"This kid is quite the crazy bastard," mumbled Roy as he replayed the events of the fight he just bore witness too.
Roy had almost stepped in on several different occasions as each member of the little team had a touching identity.
"Just my fucking bad luck, this kids seems to be an unlucky star in my life."
Watching Thirio resting on the thighs of Amore with a content smile, Roy sighed, "if those guys found out about this, they'd try everything to kill this kid."
____
Soft, unbelievably soft, these were Thirio's thoughts as he slowly opened his eyes to come face to face with impassive golden eyes staring in his sliver.
"How long was I out for," Thiro asked.
"About 8 hours, we stopped cultivating and found you like this."
"And how did this happen?"
Amore pointed at the red eyed Vasilias who was staring daggers at Thirio, " to piss him off, it brings me great joy to see him like that," smiling at the visibly annoyed Vasilias she made to move.
Thirio, getting the hint slowly rose to his feet, paying no mind to the hint Vasilias was sending him, " Rian, what's the situation like?"
"We still have a few hours before but we should get moving back towards the walls, the final and most brutal stretch will be starting soon."
Rian glanced at Thirio, smiling slightly at the power emanating from his body, "I'm happy to see you improving, let's take a few minutes so you can get your power under control."
Thirio then remembered what he was doing before he passed out, 'shit, Vadne anything wrong.'
'It's best you take a look for yourself, plus I don't really understand fully what happened during the graphing.'
Casting his vision within, Thirio was caught off guard, 'where do I even start with all these changes.'
Taking his time to slowly probe each individual change, Thirio then slowly worked on bringing his leaking aura under control.
'The graphing was a success but the shape of the graph and its effects are currently unknown. The crystallized energy has cracked, but my energy purity has risen because of it.'
'The cracks might be a point of worry, overall I'd have to say you benefitted. We should find time to find out what your graphs do though.'
'I think so too.'
Standing Thirio looked at his waiting teammates, "let's go get what we came for."
_____
"It's a miracle any of the people here survived," commented an Elf as she walked by the dismembered bodies, ruined land, while avoiding the blood splattered all around that hadn't even dried yet.
"Be on your guard, anyone that made it through this will not be someone to be taken lightly."
Nodding in affirmation, the group of Elves continued toward the once pristine city walls.
"Hey, you twigs survived as well."
A group of Orcs with blood red markings on their bodies, eyed the approaching Elves with interest.
Paying the words no heed, silence filled the surroundings as more and more people regathered at the large gates of the wall.
*Rumble*
The walls quaked as the gates slowly rose from the floor, causing gleaming blue star light to burst forth into the surroundings.
"What dense and pure Astral Origin energy."
More and more rays escaped as the gate rose higher, with other energies joining in to dye the people waiting outside in a myriad of colors and energies.
"Seems we're just in time, as soon as the gate fully opens, rush in as face as you can."
Eyes trained to the opening door, waves of oppressive energy burst forth as it reached the peak of its elevation.
As the wave of energy arrived it was torn asunder by beams of light shooting in through the door before everyone else could react.
"Charge!!"
A mad scramble started with that shout.
_____
Blue, a bright, sparkling blue covered all of Thirio's vision.
'All this Astral energy,' wasting no time, Thirio greedily absorbed the energy around him like a man finding water within a desert.
His joy was short lived, the energy surrounding him soon vanished as he found himself in a pure white space that stretched into the distance with no change within his view.
'Release the different energies you have cultivated one by one.'
Trusting Vadne's words, Thirio slowly projected a strand of astral-dragon energy outside his body.
*Whoosh*
Shoot a few meters ahead of Thirio, the space around the strand of energy rippled as pure origin energy poured into it.
Thirio watched with amazement as the single stranded was transformed into a 30 meters long eastern dragon covered in scales of green, blue, red, gold and yellow that shimmered with starlight of a matching color.
*Roar*
Thirio shuddered, not from the battle that was about to commence but, the sheer purity, strength and profundity he felt from the energy contained within the energy.
'Is this really that strand of energy I released, I thought that my fusing and incorporation of the two energies already went up a notch but this, Vadne, what's happening right now?'
'This is the true face of attribute imprinting, your energy will be brought to the highest it can be within its current realm, win and the transformed energy will return back to you, lose and, well I don't think I need to tell you what happens.
Look alive, it's coming.'
Thirio jumped back, dodging the swipe from the dragon's claw, "time to try out that move I had in mind."
Spreading his extreme domain to its limits, streams of red and silver starlight flowed from Thirio's body into his domain where he mixed and compressed them into a sliver-red blade and two clawed gauntlets that took shape over his arm.
Meeting the charging dragon half way, a claw and gauntlet fist met in a clash of sparks.
*Boom*
Retreating 100 meters each, Thirio wiped the blood leaking from his lips, trying to purge the pure energy reeking havoc in his body. Rousing his speed based astral energy, Thirio turned into a streak of light.
Transforming into a streak of light, the dragon and Thirio rammed into each other. Exchanging hundreds of blows within minutes. Bellowing shockwaves rattled the surroundings while colorful lights filled the sky from the energies flying around.
Dodging a clawed attack, Thirio speared his hands into the dragon's side, shattering scales to tear into its body causing liquified energy to burst forth and splatter on his body.
Feeling his Trinity stir within him as all three showed their need for the entity he was facing, Thirio grimaced as he forced them to calm down.
That moment of lapsed judgment was all the dragon needed to slam the full force of its tail wipe into Thirio's side, rocketing him into the ground.
*Cough*
Hacking up blood and bits of organ pieces, a grim expression covered Thirio's face, suppressing the energy left in his body by the attack he looked up at the dragon gathering energy for a breath attack.
"Now or never!"
Stomping hard, the air under his feet exploded, launching himself into the air at his opponent. Reaching the peak of his jump, his left gauntlet turned into a platform under his feet.
Slicing through the air with his second jump while the energy moved to his back and vanished, eyes cold and gleaming with sharpness, Thirio watched slowly as the dragon's maw opened wide, swirling energy charged within.
Pupils shrinking from his intense focus, "Now."
In one swift motion, Thirio grabbed something from his back with his right gauntlet which dissipated to form the hilt of the gleaming silver-red blade that appeared in his hand. Slashing the dragon, a thin wave of energy sliced through the air from the dissipating blade.
Mid-breath the dragon only saw a glimmer of shining starlight engulf it's vision before the world faded to black the breath of life gone from it body.
"Resting Glory," Thiro whispered, the two halves of the beast falling to the ground in the wake of his words.
Falling seconds after, Thirio took deep, gulping breaths of air as all his suppressed injuries burst out, but his mind wasn't on any of that at the moment.
A strand of multi-colored astral-dragon energy was slowly floating down from the sky and towards his body. His eyes never once left the strand until it fused into his body.
The energy from the strand was more than he could have imagined as his body was instantly filled with energy, along with its return comprehension also flooded into his mind.
Thirio focused fully on absorbing as much of the comprehension as he could, which caused him to miss how the links making up his bone graft were slowly expanding and the small linking forming to connect each chain link engraved on his bones.
This didn't escape the senses of the small flame hovering before him though, who stared at him with interest.
"What will become in the future dear Thirio, either way our paths are now bound so I'll do my best to guide you young beast."