ACC Chapter 40 Trapped

The green hairs that had a burning green aura at the tip. How could I have underestimated them? I had thought of them as simply sensory organs that could somehow pick up on whatever energy form that allowed the spirit to experience the world, and yet, it seems that my mind hadn't came up with enough theories.

What had punctured my chest, shattered my heart and severed my spinal cord had been one of those tiny green hairs. When I gazed at them closely while the spirit was in the midst of celebrating the success of its attack, I saw erratic motion in them. Their movements were akin to tiny snakes growing out of soil. And each, was wriggling along in a completely different motion than the one next to it.

'How is it sensing me? The green energy, must be wood attuned spiritual energy. But how can it accurately tell my movements?'

Sending my divine sense inwards, I could feel nerve cells multiplying, trying to patch my nervous system back together, while tendrils of flesh, a consequence of cell division, started growing along the steely scaffolding in my chest to recreate my heart.

'Before help arrives, I need to stick to long distance attacks.'

The spiritual energy I had pumped within the ground, turning it a steely grey, a garden through which to grow my offensive and defensive attacks was still plentiful. Though, it made it so that I couldn't take to the skies.

And that brought my thoughts to something I had noticed long before the city had been besieged... The fact that it was far too costly for me to fly. Not just me, but all Core Formation cultivators.

'A kilometer and I will need to rest and recover?! What has happened to this planet?'

Communications had become scrambled. I really wanted to at least get some info on the state of the world, but it seems that I would have to first survive this battle.

I took a deep breath, making sure to erect a selective ward that prevented the chaotic spiritual energy flows from entering my body.

I took a step to the side, circling the beast, with my steely domain relinquishing its hold on the land behind me, to devour that which was in front of me.

Cores were based around the language of the spirits, as it was called during ancient times, runescript.

We humans could, with our current level of technology, try to attune pure spiritual energy ourselves, thereby skipping runes entirely, but that was a very costly endeavor, even for the common attuments of earth, water, air and fire. If you tried the obscure attunements, like my steel, then the tremendous cost alone couldn't even be borne by a civilisation ruling over an entire galaxy!

That's why, the formation of a core started with runes as the primers. Most of those at the Foundation Establishment stage, barring those large sect disciples would never try to attune the altars within their dantians to any element or runic formula as array masters called it.

But when you were about to break into the Core Formation stage, a runic formula was a must, as it would be the foundation upon which your core would run.

Some had tried to create 'pure cores'. But the heavens themselves had destroyed them in both body and soul during tribulations. The interaction between a star's solar attuned energies with the planetary shield was what gave birth to pure spiritual energy. And so far, it was the only method, apart from those of an artificial nature, through which pure spiritual energy existed.

I had chosen steel because of my love for its grey color. And now, when I was battling my greatest foe since I had started cultivating, I found it even more captivating.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

The moment I moved, the beast reacted, its mouth-only head turning to follow my movements with an eerie precision bordering on the possession of sight.

Actually, what had surprised me more about this beast was the fact that it lacked divine sense! Even demons, who pursued an entirely different evolutionary path had divine sense. So, why was this...spirit? Beast?, different?

As I moved, sharp grey stakes burst out of the ground, with reverse hooks that added a menacing and dangerous quality to them.

I saw flesh twitch as the atmosphere suddenly became solemn.

The tree spirits that had been assaulting me before, the weaker ones, were now far away trying to breach other perimeters of combatants, having given our battle a stage a few kilometers long.

Mawar would take some time in rallying the other cultivators at the peak of the Core Formation stage, so I had to at least try and get some valuable intelligence on the spirit's abilities.

The tails, peaked out from behind the spirit and swung, with their length elongating so instantaneously that it only took the blink of an eye before their sweep reached just a few meters away from my stakes, which I was certain would be snapped if I didn't reinforce them! After all, they were pointed straight upwards!

The air screamed as the whip-like strike sailed through it, with the two ball appendages adding weight to increase its speed.

All the sharp stakes were broken in half as if they had been made of wood, while I had gone airborne, with the tail passing through everything and creating a wind blade that made impact with the array behind me. The green construct pulsed as it strained to hold back the wind, but ultimately it held. Though, the cost had probably been strenous on the spirit stone reserves, because it had dimmed.

When my feet once again connected with my steely domain, I could help but narrow my eyes at the spirit. Had its target been the city with that attack? Because I could feel some of its attention was directed towards the array shield.

With a thought, strands of steel sprang out of my domain and wove themselves into ropes even as I directed some of the steel to once again morph into rotating sharp crosses. And this time, I made three of them, with each a size that was capable of severing the beast in half. It was a strain maintaining all this but, I had to keep the spirit occupied.

They cut through the air, marking that as the cue for a more serious and epic battle.

Two were dodged while the third managed to slash a leg, leaving a minor cut upon it.

'So, the brown matter is more defensive than the green.'

The spirit raced towards me even as I directed the spinning crosses into backtracking.

Then, I loosed the ropes of steel that had been waiting within my domain, with harpoons being the carriers of said ropes. They sailed through the air like snakes that had seen prey.

I had to slow down the creature. Steel was supposed to be a solid material, but as I was making my core, I had tweaked the runic formula. Many others who chose solid or liquid substances as cornerstones for their powers, mostly the metal and earth categories, chose to add such modifications. With some even adding a gaseous state. Maybe if I had been inclined to poisons, I might have added the gaseous state.

The spirit swerved and dodged as it made for me, even using its tail to bat at the harpoons, but I didn't stay in one place, letting the steel beneath my feet carry me like surfing upon a wave.

Before the spirit could reach me though, a blur of brown sunk where it was supposed to step next while it was still in midair, as if someone had predicted its steps.

And when its root appendages landed, they started to sink, with the ground having turned malleable, having become mud.

My lips curved upwards. A chance had finally appeared! Every harpoon still connected to my domain was launched, precisely digging into the spirit's body as if they had been attracted, before I released even more steel ropes, which bound the beast, increasingly thickening until I was certain that I had managed to curb all its movement, even its twin tails.

"You did admirably, matriarch Lily."

"You also played a part, Edmond. Your timing was impeccable."

Edmond was a man dressed like a butler. Even his entire mannerisms were those of someone who had spent a long time in servitude. Apparently, his charge had been a mortal who had died a few hundred years ago, and this was his way of honoring her.

"But this isn't the time for compliments. This spirit...thing is still alive and powerful. My bindings and your mud pit won't be able to hold it for long."

"It would be an absurd thought that something rivalling a Nascent Soul could be taken down this easily." Agreed Edmond.

"I believe the other two will be arriving in a few seconds or a minute. Let's do what we can in the meantime."

With those words, I felt my injuries finally recover. I was back in my prime, with my core the only thing that was being drained because of the strong woven steel ropes tying up the spirit.