Chapter Three Hundred And Fifty – 350Time flew on leaden wings. Felix, finished with the diplomacy of his position, retreated to the Alchemical Lab and spent the next six hours working at Aenea's side. Four painful failures behind them, Felix and Aenea had finally done it. A Cleansing Potion, the limit of their combined Skills, and shining bright with all the power of a selection of Tier II herbs, distillations, and topped off with a hair of the dog that bit him: the Spirit Fruit.
"Okay, one last go, bud." Felix lifted the bluestone carafe and Pit regarded it with suspicion.
Will it hurt?
"Uh, probably," Felix admitted.
Most things do, Pit agreed.
Felix hesitated, meeting his friend's golden gaze. He felt only steady trust from him. "Ready?"
Ready.
Pit drank the gleaming potion, a full quart of liquid, and grimaced expectantly. A confused warble slipped from his throat though, and he opened his eyes in surprise.
It tastes good.
Felix grinned, trading looks with an excited Aenea. She rubbed her hands together, a touch anxious. "Do you feel anything?" she asked.
A...wriggling, Pit sent to Felix. He still couldn't communicate effectively to anyone without an unlocked Affinity stat. It is...a worm in my belly. I
Felix dodged back, dragging the Alchemist back with him in the second of warning he had; still, they both only narrowly avoided the deluge of brackish liquid that poured from Pit's channels. Shouts of alarm went up in the Lab, but Felix didn't answer their inquiries, only watched with mounting concern. Pit wretched as if vomiting, and that liquid kept coming out of everywhere like a swam of ten thousand flies all made of thickened oil. They flowed outward for five entire minutes, a lake of impurities that pooled around him until he lost control of his legs and Pit splashed down into it all.
"Pit!" Felix dove into the disgusting goop, cradling all that he could of his friend's massive form. "Pit are you okay?"
There was a surging tide of percussive beats, each one louder and more wild than the last, until the pool around them flashed away into light. Dark was rendered into motes of radiance, impurities washed clean. All of it dissipated, leaving behind a foul, acrid scent as Pit's shudders ceased.
I'm...okay.
Felix helped the tenku stand, the chimera's massive weight nothing to his Strength, and didn't let go until he was sure Pit was truly fine. Pit trilled at him, pleased yet annoyed, and finally Felix backed away several steps; close enough to catch him should he fall again.
I feel good. Better than before, Pit sent.
"Before eating the Fruit?" he asked, and Pit nodded his big head. A taloned foreclaw lifted and swiped at something Felix couldn't see...until a blue window rotated into his view.
Chimeric Core Strengthened!
+10 To All Stats!
Pit shook his body like a wet dog, wings still tucked tight, and let out a pleased warble.
"Wow," Felix said, sharing it with Aenea. She let out a low whistle. "That was just from the Spirit Fruit?"
Aenea laid a tentative hand on Pit's side, and when he didn't protest, she peered at his thick fur as if looking through it. Into him. "When Pit ate the Fruit he should have been hurt badly by its powerburned up from the inside at the very least. What your Companion has done flies in the face of what I understand about attunement and the elemental nature of our souls."
"A habit of ours, I think," Felix said. Pit, I'm going to check your channels and core now. Okay? He activated Cardinal Flame when the tenku agreed, and sent it questing into his Companion's channels with an effort of Will. Mana drained from him rapidly as his power flowed and filled the pathways, looking for any instance of a stained black. He reached Pit's core without finding anything out of the ordinary, and in fact the channels felt healthier and thicker than before. Sturdier. It was when he reached the core that he knew something had definitely changed.
Where he had once felt a vast cavern filled with a cage of wild power, now that same space was almost entirely filled by the gem-like stone. The stone, Pit's core, used to be black with streaks of crimson, matching his fur and plumage. Now it flashed with rainbow hues, cascading with a thousand internal colors and a tactile potency. Of the impurities there was no sign, not even the barest fleck of darkness on his shining center. Felix withdrew his Mana and let it dissipate back into his own channels.
"Your better than ever. Your core is different, though," he said. "Stronger. Bigger."
Evolution?
"Maybe. The Farwalker said it should have happened already." Is this what happened to monster cores as they progressed? Thinking on it, Felix could recall extracting quite a few of the things, and their core varied depending on the monster's Tier and Type. Coloration, composition, size, all of it fluctuating. "Aenea does size determine anything about a beast's core?"
