Akuma was awoken by a familiar voice calling out to him. He opened his eyes to once again find himself in the dreamscape from before, a white abyss with only a figure of black staining the perfect sea. This time, however, there was something different about it. It had eyes. Or at least, color in the shape of eyes. Thousands of different colors, shifting endlessly and without pattern. 

“Rise and shine, Akuma. Ah, there you go,” it teased. Aku was fairly sure it was smiling, but he couldn’t tell for sure since it didn’t actually have a mouth. “Welcome back. It took you long enough.”

He sat up, rubbing his head. “Yeah, sure. What am I doing here, exactly?” he looked around the abyss, supposedly his being, making sure nothing had changed. When he found nothing, he looked back at the figure, who was sitting cross legged ten feet or so from him. 

“Oh, I’m glad you asked. This time, we’ll be doing less talking, and more hands-on work.” It stood up, reaching its hand out, and a long spear made of pure darkness appeared in its hand. “Catch.” It reared back and launched the spear forward, directly at Akuma’s chest. 

He tried to knock the spear away with his arm, but failed. His forearm hit the shadowy shaft and stopped like it had hit a wall. The spearhead pierced his chest, exploding out from his back, mutilating his upper torso and insides. He gasped for air and choked on his own blood as the world began fading around him, then all went black. 

Akuma jolted upright, frantically grabbing at his chest, which was no longer mutilated. He looked up to see the figure laughing at him, another spear already in its hand. ‘So that’s how it is.’ He thought, standing up. He was beginning to understand the nature of this place. It was his being, so it wasn’t real. Whatever happened to him here wouldn’t actually hurt him at all, at least not physically. Whenever his ‘body’ sustained damage it would simply reset when he ‘died’. 

Which meant, he could do whatever he wanted here. 

‘I wonder…’ he concentrated hard, reaching into his being, and smiled as power flooded through his body at his own will. ‘Oh yeah, that’s more fucking like it.’ He concentrated power in his legs and launched towards the figure with blinding speed. 

Just before making contact, it disappeared, reappearing an instant later behind him as they both flew through the air, thrusting the spear down at his back.

He whirled around just fast enough to stop the spear from severing his spine, but it jabbed into his left ribs, shattering them and plunging into his stomach. He grit his teeth, ignoring the explosion of pain, and grabbed the shaft, not letting the figure take it out. He could see its eyes widen just before he grabbed it by the neck with his free hand, yanking it down to smash his forehead against its nose. 

There was a loud crack as its nose shattered, and it reared back, its grip on the spear loosening. 

They slammed into the ground, Aku sliding across the white ‘floor’, while the figure was sent flying over him, both coming to a stop a few feet from each other. 

Aku stood up slowly, one hand pushing off the ground while the other held onto the spear protruding from his stomach. The figure was already standing by the time he got up and was looking at him calmly while black fluid dripped from its face, splattering on the white ground like ink. 

“Not bad, you little shit,” it growled, a new spear beginning to materialize in its hand. 

Aku ripped the spear out of his stomach, groaning in pain. “Shut up, you freak. What the hell even are you?” 

It chuckled darkly, clutching the now fully formed shadow spear in its hands. “Where I’m from, they called me Maniac.” 

“Well, they were fucking right.” Aku lunged forward, spear aimed at Maniac’s chest. Once again, he disappeared just before Aku could land his strike, but this time he was ready. He spun around and thrust his spear where he knew he would appear, and sure enough, he did. Aku’s spear dug into Maniac’s chest, stopping just short of his spine. 

Maniac spit black blood onto Aku’s face and snarled. “Fool.” He grabbed Aku’s spear and slammed his own into Aku’s skull, shattering his head instantly. 

Aku jolted upright, panting heavily. His body was once again repaired, and Maniac was standing across from him just like last time. 

“Again. Until you get it right,” he said flatly.

***

When Aku finally truly woke up from his training with Maniac, the sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon, bathing Genesis in beautiful orange light. 

It didn’t take Aku long to shower and put on a new set of clothes. He slipped on a white tunic and black pants, the same as yesterday. Bast was waiting for him in the kitchen with breakfast, a sandwich made with some kind of boar meat. 

“You look like shit,” he said, taking a bite of his. 

“Thanks,” Aku sat down across from Bast, picking up his sandwich and taking a bite.

Bast chuckled, “Long night?”

“Not… at all,” Aku mumbled, only making Bast laugh harder. He couldn’t help the small smile that crept onto his face. 

He and Maniac had trained from the time he fell asleep all the way to when he woke up, without breaks. Not once had he been able to best the bastard, getting brutally mauled in various different ways. The… well maniac hadn’t even given him any sort of instruction, just attacked him again and again. It seemed like his idea of training was just killing Aku as many times as it took for him to get better at not dying. 

