Chapter 11

While the energies coursed through his veins, changed every part of his being to accommodate them, Daelyn felt a throbbing pain. A pain that was not constant, it increased with each pulse of the energies flowing through him, he felt the pulse of the pain, and could only shock as he realised its origin. It was his heart, the last organ that had remained under his control as he left his physical body, that was faltering. Residual energy was building up in his heart because of the gateway it formed, it was bound to collapse because of the energy, Daelyn was once again coming closer and closer to death despite all of his efforts.

Daelyn once again did not give up, he was going to reach his goal. He did not know how strong others may be, but he sure as hell did know that he would become stronger, strong enough to not be bothered by anyone, strong enough to make kingdoms bow to him. He would pay the price for his power in blood, either his own or that of enemies.

Despite his resolve, Daelyn felt his heartbeat become weaker and weaker. He knew that his heart could not hold the blood filled with the reactive energy, he remembered how he survived the rampaging of the energies inside his being in the void, he would create something new. As he gathered his will, he felt the energy inside his body respond almost immediately, he channelled them through his veins, towards his heart, and held as much energy as possible there.

As the blood and energy was embedded in the walls of his heart, he felt it expand, he felt his heart expand inside his body. He felt excruciating pain, he felt his longs being pressurised because of the expansion, he felt the flesh inside his body be mangled as his heart bloated, he felt his diaphragm expand more and more as the volume of his heart became larger and larger. The energies and the blood made his heart become more and more bloated as more and more of the energy laden blood converged on his heart.

As he had concentrated a large portion of the energy inside his body in and around his heart, he pressed once again. He pressed the blood and the energy inside the walls of the chambers of his heart, he applied as much pressure as he could with his will, and tried to change the structure of his heart. He did not know if this would do anything, but this was the only thing that he could think of.

As he applied more and more pressure towards the energy filled blood surrounding his heart, it decreased in volume, the chambers in his heart became more and more pressurized as Daelyn willed every ounce of blood and magical power inside of them to converse on the walls. He wanted to make the chambers made from the energy filled blood.

As Daelyn’s chambers became closer and closer to their transformation, Daelyn noticed that he could not apply enough pressure anymore. He could not pressurize both the inside and the outside to reach the final step. He was once again met with a stalemate from which he could not return victorious. Daelyn tried again and again and again, but he wasn’t able to reach the final step with his current will, until something changed.

As the domineering presence had broken the core of the awakened creature, it noticed the large amount of power flowing through its body, and directed it towards the bloodstream. It knew that if that power became static, it would result in the same situation as in the core of the creature. It noticed that the energies were becoming static in one place, and it immediately grew panicked as it saw where it was. The energies were slowly accumulating inside the heart of the small creature, the creature would perish at this rate.

As the domineering presence tried to think of a solution for the situation, one was already made. The presence was pulled from its thoughts by a change of the flow of the energies and blood throughout the body.

The heart of the small creature was gathering energy, and it was gathering energy fast! The blood in the body was drawn to it from all regions, leaving the body of the small creature behind like an empty husk. The domineering presence couldn’t help but panic as he saw this, until the situation changed.

The surplus of blood and energy surrounding the heart started to condense, the domineering presence was perplexed at this. Was the small creature doing this itself, if it was, why? What was it trying to do?

The domineering presence tried to reason with itself and think of why the small creature was doing this. This was until it saw the halt of the condensing of the surplus around the heart. It saw it happen, and panicked once again. The small creature’s heart would be torn apart by the residual energy that is present inside the heart if this endured.

It panicked as it did not know why the small creature was doing this, until one of the other presences intervened. They had been trying to heal the body throughout the affair, but seeing the situation and the behaviour of the small creature, it realised what it was doing. The small creature did the same thing the presence did with water, it was crystallizing it. The presence immediately started applying pressure towards the outside of the heart, quickly followed by the other presence which realised the same thing a moment later. Only the domineering presence was left behind in confusion as it did not understand what the other two were doing.

As the pressure increased from the outside of the heart, Daelyn only needed to apply pressure from the inside. He matched the pressure from the outside that was steadily rising to make sure that the none of the walls of the chambers caved in and killed him. He had had multiple brushes with death since he entered this dungeon, and he wasn’t going to die because he could not control himself.

As the surplus of blood and energy made the walls of his heart chambers more and more dense, a change started to happen. The dense energies started interacting with the blood, and the present muscle fibre, this interaction led to a change in form of the muscle fibre. The heart started to form a crystal layer around itself as the surplus of blood and energy converged on it.

