The guide, and the realm are most easily explained in this way. The Soul Sword is one part shamanic journey, one part empowerment through action. Part of the reason spirits can gain their sword in such a short time frame and gain a level of amplified skill in that time, is because I have ways of holding space for them for their Soul Realm, the Realm Within, the place where no one (not even I) can exist without their permission. By holding that space for them, I allow them to project into that realm, a kind of Shamanic Symbolic realm, without taking a strain on their own energy reserves.
The Soul Sword is the manifestation of the part of them that is pure warrior, protector, and in many ways killer. It's the violent aspects that can be honed toward benefit for them, the part that wants to protect them, the part that wants to avenge friends. All of those things. It manifests as a Guide, a person, who is within them. The weapon, is the guide as well, but it is all that power honed into a weapon, a Soul Sword, a weapon from within. Every being gains their Soul Sword differently once in their inner realm, but most have to overcome the guide in some way to "prove themselves to themselves."
The sword, guide, and wielder (the being) are all one ultimately, but this aspecting allows access to almost limitless power, though like all things the limit to limitless is how much one has used or learned to use it. So it's not separate, it's a part of them, and in theory a being could learn the Soul Sword without the advanced methods we offer, we just don't certify them for it. Golden Golem with the benefit of my master crystal systems, and shadowing my techniques (meaning learning by watching my hundreds upon hundreds of my personal trainings with my sword I've let him watch) was able to gain his in 8 years, and he's a bit of a prodigy, so on average we expect it would take a being without the realm held, and the advantages that gives, somewhere between 20 - 40 years to gain their sword without aid.
Beings tend to go slower than humans, and a human without guidance through the guided meditation and the help of aiming their training we provide, tends to take about 3 - 5 years.
Most beings CAN Manifest their Soul Guide as a kind of "partner" in the realms, but it uses up their Soul Force connection to do so, except in cases where for whatever reason their Soul Sword also brings the guide out. This goes for humans as well as beings in other realms. My sword guide is a massive black suit of armor, which is also PART of my weapon's power (not all of it). So for me, bringing my guide out as a "manifestation" in the realms is easier than for example my wife who's guide is more an elemental of water and air. It varies from wielder to wielder how efficient they are at bringing their guide out, but over time everyone CAN master doing that. Likewise, guides that are hyper hostile during the training phase tend to be more helpful when called into a realm to aid their wielder. Almost always though bringing a guide out to fight alongside, or instead of the wielder means limiting the power of their core Soul Sword. I say almost always because there are always exceptions to the rules.
During the training we have two phases. Training, where I hold the space in the realm for them using a combination of tools and my own power, and testing, where I use a set of restraints to lower me to their base power, and I test them sword against sword. Training is them and their guide, with the realm held stable using tools that are massively powerful. Powerful enough that they surpass anything any client could or would want for personal use. I'm an observer during training, the most I can do is occasionally yell an encouraging phrase such as "get back up you aren't done yet!" Or remind them to focus on the flow of the Soul Force through them that they are feeling in that inner soul realm. Sometimes the guide is more a teacher style, and is showing them how to work with it, but more often than not, it requires they prove to it (a part of themselves) they are worthy of the power even then.
The Soul Sword could be any weapon or construct, is not something we can aim, and isn't even something the BEING can really aim, it's a hidden part of WHO they are. I've seen weapons that would be unwieldy in the physical realm, yet move like an extension of the wielder, I've seen it be a necklace, or ring before, armor, or partial armor points, and even sometimes a gemstone that embeds into the wielder's body. The Soul Sword itself is indestructible.
The testing phase, I use those tools to hold a stabilized external soul realm, generally one that appears like their previous soul realm. I have a second tool set that restrains my power and energy to their base, as restraining it manually has become harder after hundreds of soul sword training sessions. By having a tool limit and restrain my power, I ensure I can't accidentally destroy a being in such a way they could never reform, so that restraint is a must. My sword is old now, and refined, so it's still something they have to strive against even when my base energy is restrained, and as I "push" energy higher while in that restrained form, I can force the being to grow and prove its soul sword is true. If it breaks, we know its a pseudo or proto sword. Since we've started using tools instead of me just holding the realm with raw power myself we've not seen that happen, so the testing is more for me to see that they can use the sword effectively and grow with it.
When the realm begins to shake under the strain, it becomes a risk of influencing other planes in alignment with the isolated one, and since I don't want to blast through the home of some poor passerby along a parallel plane, we stop at that point rather than become a hazard to other beings in other realms. Generally as power increases from my pushing, and them growing, the realm itself will start to crumble instead of the soul swords. A Soul Sword itself is as infinite as souls are, so on a level of power that goes beyond most concepts of divinity and gods, but also restrained and restricted in form to the amount of understanding one has of themselves and that aspect of the self.
Once a being has achieved their soul sword, they can project into their inner realm more or less at will, but just like how when we project our core body remains in this realm, so does theirs. So it would appear, to you or I, that they were in a deep meditation. Some beings prefer to call their guide into the outer realms to train with them, if they are able to call them into being in that way, while others prefer to go within. Humans are similar in this, I had a student who calls his guide into the astral plane to train, while most focus on going within. 99.9% of the time going within is the better option, as once the sword is achieved the power necessary to go within and maintain that realm drops drastically.