———

Moulding Options of The Starcore Divinity Heart

Ascension Rank Trial 4.0 - Damian Sunblade

Eternal Energy Source

Divinity Core

———

'What is this now? A dungeon relic that has three different versions?'

The ascension option was useless for him. What irony that the fourth ranker ascension chance almost all highsword transcedents wanted and did awful things to get was actually present in their own dungeon all this time.

Eternal Energy Source sounded nice, and Damian had no clue what the Divinity Core was.

"What happened? Where is the heart.. flame?" Sulthar asked.

"It became a dungeon relic." Damian replied, "Now, it's asking me to choose in what form I want it."

"What does that mean?"

Damian shook his head, "I have no idea. But there is one mysterious option. I think I will go with that one.."

"What are you leaving behind?"

"A chance to ascend and eternal flames," Damian replied casually as he brought his finger near the Divinity Core option.

Sulthar's eyes grew wide. "Eternal Flames.. Father once told me it was a power that could control all flames in the world, burn everything in existence, even water, dirt, stone, the very air itself. It was a unique ultimate power."

"It's more than that, but the other option seems related to your father," Damian replied.

"What is it?"

"Divinity Core."

Could this be some ultimate golem core? Or did it have something to do with the immortality of the fifth rankers? The only way to know for sure is to choose it.

Damian selected the option.

A golden sphere materialized out of thin air. The layers of golden energy swirled on it, giving it a mysterious vibe.

Damian was hesitant to touch it, so he used the mana threads. But as expected, the mana threads went through without sensing anything. Damian tried to use the analysis spell, and for the first time.. it failed. No matter how many times he formed the runic circle, the second he set the target to the golden sphere, the runic circle broke apart into little pieces.

"Something outside the capability of the analysis spell?" Damian murmured.

The white orb of light dashed towards the golden sphere and started circling it in a speed that made it blurry for even Damian's transcendent eyes. The golden sphere reacted slightly to it and slowly opened the golden layers to take the orb inside. And it was gone.

[The Sacrifice of The Beast of Fire Has Been Accepted. The Divinity Core Can Now Take A form.]

Another chime in his head. Which gave some direction to his thoughts as to what had just happened. The system was too involved in this. Was this something so rare that the system had to explain it in steps? Is this how Divine Rank relics worked?

If it is a core and it wants a physical form, then it's something similar to that last ember of a genica relic.

A sentient life transcending physical form. Like Jacob and Asher's golem bodies.

Should he use Sacrium? But the rank of the core far transcended his own rank. What if, after getting an unbreakable body, the golem refused to listen and went on a rampage of its own? The genica ember was lower rank, and it still housed a consciousness; this would definitely have one as well.

'Could it be the Pigman Sun God? All signs point to that.'

There was always an option to change the physical form, like with Jacob. Damian decided to take the safer route. He took the Divine Core outside the palace by capturing it in an invisible box and dragging it behind him with mana hands. Sulthar followed beside him, observing everything with a face full of confusion and partial desperate hope.

They landed near the trapped copy of the Demon Lord.

Damian broke two massive chunks of metal. One from the castle walls and another from the dark hall where the Sun God's corpse was.

These were the two toughest metals in this dungeon. The crystals held a good amount of mana, but they were not durable. The obsidian was not a metal; the spells etched on it functioned just slightly better than those etched on stones. It just didn't break as easily.

The black metal was tougher than the palace one. The palace one was more malleable but had the potential to endure greater mana strain. The difference was more than 25% for most elements, not a small one, but the elements like Psychic and light were much better when used with this metal. But Damian's goal here was not to make a golem with perfect runic spells. He simply wished to see what this Divine Core was like.

So he chose the black metal.

Damian cleaned the chunk of black metal with pressured water jets and placed it inside a big invisible box. Then, generating a lot of liquid mana, he started the golem-making process.

No one had time to create every little sophisticated piece to make an ultimate golem like Jacob.

The dark metal was swallowed by the golem runic circle, and out came a humanoid replica of Damian himself. Just the face and body shape were similar; the golem had a smooth crotch, Damian was glad to see. The form condensed to the limit and started to grow bigger, so Damian cut off the mana supply.

He didn't want a giant titan golem for the test. The humanoid, 7 feet tall black golem, was just perfect.

