After breaking through the first barrier, Elias, caught up in the incredible pressure of swallowing the vitality of the shattered statues, was not aware that a spot of light had emerged on his chest over his heart.
The light was imprinted on his skin, and it glowed purple, similar to the orbs inside the space in Elias's body. It shone so bright that even though he was covered with blood, the purple light could not be blocked by it.
From that moment, every barrier he broke would create another spot of light on his chest, but after he broke past the fifth barrier, a weird scent began to arise from his flesh that smelled of sandalwood and the Green Swarm hovering above the storm of red Lumina, shivering before as one they descended to hover over Elias like a living, breathing moon.
It was said in the past that the gods loved the scent of sandalwood, and legions of young children were anointed with special herbs and oils, then burned alive in their thousands for the gods to enjoy their scent and their screams.
If Elias were aware at this moment, he would have seen that the green light from the eyes and wings of the swarm had almost faded. It was as if the incredible storm that erupted from them the moment they emerged from his body had used up all the powers in their bodies.
For the past five years, since he gained the Swarm, it was as if he had been accumulating this power every time he killed, and now he had just used all of it in one single strike.
As they hovered over Elias, a new transformation began to occur. The scent rising up from Elias's body could only be perceived by the nose but not seen; however, the swarm seemed to be able to not only see this scent, but they could also… attract and eat them.
The scent was about to spread out of Elias's location before they were drawn into the swarm, and slowly, the color of the swarm began to change, from green to purple.
This transformation was slow, and barely a third of the swarm had been able to consume the scent from his body. It was clear that if this transformation was to continue, it depended on how many barriers Elias would be able to break.
Six purple light spots, like stars, glinted on his chest, and the Swarm above consumed the scent given off from his body with gusto.
Ⓔ
Seventy pools of Lumina were already filled up, and the tornadoes of vitality were thundering over the wisp; they had been following closely behind him since he could no longer move ahead of them after breaking past the fifth barrier. This happened because Elias had to truly push before he could tear through the barriers, naturally leading to a delay.
The tornadoes of vitality above the wisp were roaring with fury; they wanted to plunge back down into the excavated pools and fill them up, and only this part of Elias's consciousness that was here was holding them back, and as more vitality still poured into his body unchecked, the pressure emerging from them only grew.
At this time, twelve purple orbs gleamed behind the wisp, and their calls were maddening. Their calls were no longer in his head; Elias could now hear their voices resounding over this space; they whispered the glory of Miracles and Damnation to him. Everything he wanted was right there for him to take, and instead of grabbing them, he was pushing deeper... extending his misery.
Gritting his nonexistent teeth, the wisp pressed against the seventh barrier, and it was as if he was pushing against an elastic wall; if he relented for a moment, it would snap back.
He had made this mistake on the sixth barrier, and he had learned that the best method to break through was not stop.
It seemed with the strength of the wisp that it was impossible to keep pushing past this barrier, but Elias was noticing that breaking this barrier had nothing to do with strength but with Will.
What level 0 Wisp would have a Will attribute that reached the level of a peak Fury Forge?
It was after breaking the fourth barrier that Elias understood why most Siphons would fail to break past two or three barriers in their ascension. As far as he could tell, this opportunity would only come once for a Siphon. If he chose to stop, then the barriers in front of him would be sealed forever, and he would have only sixty pools of Lumina.
Seventy Pools of Lumina was a lot. Elias had expended a lot of vitality and effort to open sixty pools, and he wondered how anyone else was able to open up more pools if they were in his situation.
Nothing about his ascension in this Fragment was making sense. Did the path of Angels and Divinity need to have such a steep learning curve? Then it meant only monsters could walk this path; everyone else had been given the potential to open more Lumina Pools, but they were far too weak to fulfill this requirement.
Elias did not know why he was given the strength and the opportunity to break past barriers that were clearly not meant for mortals to overcome, but he was not going to waste it.
The purple orbs of Miracle and Damnation called to him, but Elias could not hear them; he chose not to. The only thing he could hear was his body chanting. It sounded like thunder, like an angry god exerting his will over all creation.
"All you were, now mine to take.
I am the hunter, I am the gate,
What you lost, I now claim."
The wisp whispered alongside the roar from the sky, "What you lost, I now claim… I fucking claim!"
The seventh barrier shattered before his will, and the tornadoes roared past the wisp, and for a moment, under the intense vibration from their movement, Elias' consciousness in this wisp was about to scatter, and an intense feeling of nausea swept through him, but he calmed his mind, and he held on; thankfully, the moment of danger passed.
It was then that Elias finally acknowledged what he had been noting down from the beginning. Breaking past these barriers was costing him, and that cost could be seen in the form of his wisp-like body that was becoming dimmer and smaller.
Perhaps, it was not the barriers that were becoming stronger; it was his Will growing weaker.