The world river danced around her as Zee as she channeled torrential amounts of pure energy into her budding creation. It was as if she was creating a new organ, adding layer after layer to the fragment in her mind.
The treasure's energies were so dense and pure adding onto her fragment was incredibly smooth. Normally, adding foreign energy was quite difficult, but the energy from the treasure was in a league of its own, flawlessly melding with her fragment.
That discovery alone was a huge weight off her shoulders. Even so, that didn't mean she could relax. The lake of spiritual fire churned as tendrils of mental energy streamed out from her inner world, guiding the streams of power entering her body.
Even while tapping into her inner world, controlling so much energy was extremely difficult. Thankfully, she could feel Dern imposing his will on the energies, lessening the pressure. With their combined mental power, rushing through early D grade, and then forming her core didn't seem nearly as daunting.
The natural treasure she was absorbing was also a major factor, being the only reason something like this was even possible. With the density and purity of energy on offer, forming her shard was almost too easy.
Half a decade of slowly adding layers to her fragment made forming her shard much smoother than expected. The smooth transition wasn't too much of a surprise. Before absorbing this treasure, her fragment had been right at the precipice. All she needed to do was add the final touches imbuing her fragment with the essence of the treasure.
She hardly even had time to marvel at the spectacle she made in the throne room as she stepped into the D grade. There was a ripple of power that radiated from her body as it underwent a fundamental change upon her rank up. Everything from her channels to her muscles, tendons and bones were improved on a fundamental level.
Zee was elated at her long awaited rank up to the D grade. Spatial, and spiritual energy radiated from her body, filling the throne as her power blanketed the area in gentle waves. She wanted to test the limits of her new rank, but would have to wait. The cosmic seeds reserves hardly seemed drained at all, an endless well of energy held in her chest. It was more than a bit alarming to realize how much more was left.
All of that energy needed to be used up so it didn't turn into a bomb. Thankfully, she could turn all that energy towards forming her core. Her shard was newly formed, but she immediately started on the next step.
Right now, her shard was large, but not large enough for the next step. To advance to middle D was to take what you had arduously built and turn it into a core.
It seemed like a simple task, and yet that one step was a huge bottleneck that ninety-nine percent of cultivators couldn't pass. After all, forming your core was half the battle. Creating a sturdy enough core to survive heaven's wrath was the real challenge. Too many imperfections in one's core, and the vengeful lightning would cause your core to shatter, turning you into a bomb.
Pill poppers in particular were vulnerable when trying to step into middle D grade. All of those hard to remove pill toxins in their bodies, not to mention their pourus shards, made forming a core for them suicidal. A core formed using crushed up beast shards and pills couldn't possibly withstand heaven's wrath.
Zee was thankfully not a pill popper.
She had arduously formed her shard the hard way. With that same attention to detail, she continued adding more layers. Time seemed to have no meaning as she expanded her shard to nearly five times in size. It was tedious and mentally exhausting but she couldn't falter now. By the time it reached the size indicated in her family's cultivation technique, it was much bigger than her core should be. Right now, her shard looked like an unrefined black gem, much too big and porous.
As it was, her creation would crumble for sure if she was struck by heaven's wrath. Thankfully, there were still two more steps.
Now she had to refine, and compress her shard to a fraction of its current size. Taking a deep calming breath, Zee pushed down a wave of weariness.
Despite being mentally drained, a constant stream of pure power was still flooding in. With a mental nudge, she directed the stream of power into her oversized shard.
Stabbing pain shot through her mind, as the entergy flooded deeper into her shard. Her shard was composed of thousands of layers of energy. They were tightly packed layers but their were still some tiny gaps. Even with a proper cultivation technique, it was impossible to get all of those gaps. Not that perfection was required when forming your fragment or shard.
All shards had at least some imperfections. Didn't you could get lazy. Having as little imperfections as possible would make this next step much smoother.
Another stap of pain rippled out from her shard as she forcibly compressed the innermost layers of her shard. She repeated the action several more times, gritting her teeth through the pain. Finally there was a change. The very center layers of her shard were turned into pure energy, combining and shrinking.
A smile tugged at Zee's lips. It was a bit painful, but the method for compressing and refining her core was fairly straightforward. At the center of her shard, one layer after another was compressed, the constant stream of power from the treasure mixing in to strengthen and purify it.
The burgeoning core slowly grew inside her shard, as she compressed each layer of her shard. It was almost like she was starting over from the ground up, tearing down what she had arduously built, to remake something better.
The throne room was deathly quiet, as she toiled away at the center of the array.
Zee had no idea how long she sat there, lost in the process. All she did know was that by now, all of her prepared treasures were gone. They was nothing but empty boxes and vials that were once filled with valuable pills scattered around her.
