Ren, the First Cultivator, stood in the muddy cave. He held the Aspect of Heavy Strength—a glowing yellow orb he had harvested from a Giant.
The Giants were marching outside. The ground shook with their footsteps. Ren's people were huddled in the back of the cave, weeping. They were soft. They were meat.
"I cannot be meat," Ren whispered.
He cut open his arm. He shoved the glowing orb into his flesh.
SCREAM.
The Aspect of Strength did not want to be bound. It burned Ren's blood. It tried to reject him. "I am Iron!" the Aspect roared in his veins. "Iron is cold! Iron is hard! You are warm and soft!"
"Then I will become cold," Ren gritted his teeth. "I will become hard."
Ren used his Aspect of Ambition (his heart) to crush the will of the Iron. He forced it to merge.
His skin turned grey. His nerves died. The sensation of the cold wind vanished. The warmth of the fire vanished. His arm became a heavy, metallic piston.
He walked out of the cave. The Giants saw him and laughed. They threw boulders. The boulders hit Ren's chest and shattered.
Ren did not feel pain. He felt only weight. He punched the first Giant. The Giant's skull collapsed like wet clay.
Ren killed them all. But when his mother ran to hug him, Ren pushed her away. "Do not touch me," Ren rasped. "I am heavy. I will crush you."
[The First Law of Cultivation: To hold power, you must empty yourself of humanity.]