The pounding of a second heartbeat thrummed through his body as lightning and fire tore through his nerves. Channeling his Meditation to help him work through the pain, he felt his mind center, clearing. Though the pain did not go away, he was no foreigner to it.
He quickly realized that the foreign rhythmic thumping was not another heartbeat, but the Wrath Curse slamming against the wall of its containment. Its intent echoed through the concepts draining from it, giving the curse a path to inflict him with damage.
Now that Dei was a Union, his Vibrational weakness had turned into a weakness to Echoes, which seemed to include the concept of Vibration, and more.
The curse took advantage of this weakness, bursting a few of his blood vessels by echoing its will through the ideas Dei squeezed from it. The revelation did not worry him though, instead making him grin. Its attacks were not enough to overwhelm his natural regeneration, so the damage was quickly repaired. Instead of killing him, the Curse was providing Dei with a new way to train as [Homeostasis] began learning from the damage, working to quickly counteract it.
This Echo damage was an incredibly deep concept as well, encompassing much of what it meant to be an echo both literally and metaphorically. He could not have asked for a better example for Homeostasis to learn from.
He felt the building rage in the back of his mind but it was… manageable. If he were in the middle of combat, he didn’t doubt he would struggle to remain clear headed, but his work in Fortitude combined with Meditation to grant him agency over his own actions. Fortitude helped his mind remain sturdy in the storm of emotions, while Meditation helped it bend and disperse the force of each mental attack.
Slowly, carefully, he moved his head down to look at his arms and the cracks that ran along his skin. Similar to how Fortitude boiled upwards from below to release the golden glow, Dei saw the deep rose red of Wrath now, as a blindingly bright light
Looking closely, he saw how the source of light shifted and moved gently. When he brought his arm closer to his face, he noticed that the shimmering changed position as well.
The light was not a simple glow, but a genuine window into somewhere deeper, perhaps even directly into the Conceptual Plane of Wrath itself.
He moved his arm around a few more times, watching as the shifting flame changed positions, even bringing it very close to his face so he could have a wider view of it.
It looked hellish, as one might expect, and he couldn’t see much else.
Focusing completely on keeping himself stable and not lashing out at those around him, Dei sat perfectly still as he adjusted to the sensation.
* * *
Several hours later, he saw a piece of Fendrascora’s peripheral body flow through the wall, moving around slightly to get a good look at everything. Taking that as a sign to stop for now, he released the Skill, and saw the cracks dim to a weak glow, disappearing over the course of a few minutes.
It lingered for far longer than the Fortitude training had, but that was to be expected. When at last it was gone and he no longer felt it pushing against his mind, Fendrascora slowly expanded her presence in the cave, and he turned his back to her so she would have easier access.
It took her a few more minutes to pierce his skin and make her way into his bloodstream, which actually answered one of the questions about his Soul Strength defense- deeper wounds would probably not be blocked by Soul Strength. Gargeth could block deep wounds because that was a specialized constitution, similar to how Dei specialized against MP and into HP, Gargeth gave up some HP, MP, and SP in favor of using loose Spirit mana to block any and all damage.
“Good outing?” He asked Fendrascora.
“Mhm, it was nice to finally return to somewhere familiar” she responded, happy but… strained. She was exhausted, either mentally or physically. He could imagine a bit of both, with nostalgia over her past hitting harder now that she wasn’t even the same creature.
‘Actually, this was the first time she’s ever entered the Great River as an Embodiment and not an Elemental, yea? I can imagine it was a bit of a journey.’
When her primary spiritual form was fully within his blood stream, she said “Dei, have you… moved at all since I left?”
“Hm? No? Why?”
“Because you’re wildly dehydrated and currently in a state of starving…”
‘Oh yea, haha. I forgot that my body probably requires food and water when rebuilding itself.’
“My bad, any way you could fix it?” he asked her, only just now feeling the different flavors of pain in his body. The pain of Wrath reconstruction outshined all other sensations, which is why the pain from starving or dehydration didn’t seem to really hit him. Now that he could feel again, he was dangerously close to death.
Even before he’d finished asking Fendrascora to help, he already felt the dehydration disappear, followed by an explosive bout of energy pushing against the walls of his stomach.
Normally, she would just inject the pure energy required for him into his body, but it seemed she’d decided to transport small pieces of the dried rations instead, letting his body decide what to do with it. Quickly, he felt himself approaching a state of balance, [Homeostasis] even working to accelerate his digestion and get everything where it needed to go.
Still standing, he stretched his body, feeling several pops throughout it as he went through his routine. While it was easiest to sit still during his body rebuilding, it was also clearly not healthy. He would have to move in order to eat, and potentially find a way to work out or even just stretch his muscles.
Now that the Training Mode of his [Growing Pains] Skill was gone, replaced with a new Training Mode of [Growing Rage], he had to do some roundabout process to weaken himself in order to continue building Physical stats. His new training mode made it so that his body would be weakened to match the physical level of a creature of his choosing, so Dei usually just chose Clever, letting his body weaken to such a considerable degree that even Clever could knock him down if he really put his mind to it.
