Chapter 213: You Are Awakening
Elias reached for the Elder Talent, and he thought he heard the cry of something in the air. The sound was strange, but he understood that his talent had been waiting.
The cracked moon in his Lumina Space was brighter now, the red light bleeding through the fissures so bright that his Ageless Echo could see nothing else.
Elias had noted that every time he used his talent, the cracks on the moon were spreading. It was as if the moon was breaking open and beneath it, something was rising.
This should scare him, and he did not care, nor did he fight it. How else would he master a power that he feared to unleash?
There may have been a small part of him that had been afraid, perhaps, of what it would make him, of the changes it would carve into his flesh, or the way it would strip away the last remnants of the boy he had been.
The only problem was that he could not find that part inside of him; perhaps he had never had it, or it was missing or taken, leaving him with an empty void inside him.
Elias closed his eyes and wished that some part of him was not happy about his transformation that was about to happen, but there was nothing; everything in him wanted to change, to transform, and become the hunter that he was meant to be.
He was not afraid of the change or what he would become; the more he kept digging deeper, the more he could only wonder what he would become if he remained alive for long enough.
Elias let go of the mental lock holding back his upgrades, and the first thing he felt and saw was the rush of red light exploding out from the cracked moon, and falling down onto his Lumina Space like a rain of blood.
The mark on his chest glowed so bright that the entirety of his internal organs could be seen through his skin, and then power slammed into his body in unending waves, and his body arched with a loud cracking sound.
It was at this moment that Elias realized that the stronger he became, the more energy it would take to transform his body, and the transformation was going to become much more... violent.
Previously his mortal flesh was like molding clay, now his body for it to change, it was like a piece of hardwood being carved.
It was a good thing that Mira was not on the ninth floor, or the sounds emerging from the room would have alarmed her.
Elias’s spine bent backward, his hands clawing at the stone floor. The nine marks on his chest blazed with light, red, purple, and gold.
The blood that had barely settled inside his body exploded outward again, and this time it did not rise... It burned.
His skin was the first to go, as it peeled away from his muscles in sheets, sloughing off like the skin of a snake that had outgrown its shell. The pain was hellish.
Beneath it, his muscles were not the muscles he had known. They were becoming denser, darker, woven through with veins of red and gold that pulsed with the rhythm of his heartbeat.
His bones were visible through them, and his bones had changed, too. They were no longer white. They were the color of stone, and his spine was like jade, most likely the result of the Pillar of Sorrow he had fused within the Fragment.
With his back arched, he was able to see his anatomy in ways that nobody should.
His muscles tore, and Elias felt them shredding, the fibers snapping and reforming in the same instant, each strand replaced by something stronger.
Elias’s arms thickened, his shoulders broadened, and his chest deepened. He grew denser, as if his body was being compressed into something that could become more.
His face was last. Elias felt the bones of his skull shifting, the jaw widening, the brow thickening, the nose reshaping itself into something that was not quite human and not quite divine. His prismatic eyes flared with light, and he saw his own reflection in the blood pooling beneath him. For a moment, he did not recognize what he was looking at.
Elias saw the new colors of his eyes, and it transfixed him in place, but the color gradually faded, returning to the green hunter eyes that he was familiar with, and his face became slightly more perfect.
Then the pain ended, and he collapsed to the stone floor, and he did not rise for a long time.
He was naked, since his clothes had long burned away in the transformation, his skin new and raw and perfect.
Elias could feel his heartbeat, slower now, deeper, each pulse sending waves of warmth through his body.
He could feel his veins, the new channels the Crimson Vein had carved, pulsing with power that had not been there before, and most of all, he could feel the difference in his body.
If he was getting stronger the way any normal Siphon was, then this transformation would have taken years, but it had all happened in less than thirty seconds.
He was stronger now, and this only meant that he needed to push himself more and face greater challenges, but it was a good thing that there was no lack of challenges waiting for him ahead.
Elias thought it was over, but then he heard a loud crack inside his Lumina Space, and looking into his body, he saw that a piece of the massive moon of his Elder Talent had broken away, and it was falling.
A terrible roar erupted inside his Lumina Space, and a shockwave so powerful that it would have destroyed the entirety of the ninth floor exploded out of his body, but a frozen shield covered his body that absorbed all of that power. In his distracted state, Elias had not noticed that the Commander had just protected his secrets.
Elias felt his body changing in ways that were hard to express, and he could not move for several hours, not until he felt the change in temperature signifying that the sun had risen and the fifth day was here.
"What happened to me?" Elias whispered, and eager to see the changes that had occurred inside him, he called up his Status Screen, and the first word he saw did not make sense.
#%ERROR#%* Hail Lord of Dest..#%*ERROR.....
Extreme Adaptation (Elder Talent Awakening)
Strength: 149 → 187 (+38)
Agility: 165 → 201 (+36)
Durability: 225 → 278 (+53)
Perception: 207 → 243 (+36)
Will: 258 → 297 (+39)
Esoteric: 202 → 241 (+39)
Vitality: 4551 → 6127
Stamina: 973 → 1321
New Trait: Blood-Forged Flesh — All Crimson Vein Dominion abilities now draw from Durability as well as Stamina. Physical damage taken while any Crimson Vein ability is active is reduced by 15% and converted to Stamina.
New Trait: Stone-Souled — Passive Durability increased by 10% while wearing any armor. Stacks with Stone Skin.
New Trait: Void-Touched — Inverse Reflection increased from 1% to 3%. Paradox Vessel capacity doubled.
Elias gaped in shock, "What the hell... what the hell..."