Chapter 72 - Rampage And All You Can Eat

Somewhere, towards the southern regions of the planet, Spencer's figure appeared high up in the sky. Looking down, he smirked seeing the shambled remains that the being known Aethros left in its wake.

Although the situation was bad for the fashacalli, to him, this was a blessing in disguise. He needed to collect samples from all kinds of tribesmen, in an attempt to gather all the missing affinities in order to reach the prime state, which would have proved rather inconvenient without this unplanned 'assistance'.

He sent out a concentrated psionic pulse to make sure that there were no survivors, and once he received the empty response, he slowly descended.

Seeing the hundreds of dead bodies sprawled on the ground, he casually began making his way towards the temple that stood at the dead center. Along the way, the bodies of the fallen fashacalli began to rapidly liquefy and flew towards Spencer's body by the dozen, merging their mass into his sea of DNA inside his Mind Space.

After all the years, and countless absorbed lifeforms, Spencer still felt the highest of joys when a new mass merged together with his ever-increasing reserves. The feeling was almost euphoric, he could be seen grinning as if he was high on some substance as he approached the temple.

While the regular tribes folk offered little to no increase towards his collection, once he absorbed the guardsmen he could finally feel some increase in his power. A moderately sized gentle blue seedling began to form inside his Mind Space and began to circle around the other fashacalli orbs.

He closed his eyes as he felt the surge of its power zap through his body, gradually merging with his aura. This new power, this new orb, was the fourth affinity he gained, the water affinity.

With an even wider and expectant grin, he clicked his tongue in satisfaction, feeling the aftereffects of the forming of the new orb of essence. A moment later his eyelids sprung open and entered the ruined temple.

The dead silence that lorded over the empty halls didn't bother Spencer the slightest. On the contrary, the eerie atmosphere was strangely soothing, calming to him. He found solace in this tranquil quiet. He quickly walked the long and dark hallways.

He only smiled when he saw the brutally mutilated remains of a being in the central chamber. The altar he presided over just a day ago was now painted dark with the pool of his blood and gutter.

Spencer simply raised his arm and watched in silence as the bits and pieces began to resonate and vibrate together, only to liquify a second later and flew towards him, serving to the formation of the fifth colorless seedling containing a rather powerful air affinity.

The surface of the two little orbs began to throb with a visible eagerness as the absorbed essence of the hundreds of bodies he assimilated on his way to the altar further feeding the growth of the two orbs. The orbs began to expand, both slowly reaching the size of a cherry.

The increase in mass had visible effects on Spencer as well. Markings once again began to snake all around his body, changing colors in rapid succession, only to disappear and fade from his body as the orb settled down. The fur on his tail had a brief platinum shine whilst the effects were ongoing, but in the end, it settled with the grayish-white color in the end.

He felt a new connection, the very air around him now was as if it surrounded him, hugging him to provide its eternal protection. He felt an immediate connection to the subtle numerous water particles residing in the air, the very clouds above him resonating with his mind.

As the orb finally calmed down, his figure flickered and vanished in the next second, only to reappear above the now empty, deserted-looking settlement. He looked towards the north, and sped towards the next settlement, following Aethros' trail of destruction, hoping that he wouldn't need to waste too much time before he could gather up the remaining affinities.

---

Not that many tribes ahead from Spencer's current position on the planet, the rampaging Aethros was wreaking havoc on yet another tribe in the distance, tearing through their numbers with ease as he slaughtered the masses without discrimination, no man, woman, nor child was spared from his purging of this world.

Aethros currently tearing the spine from another one of his ever-increasing victims looked up at the temple with impure anticipation in his eyes. Tossing the body he had in his hand, he nonchalantly made his way to the temple doors, violently kicking them open to see this tribe's Elder floating above the altar facing him.

"Why are you doing this to your own people Aethros? What do you hope to achieve by killing us all?" The Elder of this tribe spoke to Aethros in the hopes of talking him out of this massacre, focusing on the grin plastered on his face.

"Peace of mind?" He tilted his head trying to find a justifiable reason, but he couldn't find one, simply shrugging his shoulders, "If I'm to be honest, it's because I want you all dead!"

Aethros rushed at the Elder, sending a blast of energy at his figure. The Elder swiftly reacted by creating a solid wall to block the blast before sending a barrage of rock spears by splintering the wall, quickly following behind the spears that Aethros blocked and appearing close to his face.

