We have identified a startling piece of news from our information sources within the Falkori “Dragons”. The lizards have identified a strange complexity of power that could reshape the dynamics of ability usage for the beasts. While we have yet to understand its functional usage, [Chimeric Entanglement] is a dangerous precedent. It may be necessary to initiate another extinction campaign—this time against the dragon-subspecies. At the very least, a bounty should be placed on any master manasmiths that stray within human domains. Please see attached for our current working hypothesis (Thank you Balrock, Sigma of the Aurel, for the color coding).
> Ability Usage
>
> Soul component - Purple
> Mana component - Green
>
> No intent + No mana: -
> No intent + Manadraw: Support skills
> No intent + Manaspend: Beast domains / Authority
>
> Ambient intent + No mana: Variant undead abilities
> Ambient intent + Manadraw: Standard enchantments
> Ambient intent + Manaspend: [Chimeric Entanglement]
>
> Primal intent + No mana: Variant undead abilities / Spearbreaker
> Primal intent + Manadraw: -
> Primal intent + Manaspend: Dao-Bound skills
Table format
Ability complexity
No mana
Manadraw / Ambient mana
Manaspend / Aethercore mana
No intent
-
Support skills
Beast domains
Authority
Ambient intent
Variant undead abilities
Standard Enchantments
[Chimeric Entanglement]
Primal intent
Variant undead abilities
Spearbreaker
-
Dao-Bound skills
– Pendulum memoranda, Chimeric Entanglement
Chapter 27 – Birth of the Glassbreaker Chimera Corps
Toki sat on the floor of her stolen cavern, deep in her thoughts, while outside, the aftermath of the earlier chaos lay strewn across the amphitheater stage. It was brutal but somehow gentle. The bloody monkeys, covered in the remnants of the fire-claw monkey, began their laze towards their own caves. She watched with a melancholic gaze, feeling the weight of some elusive truth nibbling at the edges of her consciousness.
"Blood begets blood," she murmured to herself, the words slipping through her lips like a whispered curse. "Blood is life." The phrases played on some greater truth, but that truth lay just beneath the surface of her understanding.
The Alpha was seated somewhere as well, likely in meditation. Toki did not know what the Alpha had comprehended, but in his eyes, she knew there was a glint of understanding—a moment of epiphany gleaned from her offhand monologue. It was why he was able to lead his tribe into enlightenment as well. Yet, Toki also knew that the wisdom he had found within her words may be completely divergent from her own, carving a path uniquely his own.
As the monkeys left the stage, Toki contemplated venturing forth to find the dragon core. But caution prevailed and she decided to remain hidden for now. When they’re asleep, I’ll go search. She resolved to bide her time until the skylights lost their light, allowing the cover of darkness to become her accomplice.
Toki took this moment to inspect the fire-claw monkey’s severed hand. As she reached out, her fingers hovered over the darkened fur, singed by flame. Lighting her own flame to take a closer look, she discerned intricate etchings on the claw—the unmistakable signature of Dutch Eternal. The etchings spiraled, forming arcane draconic symbols. These were not mere filigree but conduits for something far more genius.
The claw itself bore its story of enchantment—Toki guessed passion, unable to read the language, but it was irrelevant. How the enchantment wielded the ambient intent was trivial and standard practice. It was the invisible connection that wove the claw into the beast's core which grabbed Toki's attention. The chimeric entanglement. She knew that beyond the enchantment lay a truly startling layer of sorcery. Power was siphoned and redirected from the core with precision. Although Toki hated Dutch Eternal with a passion, she could respect the complexity and intricacy needed to create such a wonder. It was this unseen architecture of enchantment that compelled her study, a puzzle demanding to be unraveled.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Toki retrieved the ice monkey’s tail from her bag, pale and stiff but still embedded with etchings. The associated beast core was cold to the touch. Laying the claw and tail side-by-side, she searched for the commonalities in their enchantments—something that could identify the logic or process that Dutch Eternal used in the creation of these chimeras.
Her mind wandered back to the chain she had fashioned alongside Edgar and Kristina. In that endeavor, they had chosen not to use aeso, and rather use the process of internal enchantment. Here too, no such traces of aeso could be seen on the beast cores. The enchantment upon the claw and tail, however, did show the tell-tale marks—the resulting texture from burnt aeso is subtle, but to the discerning eye, simple to identify.
Aeso was used in the creation of the appendage but not the beast core, so it must be that Dutch had found a way to embed an internal enchantment into the core. To power the chimeric appendage containing ambient intent with internal mana. How unique!
“Internal enchantments,” Toki murmured to herself. An internal enchantment was a relatively guarded process—an art that required a mastery of intent and mana not easily attained nor often seen. After all, it is why she had performed the enchantment on the chain and not Edgar. She ruminated on the implications.
[Chimeric Entanglement (14/100)]
Toki’s fingers hovered above the ice-tail monkey’s beast core. The Twice flame danced across the surface of the core with an uncanny grace, slipping within and probing the internal structures with a fluidity that surpassed even the mysterious metal that bound Kristina. It’s so pleasant. The core is so easy to enchant. It’s as though the core invites the Twice fire inside.
Compelled by curiosity and a deep-seated need to understand, Toki withdrew a second beast core from the carcass of another fallen simian. She laid these out too, side by side. With meticulous care, she coaxed her flame into the second core, intent on examining the foundations of the enchantment pathways.
[Chimeric Entanglement (15/100)]
She was so absorbed in her work that she failed to notice the gathering darkness that had settled over the amphitheater. Nor did she see the curious onlookers—the members of the monkey troop—that had crept close. They watched, captivated by the spectacle of comprehension.
