Chapter 241: Resilience

January 5th, 626

I stood before 6 different tables, all holding trays of different materials. 

Some special herbs, bottles of chemicals, canisters of liquid White Crystal sitting at Authority 10, the bone marrow of a female Lordbeast, the Paragon of Vigor. 

There was also a canister filled with a mixture of liquid White Crystal and the same female Lordbeast’s ovaries. It was supposed to help with retaining the potency of Umara’s reproductive system, only one of two things that would hopefully prevent her from becoming sterile.

The second was the Invocation. Umara was to receive a body enhancement primarily focused on resilience, not strength. She wouldn’t become like a knight but her healing factor would be boosted and her body would be able to handle the strain of what her magic usually imposed. She had told Terrace about her Aura and the effects of using her hyper-complex magic, and after the operation it wouldn’t get much better. But with the Invocation, she’d be able to bear the strain better, hopefully unlocking the full extent of what her Aura should afford her. As a secondary effect, it would also protect the systems that weren’t supposed to be affected by this operation. 

And finally, there was the King Blood Corpse. It was no longer the intact corpse it once was. It had been thoroughly processed and purified. Some of it was still corrupted, because apparently part of receiving a Crown was allowing the material to corrupt the body and change it before then purifying it and making it yours. It was what happened to my eyes and why they had melted within my sockets, though I didn’t know that’s what was going on at the time. 

But the scale of this operation was much larger. Umara’s entire body would be undergoing changes, from her feet to her hair. It would modify her cardiovascular system, morphing her into a specimen that could manipulate Mana with her very body acting as the conduit. 

Terrace had done this operation many times before. King Bloods of Unholy Light were a coveted resource by the Church and every warlock within its military precisely because of how beneficial their Crowns were. While one this powerful didn’t show up often, it wasn’t unheard of, and for them it was almost routine. 

The difficulty came in the form of saving Umara’s fertility, as well as incorporating the Invocation. It was experimental ground for them but I trusted in their expertise, mainly because I was told Invocations couldn’t exactly go wrong. 

The worst that could happen would be the Invocation simply failing to take and Umara going sterile. But we were both prepared for that outcome, because regardless, she’d be getting the Crown. 

Now she just needed to get through the operation. 

I looked away from the tables of materials and toward Umara, who laid on an operation table in nothing but a thin gown. She was very obviously anxious but unlike me, she wouldn’t have to be conscious for this whole operation. Only the latter part. 

She reached out, and I gave her my hand so she could hold it. After that, Terrace walked over. 

“We are ready to begin.”

I glanced at him, seeing all the other personnel around the tables. There were 6 of them, the best that the Church could offer. This was a big operation and a major learning opportunity for everyone involved, so they were all more than willing to be here. 

There was also the Sovereign a few feet away, standing there quietly. 

I wasn’t sure of her actual name. She seemed to have been raised in secrecy because I didn’t see any mention of her in the database either. All I knew was that she was called Hallowlight. 

She was dressed in thick plain white robes with no adornments to speak of. Her hands were covered in gloves, she wore what looked like white combat boots based on the rugged boot I saw peek out from under the robe, and she wore a head covering with a veil that covered everything but her black eyes, her iris speckled with white. 

From that and what little I saw of her skin, she seemed to have albinism. No wonder she was completely covered. 

She noticed my gaze and took a step, reaching out with her hand and speaking with a hoarse voice. 

“I am Hallowlight.”

“John. Thank you for being here.”

“It is my pleasure. I try to handle all high profile Crown operations, and since this one is unprecedented, I am happy to be here and learn.”

I shook her gloved hand, noticing some cushion between the exterior leather and her hand, probably some form of cotton on the inside. 

But her grip was strong, surprisingly so. She was definitely tempered by Vigor, and based on the boots and the mannerisms I could observe so far, she was active military. 

Probably with the Order, since I hadn’t seen anything about her. 

I directed her to Umara so the two could exchange some words. Hallowlight was good at reassuring, so Umara’s anxiety lessened substantially. 

With that, I gave Terrace a nod.

“Alright. It is time to begin. Put her to sleep.”

Umara’s grip on my hand tightened as one of the personnel brought her a pill. Umara took a breath and opened her mouth. 

The pill was placed on her tongue, and it started dissolving immediately, sinking straight into her bloodstream. 

She quickly became drowsy, her hand loosening, until she finally passed out. 

Her breathing became even and I let go of her hand, placing it on the bed by her side. 

And so it began. 

I had already been briefed on everything that would happen, as had Umara. 

They first hooked her up to an IV and started streaming in a small amount of Authority 10 liquid White Crystal. I could sense its power stream through her body, going from her arm vein to her heart before being pumped through the rest of her body. 