As the outside was crystallized, so was the inside. Daelyn found himself once again in pain, but this time it was a suffocating pain. He realised that his heart could not beat if it was crystallized. However, this shortage of breath lasted only for a moment, as his heart was completely crystallized, energy once again gathered there.

This energy was not residual energy of any kind, it was meant to be there. The blood and dark mana started to function like a pump in the different chambers, the heart began beating once again under the influence of the energies present in it. The energies spurred on a flexible crystal to move like a heartbeat, pumping the blood into the cardiovascular system and ensuring Daelyn’s survival.

Daelyn felt the connection between him and his whole body solidify as his heart started pumping once again. He hadn’t felt like his body was foreign, but he could feel that the connection was once again established on firm ground, and that it could not be uprooted. Daelyn could feel the energies pump through his veins as his crystal heart did its work, he could feel that his blood was filled with brimming power, his power.

As Daelyn felt his power and was profoundly happy about gaining it, he suddenly felt lightheaded. As his vision faltered, he fell backwards, towards the large creature which had nearly killed him, helped him survive, and helped give him his own kind of power. The last sensation Daelyn felt before his consciousness escaped him, was that of a soft pillow against his back.

‘Ah, a nice pillow. Let’s sleep for a bit, having power is cool, but sleeping is better.’ Were his last thoughts before he drifted into the land of dreams and nightmares.

As the three presences had seen his endeavour to save himself, they were vastly surprised at the product that emerged from the crystallization of his heart. They had seen things like it, but not in this way. They had never seen a living and breathing being with such a core, the core was profoundly different from others. This core was a replacement for a heart, not a container of magical power, not a source of life, and not something that only held the soul in place. This core was something that pumped the blood through the body, the blood filled with energy and the heart made by that energy held the soul in place.

The three presences were perplexed at this kind of crystal or core, they had never seen a being with such a core. While the core was special, they realised what it had been born from, it had been born from their greed, and the blood of the small creature. They knew it had gained something unique and with it an unknown kind of power, but he paid the price in his own blood.

As they looked at each other, the presences noticed that they were profoundly exhausted. They had used a lot of magic in the process of trying to kill him, and saving his life. They could only chuckle at each other as they realised the situation, before their attention was directed towards their side. They noticed that the small creature had fallen their side ,and had curled up, sleeping.

They had decided that it would be wise to follow its example. They were the dominant monster inside the hallway, so there wasn’t a real threat from the other monsters, and they were completely exhausted. They repositioned themselves so that the small creature lay between their necks, and dozed off to sleep.

As both Daelyn and the large creature fell into a comatose state, they were undisturbed as the other monsters started to slowly calm down and become servile once again. They were only disturbed several hours later, as Lyvia reached the door of the broken cage. She had alerted both Grey and Orthrus of her discovery with a soft yelp, they had quickly made their way towards the cage.

All three of them stood in front of the broken doors of the large cage. The doors had been broken through with brute strength, which was shocking considering that it was a magical reinforced metal and that the inhabitant was restrained by the magic active inside of the dungeon as the monsters were rioting. The doors were bent like they were rammed by a large creature, there were no claw marks or marks of acid being used. The doors were simply broken by a large creature as it had charged through them.

While Grey was perplexed by this, Orthrus paled as he thought about the monster in the cage. He knew which monster it was, because only a few monsters of him could do that, and only one resided in the dungeon, out of his control. He began to grow nervous as he saw Lyvia standing in front of the door with a pale and worried face. As he stood in front of the bent and broken doors of the cage, the natural healthy colour of his sun elf complexion turned completely pale as he looked at the creatures in the cage.

One of the creatures was Daelyn, but he wasn’t the same Daelyn. He had a rather pale complexion, as if some of his blood had been leached from him. His hair had become a lot darker, still brown but bordering black and he had deep red coloured tips at the end of his hair.

While Orthrus was surprised at seeing this, his attention was focused on two other things. The first thing was that Daelyn was sleeping with a giant chimera. This particular chimera resembled the legendary beast Cerberus, with three heads. However, the chimera had the heads of three different animals.

From the back of the creature, the head on the left was that of a flame hound, the head on the right one of an ice howler, and the head in the middle of a dark wolf.

