Aetherios System: Whirlwind

Chapter 60: Gains Gains Gains

Alex set the siphon plate on the ground beside him and exhaled, trying to soothe his shakey hands. He knew this wasn’t the kind of thing you rushed, not unless you wanted to cripple yourself permanently.

He pulled out a vial of black-red potion, the surface alive with little ripples as though something swam within. He uncorked it and set it close by, the acrid smell of iron and herbs burning his nostrils.

With a confident hand, he pulled a stick of powdered aether chalk from his kit and reached back awkwardly to draw along his spine. The strokes came carefully, precise downward spirals, hooked lines, and with three intersecting rings etched directly over the nexus of his second meridian on his spine. Each glyph prickled faintly as he carved it into his flesh with energy, leaving the skin glowing faintly blue-white.

Behind the heart and right over the channel cluster. No mistakes, absolutely no mistakes.

When the pattern was complete, Alex wiped the sweat from his forehead and picked up the siphon plate. Its etched runes flashed faintly at his touch. He positioned it with care, aligning with the glow on his back like a lock waiting for a particular key.

“Here goes nothing.”

He kept the plate steady with one hand while he scooped up a handful of the alchemical slurry in the dish sitting next to him with the other. It was the same mixture from his last artificial gate implant, a concoction to help fuse the item into his body.

He slathered it across the metal before finally taking a breath and pressing the item down against his skin.

The moment the cold metal met his body, his skin flushed hot, sweat instantly breaking out along his shoulders and horehead as the glyph-lines on his back burned brighter. His hand trembled as he pressed the plate to the marked spot. The two patterns,two halves of a [Lattice Spiral], snapped together. The siphon plate sank into him as if the flesh itself liquefied, embedding beneath the fleshy layers until only faint etchings remained visible on the surface. And then the pain hit.

“—Ghhhk!” Alex bit down hard, every muscle locking up. It felt like a spear of molten iron had been shoved straight into his spine. He felt as his meridian bucked violently, aether whipping about like a stormcloud contained in too-small a vessel. For a heartbeat, he thought the backlash would tear him apart from the inside.

But then he forced his mind to still. He seized onto the wild energy, drawing on every ounce of focus he could muster. He willed his aether to wrap around the plate, gripping it tightly, binding and weaving the storm into order. Slowly—agonizingly—the siphon plate settled against the metaphysical channel, its runes locking into resonance with his meridian.

Light flashed across his inner vision.