Crimson Ascension

Sheer shock stunned Draven into silence. He followed Helvan's Presence, using it as a guiding light to travel, and arrived at an inconspicuous place outside the shielded sphere of his astra. A small obsidian ball, minute enough to easily escape perception, floated below the crystalline shield of imaginary Ekron.

"What in the abyss?" Draven blurted.

"What's going on?" Finn arrived, concern showing through his bloodstained frown. "Something wrong?"

"You better believe there is." Helvan shook his head, throwing the bag of cores to Draven. "Abstain from doing anything, Draven. The core is all but formed, so there is no guarantee its destruction will not harm you."

"Like shit I won't! If I've survived without one, I'll be fine without it," he snapped, his resolve clear.

It was time to kill the Hemomorph, and this time, he would make sure it stayed dead. Ignoring Helvan's advice, he mustered his will into a net, surrounding the core with a vicious grip, and squeezed.

The core whined under the pressure. It's working, Draven celebrated. Soon, I won't need to worry about that thing anymore. He gathered his strength, further refining the net's pressure until the core cracked.

Draven fell to the ground, his body devoid of any feeling.

"What did you do?" Helvan shouted in alarm. "I warned you not to do… exactly what you just did!"

He could hear the Sovran just fine, but abyss take him if he could lift a finger. His entire body was numb, out of his control. Terror seized his heart as the Hemomorph screamed in pain inside his mind.

"You have to fix the damages, boy. It is the only way." Helvan took a slain hexbeast's core from the bag, placing it on Draven's palm. "The core of a hexbeast is more than just a corrupted astra, it acts as the linchpin between spirit and flesh. Without it, they are as good as dead—their souls would detach and fall into the abyss."

Draven saw what the Sovran attempted to do, but to his surprise, the Hemomorph did not take the bait. It howled in pain, broken in spirit and will. With every passing second, he felt the voices outside become muted, distant. If he waited longer, there might be nothing to return to.

Dammit!

Cores were made of refined hexion, if Draven had to take a guess—the Az'Tenri Circlet confirmed its suspicion. He could either advance his attributes by consuming cores or infuse the remnant with the liquid from his astra; therefore, he might fix what was broken using the same method.

Only one way to find out.

Draven willed the remaining hexion within himself to flow out of his shielded astra, guiding it toward the Hemomorph's core. Mend! He urged, but as soon as it touched the core, the hexion bounced off.

Mend, dammit! I'm trying to save us. He yelled at himself, at the creature screaming in pain, but could tell it fell on deaf ears. The Hemomorph was in pain—way too much pain—to do anything but be immersed by it.

Slowly at first, Draven felt a force calling to him, pulling at his awareness, at his soul. The call of the abyss. His heart sank. He had to do something before it was too late. In a moment of desperation, he remembered Helvan's words.

Inside your soul, you are the ruler.

Instead of strangling the life out of the core, Draven wove a net with hexion and will, trapping the sphere inside it. He willed a hole to exist on his astral shield and pulled the core inside the domain of his soul.

Marshalling all the refined hexion in his reserve, he ordered the sphere to mend. The liquid quenched the sphere, its authority superseding the resistance, and mended the cracks that spread throughout its surface.

The Hemomorph heaved a relieved sigh before falling unconscious.

As Draven mended the core, its black surface ignited in flames. Instead of becoming a red ball of fire that resembled his astra, it burned with an obsidian blaze that devoured the surrounding light.

With all the hexion in his reserve spent, Draven willed the Unbreakable Veil to reform, clouding it with darkness so others would not peek freely into his soul. He had averted the crisis, if barely, but the consequences of his actions remained unknown.

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An astra and one core floated inside his soul, burning with hexion like two small suns. One was eight times the size of the other—the difference between Lesser and Greater Eminence.

This can't be normal. He chuckled in dismay.

Rather than kill the thing, he had made it part of himself. Perhaps it had always been. Exhaustion crept into his mind, and Draven could not fight its pull.

