Aurelian felt himself unravelling.

It was worse than when he’d been hit by an endless wave of System alerts during the fight against the skeletons. It was something beyond that. Something outside of even the same category of mere pain. His soul was on fire. He was being torn apart by acid, in the same moment as a torrential deluge of System energy raged through his veins almost in counterbalance to the poison searing his blood vessels. He was being destroyed on a fundamental level. The fabric of his very existence was being scoured away.

The corrosive mana from the Vasiri’s blood was warping him. He could feel it.

The energy was a venom, excreted and placed within his belly. It festered and spread, leeching out to the rest of him like a sickness he could neither halt nor abate. He screamed still, and even the blood flecking his lips from the force of it was no more than an idle prick against the awareness of his tortured psyche. Aurelian felt himself spasming and shuddering, and he squeezed his eyes shut. It felt like razor blades within his flesh. Like spines of hateful malice stabbing and slashing at every nerve.

The corrosion was akin to dying, over and over, with the acidic burn of dissolving hatred burning away all that he knew and was. It was an inevitable course of utter destruction, and he knew, he knew that he would emerge wrong. He would emerge tainted. He would be driven mad in a way that no magic, no healing, no act of compassion could ever stop. He was being enslaved to something beyond himself, and he could almost feel its insane glee.

Its triumph was dark and gluttonous, and putrescent with malice.

There had to be something he could do. There had to be a recourse.

The taint reached for his bond with Bahamut.

NO!

Dragon’s Resolve exploded within his mind in a searing corona of light, and the vile intrusion was stopped dead. It would not take that from him! It would not rob the only thing he had left! Aurelian exerted his will like an imagined steel bulwark within his mind, and the platinum thread connecting to his Core from Bahamut, the steel cable that wound itself into his very Soulforce; he locked it away from the vileness.

There had to be… Something…

A memory burned in his mind unbidden.

“Unique traits are incredibly, incredibly rare. I suppose you surmised that from the name, though. There are no set-in-stone approaches to how to handle such things, but my advice would be to wait until a moment presents itself where you might turn a bane into a boon.”

Aurelian’s mind raced with recollection. The gears turned.

“A bane into a boon? Like a curse or something?”

“Yes, actually.” Tarixi said with an approving nod. “That is exactly the right circumstance.”

He threw his will at the System, and with every ounce of his will, he demanded what he was owed.

The System complied, and Aurelian almost thought he heard triumph in its song.

The venom in his veins abruptly surged, and with instinct he couldn’t place Aurelian dropped his defences. The corrupted and twisted power turned from a sickening, tar-like black to a crimson that burned as bright as a red star, and it smashed into his core. Aurelian howled and slammed his fists against the marble without conscious thought, all while the Vasiri cackled; oblivious to what was happening within.

The lines of toxic virulence had transformed into something beyond his wildest imaginings, and Aurelian saw something in that moment that the new power surged into his core: a tether. A bond of green-black malice. A filament of will and connection attempting to slither its way toward his prismatic Core and into its totality. To succeed where it would otherwise fail. To erode him. To twist him.

To own him.

Calamity’s Blade manifested in his core like the birth of a star.

The vine of Absolum’s Intent froze.

The Vasiri went still.

Aurelian snarled and the blade cut.

Radiance exploded throughout his mind, his soul, and his core like a detonating sun and Aurelian felt his back hit the floor. He felt cold and bony hands around his throat. Felt them squeezing. He couldn’t have fought back if he’d wanted to. Whatever was happening to his body, to his mind, to his soul was beyond all else he could focus on. It was too much. It was far, far too much. He could only lie upon the marble and wheeze, too focused inward to defend himself. Too caught up in the changes wracking his body.

The Vasiri raised one of its hands from his throat, its expression a mix of confusion, fascination, rage, hatred, and fear. It was heaving for breath, and Aurelian could see… something… extending out from its core. A flicker. A twist. Something recognizable. A kind of thick, rotting cable of corrupt mana stretching up, up, and beyond his vision. Into the skies beyond the glass ceiling.

The Vasiri’s fingers straightened and its black fingernails lengthened into razor talons. It stared at him and Aurelian almost thought he saw hope, or some semblance of bitter self-loathing in its rusty, mad gaze.

“Just—just a boy!” It spat.

Aurelian’s vision started to blacken at the edges.

The platinum tether connecting his Soulforce to Bahamut’s ignited.

The Vasiri had barely started to bring down its hand when a roar shook the room, and the creature barely had time to spin in shock before a mass of black scales and platinum claws tore it off of Aurelian. A scything tail whipped through the air and its spearhead-like tip sliced through the Vasiri’s eyes in a spray of grotesque blood and essence.

