Chapter『65』: The Beast-Core Project / A New Core

Pain. It was neither a foreign concept nor something I had never experienced.

Usually, it exists hand in-hand with human existence, like an ethereal specter that lingers in the depths of human existence, has long been intertwined with the fabric of my being.

Its existence, though ever-present, has taken on an elusive quality over the passage of time, caused by a multitude of reasons. Emotional and physical grief, stress, affliction by force.

But this pain that I had experienced, or rather felt enough to feel something, so to say, had long been forgotten, like a fading echo from a distant memory, it had become a relic of a bygone era, residing only in the recesses of my consciousness.

However, no matter, how much resilience one might develop against it, there always exists a breaking point. And this body seemed to be getting nearer and nearer to its limit with every passing, excruciating second.

A bubbling, stinging sensation invaded my arm once again as I took a staggering step towards the rune laden double doors, behind where the sanctuary---the place where I first arrived---was.

I staggered once again, the strength in my body slowly getting sapped with each painful step.

My healing speed had increased many times over due to the metamorphosis that had taken place due to reaching integration stage, however, the aether attacks from the chimeras had rendered my wounds unable to heal.

There was on possible reason to this. I was able to deduce this by looking at the infrastructure of the relictomb. The area of the room that I had destroyed using mana was temporary damage as it reconstructed itself after a while. It was the same for my wound.

I had lost a whole arm. And stopping the bleeding wasn't any easy as the more mana I concentrated on healing it, the more aether countered against it.

I needed to do something about it, fast.

"I've been thinking," Regis chimed in as he walked beside me, supporting my weight. My arm hung around his neck as he pulled me. "What was that thing you saw earlier?"

"Hm. You saw it too?" I asked, surprised.

"Yeah. But not very clearly."

I looked down at him, "What do you mean?"

"Hmmm, I am not able to put my finger on it. Let's see," he paused, humming and furrowing his brows like he was trying to articulate his words to describe himself better, "you know about the perception of nature via magic, wind magic, yeah?"

"Yeah, I do." I replied. It was a simple phenomenon. Using wind magic and controlling every tendril of it to feel the outlines of objects. It wasn't a very convenient thing but it could prove quite helpful for a blind person.

"Well, I am able to influence aether better than you, for the time being," he replied, and his voice trailed off in the distance, like a dying echo, "I am made up of aether. The vision or the mirage you saw earlier, I felt a feeling of deja vu. from it. However, after a while I could see an outline of it."

A realisation dawned on me, "It was an aetheric manifestation." I spoke up and winced, closing my left eye as the wound festered, inducing a scalding sensation.

"It was. Not sure if it's some relictomb voodoo art or something else, but pretty sure it was made out of aether."

"It wasn't a mirage." I interjected as he looked up at me, "the presence was real. There seemed some sort of polarity between it and my body. I felt attracted to it." Regis let out a confused grunt. "Where do you think I am telling you to guide me to?"

"The place where you saw the mirage, or whatever you want to call it?"

"I don't 'exactly' want to go there. Like I said, I feel some kind of weird sensation." I replied as I stopped. "Put me down."

Regis didn't talk back and put me down, against the rune door.

"Wanna go back in?" Regis asked, his brows still furrowed while his void like eyes, black and endless, looked around.

"No. I want to try something." I replied, as I closed my eyes, taking in the morbid sensation.

Suddenly, like an iron bar to the back of my head, I felt a blow to myself.... my consciousness.

Broken core, lack of mana, body devouring itself.

A few concepts entered my mind, not mine yet it felt like it had happened to me.

"Are you salty that I said I am better at influencing aether?" Regis asked with a low snicker as he sat in front of me.

"Yeah. Very much. I am really salty." I replied, grunting as the aether made the wound burn like scorching flames.

"Hmm. But you have a plan of doing something about it, don't you?"

"Not necessarily." I shot back.

"You just thought of a plan, you daft twat." He howled and started rolling on the floor, "You do know that the wall you build around your thoughts for Sylvie isn't enough to contain me from peeking?"

"Yeah, I know."

He stopped and sat back up, "Boring. But anyways, are you sure about it?"

"Hm, maybe."

I wasn't sure about it. This body, it seemed like it knew what I was about to do. Shattered fragments of my primary core hovered freely in my chest. I let out a deep breath and took dawn out.

"Ohooo, wait a second, matey. You don't plan on killing me, right? I am just a few hours old!"

"I am not. Shut up for a second."

"Oh, ok," he paused, "could've sworn I sensed bloodlust." he mumbled.