It stood lifelessly before them, awaiting controlling mana threads. Sulthar's eyes followed Damian, more specifically, the golden core hovering above his palm as he brought it near the black golem and saw it open its chest. Damian had placed an intricate web of mana nodes inside the golem, the same as he did for Jacob to replicate mana veins of a real pathfinder as closely as possible.

It was not necessary, but it will help in movements and control of the golem for whatever consciousness the core had.

A few seconds in, and the black golem started changing from inside. The gold of the divine core came out in a fiery circular print atop the smooth, dark golem. The golden highlights even gave the golem a pair of eyes and ears. A mouth formed as well, to Damian's surprise, and even a nose.

The veins inside the golem were twisting and spreading. Damian could sense it. When it all stopped, there was even a mana signature. A powerful transcendent level of mana signature. And it was familiar.

"Father?" Sulthar sensed it at the same time as him.

The black and gold metal form stayed unmoving for a while, but then a smile spread across its face. A creepy one at that. And the thing's eyes opened.

Dark abyssal eyes with two golden rings as irises. The structure of eyes, eyebrows, eyelids, everything in its face was still black though. It looked weirdly.. nice?

The opened eyes did not follow the sound of Sulthar though, and instead settled on Damian. The moment their eyes met, the figure dropped to its feet and bowed as deeply as it possibly could.

"Creator, I am forever grateful for this gift of life." The golem said.

It caught Damian off guard. The thing could speak perfect English. There were no vocal cords. No runic circles or mana fluctuations either. Where the voice was coming from was a mystery. It wasn't just in his head; Sulthar heard it too.

Sulthar and Damian exchanged glances. Damian stepped forward and asked,

"Do you know what you are?"

"I am a non-organic life form created by Damian Sunblade. To whom I shall be forever grateful and treat as my eternal master."

"What were you used to be?" Damian continued.

The golem looked to the side, in the direction of Sulthar. After a moment of silence, it replied,

"I used to be Biyanul-sune-Dayla. They called me.. Sun God. Sulthar..? My child?"

"FATHER!!"

Sulthar fell beside the dark golem, holding onto him as if the moment he let go, the golem would disappear in thin smoke. The smile full of warmth on the golem's face could not be replicated.

"Is it truly you? Are you back..? How?" Sulthar asked while bawling his eyes out like a baby.

"I have the memories, but I am not sure if we are the same people. It feels like a dream. One I am just waking from."

The golem's eyes returned to Damian, and its head lowered once again.

"I deeply apologize for this, my lord. My emotions just surpassed my control."

"How do you know I created you?" Damian asked, more confused than the just-born golem.

"Memories of my past self," It replied,

"Back when he.. I had my empire, I was injured in battle against another god. The opponent was a Sovereign of the Psychic element. The injury to my head was so severe that it took years to recover. Only the mercy of the god save me. When my mind was torn and suffering, it showed me fleeting visions of the future. Back then, I had no idea it was the future, but one by one, everything came true, and I learned my lesson."

Damian's eyes widened. "Are you saying you knew I was going to recreate you years before I arrived on the pigman world?"

The golem nodded.

"They were just fleeting images, I wasn't sure. It was all a gamble, not like I had any other choice than to trust my visions when you came to kill me."

Suddenly, the golem shook his head with a wild fervor.

"I deeply apologize, master, for unknowingly accusing you of such things. I have no regrets. I am grateful that you killed me. Because of that, I was given this chance to be reborn in a new world and serve you."

I knew something was off about that damned floating ghost. Pigman Sun God did not even put up any fight at all when he killed him. It was too easy. He always felt like something didn't feel right, and now he knew why.

'I was played,'

Outsmarted by a fever dream of all things.

Damian's face shifted lines and grew into one of the darker ones.

"So I am your master?"

"Yes, My Lord." The golem answered obediently.

"You will do anything I tell you to do?"

"Yes, My Lord."

"Anything at all?"

"Yes,"

"What if I asked you to kill yourself?"

"If that is what you wish.."

The golem stood up to Sulthar's horror and was about to punch himself right in the chest, where the divine core was. All desperate pleadings and attempts of Sulthar were ignored by the black golem and its master. The punch clad in golden mana packed quite some power. It could easily shatter giant metal gates.

Damian placed a last-minute coat of seven to save the golem's chest. Its hand was shattered from the impact though.

"Good enough," Damian smiled, "I accept you as mine."

The Golem returned the smile as golden mana threads regenerated the dark metal on his hand, a perfect hand replacement.

Self-healing golem? Now that was new.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.