Fifty-Three

"You'll stand by me? Against your own people?" Diur's voice wavered as she looked at Kon with her deep green eyes that swirled with emotions. They stood together in the stone room Kon had used for his own cultivation bath. Diur's own stood waiting for her, placid, clear, viscous liquid that gave Kon a sense of dread looking at.

"My people? You're my people. You, Benny, Alice. You stood with me, bled and killed with me. Humanity is a concept and a really big one. These people…they killed Alice. Not directly, but their actions caused it. They destroyed my home, or at least what was becoming my home. How could I stand to the side and let them destroy your home?" Kon asked.

Diur watched him, her normally placid mask broken by a half a thousand different emotions, each of them flickering and disappearing before Kon could make heads or tails of them. She finally reached over and clapped him on the shoulder, pulling Kon forward until their heads gently butted. Her whisper was quiet, hardly more than a sigh and without his sharpened hearing he'd never would have heard it.

"It is an honor to call you brother. Forever as long as I breathe, you shall have a home if you just stand beside me." Kon blinked back sudden hot warmth in his eyes as Diur pulled back, her own face the inscrutable mask again.

"It is time to douse myself. We may be family, but I prefer this to be a bit more private," Diur said. She reached over and rapped on the door and the alchemist oozed into the room, their gelatinous mass wobbling as they leaned over and checked the bath.

"It has steeped long enough. Now is the optimal time to begin the absorption process," it said.

"This one will hurt," Diur said with a wan smile. Kon licked his lips as he thought of her other baths she'd taken, the bloodcurdling screams that had come from them.

"More than the others?" Kon asked.

"This should be enough to enter D-Grade if I can properly finish attuning the energy in my body. That's a threshold that will require a bit of…willpower," she finished quietly. A hint of anxiety was in her features as she looked down at the still waters.

"Don't know how you've already caught up and surpassed me with body cultivation," Kon grumbled, trying to lighten the mood.

"F to E is the simplest of steps. The treasures I've consumed on Crucible was enough to assure of that. This is the third bath I've taken and it will have to be enough."

"I know the logistics of it, just saying I decided to do it before you and you've already passed me by," Kon said.

"It won't be long before you leave me far behind. This is a stopgap measure at best to stay by your side for as long as possible. The moment you finish your first realm of runes you will surpass me and be firmly inside of the D-Grade for pure energy and much stronger physically than almost any D-Grade you meet," Diur said, her voice analytical and cold as she walked to the edge of the tub.

"It goes both ways. As long as I breathe, you'll have a home by my side," Kon said, the thought of Diur not being by his side a horrible, painful thought. She laughed, a deep chuckle that shook her body.

"I know. I changed my mind. Would you be willing to stay?" Diur suddenly blurted.

"Yeah. No problem," Kon said. Diur nodded and quickly stripped down without hesitation, climbing into the bath in a second. The liquid didn't splash or ripple,rather it sucked her down like it was mud, pulling her to the bottom in an instant. Kon blinked as he looked at the pool for a moment as the alchemist rose up from their stool and peered down into it.

"In seventeen minutes I will add the reagent needed to begin the secondary processes required," it intoned before sitting back down. Kon leaned back as he watched Diur through the thick ooze. Its glimmering, pale surface had looked like a thousand cut diamonds twinkling in the light before she'd entered. A faint pulse of power had radiated off of it, pushing against his senses.

Now it seemed to be dimming, the light of the diamonds fading as Diur sat at the bottom of the stone tub. Minutes trickled by, the room silent as the simmering pool grew dimmer until it looked like it was simply water. The alchemist rose at exactly seventeen minutes, grabbing a series of bottles from the ground at his feet.

"Water aspecting is both simple and difficult. Most of your kind live in a mostly solid state. The early E-Grade is simple, pouring power into oneself until they are ready to push into the next realm. You have already experienced that," the alchemist talked as it hovered over the edge of the tub looking down. Kon didn't say anything.

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"The first stage of the final step is similar. Absorption of energy while beginning the liquefaction process. If she's able to resoldify herself afterwards she won't have the strength or durability of an earth aspect, nor the speed of air or light, nor the power of fire or lightning, but her regenerative properties will only be behind a life aspect while being able to control her body at a level hardly seen at this low of a level," the alchemist paused in their monologue.

"Assuming she survives," they untopped the first of the beakers and leaned down, pouring it slowly and carefully into the tub.

"A natural treasure formed under the beating of a waterfall, the lilly held powerful energies that I mixed with a water based rift anchor along with a few specialized minerals," the alchemist said as the liquid hit the tub.

