Eclipse was quiet for a second as she scanned my body’s condition, and then responded, [Your evolution has increased your physical ability drastically. If you feel that you are up to the task, we can begin the process. Because of recent events, you should consider having one of the Fae Lords stand guard for you as well, since Selene will be focused on your survival.]
“You make a good point. I will consult with Selene about getting Lord Wrath to stand guard. He seems to have the best opinion of me, and I don’t trust the others even a little. Anything to note about the mana core formation with your sealing process?” I asked Eclipse.
[Since you have been holding your mana core formation back, all you need to do is let it go. Let the mana do what it wants to do, and it will all flow to your chest region to form the core. I will make it so your core and the gift connect properly, and will redirect the elemental conflict energy to help form the Nine Abyssal Seals. All you need to do is survive, and we’ll take care of the rest.]
“Okay, I am trusting you with my life, Eclipse. Don’t let me die?” I asked jokingly, with the smallest hint of concern.
[Of course, Lucian. You can leave it to me] and I closed off the connection and relayed the conversation with Eclipse to Selene. Selene agreed with the point about acquiring a guard, and set off to speak with Lord Wrath.
It is finally time! After so many setbacks, it is finally time to form my mana core. My parents would love to be here for this, and they will never be able to now. I wonder if they have been reborn according to the rebirth cycle Selene mentioned? They won’t remember me or anything, but I hope they went to families that loved them like they did me.
After around half an hour, Selene returned with the fiery Fae Lord of Wrath. “Selene said it was finally time to form your mana core, Luce! As part of my apology for not guarding your residence well enough and the assassin sneaking by the guards, I will personally stand guard while you form your core!” Lord Wrath confidently declared.
Well, it’s hard to pass up protection from the strongest fighter of the Fae Lords.
“I will consider you are doing me a favor, Lord Wrath. Thank you for your kindness” I said to him, and he let out a loud laugh.
“You are learning the game well, my young friend. Focus on forming your core, and then we can see about getting you some training to adapt to your new body and core!”
“He’s a very outgoing and easy going looking Fae, but don’t doubt his abilities, Lucian. He is known as the ‘Defender of the Fae Realm’ and it would take the combined strengths of a handful of the other Lords to get past him” Selene said to me.
“Do you think he is doing this out of the kindness of his heart, or has an ulterior motive to try and recruit me?” I asked her.
“I think ALL Fae have some kind of ulterior motive, not unlike the other races. He seems to feel an affinity with you in particular, likely due to Sin of Wrath telling him to, or sees his younger self when he looks at you”.
Lord Wrath faced the entrance of the room, and felt like a new person when he focused on defending what was behind him. If anyone tried, it would be a very bad day for them.
“Okay, we will begin now. Lord Wrath, I am entrusting my safety to you. You might have seen a mana core formation before, and mine will be different. Please keep what you see or feel to yourself, and I will owe you a favor for your confidence”.
Owing a favor to a Fae is a dangerous move, yet this was too important to not offer something of an equal value to protect what might happen here in the formation. The Fae Lords are aware of my special characteristics, and I’d like to keep them just interested for now. If they are aware of the details, it might escalate the danger for my life even with the protection of Selene, and favor of Lord Wrath.
Lord Wrath understood that I knew the dangers of offering a favor to a Fae, and nodded to Selene and me. “We can discuss favors and the likes after you get through this, Luce. I swear to not use the favor to force you into a bad position, however”.
That’s good to hear at least, although I am unsure if a Fae swearing has the same level of effect as the magical contract nature of the Fae, such as making deals or owing favors. I looked to Selene with an inquisitive look, and she responded with, “It was gracious of him to make an oath to not use the favor to harm you. I understand the reason why, but you must not likely do such a thing again, Lucian. Our souls are connected now, and he could use his favor to have influence on me through the bond”.
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“I did not realize that it worked like that, I apologize, Selene. Going forward, I will be more mindful and consult with you first on things like that” and Selene nodded in return.
Taking a deep breath, I got into the meditation position in the magic circle and said, “Okay. Time to let my mana do what it wants now” and with that, I turned off the control on the mana and allowed it to agitate and burst with excitement. It almost reminded me of when I would run with my mother to the book store in Seastrand.
Selene placed a paw on my back, and was fueling her mana into my body to help reinforce my body in anticipation. A new feeling in my body was the abyssal power activating, preparing to fight the elemental conflict.
When the collective mana in my body all reached the now expanded reservoir area of my chest, a pain similar to when Selene overloaded my mana channels on our first meeting happened. The pain was intense, but nothing I could not handle, and then the mana kept flooding into the reservoir.