Dawn had unique properties. According to Regis, Dawn could attain a human form by an appropriate mix of mana and aether. It means, she was able to draw aether in her. Raising dawn up, I plunged its blade into my already festering wound.

"God damnit. Why are you suddenly into hardcore penetration?" Regis commented by I ignored it, letting myself fall into a cold embrace. Every second of concentration counted.

'Dawn, draw the aether in.' I commanded, mentally, my consciousness fading in and out, the blood loss catching up to me.

'Yes, master.' She replied almost instantly.

The aether started to get drawn in, slowly, steadily..... one painful prick at a time.

The process continued for a long while until half of Dawn's teal blade started to shimmer in a bright purple light.

'Are you done?' I asked.

'I am at my capacity.' She replied, her voice sounding more mature.

'Hm. Release all of it once I tell you to.'

'Noticed.'

Regis stayed silent and despite my close eyes, I could feel him staring at me, his gaze sharp and piercing.

Opening my eyes suddenly, I saw Regis hovering in the air, again, upside down as he looked at me. Taking Dawn out from my shoulder I plunged her into my chest this time.

"Oh, for heaven's sake. That is not a 'hole', dear master, mine. At least do it properly."

'Now!' I commanded in a frenzy as I felt my gaze double. The aether poured into my chest and mana immediately started to flow towards my chest, as a defense mechanism, trying to fight the foreign element off. Reaching out for my mana, I receded it, laying it dormant as I left my body totally defenseless.

The aether lingered in my chest, floating with no intrinsic property this time. It wasn't carrying a 'nature', so to say, unlike a while ago, that removed healing and had an offensive nature. Much to my surprise, it felt ecstatic. Like the aether carrying a life of its own.

I took dawn out of my chest and focused on the aether, letting Realmheart fully manifest.

My intentions might've slipped into Regis due to my lack of defense around my mind as I heard him gasp, "Aether core?"

(3rd person POV)

*****Location: ELSHIRE FOREST*****

The cacophony of explosions subsided as the dicathian survivors lowered their shields. Tessia withdrew the huge canopy of vines that she had conjured above her party member and few others who had managed to slip inside her defense.

She looked up as she saw two individuals.

They both were women. The first one had flawless silvery-gray skin with pure white hair plaited into a tight braid that flowed down her back. She dark lips and eyes that perfectly matched the two sets of gleaming onyx horns that erupted from her head and curled sharply back, one pair exactly beneath the other. Her eyes were the color of curdled blood---dark red.

The other one, weaker than the white-haired women, had hair that was the color of fire, and it seemed to move with a life of its own, like a flickering candle flame.

"Dicathians. Cease your struggles. Resistance is futile." The red haired one announced proudly, her voice getting amplified by her sound magic. "Your only means of salvation has died. Bow down now and let the benevolent Vritra save you or perish."

A tremor ran through Tess' heart as she gritted her teeth. A vine shot from beneath the ground and went straight for the red-haired woman. She looked at the wine from the corner of her eye and extended the palm of her hand towards the approaching vine. Like a ripple in water, the air itself rippled and the wine got slashed into small pieces, failing to attack before it covered even half of the distance.

"Kill those who resist." The white-haired woman ordered.

"Yes, Scythe Melzri." She nodded and hovered down, her heel slightly touching the soft soil beneath.

Tess walked forward, leaving her teammates behind.

"Royal Elven Princess, Tessia Eralith, yes?" The red-haired woman announced with a subtle smirk.

"Doesn't matter," Tessia replied.

Brandishing her sword she shot forward like a bullet.

"Your sword alignment is off. Did they not teach you anything?" The red-haired woman, Retainer Lyra mocked. But before she could react, Tessia accelerated and jumped up, leaving Lyra behind and instead aimed for the Scythe.

A huge ball of flames and scorching sand followed from behind Tessia and hit Lyra, causing a huge explosion. Tessia closed into the Scythe who's void like eyes looked lazily at her, "Begone!"

A rush of soul-fire shot up from her palm as it engulfed her.

"Tessia!" Stannard howled as he loaded an S-Rank beast core into his gun and shot it straight at the Scythe. Her eyes widened as the spell swelled and ate her. Tessia emerged from the other side, unscathed as she looked back at Stannard. Nodding her head she assured him of her safety and looked back at the scythe.

The flames subsided as her form appeared once again, her clothes unharmed and a bored look on her face. "The boy has some potential. But that is about it. Why do you struggle when its so futile?" She asked as she took out a black sword and pointed it at Tessia.