Deep within the labyrinthine complexity of Dutch Eternal's design, Toki found a network of pathways that defied explanation. The dragon's sorcery had created a strange cycle of mana that simultaneously siphoned and sustained, a delicate balance that maintained the core's internal mana capacity while empowering the chimera limbs. She marveled at the intricate circuitry, her mind teetering on understanding.
An aethercore was a thing of duality, capable of both drawing forth mana for support skills and expelling more structured mana to fuel the more potent Dao-bound abilities. A delicate equilibrium that, if disturbed, could collapse catastrophically. Such was the nature of manadraw and manaspend—the twin heartbeats of magical existence. And here, within the corrupted fruit of Dutch Eternal's labor, Toki glimpsed the possibility of harnessing manaspend for something other than a Dao-Bound skill.
[Chimeric Entanglement (16/100)]
"Genius...," she murmured, her respect for the dragon's mastery tinged with revulsion for the methods employed.
The monkeys’ manaspend had been twisted, contorted into something strange—something that bore the semblance of Dao-bound abilities but was born of pure artifice. Using ambient intent from the dragon’s enchantment and manaspend from their own cores, Dutch Eternal had created a pseudo-Dao-Bound ability for all of these monkeys. Such an army would be frightening. Powerful beyond compare. Just imagine everyone having access to Edgar’s ability! An army would instantly be threefold stronger!
As Toki pondered the implications, the gathered monkeys mirrored her contemplation. Their primal minds might not have grasped the intricacies of the enchantment, but something in the cadence of Toki's probing spoke to them on an instinctual level.
Absorbed in her analysis, Toki remained oblivious to the growing congregation that had formed around her. It was only when the air grew thick with their collective breaths did she lift her gaze and snap out of focus.
Her heart stuttered in her chest.
With a thought, she dropped [Chronicle Cascade], and shifted to [Lessons] drawing shadow claws from the cast shadows by her feet. It was an unconscious response to the unexpected audience.
“Thou work like the dragon, yet thou fill us with hope. Doth thou research the origins of our existence? Shall thou too, assay to malform our limbs, our brains, our dreams?”
Toki looked at the seated monkeys with confusion. I suppose they are ignorant to their births. I would fear enchanting if I were them, yet the Alpha seems… hopeful?
“I am not that dragon. I will never be her.”
The Alpha nodded telepathically. "Thy presence grants me peace. In that case, we shall continue to seek inspiration from thy machination," the Alpha intoned, his voice resonating within her mind. "Thy craft hath inspired my family, and for this, I offer our gratitude."
His words stilled her defensive instincts, yet she remained wary. The shadow claws retracted. Then, in the quiet that followed, inspiration struck—a seed of possibility planted in her mind. All wariness was lost. She could feel the beginnings of a profound revelation taking root inspired by the dragon's vile genius.
Toki ignored the throng of primates once more and a shiver danced along her spine—not from fear, but from understanding.
She focused inward, summoning the Twice flame. It flickered to life, a whimsical dance of star-shaped embers. The flame was hers—a birthright that had always been treated as an afterthought, a mere parlor trick by the Twice Clan elders. An empty vessel for the Authority she held. But Toki hoped, deep into the marrow of her bones, that it was so much more.
Her fingertips tingled as she brushed them over [Lessons], the flame clinging to the shadows like a second skin, a faithful companion and paradox.
The Twice flame was a carrier for manaspend. It was a refined parallel to Dutch Eternal’s enchantments. She willed it closer, allowing it to caress the edges of her shadow claw. Integration would be delicate, one of balance between force and finesse. The flame eased inside the shadow and she reached out with her will and intent.
The flame kissed the shadow, and Toki felt a resonance—a harmonic convergence of forces that she could not have imagined. [Lessons] had no business using intent; it was a support skill, a foundation upon which other powers could rise but now… now the lines began to blur.
[Tokyo Twice has refined a Dao-Seed: Path of Shadowflame]
"Ah..." The sound escaped her lips, a simple utterance that bore the weight of revelation. What if the shadow could carry more? What if, like the beast cores manipulated by Dutch Eternal's sinister enchantment, it too could be a conduit for her own internal enchantments?
She greedily experimented. All attention was focused on her enchantment.
Intent weaved through the flames, and the shadows pulsed as if breathing. [Bindings of Tyndall] was the last enchantment she had performed alone. It would have to suffice. She created the conduits within the shadow itself. Pathways formed one after another. The very essence of the enchantment grew from within the darkness fueled by the light within. The power ebbed and flowed, and this time, it was not fear that drove the enchantment.
It was wonder.
The monkeys sat motionless, their eyes reflecting the dance of starry fire against the oppressive dark, learning from the fluctuations of magic they could not comprehend. Many sank into deep meditation, reflecting, understanding, mastering concepts that should not exist and the paradox they held.
Toki's mind raced, possibilities branching like lightning across a stormy sky. If Dutch Eternal could siphon mana with chimeric circuitry, then she, Tokyo Twice, could innovate a symbiosis between shadow and Twice flame—a melding of support and dao-bound skills to create something entirely new, using ambient mana and her own intent in an entirely different way.
[Tokyo Twice has upgraded a unique enchantment]
[Bindings of Tyndall (??? / Class C / Mortal): Create a 1x1 cm [Paradox Shadow] mote within 1.5m; durability of the mote scales with intent]
[User Tokyo Twice has acquired a unique Dao-Bound skill [First Burn]]