Damian listened to every word Jasper had said about his abilities, by the look on the young man's face it was hard to tell how he felt about all of this, and honestly he couldn't blame him, the end of the world had started, everything they thought they knew about reality was slowly coming apart at the seems.
Thinking over the young man's words made Damian question some of his previous understandings of what these runes and trials really represented, take the young mans flaw for example Damian had suspected that flaws were a representation of a person's will and that the voice that spoke out had a warped sense of what counted as a character flaw, seeing stuff like cooperation and humanity as some form of weakness. Now however he wasn't so sure, Jaspers flaw directly tied into the use of his abilities which would not have been present before his trial so he would have to abandon his ideas on what having a flaw meant.
The next key point which caught his eye was his Aspects Rank, unlike himself he had an Awakened Ranked Aspect, this gave Damian a bit more information into what it truly meant, he had heard that term before when the Ariadne was defeated, and before that every creature he had killed before that had a prefix of Dormant. By that logic he could assume that aspect rank and the Ranks of creatures could somehow be tied together? As he pondered on it a sudden realisation hit him, his Soul Core Rank, which he still didn't understand himself in any greater detail was also Dormant, so maybe that was the key, the Rank of one's soul might use the same system. But how many ranks were there and how high up was Sacred, just going off the names alone it would probably be a good bit higher.
The last thing he thought on was the Attributes, he had suspected that the man would have different ones than his own but it was good to make sure, and he found it fitting that even the universe itself deemed the young man a fool, it almost made him want to laugh, or maybe that was the Attributes doing? It was hard to tell.
Jasper was staring at Damian with questioning eyes, it was then that Damian realised he had just been staring at him without ever muttering a word, a bad habit he had picked up over the years, he cleared his throat then spoke in a calm voice,
"Your abilities are quite a bit different to mine it seems, and your flaws is also different in nature. For now just try activating your Aspect ability so we can see what you are capable of, the descriptions don't tell you everything about how your abilities work as I've found out."
Jasper stared down at his arms, focusing on them intensely as he tried to do something, he wasn't sure what he was meant to do really but he tried to summon lighting he guessed, it honestly sounded pretty crazy but life has been that as of late, especially today, what luck was it that he found someone who seemed to figure something out, if it wasn't for this man he surely would be getting slowly digested in that creatures stomach by now.
Jasper tried and kept trying, attempting to force the ability to active, straining himself so hard that he must have looked pretty weird from the outside, the man beside him frowned slightly before speaking,
"Try focusing on the inside of your body, using the description of the ability as guidance to activate it. Also remember what your flaw said, try walking around to see if that works, ill keep an eye on the door so just see if you can figure it out."
Jasper felt his face turn even redder than it already was from straining, his memory had never been that great but he couldn't believe he had forgotten something so important so quickly, it was seriously embarrassing. Standing up from having his legs tucked to his chest he could feel a slight numbness in his limbs but after stabilising himself for a few moments he started to walk around the auditorium, as he did he could feel his strength returning.
It was a strange sensation, after he had first woke up this morning he felt sluggish and weak but as soon as he had started to walk he felt stronger than he ever had before, every time he had stopped the weakness had returned, it had been a constant start and stop of his bodies strength all day, and when he got cornered by that imposing creature earlier he had managed to get away at first, but after he fell it was like all strength had left him, he had thought it was just his body being terrified and losing the will to fight, but now armed with the knowledge of his flaw he had a different opinion.
Stretching his legs felt nice, with each step he took his body felt stronger, it was only up to a point and walking at different speeds made his body feel different levels of strength, the difference wasn't massive in any way but it was enough to be noticeable. Soon after all the numbness had faded away he searched inwards, using Damian's advice to search within himself instead of trying to force it he soon found something new, a well of energy he had never known before, it felt like a living storm raging through his body ready to be unleashed.
The feeling gave him momentary pause, as he did the energy fizzled away as well as the strange strength permeating his body, as if it had never existed, shaking his head in frustration as a feeling of weakness overcame him he continued and regained his power, quickly finding the storm raging once again, this time he did not slow down. Feeling the raging storm within him was easy enough, but trying to force it out was entirely different, it was a strange sensation like trying to pull an emotion to the surface but by focusing on it he imagined it as part of him and willed it to spread outwards as if he was controlling a strange limb.
Damian watched the man with an intense expression, using his keen sight to check for any sign that he had succeeded, it took a couple of minutes for the young man to figure out what he was doing, but he couldn't blame him for not getting it immediately, it took him a bit of time to adjust to using his ability as well.
As the young man walked up and down the auditorium a sudden change came over him, his skin glowed with a pale light as small arcs of electricity sparked of from his skin, soon these small arcs conjoined into a web of lightning which seemed to cover his entire body like a living tesla coil, his steps left scorch marks on the synthetic wooden floors and with each step and he took he became faster and faster, and his power growing with each increase in speed. The young man's face was painted with awe as he looked over his body now wreathed in a cloak of pure lightning, as if he was a bolt of lightning given human form, stepping forward he punched the air his fist was fast but before his arm could reach to its maximum reach the cloak vanished and his speed feel to that of a mundane person,as he suddenly stumbled weak and powerless, as he planted his feet firmly on the floor, forgetting to move for just one moment. His body lurched forward, thrown off by the sudden change in the force of his blow as he crashed into the ground with a loud thud.
The man stayed lying there for a few moments, sprawling himself out wide over the floor, his face painted in a smile so large it was laughable, he looked like a kid who was so happy to be able to play with his new toy that he forgot what was going on, soon enough he sat up and looked at Damian as he spoke,
"Figured it out Sir, going to need some practice to get used to my limits though."
He paused for a moment taking in a few shallow breaths,
"You also mentioned something about memories earlier, right? How do those work"
Damian turned to face him as he started to talk,
"Its very similar to using your ability, but instead of focusing on yourself, focus on the name of your memory or its appearance and will it to appear in front of you like this. As he said this a cloud of pale sparks appeared in the air beside him as a beautiful bow weaved itself into existence.
"From what I understand they seem to be magical items created from the enemies you kill but your not always going to get one, I only have two after killing nearly one hundred and fifty creatures in my nightmare,"
Jasper stared with wide eyes at the bow, hopping that what he had was something as cool as that, ignoring that last sentence he did what Damian had instructed, stretching out his senses inwards in the hopes of finding what he was looking for, focusing on the name, [Blackened Sky], he felt around within himself, soon enough he did feel something, a pocket of energy which did not belong to him but was none the less connected to his very soul, deciding to pull on the energy he felt it rise to the surface.
Damian watched as a cloud of sparks manifested itself around Jasper, unlike the Broken Chain or Ariadne's Warbow it didn't appear as a small cloud which manifested into his palm, instead of the cloud covered his entire body as it wove itself into existence, watching as black leather armour formed itself around Jasper's body.