Kharon's body began to morph and change as he walked through the wide, glass doors. His eyes slowly adjusted to the brightly lit building as he walked to the reception desk where a young, blonde woman was sitting. She looked up from her device as he said, "Welcome! How can I help you today sir?"
"Hi. I would like to book a room for two weeks. Will that be possible?"
"Yes. Of course sir. The price is 2000 Aethermarks."
Kharon quickly pulled out two platinum marks as he handed them to the receptionist. He waited for a bit as she arranged some documents and scanned his soulbind token. Once this was done, she handed him a small bracelet and a key and said, "You will be in room 50. Do you need me to escort you?"
"That wouldn't be necessary. Thank you."
"I hope you enjoy your retreat with us sir."
Smiling brightly, Kharon walked towards a large, door encrusted with gold. As he stood in front of the door, the little diamond bracelet around his wrist shone before the door slid open. Kharon walked through as he saw several doors with numbers on them. He walked down a long hallway until he saw the number 50.
As he approached, he saw several men as they walked past him with a nod. He reciprocated their nods as he realised something.
'They are all wielders. So this place isn't just for the rich but also for wielders to relax once they are done hunting for the day. That must be why that woman didn't seem fazed by my attire... I wonder what type of services they offer. But I have no time for that; I need to unlock the Solar Ring's other abilities and enhance the Hand Of Order...'
Kharon sighed dejectedly as he brought his bracelet close to his door. After a few seconds of waiting, the door slowly slid open. Walking in, Kharon noticed how spacious it was as he immediately took a seat on the bed.
'This is quite comfortable. It has must have temperature control runes. And so must this entire room. It feels quite nice...'
Snapping out of his reverie, Kharon took out the Solar Ring from his bag as he took a seat on a fancy chair in the corner of the room. As he was about to start drawing the runes, he remembered Master Lodge's gift and pulled out the Storage Box. He slowly opened the first layer and took out a red parchment. He placed it on the table in front of him as he took in a deep breath and began his runeweave.
Kharon's hands danced over the parchment as he drew many complex and powerful symbols. As he began running out of space, he pulled out more parchments with Hidden Hand as he maintained the runes on the first parchment with one hand and continued with a new pair of hand via Silent Craft.
'Using these ancient runes feels so... familiar. My body seems to remember doing this. Maybe I was close to the first arcana researchers. I know far too much to have simply dabbled into it.'
With effortless grace, the speed of the runeweave increased as Kharon began using more and more unfamiliar runes. His body didn't slow down as if possessed by something or someone. This continued for several hours as Kharon pulled out and more parchment.
'Who knew unsealing the abilities of a tier 3 construct would be this hard? And using these unfamiliar runes makes me uneasy. I can only understand the meaning of a few of them... With a bit of luck I wouldn't end up dead.'
Kharon chuckled nervously as he began to complete the runeweave. He slowly placed all the parchments side by side as the runes began flying up from them. The danced in perfect harmony as Kharon guided them towards the Solar Ring. They were slowly absorbed as the Solar Ring emitted a blinding light.
Despite covering his eyes, Kharon could still see the overwhelming ocean of light but failed to sense any heat or a change in the environment. As the light began to subside, the ring rose up in the air. With bated breath, Kharon watched the ring as its once red crystal turned purple. The ring began to descend as Kharon cautiously caught it.
'I can feel it's power... Before I thought it was powerful, but now... It feels like I am invincible with this. But my actual path's abilities are being greatly weakened. And now I can look into this constructs past. But should I risk it?'
Kharon remained in complete silence as he thought about the possible risks of using Past Recollection, but he knew that it had to be done. He picked up the Solar Ring as he activated his ability. His surroundings quickly turned dark as he saw people standing around a stone table. On it, was a glowing orb emitting intense heat.
He watched as it was surrounded with varying runes which all flew into it. The orb's heat increased and so did it's glow as all the workers around watched it with satisfied grins. A golden ring was brought to the orb as new runes were drawn on pieces of parchment. There were thousands of different symbols gliding through the air in unison as they completely submerged the orb and ring in blinding light.
As he opened his eyes, Kharon saw the golden ring with its bright, purple crystal. The scene before him began to change as he saw the ring being worn by someone. He couldn't make out the man's face but he knew that he was incredibly powerful. A loud, commanding voice could be heard as the man said, "Purging Flames, Healing Light, Holy Pillar and Supernova."
After hearing these words, the blinding flash of light made Kharon cover his eyes. The sound of laughter, sobbing, screaming and more could be heard as Kharon experienced some of the ring's past. Once he opened his eyes, he saw that he was back in his room at the retreat.
'I know how the abilities work? The memory... Past Recollection really is a strange ability. Holy Pillar; a powerful beam of light which descends from the sky and destroys all evil beings. It is the perfect counter to the path of chaos and depravity. While Supernova causes a literal supernova... The whole solar system or even the galaxy can be destroyed with this ability depending on the wielder's reserves of aether...'
Kharon looked at the Solar Ring as he smiled and placed it back into his bag. He slid off the Tombkeeper's Ring and decided to unseal it as well.
'It seems to have another ability hidden. But why didn't the grimoire inform me? Could it be that this ring's true power couldn't be pried into?'
A look of satisfaction crossed Kharon's lips as he felt his barely depleted aether reserves.
'That runeweave barely took a portion of my aether. I could probably do it ten more times if I needed to.'
Discarding the used parchments, Kharon pulled out several new ones and got to work. He spent an hour drawing the runes as he became more and more familiar with the strange symbols. His comprehension of them led him to finishing in just ninety minutes compared to his previous four hour runeweave.
Floating in unison with a faint white glow, the runes all flew into the Tombkeeper's Ring. A few seconds passed with no visible changes to the ring as Kharon slowly picked it up. Suddenly, the ring turned grey before returning to its usual obsidian colour as purple glyphs began appearing on the ring's surface. The room began rapidly cooling as each glyph was revealed.
Kharon tried reading the glyphs but he could feel his mind slowly weakening with each attempt. Giving up on it, Kharon tried using Past Recollection, but before he could, he noticed something horrifying. His palm had become skeletal— and the rest of his arm was slowly following suit. In his panic, Kharon dropped the ring as it began destroying the brown, polished table.
'I can't stop it! What do I do?! The only way would be to...'
Without hesitation, Kharon picked up the ring as he activated Past Recollection. He was quickly transported to a scene with many arcana users as they refined the essence core and turned it into a mystic construct. Kharon subconsciously raised his skeletal hand as the scene before him sped up. He watched as several scenes unfolded before him, each one revealing a small piece of information.
'The ring is cursed...'
Feeling his shoulder's and chest slowly turning, Kharon expended more and more aether as he watched many different scenes unfold. He saw a lone Tombkeeper praying to the Goddess as he received this gift, his joy at becoming a father, his grief at the death of his daughter, his demise at the hands of religious zealots and his dying wish of revenge.
Knowing what had to be done, the visions before dissipated. Kharon returned as his transformation into an undead was almost complete. With a soft, yet raspy voice, Kharon uttered a few words.
"I will kill them. I will kill them for you. So please, just rest in peace..."