Shammus was young back then. He was considered stunning by the women, but he could never bring himself to talk back to anyone, whether he was being heckled or flattered. The swordsman had places to be.
The way his two blades felt in his hands were great, and he walked into the villages own blacksmith, being greeted by the dwarvish man, “Shammus! I was wonderin’ if you died!”
“You know I won’t go down so easy.”
“Yeah, yeah, the only people that could stand against you are well,” The dwarf looked out the window in a small moment of thought, “The first adventurers I think! Maybe Minie too, but she’s an exception of that time.”
A grunt of agreement from Shammus brought that conversation to a halt as he pulled out some pieces of a monster he’d felled a moment before. The warmth of the blacksmith’s forge was nice, and it was the only place of genuine peace.
“The fifth king has brought up the plans of the succession war. I’d recommend skippin’ town,” The blacksmith spoke up, practically snatching Shammus’s dual machetes. The dull ring of a hammer hitting steel filled the cozy room.
Shammus looked outside the window. “If I’m dragged into it, I’m dragged into it. So be it.” Shammus waves his hand, and simply lays down his head for a mere moment. The blacksmith’s grumbles fell on deaf, and sleeping, ears.
When Shammus awoke, the blacksmith had been requenching his secondary blade, “How’d you like the materials?” Shammus asked, as he rubbed his red eyes. They stared into the blacksmith’s almost shut eyes.
“They’re interestin’ for sure.” The dwarf muttered as the blade was placed atop the counter alongside his other sword. “They’re changed plenty from one another now though.”
Shammus nods as he looks at the twin blades, one labeled clearly as the [Crescent Blade of Justice] and the other [Crescent Blade of Agony]. The golden glint alongside the blade of Justice almost seemed to repel the impossibly red edge of Agony. The blades themselves were almost mirror opposites of each other as well. Agony was the deepest black Shammus had ever seen, while Justice was a silver he’d only seen at galas, and the gold of the blade seemed to be solid.
The red of Agony was odd though. It looked like a fluid, and when Shammus did the stupid thing of testing the sharpness against a paper, the paper itself crinkled away from the blade unnaturally, although rotting.
Justice’s sharpness was swift. The cut was hard to begin, but it followed through excellently, stopping right before the table. Cutting only what Shammus had wanted to cut. A brilliant machination.
******
The darkness was ever consuming. But it was there that Shammus had reached out and found Justice and Agony once more. The swords fell into his hands alongside a matching greatsword for Pallad and a spear for Bariton.
Pallad’s greatsword matched Shammus’s Justice, while Bariton’s spear was more akin to Agony. The other two looked at the weapons in the three’s hands with awe. And maybe a hint of envy.
Pallad gawked at his new sword's statistics. They should’ve been insane, but Shammus was just happy to see his own two swords back. They were different though. They fit in his hand all the same, but he could tell they were recreations of what the blacksmith back in Forsivo had made.
Shammus launched out Justice, and just like before, an almost invisible string of mana linked it to him. He pulled it back, and the blade landed in his hand after making a swift rotation in mid air.
Bariton simply swung his spear around, and it shifted forms multiple times mid-swing. Bariton seemed truly happy as he willed it to become a bow, and it followed his will fantastically. Bariton’s weapon shifted forms multiple times, including into 5 throwing knives.
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Pallad swung his greatsword, which was far more solid in form in comparison. As the two thought of whatever the blades should originally be, they transformed. Pallad’s great sword had expanded in size, creating a great shield after the crossguard had spread out.
The blade was spread out, as though hammered flatter than it was before, alongside the handles wrappings going alongside the crossguard. The sword had truly become a shield, and attached itself to Pallad’s back.
Bariton’s version of Agony’s transformation was far simpler, having simply molded the black into what seemed to be eyeglasses. The red uneven edge was turned into the glass, making them look more like special lenses then what was previously a blade with the ability to corrode while it cut.
Bariton hesitated for just a moment to put them on, but when he did, the world looked different, and time itself seemed to come to a halt for everyone but him. There was a door in the middle of the cavern that certainly was not there beforehand.
Bariton walked forward, and put his hand atop the handle, and pushed the door open. It opened into a professor’s classroom, completely empty, abandoned. Dust piled atop the desks of the lecture hall, with notebooks left open.
And there was just a professor, with a lab coat on. He wore glasses as he stared at the blackboard. The professor wrote atop it, stopping when the door closed behind Bariton. The professor puts down the chalk, and the writing is more clear.
“Ah, I was wondering when you’d arrive, Bariton.” The professor turned around, the system itself blocking his face out. All Bariton could see of the professor was the blonde hair that flows into a pony tail, and the emerald green earrings.
“How do you know my name?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” The professor countered the question with one of his own. He tilted his head, and instead of the many system windows covering his eyes tilting with it, it just opened more. The screens were evershifting.
The secondary question seemed to answer itself to Bariton. Bariton tried to open his mouth to speak, but a system window opened up in front of him.
[Muted for 15 Seconds.]
“I don’t prefer to be interrupted during my lessons.” The professor sits down in a chair at the front of his class. “The name’s well… You’d know me as the System itself, wouldn’t you?”
Bariton’s eyes flashed as he tried to analyze the person sitting at the desk. But no system menu opened.
“Hard to analyze the very source of the analysis, isn’t it?” The person leans back, the system screens still blocking its eyes.
“What are you really?”
“I gave you the chance to respond, and you ask me another question?” The professor tilts his head in curiosity once more. “That’s why I gave you the Eyeglass of Agony. It could’ve gone to Judine or Clara instead, but… You’d get the most use out of it.”
Bariton attempted to talk within the gap the System gave him, but the same muted notification appeared. The System continued onwards, “The shield of justice had to go to Pallad, and well, the dual swords should go to the original owner, shouldn’t they?”
The previous muted notification hadn’t even dissipated yet before the System kept talking. “I know it must be annoying to be muted forcefully. You don’t know how much power I have over everyone. I practically destroyed 99% of the power the old God of Void had just to give you a fighting chance.”
The System sighed. “But you won too easily there too. I demand strife, many people say that about how this world is. Except I really don’t. It’s just that strife comes easily, and so does shifting blame.”
Bariton attempts to speak as the muted notification vanishes, only for it to be replaced by a new one. “I wouldn’t recommend trying to tell anyone about… this. It’ll end poorly for your entire party, since our little chats will lead to your party tearing each other apart.”
The System continues talking after a second to catch its own breath. “The power I wield is unimaginable, and I will not let a pair of loose lips go free. Now, it seems our current time is almost up.”
The red lens of the eyeglasses cracks, and Bariton finds himself right back to where he was. He looks onwards to where the door was with confusion and Shammus, following where Bariton’s eyes were headed, looks at Bariton with a look of concern.
