They were enveloped in sunlight, from head to toe.
Excruciating pain pierced Ace's body, each part of his body, from his head to his toe, his hands and shoulders and even his dammed nails ached, his hairs felt like they were being pulled harshly by someone, on the brink of tearing apart-it was like there was a mountain on top of him while he was being burnt alive-and also he was experiencing an illogical but unbelievable level of coldness as well.
Agony spread through every inch of his body.-in all ways, and even his atoms seemed to ache-he was on the brink of death, and for some reason-maybe his will or maybe just the effects of being enveloped by the sunlight-he was still conscious and feeling every last minute detail of pain.
He screamed for minutes, and it did not help-instead it just made his throat more dry, he felt hot and cold, both supposed to be opposite of each other but seemed to come together in harmony for the sole reason of torturing the teen.
After maybe a second, a minute or maybe some minutes which seemed like an eternity, he felt something-something different from the pain and suffering, something warm and something that did not hurt him instead it grew expanding to each part of his body and helped him fight the pain.
"Just a bit longer guys." He heard Ray's voice, it was muffled and pained-he could almost feel his pain, well in a way if they were suffering the same type of pain and most probably they were then he felt his pain as well but still how could this Ray bastard even talk instead of screaming like him and Ariel?
First he pushed off the iron beast to the ocean-and the beast was literally iron-made of iron and then he did not even scream when exposed to the sunlight and now spoke-covering his pain even if only a little, fate was seriously unfair. Whoever wrote the beginning and end of every human life clearly had favourites.
Soon though the warm feeling that was fighting against the pain was starting to disappear-as if being sucked by the pain and it surely was. Ace panicked-if he could really panic more than he actually was, he could not survive against the pain without that and he had a feeling once the energy was sucked out, he would really turn like everyone else on the deck.
He prayed for the sun to disappear and maybe the gods pitied him or maybe they just wanted him to survive so that he could suffer again but nevertheless the sun finally began to disappear.
Soon, the pain receded as the sun finally disappeared and the warm and safe feeling he felt grew more filling him with unbelievable amounts of power-and that was when he saw a hand, it was Ray's hand, offering to help him stand up.
"Its all over, we are safe now." Ariel's voice sounded from behind him, it seemed that Ace was the last one to recover-grabbing Ray's hand he got to his feet and stumbled, almost falling but managed to stay standing.
"Finally, at least this proves one of my theories." He said out loud then grew deathly pale as something appeared in front of him-a black screen, well it was...a screen?
A blue screen with white writing had suddenly appeared in front of Ace, floating quietly in the air. Its surface glowed faintly, smooth like a sheet of light, and across it were clear white letters written in a language Ace could easily read, the words neatly arranged as if someone had just written them there for him to see. Ace stared at the strange screen in confusion, certain he had never seen something like this before.
There were several writings in the blue screen. He could easily understand the language, it was what he spoke after all, just written down in the new blue screen.
Soul Rune
Name: Ace Paradial
Age: 16
Rank: Novice
Bonus: Blessed by Swords
Rank: Lesser
Skill
Ability
He read them, in complete bewilderment-at first, after coming terms that this was indeed real, he read his name which was a little odd then his age and rank, he knew of his age yes-but the rank, that was new.
'Obviously it's new, it is my first time seeing this anyway.' Though it seemed his rank was novice and he was pretty sure that was the lowest rank because the word novice did not mean somewhere high in the rank anyway and moreover it was his first time seeing or rather unlocking his Soul Rune.
So it was only logical for him to be of the lowest rank. Then there was something called Bonus, and his bonus was 'Blessed by Swords.'
'So the bonus are probably our primary or maybe our only power.' Ace thought, and it seemed like he had a power related to swords, he was happy and sad at the same time-on one hand having a weapon was great but he really did not know how to use a sword and moreover his weak body could not even grasp its basic fast enough.
And most importantly how in the world would be beat a goddammed sun with a sword and how would he even attack it? Well he had a feeling that if he gave Ray a sword at least something would go in their way.
