Thirty-Nine

"I still think this is a bad idea," Diur said as Benny looked on eagerly, looking younger than he ever had as he rubbed his leathery hands together.

"He'll be fine. Mostly. Maybe." Benny shrugged a shoulder but Kon was focused on the rune and overlaying it on his skin. Benny had given him some advice on that, with intent mattering more than the actual location. It'd be on his sternum, but would stretch to cover the entirety of himself. If he managed to pull it off correctly.

"Ready, boyo?" Benny asked as he grabbed an E-Grade stone and offered it to Kon.

"Let's get this over with," Kon said, gritting his teeth as he accepted the core and instantly drained it. Power filled him but his body quickly drank it down before it could build. Kon closed his eyes and began his breathing exercises bringing up his metaphysical self in his mind's eye.

Silver energy raced through him, his body composed of the bright energy while red runes glowed dimly light coals against the backdrop of darkness. His heart beat slowly, each burst sending streaks of power through his body.

"Next one," a voice said distantly, more power surging though him, hitting his processing rune and then being drained away into his now luminous body. As the sudden fiery rune dimmed again, it froze at the halfway point as his body was suddenly filled again, power rippling through it.

"More!" A voice barked and Kon took a third core and watched as all his runes drank deeply. Within a moment they were all burning, power sloshing out of the processing rune in his stomach to lay over and grow around him. From a distance he felt heat begin to cause him to sweat as a fourth stone was placed in his hand.

"Absorb energy," Kon thought to himself as he began to will the rune into being on the outer layer of his glowing body. Benny had told him that he didn't need to vocalize the "on command" part, that the rune and his intent were enough to ensure he wasn't constantly draining the world of energy until he exploded.

"I absorb energy. I absorb energy. I absorb energy," the mantra began to run through him as he focused on the rune, it took shape slowly as it drew forth the great quantities of lurking power. Pain prickled through him, piercing through his meditative trance and nearly sending his carefully crafted work to the gutter. Something cool was pressed to his chest and the pain receded just as his metaphysical self started to shimmer and break apart.

Kon refocused his willpower, imagining himself as he should be and the shifting nature of his representation stopped and solidified. More glowing lines began to form as he continued to draw more and more energy until even that last core was spent. The rune was etched over his chest, but it seemed to stretch across the entirety of his body like a blanket.

Kon opened his eyes and looked down at his chest to see a smoking hole in his shirt, skin charred and burnt in a fist sized circle.

"Oww. What the hell?" Kon said as he got to his feet slowly, touching the wound and drawing back bloody fingers.

"A bit too much energy, boyo. Had to try to divert some of it and heal you as you did that," Benny said.

"Can you heal me?" Kon asked.

"Didn't want to interfere as you were trying to place the rune. You are healed," Benny intoned and Kon nearly shrieked as his chest tightened, skin crawling as bits of charred meat and skin fell off of him to land on the ground while pink flesh covered the gap.

"That is disturbing," Diur said as she wrinkled her nose at the display. Kon privately agreed with her but he wasn't going to say anything that would disturb their resident healer. Regardless if his healing was strange.

"Try it out," Benny urged as he backed up a few steps. Diur followed suit, sliding her feet back until both of them left Kon a few feet of room.

"Scared I'm going to blow up?" Kon said acidically.

"Yes." Both of them said together. Kon stared at them for a second before stripping his ruined shirt off.

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"Doubt I need to do this, but let's try it this way first. Don't do all energy, that's stupid as shit. I'd definitely blow up. Could Benny bring me back from that? Would I remember what blowing up feels like? Focus Kon. Just the heat on my skin, not the light or anything else. Just the heat."

Kon tapped into his full reserves, drawing forth the energy buried in his body and dragging it forth like an offering to his newest rune. The absorption rune snatched it up instantly as Kon focused on heat.

Ice grew over his body, muscles stiffened and broke as all the heat was drained from his body in an instant. Pain tore through him instantly as every dreg of heat was dragged from his skin to the rune which ate it all just to send it all back to his body. Fire roared down frozen pathways, excruciating in its sudden reversal.

