Chapter 244 - Complications

Oliviala Le'Cruex

Olive was rattled awake. The chains binding her wrists and ankles yanked her back and forth. She cried out in surprise, the sound swallowed by the dark room.

Her Manabody gained control of her so she wouldn’t continue swinging until her momentum died naturally. With her senses dampened and her aura restrained, she couldn’t tell exactly what caused her to start shaking in the first place. Raised in a palace easily the equal to the Grandam Papal, she knew the walls should never shake. Her father's aura had always protected Cruex, and that included the buildings and deep into the ground beneath them. Otherwise, the season of shattering would have long ago reduced their architecture to rubble.

Even in rare cases when Palo and Loro were absent from Sanctum, there should have been more than enough tier seven guards to protect the most important structures. Realization caused her eyes to widen as she came fully awake, screaming into the suffocating darkness, “Father! I'm here!” The room remained as quiet as before, her pleas not even reaching her own ears.

She knew he would be sweeping the city with his aura, and she attempted to reach out with her own. The force preventing her Manabody remained in place, rendering her efforts moot. “No!” She thrashed against her restraints, a spike of fear and betrayal worming into her guts.

Why did she tell me to leave that room?! Surely this place is a thousand times worse!

The moment the thoughts took form, Olive's lip curled back, disgusted with herself. She was not a child to blame her misfortunes on the world around her. She had put herself here, doing what she thought was right. And by the Mother and Fathers above, she would get herself out.

I’m not out of options by a long shot! These bindings aren’t mana draining formations. Unfortunately, that means they were designed for rankers high enough tier that draining their mana is impossible. Will my new subskills be enough?

She had absorbed a small amount of density while unconscious. It wasn’t much, but it was something. Without warning, her chains ceased their rumbling, hopefully not meaning her father had left. She closed her eyes, a deep breath battling panic and bringing focus. She needed a plan, and her attributes perfectly recalled the options she received for bringing Channeling to level fifty.

Elemental Tuning: Mana attunes to the elements, boosting conversion speed and efficacy at the expense of unaspected cohesion

Conditioned Channels: Channels become thicker and more durable, doubling potential elemental flow velocity

Unified Arteries: Channels and blood veins combine and become interchangeable

Tuning had not been a viable option. Olive had no idea what unaspected cohesion was. If she assumed it had to do with her mana maintaining its form, or unifying to fulfill her mental images, then losing any portion of it was unacceptable no matter how big a boost attuned mana might be to her fire.

Conditioned Channels was amazing in theory. It was common knowledge, at least for nobility, that after the seventh tier it was entirely possible to burn out your channels by pushing too much mana through them too quickly. To double the most powerful attacks of anyone else your tier was a monumental advantage. Had it not been for the third option, and what she chose for her Shaping enhancement, it would have been an obvious pick.

Olive had no way to look inside her body to see the changes that had been wrought, but she could feel enough of them to know she would never be the same. Her manapool had vanished from the center of her chest. Its lack did not instill her with panic, as each pulse of her heart smoothly pushed blood and mana through her veins.

The simple act of focusing on her circulating blood was intoxicating. She felt alive like never before; her muscles and organs infused with raw power. At the same time, a gaping emptiness clawed at her, as though she were meant to be so much more. Olive licked her lips, unable to imagine how good it would feel to fill her blood entirely with mana.

If I’m right about Blood Infusion and Unified Arteries, then I should be able to create External Oneness on nearly any part of my body. External Oneness. Hmm. That name needs some work. What would make him cringe the most? External Infusion? Pinpoint Blast? Precise Triad of Sovrantry?

A wellspring of motivation stirred in her chest as she pictured the faces Jiran would make. Olive giggled despite knowing full well she was deflecting to avoid the existential terror from her suffocating situation.

As much fun as it is to tease him, I should pick a serious name. External Unification will have to do.

The shackles pulled tight against her wrists, and the lack of sound when they began shaking all over again brought her back to reality. Her brows furrowed and her lips tightened as supreme focus took control.

I only have enough mana for one attempt. If I fail, it may take days before I can try again. No. I won’t even consider it. Father is here, now, searching for me. If he could see through this darkness, he would already be at my side. I must not fail.

There was no way she could kick her way out of her current predicament, so Olive resigned herself to doing the best she could. She stabilized with her Manabody and pulled one foot back the few centimeters it could move until the chain stretched tight. A burst of motion brought that same foot forward causing the hard metal restraint to snap against her ankle. There was hardly any force behind the kick but Olive was far from ready to give up.

After practicing a dozen times, she included Forcing into the tiny motion. Her toes even pointed and slammed forward each time as she sought to put everything she had into each attempt. Before the hundredth kick, blood flowed freely down her ankle to drip from her foot. She didn’t dare stop. 

Her Manabody soon joined the fray. Each flex of her leg and flick of her foot was accompanied by a pulse of condensed aura on the exact spot of impact. Her limb cramped, so she briefly rested with her eyes clamped tight, each breath perfectly measured, her mana and aura continuing to pulse in perfect synchronization as though she were still kicking.

Another rumble shook the chains. Like she had been waiting for that exact moment her whole life, her mana flared and her blood boiled in her veins. With a mighty, yet silent roar, she lashed forward with one foot and back with the other. The entire force of her aura condensed into the bloody and bruised point of impact. Shaping ignited the crimson stains across her foot, causing the first burst of light she’d seen in who knows how long. 

