LEVEL 0 IMMORTAL-Chapter 67: The Return of Elias

The first time an Ascendant Candidate enters a Fragment of Divinity, it is advisable that they seed their Lumina and return as fast as possible to avoid the dangers in that place. The Candidate was at their weakest, and with the many restrictions imposed by the Storm Ascedant in the vast regions that he controlled, all Ascedant Candidates could not bring weapons or other tools to aid them.

Only by making this Fragment a part of themselves would they have the permission to manage it as they saw fit, as it was now theirs to explore, control, and develop, and their growth as Angels was deeply tied to this.

Commander Yseult had been a bit worried for Elias’s situation, she had stretched her capabilities past the limit to give him a piece of her own Fate’s Fragment, anything less powerful would have been useless, and anything too useful would have been detected and she would not have a Lord Captain here, but several Angels who would gladly tear her head from her body to appease the Storm Ascendant... However, no one would expect that she would give him something so precious that there were no regulations put in place to handle such a thing.

This sort of sacrifice was necessary, she believed, not just because she had so much riding on the success of Elias, but because she had placed him in dangers that no Ascendant Candidate was supposed to survive.

The Stoneward Asylum had great secrets, and she had spent a lot of resources ensuring that on the day of Elias’s Ascension, he could pull a Greater Fragment into his first Seeding. Greater Fragments were not meant for mortals, but this child was special in a way that she did not fully understand.

She had felt when that power she placed inside Elias vanished several minutes ago, and because he still lived, she had hoped he had overcome the danger, and he did not fail her expectations.

The circular void that was the portal that led into Elias’s Fragment of Divinity pulsed while sending out low humming sounds as if it was welcoming his arrival. Then it began to shrink more rapidly.

This portal had always been shrinking, but after Elias entered, the rate at which it shrank was so slow that most observers would think it was still, but it was not.

The humming from the portal grew louder, and the attention of those below High Spire was drawn to it. Streams of Divine Sense surged upwards, and the Commander pressed them all to the ground, not caring for the waves of annoyance she could detect from them, before she was sure that Elias was okay, no one would see him.

Something of her resolve bled through, and the Divine Senses that had been reaching for the portal vanished, as they waited impatiently.

As the portal shrank, the containment rune that ensured that a portal of this magnitude did not send waves of power that would draw eyes from millions of miles around began to burn bright.

One of the great dangers of ascension without a proper background was the siren call of benefit that the portals sent out to any being of power in the surrounding area. An Ascendant Candidate who just fused with a Fragment of Divinity was a goldmine. They could either be killed and their fragments collected, which was the best outcome for them, or they would be slowly exploited over centuries, drained of every shred of Divinity they could collect, before they were finally consumed.

Sadly, this was a fate that so many Ascendant Candidates now suffer, and with the methods of the Storm Ascendant, who had forbidden knowledge of Angels to be known by the masses, a lot of talented individuals had suffered fates that were worse than death, as the few on top devoured them whole.

Despite all of her powers, Yseult had to come to a corner of nowhere and place her head down for centuries, so she could make her plans without too many obstructions.

She tapped her foot against the edges of the runes that reached the balcony, and it stabilized, and she calmly watched the shrinking portal.

When it had shrunken to about seven feet, and Valerius was looking at her with concern, Elias stepped through with barely a slight gap between his body and the shrinking portal, making it appear as if the portal had transformed into him.

Elias took a step forward, and his presence brought a wave of cold metallic wind, carrying the scent of blood, ozone, and something older, like wet stone and distant rain.

Yseult smiled, but Vlaerius took a half step back and swallowed nervously before he seemed to remember his dignity, and he looked at Elias, or what had once been Elias.

He was taller now, easily six-foot-eight, maybe even more; the light bent around him in a manner that was not natural. His red hair, once cropped short to hide his features, hung in long, blood-matted strands down to his waist, and it was redder now, almost closer to scarlet.

The parts of his skin that could be seen were pale but unscarred, but he was covered in dried blood that was black like tar. A purple knee-length breech clung to him, golden runes pulsing faintly along the fabric. It was easily recognized that this material was Runic Forged.

His bare torso was lean, corded with muscle that looked carved rather than grown. His nails, long, sharp, pearly white, flexed once, unconsciously, like a cat testing its claws.

Blood still crusted the corners of his mouth, and his green eyes burned with an inner light that had not been there before.

For three heartbeats, no one moved, then Yseult spoke, her voice low and steady, despite the endless waves of astonishment that was running through her head, although covered in blood, she had seen several spots on Elias’s chest, yet due to the sort of blood on his body being almost resistent to Divine Sense, meaning this was the blod of a very powerful creature, she could not see much without pushing, but already, she had glimpsed five purple marks, meaning that he had opened at least sixty pools of Lumina!

"Elias."

He blinked once, slowly, as if remembering the name.

"Commander."

His voice was deeper now, rougher, like stone dragged over stone. But it was still his own, and it contained a unique charm that could not be easily described.

Valerius exhaled, a shaky sound that might have been relief or terror. He took a step forward, then stopped, eyes wide. Like seeing a butterfly emerge from its cocoon, nothing about Elias was the same, and this scared him as much as it amazed him, because he could still hear so much of that child in his voice.

"You’re... taller," he managed.

Elias looked down at himself, as if only just noticing. A faint, tired smile touched his lips.

"Yeah. That happened."

Yseult crossed the distance in three strides, and it was almost as if she was coming to embrace him, but she did not touch him at all. She simply stopped an arm’s length away and looked up into his face, as if she was searching and measuring it for any flaws.

"You’re still you," she said after a few seconds. It was not a question.

"Mostly." Elias lifted his right hand. The nails flexed, then retracted to normal length with a faint metallic whisper. "Mostly." Then he smiled as he looked at his hands, "I did not know I could do that."