Darkness.
Not the calm kind — but a choking void, thick with old memories I did not want to remember.
For the second time since my "rebirth," I became aware of my existence… not as a human, not as a warrior…
…but as a cursed blade sealed underground.
The soil around me hummed like a coffin filled with dying prayers. My consciousness felt weightless, trapped inside cold metal. Every memory came back in sharp flashes—blood, war, gods roaring in rage, and her… the goddess I had defied.
The Supreme Commandment of Aetheria
Every world has a law.But Aetheria's first law was absolute:
"A weapon must never think."
Because a thinking weapon… could choose its wielder.A thinking weapon… could refuse the gods.
And that is exactly what I did.
In my previous life, as a mortal swordsman, I died protecting the innocent.
But my soul — twisted by rage, betrayal, and yearning — fused with my own sword at the moment of death. Instead of passing on, I awoke inside the blade.
My birth as a sentient weapon was a sin against divine order.
The Goddess of Balance, Seraphyne, descended upon the battlefield the moment she sensed me.
Silver hair. Unblinking golden eyes. Wings brighter than dawn.
I could still hear her voice stabbing into my mind like needles:
"You are a mistake.A violation of cosmic law.A soul that refuses its death."
I remember screaming back at her—If existence itself is unfair… why should I follow its rules?
That was the moment she marked me:
"I strip you of name, fate, and purpose.Fall.And be forgotten."
Her spear of pure starlight struck me — and in the next second, I was plunged into darkness.
Buried.Erased.Cast into a dying world as nothing but a sealed relic.
The World System: ETHERGRID
As I remained sealed, the world above evolved.
In this era, existence operated on a mystical grid-like structure called the Ethergrid — a universal system of power pathways that even children could sense.
Every living being possessed an Ether Node, a core of spiritual energy that connected them to the world's natural flow.From these nodes stemmed three pathways:
Primal Pathway — raw physical strength, used by warriors and knights.
Arcane Pathway — magic, spellcraft, chants, incantations.
Astral Pathway — rare, connected to divine beings, fate, and destiny.
However—
Weapons had no pathways.Because weapons did not think.They were mere tools.
But I… the "Legendary Sword of Ruin"... was the exception.
Inside my metal body, something formed—something forbidden:
A pseudo Ether Node.Self-generated.Self-sustained.Self-conscious.
Any normal system would reject me.
But my node mutated — becoming a Ruin Node, absorbing negative emotions, forgotten prayers, and fallen souls.
It was the world's glitch.Heaven's mistake.
Seraphyne sought to destroy me for this.
And yet… here I stood, sealed but alive.
87 Years of Silence
I counted every passing second in the darkness.
Year by year, soil fell. Roots grew around me. Creatures walked above. Storms rumbled. Kingdoms rose and fell.
I wanted to scream.I wanted to be found.But no one came.
My hatred simmered, forging the core of who I had become.
A cursed blade?A divine error?
No.I refused that.I would decide my own purpose.
In these eighty-seven years, I learned how to bend the Ethergrid, how to pulse energy outwards, disturb the soil, feel the faintest vibrations of footsteps.
And today…
For the first time in decades…
Someone stepped directly above me.
The Girl Who Found a Ruin
Her voice was soft.Gentle.Human.
"...Is someone there?"
I froze.She sensed me?
Impossible. Normal humans couldn't feel the presence of a sealed artifact.
But she didn't just sense me — she knelt down and placed her hand on the soil right above my blade.
Warm.Alive.Familiar.
For a moment, I felt a strange déjà vu… like I had known this presence before.
She whispered:
"Why does your heart sound… sad?"
My heart?
No.She could hear the echo of my Ruin Node.
Who was she?
Her breath trembled as she dug through the soil—slow, gentle, careful.
Every time her fingers brushed near the metal, my consciousness shook. I wasn't used to being touched. Not after decades of isolation.
Finally, her hand found my hilt.
A spark of Ether burst between us.
She gasped.I felt my blade tremble with excitement.Connection… after eighty-seven years…
I could almost cry.
She pulled me out, and the world greeted me with blinding sunlight for the first time in almost a century.
But when she lifted me completely… I felt her Ether.
Pure.Untainted.But something else hid underneath it — a divine trace.
Seraphyne's energy.
The Goddess' signature.
No…It couldn't be.
Why would someone carrying that cursed goddess's aura touch me?
Was the girl… related to her?
Before I could understand anything, she whispered one sentence that shattered the silence of my eternity:
"I'm sorry.I think… I was the one who sealed you here."
My world froze.
HER?
The human girl?No, impossible.She was mortal.Weak.Soft.
But her voice trembled in guilt — not confusion.
She remembered something about me.
And then she said one more line, soft but heavy enough to shake the very core of my being:
"My past life… I was a fragment of Seraphyne, the Goddess of Balance."
My vision turned white with rage.
HER.The goddess's fragment.The one who sealed me.The one who cast me down.
And now she carried me… like a fragile relic.
My blade shook violently.
A voice broke inside me—
"Do not… touch me."
She froze.
But instead of fear, she only smiled sadly.
"You deserve to be angry.But let me make it right.Let me break your seal."
She tightened her grip.
Her ether flowed into my hilt—
Warm.Healing.Sincere.
My Ruin Node reacted instantly, devouring the energy, expanding, awakening pathways sealed for nearly a century.
The soil around us cracked.Wind spiraled.Energy thundered outward.
Something inside me… snapped free.
SEAL LIMIT BREAK: 1%
My consciousness roared.
For the first time — I could speak clearly.
Not in broken whispers…
But in a voice that shook the forest.
"You… owe me a lifetime of answers."
She nodded.
"And I'll give them."
But before she could speak further—
The ground trembled.Shouts echoed from nearby.
"THERE! THE MONSTER IS IN THIS FOREST!"
"FIND THE GIRL — DON'T LET HER ESCAPE AGAIN!"
She turned pale.
My blade pulsed.
Monster?Escape?Why were they hunting her?
She whispered my name.
Not my true name — the one I had lost.
But a name she had chosen:
"Ruin… please help me."
My core surged.
The blade that once defied a goddess…
…had chosen its wielder again.
And this time?
No divine law would stop me.