Luciel immediately noticed a profound change of his body and mind. When he returned to reality, he thought he had possessed someone else's body and spirit; it felt so foreign and out of place.
His muscles were strengthened, more robust and flexible. The fibers under his skin felt newly rewired, packed tighter together without adding unnecessary bulk, as if his body had been revitalized and reborn.
The most notable change was the strange energy overflowing into every nook and cranny of his being. It shifted everything inside him. The so-called Echo Essence doubled his vision; his awareness gained depth; his processing speed spiked. Nothing was left unscathed by the Encore and its Essence.
A sense of confidence and relief exploded in Luciel's heart, partly due to his awakening being real, not just wishful thinking anymore. He felt like he could do anything that he wanted now. He could finally improve and climb upwards on this flat life.
He heaved a sigh, finally assimilated into his awakened body.
"I'm back."
Luciel declared calmly, expecting Bambi to be sitting beside him. But to his surprise, she was nowhere to be seen.
'Probably went out to get some fresh air.'
He glanced down at the back of his hand. The Resonant Stigma sat on it like a small scarlet seal, shaped like a four-point star inside a thin circle of light. He assumed one circle meant the first stage of awakening. At rest, it looked faint and dim, like any regular tattoo.
Without Bambi present to guide him, Luciel had to figure out how to activate his Stanza on his own. Similar to the method he used within the Soulscape, he thought about how the Encore expressed itself, and the experiences that led up to this moment.
It was obvious what his Stanza was going to be.
'I'd be stupid if I didn't get it after all that long-winded procedures.'
A Stanza, the complete and observable expression of a Resonator's supernatural capability, was the backbone of every Resonant. Resonants, a subgroup of Resonators and superior to Dormants, were humanity's main force against the Hollow.
Luciel could say he lucked out to become a Resonant rather than a Dormant, since some people with Resonant Stigmas couldn't find their Soulscape and ended up stuck in limbo between Dormant and Resonant.
'Awful. Just awful. I don't want to think about that possibility.'
In any case, he redirected his attention to the flame — the one that scorched him in the dream and burned the cabin to dust, the one that kept the small star burning. He imagined bringing fire into life, creating something out of nothing.
Of course, his control over Echo Essence was rudimentary because he had just awakened — some might say even awful — but what mattered was the intent he carried.
He recalled the burning sensation when the fire consumed his entire being. He focused on that heat and forced it to gather in the palm of his hand.
His Stigma then pulsed once, waking from its slumber.
The Echo Essence inside him responded and streamed down his arm like a tidal wave. It reached his palm and concentrated into one point. Luciel clenched his fingers, then opened his hand slowly.
'Wow.'
A tiny spark snapped into existence above his skin. The spark hovered for half a second before swelling into a thumb-sized flame.
He flipped his hand over to check the Stigma, and sure enough, the star glowed faintly while tiny embers flickered along the circle.
Luciel turned his hand back and held still. The scarlet flame trembled with his breathing. Maintaining it wasn't easy. If his focus slipped for even a second, it would thin out. He felt like a baby learning to walk again.
He attempted to feed it with more Essence, but the flame flared uncontrollably, and pain shot through him. He immediately cut the flow, and the fire vanished into wisps of smoke.
'Shit. This is harder than I thought.'
It made him wonder how Bambi had become a Guardian in her early twenties. Anyone who reached Guardian before thirty was already considered exceptional. So in Bambi's case, she was a prodigy, but even that word felt like an understatement.
Luciel was average, awakening at seventeen, with his eighteenth birthday only a few months away. The standard was thirteen to eighteen, so he barely made it in time.
Never mind that, what's more important was that he awakened. He channeled the Essence into his palm again, eager to master the flame and discover its uses.
A Stanza was never singular and always unique to each Resonant. There might be others who wielded fire like him, but their properties and applications would vary as everyone ascended to higher ranks.
Think of it as being in the same family of trees. Even though they share the same seed, each one grows differently — the branches, the leaves, even the bark would look different.
Considering how unique his awakening was, his flame was undoubtedly not normal. He would bet his whole life on it.
Luciel studied the flame hovering above his palm with intense curiosity. He figured shooting it forward would be a good next move, so he slowly brought forward his arm while pinning the flame against the palm, and forcibly released it.
'That… didn't feel good at all.'
The release felt weird, like detaching a part of yourself and letting it fly. It brought shivers down his spine even though he had only executed a basic move.
But then… something strange occurred. The ball of flame he shot out stopped midair.
'The heck?'
Luciel immediately stood up and approached the ball of fire.
'See what I mean? Nothing makes sense ever since that dream.'
He genuinely didn't know what to do. After seeing the house blow up to smithereens, he worried this little guy would blow up in his face too.
"Bambi! Where the hell are you?"
He shouted, but no one replied.
'Where did she even run off to? Wasn't she supposed to protect me?'
He knew Bambi was irresponsible sometimes, but this was too much.
Before he could even process the situation, the flame suddenly compressed into a coin-sized orb, then immediately shot out what seemed to be weird letters and texts.
'Are those… runes?'
A completely mystifying scene unraveled right before his eyes. The small rune-like letters doused in flames started to form sentences, rearranging themselves like solving a puzzle.
Luciel rubbed his eyes in bewilderment, unsure if this was his imagination or reality.
However, the most inexplicable thing wasn't this — it was the fact that he could understand the runes. He had never studied them, nor had he ever interacted with them. Yet the moment the letters were shaped, comprehension was automatic. It felt so natural he couldn't describe it, unlike overtaking his body after awakening — at least that had given him something to comment on.
After a while, the runic fire stopped moving. Luciel could only stare at them in disbelief, partly because he could understand the runes, but more so because… he had never heard or seen anything like this before.
The runes read:
Name: Luciel
Soul Aria: [Agnihara]
Soul Chorus: Symphony No. 1 — [Scarlet]
Soul Resonance: [First Movement]
Soul Embers: [0/250]
Soul Bridges: [Flameborn], [Requiem], [Oracle of Embers]
Soul Verses: [Divine Fire]
Relics: [Dawn]
Luciel swallowed. His palm went sweaty even though the flame gave no heat. He felt the need to consult Bambi more than ever, given how crazy the situation was.
He stared at the list.
He read it again.
Then he read it the third time, this time slower.
"Aria… Chorus… Symphony," he muttered. "What is this?"
Goosebumps rose along his arms. His heartbeat sped up. He had never heard of anyone having an inscription listing their abilities — at least, as far as he knew. Resonators learned and mastered their abilities through trial, practice, self-discovery, and intuition. Having these runes was like bringing your notes into a closed-note exam, if his suspicion about it was correct.
At the same time, a smirk formed on his lips.
He could measure progress. He could see clearly his own soul, given how it had gracefully spelled out for him. He knew this was an opportunity he couldn't miss.
"This is fun."