[Billion’s PoV]
After passing word to our spies that they could bring in our forces, and after weakening the space enough for them to slip through, I returned to the strange place where the world core floated.
It was hidden deep in the middle of the ocean, as far from any trace of civilization as possible.
Before me, the world core spun slowly, a perfect blue cube radiating power. I had already filled the space with my violet Essence, and the cube drank from it greedily, absorbing every trace that touched its surface.
I pulled my quest to have a look at it.
" The Dawn stirs.
Yet a spark cannot awaken without a flame.
Within you lies the Core that longs for revival.
Beyond lies the heart of another world, pulsing with stolen breath.
To ascend, you must decide:
Will you devour what sustains another, or let the Dawn remain a husk?
Objective: Awaken the Dawn Core by feeding it a World Core.
Progression: 0/1"
My eyes moved across the glowing words of the quest. Core that longs for revival. Pulsing with stolen breath. Will you devour what sustains another, or let the Dawn remain a husk?
I shut my eyes for a moment, exhaling slowly as if to steady myself, then pressed my hand against the cube. The world core stilled, no longer spinning, though it continued to drink from the Essence I had filled this strange place with.
At that touch, I linked myself to my Dawn Core. My vision shifted, and when I opened my eyes again, I was standing in its inner world.
A vast void stretched before me, broken only by floating islands.
Volcanoes rose on them, spitting energies, while rivers of lightning, ice, and flame poured endlessly into the sky.
Each island represented a law I had mastered. And there, shining faintly, I saw a new island, one I had not seen before. My newly mastered minor law of time.
All these islands poured their energy into the generator core. It devoured everything, refined it, and produced more violet Essence. A self-sustaining cycle. My very own engine of eternity.
But this world was not stable. Every few breaths, the ground shook violently, as if an earthquake rolled across the islands.
Cracks spread, then healed, then spread again. I understood the reason, the Dawn Core was not in harmony. It clashed with the natural order of the real world, where the world core still reigned. Their conflict made my inner world tremble.
And now, to stabilize it, I had to consume that foreign core. I knew this was not going to be simple. It would be a battle.
I lowered myself into a sitting position in the empty void, focusing on the task ahead. Outside, my physical body remained with both eyes closed, my hand still pressed on the cube, still offering it Essence. But inside, I began preparing to devour.
My first thought had been to directly assimilate the world core into the Dawn Core, to simply merge one with the other.
But another idea came to me. Instead of brute force, I could cut off the world core’s connection to natural Essence entirely. Replace its lifeblood with my own generated Essence until it submitted.
That felt right. That felt like my path.
I placed my other hand on the cube, so now both palms pressed firmly against two of its faces. In the Dawn Core’s world, I summoned forth the Minor Law of Assimilation.
From my left hand, I drew out the cube’s inner blue particles, stealing away the energy that gave it strength. From my right, I pushed my violet Essence into it, strand by strand, particle by particle, filling the void left behind.
One hand to strip it bare. One hand to overwrite it.
The battle to devour had begun.
The moment I began pulling the blue particles from the cube, I felt it stir. The world core resisted. Instead of letting go, it tightened its grip, and its will slammed against mine. It tried to devour me back, to steal not only its own particles but also the violet Essence I was pushing inside.
Its hunger was endless. Every strand of my energy that entered was caught, twisted, and nearly pulled away, as though the cube wanted to feed on me instead.
My jaw clenched.
"So you want to fight me for it."
The Dawn Core answered for me.
The moment those stolen blue particles crossed into my inner world, one of the volcano islands flared to life. The island of Assimilation erupted with molten brilliance, spewing a storm of fiery rivers into the void. The law surged through me like a tide, sharper, deeper, clearer than ever before.
My comprehension leapt forward, and I realized something terrifying, this was no longer a controlled process. I was losing myself in the struggle.
But I couldn’t stop.
The blue fought to remain in the cube. I fought harder, dragging it out with my left hand while flooding in violet Essence with my right. The struggle became a rhythm—take, push, strip, replace. A steady war of particles.
In the world of the Dawn Core, the void began to change. As the blue spread across my inner world, cracks sealed, tremors lessened, and barren new lands appeared out of the nothingness.
They were lifeless plains, but they were still land. My Dawn Core was repairing itself, piece by piece, fed by the conquest.
The battle dragged on. My breaths turned shallow. Sweat beaded down my real body, though my eyes remained closed. Inside, I watched as more and more of the cube was hollowed out, drained of its blue.
Then it happened.
When the last of the visible blue particles had almost been taken, the cube revealed something deeper. A black mass, oily and writhing, floated at its center. The moment my violet Essence touched it, it lashed out violently.
It wasn’t like the blue, this was different. It struck like a beast, tearing at my Essence, devouring it in chunks. My hand trembled as pain seared through me, as though it was ripping pieces of my own soul.
For a moment, I faltered. My Essence alone couldn’t stop it.
Then the mark on my arm burned.
The tattoo of the chain, the one etched onto me long ago, came alive.
The black ink slithered from my skin and transformed into real chains of violet steel. They cracked through the void with a roar, wrapped around the black mass, and yanked it free. The thing screeched soundlessly, thrashing as the chain devoured it whole.
When it was gone, the chains receded, turning back into the faint tattoo on my arm, as though nothing had happened.
The cube stopped resisting.
It lay bare in my hands, empty, hollow, waiting. Without hesitation, I flooded it completely with my violet Essence. The last flickers of blue were drowned out, replaced by my own.
At last, the world core was mine.