The desiccated monster screamed in pain and rage, and before it could do anything, it ignited.

Dragonfire exploded across its body and sent it staggering backward as Bahamut seared it alive. The dragon’s jaws were parted, his golden eyes affixed upon the Vasiri, and a look of unbridled hatred etched within the radiant luminosity of his gaze.

Aurelian barely had time to savour the hopeless relief that flowed through him before the last of the blazing crimson light was absorbed by his core, and his body abruptly jerked upward.

Pain flensed all feeling from his body at once. Pain he’d thought could never be felt. Pain that moved into the realm of transcendent, soul-deep agony. He couldn’t even scream. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t think. It was all he could do to ward off the level ups.

A cascade of System alerts consumed his vision before he could stop them.

You have reached Level 20!

Congratulations, Aurelian Lucis Imperius!

Hidden Conditions Met!

You have managed to achieve a unique existence unheard of within the Realms!

Achievement: Deus ex Anima

For successfully achieving a feat of singular creation, you have received the following:

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Title: Primogenitor

Resource Unlocked: Anima

Unique Trait: Sanguinated

Congratulations, Aurelian Lucis Imperius!

You have met the requirements to unlock the skill Anima Syphon (E)!

The Vasiri are known for their ability to sustain themselves on the Life Essence of their foes. You have gained this ability, though yours is its form uncorrupted by the machinations of Absolum, and is thus superior in its efficacy and power. You may choose to reap the remnant power of any creatures around you which are recently dead, or too weak to resist; filling your Anima reserves in the process, should they possess enough with which to fill them.

Your mortal cunning outwits the Gods, Reclaimer!

Congratulations, Aurelian Lucis Imperius!

You have met the requirements to unlock the skill Anima Conversion (E)!

The Vasiri’s ability to harvest Life Essence allowed them to restore wounds, regenerate mana, and supplement their stamina with impunity. Though their method was flawed and drove them mad, yours is not. You may harness the very essence of your foes against them, and use their claimed power to your own. The possibilities are endless.

Now you’ll never need to stop killing, Reclaimer!

Congratulations, Aurelian Lucis Imperius!

You have met the requirements to unlock the skill Anima Infusion (E)!

The Vasiri are prolific Necromancers thanks to the tainted Life and Nature mana Absolum corrupts within their Cores during the process of conversion. Unlike the crude affectations of lesser infusion used by these puppeteering monstrosities, however, yours is a true form of Infusion. You may expend Anima to raise the dead as loyal servants, bound to your service but possessed of a mind and will of their own. They will function as they did in life, but with all the power and might of the undead.

Every good monarch needs a loyal Army, Reclaimer!

Congratulations, Aurelian Lucis Imperius!

You have met the requirements to unlock the skill Anima Diffusion (E)!

Creation and destruction have ever been two parts of the same coin, and the abilities of Necromancers are no exception. Already you may raise and forge servants of undeath to stand with you unwaveringly, but now also may you return them to the grave should you wish it. Merely will it, and the Anima sustaining them will be diffused and lost.

You hold the power of life and death, Reclaimer!

Aurelian felt toxins erupt out of his pores the instant the alerts were done, and a wave of slush and muck as black as the void twisted and seethed upon the tiles from between the gaps of his plate, only to begin evaporating into putrescent fumes of shadowy filth in moments. Where remnants of the deluge of corrosive expulsion failed to find gaps in his platemail, it simply wafted out in the same black smog; leaving behind a stench, but no mark or stain to speak of.

His awareness was shaky at best, and his sense of self was… jumbled. So much had changed. So much in such a short amount of time. He could still barely make sense of what the System had told him, and the effort of attempting to bring his mind back into focus felt almost herculean. He felt enervated by the harrowing pain that had torn apart his sense of reality, and the very thought of moving was… exhausting.

Bahamut roared again, and Aurelian forced his head to fall to the other side.

His eyes searched, and found the dragon engaged with the Vasiri.

“Bahamut…” He rasped in confusion, disbelief, relief, and hope. “Alive…?”

Joy ran parallel to bewilderment and confusion. It was hard to orient. Hard to think. He could barely remember what had happened leading up to that moment, and he found moving akin to trying to lift a boulder with his bare hands. At least by the reckoning of his strength on earth. His eyes sought the dragon again and noted the shimmer of his runes, the dark beauty of his scales, and the glimmer of his platinum claws, teeth, horns, and spines.

Aurelian shifted his attention back to the Vasiri, and knew he had to act.

