Page 206

Mid Evening - Late Fall : The Ancient Rune, The Tree of Prayer

*CrAckLE* As a beam of light shot up from the rune, narrowly missing my face, I jolted from shock. -Is that.. divinity?-

It was an astronomically tiny beam, but at the same time, it was still divinity. -So how should I absorb it... Do I just...- Reaching my hand out, I reluctantly stuck it into the beam to try and absorb it like mana, but nothing happened.

The divinity passed through my hand like it didn't even exist. -If that's not it, then how about this!-

Not wanting to let any more go to waste, I shifted forward and moved my reserve directly over it.

*CrAckLE* "Ack..." A sharp pain ripped through my body the instant the divinity entered my reserve, but unlike last time, I had no problem staying conscious. "Agh..." -But what is causing that pain?!-

Gritting my teeth through the pain of my flesh being slowly shredded, I moved my aura and scanned the area around my reserve to see what was happening.

But once I saw it, I could only cringe from disgust. -How unsettling...-

Throughout my abdomen, weaving in and around the shell of my reserve, I could sense the microscopic black tubes of divinity moving like some alien creature while digging through my flesh like a worm.

The tubes grew and moved as if they had no destination in mind, digging through anything in their path, be it muscle, bone, or organs. -If my body still relied on my normal organs to keep me alive, this would be really dangerous...-

Thankfully, without any vitals left besides my brain, I had no problem letting the divinity spread where it pleased.

But that led to problems of its own. "Ucck..." Almost vomiting up blood, I held my hand over my mouth and somehow managed to keep anything from getting on the rune. -I can't risk having it interfere with the rune!-

Leaning my head forward to get out of the funnel of dense fog, I used magic to break down the bloody vomit as best as I could before letting it out as a cloud of toxic chemicals. "Hooh..."

A deep sense of lethargy immediately encompassed my mind as my body rushed to heal the slough of internal injuries, but thankfully, not long after, the amount of damage being inflicted by the spread of divinity started to lessen in severity.

"Hah.. hah..." My breathing was heavy, but once I managed to catch my breath, I looked through myself with my aura once again and tried to learn from what was happening.

It actually didn't take long for me to start noticing patterns. -So.. the divinity was doing more damage at the beginning because it had fewer branches to spread to...-

From what I could tell, divinity followed the path of least resistance through my body, happily traveling through the preexisting framework of tubes before branching out into countless different areas at once. -But the longer I absorb it, the more branches and the more spread out the growth is...-

The more spread out things were, the easier it was for my body to heal, which, in turn, made the damage more manageable. -It seems the pain is easing up as well...- "Phew..."

I let out a breath of relief as I leaned my head back and glanced to the side.

Although I couldn't exactly see him through the fog, I somehow knew Ilios was sitting there with a wagging tail.

That was when my mind finally took a step back. -Now that I'm past the initial curve, I should give him the rest...-

The instant that thought came to mind, I wasted no time carefully moving my reserve out of the beam and standing up.

-It'll be safer for him to get through the bad part while the supply of divinity is stable and controlled...- Turning in his direction, I darted through the quickly ever-thinning fog until eventually making it to where Ilios was sitting with a wagging tail.

-Has the fog really thinned out or am I just.. adjusting to it or something...- I was a bit confused as to why my visibility was so much better than before, but once I finally made it to Ilios, that confusion was put to the side.

*pat-pat* I gently rubbed Ilios's head as he lowered it to me, but my voice stayed serious. "Ilios, it's your turn. Come on." Ilios stood up as I pulled my hands away and turned back around. "Be careful not to step on any of the engravings as we run."

The instant he nodded his head, I darted back into the fog with Ilios quickly following suit.

It only took us a few seconds to arrive, and thankfully, the beam of divinity was still going strong. -Alright... We need to make the most of what's left...- "Ilios, come lie here and set your reserve over the beam of light."

His ears perked up, and he lightly tilted his head slightly when I motioned him forward.

-There's no way he doesn't understand me.

..- "I need you to absorb this since it's such a controlled environment.

It will be much safer if you absorb your first bit of divinity here.

" -I can't have him run the risk of permanently damaging or killing himself if he were to somehow absorb too much at once. ..-

But even though he saw that I was serious, he just shook his head and nudged me toward it.

-You seriously want to give it all to me?

- "Ilios, I have already built my foundation with this stuff.

Now it's your turn." Since he didn't want to do it as I told him, I warmed up my tone and gave him some encouragement.

"The more of this you absorb, the more we will be able to play in the future. "

He immediately froze and looked at me like he was weighing the pros and cons of the deal before letting out a quick breath and holding his head high. "Huff..." His childish excitement and limitless confidence quickly found their way back to his face as he finally walked past me.

It only took a second for his joy to spread to me as well. -How is he so damn cute no matter what he does...- The warmth I felt from him quickly overwrote the nervousness I felt. "Go ahead and lie down next to it so I can get a good look at your condition before we start."

*Puff* Not wasting a single extra second, he plopped himself down right next to the beam and looked at me with a wagging tail.

But although I would have normally jumped all over him, I had to remain serious. "Hooh..." -Let's see what he's working with first...-

*vwooom* Quickly flooding his body with my aura, I looked around to see that he wasn't actually much different from me on the inside. -To think he'd only have a stomach and lungs, like me...-

It was a bit odd to see so few organs in a creature other than myself, but I couldn't bring myself to think it was totally unexpected. -So the reason my organs were removed with my dragon sleeps was because I am part Ancient Fenrir, huh...-

Giving another quick look through his body to make sure I didn't miss anything else, I finally looked at him with a confident expression.

"Alright, buddy. When you're ready, scoot up just a bit.

It will hurt at the start, but try to push yourself through it.

" I tried to comfort him by rubbing his side, and it seemed to help.

"Hopphhh..." He let out a quick breath as he prepared himself before scooching forward into the beam.

But that preparation was only so effective...

*tap* He jolted the instant the beam touched his reserve, likely feeling the awful sensation of the tubes of divinity being driven through his flesh.

But thankfully, everything so far was going as expected.

Ilios easily stayed conscious, and I was able to carefully keep watch on the tiny black tubes that weaved themselves around his reserve before spreading out into the rest of his body.

"Hick..." Ilios let out an odd noise as I looked over to see him struggling not to vomit.

-Sh*t! I forgot to tell him how to deal with that!- Quickly moving over to his head, I set my hand on the base of his neck. "Ilios, look up and open your mouth for me."

Instinctually following my instructions, he opened his mouth and let the gas I created vent out.

-Perfect...- Carefully moving down his throat, I cleared out the blood and did my best to clean up his countless internal injuries, but although it looked quite messy, everything was going well. -Only a little longer until the damage will taper off...-

My focus steadily became more honed with each passing second, but eventually, that focus started to isolate me from my surroundings.

It wasn't until several minutes later that my spatial awareness finally returned, but my surroundings had already completely changed.

The dense fog that used to encompass everything had all been moved into a single, colossal tornado-like funnel over the center of the rune.

That phenomenon finally gave me the chance to see everything around me beyond the limit of my aura, but before I could even look away from the tornado, a ball of hydrogen formed in front of my forehead.

-Huh?- For a split second, I wondered why I made it, but that was answered almost instantly.

*pshh-FWOOOSH* Instinctually lighting the hydrogen as if it was a thruster, my head was jolted back at a ridiculous speed.

Confusion immediately wrapped around my mind, but in the next instant, a fist plowed through the area where my head was.

-WHAT THE F*CK?!-