Light flared instantly and Kon had to shield his eyes as the dim liquid began to flow and bubbly. The viscosity weakened and Diur's head bobbed to the top, her eyes were closed as she was in deep meditation, but he could see the tendons flaring along her neck as she struggled to stay in the mindset needed to guide the energies that Kon knew would be ravaging her body.

"This was a minor acid, pulled from the fangs of a E-Grade rift guardian, distilled and weakened, it will help break apart the boundaries between flesh and water," the alchemist said, pouring a small vial of venomous green liquid into the tub. Instantly the water began to roil, Diur's face scrunching as pain began to ravage her. Blood began to float from her pores, the skin under the water slowly breaking apart even as Kon watched.

"Is this what they saw happening with me?" Kon idly wondered as he watched his closest friend begin to break apart before his very eyes. White bone shown through where skin and muscle dissolve.

Bright energy seemed to float in streams, rivers of it winding into her body as the pool began to dim again. The alchemist tutted, grabbing the third and final beaker and lofting it up.

"A water serpent bones ground to powder, mixed with the blood of an enlightened beast which had feasted upon a rift. Taken ethically of course," the alchemist poured the blue liquid into the pool, so dark it looked black until it began to fall and the light caught it.

Kon made note to ask what an enlightened beast was, but he was stuck watching horrified as Diur began to break apart. Flesh dissolved, muscle fibers unwound until only her face remained untouched. Sweat beaded and covered her face and from behind close lips he could hear the scream beginning to build up.

Liquid filled the cavities now made, energy poured into her bones as slowly, ever so slowly, she began to rebuild herself. Muscles wove back together, weaving the energy of the pool around each fiber as it did so. The pool was a whirlwind of power, pressing against his senses as it began to accelerate, draining into Diur's body.

Her lips parted and a choked off scream broke free, cut off a second later as bone and muscle met again, pools of detritus floating to the top.

"Seemed she had more toxins in her body than most. Recent pond scum though, nothing deep. Easy enough to purge," the alchemist said, looking in at the yellow, pus like scum floating to the top. It looked like animal fat.

"She's getting ready to breach the grades. Hope you're ready," the alchemist continued, backing away. Kon felt what the other creature meant, the energy was building up, growing in strength as the energy began to multiply suddenly.

Diur screamed, full throated as the water suddenly began to bubble, a harsh steam filling the room. Pressure rolled over him as he struggled to breath, an overbearing weight pressing down on his shoulders. Energy lashed about as the pool dissolved, the hairs on his neck rising as he struggled to breath. Even feet away from the pool it was intense, though the vortex inside of the tub contained the majority of the feedback.He couldn't tear his eyes from the tub though even as the liquid bubbled away, leaving nothing left but stone, Diur lying on the bottle wreathed in steam as she thrashed back and forth.

"She pierced well, the rebound will greatly enhance her," the alchemist said, nodding in approval.

The steam suddenly stopped moving even as the slightest breezes continued. Dew condensed along the edge of the tub, rolling toward Diur as she roared suddenly, a deep bellow that shook the room. A deluge of power rolled out of her, pushing against Kon's senses as the steam solidified and fell like rain on Diur's body. Each drop hit her skin and was absorbed instantly.

Withered flesh, dehydrated and taut, began growing healthy with a robust vitality as more energy poured into the room from somewhere. Diur liquefied in between blinks, filling the tub with a gleaming blue liquid before snapping back into solid state as the energy stopped flowing into the room .

Her eyes fluttered open, blinking as she looked about herself for a moment. Kon grabbed her robes and brought them over to her, offering her a hand as she trembled like a leaf in a storm.

"She'll be weak for a few days before her strength recovers. But that was a good push through grades, not as bad as I expected at all. Had better foundations than most, seemed more like an established base than most of these drifters," the alchemist said as Kon wrapped the robes around Diur, scooping her up into his arms and pulling her out of the tub.

A layer of…whatever it was that had come out of her, covered her skin giving her pale blue skin a yellowish tinge. Kon headed toward the showers that he'd used as she shivered violently in his arms.

"Kon?" she whispered.

"Yeah?"

"That wasn't that bad," she said. Kon thought of watching her slowly deconstruct in front of him, body dissolving and filling with energy as she used her pure willpower to rebuild herself.

"Didn't seem bad at all. You were a trooper, lot less screaming than me," Kon agreed with her as they made it to the showers.

"It's just because you can't stand being quiet," Diur said softly.

"If you're well enough to make jokes, you're well enough to bathe yourself," Kon growled as he found a much shallower tub and began to fill it with warm water.

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