Roberion felt like he was in a dream; the situation was completely beyond reality. The sky tore, showing space, which is only more crazy as he is underground. The massive vessel of Ostojpurulo shines on him, his hands now withdrawing from the mechanisms and the runes all around the city.
The massive, haunting cherubim face didn't leave, and a sound started to be emitted by the platform, like an ethereal battery was starting—a song like a meteor crossing the sky. Roberion didn't even know the sound it made, but it just made sense in his mind.
As the power surged all around him, the energetic sound of the machine started too. The sound is more rudmentary and metallic. The weird half ring started to cross fastly on Roberion; this time it started to emit a radiant light, emitting a whirring sound. Roberion didn't know what it was doing, but he felt the thing was connected with the machine, which seemed obvious.
The energy the runic platform emitted reached a crescendo, and the runic spell started to spread, with new runes being created on the platform. More alarmingly, even Roberion's body started to be inscribed with runes—bloodless wounds—that started to emit a purple energetic glow, similar to the runes around the null.
Shining with a pale vibrancy, the runes in Roberion's body seemed more spiritual—something from beyond that Roberion tried to guess, but in vain. The null didn't have much time to consider it, as new and more shocking things started to happen.
A rumbling sound shocked the platform, and it started to quickly lower down. On the way to the floor, Roberion, who was kept bound to the retangular rock surface, watched as the technological half circle kept "scanning" him. All around him, the light seemed more powerful, but now other colors showed up on the ground.
Roberion watched the espetacular show of colors all around; no doubt it was the lines that accompanies him in the beginning of his journey. But instead of being controlled by the system, these ones moved as if they had a life of their own.
Damn, I forgot about these guys; they didn't get captured by Ostojpurulo, right? Roberion watched the capsules around him; now, without the Ceruelean Baroness interruption— which didn't show up since he reached the platform— he could count twelve platforms.
The occupants still seemed to be sleeping or in stasis, the runes slowly lit up in the capsules. Roberion tried to see if they were getting runes like his, but all the capsules had their backs at him. The only thing he saw was the recipient, but soon he started hearing things.
Voices started to invade Roberion's mind; even if he knew the language one of them spoke, the cacophony they produced in conjunt made understanding it impossible. Sometimes you don't need to understand what someone tells you; you can feel it. And he for sure felt it as pain assaulted his body.
This pain was different, not umbearable but existential, like Roberion was changed in a conceptual way; all his body started to convulse and floating upwards; the only thing accompanying him was the circle that kept scanning him; now it is increasing its speed, giving an optical illusion that it was expanded and envolving all Roberion's body.
Talking about his body, his flesh started wiggling, his bones creaking and expanding, and his blood flowing faster and faster in his veins. All his physicality was changing; even his remaining eye kept losing its vision, making Roberion totally blind, only to recover soon after. The same happened to his hearing. The null was sure that the same was happening all over his body—a monumental change on an atomic level.
Roberion knew it: this type of change wouldn't be an improvement like before; it would be a complete overhaul. More hauntingly, the [Behemoth Skin] didn't leave his body; it started to become part of the change. Little by little, he lost the sensation of skin, only to be replaced by an alien sensation, similar but not quite the same.
He saw veins popping up from the no longer armor, his blood pumping inside it. Roberion was happy to see that the ugly gray color of the skin was soon replaced by a silver sheen. The null even preferred to get a red skin, a black one, or even a blue one. But not that ugly gray, like some sort of rejected sofa fabric transformed into clothing.
The change is not only the addition of the [Behemoth Skin], his mass increased fourfold. If before he looked like some sort of weak henchman, now he looked like a brute, the wrire like muscled beneath the skin promised pain to anyone he punched. He wouldn't guarantee a victory on melee against The Gentlemen, but he could hold his own with the dead orc.
Most weird of all, Roberion looked in confusion as genitals started to be created. Why? It's not like I would use them in a battle; they don't seem useful for offense or defense. Whattta, what is this weird feeling on my back???
Roberion forgot about his newly created genitals and focused as he felt two foreign feelings sprout from the laterals of his lower back without any signal of stopping. He felt that more and more flesh, bone, or whatever that thing was made of was directed toward it, increasing its size. The null tried to get a better look at it, but his increased body size and his restricted movement made that impossible.
His organ stopped spasming, and the voices and bizarre dialog he heard before stopped. I feel the connection has weakened; my body is still changing, however. Roberion felt his body continue to expand, but this time it started to compress itself, trying to reduce his body size. Lucky me, I was afraid that I was becoming a behemoth…more than I already am, thanks to the [Behemoth Skin].
The Ostojpurulo vessel still kept looking at the process. Weirdly, a hellish angelic faced moon is looking at me, and I keep focusing on the changes in my body; there is nothing that I can do anyway. Cleric huh? As long as it gives me power, that is a win. Not that I liked to become a servant, but it's not like I had a choice. As I reflect on before, if I get something from it, I'm game. I will try to deal with it later…Wait, is Ostojpurulo hearing my mind right now?
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Looking at the process, Ostojpurulo didn't change anything in his expression until the capsules started to lower. The bodies inside the capsules are long gone; the null couldn't guess it, but the process didn't use the material directly; they were part of the sacrifice, transforming their high quality material bodies into a new, lower, but entirely different one. Transmutation at its finest, changing its metaphisical and spiritual qualities into a specific one, what it lacked in quality, it had in potential.