Meanwhile, the huge explosion's smoke subsided, and Lyra was in the same condition as well, "You have to try better than this." Lyra spoke as she sent a wave of sound behind her. Splatter of blood shot from multiple soldier's ears as they fell to the ground with rustling thuds, their brain-matter leaking from their ears.

Curtis and Darvus grimaced as they took out their weapons. Caria augmented her gauntlets into a thick layer of mana while Stannard loaded another beast core into his gun.

"Shut up!" Tess shot back at the Scythe who had now gotten down on the ground and was engaging in a sword fight with Tessia. Tessia arced her sword down at her but she simply side-stepped, plunging her sword into her shoulder blade. Tessia eye's widened as she fell to the ground.

The scythe---Melzri pulled her by her hair as she lowered down, twisting her sword deeper as Tessia bit her lip, struggling not to scream. "Are you still struggling?"

She stayed silent as the scythe spoke again, "Your hope has died. You should give up too." She said and took her sword out, ready to cut her head off.

As she was about to do so, Tessia's body shone, and her hair started to wave like a flag in air. Her gunmetal hair started to change its colour, morphing from dark silver to an alluring black, her eyes catching a deep shade of crimson.

The scythe stepped back and looked at her from head to toe, analysig her. "So, this is what people of this continent do to gain some power. Integrate with beasts." Her initial fascination died out in an instant, replaced by a condescending sneer, "How repulsive."

Decay form wind mana enveloped her sword as she slashed at Tessia. The void wind whistled through the air with a deadly accuracy and speed. A wall of vines shot up from the ground, but the void wind slashed through it. However, it didn't hit Tess as she had already disappeared from there.

Melzri looked back but before Tess could even swing her sword, she kicked her in the sternum, making her second form of beast will shimmer in and out of existence. Tess crashed into a tree, breaking it as, in turn, it fell onto her.

Melzri walked slowly towards her, watching Tessia's beast will fade away. "Displaying your and your parent's heads for everyone to see will be a good sport don't you think?" She spoke in a cheerful tone and released a barrage of void wind at Tess. They all landed, leaving shallow cuts all over her body, enough to bleed her out but not to dismember her.

This time she cried out, the stinging sensation of wounds and void wind's innate property of decay making it excruciatingly unbearable. Melzir stepped on her head, burying her face into the mud below, "How does it feel? Does it hurts?"

She asked with a grin and pressed her head deeper into the mud, "Give me the satisfaction that I did a good job. Come on. Tell me."

Tessia reached out for her mana but couldn't, the blow to her sternum making her control unstable and the cuts festered by void wind making it impossible for her to move.

"Hmm, no reply? You're no fun. I'll just kill you." Not getting any satisfaction for her sadistic side, she brandished her sword and raised it into the air. However, before she could slash, she drew a backward arc and instead of Tess, cut something else.

Its rocky head fall off followed by its limp body. Melzri looked closely as she saw the golem made of earth and stones.

'Strange.' She thought. Golems were made by casters. However, golems didn't have a mana capacity of their own. Suddenly, the beheaded golem stood up and attacked Melzri. However, it wasn't just a blind attack. It was clumsy punch followed by an arc of wind mana. A gust of void wind materlised and devoured the blade of wind conjured by the golem and then travelled further to completely disintegrate the golem.

Melzri's eyes widened as she looked at the dismembered golem. Not only did it have a complex network of tubules, in the center of its chest, there was a shimmering mana core. Not a humanoid one, but rather, a beast core.

A morbid fear sat inside her. She had never seen something like this. Nor had she even heard about any theoretical aspect of such thing. It was something beyond her comprehension. As she was looking at it, trying to comprehend what she had just witnessed, the mana inside the core swelled like a balloon and exploded, catching her off guard.

"Is trickery all you lessers know?" Melzri commented as she emerged unscathed, again, protected by a veil of void wind.

Another figure descended and woke away from Melzri as she stopped down towards the fragmented golems, "So this is what you needed so many beast cores for." The new person commented.

Melzri's expressions stiffened, 'A lance? No... she's above those lances mentioned in the report.' she thought.

The white-haired figure, Arisu, stood up and looked back, "Don't go and destroy something he put so much time in." She said with a twitch of her brows, "it makes me really mad."

(Arthur Leywin)

Regis zipped up to my face. "Oh, I'm sorry. Is my genuine concern that you might blow yourself up bothering you?"

I swatted him away. "You're made of me, so yes."

"Gross. Also, unlike you, I am capable of worrying." He spat back. Why do I sense condescendence in his voice? I could see an ash coloured smoke fume from his ears, "Why are you even doing it? You're quite literally the first human to reach integration stage. Not to mention you have a dragon's physique."

