Chapter 4574: The Final Step (Part 2)

When he raised his head, Scarlett was gone. She wasn’t a Scorpicore anymore, but Balkor wasn’t the god of death she hated either.

The trip to the Blood Desert and facing her old nemesis had given her more than closure; it had also given her clarity. She had realized that, in a way, Balkor had given her much more than she had given him.

Yet there were things the Sekhmet wasn’t ready to admit even to herself.

***

Verendi continent, Nuga Mountain range, the day before.

The footage of the fight between the Upyr and Ishara armies spread like wildfire across the Awakened interlink, showcasing the prowess of both the Dead King and the visitors from Reghia.

Lochra Silverwing, the First Magus, found their battle underwhelming and watched the video days after its release solely out of boredom. Source Magic was powerful, but nothing compared to the white core magic she was still trying to understand.

The various bloodline abilities the Divine and Corrupted Beasts employed were flashy, but nothing she hadn’t seen a thousand times already. She ate her soup while lazily glancing at the hologram from time to time, more worried about adjusting the seasoning than the outcome of the battle.

Then she watched the stream of sapphire energy enter the fray and tip the scales. The power Ajatar displayed was nothing much to her standards, but the way the sapphire energy moved and waved spells in the space of a heartbeat mesmerized her like a siren.

Ever since Lith had revealed his Indech bloodline and Silverwing learned about the apex form she had always failed to achieve, the First Magus had worked hard to keep alive the feeling she had experienced on the day of Raldarak’s birth.

The Demon Dirge had struck a chord deep inside her, and the countless hours spent studying her own life force had brought Silverwing close to enlightenment. Yet no matter how much she pondered her situation or experimented with her powers, that final stretch kept eluding her.

When she saw Ajatar alter his shape and size while in energy form, absorb external forces like Life Maelstrom, and materialize only the parts of his body he needed, something inside of her clicked.

The First Magus took the final step and reached enlightenment.

’Of course!’ She jumped to her feet, flipping the table and throwing many plates onto the ground. ’How could I have missed it for so long? It’s obvious. So gods-damned obvious!’

As the last piece of the puzzle fell into place, the full picture became clear.

’I’ve reached the white core as a simple human, whereas my apex form belongs to something superior to an Indech, the Divine Beast equivalent of the human race. There is no way my body can make such a wide evolutionary leap as it is.

’Even with the power of a white core, it’s too much. Evolution doesn’t require getting hurt like during a breakthrough, but deep, permanent changes in the life force that alter every fiber of your being.

’To reach my apex form, I must let my flesh vessel dissolve and let the energy I’m made of rearrange itself. I have to give up on Lochra Silverwing as I know her and follow the tune of my white core wherever it leads me!’

The First Magus recalled the feeling she had experienced during the Demon Dirge once more, stirring her life force and letting her white core fill every inch of her being. This time, however, she didn’t remain chained to what the late Raum the Wonderer called the illusion of the flesh.

She turned herself into a mass of living white mana that was energy and matter at the same time, allowing her life force to alter its shape and size as much as it saw fit and at its own pace.

Free of her mortal, immutable shell, Lochra Silverwing underwent her long-overdue evolution.

A green pillar of light erupted from her body, and another descended from the sky. It resembled the giant finger of a god coming down to meet their much smaller creation.

The two pillars touched and became one, growing in size and brilliance to the point that the emerald light was visible from kilometers of distance and many Awakened mistook it for a Spirit Spell of untold power.

Little did they know how close they had come to the truth.

Silverwing developed four more eyes, two on her forehead and two on her cheeks, as six feathered wings formed on her back. Her skin went from rosy to pale blue, and her hair became as white as pristine snow.

Turning into a Balor was supposed to split her mana core into countless smaller cores that would be scattered throughout her body and seal her ability to cast spells above tier three.

Evolution implied improvement, but new powers came with new limitations that kept a mortal body safe from energies that would incinerate it if fully unleashed.

On Mogar, humans were born with a high affinity for the world energy and the elements it contained. It was the reason that, even as a rank 0 species, they could cast spells of all tiers and elements regardless of the number of colored streaks in their hair.

Splitting and scattering the mana core was the only way to channel the vast amount of world energy collected by a Balor’s wings through their body and eyes without burning them to a crisp.

Evolution granted Balors bigger and stronger bodies not only to compete with the superior physical might of magical beasts, but also to withstand the burden of their own powers.

A Balor’s abilities were just fusion magic boosted severalfold that could also be focused and amplified through their elemental eyes. Having so many small mana cores compensated for their enhanced mana perception, but also made it harder for them to Awaken.

It wasn’t the size of the mana cores that mattered, so much the high concentration of world energy that constantly surrounded a Balor. The more powerful a Balor, the greater their ability to sense the elements and the more numb they became to the world energy carrying them.

Having multiple mana cores, however, was a small matter to a bright violet core, someone who had already developed dozens of auxiliary cores throughout their body, and nothing at all to a white core.

Every single cell comprising Lochra Silverwing’s body was already an auxiliary core. She needed to develop none more to become a rank 1 human, and they could carry more mana and elemental energy than any other living creature on Mogar.

"This is amazing, and I’m not talking about my body." She had grown several centimeters in every direction, becoming a bit over two meters (7’) tall and developing curves of breathtaking proportions. "I’ve never felt this powerful, and this is only the beginning!"

Her life force quickly reassembled itself, developing physical and mana organs along with new muscles and tendons needed to fine-control Silverwing’s new limbs.

Thanks to her white core, she needed but one breath to absorb the world energy and convert it into matter, nurturing her Balor form and undergoing countless minor adjustments to her life force that would have taken any other evolved human years of practice.