1837: Dangerous Bottleneck (Part 1)

Dangerous Bottleneck (Part 1)

Quylla emitted a shrill sound through her closed mouth as her skin turned black from the impurities that tainted it after reaching the surface.  The same happened to her hair which lost its shades and to her nails which grew unnaturally long.1

Then, they both fell off, just to regrow so quickly that the process hurt no less than losing them. At the same time, her skin dried and cracked due to the layer of external impurities having exceeded what the blood flow could sustain.

The black layer around Quylla fell apart, revealing the muscles underneath that twisted like living snakes entangled together. They also were filled with impurities from the harsh training she had endured and were eager to get rid of them.

The process happened three times as Quylla reached the deep cyan, then the light cyan, and finally the bright cyan core. Each time she would expel the same amount of impurities but the process would become more painful since they came from a deeper part of her.

Then Lith, Solus, and Faluel channeled the power of the mana geyser against Quylla's core to stop the process before she reached the blue.

"No more mana poisoning. Please, I beg of you." Quylla said amid sobs as the Hydra approached her.

"No more mana poisoning, little one. I promise you." Faluel wiped off her tears and offered her a tonic.

Quylla had yet to notice how much hair, skin, and nails she had shed until that moment. She was standing on a pile of wet dead parts of herself, like an insect after molting.

While the Hydra got her attention, Solus cleared the tower's floor of the remains. Quylla's mental strength was as important as her core for the Awakening to succeed.

Quylla sat on the floor to catch her breath and drank the liquid with gratefulness. Its sweet flavor made her forget the hardships she had just endured. She still used Guiding Light to make sure that her core had not already reached the blue and Faluel wouldn't sucker poison her, just to be safe.

Quylla sighed in relief noticing that her mana core was bright cyan and streaked blue all over, like it was supposed to be.

"Nice breathing technique, little one. Since when did you develop it?" Lith asked while kneeling in front of her and offering her a second tonic that she hungrily gulped down.

"Months ago, right after I helped you to understand the secret of body casting and learned that of fusion magic for myself." Quylla said in between gulps. "You have no idea how many times I've been tempted to just use it and Awaken.

"Of course, the thought of death always stopped me in time. I'm not that stupid."

"You are not stupid, little one. You are definitely a genius. And not so little, after all." Lith took a long appreciative look at her body.

"You had your opportunity with me and you lost it. I already have a boyfriend, so bug off." She replied while covering her chest and crotch with her hands in mock embarrassment.

It was a brief chat and a stupid joke but it still helped her to take her mind off the pain she had endured and that she was about to.

"Blue is supposed to be even worse, right?"

"It is. I'm sorry." Lith hugged her, quickly joined by Solus, Faluel, and Quylla's sisters.

"Don't be." She replied. "This is my choice. I witnessed Phloria's Awakening and I knew mine would be much harder. I'm the one who's supposed to be sorry for crying like a baby earlier."

"Kid, all of us had years to get used to breakthroughs whereas you are withstanding them one after the other with just minutes between them." Faluel said. "Don't belittle yourself. Most people with a core as powerful as yours would have already gone insane from the pain, me included."

"I don't think so, but thanks anyway." Quylla freed herself from the embrace only when her mind had found its balance again. "Let's kick the crap out of the blue."

Then, the worst part of the refining process started. Quylla kept excreting impurities from all of her orifices. Her nail, hair, and skin kept falling just to regrow a second later.

Now, however, her bones started to crack in multiple points like breadsticks to get rid of the most deeply etched impurities, those that over the years had become an integral part of her being.

They couldn't be just washed out of her body, not even by the now powerful waves of blue mana. They had to be forcefully removed along with the living matter they had fused with, no matter if they were bones, tissues, or even organs.

  Quylla's muscles didn't just twist and bulge anymore, they ripped themselves to shreds, her bones broke down until they were reduced to splinters, and her skin exploded, filling the room with a bloody mist.

Quylla fell on all fours from the relentless and sudden jolts of pain. Her body seemed to have turned into a torture device and boiling oil seemed to flow inside her veins instead of blood.

Yet she managed to keep her focus, screaming not just to express her agony, but also as a means to not let her fighting spirit die. Her voice was full of determination, making it sound like a battle cry.

She withstood the breakthroughs to deep, light, and finally to bright blue. Her core regained more and more of its power at every step of the process as Faluel's mana was cleansed by the violent bursts of energy that ravaged Quylla's body.

"It's over." Solus said, letting the world energy flow back into the tower and its mines. The crystals dulled from the effort slowly regained their light. "It's over, little one. You can relax now."

"No, it's not and no, I can't." Quylla raised her arms pushing away those who had approached her to check on her condition. "My core is still poisoned. Under its bright blue surface, the violet light still burns."

She talked in-between deep breaths, using Second Chances to assess the position and number of the auxiliary cores that had formed within her body.

"If I allow myself to fall asleep, the energy that my core can't contain anymore will be lost forever. Even if I reach the deep violet at some point, I'll need to use Accumulation for months just to go back to square one.

"I don't know how Manohar had planned to deal with this issue, but I'm not letting my gift go to waste. I've suffered too much just to surrender in front of the finishing line." Quylla said.

"This wasn't part of the plan!" Lith said.

"Because this isn't a plan, more like a gamble." She replied as she started to execute the basic defensive movements that she had learned at the academy first and then Orion had etched inside every fiber of her being.

At the same time, Quylla cast the first chore magic spell that she had learned as a kid. Back then, the adults of her village had no care for an orphan. Whenever she was hurt or ill, she could only rely on herself.

At first, her movements followed the rhythm of the exercise but as she moved to the upper tiers of light magic, they followed the flow of mana.

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