The Elder proceeded to lock Aethros's feet in place with the very ground he stood on, before stomping his feet to channel the energy of the very planet they reside on. Aethros was promptly slammed in the chest with the force of the planet itself, the shockwave completely destroying the temple along with a large portion of the surrounding area.

The chest of Aethros seemed to briefly, violently cave in before his body was suddenly surrounded by a golden aura. As time slowly rewound from his perspective, the opening in his chest repairing itself slowly as the shattered temple was restored, time continued its designated flow once Aethros had returned to the point in where the Elder had only just created the wall to block his energy blast.

Watching as the Elder proceeded with the same course of action, he simply blocked all of the rock spears approaching him and froze the Elder before forcefully grabbing him as he was in the air, forcing him to his knees whilst he struggled to breath.

"Nice try." Aethros lifted the Elder off his knees and held him up in the air, tightening his hold on his neck, "But it wasn't good enough!" He then channeled fasha into his hand before mercilessly crushing his throat, watching in glee as the Elder gagged and choked on his own blood whilst his eyes popped out of their sockets.

"Aaand...Pop!" Aethros watched the Elders head pop under the force of his grip, tossing him to the side before making his way to the next tribe on the list.

"Now all that's left is that detestable Elder... He's going to be a tricky one to handle with his hold over life and time." Aethros began to make his way over to his second to last visit.

---

As swiftly as Aethros left, Spencer had just as quickly arrived at the rather recently massacred tribe, proceeding with the same process he had done for all of the preceding destroyed ones.

Strolling through the rows upon rows of dead bodies with his hands in his newly formed pockets, he would occasionally shiver as the constant influx of new mass and the random periodic affinity boost made his body jump a little.

Assimilating all of the dead bodies in the tribe, he made his way to the altar to swiftly consume the Elder that resided here. Once that was done, Spencer sat down in a lotus position.

"That should be the last of the affinities." He quickly entered his mindscape to complete the task he came for.

Taking the three new, colorless, light blue, and brown spheres, he channeled his fasha energy mixed with his generated energy into them, immediately pushing the affinities in each orb to their very limit and causing them to suddenly grow to the size of the others before it. Focusing on the three orbs above his palm, he merged them together with the previous orb already containing the time, space, fire, and life affinity.

The grueling process took roughly 30 minutes before he had managed to fuse all of the orbs together perfectly. All of his work being displayed as a pure platinum colored sphere containing all of the fashacalli DNA he has absorbed thus far. Upon the completion of the fusion, Spencer's body took another small leap in height reaching 9ft whilst his tails previous grayish-white shade with a powerful platinum hue, finally accessing the prime of the fashacalli race.

"F͓̽i͓̽n͓̽a͓̽l͓̽l͓̽y͓̽!͓̽" Spencer's voice echoed and threatened to destroy the temple's structure with a single word, he quickly lowered his tone to regulate his strength output once again, "This feels kinda good!".

He promptly readjusted his height back down to the height he had when he first arrived on this planet as well as shortening his hair considerably. Moving his arm through the air, he could feel everything around him on a subconscious level. The very flow of time and space could be felt by his fingertips whilst he stood stagnant.

Taking his time to grasp the new scale of his powers, he still had one last thing to do.

Momentarily invading the fasha core within his body with his personally generated energy, Spencer began to merge the fasha his body was now generating with his personal energy source, regulating the two's exposure to not cause a destructive reaction.

Contrary to his assumption, the two energy sources bonded without issue, quickly uniting into a single new energy signature. His body gently rising from the ground surrounded by his new bluish aura outlined by a platinum hue.

"Time to move on to the next." Spencer swiftly vanished on route to the next tribe.

---

Stretching ahead to Aethros's current target, this tribe was in shambles like the many others before it, hundreds of its people dead, its buildings destroyed, and its stability lost.

At this very moment, Aethros could be seen fighting the Elder of this tribe along with a rather unexpected new opponent. The Elder from the tribe ahead had decided to join the fight against Aethros, opting for a two on one fight in the hopes of defeating him.

"This doesn't seem fair!" Aethros spoke in a playful tone, much to the annoyance of the two Elders in front of him.

"We will do what we must, you have taken too many lives this day and we will put a stop to it." The Elder of Shaya's tribe spoke out his dissatisfaction with the death of his fellow Elders across the planet.

"I guess this means more fun for me!" Aethros launched himself at the two Elders, preloading the fight that is to come.