The crumbling protection arrays that covered the mountain of Fleeting Emotions Ruin couldn't contain the leakage of chaotic elemental particles anymore and broke into pieces, opening holes for the outsiders to come in and the secrets from the inside to leak out. Many guarding sorcerers quickly noticed the sudden change in Element concentration and reported their finding to their respective sorcerer-bloodline family.

Although the protective barrier naturally could heal itself from the damage, the fact that it got temporary destroyed was uncommon and worthy of the sorcerers' attention. If the inner structures of the Fleeting Emotions Ruin began to decay, the outsiders could potentially seize the ruin for themselves and divided an uncountable amount of exotic knowledge and ancient treasures for their usage, quickly gaining the boost in power and influence.

However, despite the overwhelming commotion, the breakdown of the barrier was, none of the leaders of the sorcerer family or the representatives of the organizations had made their move to enter the ruin. Every one of them was bidding for time to investigate and calculate the risk and reasons for the destruction of the barrier. If the flow of time didn't cause the crumbling of the protective array, then they would have to retreat away as far as possible before requesting help from the genuinely powerful force, the Royal Family.

If a never-before-seen creature could destroy the defensive mechanism that even a second-ranked sorcerer dreaded, then it would at least be as powerful as the imaginary third-ranked sorcerers, powerful enough to be the leader of the highly influential organizations and schools of thoughts. Their might would rival the hidden experts of the high-standing associations as well as the current ruler of the Mountain Union, the Mountain Emperor.

Due to the possibility of mass genocide, none of the powerhouses of the regions dared to make their move and could only silently observe the situation. However, if they could guarantee that there were no creatures with the power that rivalled the Mountain Emperor, all of their standby forces would erupt into a chaotic war.

The source of all tension outside the Fleeting Emotions Ruin, Forus Ander, was still forcing all of his cells in the body to absorb all of the overflowing Death Aura, trying his best to condense them into the Withering Core. His mutated appearance, through the corroding of the intensified Death Aura, slowly melted into black liquid, emitting a rotten stench.

His formerly pale skin turned pitch-black as the Death Aura invaded his bones, integrating itself into the fundamental structure of the body, becoming the main essence of his being. The silver hair began to change its colour into greyish hue with a hint of blackness.

After all of the mutated limbs fell off, the actual humanoid figure hidden beneath the beast of the abyss revealed itself, showing the dull world of its majestic yet gloomy aura. Various symbols that assembled themselves into the ritual broke down and moved towards the floating Element Cores, surrounding them in a complicated manner, sucking the leaking elemental particles and turned them into pure sorcery energy.

Due to the incredible amount of Death Aura, the darkness slowly engulfed the area, devouring the greyish mist before expanding rapidly, enveloping Ocelia as a result. Not only that, but the excessive amount of numerous Element emitted by the Element Cores also caused the stagnated weather to change its course, turning chaotic once again. With one piece out of control, others soon followed suit, turning from absolute silence into the noisy and deadly atmosphere again.

Overturning sky and earth, the Element Cores cracked themselves as they used their power to condense the Withering Core. The tentacles-filled soul reacted to the condensation, flinging its tentacles towards the incompleted orb of Death Aura, using them to hold the sphere in place, preventing them from disintegrating into pure Death Aura.

As Forus struggled at his breakthrough, the frozen infernals began to move towards him, slowly creeping on him and extending their tendrils out. Inside of the black tendrils, specks of filth accumulated at the tip of the tendrils and leaked into the atmosphere, constricting with one another. The ball of corruption gradually took its twisting shape and moved towards the figure in the middle of the evil ritual.

The spinning symbols of evilness gladly welcomed the sphere of filth, absorbing it into powering the ritual, converging them into a part of the Death Aura, which left a trace of corruption of the abyss inside them. As the newer Death Aura seeped into his body, the greyish soul, with its tendrils, moved frantically and devoured the trace of corruption as if it was the best source of food.

After a moment of pain and agony, Forus' entire body had turned pitch-black, covered with the dark liquid that closed all his pores and separated his body from the outside world. Soon after, the thunderous noise echoed the surrounding, generating a gust of wind that blew the misty fog and black stream away, revealing the hellish scenery that got corrupted by the presence of the infernals.

Following the sound of cracking, the Element Cores began to crumble, breaking apart from the spherical shape into countless fragments of elemental particles. Each Element Core would vomit out an immense amount of the corresponding Element when they shattered, flooding the atmosphere with dense elemental particles.

The Wood Element, the Fire Element and the Ice Element gathered around him and slowly revolved around him, merging with other as they did so. The fused Element turned transparent in colour and continued to wrap itself around him, covering his body with another layer of a thin membrane. The black membrane of Death Aura did not stop the action of the smile-like layer and co-exist in harmony.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

By now, the Withering Core had already completed itself and began to absorb the black membrane that covered Forus, devouring it as well as Forus' flesh and blood. However, the Core did not consume excessively and allowed Forus to use his sorcery energy to heal himself, not leaving behind and lasting internal damage in the slightest.

