Chapter 5: Completing of the merge

Suddenly the space changed. It was as if a gentle mist enveloped everything around me. It was as if something had touched my soul and allowed it to soar into the heavens. Into a divine dimension.

A silhouette appeared in the fog. It was unclear whether it was male or female. Unclear, adult or child. But with the appearance of this silhouette, the world froze.

Then a Gaze appeared. A gut-wrenching gaze. Seeing you to the last thought. As if asking, "Can I trust you?

We've been through this before.

And the young man relaxed, letting himself be studied unhindered. Secrets from such a creature? He doesn't care about your secrets.

See what you like.

And he smiled as if out of habit.

The Gaze disappeared.

And then a complex symbol formed, subtly similar to those in the eyes of the First Ones. And at the same time the symbol was individual. Completed.

The symbol flashed gold and entered the young man's forehead.

In the next instant he felt as if soul, mind, and body were united by an invisible axis into a single entity. The golden symbol imprinted itself in the soul, completing it's transformation. Then another symbol, an exact copy of the first, separated from the symbol in the soul and imprinted in the mind, uniting them by an invisible connection. From the symbol in the mind another clone symbol separated and pressed into the body, completing the axis of unification.

Everything froze for a moment.

Body, mind, and soul merged together.

The merging was complete.

The young man smiled and passed out.

***

Beauty and the old man looked at the floating body, from which the rings of chains were slowly falling away.

- Is he finished? - Unsurely Dra Jae asked.

- I'm not sure. - Shook his head her Master. - We thought so after the first big seizure too, but we were wrong. In any case it is worth seeing what this insolent man has achieved.

The elder looked intently at the young man's body, studying him.

- Looks like success after all. - A couple of minutes later he nodded to himself.

- What do you mean? - The lady inquired.

- The body is incredibly clean and even stronger. There are no visible abnormalities. The dantian is unsealed. And his talent has even increased a little. - The old man voiced his observations. - What's the catch?

- The catch? - The disciple was surprised.

- There must be a catch. - The Master muttered to himself. - Everything he got was good, of course. But even together it is not worth five years of torment.

- You are right. - Dra Jae agreed. - If you take a child with a good fourth level talent and splurge on a few rare treasures, you can get the same, if not better. By the way, what's wrong with his mind?

- I do not understand. - The old man grimaced. - If his body is simply filled with this strange aura, then in his mind it gushes forth. Simply put, if his body is enveloped in a gentle vapor that does not prevent him from seeing through it, the rascal's mind already looks like a lake of aura, and for some reason I do not feel like diving into it.

- It seems that the solution is not in the body after all. - Beauty touched her lips with her finger.

- Yes. The little bugger knows how to hide his secrets. - The Master nodded. - You can't get anything out of him even when he's unconscious.

- Should we let him live? - There was doubt in the lady's eyes.

- We have gone too far. - The old man sighed. - We'll let him take a few levels. And we'll watch him closely. In a life and death situation he'll have to reveal his trump cards. And if he doesn't fall into that situation himself, we can always help him. Make sure he reaches the Soaring Core Sphere. Then we can really get to him. - There was a harshness in the old man's gaze. This insolent man was unique. That was the only reason he was still alive. - I've updated the spells. It won't be a problem.

- That's good. - Dra Jae smiled fondly. She, too, was eager to find out what this intrepid young man was hiding.

***

It was a long and slow process of awakening. He was half awake, then sank back into a hazy abyss of oblivion.

At last consciousness returned to the measured pounding of the rain. And Rhys inhaled in the moist, scented air of magical herbs and flowers. Then he realized he was lying on something hard and cold. Concentrating his senses around his neck, he felt that the collar was in place. That meant I didn't have to worry about my health.

A ringing weakness ran through my whole body. But there was no pain. Only my muscles ached slightly, as if they had been slightly overworked. This was happiness.

I tried to wiggle a finger, but my muscles tightened painfully all the way to my shoulder. My lips trembled but failed to produce a smile.

Opening my eyes was as difficult as lifting a mountain. But curiosity won out. Outside Yee Rhys saw a solid wall of rain, behind which the silhouettes of bushes and trees could be made out. In the foreground was a white railing and a white horizontal plane.

He appeared to be in a gazebo in the middle of the garden. And lying on the center table.

Well, Lady always had unique ideas about where to put his unconscious carcass. The important thing is that the water is there and he's here. The rest is trivial. Lady wouldn't eat him after all. If she wanted to kill him, she wouldn't even have to get her hands dirty; all she had to do was leave him there once, where he was dying of pain and hunger all by himself. If she'd been just once too late, he wouldn't be lying here now.

As unpleasant as it sounded, he owed his life to Lady at least a hundred times.

Time flowed slowly. The rain drummed monotonically outside the gazebo. Unable even to move, Yee Rhys began to think.

Judging by the last memories and the current state of his body, the merging was finally complete. Though it would be more correct to call it a change of race. But the name wasn't important. What is more important is that the transformation gave him potential. And if he used it correctly, he could not only meet the expectations of others, but also hide a few aces up his sleeve for himself.

Fa-Al. A race only one step below the divine beasts. Though in the internal Fa-Al hierarchy he ranks only as a half-blood of the lowest order, on the verge of losing his bloodline. But compared to ordinary humans, even this potential is terrifying. The racial perks alone were worth all the agony.

Ancestral Memory and Bloodline Purification.