He might have been physically incapable, but magically…

Aurelian reached into himself and activated Dragon’s Sight with an instinct pressure upon the skill. Immediately the world changed, as if another layer had been covered over it like a film, and he spied motes of ten different colours, each one correlating to a different form of magic. How he knew that was something he’d worry about later. His eyes moved rapidly while he searched for what he wanted. In rare cases he spied motes that correlated to no specific magical school: prismatic balls of energy that he knew to be unaspected mana.

Such ruminations were for later however. Aurelian had a task to complete.

He extended his awareness back toward the Vasiri and searched carefully, looking for what he’d seen earlier. He noticed motes of fire from Bahamut’s attack, of light, of death and twisted life and nature. He saw motes of shadow and motes of pure mana, but he could not find the cord. He narrowed his eyes and focused harder, fully aware of the time limit that was the Vasiri’s ruined eyes; fully aware that Bahamut needed him.

He pushed past what he could see and into what he could sense.

He layered his instinctive comprehension of aether over his mind.

Aurelian pushed his mana cycle to its maximum, his core screamed, his eyes bled. His body shook while he gritted his teeth and ramped up the blinding speed of his bolted together spherical core to its maximum rotation within the bands of platinum force that had forged its framework. A single, ethereal chime of esoteric power rang out within his mind… and then it was there.

A thick cable of rotting green and black mana, forged from pain, fear, and malice.

It ascended up from the navel over Vasiri’s core, through the ceiling and into the heavens far above. It was a tether of unimaginable proportions. A malleable pylon. A link to something far beyond the capacity for his mind to properly grasp, even while he factored its existence into his plans. He had felt an echo of that very influence attempt to pierce his own core when he’d changed the Vasiri’s power, and for him now to truly witness it first hand… He knew then that had he not excised the filaments remaining with his own body, if he had let that malicious splinter enter his core; he might very well have been subsumed as the Vasiri had been subsumed.

“But not today,” he wheezed whilst lifting his left hand shakily.

Soulforce ignited in a roar within his exhausted body, and Aurelian felt his core spinning unceasingly. He could feel changes occurring even then, feel the red power of his Sanguination surging across the core’s surface and coating it in a thin layer of protection. The bands of platinum served as the framework, and the crimson energy worked to diffuse the aetheric friction between the bands and the interior nucleus while the shimmering scarlet power formed the spectre of what would eventually become, he suspected, his Compression stage Calamity Core.

That, however, was not what concerned him at that moment.

Aurelian’s attention fixated on the massive braided cable of rotting divine power, its mass comparable to the largest of bridge-cables on Earth, and he began to weave together mana and Soulforce. He twined and twisted and threaded and wove it carefully and with precision, his eyes tracking the Vasiri as it tried and failed multiple times to get to Bahamut.

The dragon used a combination of flight and fire to keep the creature at bay, and even its undead forces it kept back. That was smart, Aurelian had to admit. Likely it worried what the dragon’s fire would do when exposed to an entire legion of essence-corrupted skeletons.

Conflagration was a nice word, he mused deliriously while spitting out blood.

Aurelian’s smile was strained when it came, and he felt sweat pouring across his features with every second he continued to gather mana and Soulforce. It was an exercise in focus, magical capability, and sheer force of will that was buoyed by his Dragon’s Resolve. He could feel it like a heavens-shaking roar within his mind and core, curling protectively around his sense of self and lashing away any intrusive negative emotions.

The nascent bladed construct above the Vasiri’s shifting body began to grow in stability, but he knew he needed more. He all but emptied his reserves while staring at the corded bond between the Vasiri and its god. He poured everything he had into the formation of the shimmering shape of light, and heat, and power. His Soulforce roared like a stoked furnace, his core spun with a dizzying velocity that almost seemed to let loose a note of music he knew, intrinsically, to be his own.

The last of his mana sank into the weapon, and then Aurelian found more.

The motes of power within the air shifted, drifted, and slammed into the blade.

More and more energy moved throughout the space, drawn like water to a whirlpool, like matter to a black hole while the sword grew ever-more incandescent with power. The strain on Aurelian’s mind set him to clenching his teeth. His nose leaked blood from a mild hemorrhagic reaction. His body shook with the first beginnings of shock that would lead to eventual organ failure. His vision went double. His eardrums screamed at the frequency of the construct. His eyes ran with consistent tears of blood. Aurelian pushed his body until surely, surely he would break. Yet still, he pushed.

Until at last it was complete.

Aurelian grinned in blood-soaked triumph.

“Eat shit, Absolum.”

Calamity’s Blade sheared through the Divine Tether like a guillotine.

The Vasiri screamed when the cord was severed, the arboretum exploded with light, and everything went black.