Finally, the untapped mana pumping through her veins detonated. Channeling no longer required the slow process of guiding mana through her body and gradually converting it. The effect was instant, a deafening crack resounded in her ears. In reality, it was but a whisper of noise that forced its way through the consuming silence.

Olive had not expected to succeed. Chains capable of holding a tier nine were not something a tier five should be capable of overcoming. So when her foot broke free on the first true attempt, she nearly wept with relief. Her joy was stolen in its infancy as the room rumbled a hundred times worse than before. She was tossed about like a ragdoll, her one free leg twisting painfully while her bound wrists and ankle were rubbed raw, the bones cracking and grinding within her flesh.

She screamed in agony, the fact she heard herself not registering as the unexpected appearance of a Teleporting beast consumed her view. It took the form of a spectral skeletal skull. Its bones were transparent, yet stained a putrid, moss green. It was huge, taking up the entire room. Its jaw opened wide to release a bestial screech that blasted her back, only the chains keeping her from smashing through the wall behind her. Empty eye sockets with green flickering flames regarded her like a bug about to be crushed.

Through blurry vision, barely clinging to consciousness, Olive faced what her heart knew was the end. It was not her life that flashed before her eyes. It was but a few laughing faces, sitting around a campfire at the edge of the Outlands, enjoying the meal she had so diligently cooked for them. Tears tracked down her cheeks as the skeletal maw opened wide to devour her whole. She tried to lift her free leg to fend it off but the limb betrayed her, too broken to move properly.

As quickly as the skeletal beast appeared, its visage was blocked by red and purple robes with immaculately embossed hemming. A thin figure hovered with his back to her, arms outstretched. It was a slim back, lacking the muscles and width of her father, or even Jiran. Yet in that moment, it was the most sturdy shield she could possibly imagine.

The stranger shouted, and his aspect-laced aura, outmatched only by the emperors themselves, erupted into being, “Unfathomable Incineration!” Bright orange flames that flowed like water shot from his hands, forming a perfect sphere around the skeletal head. In the blink of an eye, the sphere shrank to the size of a fist. Only a brief afterimage of the skull cracking and crumbling to dust remained as Olive blinked away the sudden brightness.

Even though the man protected her from most of it, her throat was still raw from the heat, “M-master, Fili—”

“Shh. Quiet now, young one,” the old man shushed her, turning his wizened and wrinkly face her way with a soft smile. “You really caused this old man some trouble. To think they’d dare put you in such a place. Looks like you almost made it out, too. If you hadn’t overcome the obfuscations…” Looking around the small room, now lit softly by a glow emanating from his skin, the old man frowned, “Well, this just got more complicated than I was expecting.”

Following his gaze, Olive saw the five others strung up by chains like her. They were completely still, unmoving except for the snakes of white bone wrapped around and burrowed into their flesh, squeezing tighter even as she watched. Upon seeing them, Olive felt like her body was being sucked through a tiny tube. Her heart broke, washed upon the shores of an island created from pure misery. Her cry gushed forth from the center of her soul, “E-eldest brother, sister… no. Noooo!”

Mayalyn Aloyhee

Mayalyn raced down a flight of steps littered with rubble. She leaped over a group of guards stomping their way toward her. There was plenty of room, considering the stairs had no ceiling after being exposed to the open air by Niya’s insane punch. Not that Mayalyn was complaining. Long before the dust settled, she had sprinted toward the last place she’d scented Olive. 

Thuds echoed as people who were caught in the blast and somehow survived fell around her. She paid the distractions no mind. Obfuscating, and Jiran’s aura-blocking suit allowed her to stealthily bypass the people rushing around her, every one of them heading toward the surface for answers.

She reached the same hallway as before, this time not sensing the aura that caused her to turn back last time. Enhancing infused her limbs with Elemental metal, adding weight and durability to her swings. She struck with every ounce of fury in her body, slamming the walls repeatedly until the passage she sought was revealed behind crumbling stone. She didn’t waste time removing them. A kick powered by Charging sent a bolt of lightning into the pile, scattering them in a ringing explosion.

The tunnel began to collapse and she sprinted through it as it fell around her. Enhancing released the lightning stored in her muscles. Her vision blurred, unable to keep up with her speed. Ahead, another wall blocked her and another bolt of lightning was released from her flashing leg. She couldn’t see through the stark brightness of her own attack, so she hardened her skin and bones with elemental metal and burst through crumbling stones into a wide hall.

The space was lit by dozens of torches held in wall sconces. A plethora of gaudy decorations covered the walls and floor but she barely noticed them beyond the garish colors they added. Over twenty doors lined both walls of the hall. She lifted her visor, cursing when the static in the air from her own lightning prevented her from scenting. 

An aura far more powerful than any she’d ever experienced crashed against her, throwing her right back into the collapsing tunnel behind her like a boneless sack of meat. Luckily, her metal Enhancing was still active or the density-packed stones that buried her would have given far more than a few bruises. She tore her way free, the end of the tunnel she inhabited miraculously intact even with one of its walls and half the ceiling demolished.

The aura was still around Mayalyn, polluted with both inconceivable fury, and the desire to protect, causing her brows to lower in confusion. She wasn’t sure what to do, until a heart wrenching scream tore through the air, “Noooo!”

Mayalyn ran faster than she ever had before, Enhancing infusing her muscles well past what they could safely handle. She hurtled through the air, annihilating the wooden door that stood between her and reuniting with Olive.