Lucien entered the Gargoyle Dungeon with Skittles who was bouncing eagerly beside him. The little sli was practically vibrating with excitent as it tested its newfound powers.
Golden sli shots shot from its body towards the Gargoyles. The skills were more compact and far stronger than before.
The air trembled with each impact. The gargoyles didn’t even have the chance to react before being crashed by Skittles’ nurous sli shots. Even the dungeon ground beneath them was scarred by the concussive blasts.
Then without warning, Skittles shivered and... split into six. Six slis of different hues. Each glowed faintly in the colors of the rainbow.
They moved independently yet with uncanny coordination. They attack and defend in patterns that mirrored one another. Their synchronization was almost unnerving. Each strike was deliberate and each feint was perfectly tid.
They then slid out and ford a perfect circle around Lucien.
Lucien’s lips curled into a satisfied grin.
"Good work. You’re becoming exactly like the Rainbow Slis I saw in the Mural World..."
Skittles was evolving beautifully.
After a few monts, the six forms rged back into one seamless body. Lucien chuckled and decided to test the next phase.
"Sli Beast Mode. Sli rge."
Lucein’s body beca translucent. And in that instant, Skittles leapt and wrapped around him.
The fusion completed. Skittles coated Lucien in a vibrant living armor. The golden veins pulsed faintly against the rainbow sheen like living power lines.
At the center of his chest, Skittles’ golden core pulsed. It was like a heart... or a reactor.
Lucien caught his reflection in a conjured mirror and smirked.
"Damn. I look like a rainbow Ironman."
He laughed softly and deactivated the rge.
That’s when he noticed two figures standing nearby, applauding.
Luke and Cienna.
Lucien turned with a grin as Skittles bounced happily into Cienna’s arms. She caught it easily and began petting it like a beloved child.
Luke’s voice echoed directly in Lucien’s mind.
[Good work, my boy. By the way, those Goblin corpses you brought back... I found sothing interesting in them when I used my skill.]
Lucien’s brows lifted with interest.
"Sothing interesting?" he asked.
Luke nodded. [Better you see it yourself.]
With a flick of his hand, the corpses of the three Goblin Monster Lords appeared before them.
Their flesh remained unnaturally intact. They were perfectly preserved. No decay. No sll. As if frozen in ti.
Lucien kept them, hoping to find a use for their bodies. After all, they were the precious bodies of Monster Lords.
Lucien crouched beside the corpses. He scanned each one.
On the surface, nothing seed unusual. But when he extended his senses deeper... beneath the hardened skin and warped organs... sothing caught his attention.
One of their organs hid sothing unnatural.
Lucien’s eyes narrowed. "Wait a minute... this isn’t organic."
He waved his hand and a strange crystalline organ floated out of their bodies. Three such organs, one from each Monster Lord.
They shimred with a faint chanical hum. Their texture was sowhere between flesh and tal.
"Sigh... the monsters’ technology really is sothing else," Lucien muttered.
The three crystal-like organs flickered and then they expanded slightly as if responding to his energy.
Lucien’s eyes widened. "No way... A living storage organ... It’s like a biological inventory. It grows with the user."
And indeed they were.
He probed deeper and his expression shifted from curiosity to astonishnt. Inside the organ’s internal dinsion were countless items. Items that ca from their monster world.
Lucien’s heart thudded in disbelief.
Spirit Crystals, Enchanted Relics and Artifacts, Soul Cores, Spell Books, refined monster essence stones and many many more. Each one brimd with energy foreign to this world.
He also found strange black cubes that seed to distort mana around them. Lucien guessed that they were used as power regulators in the monsters’ technology.
"This..." he breathed with his eyes gleaming. "This could advance everything here by decades."
Luke who was now beside him gave him a satisfied grin and a thumbs-up.
[Seems you’ve struck gold again.]
Lucien chuckled, shaking his head. "More like an entire treasury."
As Luke and Cienna excused themselves, Lucien was left alone. His grin widened as he inspected the treasures.
"This will change everything," he whispered.
•••
Days passed...
Lucien spent the following days conducting baptisms for his pets.
Skittles’ success gave him confidence. With caution and precision, he proceeded to baptize the others.