By now her inner word was a barren desert, having squeezed ever last drop of mental energy from it. Despite the constant stream of pure power from the cosmic seed, her body also felt like a drained husk. Without her inner world, not to mention Dern's help, she would have succumbed to mental exhaustion long ago.
Just when she thought she couldn't go any longer, there was a sense of completeness. The outer shell of her shard turned to smoke, dragged into the perfectly spherical mass that was her core. By now it was like a perfectly polished black gem, compressed to a fraction its previous size.
Her core seemed like a black hole, radiating dense spatial and spiritual energy. Much less prominent were the concepts of time and the soul, overshadowed by the first two. She didn't quite understand all the details of what she had just built, having followed her family's cultivation manual, but that was okay. Zee could figure out all the details later.
She didn't even have time to properly marvel at her new core, as space suddenly twisted around her. One moment she was at the center of the array, and the next she was suspended high above a flat rocky plateau. Hundreds of monsters and people fought below, but she didn't have the luxury to give them any attention.
She had just put the final touches on her core, channeling the last vestiges of energy from the cosmic seed to complete her creation. With the sublime energy on offer, things had gone much smoother than expected.
There were a few snags along the way, but her core was essentially complete. Despite knowing it was complete, a creeping doubt clawed at her, as dark clouds filled the sky.
A murderous aura washed over her, an immense bloodlust filling the air as a presence gathered above. Zee was more than a bit concerned as the clouds gathered. Anxiety built in her chest as heavenly wrath gathered above. Her anxiety was pushed away as she connected her core to her pathways.
A river of boundless power flooded through her body as energy from her core suffused her being.
Her body positively vibrated as the pure power from her core flooded through her pathways. The power was exhilarating feeling as though she could wipe out an army with a single blow.
Zee had never been more powerful than she was right now, and yet she still felt small when faced with heaven's wrath.
Her core had just formed, and yet now she would be forced to face the ultimate test. Heavens wrath didn't give a damn if she was exhausted, and pushed beyond her limits. Zee had just stolen power and longevity far beyond what a human body should contain, and there was a price for that.
Crackling lightning built in the clouds, unprecedented fury gathering above. The heavens seemed incredibly furious at the concepts held inside her core. Power built above a fury far beyond what most middle D grade cultivators had to withstand.
Zee knew this would happen, the cost of her unfortunate choice of path. The heavens did not appreciate people striving for the concept of the apocalypse. It showed its displeasure by releasing a bolt of lightning as thick as a building. Boundless wrath crashed towards her, intent on incinerating her very soul.
Hovering high in the sky, Zee stared up with both fear and defiance. When had things ever been easy? They hadn't. The last sixteen years had been overcoming one life or death battle after another, why would that change now? Nothing ever came for free. She unsheathed her sword, ready to meet this latest enemy head on.
After all, that's how she always dealt with her problems. A sword in her hand, and her back against the wall. She could have chosen the life of a farmer, but Zee instead had chosen the path of war. Feeling as though she could crush mountains, she swung upward just as the lightning crashed down, engulfing her in blinding fury.
The pain of being struck by lightning was incredible, her body and core suffused by crackling fury. Her body spasmed, and she nearly dropped her sword as she screamed from the agony. It was like every fiber of her being was set on fire.
The bolt seemingly lasted for an eternity, but was actually only a second. Her body smoking, she emerged from the first bolt, her clothes on fire and her hair melting away.
She wasn't in a good way, barely able to maintain her flight as the heavens gathered for another strike. One down, two more to go.
Taking that first hit head on wasn't the smartest idea, but she had to reserve her strength for the last two. The first was usually the weakest, followed by two following strikes that usually made the first look tame in comparison.
After taking that first one, Zee was more than a bit anxious. She narrowly survived the first one, and the heavens wouldn't give her time to rest and recover.
The second bolt was hot on the heels of the first, crashing down with redoubled fury.
The thunder drowned her screams of agony, but she emerged all the same once the lightning dissipated. Battered and scorched, she glared up at the skies as it crackled with hate and unmatched fury.
The heavens built for its final blow, a bolt so powerful it would surely turn her to ash. Her mind was hazy from pain, not to mention her core and body were still being ravaged from the inside by crackling lightning.
Things were looking dire. She had been forced to use her final trump card and tap into her inner world to withstand that last strike. To make things worse, this one was nearly twice as powerful. It was as if the universe itself was coming to an end as the final bolt descended. A bolt of pure white hot lightning that blocked out the skies, descending like an angry god.
Battered and burned she stared up at the descending calamity.
It wouldn't end like this. She had come too far, been through too much to die here.
