[Prepare for appraisal…]
Juno found himself in a space between dream and reality. It was an endless black void illuminated by a myriad of stars. Between those stars, countless strings of silver light were woven into a beautiful and inconceivably complex net, forming various nexuses and constellations. It was truly breathtaking.
He barely noticed any of it.
Because he had hands.
He had hands. Ten fingers, 5 on each hand, leaving him with 2 of them. He could feel his expanding breath. He could feel the weight on his legs. He could feel the way he blinked. He finally had a body.
In a rush, he grabbed himself. Both arms wrapping around his own torso, squeezing hard enough to feel real, confirming through pressure what his eyes were apparently too overwhelmed to fully process. He was tall and solid and present and human and —
The laugh came out of nowhere.
"I HAVE A BODYYYYYY!" Juno yelled at the top of his voice.
He had a voice again. Oh gods, how great it felt not to have to hiss instead of talking.
Juno was about to continue checking his old and new body out, but sadly he was brought back to reality far too quickly for his liking. For the third time in less than 24 hours, his happiness was cut short. Grumbling slightly, Juno listened.
[Aspirnat! Your trial is over.]
[A drifting breast was brought to a castle. Born of both Divinity and Profanity, he chose his own fate. With just 3 strikes, he both saved and doomed a kingdom. Disregarding everyone and everything, he bet against Fate and won. The kingdom which was meant to have its third ruler conquer 100 thrones, rose far above such barbarism. Truly, a selfless act done by the most selfish.
A dirty mercy, Fate called it.]
[You have defeated an Ascended human: Barax of Aldenmere.]
[You have defeated an Awakened human: name unknown.]
[You have defeated an Awakened human: Troilly of Aldenmere.]
[...]
With that, the Spell paused, as if thinking. Juno didn't manage to think of anything, however, as almost immediately it continued.
[War God has noticed you!]
[You have angered the Gods!]
[You have lost [The War] Attribute.]
[You have lost your Aspect!]
[...]
[You possess the Dream's Spawn Attribute.]
[You possess the Anunakki Attribute.]
[The Gods are weak.]
[The Gods are Dead.]
[Your Will shines bright.]
[The Gods cannot do anything!]
[You have achieved the impossible!]
[Final appraisal: Glorious. Your greed is boundless!]
Juno's mouth, which was already hanging open from the previous statements, completely dropped off his face.
'What,' he thought.
War God had noticed him. He had angered the Gods. He had lost his Aspect — his Aspect, gone, just like that — and then the Spell had proceeded to tell him the Gods were dead, something everyone knew, and that they couldn't do anything! Also that he bet and won against Fate, and it was pretty mad about that!
He had absolutely no idea what any of this meant or what was going to happen next.
The greed part he understood completely. That tracked.
'...What,' he thought again, with feeling.
[Dreamer Juno, receive your boon!]
[You have been bestowed a True Name: Sun Chaser.]
[You are ready to be bestowed with a new Aspect.]
[Claim?]
The shock, permeating his body from receiving a deserving True Name, evaporated.
The emotions cascading through his body moments ago also evaporated.
He had never heard, or more technically read, of anything like this happening in the Shadow Slave world. But it wasn't even that.
He wanted it.
He wanted it the way he wanted everything he had ever decided to want — completely, immediately, with zero interest in being reasonable about it. A new Aspect. His Aspect. Something the universe was holding out to him right now with both hands.
His eyes, he was fairly certain, were doing something embarrassing.
He didn't care even slightly.
'Yes,' he thought, and then out loud, to the void and the stars and anything else that dared to listen:
"YES!"
[…]
[You have acquired your new Aspect]
Aspect: [Godless Sword]
[Aspect Rank: Divine]
Juno screamed.
[You have acquired new Attributes.]
…
"AHAHHAHAHAHA, SUCK IT YOU BASTARDS. WHAT WAS THAT? THE GODS ARE MAD AT ME? WHY THE FUCK SHOULD I CARE, EH? I MAKE MY OWN DIVINE ASPECTS DAMN IT!"
Juno was prancing around the place between existence and non-existence with pure joy.
What else was he supposed to do? Sit around?
Finally, after a couple more seconds, he stopped and composed himself as much as he could. Then, he summoned his Runes and scrolled to the most important part: his new Aspect.
Aspect: [Godless Blade]
Aspect Rank: Divine
Aspect Description: [A Divine Sin, born from the most harrowing beings in existence and non-existence. As the epitome of blasphemy, your calling is to conquer all and defeat those with Divinity. Though you fight alone, your deeds shall be known to all.]
'Huh, not as metaphoric or nice as Sunny's description. Shame.'
Grinning slightly, Juno moved on.
Innate Ability: [Piercing Mind]
Ability Description: [To slay the impossible, the impossible has to be perceived first. To perceive the impossible, the mind has to be able to handle it.]
Juno stared at [Piercing Mind] for a long moment.
'To slay the impossible, the impossible has to be perceived first,' he reread, slowly. 'To perceive the impossible, the mind has to be able to handle it.'
He waited for something to happen. Some shift in perception, some grand awakening of his mental faculties, some immediate and obvious demonstration of what the ability actually did in practice.
Nothing happened.
He felt exactly the same as he had thirty seconds ago.
'Huh,' he thought. 'Okay.'
Either the ability was working subtly in ways he couldn't currently detect, or it required something to actually trigger it, or it was the kind of thing that would only become apparent when he encountered something that qualified as impossible enough to matter. Probably one of those three. He didn't have enough information to determine which, and standing in the void between existence and non-existence conducting experiments on his own mind seemed like an inefficient use of the moment.
'Research,' he decided. 'In the Waking World, I will research this.'
Shaking himself out of his confusion, Juno moved on to the whole of his Runes. There was a lot to see, after all!
Name: Juno
True Name: Sun Chaser
Rank: Aspirant
Soul Core: Dormant
Glories: [Glory of War], [Glory of the King], [Glory of the Gambit]
Memories: [Kings Execution], [A Snakes Mask], [Away From Home]
Echoes: -
Attributes: [Dream's Spawn], [Flame of Divinity], [Anunakki], [Malicious], [Indomitable Humanity], [Godscorn]
"What the fuck?"
Juno was… genuinely confused
Sure, he knew that he got new Attributes. That was completely normal, he thought. But, Glories? What the fuck.
Juno tried to click on them, or will them to open, but nothing happened. They just continued to sit there, unexplained.
'Well… my Aspect did say that my glory will be known. So, is that it?'
Incredibly confused, Juno decided to pull out the same move he did less than a minute ago. He was going to think about this in the Waking World!
Sadly, before Juno could move on to exploring his Memory descriptions the Spell spoke again.
[The First Seal is broken.]
[Awakening dormant powers…]