Chapter 230: Ruins and Flowing Energy (3).

The rivers trembled.

Nero felt the disturbance ripple through his consciousness, a sensation like standing at the edge of an Abyss’s precipice while the ground shifted beneath his feet. The two streams of energy flowing through the depths of his being had existed separately until this moment, running parallel like oil and water refusing to mix. One was dark, thick and heavy with corruption, the essence of Yang, his natural state. It was the monster within. The Abominable form he suppressed with constant effort…

The other was light, thin and precise, the essence of Yin; the human facade he maintained.

The information the Oracle had dumped into his mind was fragmentary, presented in images and sensations rather than mere words.

Unlike what he had initially assumed, the absorption was not consumption. There was the critical difference.

When Nero ate Abomination flesh, his body broke it down physically and extracted the corrupted Ein Sof through digestion. The process was brutal, efficient, and left no room for subtlety. The corruption and the energy arrived together, inseparable, and his body had to process both simultaneously. Because of this, his body and soul would go through a slow metamorphosis until he was reborn completely.

What he was attempting now was absorption without consumption. Drawing the Ein Sof directly from the corpse into his own reserves, bypassing the physical process entirely. The Oracle had called it “Circulation”, though the term felt inadequate for what was actually happening.

Nero visualized the corpse before him, the dead Abomination whose body still held residual energy. With his Heretic Eyes active behind his closed lids, he could see the Ein Sof leaking slowly from the cooling flesh, dissipating into the surrounding air like steam rising from hot water. The energy was corrupted, tainted by the creature’s nature, but it was energy nonetheless.

The first step was establishing a connection.

Nero extended his awareness outward, pushing beyond the boundaries of his physical body. It was similar to activating Shadow Shift, that sensation of his consciousness expanding into the darkness around him, but a bit less controlled due to his inexperience.

In this case, he was not melding into the shadows. He was simply reaching into the space between himself and the corpse, finding the threads of dissipating energy and grasping them with… something that was neither hand nor thought but existed somewhere between the two.

The threads resisted his control. They wanted to disperse, to return to the natural flow of Ein Sof that saturated the world. Pulling them back required will and focus.

Nero’s breathing slowed further, falling into the rhythm the Oracle had shown him.

The pattern created a cadence that synchronized with his heartbeat, which had already dropped to a resting rate that would have alarmed anyone monitoring him.

His body was entering a state of deep stillness while his consciousness remained fully alert. The contrast created a strange clarity, as though he were watching himself from a distance while simultaneously existing entirely within his own skin.

The threads of Ein Sof responded to the rhythm. They stopped dispersing and began drifting toward him instead, drawn by the pattern of his breathing and the pull of his focused intention.

Slowly.

Nero could feel it. The energy touching the edge of his awareness, tentative as a wild animal approaching food left in the open.

The image of the two rivers filled his mind as Nero visualized them again, flowing through the center of his being. The dark river of Yang on the left. The light river of Yin on the right. Between them, a narrow channel that he had never noticed before, so thin it was almost invisible.

That channel was where the incoming Ein Sof needed to flow. Not into Yang, which would accept the corruption eagerly and grow stronger from it. Not into Yin, which would be overwhelmed and tainted by contact with corrupted energy. Into the space between, where both aspects of his nature could process the energy simultaneously without either dominating.

Nero guided the first thread of Ein Sof toward that channel. The moment it touched the edge, both rivers reacted violently. Yang surged upward, trying to devour the incoming energy. Yin recoiled, attempting to reject it entirely. The thread of Ein Sof wavered, caught between the two opposing forces.

Nero’s concentration deepened. He visualized his will as a barrier, holding both rivers in check. Yang could not rise. Yin could not retreat. The channel between them had to remain open and stable as a pathway.

The thread of Ein Sof slipped into the channel and began flowing downward into the essence of him. The sensation was strange, neither pleasant nor painful. It felt like drinking cold water after hours in the sun, or pressing a hand against a fever-hot forehead. Relief and discomfort existing simultaneously.

The corruption within the energy became immediately apparent. It was like sand mixed into otherwise clean water, gritty and abrasive as it moved through the channel. Nero felt both rivers responding to filter it out. Yang accepted the corruption greedily, pulling it leftward into the dark flow where it dissolved and dispersed. Yin took the purified Ein Sof, drawing it rightward into the light flow where it could be properly integrated into his reserves.

The process was working.

Nero reached for another thread. Then another. Each one required the same careful guidance, the same delicate balance between Yang and Yin. If he pulled too quickly, the threads would break apart and disperse before reaching him. If his concentration wavered, the rivers would surge out of balance and the channel would collapse.

Time lost meaning. Minutes or hours could have passed and yet, Nero existed only in the rhythm of his breathing and the slow accumulation of energy flowing from the corpse into him.

The corpse was Grade E, maybe barely Grade D based on the strength it had shown during their brief fight. Not much Ein Sof to extract, but it was something.

Gradually, the flow of energy from the corpse slowed and then stopped entirely. The creature had been dead long enough that most of its Ein Sof had already dissipated. What little remained had now been absorbed.

Nero opened his eyes slowly, the golden glow fading as his Heretic Eyes deactivated. The world returned to normal.

He stood carefully, testing his balance. His legs were steady. His breathing returned to normal within seconds. The Ein Sof he had absorbed was already integrated into his reserves.

’It’s more than enough.’ Nero said, clenching his fists. This much, if used sparingly, would last him for a while.

More importantly, it had worked. He could absorb Ein Sof directly from corpses without consuming their flesh. The process was slow, required intense concentration, and left him vulnerable during the absorption. But it was possible.

Nero looked down at the mutilated Abomination. The technique would be more effective on stronger creatures, he figured.

The Taintbrute he was hunting would be ideal, if he could kill it and then find time to perform the absorption safely.

Nero wiped the blood from his face with his sleeve and checked his injuries. Then he oriented himself and continued moving forward.

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