'Well the bastard is inhumanly strong for some reason.'
From the next line he deduced that his bonus also had a rank, and right now it was of the rank lesser. Maybe again the lowest rank or one above the lowest but still definitely not enough to beat the sun.
Then there were Skills and Abilities.
"Ummm..." He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Ariel's voice and when he turned towards him, he saw Ariel see something in the air-invisible as if reading something only visible to him.
'So he unlocked this too, and it seems that only I can see my soul rune and only he can see his.' Then he looked at Ray who also was reading some invisible lines.
'We all got the Soul Rune.'
Ray looked at him, feeling his gaze then turned to Ariel. "Let's go to your room, Ace. You said it is safe there right?"
A couple of moments later, they were in his room, Ace sat on the bed and Ray on the chair, and Ariel sat on the other bed, his back leaning to the wall. The windows were still shut and covered by curtains.
Their walk towards the top floor and even to his room was in utter silence, no one talked on the way.
"So, I presume everyone got this blue screen front of you" Ariel started, the first one to speak among the three ever since getting the Soul Rune.
Ace nodded "Yeah, and it is called Soul Rune if I am right." Ace looked at both Ray and Ariel who nodded letting him know that their screen was also called Soul Rune.
"Well what does yours say?" Ace asked and continued to speak.
"Mine shows me my name, age, rank, and something called bonus, its rank and finally skills and abilities."
"Mine says the same too, and I think everyone has a unique bonus, skills and abilities." Ray spoke, still reading his Soul Rune. "Well my skills and abilities are empty." Ace said only to see both Ray and Ariel face palm.
"Its really simple, just will the skills and abilities to appear, there are even descriptions for your bonus, and skills and abilities too-if you have any that is." Ray spoke and went back to reading his Soul Rune.
Ace looked at both of them flustered and immediately concentrated on his bonus and willed it to come with the description and soon it came.
Bonus: Blessed by Swords
This bonus grants you the ability to summon an endless stream of swords into your hand at will.
Well it seemed that whatever his powers were, they allowed him to summon swords, how many ever he needed for a fact and well it was just as he thought except he did not think the swords were going to be unlimited.
Then he came back to his Soul Rune page, and focused on the skill. And just like his bonus, the rune showed him the separate rune for his skills. He had two skills and even the description of skill.
Skill: A skill is a power you receive from your bonus.— Floating Blade
As Ace focused on Floating Blade, the screen flickered softly and the text shifted, revealing its description.
Floating Blade
Allows the user to summon and control a single sword to float and move through the air according to the user's will. The number of swords the user can control increases with mastery of the skill.
He let out a whistle, that meant he did not need to catch a sword to use it. Not only could he avoid and escape dangers by having a sword fight it-he did not know how but he did not need to worry about it as well since he could make infinite number of swords.
'Perfect.' He thought then focused on abilities.
Abilities
Powers you obtain through your own efforts—whether discovered, mastered through training, or taken from others.
And well that was it-it seemed as if he had no abilities and that put a frown on his face but come on-at least he got a skill and a bonus, and maybe unlocked magic as well.
Ace let out a slow sigh and glanced at Ray."Well? Mind introducing yourself again?"
Ray shrugged like it was the most unimportant thing in the world. His gaze drifted lazily from Ace to Ariel before he spoke.
"My bonus is Flame manipulation, it lets me generate and control my flames, its power and heat depends on my mastery over it."
The moment the words left his mouth, Ace and Ariel both turned toward him with identical expressions.
Ace and Ariel glared daggers at their unnaturally strong friend, how is it that this already strong fiend just got another power boost, one stronger than both of theirs?
'This is so unfair .How in the world did this already ridiculously strong idiot just gain another power boost?'
Ignoring their glaring daggers, he indifferently looked back at his screen and said again.
"Oh yeah, and I happen to have four skills."
Silence.