He wasn’t sure if that would be a good idea during his rebuilding though, because a strong body might be required to withstand the process. He’d try it tomorrow, instead quickly checking his notifications from the day before going to sleep.
[Skill Leveled Up: Pandora’s Box (Sealed) (273) -> (274)]
[Skill Leveled Up: Good Samaritan (72) -> (73)]
[Skill Leveled Up: Growing Rage (186) -> (188)]
[Skill Leveled Up: Homeostasis (107) -> (112)]
[Skill Leveled Up: Meditation (106) -> (117)]
* * *
[Since the Fall: 12/1/809 - 9:38:18]
When he woke up, he was ready to begin training, more carefully this time. Once again, Fendrascora left, and Dei decided to test out his new way of training.
He sectioned off a smaller piece of the curse- maybe around a hundred points of mana. Using this smaller pool, he began reconstructing his body. It was a much less painful, much more manageable sensation than the full brunt of the curse, but he wasn’t interested in toning down his training to something like this because it wouldn’t be good for his power levels during the upcoming fight. This was only a proof of concept.
Once he saw how much less dangerous this form of training was, he focused on Clever and entered Training Mode and… not much changed. The pain was the exact same and the rate of rebuilding hadn’t slowed down or sped up. The only thing different was that the Echoes from the curse attempting to escape hurt him more without a powerful body, but with how weak this curse was, it was manageable.
The process of rebuilding his own muscles was more conceptual than literal, so it didn’t actually matter what his literal muscle mass was. He was imbuing the concept of Wrath into the concept of his muscles, which was odd but unchanged by how strong he was.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
He sectioned off more and more of the Curse, bringing it into the pool of mana that he was drawing from and slowly strengthening it. He managed to begin using around half the Curse on his weaker body before the Echoes from its attacks overwhelmed his healing, forcing him to stop strengthening it.
[Homeostasis] was still getting stronger, adjusting to the strength of the Echoes. Over time he hoped to be able to use the entire Curse on his weaker body as he became nigh immune to Echo damage.
Settling on his current state, Dei took some time to eat and drink. Even if it hadn’t been long since he’d awoken, the process of rebuilding himself still took quite a bit of energy and made him sweat buckets. Though the changes were conceptual, his body still fought to adjust in ways he didn’t understand.
When he was settled into his new state, he began experimenting on the second way he was going to improve his training in the next month: by Identifying Aloran.
They’d already talked about it before, so he didn’t waste time with another lengthy conversation. He simply gave Aloran a heads up, got confirmation, and sent out a web of Kindness mana into the open air, hoping to catch something.
Clever told him that the mana levels in the air changed in response to Alorans emotional state, so he focused on that for now. Was there something he could Identify in the mana?
It felt ephemeral, slipping through any attempt he made to grasp at it, but he could sense that there was something there if he really tried. It would take a long while, but Dei could spare some attention from Meditating to resist the pain, focusing it instead on working through Identify and exercising his body. It would just be a bit of a longer month than he’d hoped.
* * *
A little over a week after starting, Dei began to notice a difference when he trained. At first, he assumed it was placebo, but it was now undeniable. The pain from [Growing Rage] using the Curse was beginning to recede, his body adjusting to the process of having Wrath imbued into it. That was despite him slowly using more of the Curse at once too in accordance with [Homeostasis] getting better and better at countering echoes.
He knew there was an upper limit to how much Homeostasis could account for per level, but it was higher than normal because he’d taken the Resistance upgrade, and each successive level raised the cap just a little bit more.
On the front of Dei Identifying Aloran… yea, it was certainly happening, but not very quickly. He would occasionally catch glimpses of something in the air, and he was learning to pinpoint Aloran better, but the progress was both difficult and slow.
When he found a piece of mana that was “Aloran” himself, or had a trace of Alorans soul, he would try and glean what he could from it- but the vastness and depth of what he encountered left him puzzled, trying to navigate a maze of interconnected ideas he was unequipped to process fully. When he found a piece of Aloran it was just another piece of the biggest, most complex jigsaw puzzle he’d ever seen, each individual square holding enough information to hold him there for weeks before he could get anything of substance out of it. And that was if he could hold onto the same piece of mana for several weeks at a time, when in reality it would slip away after only half an hour or so.
He didn’t despair at the thought; If it was difficult, it was better training.
* * *
[Since the Fall: 12/30/809 - 25:50:00]
[Skill Leveled Up: Pandora’s Box (Sealed) (274) -> (300)
[Skill Leveled Up: Good Samaritan (73) -> (100)
[Skill Leveled Up: Growing Rage (188) -> (200)
[Total Stats Gained: +14 Physical]
[Skill Leveled Up: Meaningful (50) -> (57)]
[Skill Leveled Up: Empower Self (12) -> (21)]
[Skill Leveled Up: Solidity (105) -> (111)]
[Skill Leveled Up: Fortress of Denial (42) -> (53)]
[Skill Leveled Up: Homeostasis (112) -> (146)]
[Skill Leveled Up: Meditation (117) -> (158)
[Skill Leveled Up: Identify of the Stout Protector (68) -> (100)]
[Affinity Strengthened:
[Fortitude: High-Uncommon: 99% has strengthened into Fortitude: Low-Rare: 12%]
Temporarily, he paused his training as he looked at the clock. In just ten minutes, it would be the new year. Eight hundred and ten years since the Fall.