"Why am I doing this? If you can't figure that out then I won't explain." I spoke up and rested my head against the cold surface of the door.

"Oh please, don't go on a ramble on how you're weak."

He talks a lot. Also, he seems a lot more expressive and foul-mouthed than me. Maybe, Sylvia's essence has also made up a huge part of him.

"Haven't you heard the story of the elders of the Indrath Clan attempting to form a core out of pure aether within the body of an infant clan member that was-----"

"-----born without a core. Yes, you literally just told me." I interrupted him.

"And is your skull too thick to comprehend it?"

"There is no harm in trying."

"HARM!? You're crazy."

"Crazy?"

"Don't start me on that." He quipped, facing the other way. "I was just born, damn it. I don't want to die so early."

"Do you not believe in me?"

He looked back, a wide look of confusion on his face, like I had asked the most stupid question. "You? Trust? Oh, hell naw. No way in seven hells."

He's quite defiant.

"At least tell me you really have a plan or you just made me feed the notion of you having an idea?"

"I am thinking." I replied. I wasn't sitting here because I wanted to rest. It was because the vision I saw before, the aetheric manifestation... it was about a blonde girl sitting against the door. My body naturally seems to be moving towards it. I closed my eyes, feeling the sensation of a foreign intervention. I suddenly felt something, with my eyes closed.

There was a static black everywhere. But, amidst the murky, still darkness, there were a few dots of purple..... aether. They were the remnants of aether in the chimeras. Slowly dying..... aether dissipating.

I saw, no, observed another blob of purple. Regis. His aether signature much bigger, more potent than the chimeras.

Opening my eyes, I looked at him and asked. "How did you aether capacity increase?"

He looked confused for a while but soon caught up. He spoke, with a nonchalant shrug. "Oh, I left a few hickeys on the chimeras chasing me. Turns out you can eat them..... or rather the aether."

"And how are you containing it?" I asked, knowing this is the key I need.

"I don't know, master mine." He replied with a roll of his eyes, "its instinctive. You can read my mind to find out how though."

"That would be unnecessary. If its based off instinct, its useless for me."

It was true, but seeing how it regulated around in Regis and chimeras I came up with a plan.

'Dawn.' I called out for my sword through our link.

'Yes, master?'

'The aether you injected inside me; can you influence it again?'

'Highly unlikely. Only if master uses Realmheart.'

This was interesting. It meant she could gain benefits from my abilities as well.

'Gather the aether you injected around my primary core.' I commanded Dawn. However, I felt a morbid unease swell from her and enter my consciousness.

'Is anything wrong, Dawn?'

'No. Nothing is wrong, master.' She replied but despite her denial I could feel a sense of worry bubble up from her. She's evolving fast.

Without wasting another second, I plunged the sword back into my chest.

"Oh, my days, holy shit. What is wrong with you, dude?"

My arm had almost regrated uptill my elbow. The wound in my chest had healed already as well. However, this time it didn't hurt at all. The sword pierced my flesh with ease and stopped right where my primary core was.

'Now, start gathering it in the form of a sphere.' I thought to Dawn, and she obliged.

It took a few dozen times of injuring myself to actually confirm my hypothesis, but what I realized was that intent influenced the movement of the aetheric essence within me. This was nowhere near the point of manipulation like I had done with mana, but if I thought that regenerating a certain part of my body took precedence over another part, the aether took heed of that advice.

Now it was a simple thing. All I had to do was trick it into thinking that the damaged pieces of core, instead of being disposed, should be made back up.

Aether worked in a simple way, at least, in this case.

If my core was cracked, it would've healed it. Since its broken, its deemed dead, so first response would be to eject it out of the body.

Almost as soon as my thoughts solidified into an actual idea, I already knew what I had to do... I just didn't like the answer.

It was troublesome. And I was tired.

The only reason this plan had even a chance of working was because I could do something that not even dragons of the Indrath Clan could do, so to say.

"Dawn, Regis. Inject me with every ounce of aether you both contain."

Without a moment's hesitation, I felt a massive input of aether inside my body. Even Regis was holding the hilt of Dawn and pouring his aether into her, using her as a conductor. There was no hesitation in him. I guess he can be useful sometimes. The runes that stretched all over my body started to glow in a bright golden and amethyst light.

I continued despite a jarring pain growing within my body. It felt like every muscle, bone, organ in my body were being pumped with fluid to the point of bursting. But this wasn't enough. I needed as much aetheric essence as possible if this was going to work.

"Seriously, Arthur. You're...sort of bleeding from your body."

