Chapter 53: To Obtain Power (Rewritten)
Using his bare hands, Sunny tore apart the defeated automaton. Previously, such a notion would have been ridiculous — however, it seemed like the robot had lost it’s mysterious qualities after being destroyed.
As such, the steel plates couldn’t resist the dire strength of an Awakened Demon.
Haphazardly removing the plates from the chassis, Sunny’s eyes scanned the inside of the automaton. The wires and circuitry were drenched in water, and scorch marks were littered all over the inner mechanisms.
Moving the obstructing machinery out of the way, Sunny attempted to search for something that would be out of place within the chassis of an automaton. He bunched up a few wires within his hand, before violently ripping it out as he casually tossed it behind him.
As he did so, the other four circled around the destroyed automaton, curious expressions appearing on their faces. They didn’t interrupt Sunny as he searched through the wet, flooded interior of the robot — which was starting to get on his nerves, as his hands were getting wet.
After a few silent minutes of digging, Sunny located an unusual compartment right where the back of the robot was. Pulling it open, Sunny found five smooth, glowing crystals. He removed one of the crystals from the robot, staring at it for a moment. He knew what it was.
The crystal was a Soul Shard.
Soul Shards were the physical manifestation of broken Soul Cores, and would be found within the bodies of any slain Nightmare Creature. These Soul Shards could be consumed by Awakened simply by crushing them, increasing their overall Essence capacity until they’ve absorbed one thousand of them.
Once they increased their Rank, all the Soul Essence recieved from absorbing Soul Shards is used to provide them with even more strength. By doing so, the Soul Shard counter would reset to zero, allowing them to saturate their Soul Core from the beginning once again.
For example, if a Sleeper were to absorb one thousand Dormant Soul Shards, five hundred Awakened Soul Shards, or two hundred and fifty Ascended Soul Shards, they would fully saturate their core — allowing them to reach the peak of their strength as a Sleeper.
However, if they were to Awaken, the essence that was absorbed from the Soul Shards would be expended during the Awakening process, increasing their overall power even more. Once this occurs, their Soul Shard counter was set back to zero, which allows them to saturate their cores to one thousand once more.