Maggie’s POV
---
The rain had kept falling all day. Thunder rumbled, and its echoes reached even the depths of the cave. Small streams had ford, weaving their way inside, flowing into the dark recesses the trio was still hesitant to explore.
Maggie sat on the flat stone surface, separated from her companions by the narrow stream that followed a hanging path.
Silence reigned in the cave. Dylan was busy arranging his soaked clothes. The young lieutenant had undressed—honestly, Maggie couldn’t judge, she had done the sa earlier. But he kept on just his underwear, which caught Maggie’s feminine curiosity—though she quickly pushed the thought away.
"I’m an adult, and I have to act like one," she told herself, suppressing those inappropriate feelings that didn’t belong in such a situation.
"You know what—"
She exhaled and stood up, heading toward her suitcase. She retrieved the anima gem from the orc they’d managed to kill earlier that day and rolled it in her palm.
"I should go ahead and absorb this spiritual essence gem."
As Maggie hesitated to go through the absorption of such a large gem alone, her uncertainty must have shown—because Elisa stood up, walked over, and sat down facing her. She gently placed a hand on the gem.
"I can understand why you’re hesitating," she said, locking eyes with Maggie.
Maggie let out a sigh and murmured, "When Dylan gave the stone, I briefly dove my mind into it... What I saw in there wasn’t exactly welcoming."
Elisa tilted her head, gazing at the gem with a distant expression.
"To be honest, I can’t really help you with the absorption of spiritual essence. As far as I know, no one from my tribe has ever managed to kill a demonic beast stronger than first rank."
Maggie simply nodded, understanding the weight of what Elisa was telling her—she was now dealing with sothing twice as powerful as anything Elisa’s people had managed to face in all these past decades.
"So... what do we do then?" Maggie asked, her voice weaker than she’d intended.
"You do it just like I showed you," Elisa replied. "But this ti, you’ll need to triple—no, maybe even quadruple your focus when approaching the essence threads, to completely saturate the core."
---
Maggie lowered her eyes to the gem still resting in her palm. She slowly nodded, swallowed hard, and sat cross-legged.
"Alright..." she whispered. "If I turn into so hideous beast, you have permission to stab ."
"Count on it," Elisa replied with a crooked smile, though worry clearly shone in her eyes.
Maggie closed her eyes. She let her mind dive, slip inside the gem.
As soon as she crossed the ntal barrier, the oppression of the negative energy engulfed her like a thick, writhing black sea. The spiritual essence inside wasn’t calm — it boiled, whirled, crashed against her like a storm trapped in a cage. Broken visions of a raging orc, screams, flas, instincts of death...
But Maggie held firm.
She began to weave her spiritual threads, guiding the energy slowly, just as Elisa had taught her.
But the mont she stabilized the first strand, the energy violently exploded, as if the gem had reacted to her attempt.
Her body shook. A surge of negative energy raced down her arm, crackling the air around her. Her hair stood on end, her veins tensed.
"She’s struggling," Elisa muttered, placing a hand on Maggie’s shoulder.
"She can’t lose control now."
At that mont, Dylan looked up from his corner. He felt the energy vibrating against his skin. He jumped to his feet, nearly naked, and rushed over.
"She’s absorbing the gem?!"
"Yes, and she might lose herself in it if we don’t do sothing," Elisa replied.
But Maggie, jaw clenched, murmured through her teeth:
"I... control... I’m not going to lose..."
The ntal universe Maggie had plunged into was now a theater of opposing forces. The black mist floated all around her, sinuous, treacherous. It seed alive. It whispered, murmured nonsense, trying to reach her, to divert her.
Maggie kept her mind focused. She traced a precise path between the thick trails of miasma, avoiding direct contact.
In the distance, the fragnts of consciousness — broken echoes of the dead orc — slowly circled, like ghosts clinging to their hatred. One of them saw her. A wave of raw emotion hit her. Rage. Fear. Pain.
"No, I’m not you. You are not ."
She ignored them, breathing slowly, as if she were still in the cave.
In front of her, the strands of essence were tangled in a knotted ball, like a dark, beating heart. This was the part she had to absorb — the only one that contained truly usable power.
She extended her spiritual threads, like delicate hands, to untie the knots. Each strand slid through her ntal fingers with care.
She guided the first one, passed it through the invisible barrier of her mind into her real body. A shiver ran through her, followed by a spark of energy and a surge of warmth.
Then a second strand.
Then a third.
But with each movent, the mist stirred, grew restless. It didn’t want to lose its prey.
A voice burst from within the gem. A guttural, bestial cry. The fragnted spirit of the orc was trying to resurface.
Maggie clenched her fists. A drop of sweat fell onto her knees.
"Just a bit more... I can do this..."
She sped up. Ten, twenty strands absorbed. Her heart pounded like a drum.
The mist tried to break through. It grazed her ntal defenses. A black breath brushed her consciousness.
She scread — ntally, inwardly — and forced it back with a shout of will.
And the mist recoiled, briefly.
In that short mont, she pulled the final braid of essence toward her and cut the connection.
The gem remained firm in her hands, still pulsing as if she hadn’t even absorbed half the spiritual essence it contained.
Maggie shivered as she stared at the stone.
"This is fucking terrifying!!"
Maggie closed her eyes a second ti, despite the sweat trickling down her temples. The gem still vibrated in her hands, warm, almost alive. A low growl emanated from its core.
"Alright... let’s keep going."
She dove back in. This ti, she didn’t take ti to observe. No slow maneuvers. She grabbed the strands of essence and yanked them toward her like a warrior eager to finish a battle.
The flow intensified.
The essence poured into her like a torrent. Each strand crossed the ntal barrier and fused into her being — her mind, her bones, her nerves, every part of her.
And soon... she felt it.
An internal pressure. Like sothing was swelling inside her. Her lungs felt overfull. Her stomach churned, her mind wavered.
It wasn’t just a sensation. It was real. She was full. Bursting.
She opened her eyes suddenly, gasping, almost shaking.
"It’s... too much. I think I’m gonna explode..."
"Ignore that feeling," Elisa said, leaning over her, voice firm but calm. "It’s an illusion. Your body thinks it’s reached its limit. But it’s wrong. It’s just a threshold. Push through it."
Maggie winced.
"I feel like a wineskin about to burst."
"Then you need to break it. Or better... reshape it. You’re inches away from forming your spiritual core. That mont is terrifying for everyone. But it’s also the turning point."
Maggie clenched her teeth and shut her eyes again.
She gathered her will, seized the threads, and pulled them violently into herself.
The energy burst forth, even more savage, as if the gem understood the urgency. It boiled. Almost roared.
She felt sothing inside her begin to crack — not a bone, not a ntal barrier, but sothing else. An invisible shell, deep, buried in her soul.
A pale light began to shine beneath her skin. Her chest vibrated. Her breath caught.
And there, right at the center of her being, between her lungs and solar plexus, sothing was born. A hot point. Like a center of balance.
The core.
It spun slowly, feeding off the flow. It drew in the spiritual essence like a miniature star.
Maggie let out a cry, half-pain, half-wonder.
"I... I can feel it forming!"
Reviews
All reviews (0)