He had multiple Skills ready to evolve but chose not to, because he’d need to leave Aloran’s cave to evolve them. He wanted to try his hand at weaving them all into [Connection], and he needed the Leviathan watching him to bear witness to his actions. He wanted to get as many Skills concentrated into a single trip as possible, because that would mean less time vulnerable to tracking.
He, of course, couldn’t wait too long though. If he did, then the Skills would waste time stuck at an evolutionary bottleneck, not gaining EXP from actions like they should.
He would go out soon, probably tomorrow, because [Pandora’s Box (Sealed)] was the one Skill he especially couldn’t let sit stagnant. [Good Samaritan] had reached level one hundred about a week and a half ago, while [Growing Rage] hit level two hundred just six days ago. [Identify of the Stout Protector] was right alongside Pandora’s Box though, having hit level one hundred yesterday.
The experience for everything was slowing down, and Dei discovered a second part to the multipliers Aloran spoke of- they worked in the other direction too, dividing experience in certain circumstances. Aloran said that trying new things would net more experience, which was correct, but Dei later found that if he did the same thing over and over again, he would eventually receive no experience at all.
Dei would have to switch up the training for the next month if he still wanted to continue leveling his Skills up, but that would be fine. He wasn’t doing this to level his Skills, he was giving his body time to absorb the Wrath Curse.
Dei sighed, the bloated feeling from his box not going away. Aloran said that loose mana produced by his connection to certain affinities should just fade away with time if they were not placed within a storage Skill, but Aloran didn’t account for his Skill being determined. There were a few points of Fortitude and Soul mana, glued to the walls of his box as the Skill refused to release them to their own devices.
He checked how much mana he had in his Skill now.
[Pandora’s Box:
8552/12000 Wrath
379/12000 Kindness
1142/12000 Soul
710/12000 Fortitude
1150/12000 [NULL] ]
67/12000 Void]
A shocking amount. His Wrath mana production had gone up ever since he’d begun channeling the Curse, probably in response to the way it affected his mental state. On top of that, Soul from Meditation and Fortitude from trying to resist the curse's effects made for rapid mana production. By this point, the pain from imbuing himself with Wrath was all but gone, reduced to a dull ache.
The only mana type that was going down was Kindness, continuously drained by his [Good Samaritan] Skill in an attempt to buy him just a little more time. He’d expected the mana to run dry by this point, but more Kindness continuously found its way to him through his affinity. Kindness seemed to recognize his actions, rewarding him, though he didn’t quite agree.
Helping Fendrascora was beneficial, it shouldn’t be considered kindness. Nonetheless, it was.
There was so much to do, so much to worry about. He didn’t feel like it was smart to put a hold on his training, but he found that he just… didn’t want to for now. He could grant himself a small reprieve. The others in the cave, Clever, Fendrascora, and Perumah, were all fast asleep. To them, today was no different than any other, but Dei recognized it as a holiday. At least it should be, even in this world.
“Can’t sleep?” Aloran asked, surprising him. The God was generally very quiet, content to simply observe the training of Dei’s group. It seemed even he felt a bit different with the coming of the new year.
“I guess not…”
A mutual silence fell between them for a few moments, Aloran being the first to talk again.
“It’s been an eventful year for me, I’ll tell you that much.”
“That makes two of us. I’ve been in this world for almost a year and a half by this point but it feels… so much longer. I’ve had more experiences in my time here than I ever had in my entire previous life, and Earth just feels so distant now. I still care about the people there, I still want to go back and finish up my business, but the journey feels more like stopping by to visit the city I lived in as a kid rather than returning to kill the people who wronged me.”
“I… know where you’re coming from. It’s a different life, with different people. You aren’t the same person you were when you left- quite literally in your case- and now you don’t know how you’re going to act when you finally get there.”
“Eh, I won’t worry about that. If there’s anything I’ve learned since coming to Avium, it’s the ability to think on my feet. I don’t know really, I guess the new year just makes me think over where I’ve started and how far I’ve come. It’s nice. It didn’t start nice of course, but I can’t complain about what I have now, and it’s a solid foundation to base the rest of my life upon. When I get back to society, my experiences out here? I think it’ll make everything else easy by comparison.”
Aloran laughed. “You have no idea how right you are. Slaughterers are certainly something, and they all hold their own vital places in the battle against the demon, so they’re granted some special permissions.”
The idea of others like him made Dei smile. He really wanted to meet a few. He wanted to share his experiences, and have others understand what he’d gone through.
“Could you tell me about them? Other Slaughterers?”
“Well, it is almost the new year, I wouldn’t mind talking about some of the things I’d seen before ending up here” he said wistfully, no doubt thinking about the past.
Dei made himself comfortable sitting against the wall. He quickly checked his clock.
[Since the Fall: 1/1/810 - 26:00:00]
‘Happy New Years.’
