"Time Technique: Creation!"
Ignis fell into the grasp of my hand. The cold metal chilled my fingers. I held its handle firmly and ran towards the Error. Slashing my sword at the armour of its legs.
The Ant turned around in rage and lowered its head to use its mandibles for severing my body in half. I dashed out of the way.
Sprinting towards the back of the Ant, stabbing Ignis into its back.
'Azura, how much more time before you activate my Aegis Core?'
"Just a few more minutes, child, maybe five minutes?"
'Oh great, just how can I beat something like this if I can't even break its armour?! The only thing I can do right now is keep on hitting its armour and weaken it.'
I summoned back my grappling gun. Aiming for the one tree still safe from the flames and shot up, soaring through the leaves, the air pushed me back, as if not letting me run away from the Error. I slam into the branch (again), giving me branch trauma.
I climbed up the branch. My chest throbbed in pain from slamming into the branch. The sound of my panting, the enraged Ant looking directly, and the flames now reaching my safe spot.
'Azura, how do I turn off Distortion Sense?! I'm tired of seeing blue and red!'
"Focus again, remember what you did to turn it on? Do the same to turn it off, I guess?"
'Wow, so helpful, Azura.' I rolled my eyes. 'It's too cringe, why would I do that anime-type stuff again?! Actually, never mind… I think it's way less cringe than doing some insane ritual.' I closed my eyes. Focusing on my surrounding sounds. Then the click entered my ears again. I blinked open my eyes. Finally, my vision was normal again.
The flames soared high up in the air, and the lonely tree in the burnt clearing was still a little brown on a few sides. I saw it then, the red body of the Wraith. Its mandibles protruded from its head. I brought Ignis back again. Dropping into my hand.
"Time to kill an Ant!" I yelled.
____________________________
I leapt down from the branch, Ignis cut the air as I plunged towards the Ant's head. The blade did its best to drive into the incredibly hard shell, barely letting Ignis leave a scratch on the head. I jumped away before it could try biting me.
'It's been a while now, Azura. Can I please get my Aegis Core now?!'
"Just done, child. There we go—"
Before I could even respond, my environment changed in an instant. The once fiery forest, now erased and replaced by an extremely dim space, lit only by the green orb in the distance.
Though I don't think this can exactly pass for an "orb" because of those jagged spikes that randomly pop out and disappear.
"Child, you have been transported into YOUR Aegis Core. Walk towards the Core and touch it."
I nodded to myself and slowly walked forward, still unable to believe that any of this was real.
The fact that I was stunned by this and not by everything that had been happening for the past few hours was quite… Crazy, I guess?
Each step I took closer to the Core felt warmer. Eventually, I reached the floating orb. I touched it.
It flew toward me. And then unbearable pain. Worse than what I felt when I consumed my Ability gem. It ached everywhere. I felt like I would explode. 'This pain, this heat. Dammit, what's up with me getting beaten up by random things all the time?!'
A panel popped out. The kind of holographic panels, like in manhwas.
[Aegis System On.]
[Aegis Core boot up sequence: 20% complete]
'Uhm, Azura, the "Aegis System" is on. I see a panel saying 'Aegis Core boot up sequence: 50% complete', what's happening?'
"I haven't experienced what you are experiencing, because, well, you know. But just wait for the 'Aegis Core boot up' or whatever to reach one-hundred percent, I guess."
'Sure—'
[Aegis Core boot up sequence: 100% complete]
[Now initiating System functions.]
[Welcome to the Aegis System. A quick guide, if you may.]
'Aren't these things supposed to be more cringey or something?'
[The Aegis System is where you can see your Ability level, titles that you have acquired, and also a storage. Every Ability user has the Aegis System.]
'Interesting.'
[When your Aegis Core is activated, it allows you to use a few special skills, limited only to the Aegis System. Example: Steel Veil, a skill that all users who have Aegis Core receive. It allows you to—]
'Yeah, yeah, whatever, I already know.' I waved the screen away. A new screen appeared:
[Now loading statistics…]
[Titles: Child Of Time (Celestial)]
[Errors Slain: 49]
[Main Ability: Chrono gem (God rank)]
[Main Ability level: 4]
[All Aegis Core abilities: Steel Veil, Edge Blink]
[Click on any of the statistics to learn more about it.]
I clicked on my title.
[Child Of Time description: A title for every child of the ruler of Time. Acquire all three Chronos gems to unlock the title's full power.]
I closed the window. And began going through my other statistics.
'After a solid few minutes of understanding everything. Here's what I know: Edge Blink is an extremely fast dash, like a barely visible dash. Titles are ranked. Celestial, Quasar, Pulsar, Nova. The rarest title rank is Celestial. I guess being the child of a ruler has its perks! Oh, Ability gems are ranked to: God, Nightmare, Wraith, Aberrant!'
'Azura, how do I get back to reality?!'
"Just say 'Aegis Space, close', I suppose?"
"Aegis Space, close."
My void, lit by green, was converted into the familiar scent of fire from the forest that I set ablaze. And the Ant, towering above me…
'Oh shit. RUN.'