Although the scenery was relaxing and a perfect view to just sit down and enjoy life, there were two who weren't having it. They were tensed up and nervous about what they were about to attempt. "Freya, this is the last time I'll ask you, do you have the determination to do this?", Lucas wanted to be sure before experimenting with her life.
She took a deep breath before closing her eyes for what could be the last time. "I do.", with that, he went ahead and started to experiment even further. Using his magic probes he tried to damage the layers or cut some parts from them. Every time he sent some energy into her body, she shivered a bit, it wasn't cold in the forest although they were normally a bit cooler than the towns. Still, it wasn't freezing, her reactions were caused by all the external manipulation that was happening.
The experiments went on and on, they even took a break between work to eat and for bathroom breaks, but they never spoke to each other. They stayed quiet and calm for the remainder of the day. Going back to the investigation of how the layers worked, Lucas discovered that his previous theories were correct.
If the core opened its figurative mouth, all the energy will start to flow into it. If the core starts to absorb everything it will break from the overload of energy, killing her. So the final layer had to be destroyed or removed.
Lucas was obviously looking to remove it and use it for his own. Removing it would require him to guide the energy through her pathways until it reaches the outside or his hands, making him absorb it instead.
'Destroying it is out of the question, we're not sending dark magic into her body, it would only destroy part of her.'
'I don't care, as long as we get that energy we'll have grown so much! Can't we take a tiny bit more? She doesn't need the second layer right? Perhaps her core will be unstable?'
'No, a typical core should have no issues absorbing that much, plus, if we absorb the two biggest layers we might go into overload.'
He had to start making decisions. He knew how to force energy to follow a certain path, so all he needed to do was destroy the connection between the outer layer and the second. Lucas' plan was to take the outermost layer for himself while letting Freya naturally absorb the two innermost layers.
"Freya, I'm about to start, focus all your thoughts on the word absorbing or synonyms of that."
He didn't wait for an answer and didn't even know if that would work, but at least she would be distracted by that. Sending his magic into her body and letting it create a circle around the tendril, he let it squeeze the tendril, trying to make the connection as small as possible. He didn't break it yet, first, he needed to make the core accept magic, or the destruction of the connection to the layer could activate or break the others, ruining his plan.
He needed to remove the connection from the layers to the core for a millisecond and then connect them again together with a signal from his own energy to pry a way open. He had figured out how he could force the core to 'open its mouth', but that would only succeed if the connection was removed for a second.
He had to do two things at the same time, this was already tasking enough, but when the energy reached his hands he needs to take care of that immediately, so there was no time to rest. Everything had to go perfectly, any mistake could harm him or Freya.
'You make her core absorb our precious energy, I'll handle the sweetness that enters ours!'
It was time, he send in another probe of energy and let his mind split into two things, he had done this before, but he couldn't hold out for too long. He had time but didn't want to waste any, so he tried to be as efficient as possible. Severing the connection between the layers had to be done a second after the other probe severed the layers from the core and let them reenter.
He started to sever the connection to the core and then split his thoughts into two, he formed the second probe to create an opening into the core and sever the outer layer. The energy was now free to go crazy, but the guidance by a part of Lucas let it flow to the nearest pathway to his hands.
The opening started to let the two layers into the core, forcefully awakening it. Freya started to have spasms and her mind was close to unconscious. "Stay awake!", Lucas had his eyes closed, but he knew that her intention needed to stay strong to let the core absorb the energy. The energy was about to go haywire and was absorbed into his hands, flowing to his core.
Part of him was focussing on Freya's core and once he saw that everything seemed to go well, he went back to help out his other half.
The energy that flowed was so much that part of him was overjoyed, but that happiness quickly evaporated. The brightly yellow energy was turning into dark and purple-looking energy.
'Poison?! Did this BITCH trick us?!!!'
But it was too late, the energy was wildly being absorbed not long ago, it had spread over Lucas whole body. His veins started to turn black and he felt his own muscles break down. Everything started to hurt, he got an immediate fever and he felt like his bones were starting to split.
He needed to destroy the darker energy, but he couldn't send darkness at it now, his mind was already hazy from the previous split.
'ABSORB IT!'
He focused all his willpower on absorbing the poisonous energy with the left-over normal energy. They all started to flow to his core, the poison was bad for his body, but the core should be capable of handling it. Or so he thought, the moment the dark energy entered his core, it started to hurt like hell.
Lucas started to scream from the pain, his muscles cramped up and made him lose feeling in his feet. He was still conscious, surprisingly, the energy was dangerous but beneficial for his core. The symptoms just got worse and worse, headaches started to form caused by the mindsplit and the fever. He couldn't breathe anymore, he felt like he was drowning, without any oxygen, he wouldn't last long. Black tears filled with poison and blood started to form. Dark blood started to pour out of his orifices.
'That bitch! I should've known!'
'SHUT THE HELL UP AND FOCUS!'
Still, he couldn't just give up, he was determined, he had a goal, he had desires, and he forced fate into his hands. That was what his existence was all about, he needed to survive, he took Venion's core from his backpack and swallowed it whole.
He didn't care about chewing it or slowly absorbing it, the core reached his stomach pretty fast since it was comparable to a tiny marble. The core dissolved and released a tremendous amount of magical energy, Lucas didn't care about admiring the quantity and quality, he simply needed to absorb enough energy to reach Rank 1, hoping that would save his life.
The enormous ball of energy flew to the core without him even thinking of it, the core seemed to have its own consciousness and wanted to help out. It started to suck all the energy from his body, even the darker energy started to get sucked out of his veins into his core. Finally being able to breathe again was a blessing, but it was a blessing in disguise since now his core had to suffer from all the poisonous effects.
His body grew hot again, hotter than ever before. The core started to grow bigger and bigger, almost to the size of a pebble, his heart started to race and see if it could go faster than his own breathing, hyperventilating on the spot. His breathing was once again blocked and the whites in his eyes started to become bloody. His body was a mess.
Lucas could only fall on the ground, writhing from the pain.