All three of them were either a variant or had been an alpha, this meant that all three of them were stronger than the average monster of its species. The chimera’s heads had been attached quite shoddily, the spines were not connected very well, the skin might as well have been patched on with nails, and the three heads had three different souls. These were some rookie mistakes on a high level monster, which made for a shoddily created chimera and resulted in the creators death. This was paramount to a child trying to defuse a bomb, it was doomed to fail and kill the operator.

Orthrus took it in despite its shoddy creation, because of the power it held. If the different souls could be controlled, they could be immensely powerful. A variant, apex predator, and an alpha together in one body results in fast magical power of different elements. Orthrus has tried many times to gain control over the creature, but due to the strength of the three souls combined, it has proven very difficult.

The second thing that gained Orthrus’ attention was not the magical power of the beast nor its behaviour, it was Daelyn. The physical changes of Daelyn were not all that impressive, but they did betray the presence of the changes. Orthrus could only be stunned as he felt the magical power radiating from Daelyn, it was a combination of blood and death magic.

Grey and Lyvia were surprised by the physical changes Daelyn had undergone, they did not hate them, but they were certainly alerted by them. They could only think of one thing that could have caused such changes, and tried to feel any mana emanating from Daelyn, they were just as shocked as Orthrus.

Daelyn had vast magical power flowing through his veins. While they were stunned by the magical power, they were extremely worried at the absence of a core. They could feel some kind of core inside of his body, but its magical power was only a fragment of that in Daelyn’s veins, and the core was in the place of his heart. This alerted them greatly, since they had never seen such a core or crystal in the place of the heart, and were unsure if it Daelyn was okay.

As Grey and Lyvia could no longer look on in worry, they rushed to Daelyn’s side. In their hurry they forgot to silence their steps, causing the large creature to stir. They were only a few meters from it as it started to groggily wake up, both Grey and Lyvia were confident that the two of them could handle the situation, but their worries lay with Daelyn. He was literally next to it, sleeping.

As the large creature started to stand up from it sleeping position, Daelyn was knocked over as the support granted by the creature was taken away from him. With a soft tud, he fell to the ground. He woke up, with a slow functioning brain, not enough sleep, and still drained of a part of his health and mana, he looked into the room. He found his parents standing only a few meters away from him, and a large shadow surrounding him. As he looked up, he saw a magnificent creature. Unlike the creature he had seen in his daze, he knew this creature may not be godlike, but he knew that such magnificence only belonged to the strong and powerful.

It was the kind of being that emanated power and dominance, but each of the heads had a different feeling to it. The head on the middle had a feeling of mystery and perseverance, with its harsh looking pitch-black fur, it seemed to be a monster coming from the depths of a dark cavern. Its eyes were surprisingly golden, a kind of gold that would shine in the darkness of a dark cavern, signalling the coming of the creature and marking its prey’s doom. The kind of eyes that would pierce everything it saw, the creature radiated pure power with a hint of elegance.

The head on the right emanated fire, it was literally on fire. The fur of the head had an orange tint complementing the fire that was raging on it, it seemed to be a hound born from the depths of a volcano, or an everlasting fire. The eyes seemed to have a blaze in them, as they were bright red and seemed to flicker constantly, as if it was eager to devour everything that stood in its path and turn it to ash.

The head on the left radiated an aura of elegance, majesty, and a chill that seemed to reach into the soul. The head had a pure white fur, with eyes that were a light grey, resembling the colour of a frozen wasteland. The creature seemed to be above others, having its majesty radiate like it was a lord, not willing to bow to any threat from either inside or outside of its kingdom.

Daelyn was captivated by the creature and the different intents they radiated, he was snapped out of his stupor by his parents voice.

“Daelyn, honey, please get away from the big bad wolf. Mama and papa will take care of it, okay?” Said Lyvia with a soothing yet nervous voice.

Daelyn heard his mother’s voice, and could not help but be happy. After the objects in the white void shattering inside of him, after absorbing them, after losing the connection to his body, after all of that pain. After all of that, he could finally return to his parents’ arms, he could finally hug them, and tell them he is okay.

Just as he was about to walk over to his parents, the creature moved. It saw the three newcomers as a threat, and was not going to expose the small creature to them. The three presences had almost killed it with their greed, they had saved it from tearing its body apart, from tearing its mind apart, and from tearing its soul apart, so they weren’t going to let it die to something like this.

As the large creature moved, the trio moved as well. Orthrus and Grey shifted to the back as support, while Lyvia rushed towards the creature and Daelyn to engage in close quarters combat.

A battle was about to ensue, and only one side would be victorious.