Joshua Elias Tanner. You have regrown 78 percent of your central nervous system. You now have the capacity to absorb the Tear of Nekusassu. Awake and do so.
Wh... Who... Clone... is that you? Josh responded frailly.
It is I.
Wh... What happened?
...That is irrelevant.
~Forgiveness, brother. I was not fast enough in getting to you when I recognized the danger—~
The Clone raised the palm of his hand toward Sen in a stalling manner. Sen let his words trail off.
Due to your inattentiveness, you were caught in the detonation of three Darkstar fusion devices. Senyak was able to secure what remained of your physical body in his earthen shield before you were crushed by the resulting collapse of the plateau. A collapse under which you are both currently buried.
So... I survived three direct nuclear blasts?!
Yes.
Sweeeeeeet!! Joshua's tone came through drunkenly. Sen took the increased vocal energy as a sign of continued improvement. He suppressed his grin under the crackling orange glow of his shield.
The Clone's brows furrowed and jagged electric blue forks arced between them. Then he looked directly at Senyak.
Waiting for a larger amount of his prefrontal cortex to regrow will be more productive for... all of us. Narrowing his eyes, he turned his gaze back to the ruin of Joshua's body. When you start with less reasoning capacity and inhibitory neuronal function than an average Borcine house pet, it is reasonable to wait for meaningful discussion until after one is on the high side of probability predictions concerning brain regrowth...
Average house pet?! My charcoal’d butt cheeks! I've got a pedigree, at least! Joshua mentally retorted in an amused and high-spirited tone. Plainly, there was yet to be enough inhibitory function in Joshua's cerebrum to keep him from dancing on the edge of the Clone's wrath... Or to speak intelligently in his own defense...
The Clone seemed to recognize this. His intense stare took on an air of unavoidable acceptance and he turned the ultraviolet fury of his gaze away, apparently waiting for the time to pass in silence.
Imminent destruction by the Clone averted, at least for the present moment, Sen took restock of Josh's condition. Not much of Joshua's body was left to offer much physical signs of improvement—or even to show that he was still alive. All the skin and muscles on the front half of his body had been eradicated in the blast. His four limbs were missing. Blackened and shriveled internal organs could be seen amongst the few remaining ribs he possessed. His face had been seared down to the skull, and the cranial sinuses where his eyes, nose, and mouth had been were empty, black, smoking holes.
Still, through their Bond, Sen could tell that Josh's feelings and thoughts increased in strength and clarity every second. He could now even flex the charred nubs of his shoulders from the connective tissue and muscles remaining on his back.
Twiddling his metaphysical thumbs, Sen checked his status.
Physical Health Status:
15000 → 11205
Spherical Cultivation Units
Free Essence:
40500 → 19,878 → 19828 → 19777.
Spherical Cultivation Units
The blast had been significant, and much of Sen's Essence had been depleted in repelling it.
Upon hearing the telltale "fummp" of the tube-launched grenades and then the heavy clinking as they slid across the floor in the cavern, Sen had activated his Earthen Shield. Sadly... Joshua had not. That fact would require… more training, Sen decided with a disappointed grunt.
Sen took a deep breath and let it go... It was deeply frustrating how much basic combat information his brother lacked, and how much Sen had failed Joshua by not preparing him to recognize something so obvious and react appropriately. As his Immortal battle instructors had drilled into him over the eons of his early training:
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Rely not on the likelihood of the enemy's not coming, but upon your own readiness to receive him.
When they got out from under this rubble, it was time to increase Joshua’s base battlefield awareness to at least include the standard infantry weapon kits. Their use, limitations, and basic knowledge concerning visual and audio detection. Sen smiled, realizing that he would soon have the opportunity to… invest in his brother’s education via explosion-induced therapy.
When the grenades had detonated, Sen had surprised himself by being able to annex his original Earthen Shield to catch Joshua's blasted body on the fly before the ceiling fell on them. If he had failed, there was no doubt that his brother's Path would have ended under the falling rubble. The time Joshua had spent with Sen to improve his Cultivation skills had, again, paid off. Sen knew that their Earth and Mind skills were far beyond what should be expected of Cultivators of their level, much less even several Attunements more advanced than they were. Concerning their Attunements, he and Joshua were verging on the aptitude of ability expected from Cultivators near the formation of their Tetrahedral Cores.