As the capsules were stored inside the floor, only their tops showed up, their runes flaring. The Ostojpurulo finally acted, a spectral bony hand lowering down. What it had in its hand was none other than [Last gamble of the Round Table].
"This little object gives you choices, unpredictability, strength, versatility, weakness, and risk. Nevertheless, this weapon has so little potential, bound by the weakness of its creators, their closed minds, and their lowly dreams. No. The cleric of the Grand Ostojpurulo deserves more. NEEDS TO BE MORE. LET IT FEEL THE SACREDNESS OF BONES; LET YOUR BONES NUTURE IT; INFUSE YOUR POTENTIAL INTO IT. What a better way than by becoming your bones themselves?"
Nooooooooooo, what are you talking about? If the dice change, will my bones become the skeleton of a capybara? Of that ugly club? Does Jubilant Choir have bones?
If Ostojpurulo could read Roberions mind, the vessel didn't show it. The spectral bony hand crushed the dice, and with only one movement, the dice became powder. This powder slowly got a purple color, mirroring the whole ritual, with small runes reflecting like little stars that soon invaded Roberion's body.
The null felt the powder entering his skin, like immaterial particles, but he felt it as his bones received that magical powder. Surprisingly, the half circle machine object stopped scanning him, slowly floating away, like the process it was doing was finished.
For Roberion, it was more like the thing was running from the pain he started to feel. Now finally he felt that grotesque sensation he felt every time he harvested. This process was for sure much more complex and special, but this insufferable pain is the same.
He tried to control it, show some dignity to the vessel he would have to represent, or something. If he would try to do something about it later, it didn't mean he shouldn't show composure for the high being; on the contrary, he would be the best one only for him to make his plans come to fruition. No more times to desire that sweet kiss of death; the tranquility of my end will come some time; but until then, I will do my best to become the torniest thorn to ever exit. You fuckers can be Gods, stupid mundane guards, or magical cats; I will destroy you and use your remains to fuel my desires Hahahaha.
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Beautiful words coming from such a lowly variant; come then, show me my new cleric what you can do. Entertain us, my lovely fool; let my bones bear witness to your story. Whether you will become a footnote in my memories or a chapter I dearly come back to, it only depends on you and the infinite variants of your universe.
"Stop with the theatrics, Ostojpurulo. We have already wasted too much time with this variant. It's not even a promising one. One thing I can guarantee is that your foolish demeanor won't attract the attention of The First."
RESUME
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The null continues his mad ramblings, unaware of the higher beings affair. The only presence that made him believe that they existed was the vessel of Ostojpurulo, looking and shining at him. High on pain, he even doubted the memory and the haunting moon were true; why wouldn't they be only delusions provocated by the majestic and supernatural ritual?!
He felt as if the enchantment was engraved inside his bone, the marrow soon fueling the engravings as if they never existed. Roberion felt that the bone was becoming more than simple, incorporating the mad enchantments of his destroyed weapon; he felt a connection inside him changing.
Roberion was curious; even in this pain, that connection felt personal to him, so he searched. What changed wasn't his connection with Shining Crown or the dice; it was his line's blessing. His connection to the neutral line was vanishing, being replaced by something else, another line.
Slowly, the pain soon vanished, and the process was finished. A change happened above Roberion, and the null soon looked at it. Ostojpulo and the starry sky soon started to desintegrate as if it were a mirage. Roberion felt his bones vibrating and pulsing, as if a signal that assured that this primordial god was real and his clerical bond was true.
These questions soon vanished from the null's head. As he was lowered to the ceremonial stone, all the purple lightning that the enchantment emitted vanished, making the entire city completely dark. Roberion closed his eyes and took a slow breath.
He felt a nagging at his brain, like a migraine, but ignored it. Looking at his back, Roberion couldn't see anything but his butt, there wasn't any sort of appendage like extra arms or wings. I need some clothes, especially to protect these needless genitals.
There were so many questions and so many things he wanted to try, but leaving here took precedence. Having the aid of the Cerulean Baroness would be a boon to achieving that.
Roberion got up, and soon gigantic lamps started to sprout from above, and lampposts grew from the ground. Sadly, half of his vision was still dark, showing that Ostojpurulo really took his "offering". The null used his right eye, looking around. Not far away from the now inactive platform was the Cerulean Baroness, and Roberion walked to meet her.
"Tell me the passcode, or you will be killed right now", the Cerulean Baroness didn't even let Roberion say anything. The three The Gentlemen from before got near her; the battered one now had a new outfit. If that wasn't bad already, more and more of The Gentlemen sprouted from the ground. The null counted eleven of them in total.
"What are you talking about—", Roberion felt the nagging at his brain again. No, this feeling feels like a migraine, but it has a rhythm. The null focused on it, and slowly the pulsing started to resemble words. Words spoke by a feminine voice, humane, but for sure ones that he heard so many times in this place.
"Hello, Bob, or would you prefer me to call you Rob? Anyway, tell her—"
"FUCK, WHY ARE YOU IN MY FUCKING HEAD CERULEAN BARONESS? FIX, IT, NOW!", Roberion roared with anger and indignation.
The Cerulean Baroness did little skips of happiness around the place, like she just won the lottery. "YESSSS, IT WORKED. HAHAHAHA…Ahem, I still need the password. Tell me, and we can finish things fast, because for sure we don't have much time; their space battle is almost finished. Don't look at me like that; with my plan, you will be on your merry way and live your null—no your Changeling life"