***

A comfortable bed soothed his aching muscles. Warm brilliance spilled from the lightsphere attached to the ceiling of an unassuming bedroom. Draven blinked in confusion, not knowing where he was or how he got there.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd swear you were the Dreamer," Finn scoffed from the couch across the room. "Gave us a big scare, man. Even Helvan was crapping his pants."

Draven stood up, noticing how sore his body was after a night of sleep.

"I guess he warned me, didn't he?" he shook his head. "Where is this… place? Did we get out of the tomb?"

"No, nothing that drastic." Finn waved him off with a laugh. "Believe it or not, a bunch of crazy Empyrean made a city in this place. Pretty neat, if you ask me. Got even some places to eat and trade stuff."

"Why would anyone do that?"

"Beats me. Money, maybe. Everything here is traded with cores, so I'm guessing the bastard running the show is filthy rich." He shook his head at the notion, looking at Draven with a hint of concern. "You're alright?"

Draven peeked inside his soul, gazing at the two suns that hovered inside his Unbreakable Veil. "Better than ever," he lied. "Nothing to be concerned about." He hoped.

"Whatever you say, Draves. Whatever you say." Finn raised his hands, letting the matter go. "Helvan and Corvanis went out, abandoned us here to fend the beasts on our own."

"Hunting?" he asked.

"Who knows? That used-to-be geezer isn't the type to be telling others what he has in mind." Finn growled.

Draven could relate to the frustration.

"They left this for you." Finn picked up a bag from the floor, throwing it at him with a raised eyebrow. "For your troubles," he chuckled.

"Thank you, good sir." Draven mustered a smile. "Can you watch me for a while?"

"Sure! Watching people contorting in pain is my favorite hobby." Finn winced. "Make it quick, man. You look super creepy when you do that."

Draven shook his head. One by one, he absorbed the dozens of cores into his Az'Tenri Circlet. Ten hexion points formed inside the remnant, stored with a power that promised to reforge who he was.

Recovery. He assigned five of them to recovery, preparing for the onslaught of pain that was soon to follow.

UNLOCKING RECOVERY TRAIT…

ENHANCEMENT INITIATED

Fire replaced his blood as the hexion scoured his organs from the inside out. His heart beat faster than ever, trying to keep pace with the changes and failing. Pain laced his thoughts in agony, but Draven endured.

He had no other choice.

A few minutes later, and with a new batch of stored pain added to his Providence, he opened his eyes and summoned the scripture.

Draven Von Astrais
Providence: Dyad Vessel - Refinement [Greater]

Malediction: None
Path: Blood - Eminence [Lesser]

—

REC: Burning Heart [+5]

DUR: Reforged Bones [+5]

ART: Hemomorph's Mantle [1/1]

—

+5

With both his traits unlocked, Draven focused on each and willed the scripture to expand. He knew what they did, but reading the words forged in hexion solidified the achievement further.

REFORGED BONES [+5]

Reforged Bones grants a durable skeleton.

The description was simple, but Draven knew the boon was a straightforward one. In the fight against the Median Eminence hexbeast, he felt the creature's attacks cleaving through his flesh, through its enhanced durability, yet they harmed no deeper than bone. Blows that might have broken his skeleton now merely rattled him.

BURNING HEART [+5]

Burning Heart grants resistance to foreign influences and poisons.

He didn't know the extent of Burning Heart's capabilities, but he suspected there would be plenty of opportunities to find out, given they were stranded in a monster-infested wasteland. Still, Draven set the question aside and got ready to assign the remaining points to endurance.

Endurance.

The points disappeared before his eyes, but rather than wracking pain, he felt nothing. Draven frowned, looked at the unchanged scripture once again, only to find no clues about what might have happened to them.

"What do you say about going out to have some decent food?" Finn stood up and nodded to the door. "Probably gonna be the last time in a while."

Draven suppressed the doubts and concerns and followed his friend out, but the sickening feeling remained. It stemmed from deep inside his soul, revolving around the small sun that just seemed to have gotten a little bigger.