Chapter 54: Conviction

Valdor walked into the room and felt the waves of pure undiluted energy, one that was highly concentrated and couldn't be compared to the aether running in his energy channels washed all over him.

"So this is the rumoured ether"

Valdor spoke out loud as he felt his channels burning and healing themselves continually under the stimulation of the foreign energy.

Valdor wasn't exactly right, the core of any dungeon consisted of the the three origins deeply condensed together into one entity. 

What he felt was neither aether nor either or nether but the chaos. But countless scholars had researched the dungeon to no avail, with no concrete results, a dungeon core would disintegrate upon leaving the dungeon after all.

The dwarves with their constant urge for knowledge and creation had come to find out about ether during a request from the order of faith, although only the highest members knew of it, but Valdor as a rising star of the clan was allowed access to this knowledge. 

In their countless tries to discover what really constituted a dungeon core, one dwarf found traces of ether, the same energy he had to integrate into his last work in the core and the dungeon core had been incorrectly labelled as ether ever since

In this world, apart from the order of faith, only the highest members of each race, and the most powerful entities around were aware of the existence of ether, but being aware of its existence was all they could do. No other people apart from the order were able to use them.

(A.N: This is what is known to all that know about ether. The high level ascendants that know the truth don't spread it. And knowing the truth about ether is one of the prerequisites of being called a true high level ascendant.

Read auxiliary chapter "Ether" for more information)

Valdor snapped out of his thoughts as it wasn't the time for that, staying in that room was taxing enough for a awakener like him, he could feel his body breaking down and restructuring itself repeatedly, his channels were being nourished and he now had a hundred and 5 channels open and he could barely keep himself from ascending. He had to make his move now.

He crouched down dropping the phylactery beneath the energy core, and brought out the rest of the items he needed for his operation from his storage bracelet. 

First he pulled out the elemental crystal, the one that had the array inscribed on it and buried in on the floor beneath the phylactery.

Then using his aether he started drawing a complex circle that its centre point as the elemental crystal and spread out across the room. This was the outer magic circle, one that had been designed alongside the core circle that had been inscribed into the elemental source.

It took a lot of effort and energy to carry this out to precision but energy was not something the current Valdor lacked as the dungeon core was already performing its role as the energy source, ensuring he had enough energy running down his channels.

Even when it hurt, he endured. As he continued drawing until the outer circle was completed. The outer circle had four empty points indicating where the other elemental crystals, which would serve as conductors would reside.

With shaky steps, Valdor moved to the points, accurately placing each elemental crystal in the spot they should be, then he moved to the top of the outer circle, where an empty hexagon lied and placed a bowl there. He then emptied the would disrupter he had acquired into the bowl, before moving to the bottom of the outer circle, at another empty hexagon, to place the pile of preserved moon flowers.

There was a reason he had to put everything at that particular order, as the ritual had begun the moment he has stepped into the room.

Inspecting the circle one more time, making sure everything was in order, Valdor made his way towards the centre of the circle, into the empty spot that would be soon be occupied by the inner circle.

All through this operation, he had not at any point ceased the circulation of his aether around the the outer circle. His aether ran across the inner circle continually fore a period before running down the path that served as a bridge to the elemental source in the empty middle spot.

This continued until Valdor finally got to the spot where the elemental crystal, the phylactery and the dungeon core all overlapped. He sat down with the phylactery in his laps and extended his senses all over the room.

He was about to begin the ritual. He took a deep breathe, reminiscing on his life and his family, the ones he had lost and the new ones from the clan. This continued until the image of Noah lying with his back to a tree across him on the forest came on.

Valdor trembled slightly before shaking his head, this time the image of his father and mother, the moments they had spent bickering, fighting, crafting, every moment they had spent together, they all flowed through his head before his head went blank.

Slitting his wrists, he started making a series of hand signs as he chanted

דָם, להרוס, שינוי צורה, לְחַשֵׁל

At the end of his chant and gestures, Valdor placed his ands together in a monks position, each palm facing the other, and his soul weapon materialised above him.

A beam of light shot out from his head and penetrated the dungeon core, and a stream of pure condensed energy began flowing from it, dropping above Valdor's head like he was underneath a waterfall.

The liquid energy gushed unto Valdor and begun tearing apart Valdor from the inside, while also rebuilding it, it also created a bridge between Valdor and the phylactery he held in his laps. The mixture of his blood and the liquid energy then activated the energy crystal with the array embedded in it and an array spread out gradually until it took its place in the empty spot around Valdor.

Valdor endured the pain from his body continually breaking down and continued to channel his energy across the circle, he had to time everything perfectly so as not to waste his efforts.

The moment the inner circle and the outer circle connected, Valdor stopped holding back and he allowed himself to breakthrough.

A soft hum resounded in the room and his body begun glowing, he was finally undergoing his ascension, the critical part of the ritual was also about to begin.

The soul disruptor liquid flowed out of the bowl and continued along the magic circle down towards core, the position where Valdor was seated.

The hammer that floated above Valdor's glowing body begun turning immaterial, losing its shape and form. This symbolised that Valdor's soul was experiencing a distortion and breaking down.

As this was going on, the moon flowers at the bottom of the circle also begun liquifing and flowed down a path towards the core, but it only interacted with Valdor when the soul weapon was nothing but a mishapen figure with no actual meaning, it stabilised the soul of the young halfling in such a state, it was no longer breaking down but due to the presence of the soul disruptor that remained in the equation it also couldn't restore itself to its normal state.

The liquid energy and the energy crystal beneath Valdor also begun playing their roles in the ritual, as Valdor's body that was undergoing baptism was broken down and remolded using the energy sources as the base.

This operation continued slowly for weeks until Valdor's body was completely different from how it was before his baptism.

The young halfling was now six feet tall and his bones had become studier and thicker, structured like that of the crystal graphene. Valdor had always had well defined muscles, but they were now different. During the course of his baptism his muscles had bulked up until they were a hulking mass of flesh before condensing and restructuring back to normal size.

Although they looked normal and like the average ones, his muscles were stronger, more durable and more flexible. No part of his body was spared from this baptism as even his organs and his skin had been remodeled, and his figure had even be restructured to much better standards.

Gone was his iconic huge head and arms, the defining traits of the drawves, but a kite shaped  crystal was now present on his forehead.

The process definitely was a painful one, and Valdor had to stay conscious throughout the entire process to guide it, unlike when others went through their baptism. Many times he had almost given up, but the images of his friends and family, and what could possibly be his fate if he didn't get strong enough forced him to continue.

The first part of the ritual was complete, which was refining the body, refining the soul body was a delicate process as the vessel, the body, also had to be brought to the standards of the new weapon. 

This was also an important milestone as as from this point on, Valdor could no longer stop the ritual. He would either have to see it out to its successful end or die in the process, if he chose to continue.

After a shot moment of contemplation, Valdor roused the energy sources in the system and directed it to the soul source, the phylactery in his arms, it was time he reforged his soul weapon.