Desperate for survival, she unleashed everything she had left. Her inner world was taxed and over drawn, her channels aching from overuse. Thankfully, there was a new, seemingly bottomless source of power to tap into.
Her core was being ravaged by arcs of lightning, but still, it had plenty to offer. The world river trembled, an ethereal domain spreading from her body as she dumped all the power from her core into her inner world.
Like a ghostly apparition, her inner world unfolded around her. The crash of waves filled the air as a lake of blue spiritual fire spread from her body. As if to pierce the heavens, a pitch black spire rose into the sky. Atop the spire was an incredibly ominous black orb humming with power. Her inner world released torrential waves of spatial and spiritual energies onto the area, creating a domain around her.
There were hints of soul and time in the mix but they were subordinate to the much more abundant energies of space and spirit. Struggling to keep the vast energies running rampant through her body in check, she gritted her teeth.
The last bolt struck with a blinding flash, hitting the top of Zul's spire first. The abyssal orb drained arcs of power while the spire drained even more. The lake of fire was next, siphoning power from the lighting as well.
It all happened in the blink of an eye.
She hardly even had time to raise her sword and swing at the heavens before her body was consumed.
She let out a wail of agony that was drowned out as a river of lightning crashed around her, arcs of white hot pain shooting through her body. Despite her inner world taking on much of the wrath, what was left was still enough to turn most D grade cultivators to ash. It was the worst pain she had ever suffered, her mind threatening to give in.
It took every fiber of her will to keep from passing out, blinding agony wracking her body. The pain seemed to last forever, with the lightning like a waterfall of hate.
And yet, when the lightning faded, Zee was still in one piece. Well, mostly. Her body was a charred mess, her clothes burned beyond repair.
Her new core, the culmination of sixteen years of work, was on the brink of collapse and her channels pushed beyond their limits. Despite that, she dared to smile up at the sky. Thankfully, the heavens had exhausted its fury, and the dark clouds slowly dissipated. The clouds rumbled angrily one last time before they parted, revealing the backdrop of the cosmic river and the endless storm.
Zee was more than a little relieved as she stuffed a handful of healing pills into her mouth.
She was beyond exhausted, struggling to keep her body aloft after surviving heaven's wrath. Her mind was a whir of excitement as the realization slowly dawned on her. She had actually done it. She had formed a core and survived! Despite the pain still wracking her body, she couldn't help grinning ear to ear.
"Well, that went smoother than expected," Zee said.
As if in answer to her remark, a hair raising pulse of spatial energy washed over her.
"You just had to open your big mouth, didn't you?" Dern said.
"How is this my fault?" Zee asked, gazing upward at the cosmic river. She was just in time, as an immense castle appeared from nowhere. It was dozens of miles away, and yet it dominated most of the sky.
With enormous walls covered in an ancient script, it loomed large. Scarred and battered, the castle oozed a bloody haze, radiating a dense aura of war. Terrifying weapons were arrayed along those walls, with array towers each powerful enough to wipe out the capital of Lorocos. And towering above the walls was the castle, releasing a terrifying and familiar aura.
It was the eternal throne in all of its glory, emerging now that she had survived heaven's wrath. She could feel it resonating with her very being, dragging her from the cosmic river by the spectacle.
A familiar elderly woman's voice echoed in her ears, traveling seemingly through the world river itself. "The keyholder has survived her tribulation, and the throne has answered her call. I see there are quite a few candidates here. That's good, breaking inside will not be easy.. Only one of you may enter. The throne is right there. All you have to do is take it. A chance at forming a ladder to eternity awaits!" Halico said, her voice rising in excitement.
The old woman's words were like a catalyst as an explosion echoed across the deathly quiet Platea. Breaking free from its lightning cage, a black streak of anger and violence tore off the shackles placed on it by the bronze statue and shot toward the castle.
The monster which had stalked her in her shadows for years moved with shocking speed. It didn't even bother to spare Zee a graze, clearly intent on gaining the throne for itself. It was incredibly quick, but even so it wasn't quick enough. A wall of white bones and dense clouds of miasma that formed from this air, right in its path.
The monster slammed into the wall hard enough to crack it, the force creating a shockwave that ripped into the Platea below. People and monsters alike were ripped apart, the shockwave attack leaving a deep fissure in the stone. Zee blanched. So much for being safe after surviving heaven's wrath. Core or not, getting caught up in a battle with peak Celestials was still far beyond her. Her eyes lit up as a towering aberration of bone and sinew appeared atop its wall. It was a bone lord, dense waves of miasma rippling out from its shrouded body.
"Out of my way!" shrieked the Eldridge monster.
The bone lord let out a chilling laugh, its voice deep and grating.
