Chapter 43: Chapter 43 - Ascension
My eyes rolled back into my head as I convulsed, mind going completely blank as my body was shredded apart from the inside out without end.
And then, a voice. The System.
[EXP Hold has collapsed.]
[Resuming Absorption...]
[EXP: 2149/2150]
[EXP: 2150/2150]
[Ascension Prerequisites have been met.]
[Initializing Breakthrough to Silver Rank...]
The chaos didn’t stop. It multiplied.
My chest constricted even further, straining against something akin to an implosion as the strands of mana in my body tore loose.
But the half-liquid, half-gaseous mass trying to form in its place was shredded the instant it began to condense.
[Mana Condensation Failed.]
[Reattempting...]
The convulsions returned full force as the attempt resumed, my body trying to force the loose strands into a nucleus, but yet again, those waves of wild, uncontrollable mana piled on, imploding everything, bursting apart nearby organs, vaporizing capillaries, and shattering ribs.
Blood sprayed everywhere as my skin shredded open.
And still my body rebuilt. Vessels reknit. Flesh mended. Bones regrown. Strands regathered.
The process restarted.
Again. Again. Again.
Each cycle collapsed faster than the last. Each time the anomaly ripped it apart, my body adapted, rebuilding stronger, until finally, the threads began knitting differently. They bent instead of snapping. They curved with the pressure instead of breaking. Like reeds in a storm.
Until finally, a trembling sphere formed in my chest---not blue, as the mana strands had been, but a swirling, smoky mass of blood-red, half-dense, half-vapor. Its surface rippled like oil on water, thick, black veins cutting across its continually shifting form.
[Mana Core has been successfully manifested.]
[Unknown mutation detected.]
[Analysis Failed.]
[Appraisal Failed.]
For the first time since the flood began, I drew a full breath.
But the reprieve didn’t last.
[Postponing Analysis...]
[Directing all resources into Mana-Nerve Synchronization...]
Lightning ripped down my spine.
[Your Mana Core has begun synchronization with your Nervous System.]
Every nerve in my body lit like a fuse. My spine arched, mouth foaming as the chaotic mana raced along each line...
And burnt them to ash.
For an instant, there was nothing. No movement. No signal. No self.
Every single nerve. Gone.
Darkness seized me. My body was limp, a sack of meat and blood without command. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t see nor hear. Couldn’t think nor speak.
There was no "I" anymore.
Until there was.
My gift tore open the silence, rebuilding what had been lost.
New nerves erupted from my spine, branching like roots, but they weren’t flesh. They were light. Sprouts of glowing red streaked with black, constructs woven from the anomalous mana itself.
They bored into muscle, fused with bone, and stitched into brain. My skull rang like a bell as the fibers lanced into my cranium, thought returning alongside sensation as the branches weaved between old pathways, growing where none had existed.
[Warning: Nervous System Overlap detected.]
The original nerves returned, reborn in pale streaks of flesh, yet beside them, the new ones remained---twin lines running parallel.
A second system. Faster. Wilder.
Signals collided. My body convulsed, seizing between one command and the next. Arm twitches overlapped, muscles firing too soon or too late. My vision fractured, doubled, the world splitting into jagged overlays.
But then, slowly, painfully, the signals began to align. The two networks learned each other’s rhythm.
My body was synchronizing with itself.
My chest heaved, and the ringing in my ears steadied into clarity.
And then---silence.
[Synchronization : 60%]
I opened my eyes.
And felt everything.
The air prickling across my skin.
Every twitch of muscle fiber. Every bead of sweat. The subtle tremors in the ground through my fingertips. The minute roll of muscle fibers in my own forearm as my hand clenched.
And beneath it all, the new core pulsed---an organ of smoke, breathing that very same anomalous mana with every beat. Not just holding it. Not just containing it.
But producing it.
I felt their rhythms align, my brain, my core, the nerves, both flesh and mana.
[Synchronization: 75%]
Closer.
[Synchronization: 90%]
Closer. Like the right pieces of a puzzle grinding against each other as they shifted into place.
And then...
CLICK.
[Synchronization: 100%]
[Silver Rank Ascension Complete.]
[Level Reset.]
Power surged. Strength. Speed. Constitution. Mind.
Doubled. No, more.
The new half-formed core pumped and pumped, flooding everything with that alien amalgamation of energies.
[All Existing Attributes have been increased by 250%]
[You have acquired an additional 30 AP as a Secondary Reward for Ascension.]
[EXP: 1000/2250]
[EXP: 2000/2250]
[EXP: 2250/2250]
[Level Up! 0 --> 1]
[You have gained 15 Attribute Points]
My body vibrated with the aftershocks, every muscle twitching with untapped power.
But I was awake now. Present. Alive. I saw the cub padding closer from the shadows, golden eyes gleaming with recognition, but I ignored it.
My attention was wholly focused on one thing.
Fifteen Attribute Points...per level?
And the System wasn’t done. The EXP from the second core hadn’t been absorbed yet.
[EXP: 1000/5500]
[EXP: 2000/5500]
...
[EXP: 5500/5500]
[Level Up! 1 --> 2]
[You have gained 15 Attribute Points]
[EXP: 1000/7750]
[EXP: 2000/7750]
...
[EXP: 5200/7750]
[Anomalous Crisis-Class Core has been fully absorbed.]
I lay there for at least a full minute, waiting for my body to stabilize having endured the most tormenting ascension I could ever have imagined.
’What better way than to dive in headfirst’, I said.
If only I could reach into the past and smack myself over the head when I had had that thought.
Well, I landed on my feet in the end, didn’t I?
I looked back to the still pouring System Prompts.
[Analysis of Unknown Mutations to Host’s Mana Core and Nervous System has begun...]
[Analysis Failed.]
[Re-attempting...]
[Analysis Failed.]
[Re-attempting...]
Over and over, the System continued to attempt an analysis of my changed physiology. I was just as desperate to know as it was. Yet I knew it was out of my hands.
While I waited patiently for the System to give up on something it clearly couldn’t accomplish, I decided to pull up my Attributes Panel.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
[Attributes | AP: 60]
Strength: 17 --> 43 (49.45)
Speed: 16 --> 40
Mind: 12 --> 30 (45)
Constitution: 12--> 30 (39)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Leaps and bounds ahead. Superior in every way.
I wasn’t sure what kind of boost a normal Ascension could grant...
But something told me this was well beyond what could be considered normal.
Sixty Attribute Points...
I grinned.
Here comes the fun.