Chapter 6: Chapter 5. Merge

Chapter 5: Merge

20 Days Before Ascension

It was ten days after they found those warriors on the edge of the Deadlands, and they were back home. The journey back here wasn't as stressful as when they were on the way to the Human Lands, so it took them a comfortable nine days. It wasn't exactly the relaxing trip they wanted, but it was oddly satisfying.

But well, even if they wanted to, they couldn't reproduce their frantic pace forward through the black desert; that was something to be done only once in a lifetime if at all possible. Four days of very self-destructive body enhancements couldn't be taken lightly. They could still feel the side effects to this day. 

Thankfully, in addition to their pills, they also found healing liquids on the corpes, so there was no risk of permanent or time-bomb injury, just overall soreness that didn't go away even with a completely recovered body. 

Rhea hummed as she watched Aria put some of their things, like clothes and Spring Seeds, into several stone necklaces before sitting down and reading a brown book. It was the fourth time she read it today.

"Still don't need help?"

"I'm alright! You worked hard back there, this is nothing."

"Okay." Rhea fiddled with the stone hanging from her neck.

At first, Rhea had been worried about how to open the storing necklaces, but it turned out the things didn't have any protections on them. She didn't bother to try to follow the logic behind why that was (straight face), but they were soldiers risking their lives in places like the Deadlands, in the end, everything was probably a matter of practicality.

She guessed it was a choice between fudging the making process or reducing the efficiency of usage. They couldn't be perfect everywhere, resources weren't infinite, and they had to slack off somewhere. Seeing the piss poor design and the pathetic amount of space in one stone, ease of usage in deadly battles apparently won out. 

Efficiency all the way!

Rhea looked around their tree, then towards the spring. She'd have to replace the broken crystal in there soon.

Concerning their water problems, their mission to the Human Lands was an unexpected success. For a while, they kind of forgot their main goal, what with all that happened, but the only reason they traveled there at all in the first place was because their Spring Seed was kaput.

Fortunately, it seemed Spring Seeds were common items, and there was one in each Shiny's necklace. Again, efficiency! There were also books, herbs and potions—which cancelled the efficiency out. Because of course, most of the books—according to Aria—were either useless (rulebooks), questionable ("The Ancient and Subtle Art of Courting Demoiselles"?), or just lewd (Aria didn't let her see those).

"You're nine years old, you're too young for that."

"I'm as old as this planet, you're the one who's too young."

"You just proved my point."

"Humph!"

There was also something strange—a minor detail, really—about those humans that she'd noticed, but hadn't really processed until now: and that was, they were amusingly small. They were the same height as her, a nine year old little girl, which meant they didn't even reach Aria's chest. Even taking her fast growth into account, it was still unusual.

Were all humans like that, or were the twenty or so samples they had on hand all exceptions? No, right?

"Aria?" she asked. "When you were still around other people, do you remember if they're this small?"

"Yeah, I remember. But when I left I'm sure I was the same height as the average woman."

Then what? Dwarves? They didn't exist. But well, even if these guys truly were exceptions, it was already stuck in her head that humans were all like this. First impressions sure we're important. Rhea was starting to get a headache so she went outside to breathe.

She stopped just beyond the door, but then decided to get a bit of work done in. Obviously, she had also considered that maybe they were the weird ones, but wasn't that too far-fetched? Simple explanations.

Rhea's mouth curved downward. Did giant Amazons living separated from the world in the middle of nowhere sound more impossible than the whole of humanity being the height of two worms tied together?

… maybe they were the weird ones, after all.

"I finished it," Aria shouted from inside Ms. Greenvine after a few minutes. Rhea stopped throwing bucketfuls of water into their storage tank—i.e. a hole in Ms. G's trunk. They've always known about this hole, but before this year, they only bothered to stock up on water for winters. Rhea guessed they would forever be mindful of their water from now on. Fun.

"So, anything useful in there?" Rhea asked. Aria smiled mysteriously and put the warriors' looted book on her lap. Rhea nodded. "Good."

Rhea joined Aria on the bed, watching attentively, looking eager to learn new things. After watching those guys fight, the Heat enhancements she was so proud of seemed so incredibly inefficient, so incredibly basic, and, most of all, incredibly dangerous.