The room was filled by a moment of silence for a while, as both Ace and Ariel struggled to get this information inside their head and once they did, the already pierce glare turned more sharp and menacing-if it was any other normal human, he would probably shiver in fear but unfortunately the person in front of them was a person mostly indifferent to these things.
He simply didn't care.
"Well…" Ariel finally spoke, forcing a strange smile onto his face. It looked less like a smile and more like someone trying not to strangle their friend.
"What are your skills?"
Ray again did not react to his tone maybe because he did not notice or simply just did not care-Ace did not know, well he knew that trying to know that would be really troublesome.
"My first skill is called Flame Bullets, and well it shoots fast projectiles made entirely of scorching flame."
Ace and Ariel looked at each other, and sighed-well the first skill was strong so that automatically meant the rest were barely average after all no human could have everything completely strong from scratch.
'No one gets four broken skills from the start. Its okay. But why do I have this feeling that I will be proven wrong?'
"My next ability is Flame domain. It creates a domain where I can command both mine and the enemies or any other flame in the domain. I also grow stronger the more I fight in the domain."
"What?" Ace asked calmly and just when Ray was about to repeat, Ace lashed out-"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?"
Ray blinked a couple of times, and laughed nervously.
"Hey, come on guys," he said, raising his hands defensively.
"It's not like I picked this stuff myself."
"I am not sure of that, well nevertheless spit out the rest fast." Ariel said, not even trying to hide his jealousy any more.
A few moments later-both Ace and Ariel were staring at each other, they were clearly confused- Ray had said the rest of his two skills and both of them were literally in the same power level of his previous two skills.
The first one was Flame Bow-it is a Bow made of pure flame, and it even gives free and unlimited arrows which were also made of flame.
And finally his last skill was Flame touch-it allows Ray to ignite intense flames through physical contact and the skill works on both living beings and normal objects. And this also grows stronger depending on the stupidly strong friend of theirs mastery over this skill.
'Such a broken guy in our team, should I be happy or jealous?'
After that it was Ariel's turn to say his Soul Rune.
"Well." Ariel started. "Mine is not as extraordinary and overly gifted bonus as Ray's is, but I guess I am or at least was satisfied with it before I heard Ray's rune." With that, he glared once more at Ray and spoke again.
"Well first is my name and my age, I am sixteen if that helps in any way. My bonus..." He paused for a moment, lingered and spoke. "Is called Poison Daggers. Even still, my powers are not limited to daggers alone, it's just that my powers will be stronger when I use a dagger."
"So what I'm telling is that I can summon a special indestructible dagger and make it poisonous."
"That's good." Ray commented only to receive two menacing glares from Ace and Ariel.
"Well I have two skills, first is poison transfer, and I can poison any weapon or tool I throw. And my second skill is Venomous-It's a sword. A sword made of pure and concentrated poison, and anyone whom I slash with this sword will be poisoned by a powerful toxin."
"And the poison grows stronger the more I slash the person."
Ace looked at both Ariel and Ray and sighed, they both got such good bonus while he, well he also had a very good bonus but sadly he did not even know how to use a sword.
"Well, that is all I need to say, my bonus is of the lesser rank and I have no abilities."
Then both of them turned to Ace, it was his turn to say about his rune, and sadly it was not as impressive as Ray's.
"My name is a bit weird and my age is sixteen. My bonus is called Blessed by Swords and it's of the lesser rank and I have a single skill and no abilities." He said and then stopped looking at both his friends-well, they could call each other friends.
"My Bonus lets me summon an infinite amount of swords." Both Ariel's and Ray's eyebrows flew up and there was a clear expression of surprise and speechless on their faces. And still no one talked not wanting to disturb him.
"My skill is called Floating Blade and it lets me control any one sword however I want, the number of swords I can control will increase with the bonus's rank." He looked at them another time and shrugged.
"That is all, I have no ability."
Ray suddenly frowned and a confused expression made its way onto his face.
"Well, I happen to have an ability."