Oreo, Nyxis, and the twin Life and Death Slis whom he nad Spryn and Drayn... all successfully adapted. Each one radiated a faint divine aura afterward and their powers were significantly enhanced.
Everything went smoothly. The only real challenge ca when he started with his pets that have mana vessels. The first one was with Sparkles.
The unicorn’s imnse mana clashed violently with the divine energy.
Lucien winced as Sparkle trembled in pain. "Damn, its mana vessels can’t take it..."
He halted imdiately.
He then used Perfect Calculation and Perfect Loop to find a solution.
Lucien knocked his head when he found out that the solution was surprisingly simple.
"So I just need to empty their mana reserves first..."
He tried again. But this ti, after draining Sparkle’s mana completely.
The absence of mana allowed divine energy to circulate freely, molding new pathways within their forms. Golden veins ford along its body.
Sparkle’s mana vessels reshaped themselves into radiant circuits of gold. Lucien called them Divine Vessels, capable of holding divine energy.
Lucien wiped the sweat from his brow. "Sigh... I really need to build up more endurance before wielding the fragnt again."
Still, it was worth it.
His mistake with Sparkle taught him sothing vital. Baptism was not just infusion but evolution.
It was rewriting the very laws within a being.
Soon, all his pets (except the nurous Gargoyles) were successfully baptized. Lucien planned to create an army better fit to face corrupted monsters.
•••
The Next Day...
In his private chamber within the small castle of Lootwell, Lucien faced Clara.
The air was serene. The light of the room was dim.
"Clara," Lucien began softly, "are you ready?" Lucien asked.
Clara straightened herself as her blond hair glead under the faint light. "My Lord, I am prepared for anything. I hope this Clara will et your expectations."
Lucien smiled.
"You don’t have to do anything. Just relax. I’ll handle everything."
He paused then added.
"It might hurt at first, but... you’ll feel great soon after. Bear with it, alright?"
Clara nodded. Her eyes were filled with resolve.
"Then as we discussed, empty yourself out," Lucien instructed.
Clara closed her eyes.
She clasped her hands in prayer, exhaling deeply. Her body trembled as she forcibly released her mana. The room dimd as the last of her energy left her body.
Lucien watched quietly as her strength faded. Her knees wobbled and her figure started to collapse... but he caught her before she fell.
He pressed one hand to her shoulder and raised his other. The Fragnt of the Origin Core glead in his open palm.
He closed his eyes and he harnessed the power within the fragnt...
The air trembled.
A mist of golden brilliance ca out of Lucein. And a golden radiance blood in the room. The light enveloped Clara.
The energy seeped into her body like sunlight sinking into soil.
She gasped. "Ugh..." she groaned when the unfamiliar energy entered her mana vessels.
Monts later, her breathing steadied. The pain ebbed away, replaced by warmth. An overwhelming lightness filled her from within.
Her mana vessels pulsed, reshaping themselves into divine vessels.
When the process ended, silence lingered.
And then Clara opened her eyes. She frozez. Her body trembled, not from weakness but disbelief.
Then.... She beca wet as tears fell down her cheeks uncontrollably. They were overflowing.
But they weren’t tears of pain. They were tears of genuine joy.
"My Lord..." she whispered, trembling. "I can see you now."
Lucien froze.
For the first ti, Clara saw Lucien not as a blur of color from Divine Sense but as the man himself.
She wept openly. Her tears fell onto his hands.
He didn’t interrupt. He said nothing.
He knew the weight of what she’d regained. She was too young to see the ugliness of the world. And now that her vision is back, she could finally see its beauty again.
When Clara’s sobs finally faded, she wiped her face, embarrassed. "Forgive for this display, my Lord. Thank you for granting my sight back."
Lucien exhaled slowly.
"Clara... you must have realize by now. I’m no god. Just a man with too many powers and too little sense."
She blinked at him, confused.
"If I were a god," he continued, "I wouldn’t have let anyone die in that war." He looked away. "So if you want to return to your ho... I’ll understand."
Clara’s eyes widened. Then she knelt before him with voice trembling in conviction.
"My Lord... this is my ho. God or not, I will serve you with all my heart and soul. Not even a true god could change that."
Lucien chuckled softly, shaking his head.
"Clara. You’re indeed insane."
"Right?" She replied as her lips curved into the brightest smile she had ever given anyone.
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