Heat, the energy of the body, and Soulheat, the energy of the soul. If they could learn to use them properly, forget humans, even the Deadlands' higher ranked Beasts wouldn't be a threat to them.

"It was hard," Aria began calmly. "I haven't read anything in years, and there's tons of complicated words in it, but… " She smiled wider. "I think I got it."

Rhea's own smile grew throughout Aria's explanation. She was showing her teeth in a giant, awkward smile when Aria finished.

"Awakenings and Merges." Aria breathed. "I got the method."

___&___

10 Days Before Ascension

Mother and daughter were standing on a flattened land near Ms. G. The air was filled with black, Chaos-filled smoke, the sun was just above the horizon, and the ground was as dark as ever. There was acid rain the night before, so a strong smell was wafting off of everything. Long-necked, nasty looking birds were circling something in the distance.

Looking in all directions, only their home had colours other than black or grey. It was truly a dead land.

"Are you ready?" Rhea asked. Aria nodded. "The book didn't say much of anything about side effects, or give much warnings about this method, so we should be safe. I hope."

"I know," Aria said. "That's why we're starting with me first. You know more about Soulheat than I'll ever know. We're as safe as can be."

Rhea looked on as Aria kneeled in front of her, face turned away. Her small back was mostly revealed since she only wore fur wrappings, it seemed more reliable than ever today. She thought back to how this situation came to be. The book.

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There were two ways to Awaken as a "Merger" written in the book, steady training and forced induction. The safe, orthodox method was steady training as could be guessed, but it was also clearly stated that this method would take a long time. It didn't say how much exactly, but the implication was that it wasn't a matter of weeks or months.

Of course, they tried the exercises written in the book, but meditating all day was boring and they didn't have "Aether Gems" to help them along.

"I will go slowly," Rhea said. She put her palm on the small of Aria's back, and closed her eyes—her Side Sight couldn't help, it could see Soulheat, but it was just a basic skill based on Heat enhancement in the end. "Alright, you can begin."

Right away, Aria's hair—which she usually had to consciously keep down—began fluttering along unseen winds. This was what happened when she lost concentration or whenever she was too focused on something. Meanwhile, Rhea tried to remember what Soulheat was like and immediately felt a huge amount of it in the waving hair.

She took out two broken Spring Seeds and a whole one, leaving one more in her own clothes. It seemed like whenever these Seeds were out of energy, they would suck the surrounding areas' Soulheat dry. These could be useful. She threw the broken ones into the hair, causing the amount of energy wafting off of it to decrease a bit.

"Now," Rhea whispered. She pushed ahead with her consciousness; she had to be fast, but also careful. The Seeds only helped to keep out a small fraction of the Soulheat in the hair, and they wouldn't last long.

Fortunately, she was very sensitive to this particular energy, and not a second later, she found a compressed core of Soulheat inside Aria's body. It was exactly where the book said it would be.

"How did I not see it earlier?" Rhea thought out loud. She took the last Seed out, and pierced a hole in it with a dagger. The Seed started violently leaking energy from the slit on its side. Rhea hurriedly put it against Aria's back, letting the energy infuse into the body.

"I feel it," Aria said. She turned around so they were face to face. "Guide me."

The energy split in two and rushed forward in a swirling pattern straight to Aria's heart and brain. Rhea quickly followed them with her hands. "Don't let it go here," she said a bit forcefully. "Feel my hands and try to herd the energy along their trail."

Although she outwardly appeared calm, a drop of sweat fell down Rhea's forehead; she didn't think the energy would immediately head to Aria's vital organs. If even a bit of it touched her heart or brain, she would die on the spot.

"Don't force it. Just follow my hands. Souls are not just a single, big lump, they have circuits," Rhea said quietly, trying to be comforting. She was relieved, Aria was following her instructions with blind trust, not panicking or hurrying at all.

The energy had fused together again and found its way into her "circuits". It was just a matter of bringing that energy to the core now.

