dreamer Arjun, receive your boon.]
[You have been bestowed a True Name: Heavenly Demon.]
Arjun blinked, the weight of the words settling in his soul. A True Name was the mark of the legendary, the boundary between the masses and the monsters of history. "Heavenly Demon... I guess I've officially joined the elites."
[Your Aspect is ready to Evolve. Evolve Aspect?]
Without a second of hesitation, Arjun responded, "Yes."
[Dormant Aspect 'Vessel' is evolving...]
[New Aspect acquired.]
[Aspect Rank: Divine.]
Arjun felt a shiver of anticipation. "It better be Divine after what I went through."
[Aspect Name: Eternal River.]
He immediately summoned his runes to verify the shift in his fate.
Aspect: [Eternal River]
Aspect Rank: Divine
Aspect Description: [You are your own river of time, influenced by your own past, present, and future. You are the eternal representation of time, yet you are bound by its flow.]
Innate Ability: [Curse of Shadow]
Ability Description: [Upon death, you may return to a random point in your past, carrying your physical skills and memories with you. You cannot be killed unless you wish to be.]
Arjun stood stunned, his heart racing. "Wait a minute... is this like Return by Death? Am I like Subaru? This ability alone is worth the Divine rank." But a darker thought followed close behind. 'If I can't be killed unless I wish it... that means I'm going to have to die a lot, isn't it?'
[The First Seal is Broken.]
[Awakening Dormant Powers.]
An explosion of energy erupted from his core, strengthening his muscles and knitting his spirit together. The sensation was euphoric, far beyond any physical pleasure he had ever known. He felt his vision shift, pulled inward into his own Soul Sea.
It was no longer a static void. It was a vast expanse filled with constantly flowing, dark water. Above the current hovered a massive, radiant star with multiple sparks attached to it like satellite moons. The water in his soul was not a lake; it was a river, streaming forward with an inexorable, terrifying momentum.
[Aspect Ability Acquired.]
[Ability: Danger Premonition.]
Driven by curiosity, he opened his full status.
Name: Arjun
True Name: Heavenly Demon
Rank: Dreamer
Soul Cores: [25 / 1000]
Attributes: [Outsider], [Fast Learner], [Desolate Spawn]
Memories: [Plain Sword], [Plain Armor], [Wolf Fang], [Wolf Armor]
Echoes: —
Aspect: [Eternal River]
Aspect Rank: Divine
Aspect Abilities: [Danger Premonition]
Aspect Abilities Description: [You can sense danger before it manifests.]
"Danger Premonition?" Arjun mused. "Is it like Cassie's future sight, or something more immediate like a sixth sense?" He reread the description several times, knowing he would need to experiment to find the limit of this "Spider-Sense."
Then, a new voice—deeper, colder, and more final than the Spell—spoke into the void.
[All power has a price.]
[You have received a Flaw.]
[Your Flaw is...]
Arjun read the glowing red text. His face paled, and he muttered, "Okay... this is going to be a major problem."
Flaw: [Deathless]
Flaw Description: [Every time you die and trigger your return, you lose a random piece of your memory from previous one temporarily.]
Arjun let out a dry, bitter laugh. "So I can't just spam my immortality. If I die too many times, I'll forget why I'm fighting in my previous ones temporarily?."
The void began to dissolve, the light of the real world—or the Dream Realm—bleeding through the edges of his vision.
[Wake up, Heavenly Demon.]
=============================
Hey guys,review my chapter and give me some powers stones