"Huh?" Levi knitted his eyebrows in confusion, and then, slowly, the realization of what he was about to do took hold of him.
Almost immediately, Levi resealed the Radian skin and watched his body grow dimmer while simultaneously, all that immense power faded with it.
Yet, Levi didn’t care about it... he swiftly turned off the Sun Jets after the heat started getting to him. Then, he descended to the ground using aetheric grasp.
The moment he landed on the scorching sand, he started taking deep, harsh breaths while wiping the sweat from his dripping forehead.
He felt like his body was turned into a furnace... everything burning, everything hot.
’Ash... what is going on?! I thought heat was no longer a pain in my ass?!’ Levi sent a telepathic message, his mouth and throat too dry to utter a single word.
’If you hadn’t gotten too excited and flown to the sun to limit test the power enhancement, I would have warned you of the consequences.’ Ash’Kral chided him again.
Earlier, when Levi had arrived at the desert... he activated the Sun tattoos and started experimenting with them under Ash’Kral’s guidance.
He showed him that in this form, his wounds would rapidly rejuvenate, minor or major, depending on the sunlight’s concentration on him.
Levi tested it out by making a long cut on his forearm and lifting it in the air... almost immediately, the cut was restored without leaving a scar!
This wasn’t all, he also taught him other innate skin passives, such as:
Heat Immunity that helped him resist burns and extreme heat like it was nothing.
Regenerative Glow, which helped him restore stamina infinitely as long as he was under an active sun.
Solar Shielding, which generated a thin protective barrier that burned invasive energies... like dark energy and such.
Once Ash’Kral told him that his power could be enhanced to unfathomable levels, surpassing Tier 5, 6, or even Tier 7 nightcrawlers, depending on the level of exposure to the sun... that’s when he had lost it and took off into the sky, wanting to feel insane power flooding him.
The rest was history.
’I don’t know what has gotten into me... I can’t see the sun, but it was calling for me? Before I knew it, I was already above the clouds, sensing pure raw power coursing through me...’ Levi said, feeling his heart pounding akin to a train on a railway.
’That’s the persona corruption I warned you about many times...’ Ash’Kral said sternly, ’Radian and Oblivar bloodlines aren’t a game... they are Ancient Royal bloodlines existing at the birth of the stars... they were born to fit the nature of those two laws, but not you... Neither your mind nor your body can afford to abuse the powers of a single organ without slowly becoming them.’
’I get it... the Sun form isn’t really harming me physically, but the Sun Laws force me to slowly turn into a Radian personality-wise... which is also the same personality as Sun Ancestral Tree, since it is the Primordial representative of those Laws.’
In simpler terms, Levi and Ash’Kral were using the term ’corruption’ a lot to describe what was happening, but that’s only because they were viewing it from their perspective... in their perspective, the seeds were trying to corrupt their identities to wield the Ancestral Trees Laws, but from the perspective of the Ancestral Tree or the Radians, having such personality was the norm...It was etched in their DNA to act like that.
So, the Sun Form wasn’t attempting to harm Levi; he simply refused to accept the call to become what it wanted him to be.
By doing so, he got punished each time he returned to his human form since it couldn’t handle all of those power-ups without the form being continuously active.
’I am not yet fit to harness the full potential of those two mutations without risking losing myself.’ Levi said while trying to sit up.
He knew that since the mind and the soul were linked, this change would slowly seep into his soul until the new identity became permanent... fortunately, Levi’s current soul was strong enough to handle using the Sun form for a dozen seconds at best.
’You aren’t fit to harness all three mutations.’ Ash’Kral added, ’If you think that was the full extent of the Harmonic Spine, then you are in for a long ride... the Nine Senses Seed simply doesn’t enforce any type of identity, respecting one’s free will as the Identity... hence, why using the spine never caused any problems to you.’
Levi nodded, recalling that Ash’Kral had told him that his Harmonic Spine’s limitations were based on his body’s evolutionary state... it was barely 10% functional in his current state.
The same applied to the other two mutations... he could use them, but at a limited capacity, and he had to ensure that his mind was always on the right track.
Otherwise, he might end up doing something beyond suicidal.
"If this is the power of a single mutation... I can’t fathom how strong Radians and Oblivars are..." Levi murmured under his breath, imagining their immense power at full strength.
This also drove him to think of his parents and grandparents, knowing that one of them carried the genes of the Radians... this made it more confusing about what they were doing on Earth.
What happened to make a Radian descend on this small blue gemstone and give birth in it? Unfortunately, such a question had no answer at the moment.
Levi dropped these thoughts and pulled out a bottle of water from his dimensional wallet... he poured it over his head to cool himself off a bit and then stood up again... still weak, but the job wasn’t done.
"I wonder what kind of ultimate I was bestowed."
Knowing that some ultimates were related to mutations, it drove Levi to think that he might have awakened an ultimate that could be used only during his Sun Form.
And he was right.
"Corona Tempest? Holy shit..."
The moment he thought about the ultimate, all of its details manifested in his mind, leaving his mouth slightly agape.
If it wasn’t for the ultimate being cast only in his Sun Form, Levi would have tested it out right now in a heartbeat.
Alas... he knew if he went for it, a boink on the head might not be enough to awaken him again... he didn’t want to lose himself for a test.