"Now, follow my finger. Stop the twirls. Yes, down the stomach. There!" It was already over, she had prepared herself for hours of grueling work. It was incredible. She controlled that energy so masterfully after just a minute. Rhea pointed bellow Aria's belly button. "The last step. Compress it here. But not continuously. Follow my rhythm."

She started poking, and Aria compressed the energy into her core at seemingly random times. After a few minutes of intense concentration, the energy from the core changed. It began expanding at a furious pace. Then, its very properties morphed. Going from brute formless energy to refined "Aether". The core was now producing so much light that Rhea had to withdraw her focus from Aria's body and even close her eyes.

It didn't take long for the light to subside. The book talked about this. It called this phenomenon: Rank Barriers Promotion. Breaking through a Rank Barrier caused organisms, whatever they were, to brutally increase their abilities. However, limits were still a thing, and it was only in the Third Rank that absurd things like destroying a castle single-handedly became possible.

The warriors they found should be in the Zeroth, First, or Second Rank, capable of shattering boulders with their fist or flinging some energy bolts. It didn't explain about could've led to the beheaded Shinies, though. Aria should have broken through the First Barrier just now.

Aria stood up. Rhea was about to ask her if she was alright when Aria suddenly laughed and leapt. There was a boom, and the ground cracked. Rhea covered her eyes to protect herself from the pieces of hardened black lumps of soil flying into her face. When she could see again, Aria was nowhere to be seen.

"Whoooo!" That came from above, a huge shape was descending rapidly to the ground. Then there was a loud sound as Aria landed. When the dust settled and she could see properly again, it was all Rhea could do to smother her awe.

"… yeah, we're really the weird ones and humans aren't worm-sized," Rhea said with a chuckle.

"What?" Aria asked. "Wait."

She finally noticed, Rhea thought. "Yeah, you've grown a head taller. And got… younger?" She was in her fifties, of course she had a few wrinkles before, but now it was like the years on her had been shaved off. "And the hair."

"This is!" Aria exclaimed. Rhea was sure she didn't mind the increase in height, in fact it was very welcome. It made intimidation more effective; the most dangerous Beasts in the Deadlands weren't actually the most powerful ones, it was the intermediate and low level ones. The powerful usually tended to their territories or generally stayed in one place, only the weak wasted time going around and posturing, bullying others.

"A giant Amazon."

Aria laughed, then looked at her hair. Rhea admired it alongside her. Where before Aria's hair had been mostly the same as hers—in appearance—now it was something else completely. Could this even be considered hair anymore?

"It's like it changed into pure light," Aria commented. A tendril snaked out and gouged the ground. They both looked wide eyed at the enormous damage done without any effort, the mark was even glowing red. "… and feels more powerful."

Rhea was stiff. "… yes, I can see that." She shook her head. "I know you're excited, but we have to finish the process."

"Ah, yeah." Aria nodded. She sheepishly sat down again with an embarrassed smile. "So! I don't know how long this will take so you can get back if you want."

Rhea shook her head. "No, I want to know what Merge type you are."

Aria smiled. "Then I'll start right away. I hope I'm a Caster."

"You'll be exactly what you need to be," Rhea reassured. She sat down next to Aria, and tried to sense inside herself. After Aria had settled down some, it'd be her turn to Awaken.

She glanced at Aria again. Hair, height, rejuvenation, explosive increase in strength, and she was just a beginner First Rank woman. Among the three Merge types: Caster, Channeller, and Special types—not counting the subtypes—Aria was most likely a basic Channeller or a Light Caster.

Rhea, on the other hand, was in a bit of a pickle. After all, how would you go about using the Heat of the Soul—she should really start calling it Aether—if you didn't have one in the first place?

She glanced at Aria. No, this was a problem she already dealt with and resolved before.

You didn't really, absolutely need a soul to manipulate Aether. Humans did it, then it worked, after which they began studying the thing: oh, it seemed to come from the soul, so they formed theories on the base that it was a must-have ingredient, culminating in this book.

But was there a hard rule saying a soul was necessary? No.

Once again, it was affirmed that humans were interesting creatures, but were ultimately a backwards species. She sighed, and retrieved the last Spring Seed.

"Hmm, then I'll begin."

This was three weeks before the Ascension.