"It seems… my cocoon is hatching?"
Ian ca to a sudden, absurd realization that made his heart skip a beat.
Although he already had so guesses before, after finally seeing it firsthand, of course, he was surprised.
"Crack..."
"Ugh..."
However, the faint cracking he felt from his Consciousness Platform didn't allow him to think any further.
Instead, his mind was hurting like never before—even more so than when he drank the Ascension Potion.
It was as if his fickle mind couldn't handle the weight of this existence that was about to co out of the cocoon.
'What should I do?'
This was the first ti Ian felt so weak and utterly helpless.
He could feel the weight on his mind and the injury in his consciousness, but he couldn't do anything.
Could he only endure the excruciating pain and hope for a miracle?
That wasn't his style.
'Wait, what about using my Life Core?'
The only thing he had that could stop the situation from going haywire was his Life Core.
Although one was related to ditation and the other to Knighthood, from the beginning they had been working together.
His Ethereal secret technique just allowed them to be close, that's all.
They always seed connected yet so distant. But Ian was sure that sothing might happen if he allowed Life Core in his consciousness space.
"Ethereal form!"
Ian did what he thought without waiting even a second.
His newly born Platform of Consciousness was about to topple over because of this weird cocoon.
So, how could one still dawdle?
He didn't want to beco stupid.
"Swish!"
As soon as Ian used his Ethereal form, the Life Core in his dantian vanished and appeared directly in his consciousness space.
It was as if it had just been waiting for him to call.
There was no delay at all.
'Hope this will work!'
The cocoon was still in the process of cracking, which in turn made his consciousness heavier and heavier.
So, with a simple logic of countering weight with weight, Ian directly placed his incorporeal Life Core at the exact opposite point of his consciousness platform.
It was a sowhat silly attempt from him, but he was really out of his wits.
"Bang!"
However, it seed it worked, because as soon as the Life Core landed on his Consciousness Platform from the void, the tilting platform suddenly stopped.
Then, to Ian's surprise, the five streaks across the Life Core suddenly sprouted out of it like chains, directly drilling into the platform below in five different directions.
"Thump... whrrr... clack!"
Then Ian saw those chains slowly pulling his platform back to the initial position, not allowing it to shift even a bit.
The sound wasn't really there, but he could feel the struggle as it basically began to resist the weight being imposed by the cocoon.
It was just an instinctive reaction, as if programd to do it like this.
'Fortunately, it worked. So it's now a tug of war?'
Ian sighed in relief and looked at the struggle between his Life Core and the cocoon. For now, everything seed stable.
But for how long?
'Let's ditate. Maybe I can control this.'
Ian thought and began to use the Veiled Mind ditation thod, trying to control his Anchor.
However, it seed his attempt was wishful.
Besides being able to use the Anchor to transform mana into ntal power like he always did, he couldn't do anything to the cocoon.
Although he did notice that the conversion rate had increased exponentially compared to before.
'Then let's just try to increase ntal power.'
Ian decided and directly took out all the treasures he had prepared for promotion, engulfing them in a jiffy.
Then, he closed his eyes once again and began to ditate with extre concentration, drawing mana from the entire tower like a black hole.
At this point, he was doing everything he could.
So, a strange sight ford in Ian's mind, as while the Cocoon and Life Core began to play tug of war, the Consciousness Platform began to strengthen through his ditation.
'This is not enough!'
However, only after half an incense stick of ti, Ian realized that what he was doing wasn't enough.
In fact, even the Life Core and its colorful chains weren't enough.
"Click!"
This was because the cocoon was now thoroughly cracked everywhere, and the entity inside was already breaking out.
Ian could already see the falling debris of the shattered shell and the dark void inside, pulsing with an otherworldly energy that seed to swallow the light around it.
"Ugh… fuck!"
This ti, his Consciousness Platform suffered a heavy blow as Ian grabbed his head and wailed miserably.
"No, it's breaking from the middle."
And Ian painfully realized that in the war between the cocoon and his Life Core, what suffered the most was his fickle consciousness.