Which, in all fairness, he had, but it still sucked. Dying over and over, even if he did get revived each time, wasn’t exactly pleasant. And on top of that, sleep was supposed to refresh your mind, as well as your body, so being mentally active all night was draining and definitely not something he’d be able to sustain nightly. 

After breakfast, they continued working on Aku’s smithing. Bast said that Aku still had a lot to improve on in his metalworking, so he had him working on that aspect the most.

Aku truly enjoyed working with the old man. He was kind and patient, never getting mad at him whenever he messed up his technique or warped a blade, which he still did often. By the end of their session, it was a few hours before sunset, and Aku had 2 different swords to deliver. 

He arrived first at Rielli’s to drop off a shortsword she’d ordered. 

She opened the door and smiled at him, beckoning him inside. “What’s the old man got for me today?” 

He pulled the shortsword from his back, handing it to her in its scabbard. 

She unsheathed it and set the scabbard aside, revealing its light silver blade. It looked small in her comparatively large hands. She turned it over, inspecting the crossguard, which stuck out in two sharp points. Her fingers brushed lightly over the blue sapphire embedded in the center of it, undisguised admiration in her gaze. 

“What’s it made of?” she turned to him, sheathing the blade. 

“He called it Depthium, but I can’t say I know what that is,” he followed her as she led him into her office and handed him the payment, 5 gold. 

“Is this the agreed amount?” He asked as he pocketed it.

She smirked, but didn’t say anything, ushering him out. 

The next order was a bit farther, in the market. From what Bast told him, it was a personal order.

His mentor’s rather crude map led him in the opposite direction of Rielli’s, out towards the wall. It took a while, but he eventually found a small house in the outskirts of the city. When he knocked on the door he was surprised to be greeted by a familiar face. 

“Caspian?” Aku exclaimed, looking the boy up and down. He was dressed similarly to Aku, simple brown tunic and grey pants. 

“What the- What’re you doing here?” Caspian grabbed him by the collar, dragging him inside. “Get in here! You can’t be wandering around here in the evening like this.” 

He stumbled inside, watching amusedly as Caspian shut the door behind them. “What’s the matter with you?” 

Caspian whirled on him, huffing annoyedly. “Don’t you know anything? There are all kinds of shady characters around here just waiting to grab whoever comes by. Especially around this hour!” 

Aku smirked, nodding. “Mhm, right. And, pray tell, what exactly are these ‘shady characters’ going to do to me?”

Caspian stopped, looking up at the taller man for a few moments, then scoffed as he turned away. “Bite me.” 

Aku laughed as he followed Caspian to his common room, sitting down on his couch, Caspian sitting across from him in a chair. 

“So, what’re you here for? Come for that favor already?” he inquired, shifting in his seat. 

Reaching into his bag, the one he’d gotten from Rielli, he produced a short dagger with a curved blade, very similar to God’s Bane. Its blade had a dim green tint to it, an emerald embedded into the crossguard, which thrummed with magic energy.

Caspian’s eyes widened and he lunged forward, snatching the blade from Aku’s hands. Retreating back into his chair, Caspian ran his fingers over the curved blade, whispering something incoherent to himself. After a while of this, he seemed to snap out of it and locked eyes with Aku. “You work for Bast?”

Nodding, Aku slung his bag back onto his shoulders. “I do, as of recently,” he stood up. “Now, your payment?” 

Caspian darted into his bedroom and came back moments later with a rather hefty pouch of coins. “Here. Take it and go,” he mumbled hurriedly, still focused on the dagger.

Aku nodded, dropping the pouch into his bag, and headed for the door. He opened the door, but stopped in the doorway, turning around. “What will you name it?”

Caspian looked up at him, mouth hanging open for a moment before he closed it. His lips pursed, and he seemed to think about it for a few moments. 

“Might I recommend the name, ‘Serpent’s Fang’?” he called out in a fake proper voice. Before Caspian could respond, Aku slipped outside and shut the door behind him, but he caught a glimpse of surprise on the short man’s face. 

‘Really?’ Chaos said as he walked home. ‘You stole my line.’ 

‘It’s a good line,’ he thought back. 

‘I know, that’s why I used it on you,’ she paused for a few moments before continuing. ‘God’s Bane is better than ‘Serpent’s Fang’, though.’ 

‘Whatever. Maybe he won’t even use it, or he’ll modify it somehow.’

It didn’t take as long to get home as it did to get there, and the sun was still a couple hours from setting by the time he made it there.

But there was one thing he’d been itching to do since the moment he woke up.

“I’m heading to bed early, see you in the morning,” he said to Bast as he walked past him to his room. 

Bast looked up from a parchment he’d been sketching a sword concept on, eyeing him skeptically. “Why? Did my deliveries wear you out that much?” 

“Ah… no reason. Just feeling groggy, I guess,” he shrugged, shutting the door behind him and flopping into bed and closing his eyes.

And a few minutes later…

“Oh, you’re back already. Miss me that much?”