Although the Withering Core was trying to consume the black membrane to push itself towards the higher realm of power, Forus resisted the temptation to advance and used his greyish soul to suppress the devouring rate of the Withering Core and restained the movement of the fused Element, not letting it entered the Withering Core.

His reason was simple and straightforward. Due to the soul power that he absorbed from the blue-robed sorcerer to construct the new body of his, Forus had the natural affection with two Element, the Ice Element and the Light Element. However, the Element Cores that he had now were the Wooden Core, Icy Core and the Flaming Core, which was enough to serve as the requirement to advance towards the first-ranked sorcerer.

Nevertheless, the potential power of Forus, of which he had not fully exploited, would decrease and make it harder for him to advance further. If he could not progress towards the second-ranked sorcerer, how could Forus be able to see his daughter, his wife, and his brother again? The sole reason for him to cultivate his sorcery was to reunite with his family again.

Thinking about the blurry face inside his memory, Forus gritted his teeth and sat onto the ground, facing at the firmament of the dull world. Using his sharp nail, he cut through his vein and opened the pores between his inner organs and the outside world. The way that ordinary sorcerers collected the essence of Element would be too slow for Forus at the current circumstance. Hence, Forus could only think of one method and cut open a wound on his arm, making his blood in contact with the dense elemental particles in the air.

Because of the corruption of the abyss, the surrounding was full of Fire Element, which was a favourable situation for the Light Element to co-exist, coupled with the earlier gust of wind that drove the misty fog away, enabling the light from the vast whiteness to descend without any obstruction. The dense Light Element directly mixed with Forus' blood and fused into one, turning his a drop of his regular blood into a bit of elemental liquid.

Although it may seem easy, the pain and risk were unimaginable. The current situation was only possible because of the dense atmosphere which came from the presence of the abyssal monsters that pressured the floating Element into a thicker space. Not only that, but Forus also needed to actively control his body to reject the other unnecessary Element and forced out the impurity that came from the outside, else they went rampage inside his body. He also needed to control the precise amount of Light Element that he allowed to absorb at every point in time, as an excessive conversion of blood would tax his mind, and an extreme amount of Element in one's body could damage one's soul permanently.

Little by little, the Light Element began to flood his realm of conscious, forming a spherical shape identical to other Cores. The brilliant light would occasionally shine from it as more and more Light Element merged into one. At this stage, the innate talent that Forus got from the blue-robed sorcerer played a significant role than his perseverance. The compatible between the Light Element and his body served as the solid foundation for the Light Core to take shape.

As the Core came into existence, the bright light that sone from it illuminated the surrounding, blinding the hellish landscape into whiteness, piecing into Ocelia's eyes and forced her eyelids to close for a moment. Her condition was worsening every moment as the corruption inside her body crashed with the mysterious transformative power, impacting her half-human-half-Element body as the battlefield.

However, despite the pain, Ocelia never let out any moan or sound, quietly waiting for her love to finish his ascension. The process of ascension required his undivided attention as anything that could disturb him would lead towards the failure of his breakthrough. With that in her mind, Ocelia forced herself to endure the pain while wiping the mess of filth that enveloped her, gazing towards the centre of the ritual, onto the lonely figure below the floating ball of light.

Her suffering, however, did not go unnoticed by Forus, as he gritted his teeth and disregarded his safety before he greedily absorbed overflowing amounts of Light Element, enhancing the rate of construction of the Light Core.

Not long after his crazed action, his left arm immediately swelled as the blood vessels popped, leaking out blood. The spilling blood turned white in colour as a faint radiance mixed itself within it. However, before the oozing Light Element evaporated, the tendrils inside Forus rushed out from his inner organs and sucked them back into his body, using them as the foundation of the Light Core.

After many swelling and popping, a series of cracking sound echoed the surrounding as the Light Core finished its construction, floating above Forus and emitting faint Light Element. Without any delay, the evil ritual spilt its symbols and encircled the Light Core, surrounded it with various runes. The pressure soon descended onto the Core as it slowly disintegrated into pure Light Element.

With the Withering Core as the foundation, all other Element that Forus had constructed their Cores started to move towards the centre of his brow. Guided by the array from the abyss, the intensified Death Aura penetrated every bit of his body and invaded his realm of consciousness. Accompanied the Death Aura, rupture sound echoed inside Forus' mind, as if someone had drilled a hole inside his mind and forcefully took control over it.

Without any instruction from Forus, the tendrils that existed as a part of his greyish soul moved towards the Death Aura, guiding them towards his soul. The greyish soul, which ordinarily would devour every hint of Death Aura, silently allowed the Death Aura to cover its exterior, merging with it and becoming a part of the soul.

Following closely, all other Elements also moved into the realm of consciousness via the hole created by the Death Aura, mimicking the behaviour of the Death Aura and advanced towards the greyish soul as well. Their presence in the realm of consciousness caused space inside to shake, turning unstable from the interference from the outside, instilling Forus with endless chronic pain.