Teasing

Coming to, Adrian realized he had temporarily fainted after the re-evolution ended.

Adrian slowly sat up trying to gain his bearings in his "new" body only to find complete comfort radiating throughout his body as a soft pink light covered his skin. With a single glance, he could tell it was Sakura's handwork.

Somehow just her simple actions of care meant so much to him more than anything he had experienced on Earth.

Noticing Adrian's loving thoughts through their connection Sakura became multiple shades brighter while cutting off the light and hiding away.

When she did it Adrian couldn't help but smile from ear to ear while observing his body. It only took a few minutes to get accustomed to his body as it held many similarities to both his peak body and his more recent "energy body."

Energy flowed through every pore on his body instantly cleansing any dirt or impurities that came into contact with his skin. Skin that would feel abnormally cold to a normal human's touch as the poison that filled his every cell had cooled his internal temperature.

Strangely all the markings from the reintegration of his systems had remained; there was even a scar stretched across the back of his neck.

As if waiting for Adrian to remember the blank paper glowed before flying, from the now dim table, towards him strangely once it got close enough the page caught fire spreading dust in Adrian's eyes causing them to almost glitter.

The message board somehow seemed angry to Adrian when it reestablished their link causing a torrent of messages to cascade down Adrian's vision.

Seeing the messages number in the hundreds Adrian commanded, "Organize. Order chronologically. Condense all useless information."

On cue with each word, the message board responded doing as instructed and soon a comprehensive list of messages appeared.

[Connection lost in Absolute & Efficiency System… reestablishing uplink… Failed]

[Crash detected in Assistant connection… reestablishment of uplink… Failed]

[Nexus Interface (Message Board) disconnected]

[Authoryian Vault Opened]

[Two entities have abdicated their divinity returning to their original state.]

[Host ingested Outsider grade Yggdrasil Sap with 100% efficiency]

[Survive completion rate increased to 45%]

[You have completed the Mushroom Wasteland… Your story progresses]

[You have entered the Authorian Vault]

[Quest: Shards Of Self completed]

[Reward: Removed by Unknown as "Compensation"]

[Messages from Nexus (Omitted) Fate Value raised by 150]

[Uplink reestablished between Host, Absolute & Efficiency Systems, as well as Assistant.]

[New connection between Evolutionary Chip & Absolute System established.]

[New evolution paths unlocked]

Even with the condensed messages it was still a lot for only a few hours of away time.

Shrugging, Adrian rubbed his eyes before doing a rolling backflip and jumping to his feet in an attempt to show off his control over the newly evolved body.

Once on his feet, two lights appeared beside him without sound nor fanfare almost telling him to continue his path.

But as soon as Adrian lifted his foot to continue he remembered a strange message that had appeared in the jumble of messages.

[Two entities have abdicated their divinity returning to their original state.]

Once he reread this message he felt two presences hiding within his shadow while he wanted to confront them now judging from how long they had been there, they didn't seem harmful so he pretended they were never there.

Two small figures broke into sweats because of Adrian's sudden stop but seeing as he did nothing to them they assumed he didn't know they were there. Unbeknownst to them when they clumsily stopped their heads had poked out of his shadow allowing Adrian to see a little of their form.

Even Sakura saw them and whispered to Adrian quizzingly, ~Did you get some pets while I was away?~

When her puzzled and somewhat pouting tone came into his ear Adrian could only shrug with a wry smile on his face as he continued his walk down the passage.

Little did Adrian expect that the longer he spent in this passage the farther it extended…

******

After close to an hour of walking and sweet but tame flirting Adrian arrived at a three-pronged crossroad.

This time it was made of the runes he had passed before getting here. A Book, Brain, and Heart runes adorned the ground in front of their respective paths.

Or at least that's what Adrian saw, Sakura on the other hand runes for what they truly were the language of causality, Authoryian Script.

When Sakura was about to inform Adrian a bonafede highlight reel of Adrian in deep thought over the runes' meanings flashed through their connection causing Sakura to start laughing uncontrollably at her dumb teddy bear of a host.

Sakura's childlike innocent laughter filled Adrian's mind, making him confused wondering what was wrong and if he had embarrassed himself with something again.

Inquisitively, Adrian quizzed Sakura, "What's so funny I'm trying to think here?"

Hearing the seriousness in Adrian's voice Sakura couldn't help but laugh harder.

It was only after five full minutes of Sakura's gut-wrenching laughter, she told Adrian his mistake between the chuckles as she wound down.

As Sakura explained Adrian's pale skin became more and more flushed as embarrassment set in… the worst part was that he wasn't embarrassed by his mistake but by the fact Sakura was the one who caught him.

Embarrassed, Adrian randomly chose the heart path speeding down as if he could escape Sakura's constant teasing.

Except… there was never a chance he could escape.

Between Sakura's teasing and the two dufuses that seemed to stop pretending to hide Adrian wanted Dee to comfort him but quickly remembered Dee was trapped in his "Pantheon."

Adrian could only accept his defeat as he reached the middle of the passage expecting something to happen and unsurprisingly something did. Stepping on a spiral pattern on the floor nothing happened until Adrian stepped into its center.

With that step, Blood tendrils seemed from the spiral pattern before bounding Adrian into place injecting him with viscous black blood while other tendrils drained all the blood in his body like some bootleg bloodletting.

Veins along his already pale body bulged causing his eyes to appear bloodshot and his body to take on a more natural color as blood flowed through his body hundreds of times faster than the "tainted" blood he previously had flowing through his body.

Each cycle of blood strengthened his heart and by extension, his bloodline forcing even the system to acknowledge the changes in his bloodline.

[Mythos Bloodline strengthened]