"As if I would let a vile creature like an abyssal fiend steal my opportunity," the bone lord said.
"That's big words from an unliving monstrosity," the abyssal fiend replied, its body undulating as darkness gathered around it. There was a terrifying explosion as the two clashed, moving so quickly they were hard to track.
Despite skipping an entire stage and ranking up to middle D grade, she still struggled to track their movements. Celestials were on another level all together, their every clash creating terrifying shockwaves that wreaked havoc on their surroundings. Watching the battle was both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. It wasn't often one got to watch such powerful cultivators in action.
As if those two fighting weren't bad enough, another combatant joined the battle, sidling the first two..
Things were rapidly spiraling out of control when, all of a sudden, the sky was seemingly split in two. Space cried as a vast tree with unending vitality grew amidst the chaos, the smell of autumn filling the air.
The green tree seemed like a supreme guardian, its branches supporting the heavens themselves as the tree grew hundreds of meters tall in seconds. Despite its protective aura, the tree wasn't just for show. Thick vines covered in ruthless barbs shot out from its trunk, forcing the bone lord and the abyssal fiend forced on the defensive.
Unwilling to just sit and take it, they lashed out, unleashing terrifying attacks that severed the thick vines. The attacks created unstable tears in space itself, but even so, the tree wasn't defeated so easily, creating an unceasing assault as it regrow limbs faster than they could be destroyed.
Letting the healing pills she swallowed earlier do their work, Zee watched on with morbid fascination. It wasn't every day she got to watch peak Celestials in combat.
Zee stared at the spot used to be, idly watching as spatial ripples cascaded away in every direction. It was a testament to the power of her newly enhanced senses.
Despite her grievous wounds, her body was healing rapidly after taking three peak quality healing pills.
The benefits of forming a core were already paying dividends. Injuries that would have left her bedridden for months in the E grade would likely be fully healed in just days. Zee's body was still tender after taking that angry lightning to the face, but at least she wouldn't keel over and die from a gentle breeze.
Fighting in her current state was not advised either until her core recovered. That was a problem, as the hoard of monsters below started going haywire again.
Zee glanced around, not seeing any sign of that crazy old lady, nor the giant bronze statue. Somewhere along the way, they had disappeared, probably watching the battle from elsewhere.
Insane old lady aside, excitement welled in her chest as she spotted a figure rising up towards her from the Platea.
With his short curly black rustling in the wind, and his combat robes hugging his muscular body in all the right places, Bastion really was a sight for sore eyes.
His roguish smile and that glimmer in his orange eyes made her heart flutter. How long had it been since she saw him? At Least three years, maybe more. By her count, that was to long. He didn't look any older, but somehow he did at the same time. It was an odd thought. He was perhaps more experienced and hardened from?
Zee opened her mouth to shout his name, but the words died in her mouth. Her eyes widened with alarm as something appeared behind him.
"Bassss!!!" Zee shouted, horror overtaking her excitement as a monster appeared right next to him from thin air. With six spikey legs, the creature was covered in Dark brown and red carapace. It had two large antennae, and four bug like eyes, and two arms. It was a blood gorger, and a big one at that. Its form looming over Bastion, its thick serrated mandibles large enough to cut a human clean in half.
It was a hulking creature who's movements defied common sense. Judging by the fact she didn't sense space twisting at all, it wasn't moving with teleportation.
The hulking creature was just that quick. Time seemed to slow to a crawl, as the hulking blood gorger drove its frontal set of spiked claws into Bastion's back.
Blood shot out from his mouth, Bastion's eyes widening in alarm as he looked down at the claws protruding from his chest. Zee's horror mounted, and she let out a soundless scream as the blood gorger pulled its claws free. Blood gushed from his chest, Bastion's body going limp as he fell from the sky, falling towards the Platea far below.
"Bass! Noo! Zee screamed, rushing to catch him. She pushed her aching body to move, forcing her turbid energy to flow through her scorched and injured pathways. Being middle D grade, her movement skill was quick, but the hulking monster was quicker.
The blood gorger vanished, and Zee's vision blurred with pain. It appeared from nowhere, a thick, barbed claw wrapping around tightly around her neck.
Blood fountained from her lips as its claws bit into her skin, it's bug like face contorted in a cruel smirk.
"That's far enough, whelp!" It said, its voice deep and grating to her ears.
"Bass, No.."Zee croaked, frantically clawing at its arm, unable to do more than flail under its towering strength. It was immovable, her efforts only making its cruel smile widen further.
It let out a grating laugh that send fearful chills up her spine, "Somehow I expected more from the heir to the Lorocan empire. I should have known better. Compared to my domain, the human's are inferior," it said.