The Alchemist was still stroking Pit's side as she answered. "Yes and no. It indicates the creature in question has grown fairly large physically, but the density of the core and the Mana within can still be quite low in quality. I've even seen some relatively small Insect Types that have cores the size of my fingernail so packed with Mana that they'd outshine your furnace there." Reluctantly she stopped petting Pit and stepped back, visibly collecting herself. "I do not have a Skill to inspect your Companion's core, but if it has changed as you say, then perhaps a tipping point is being reached. There is a Type of sea-dwelling creature to the east, near the Fury's Chasm, a creature that lives within a shell its entire life. As it grows and advances, the creature abandons its old shell to find a new one that will fit its stronger form. I believe most beasts and monsters function in the same manner, their old selves outgrowing their forms, necessitating a change. Or so I have theorized," she finished, offhandedly. "It is not my area of expertise."
Felix chewed the inside of his cheek for a moment, thinking. "Who's area of expertise would it be? Do you know of anyone like a Beast Master? Someone that specializes in Companions?"
Aenea shook her head, much to Felix's disappointment. "No. That Title is not familiar, and before your own Companion I was always taught it is folly to tie yourself to a beast." She shrugged at Felix's sour look. "It is what the Guild teaches, at the very least. Aside from that, few study monsters rather than eradicate them. For that you'd have to travel to the north, to Levantier, and speak to the Scholars of the Lucent Towers."
He nodded, making a mental note. Levantier. Hm. Vess said one of the Shadowgates had those Lucent Towers carved into it. He groaned, inwardly. We could go there next, if we didn't have this Unbound to save. We'll make it there after, okay?
Pit nodded, his Spirit unconcerned. I feel good. Strong. We will face whatever comes, together.
Felix grinned, scratching Pit along his neck. "Together."
"What was that?" Aenea asked.
"Don't worry about it. How's the Draught coming?" Felix asked.
This time Aenea's sigh was heavy. Weary. "I've cracked the how, but it is a certain deficiency in equipment that is causing me problems. I cannot manage to distill even the smallest sample of Spirit Fruit." Felix frowned, but Aenea kept speaking. "It isn't that my lab is much more advanced than this. It's the Spirit Fruit itself. We'd need a Master Tier's instruments to properly separate the useful from the dangerous elements contained within."
An idea wormed into Felix's head and he almost smacked himself. He'd long since figured out how to separate his foe's Mana and Essence and Memories from the chaff of their power...why couldn't he do that for the Spirit Fruit too? He walked past the Alchemist and pulled a new Spirit Fruit from the storage chest, holding it up as the ambient Mana swirled around it like a mini whirlpool. He could consume the Spirit Fruit, but the real question was whether he could bring the separated portions back out of his channels at all.
Only one way to find out, he thought. "Aenea, grab me two flasks. Big ones, I think."
"What are you doing?" she asked, grabbing two stoneware containers and placing them on the counter before Felix.
Felix grinned. "No reward without risk, right?"
Her eyes widened. "Wait"
Chthonic Tribute!
The Spirit Fruit burst asunder, rendered into a flashbomb of blinding power. It was like he was suddenly holding the sun, and as it passed into the Mana Gates in his palms Felix bit off a scream that tried to well up his throat. The Essence of the Fruit rocketed through him, taking the most direct route toward his cores, until it burst wild and free into the vast semi-physical space within him. Yet as it tried to crackle and explode as it had done within Pit, Felix's Will and Intent clamped hard upon it. All of it.
No, he sent to it, his Intent a blade that cut free the spitting impurities from the Fruit. Be this. Pure. He hewed off chunks of it, holding both with the iron grip of his Will as it all dangled above the Divine Vein and the spinning of his dual cores. The power resisted him, but it had no chance and before long there hung two writhing, formless shapes in his core space.
Now for the tricky part, he thought.
Cardinal Flame!
Mustering his internal control, his Intent, and his Willpower, Felix hurled the two wriggling masses from his Mana system. They spun off, each down a separate pathway that snaked and looped along his chest and shoulders before traveling directly down his arms. Pieces of it tried to escape, to latch onto his channels, but Felix was relentless and all-encompassing. His Will would not be gainsaid.
One final tug of resistance, twin streams of liquid power poured from his palms. His left was a stinking mass of foul waste and impurities, while his right deposited a gleaming volume of opalescent fluid, the both of them so copious that the stoneware containers were filled to the brim.
"By all the moons," Aenea whispered. "How?"