The moon was no longer full, but it was still three quarters up in the wee hours of the night. Barda gave it a stare for a while as he pulled out the four orbs that had been languishing in his bag for so long. The essence of the wyverns, but Barda didn't know that was what they were.
All he knew was that they were the size of a pebble and was dark orange with a hint of red and yellow gradients running across it. It had a very faint glow, barely noticeable, but it there. There was nothing more he could glean from the orbs.
He could still remember the spider's orb. Barda analyzed the little marble-like stone for a while without getting any further information. Not that he thought he would. The only thing that had worked last time was him trying to absorb the orb, so he would try that today. Putting the others away, Barda firmly gripped one of the little orbs in his hand and started the absorption process.
Stinging pain hit Barda's palm as a burn appeared on it. He reflexively tossed the orb away as he looked at his palm. A burn mark had formed on it, tearing through his flesh. Barda's mouth hung wide open. Setting aside the pain his censors were transmitting, Barda was shocked that he had gotten burned.
This is Barda, he doesn't just get burned. Even while handling the forging flames, Barda's fire resistance skin only measured the temperature, nothing more. Barda could put his hand, hell he could dive in boiling water and walk out without a singe. He wasn't invincible, in that he had no hope of surviving if he dived in magma, but the flames that could take him down had to be incredibly hot.
Checking his logs, Barda realized the system didn't even register how hot the orb had been before he tossed it away. Looking at it from where he had tossed it off to, Barda realized the orb had gone back to its dormant state. He went and picked it up. It felt room temperature again, as though all that was imagination.
However, despite all that trepidation, Barda saw a silver lining. The little orbs radius had shrunk by 276 micrometers, something an ordinary eye wouldn't notice. Moreover, Barda could feel a change in his body. Some power had been absorbed.
This was good news, which meant that there was a way to consume this thing. Wait, consume. Barda knew that absorption worked better if one consumed an object, and since he had already consumed a similar object previously, he didn't see any harm in trying the same method with the orb.
Taking a deep breath, Barda swallowed the orb until it landed in his psionic reactor, the device that acted as his digestive system. Unfortunately for Barda, the psionic reactor was perpetually on, activated the moment any material landed in it, so he didn't have any switching on to do, just the wait.
[Unknown Energy detected. Moving to analyze.]
[Analysis of the unknown energy failed. Classifying energy as a potential threat. Move to containment initiated.]
[Containment failed. Energy forcibly assimilating with the host's energy.]
[Warning, Unknown energy assimilating with the host's energy. Recommend move to containment. Proceed?]
Gut-wrenching pain struck him from deep inside his gut. Barda could feel the epicenter of the pain was the reactor, but he felt it spread all across his body. Gritting his pain, Barda persevered through the pain. He read through the notifications that popped up, but he wouldn't move to contain the energy forcibly. Perhaps he should just let the chips fall where they may.
As Barda was thinking that, he felt a bit light-headed. His vision was getting foggy and his body seemed to have lost all strength. Barda had been seated in a meditative posture when he popped the orb like a pill. He fell and was lying flat on the ground, doing everything he could to keep himself from screaming bloody murder.
As all this was happening, Barda had gotten a very real fear. Ever since he landed in this new world, he never once had to worry about death. Ceasing to exist. Now he was worried, he was outrightly spooked. Remembering himself think that if he fell into a pool of magma, he probably wouldn't survive. Could it be that he had just done that to himself?
[Critical damage detected. Moving to repair.]
[Unknown energy has been determined to be the cause of the damage.]
[Security override: Forced containment initiated.]
[Forced Containment failed.]
[System backup and recovery initiated.]
[Initiated precautionary system shutdown.]
As Barda's mind went blank, he couldn't help but wonder if he was hallucinating or were there real angels coming to pick him. This was because 2 beings had just descended from a cloud and were coming to him. They weren't ethereal so he couldn't even capture them on the lens camera, which meant they were invisible. He had detected them using infrared and Wind movement meters to draw out the area they displaced. Were there for him?
"He did it, look, he did do it!" Arnea said excitedly as she touched Barda's forehead. It was as though it was on fire.
"Lot of good it did him," Krib remarked.
"He may be dead," Arnea remarked as she began to pace excitedly, "but do you realize what this means. Someone could absorb a magical beast's essence by consuming it. Many have tried but failed, but if we go with his body, somehow find out how he did it..."
"We could also get ourselves killed too," Krib salty remarks didn't seem to be working on Arnea today. She had seen far too many stunning things in her life but never had she heard of someone absorbing a beast's essence by consuming it.
"Admittedly he had taken too much," Arnea said, "but if we can control it, do you know what that means?" The geek in her was excited about the possibilities. She hated the fact that the only person who had done that had died so needlessly. Why couldn't he have followed the procedures in place?
"I don't think he's fully dead yet," Krib said, suddenly showing more life over his usual dead appearance.
"It can't be ..." Arnea stopped since she too could feel a faint lifeforce coming off Barda. She couldn't believe what her senses were telling her but she could feel some life within this previously dead body.
They had been watching Barda all this time, intrigued by his life. He seemed to have something interesting happening around him everywhere he went. They knew of his blacksmithing skills, but they were shocked to learn that Barda also had alchemy and apothecary skills.
From the moment she had encountered this man, he had been responsible for a miracle after miracle, and while that was not shocking to them in some ways, he still confounded them. That coupled with the fact that they still didn't know where he came from, and his true intention, they were worried.
While Barda would not have to worry about ordinary people thinking he was just weird or had a bad secret, but these were not ordinary folk, and this was not the kind of attention Barda could afford to have right now. He didn't know that.
If it was just these 2, then things would probably be different. However, these 2 were just representatives of a much larger organization. One that would make Barda know that he was not invincible in a very real way.
"We need to leave," Krib said.
"Leave? We just got here!"
"Look behind you, people coming up to your left."
"This is no threat!" Looking back, Arnea saw the soldiers, but she didn't understand why Krib wanted to leave all of a sudden.
"That being said, we cannot be exposed."
"We won't, just hide the body,"
"They are here for him, we do not interfere."
***
[Boot up sequence initiated.]
[Pre-start up System Analysis initiated.]
[Pre-start up System Analysis completed. No error detected.]
[Initializing host body. Standby, this could take a while.]
[Initializing complete.]
[Initializing Host Personality Matrix Module, codename Barda King. Standby, this could take a while.]
[Amber alert: Imminent threat detected. Host Personality Matrix not yet online. Switching to Emergency Defense Matrix.]
[Emergency Defense Matrix initiated.]