Then it all faded and Kon was standing there, blinking stupidly as he tried to remember what just happened.

"Didn't blow up. Did nearly die though. I don't bring people back from the dead anymore," Benny said as he looked at Kon with worried eyes. Kon blinked back and looked over to Diur who had a horrified look on her face.

"What happened?" Kon stammered, trying to remember just exactly had happened to him in that instant of using the rune.

"You dragged all the heat out of your body and the local vicinity, which essentially flash froze you, and then before you cold begin to process your death, you thawed out and melted yourself. I fixed it before you were really dead though," Benny said. Kon stared at him before turning to look at Diur.

"What happened?"

"He speaks the truth. You froze then melted like an icicle. Benny reacted before anything could become…permanent."

"Brain was mostly there. Was touch and go for a few milliseconds, but I caught you," Benny said, slapping Kon on the shoulder. The false joy slowly slid away, Benny's craggy face becoming serious as he leaned in to speak closer to Kon's face.

"This is the difference between a passive rune and one that actually interacts with the world. You'll need much more practice before you'll be able to use this in a combat setting," Benny said.

"Thank you. For saving me. I don't even really remember what happened."

"Most don't. You have no idea how many times I've stopped you from dying and you just don't have the memory of it," Benny said as he leaned back again. Kon stared at him trying to figure out if the man was messing with him or not.

"How many times?" Diur asked, breaking their stare off. Kon blinked a few times as Benny just smiled enigmatically at him.

"He's not going to tell us," Kon said after a moment. Diur wrinkled her forehead before nodding in agreement.

"Come on. Diur you can go off now, I need to work with Kon," Benny said, shooing the cultivator away. Diur nodded as if it was the most common thing in the world to be dismissed. She marched off without a word, leaving Kon and Benny alone.

"Now that it's just the two of us," Benny started as he reached in to grab his grimoire. He flipped through the faded pages for a moment before settling in and showing Kon the list of the runes he was looking at.

"These are all heat runes. You have several of them yourself. When you absorb heat, think of one of these this time please," Benny said, practically vibrating with excitement.

"You'll keep me from melting myself?" Kon asked.

"Of course. You're a great guinea pig," Benny said straight faced. Kon sighed and started to focus on his rune again, thinking of the heat on his skin as his rune started to activate again. The moment he felt the rune begin to draw forth heat he imagined the heat rune that Benny had shown him. Fire rose to life as the rune was etched with golden light, heat emanated from it in waves as Kon's concentration wavered.

The rune broke, fire lancing forth to speak across the badlands to strike the hard packed dirt. A bloom erupted, a wave of rippling heat washing out to roll over Kon a second later as he stood there shocked.

Pain tore through him. Gnawing, biting, searing pain that raced from his heart through his body, every inch of him bursting in agony. A scream started but died as his chest spasmed, his lungs refusing to work, Kon frozen partially hunched over.

"First time is always the worst. Not as bad as backlash as I thought it'd be though," Benny said conversationally. Kon's body spasmed again and a groan leaked out of his mouth, air sipping out of his mouth in a weak attempt at a scream.

"It's alright boyo, it passes. But, the damage is there. Not much at all and it will heal easily enough, but you shouldn't try that again until you finish the next stage of your body cultivation," Benny said, patting him on the shoulder in a reassuring way.

Kon's knees folded and he hit the ground as he drew in a ragged gasp of fresh air. He kept the scream from bubbling out, strangling it in its infancy as he curled up on himself as the pain finally began to recede like a tide.

"I didn't think you'd be as susceptible as I was, but it appears so. Over time that feeling fades as you build up the equivalent of scar tissue. That tissue eventually impedes your ability to channel the energy requiring more for similar results."

"GUH," Kon choked out as he finally regained some control of his vocal cords. Benny patted his shoulder and helped Kon to his feet, letting him lean on him as they started toward the ship.

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