This was both good and troublesome. Good in the obvious way of making them more powerful and allowing them to survive situations that would reduce most others to ash. Their present situation was an excellent example. Things were troublesome in that it would be challenging to keep advanced Cultivators from seeing that he and Joshua stood head and shoulders above most others. This was further complicated by what Intelligence had said about soon being identified as multi-iterational actors. Many advanced Cultivators would choose to remove Josh and him from the iteration rather than deal with what surprises they could bring to ongoing plans of domination and regional control.
Sen rubbed his eyes. While standing out that much would prove problematic, rapid growth was their primary mission. Future problems were just that... problems for another day. They could, and would, deal with them then. For now, Sen would be grateful for the quickness of their advancement. This was all due to Joshua's intuitiveness in physical matter universes and his ability to share that knowledge through their Bond. Keeping a weather eye on the horizon for more powerful Cultivators who want to move against us is worth the risk.
Along these lines, it was Sen's duty to bolster Josh's knowledge where a civilian could not be expected to excel. Joshua’s failure in getting his shield up in time is mostly mine.
As if the iteration noted Sen's thoughts, the rocks entombing them on all sides creaked menacingly. Dirt and gravel ran down his Earth barrier's translucent walls. With the status window still open, Sen watched his free Essence tick down as he held back annihilation from the five hundred meters of pulverized rock above them. Time to refill the tanks. Sen triggered his Meridians to absorb Earth Aura. Golden-orange power streams flowed into Sen's crackling shield from the surrounding rocks.
Joshua's presence in their Bond grew stronger, and this time he addressed the Clone in his typical blunt but respectful tone. How can we advance our Attunement? We haven't absorbed enough Essence directly from spirit beings to mature our Cores—
The Clone interrupted. I realize you have suffered... He lowered his eyes down to Joshua's smoldering body, ... An injury. But you should not need me to spell out the smallest details at this stage in your Cultivation. Spirit beings of adequate strength are strewn in the rubble all about you. Most are well within reach of your mindscape. Evolved bahoms and sapient octagogs, to be specific. Absorb their Cores. Advance your Attunement. Save your wastling lives, and be quick about it... And yes, Joshua Elias Tanner, I do realize you never thought about the mindscape that way... Is it really in your best interest to continually prove that my initial instinct to expunge your mortality back in that alley was correct? Begin absorbing. Do so now.
The Clone's narrowed gaze in the center of the constantly involuting blue fractals his face was made of brooked no argument.
Joshua had no eyes to close, but through their Bond, Sen could feel Josh was doing the same thing he was—focusing internally and expanding his mindscape to find Core Essence. The Clone had been right. There were hundreds of bodies and at least bright enough to indicate they were adequate fuel for their Cores. Sen was eager to start, but he didn't absorb any. Instead, he waited for Joshua to take his pick. Sen would gather what he needed when Josh had moved on to his Attunement.
Then we can get out of here!
Absorbing Core Essence had turned out to be a non-issue. Joshua had quickly taken the nearest and brightest lumps through his mindscape, then expanded his Core the remaining two times as if he were in physical contact with the spirit beings' bodies, all in less than 30 micros.
Joshua twitched his left shoulder nub. ~Sen. My Core is fully expanded. Could you grab the Tears of Nekusassu out of the bag? I'm a bit short on... arms at the moment.~
Sen slapped a palm against his forehead. ~Apologies.~
Sen reached for the Aspect Focus still strapped around the remains of Josh's torso. It had somehow withstood the blast. Perhaps Joshua was right and this bag bore looking into... A thought for later.
Now holding the two stones, Sen had a moment of indecision as he moved to put one in Josh's nonexistent hand—
Josh shrugged a shoulder as nonchalantly as he could, given the lack of appendages. ~Just put it on... what’s left of my chest... Physical contact might not be needed, but it won't hurt either.~
Sen did as he’d been asked.
~Alright, let's get this done so we can figure a way out of here. I'll go first. Come back and maintain the shield while you take your turn, then we need to find out if that mech and the kid inside it survived this mess. I’ve got some questions that need answers.~
Sen nodded. ~Agreed. But, perhaps simultaneously, we should find out who it was that moved to expunge us via atomization.~
Josh offered a double shoulder flex by way of acknowledgement. ~You're right about that, Sen. Thanks for keeping me on track!~
The next moment, Sen felt that Josh had become internally focused and was... unavailable. His spirit was not gone, just busy. Very, very busy. Sen took the cue and absorbed the bright spots in range of his mindscape, filling his Core to prepare for his own Attunement.