This is going to fucking suck.
What originally felt like I had simply eaten more than I should have, started to turn into my insides felt like they were about to burst. Feeling Selene’s mana reinforcing my mana channels and internals, and Eclipse spreading a black shadow-like energy around the reservoir preparing to encapsulate the mana core at the time of formation.
“This shit hurts Selene, how is it looking? I feel like I am about to burst”.
“You’re doing good so far, once enough of the mana has condensed into the area, the crystallization of the mana will start and when that finishes, the core is formed. You need to bear with the pain for now, and we will get through it”.
Selene, isn’t this too much mana? My capacity in my body is well above what the normal mage would condense into a core, and it is STILL pushing more.
This fucking core, it is trying to absorb Selene and Eclipse’s power now!
“Selene, it wants to absorb the mana from Eclipse and you now. Is that going to cause problems?”
“I have no idea! This is not normal for mana cores at all! Lack of mana to form an elemental core like yours might be part of why there has never been one. I will push more of my mana into your body, consult with Eclipse to find out if there’s any apparent risk to absorbing her power as well!” She said, and I could feel the panic coming off of her.
“Eclipse, can you hear me?”
[Yes, Lucian. I heard Selene speak as well, due to the special nature of this conjoining of our mana. While I can’t answer her like this, there should not be any problems absorbing our mana into your core. All it will do is help your body adjust to the abyssal powers quicker. I won’t lie to you though, it will hurt though. Nobody knows what the end result will be for your mana core alone, without the addition of our manas and the abyssal gift.]
“Great, I love unexpected factors in things that may or may not spell my doom”.
I swear I felt Eclipse chuckle, and she said, [All power comes with a price. The end results will surely be worth the suffering it brings now. Focus on condensing the core, and we will handle the extra factors, Lucian!]
Informing Selene of what was said by Eclipse, she said, “Alright, we will do what she said. Please survive this, Lucian. It will hurt” and Selene turned the mana flowing into my body from her up and my body felt so bloated and was about to explode from the inside.
The mana finally started to condense into the beginnings of a large crystalline structure. It was different from the ones I have read about, where the color reflects a mage’s affinity, such as red for fire. Mine did not have a color, and looked to be a similar clear white as my mana is, with the outer layers reflecting the inky blackness of the abyssal power, and a shade of grey that was devoid of warmth of Selene’s.
The pain subsided from my body as the crystal kept forming, but I could tell that it was a different situation than being in the clear of the formation. The mana inside the currently forming core was volatile, and I could feel that it was on the verge of exploding with energy.
“Is this the elemental conflict forming, Selene?” I asked.
Selene did not respond for a second, and I could feel the worry skyrocketing. “Lucian, this is way beyond the energy a human body can withstand even at your level. Eclipse, can your abyssal power protect him from this?” She asked Eclipse directly, knowing that Eclipse could hear her, but not respond directly to her.
[I am going to seal the energy into the Nine Abyssal Seals, Lucian. This will divide the energy into nine portions of escalating levels of energy, and to unlock one of the seals, you will need to be able to withstand that level of the sealed energy to unlock it and obtain the abyssal power within. You will still need to handle about 10% of its power currently.]
I confirmed I heard her, and told Selene what Eclipse said. She seemed less worried, but still skeptical of the seals working.
It was a weird situation to be in. We were watching my core form, and when it reached a ninth of the way formed, Eclipse used some unknown magic to create an inky black seal that would contain the growing energy of the elemental conflict inside.
The seals looked dangerous to even look or probe at, and the destructive energy contained sparked off the seals not allowing anything to get close.
[When you are ready to form a magic circle to raise the Tier of your mana core, use the unlocked seal as the basis for your circle, and it will grant you a portion of the abyssal power, and may unlock some of the abilities granted to you by the Lady of the Abyss. They are unknown to me besides guesses, and it will depend on your growth in using the abyssal power] Eclipse informed me, while I was preparing to handle the remaining 10% of the energy’s destruction.
[The Lady of the Abyss, Selene, and I all believe you can survive this trial. It will be well worth it, Lucian. Prepare for the attack!]
I could feel the elemental conflict calling the ambient mana in a large area, potentially inside the Fae Realm to gather above me, forming what looked like a dark storm cloud. The “cloud” crackled with differing colors of lightning, preparing to strike me.
The growing but not complete mana core in my chest appeared to anger the cloud. After Eclipse had formed the last of the Nine Abyssal Seals, and the core was nearing completion, the cloud struck with a large elemental lightning strike that spelled my doom towards me.