Lucius couldn't rember when he had opened his eyes, or when he had closed them for that matter. He had just found himself here; staring at a familiar fiery ball.
Well, almost familiar.
There were now several dozen golden chains surrounding it, like rings around a planet. It was bigger than before, and brighter. However, so spots were brighter than others and bulged like fiery tumours.
He wasn't certain what this area was; whether it was his core, or the solar crux itself. However, what he was certain of was that it had beco unstable.
He knew it wasn't the chains; in fact, they seed to have a stabilizing effect. They were preventing the bulging areas, which tremored with energy, from growing even larger than they already were.
He suspected that it had sothing to do with the amount of helios he had collected. It seed there was a soft limit to how much he could store at once.
~Well, the solution is simple,~ he thought to himself, staring at it with a lazy gaze.
Despite the obvious instability, he found this place comforting. Here he didn't have to deal with the weight of all his problems, the weight of all his fears.
He could stay here forever.
~...but, they'll miss . And I'll miss them.~
He turned around and took a deep breath. There was still so much he had to do.
Too much.
***
His vision ca back to him in an uncomfortable burst of light. He was forced to cover his eyes, squinting even once the pain had subsided.
His sight still not yet with him, he tried to stand up but stumbled over sothing.
A hand ca to his aid before he could fall. It was furry and had a familiar musk.
"Ursa," he whispered to himself, as his vision cleared up a little.
The massive bear man was kneeling in front of him, with his arms held up to support Lucius.
He took a mont to get a feel of his body. His legs were numb, perhaps from sitting for so long, and his arms hurt. To top it off, it felt like sothing was burning a hole from the inside of his chest.
~The excess helios,~ he thought to himself, clutching at his chest.
As his vision cleared up, he realized that he was in the throne room. There were several dozen others there as well; Hannibal, a handful of leaf beings, and a few bearn.
He had grown accustod to Pagan greeting him whenever he woke up from a battle, so it was strange not to see him here.
Just then, his mories from the fight began returning to him. "Ghost!" he shouted, realizing she was not there.
"She's fine," Hannibal replied quickly, before gesturing towards one of the bearn at the back of the room. They brought what looked like a wooden bowl and offered it to him. He in turn offered it to Lucius.
It was filled with a green liquid; thick and sweet slling.
"It's Demitas. While you were gone, one of Asclepius's helpers, I think they were a chieftain actually, found a way to mix remnants of the Lighted Tree with it."
From the way Hannibal said 'Lighted Tree' Lucius could tell that he didn't quite agree with the na.
"It seems to improve focus, or at least that's what I picked up after using Radiant Examination on a few test subjects," he finished.
"Who's watching Asclepuis's pod?" Lucius asked, taking a swig of the concoction.
It tasted exactly like it slled, sweet. With its thickness, it reminded him of honey. It had a bit of a herbal aftertaste to it, though he could see himself becoming fond of the drink.
"Pagan," Hannibal replied. He had a sardonic smile on his face. "I think he's ashad to show his face in front of you. Sothing about everyone around you being useless," he added, before gesturing for another bearman to take the bowl away.
"How many days?" Lucius asked, stretching his limbs.
"Five sunsets. We tried healing you… but."
"But?"
Hannibal sighed, before pointing at the black orb that was floating right beside Lucius. He hadn't noticed it up til now.
"It was out all this ti?" he asked, imdiately recalling it. However, it would not go back inside. It felt like he would explode if it did.
"What is it? A new crux?"
"I'll explain everything during the next council eting," Lucius replied with a sigh, before walking down from the elevated platform on which the throne rested. He landed with an audible thud, and a few bearman took a cautious step backwards.
It seed that he had not won them over yet.
"Did we leave the Morrentor behind?" he asked, rembering all the loot he had collected from the mines.
"I dragged it back. We could not leave the spoils of your battle. Pagan would not let us, even if we wanted to," Ursa replied.
~Good.~
"Hannibal, prepare a room for us. I want to have a quick eting regarding a few things moving forward," he said out loud, before opening his system view. "Also ask the Furtong and Cynomys to choose a few representatives, and have them in the eting room as well," he added.
He quickly went through all the notifications he had gotten after the fight.
~Forget the Morrentor. This would've been worthwhile even if we hadn't brought it back with us,~ he thought to himself, finding it hard to keep a straight face as he read over them.
"I'll get it done," Hannibal replied, before leaving the room. A few leaf beings and a single bearman left with him, walking behind him like personal attendants.
"The rest of you guys can get back to what you were doing. Thank you all for watching over while I rested," he said with a smile.
The others bowed, before leaving. Only Ursa remained behind.
~First things, first. I have to use the helios before my core explodes.~
He called up the system shop.
┏━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┓
─────⋅☾System Shop☽⋅─────•
[Evo points] -100 Helios
[Solis fragnts] - 1000 Helios
[Sobriquet] - 1,000,000 Helios
[Language Encyclopedia] - 10,000,000
[Solar key(1)] - N/A
⋆ [Mycorrhizal Nodule] – 10,000,000 ⋆
(Current Helios: 532,316,000)
┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛
Even though he had already read the system notifications, he found it difficult to process the sheer amount of helios he had gained from that one fight.
~I could evolve right now if I wanted to,~ he realized. And for a mont, he considered it.
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