’Good work, but you should heal up properly now...’ The Titan advised, ’You can’t afford to remain weakened in a foreign area.’
’I know... but, why haven’t I felt anything in my soul?’ Levi wondered while drinking a couple of recovery totems to heal his injuries, ’I don’t think it has been enhanced with the Phoenix’s soul.’
He thought that his spiritual prowess could be enhanced immensely, noticing it almost instantly... Instead, he felt nothing different.
’The Leviathan’s soul is too rich for your soul to handle all at once.’
Ash’Kral spoke as he watched the Phoenix’s soul trapped inside a giant black sphere within Levi’s Spiritual Leywell. Its essence was slowly breaking apart and being drawn into Levi’s soul, forming a long gray spiritual tether that connected them.
This sight resembled a black hole devouring a star, only in reverse, as Levi’s soul was the one pulling from the False Sun.
’Makes sense.’ Levi nodded in understanding.
He also had doubts about how the process would occur, since this was the first soul he had devoured through False Sun. He had wanted to test it before, but he couldn’t afford to summon it when he wasn’t alone for the past few days.
’I believe once the devouring process completes, my soul will be strong enough to handle the soul-split.’ Levi wondered.
’Strong enough?’ Ash’Kral chuckled, ’Boy, your soul will have fulfilled the condition by miles... it will have the strength necessary to survive the process while leaving your new three souls remaining at the first stage Solarbound rank.’
’That’s what I like to hear.’ Levi grinned, but his face only cracked a half-frozen grin, twitching uncontrollably.
Ash’Kral had told him that once the soul-split was complete, his main soul would weaken... after all, he was dividing it into three separate parts. That was why Levi planned to spend a good amount of time devouring souls afterward, to restore his strength to normal.
’Don’t celebrate too soon... You just fulfilled the condition; the real problem is surviving the process alive.’ The Titan reminded solemnly, ’I still can’t imagine you surviving it with your current pain tolerance.’
Hearing this, a gloomy cloud manifested above Levi’s head... each time he recalled that he needed to split his soul during the evolution process, his knees couldn’t help but get weak.
As much as he hated to admit it, he also started to feel the same after what happened in the previous two evolutions... although he knew that the three seeds weren’t going to give him a hard time during his evolution based on the pact they had. However, there wasn’t much they could do about the pain resulting from the mutation.
He knew relying on totems or medicine to numb out the pain during the process was not an option... the moment he used them, the effects of the evolutionary formula would be impacted negatively, which might end up getting him killed during the process.
After all, perfect evolutionary formulas were called perfect for a reason... any type of external chemical reaction to the body would alter the formula, even if it was already consumed.
Hence, Daywalkers were warned to keep their bodies as clean as possible from anything external if they were going to use any type of evolutionary formulas.
’I will see what I can do to increase my pain tolerance before the process... for now, it’s time to dig in.’
Levi swiftly threw those dark thoughts to the back of his mind and focused on the gigantic loot crate before him.
Although the Phoenix was corrupted and burnt all over, he knew that most of its body parts would fetch a noteworthy sum in the Boundless Expanse’s markets... it might even pay him enough to kickstart his Leviathan-based shop at last.
’Slaying a Leviathan to kickstart a shop to sell their materials... how fitting.’
The Titan chuckled as he watched Levi use his harmonic spine to locate the most important and expensive part of the Leviathan... its crystallized Shadowlife seed!
Only in this case, Levi’s harmonic spine didn’t pick up on a crystallized spherical seed... instead, it was a crystallized mini tree that had its roots retracted back inside the seed, while the stem and the branches had their size reduced immensely.
As Levi scanned it, he couldn’t help but marvel at its mysterious qualities, feeling like he was watching one of nature’s greatest designs at work.
Without delay, he tapped into his aetheric grasp and gently guided it to a massive burnt-off cut... then, he widened the cut with aetheric hands and pulled it off in pristine condition.
Although he knew that Shadowlife seeds were indestructible, he still preferred being safe after noticing how thin the crystallized blue branches were.
Once it landed in his hands, Levi felt that its weight was nothing like any other crystallized gemstone he held... it might be as small as any other Shadowlife seed, but it weighed at least ten times.
