Assimilation
Assimilation
The moment she had learned that the boisterous man who came to threaten the academy was a throne, Evelyn couldn't help but have some doubts.
How could that man have left so simply after knowing that his attack had been, for the most part, ineffective?
Aurora's explanations made some sense, and Evelyn agreed that using the Chaos Bone Spear might have been quite taxing, even for the Lord of Bones, since it could so easily pass through their main defensive formation, despite it being powered by four pillars.
However, no matter how taxing it was, seeing his attack fail to do what he wanted, there should have been some dissatisfaction or anger.
After all, from what Evelyn knew, the two thrones of this world had been at the top of the food chain for a very long time already. And the Lord of Bones was definitely the more domineering of the two.
For such a person, there was no way they could so easily swallow the breath of being countered by a weaker party.
The only reason he could leave so easily after throwing the Chaos Bone Spear down… was if it had already achieved its purpose.
Her conjectures proved to be correct as she was able to observe the flow of energy from up close, but it didn't bring Evelyn much joy at all.
Had the main defensive array not diverted it from its original path, it was expected that the 'Tower of Solitude', along with the multitude of precious cultivation technique discs, would all have been destroyed, and the spear would have still plunged deep into the ground.
That is to say… the 'Tower of Solitude' was just an optional side objective, and the main target of the 'Chaos Bone Spear'… had always been the academy's soil.
Evelyn would never have thought of such a thing, or known of its effects, had Aurora not already told her about the main defensive array's engravings being deep underground.
And looking at the chaotic flow of energy that kept plunging into the depths of the earth from the spear tip… she knew exactly what was happening.
The pink haired girl chuckled. "Heh… instead of bashing his head against the main defensive barrier for months, he would just leave this poisonous needle in the academy's belly, and wait for it to corrode from within, huh? Maybe by the time Aurora realized it… no, even if she realized it, she probably wouldn't have been able to do anything!"
Thinking of the consequences had the barrier been allowed to collapse, Evelyn couldn't help but feel a chill run up her spine. In a frontal confrontation, it was highly likely that the Lord of Bones would be able to easily slaughter the pillars one by one.
Not to mention her own safety, just the fact that she would have been losing Aurora had that happened was already enough to both terrify her and fill her with rage.
Thankfully, now that the spear was in Bree's grasp, the chaos energy had already stopped flowing downwards, and started being channeled through her body instead.
The process was the same as the pink haired girl had expected, but the result… was not. Bree's golden hair glowed, and lightning sparked… but the spear remained the same.
Evelyn's breath hitched in her throat as she watched Bree's expression turn painful as she clutched at the white bone with both palms, her forehead creasing as she bit her lip till it bled.
Throwing caution to the wind, the pink haired girl immediately grasped Bree's shoulders and directly opened the link deep within their soul. Evelyn's eyes turned vacant, and Bree's expression immediately became slack.
It had existed since the time she had enslaved the Lavinian princess, but Evelyn never thought one day she would use it like this.
There was no time to think about the possible problems it could cause. She couldn't let anything happen to Bree.
Exploring the blonde girl's body and soul, Evelyn soon discovered the root of the problem.
There was just too much chaos energy flooding into the little girl's body at once, and she couldn't bear it. Moreover, the concentration of it was so thick and heavy that it was far more difficult to dissolve and purify than anything she had handled before.
Evelyn couldn't help but have a headache as she thought about it. She had thought that the Chaos Bone Spear could, at most, have tens of times more chaos energy than the tentacles of the Thousand Eyed God.
After all, those were still the body parts of the strongest beast on the continent, while this was just one attack from someone at a higher level. The difference could be great, but not overwhelmingly so.
Bree should still have been able to handle it, all things considered, even if it was a hundred times worse. She had grown considerably since then, and purifying those tentacles from the 'Thousand Eyed God' hadn't looked very challenging even then.
But she failed to consider the fact that the tentacles were enormous in size, and when Bree purified them, the chaos energy seeped out only a little bit at a time.
In comparison, although the spear could be considered 'large', it was only a fraction of the size of one of that thing's tentacles, but the chaos energy it contained was horrifyingly large.
The moment Bree tried to purify it, the dense and overwhelming amount of chaos energy was able to instantly clog everything that made the process work, and had nothing been done to resolve it, it would slowly suffocate and smother Bree's soul from within.
As she took a look around, Evelyn now understood that although the process looked simple and quick, Bree actually did work very hard to purify things for her every time. It wasn't effortless at all.
In her soul form, Bree was still an adult — the beautiful fairy that had stunned her all those years ago — but she was crying like a little baby.
Clearly, although she looked like this, her mentality remained that of a child, and after being overwhelmed, she could only sob and call for her mother.
Evelyn didn't waste another moment before she directly enveloped Bree's soul with her own, her smaller arms wrapping around the older girl's head as she embraced her. "Don't worry, I'll protect you."
The golden haired girl looked up her pitifully, and her eyes immediately shone as she saw her mother had come to help.
Evelyn ran her hand through Bree's golden hair before turning her gloomy gaze at the dense, corrosive miasma that was now flooding her soul space. "Do what you always do, okay? I'll handle everything else."
Bree had full confidence and faith in her 'mother', and obediently did as she was told, closing her eyes as she started plucking out small bits of the dense chaos essence around her, complete ignoring the vast flood that followed as soon as she did so.
The expected result would have been a searing pain as her soul was blasted with far more energy than she was prepared to handle, damaging it over and over again till she gave up, however, that didn't happen.
Bree kept her eyes closed as she concentrated on her task, not doubting the abilities of her 'mother' at all. After all, her mother knew everything, and could do anything.
Evelyn obviously didn't have it so easy, as she was nowhere close to omnipotent. She could only shield Bree's soul with her own in the most direct way possible - placing herself between the corrosive energy that Bree had rejected, and the girl's soul.
Although this meant that Bree would only need to handle the amount that she plucked out each time, it left the pink haired girl to bear the brunt of everything that was left. If she couldn't bear it… her soul would soon be torn to shreds.
Thankfully, there was one saving grace… and that was her understanding of the chaos energy itself.
Although she only had a little over 12% progress in the preliminary understanding of chaos… that was still exponentially more than what Bree had. Compared to her bearing it all with just her soul and bloodline, Evelyn could actually resist and handle it to some extent.
Up until now, her contact with 'Chaos' was limited to the filtered product that Bree had handed to her before, as well as the faint understanding from the rotation of 'Chaos Incarnate'.
But this time, Evelyn was able to feel the chaos energy directly with her soul.
Evelyn's expression immediately distorted in pain and agony as her soul suffered from the erosion of the chaos energy, but she wouldn't just let it burn her like that, and did her best to both repel and assimilate what she could.
Along with the pain, her soul power was also consumed, but it wasn't all a loss.
— Consumed 10 points of Soul Value.
— Preliminary understanding of chaos +0.1%
— Consumed 10 points of Soul Value.
— Preliminary understanding of chaos +0.1%
Although her expression remained distorted in pain, deep within her heart… Evelyn smiled.
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