For now, he calmed his agitated heart and the burning desire to try it... Then, he summoned Vyra and ordered her to take him somewhere cold and dark. He still had the Divine Oblivar skin to test out and check its ultimate ability.
...
A short while later...
Levi was seen walking inside a pitch-dark cave underneath a brown, dirtied waterfall... he could see that the cave was packed with hiding Tier 1 to Tier 2 nightcrawlers. But, he didn’t care about them. A single wave of his hand was enough to send a blitzing, concentrated aetheric blade that was able to go through walls and slice their weak souls instantly.
After clearing the cave, he went to the depths until he met a Stygian Gate... Levi looked over the Shadow dimension and noticed that no Nightcrawler was nearby.
Instead of going inside, he sat on the gate and took a deep breath. After what happened with the Sun Form, he was more cautious.
He knew that the Void’s corrupting nature was much worse as it desired chaos and anarchy... which was the final form of destruction... To destroy for the sake of destruction.
’If you feel like you are about to lose control, cancel it.’ Ash’Kral warned.
With a nod in understanding, Levi willed the emergence of Oblivar’s Divine Skin... in an instant, his body surrendered to darkness.
His skin vanished beneath an abyssal black, an endless void where no feature remained... no face, no scorched mark, no mouth... only the infinity circle on his forehead and in his chest, illuminating in a deep amethyst hue.
This faint illumination traced along the Void’s tattoo... or more precisely, the small IIthorien runes.
They weren’t just sparkling softly; they moved in slow, hypnotic circles, weaving around one another like chained galaxies drifting through a boundless cosmos.
Every curve, every symbol, seemed to carry weight beyond anyone’s understanding... like fragments of a mini-universe imprisoned in ink...
"What is this feeling... what is this emptiness..." Levi murmured, his voice devoured instantly by the eerie silence of the void.
During the Sun Form, he felt alive, energized, warm, proud, like he possessed infinite fuel and the energy to carry on with his goals.
But in the Void Form? It was the polar opposite... he felt cold, empty, and slowly getting emotionally detached from everything.
It was like he was hearing constant whispers to spread his void and consume everything, returning the universe into its natural state... a state of Nothingness.
Knowing that he had a limited time before his mind would be consumed by the whispers, Levi swiftly stood up, just to find himself hovering weightlessly above the ground.
He felt akin to a spark of dust floating in a void with no gravity... a weird sensation. He floated forward away from the pitch-black darkness, and yet, he found the darkness following him everywhere he went.
As he exited the cave and got touched by the brown waterfall, instead of water splashing everywhere, it was absorbed, disappearing within him.
Before Levi could react, he was stunned to see the brown waterfall slowly getting engulfed in living darkness, making it spill pitch-black water, if it was still called water.
Yet, the freakiest part wasn’t even this... it was the living darkness slowly consuming everything it touched, flowing across the river above and below, tainting the flora, the ground, anything... leaving the area to resemble a giant ink drop being spilled.
’What am I watching...’
’The limited powers of The Anchor of Nothingness in motion.’ The Titan said solemnly, recalling some horrific memories.
’Why do you think the Ancestral Void Tree has been called that name?’ Ash’Kral added, his voice slightly traumatized, ’It is the sole reason the universe has life in it... Without it anchoring the nothingness, it shall consume everything until... you know the end.’
Hearing this, Levi’s heart skipped a beat in dread, realizing why humans or other mortal races weren’t meant to wield Origin Seeds... they could not survive the corrupting nature of their Laws, unlike the Ancestral Trees or pure blooded Ancient Entities.
The Laws of Void and Sun were simply too overwhelming; his spirit and mind could not win over them.
Terrified of losing control and ending up consuming his entire planet like a black hole, Levi swiftly canceled the Void Form... he didn’t even want to find out the rest of its powers, too freaked out by the scene before him to risk it.
He had been fighting his entire life against the darkness of his world... now, he was bringing it to reality. Not even his Harmonic Spine could paint what didn’t exist.
Fortunately, the moment he canceled it, the expanding, ever-consuming living darkness retracted rapidly inside the dimming tattoos.
Levi took deep, sharp breaths, feeling a strong chill assailing him out of nowhere like he was trapped in a freezer.
This time, he knew that it was the side effect of canceling the Void Form... It was like both forms rewarded him immensely for using them as much as he wanted... limitless.
However, Levi knew that was nothing but a trap... once he committed to a form, his life would no longer be his.
He would be turned into a full Radian or an Oblivar against his will... his human bloodline incapable of surviving their potent, corrupting divinity.
As the color returned to Levi’s darkened world, he felt his heart sink to the bottom of his stomach at the aftermath of his little test.
His body returned to its normal form, features restored, flesh and hair no longer swallowed by the void... However, the world around him was no longer the same.
The waterfall was gone, drained into nothingness as if it had never existed. The rocks and soil were ripped apart in irregular patterns like a monster had taken a bite out of them.
Trees had their roots exposed like the skeletons of the earth, while the flowing river was cut in half by the massive, mismatched hole, creating a new waterfall...
Levi’s auditory vision scanned the devastation... he felt like he was a walking apocalypse, leaving behind a scarred, weeping land.
In the end, Levi could only murmur, "What am I becoming..."