It was literally breaking from the middle like a biscuit being snapped by a kid from both sides.
So weak. So fragile.
'I need to reinforce my consciousness. But… how?'
Ian realized the problem and tried to find the solution, only to get stuck again.
After all, who would have thought that the Anchor could be your doom when you were going through the promotion?
It was always believed that the Anchor was just the visualization of an entity, not the real thing.
But Ian's situation was absurd from the beginning.
If he had to use the correct term, his Anchor was way too powerful for his feeble consciousness.
Truly, he was suffering from success.
'Fuck it, I can't delay any longer. Let's fight to the death.'
After thinking for a while, Ian finally locked on to the two things that could possibly get him out of this predicant: using the Iron Rank Starwell Token for a wish or gambling with his life.
However, seeing the absurdity of this Cocoon, Ian's intuition told him that using the Starwell Token was of no use.
Although he had saved that until now just for his promotion, he was now suffering from entirely different things.
So, the final choice was, of course, a gamble.
A Gamble of Life.
"Soul Siphon!"
Once decided, Ian wasn't soone to back out.
So, he imdiately enchanted and used one of the First Ring Spells he had—Soul Siphon.
"Swish!"
As soon as the First Ring Spell was activated, it imdiately began to do its thing—that was, absorbing the soul.
And not surprisingly, it was none other than Ian's.
"Translucent Form!"
Before his soul was sucked away by his own spell though, Ian managed to activate his Translucent Form, turning his eyes devoid of pupils.
"Thud!"
Then, on the outside, his body, sitting cross-legged on the futon, suddenly dropped to the ground as if lifeless.
From the outside, it almost looked like Ian was gone. This was because his body was now devoid of soul—an empty shell.
The Gamble of Life that Ian chose was the very one he used to absorb the soul of Dornar in the Ignisia Tower.
Just this ti, instead of using Translucent Form's devouring power, he used the Soul Siphon spell on himself.
After all, he didn't want to erase his existence by absorbing the essence, but wanted to do sothing different.
And fortunately, he was not disappointed.
'Haha... just as I thought, I can indeed appear here in this way.'
While his body lay limp outside as if he had died, inside his consciousness, though, Ian's soul suddenly magically appeared next to the Cocoon.
It was just like that glob of soul essence he got after absorbing Dornar.
Just that, that glob was now his entire soul body—sane and controllable.
'Don't you need a sturdy platform? Then, let my soul beco the harbour for your birth.'
Ian mumbled next to the shadow of the Cocoon and made his way towards the center of his Consciousness Platform.
He had to hurry, as he didn't know how long he could last in this form using such an unconventional ans.
After arriving at the center of his Consciousness Platform that was colorful on one side and devoid on the other, his tall soul body directly sat at the center.
"Disperse!"
Then, Ian directly placed one of his hands on the surface below and began to channel his soul energy.
"Swissh!"
Suddenly, the unstable platform that was beginning to break at the center began to heal at a rapid pace.
It was as if it were infused with the very energy that it needed so much.
"Clang!"
And with the strengthening of the platform, the five colorful chains from Life Core also began to exert more force, not allowing the weight of the Anchor to affect it.
"Crack... crack..."
While Ian was busy handling his consciousness, the Cocoon finally reached the end of its hatching process, as all the shells were already beginning to drop rapidly, falling on the platform.
Although there was no sound from their impact, after infusing his entire soul into the Consciousness Platform, Ian could feel the weight of those shells.
But now, Ian wasn't concerned about that. Instead, he intently looked at the void behind those shells that was finally beginning to beco clear.
'What can it be?'
Ian was curious—extrely so.
This was the Anchor he had visualized, but he didn't know what it was. It was his greatest secret, one even unknown to him.
How laughable.
Fortunately, this ti he no longer had to wait, as he already saw a beautiful wing sprouting out from the shell, followed by a lodic hum that instantly stabilized his restless soul and consciousness.
'A butterfly?'
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