Whether it was the escaping beasts, Dave who was stumbling in the distance, Nero’s three defenders, the Primal Exarch far off, or any of the creatures in Nero’s vicinity, they all turned to look when the pillar of white light erupted from Nero’s body.
Normally, when a Neophyte goes from one level to another, there is no visible phenomenon. All the changes are internal, so besides the occasional deepening of hair and eye colour, there are no external signs of a transition between levels.
Since Nero had his body aflame when he started his own ascension, the equilibrium of aether entering and being absorbed into his body adjusted for his own aether use, thereby continuing to keep the flames roaring.
When the pair of eyes appeared deep within his blue flames, screeching out, it was already enough to be considered an anomaly and break from the norm. Vanessa, however, did not find it too surprising. After all, she too had undergone an innate ability evolution back in Lumina, so she found it perfectly reasonable that the innate ability, upon evolving again , caused some unusual reactions.
A bone piercing chill had always been present in Nero’s flames, but when those eyes appeared, she felt something else in that fire... something alive .
Even then, she had not been surprised. It was Nero. Of course, there was something special about his flames. How could anything about him be normal?
But it seemed that she had not taken that very principle far enough. Indeed, how could anything about Nero be normal? So once his Cryoflame finished evolving, it was the turn for Virtuous Moonlight to begin its evolution.
The glowing innate card within his chest dimmed, and the other one began to shine instead, absorbing the torrent of aether flowing into his body. The flames raging over his body suddenly transformed, and a pillar of light shot out of him, rising into the sky, as if searching for the moon.
Normally, Nero could not use Virtuous Moonlight this excessively - he just didn’t have the aether to support it. Now, though, the ambient aether supported the use of Virtuous Moonlight, and so it was unleashed in all its splendour and glory.
But now, as the ability was used unfettered, it finally revealed its true form, the form that Nero had never seen. It also provided an answer he had been seeking, but never understood.
Whether it was curses, or beasts, they all feared the purifying light. Nero thought that it was because it purified the cursed energy within them. If he could see himself now, he would understand what the actual truth was.
The pillar of light shone so brightly that no one could see Nero within, but even from afar they could sense the danger it presented. For once, even humans could sense the danger, causing Lina and the others to retreat swiftly, and pull along Bael, Noman and the third soldier holding onto life by a thread. Bael and Noman were finally showing signs of waking up.
The light of the Virtuous Aeon was gracing Perilith in its full glory, granting but a flicker of its purifying mercy. Yet the mercy was not to relieve the cursed energy in the surroundings - that was but the first target of that mercy. The ultimate mercy of the Virtuous Aeon was to grant an end to all suffering, and grant the eternal slumber to all upon whom the light shone.
The cursed energy burned and sizzled. Aether roared. The very ground around Nero began to vaporise, turning into black smoke and then slowly disappearing into the air. Only Nero himself, and his equipment, protected by Nero’s subconscious mind, were not granted the grace of that purifying virtue.
Everything came to a standstill. From afar, even back at the tavern from where the soldiers entered Kolar, the pillar of white light was visible. The rescue teams which had entered Perilith all paused and looked over.
All beasts stopped their actions and looked up into the sky. All curses pushed themselves to the ground, trying to bury themselves, just so that they would not be exposed to the light from that pillar.
If Nero wanted to keep his second innate ability a secret, he would need to work a lot harder now. After all, not only had Dave witnessed the white pillar, so had Vanessa and the others. Although they might not immediately guess that it was caused by a second innate ability, it could not be denied that the light was somehow caused by Nero.
Dave turned around and ran. Long gone were his ideas to cause a stampede. Long gone were his delusions about killing Nero. The only thought in his mind was to return to the base as quickly as possible. So long as he returned to the base, he could use his last, and most drastic resort.
Even if he had failed in his current mission, he believed if he could reveal Nero’s secret, whatever it was, he would be forgiven. He had always known that Nero was a freak. This just proved it.
Bael finally opened his eyes, slowly regaining his consciousness, and vaguely saw a white light disappearing from view. He was too disoriented to ponder about the light, as he had no idea what was happening.
"...never reveal what you just saw," he heard Vanessa’s voice in the distance. "That’s an order."
Bael groaned, finally attracting attention.
"Bael, Bael, listen to me. Are you okay? Can you hear me?" Vanessa exclaimed as she checked up on him.
"...tell Nero... to turn down his flames... too cold..." Bael said with much difficulty, his teeth finally beginning to clatter as his body began to tremble. The ice, alongside his blood loss, had finally caused his innate ability to kick in and start healing him.
Nero himself was oblivious to everything that was happening. All he knew was the condition of his body. Normally, the baptism that someone underwent when they moved up a level lasted as long as it took to upgrade their innate card.
Since Nero had two cards, his baptism had been twice as long as usual. Since his body had already been at the peak of what could qualify as a Neophyte, it had been enhanced even more by the baptism itself. Combined with the double length of his baptism, Nero’s body was already near the limit of what ordinary Initiates could reach, and that was only his starting point.
The poison in his body had long since stopped working, as his body consumed it alongside any store of fat he had in his body to fuel his evolution.
When Nero’s ascendance finally ended, and he opened his eyes, he felt only two things, and one he felt more than the other.
The first thing Nero felt was powerful. Power was flowing through his body like blood in his veins, and he knew that he had finally broken through the limit of what the human body should ordinarily be able to handle.
That is what the Initiate level technically was. It was the first step when humans completely overcame the normal limits their race had been born with.
But much more than physical strength, of which there was plenty, Nero felt an immense amount of aether in his body, fueling him giving him power. If he had this much aether back when he was a Neophyte, he could have used Virtuous Moonlight freely and easily without concern - and this was just the beginning of the Initiate level! As he grew in this level, the amount of aether in his body would increase!
Though the thing Nero felt much more than power was hunger! Extreme hunger! For most people, their baptism would begin their evolution into an Initiate, and the evolution would slowly continue for hours, sometimes even days after.
Nero’s baptism itself had been double the length, meaning his initial transformation was already far beyond what anyone else experienced. Everything aether could have done for him, it had done. But the human body ultimately needed nutrition and energy as well, and his evolution had used up every ounce of excess energy in his body.
These were things aether could not replace, so what he needed right now, more than anything else, not only to fuel his evolution, but to continue to even live, was food. After all, it would be a shame if the human with the strongest ascendance into the Initiate level just died from hunger a few minutes later.
Nero opened his eyes, and was stunned to see that around him was a circular, deep pit. Beyond the pit, he saw the group, and found that they were fine. The beasts, unfortunately had run away, or they would have proved a decent source of meat and nutritious. All the corpses that were close to him had been frozen solid, so there was no way he’d be able to eat them.
In the back of his mind, he knew that Dave had probably run away, and that they should chase after him. But first, he needed to not die of hunger.
"Quickly, follow me," Nero said, his voice deep and hoarse as leaped to the group in a single step. Picking up the wounded soldier in his arms, he dashed into the cave. The others would have to follow on their own. Nero had a feeling that if he didn’t eat something soon, he would collapse.