"M-Master..... ar-are you okay?"

Just a bit more.

I felt a tingle in my chest.

A bit more.

Unbeknownst to me, Dawn pulled herself outside from my body, without my command.

Regis was right; it looked like I was sweating blood, beads of red trailing down my body. My vision spun and pulsated while I could feel my heart beating madly against my chest. Controlling my breathing in order to keep myself from passing out, I conjured a blade of ice and stabbed my thigh with it.

I could feel Dawn's presence beside me. "What are you planning on doing with that?" She asked out loud with a voice that was a mix of worry and slight anger.

"Now that's a hot voi---- ehm, He is inflicting pain to himself, so he won't pass out." Regis explained, although the initials of his dialogue left me flabbergasted.

I opened my eyes to get one quick look at my surroundings and closed them again. Mana swelled inside and all around me, forming a translucent dome. However, I shut down the intrinsic property of mana healing me automatically.

The last thing I wanted was a clash between aether and mana, inside my body no less.

I focused on aether as I felt Regis's finger stab the wound in my chest. Opening my eyes, I saw his face next to me, his tangible appearance staggering on the precipice of reality as his whole existence started flickering like a hologram.

"I'll draw it in. But there's only so much I can do. The rest is up to you. I am sure you can do it. You always have. Good luck." He said and for the first time I saw a warm smile on his face, his presence completely vanishing.

Immediately, like millions of tiny insects crawling inside every inch of my body, I felt all of the aether held inside me coalescing to where Regis and my fatal wound were----my primary core. A black shadow zipped out of me almost instantaneously and the aether that had gathered within the vicinity all condensed together to heal my injury. Every ounce of my brain focused on maintaining this meditative state, forming a core around the coalescing aether where my old mana core used to be.

Some of the aether had leaked to close the hole my thigh, but with the worst of the injury right where my old mana core used to be, I was able to attract most of it.

So, under the premises that: unlike even dragons, I was able to absorb aether directly into my body; I had Regis, who interacted in a way where he naturally attracted the aether within me; the remains of my mana core still existed inside me; and I could influence the aether a bit to a certain extent, I proceeded to the most important step.

(***)

The concept of time eluded me as the battle between my wits and the aether gathered around the fragmented parts of my mana core ensued.

I needed to not only trick the aether raging in the center of my body to restore the mana core rather than to break it down, but I also needed it to rebuild my broken mana core around the compressed orb of aether that had been tricked into gathering at this focal point.

If forming my mana core for the first time when I was a toddler had been difficult, this was next to impossible. Every slight twitch of internal movement or leak of intent could cause the condensed orb of aetheric essence to break down my mana core until it was completely wiped away from my body. I didn't have a second chance.

It felt like every experience, every tribulation that I had gone through was for this moment. I was being tested to my utmost limit, concentrating through the sheer agony of the injury I had self-inflicted and the raging ball of power that I was trying to trick to bend to my will.

Finally, as the last bits of my old mana core had become restored, encasing the condensed gathering of aether within, my world erupted into a sea of purple.

By the time I came to, my head felt like it had been split in two, and my breathing was ragged. Prying my eyelids open, I was greeted with the sight of a smirking Regis in front of the familiar backdrop of the battle-scarred walls of the chimera hallway.

"Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty," Regis chuckled.

I pushed myself off my back, sitting up while pressing my hand against my chest. "Hmm."

"Well, after you committed seppuku and sat completely still for about a full day, your body suddenly combusted into purple flames and then you passed out for another two days," an unfamiliar black ball of flame explained before shooting me another grin. "But you did it, you sick sadistic bastard!" however, he paused soon enough, "You still owe me a lifetime support of aether. Look at this repulsive form of mine."

I stood up, shrugging the rising bile pressing against the back of my throat as I sensed inwards.

"Your mana was so potent that it was about to expel the aether core out. So, I did what any good friend would do, I ALMOST KILLED MYSELF!"

I deadpanned at him, "It's not the time to joke."

"Well, I injected every last ounce of aether I had in you. Resulting in another layer of aether around your new aether core. There are some problems that we might face but for now, its pretty good."

As I observed inside, I saw my mana and newly formed aether core resting in a calm harmony. The scale of power was balanced. If my mana capacity increased or aether, it would surely explode me from inside out.

Scary.

"No wonder they used to call you a demon----"Regis pursed his lips as I jerked my head towards him. "Sorry."

"Well then," I said, stretching my limbs as I put a dormant Dawn back into my ring, "let's see what I can do with this power."

Regis smirked as we moved towards the door that led to the next stage.