Chapter 4272: Steep Cliff (Part 2)

"I knew it! This thing has a personality of its own!" The Hydra said.

"No, and that’s part of the problem." The Guardian shook her head. "As Ripha pointed out, Gungnir is too good for a complete novice like you. Without a personality that would allow your glaive to support your lacking skills, Faluel, you are a threat to yourself and others.

"I suggest you don’t practice Blade Spells outside the Firing Range."

"I’ll follow your advice." The Hydra stared at the glaive in suspicion, unconvinced by Salaark’s words. "Also, I’ll have even more trouble once I reveal the existence of my weapon. To move forward with Lith’s plan, I can’t keep it a secret."

"Indeed, but that will come later." A snap of the Overlord’s fingers brought everyone back to the ground floor of the tower. "We have more important things to worry about now."

Solus stood alone on one end of the living room, while everyone else was on the opposite side.

"Why did you Warp us here, Grandma, and why am I-" A violet pillar of light erupted from Solus’ body, and the tower started to quake.

"Because the massive flow of world energy that Lith’s Forgemastering technique generated did more than craft Faluel’s Blade Weapon." Salaark answered the incomplete question.

"It also filled every nook and cranny of the damaged tower core with mana, giving it the energy it needed to repair its lingering damage and correct several imperfections. Until this moment, the tower just fed upon the world energy it didn’t need to fuel its existing floors.

"During the Forgemastering process, instead, it developed a mana flow that improved its recovery speed. You are about to have a breakthrough, Solus."

"This is great news, but I still don’t see the point in going this far." Solus shrugged. "I-"

She doubled over as searing pain spread across her skin along with what looked like golden fissures leaking energy. Solus felt as if someone were burying her under dozens of woolen blankets, making it hard for her to breathe as she sweated bullets.

Her whole body felt hot, hurt, and itched at the same time, yet for some reason, she wasn’t afraid. Quite the contrary, the heat felt like a fever, the itch like a healing scab, and the pain like a dislocated joint put back into place.

It was an intense and unpleasant experience, but necessary to get better. The pain quickly subsided as the energy fissures shrank, lessening the energy bleeding.

’It’s as if I’m getting stitched while under partial anesthesia.’ Solus thought, recognizing the familiar pattern of the wounds. ’My life force is healing! The cracks left by Bytra’s murder attempt are slowly disappearing!’

Alas, the process wasn’t slow. It simply wasn’t meant to reach completion.

The violet pillar faded, and with it, the damage in Solus’ life force stopped healing. The energy fissures were now much thinner, but they still ran deep, reaching her mana core.

They disappeared under her skin the moment the energy pillar faded, but Solus knew they were still there.

"Again, thanks, Grandma, but that was overkill nonetheless." Solus said with a bright smile, feeling lighter and stronger than ever. "My breakthroughs are never a big deal. I already have perfect body refining, so it doesn’t hurt when-"

Salaark limited herself to a shrug when Solus doubled over again. This time, the pain didn’t come from her skin, but from her heart and lungs. Everything inside her chest seemed to have caught fire, and it was quickly spreading to the rest of her body.

Solus wanted to scream, but she couldn’t breathe. Her flesh, bones, and even the blood in her veins burned with the intensity of a small sun. The searing agony soon reached her brain as well, suppressing any rational thought but the wish for the pain to stop.

"Solus!" Lith didn’t feel any pain coming from her, and the Infirmary didn’t detect anything wrong with her vitals either, yet he moved forward to help her.

"No, you don’t." Salaark stopped him with one hand.

She was the only person steady on her feet, even though the quake that had shaken the tower since the beginning of Solus’ breakthrough kept growing stronger.

"Just be patient." The Overlord answered the silent question in his eyes. "Trust Solus and trust me."

Solus arched her back in agony until it popped, emitting a soul-wrenching scream that forced the Guardian to Hush the babies.

A white and golden pillar erupted from her body as violet flames engulfed her. A second pillar came down from the sky and fused with Solus’, giving everyone the impression of the finger of a god reaching down to a mortal from the heavens.

Energy and fire started mixing, and Solus stopped screaming. Something that looked like molten silver and gold came out of her mouth, ears, and eyes, drowning her in what looked like metal blood.

Yet instead of hurting her, the molten metal coated her body. The violet fire kept the silver and gold liquid, while the energy pillar shaped them. The three forces worked together, molding Solus’ flesh into something new.

She was now 1,84 meters (6’ tall), covered in white-veined golden scales whose tips shone red from the fire burning within. Her hands now ended in razor-sharp claws, and long horns that resembled thick tree branches rested on the sides of her head.

Seven eyes, each one of a different color, decorated her face, shining under the mystical light of the tower like the precious gemstones they were. Solus’ eyes weren’t made of flesh and blood, but elemental crystals.

She could see through them, and they each had a vertically slitted pupil, but there was no iris or sclera. The two sets of wings coming out of Solus’ back were just as impressive.

The first set was membranous and sparkled like polished gold with its every movement. The other one was covered in thick prismatic feathers that, under close examination, turned out to be coated in elemental gemstones.

Solus’ new form also carried diamond-shaped violet crystals on the back of her hands, in the middle of her chest, on her shoulders, hips, and feet. A golden tail as thick as a leg and almost twice as long came out from the small of her back, with jagged, prismatic shards along its spine.

"Gods, no! No, no, no!" Solus’ voice came out muffled from under her face mask, but it still conveyed her panic to perfection.

"What’s the matter, Solus? Are you still in pain?" Lith asked as the white and golden pillar faded away.

"What? No, I’m fine!" She stomped her foot in anger.

"Then why are you reacting like this?" Lith asked. "You had no problem accepting me after I became a Divine Beast. Why are you reacting so badly to your own transformation? We knew that, sooner or later, this day would come."

"I’m angry because I was already sick and tired of the jokes about my weight while I was still a human!" She said, managing to make it sound like a streak of curse words. "Now that I’m a Divine Beast, the kids will never let me hear the end of- Oh."

Only after she calmed down enough to lower her gaze did Solus notice that her new form had a toned, flat belly.

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