"For it to turn into a crystallized miniature tree, it means its growth has reached the limit of a Mature Tree... so, this Leviathan was technically at the evolution stage of Solarbound rank."
Levi was left amazed... while he knew that Beast Races were bestowed with strength much larger compared to most races at the same growth level, considering the trade-off being intelligence, he didn’t think that it would be at the evolution stage already.
This didn’t shine Levi’s strength in a new light... sure, he fought incredibly well, but it only highlighted just how potent the abilities were.
If the Leviathan had access to even a single ability, the fight might have ended very differently... one use of its weakest power alone could have brought ruin to entire cities.
However, without abilities, dominion, access to spiritual aura, or even proper bestial intelligence that wasn’t corrupted, it became nothing more than a giant punching bag.
Soon, Levi stored the crystallized seed in his wallet and returned to desiccating the Phoenix’s organs, knowing that he didn’t have time to waste.
His teammates were still in the capital, and he was close to a hundred kilometers away from it... Without proper communication tools, anything could be happening.
If it wasn’t for his great confidence in his team’s capabilities without him, he would be worried sick by now... still, it was better to return early, understanding that their situations were different.
While he was confident in them carrying out his plan safely, the same couldn’t be said about him dealing with a Leviathan... if he didn’t return as fast as he could, they would start assuming the worst.
This would lead to them ditching his plan of meeting up in the pyramid, searching for him across the desert.
’Ash’Kral, what’s the most expensive organ of a Leviathan Phoenix?’ Levi inquired while manifesting a single Nova Blade on his staff, planning to use it as a knife.
The Phoenix might be dead, but its flesh and organs were still too tough for him to cut into using anything besides sunflames.
’Well... your Phoenix is fully corrupted, which has ruined the initial value of most of its organs.’ Ash’Kral said calmly, ’What makes Leviathan’s body parts be considered treasures for many is their insane vitality, added to some perks each organ has. However, the corruption has killed off their vitality and ruined most of their perks that are a must for some potion concoctions and such... still, harvest everything in sight. A Corrupted Leviathan Phoenix is incredibly rare and possesses immense collectible value.’
’I see... I know corruption is a plague, but can’t those organs be used for at least concoctions of potions related to the Shadow dimension’s creatures?’ Levi wondered, ’Like me... is there any part I can use for my future Void Seed evolutionary formulas?’
’Boy, don’t confuse Void Seed with the Shadow dimension or its corruption... they are two separate things entirely, as much as Void Seed’s sources of energy are based on darkness, void, and such.’ Ash’Kral shot down his thought.
’Ah... I assumed as much.’
Although Levi knew it was a long shot, he still asked. He recognized that Sun and Void-based materials would be harder and harder to obtain as he kept growing. So, he couldn’t afford to miss anything that could be of use.
’Well, as long as it pays for my shop, I don’t care how they are use...’
Levi suddenly froze, feeling like something shifted in the air... it was subtle, but he could see his painted world of frequencies twitching for no reason.
But then... he heard it.
Crkkk... krkkk...
The sound was vague, almost like thin ice breaking under pressure, except it came from everywhere at once... the sky, the surrounding sand, the air, everything wiggled as if touched by invisible waves.
With his harmonic spine’s insane detection skills, he could see the peculiar waves messing up his audible vision.
Levi knitted his eyebrows... his instincts warned him before his mind could catch up. That sound... It wasn’t thunder, it wasn’t air... it was the dimensional membrane fracturing even more!
Before he could get a confirmation from Ash’Kral, another sharp crack resounded in his ears like glass fracturing under the ocean.
Then silence. No wind. No sound. Just the aftertaste of that dreadful crack still ringing in his mind.
Levi’s grip on his weapon tightened, realizing that they had gotten a bit too loose with using their powers, forgetting themselves to be inside a fractured dimensional site.
"...This doesn’t sound good," Levi uttered solemnly as he kept gazing at the pitch-black sky in his vision, feeling like he could see the dimensional membrane having millions of tiny fractures.
If the combined use of his abilities, his friends’, and the others’ had already caused two cracks, he could tell... their time inside the site was running out.