The blinding light of the forge dimmed slowly, its molten brilliance fading into faint, flickering embers.
Shadow stood still, breathing heavily as the intense heat washed away, leaving only silence and the echo of a thousand hammer strikes reverberating in his chest.
Before him loomed the Grand Forge of Aetherium, a vision of molten metal and roaring mana. The air shimmered with power; even the stone beneath him glowed faintly from the uncontainable heat.
He stared at his hands — or rather, the new gauntlets that encased them.
The Solfang Gauntlets gleamed a deep obsidian black, streaked with silver veins pulsing faintly like blood vessels of light. They looked alive — and moments later, they spoke.
> "Hey! That last hammer swing almost flattened my core! Do you have any idea how close that was?"
Shadow blinked slowly. "…You talk."
> "Of course I talk! I've been forged from a hundred screaming weapons and your crazy willpower! What else was I supposed to do, stay quiet?"
Shadow couldn't help the faint, tired chuckle escaping his lips. "You sound like a kid that just learned to complain."
> "A handsome kid," Solfang corrected proudly. "And I bet I'm stronger than any blade you've ever made."
"Cocky already," he muttered — but the warmth in his voice betrayed amusement.
The air around him shimmered again, his newly awakened power humming faintly through the forest floor. His body felt light, but every movement left trails of mana ripples behind.
It was then he realized — the world itself felt different.
Clearer. Closer. Every heartbeat of the forest, every whisper of the wind — he could feel it.
He began walking back toward camp, unaware that the surge of mana erupting from him had reached miles away.
---
By the time he arrived, the sight before him made his heart clench.
Rena, Lena, Ryn, and Sera stood outside the shelter — weapons drawn, eyes sharp, the air thick with tension. Aetherion, in its cube form, hovered faintly beside them, humming with defensive energy.
Shadow instantly blurred forward, appearing behind them in a blink. "What happened? Were we attacked?"
Rena turned instantly, sword raised — her stance relaxed only when she saw his face. "Shadow?! You—where were you? The entire forest just shook! We thought something was coming!"
Lena's greatsword shimmered faintly in her hands. "We felt a mana storm. It was massive—like a dragon's presence."
Ryn still had her bow half-drawn, scanning the treeline. "I thought a high-level beast breached our perimeter."
Sera's voice was small but steady. "It wasn't just the ground. The air itself was trembling…"
Shadow froze. Then realization hit him like a spark. The mana storm… the quake… all of it.
It wasn't an enemy. It was him.
He rubbed the back of his neck, a faint embarrassed smile forming. "Right. Uh… that might've been my fault."
Lena frowned. "Your fault?"
He nodded. "When I finished my trial… something inside me changed. The mana just… overflowed."
Rena raised an eyebrow. "So that enormous pressure was you?"
Shadow sighed quietly. "Guess so. Sorry for scaring everyone. I didn't mean to."
Ryn lowered her bow finally, exhaling. "You could've warned us next time before releasing a forest-wide mana quake."
Sera, smiling gently, stepped closer. "At least you're safe. That's all that matters."
Rena tilted her head slightly, studying him. "You know… you sound different."
"Different?"
"Yeah," Lena said, leaning on her sword. "You're… actually talking."
Sera giggled softly. "And your tone—it's warmer."
Shadow blinked, realizing how natural it felt to speak, how his voice carried faint traces of emotion again. He chuckled under his breath. "Guess that's another side effect."
Aetherion hovered near him, its tone calm and refined.
> "Correction: The surge of mana likely realigned your emotional channels, Master. Your resonance frequency increased by 40%. You're more… expressive now."
Solfang's voice cut in immediately, loud and teasing.
> "Expressive? More like alive! Took him long enough to sound like an actual human."
Aetherion hummed softly in reply.
> "Unlike certain newly-forged entities who can't regulate their volume."
> "Hey! I was born in a furnace! I'm allowed to be loud!"
> "You were overheated in a furnace."
> "You wanna fight, box-boy?!"
> "Vehicle construct. Not a box."
> "Still looks like one!"
The girls stared in stunned silence as the two Egos bickered like children.
Rena pinched the bridge of her nose. "Please tell me this isn't permanent."
Shadow sighed with a faint, helpless grin. "It's… manageable."
> "We're part of the family now!" Solfang chirped.
> "Technically, I was here first," Aetherion added calmly.
> "Then I'm the cooler younger sibling!"
> "Incorrect."
Lena laughed loudly, resting her sword against her shoulder. "Okay, I like the loud one."
Sera smiled warmly. "They sound… alive."
Shadow nodded slightly, glancing at his gauntlets and the cube floating nearby. "They are. And somehow, I think that's exactly how it should be."
---
That night, the house glowed softly with Aetherion's ambient light.
The team gathered around a warm meal, laughter echoing faintly through the shelter.
Ryn polished her arrows by the window. Rena sparred lightly with Lena outside, both exchanging graceful movements under the moonlight. Sera hummed quietly as she prepared tea.
And for once, Shadow didn't feel like the silent shadow behind them. He leaned against the wall, Solfang occasionally making sarcastic remarks while Aetherion responded with deadpan logic — a strange, comforting noise that filled the once-empty spaces in his heart.
He wasn't just their protector anymore.
He was part of something — a family, a team, a story still being forged.