The Magika density within her body rose rapidly as they continued to inject the White Crystal. I had been under heavy strain but thankfully Umara didn’t have to deal with that. 

She’d have to deal with a lot of pain when she woke up instead. 

Several minutes went by, around a quarter of the liquid White Crystal supply being injected into her body before they finally brought out the first material. 

Some people started grinding up materials and mixing it with odd liquids. I knew alchemy was a thing but I had learned little about it. 

These people were mixing up some of the materials on the spot, the new mixtures being injected into the IV and into her body. The first mixture made her skin flush, her heart pumping faster and her breathing quickening. 

For a second I worried about hyperventilation but stamped down my concerns and let the professionals do their thing. 

After that came the Lordbeast’s bone marrow. 

A dozen large and small syringes came out and I had to back away as Terrace and his doctors surrounded Umara’s body. They removed her gown, exposing her nude body, and started injecting the bone marrow mixture into her limbs. 

They took several minutes to inject at least a portion of the mixture into every bone in her body, without exception. From her skull to her finger bones, every bone received at least some of the bone marrow, the needles being driven straight in with ruthless intention. 

They flipped her over and did the injections into her spinal column as well. It made me queasy but I made sure to watch and visualize everything. 

Finally, once they had precisely injected all of the bone marrow mixture, Terrace personally moved on to utilize the ovaries. 

He mixed the Lordbeast’s ovaries with a mixture of special herb solutions and liquid White Crystal, taking the resulting viscous liquid and casting magic over her womb. 

The organ was highlighted with magic and with that, Terrace used a special tool to inject the liquid through her canal. The liquid was absorbed once it hit the womb and ovaries, taking but a minute to disappear into her body. 

It was over quickly and everyone finally moved on. 

Now it was the hard part. 

Terrace brought over the main material, the processed corpse of the King Blood of Unholy Light. 

Half of the corpse was refined into a dark purple poisonous liquid. The other half came in the form of a special organ. 

The special organ was unique to the King Blood. Terrace said that they had purified the King Blood’s Dark Crystal and then integrated it into the organ. Umara’s Foci was also integrated, broken down and added to the White Crystal as a raw enhancement. 

Once it was integrated with Umara’s body, the still-poisonous organ would process the White Crystal itself, purify itself consequently, and become a part of her body. The only reason it wouldn’t be rejected was because of the poisonous liquid. That was the part that would corrupt her body, changing her, allowing the Crown to take hold. 

It was a controlled mutation, treading the line between human and Corrupted. 

The woman who pioneered this shit was a psycho. 

“Make the incision.”

Terrace called, picking up the organ. It was shaped like a heart, with long vessels coming off of it. I had been assured that it wasn’t actually the King Blood’s heart and cardiovascular system, however. 

One of the doctors finally brought up a blade and made a cut below her sternum. They opened her up from there and inserted the new organ, a bit smaller than Umara’s heart. 

Then they started making more cuts and running the vessels across her body. It looks like they had precisely extracted the organ from the King Blood because it was obvious which vessels had to go where. 

Some went down her arms and legs, some wrapped around her heart, and some went up toward her skull. Hallowlight had to do some healing to close her up after some deep and dangerous cuts were made but otherwise, everything fell into place better than I thought it would. 

Still, long cuts were made everywhere, and Hallowlight’s healing wouldn’t help for what came next. 

Terrace finally brought up the dark solution, loading some into a syringe and placing the needle between the ribs. 

Then he pushed the needle straight into her heart, using magic to highlight it. 

The dark solution was injected straight in. The other doctors started taking full syringes of the solution and injecting it into her bone marrow as well, using the previous routes that gave her the Lordbeast bone marrow. 

The solution acted fast. I could feel the new organ inside her light up with magic as it interacted with the solution, acting as a guideline. 

It started corrupting her body quickly, traveling throughout her entire cardiovascular system within a minute or so. The vessels that came from the new organ started to sprout and spread, filling her limbs like veins and capillaries, even connecting to the arteries across her body, though it didn’t transport blood. 

No, the new organ was responsible for injecting magic straight into her blood, using her blood as a convenient conduit for mana. 

Turning her body into a living Foci.

“Alright, let’s get the Invocation installed.”

Terrace started moving with urgency, injecting the rest of the solution while the others started bringing over the rest of the materials. 

My eyes widened when I saw what would be used to implant the Invocation. 

Elemental Crystals and Vigor Crystals. Not like the ones Sawn Industries had manufactured, that we had invented, but natural ones. 

I knew they had to be natural because of their shape. The ones from Sawn industries were always a perfect sphere, unblemished and pure. But these were shaped like organs or geodes, as if they had come out of animals or naturally mined. 

I connected the dots quickly. The Pillars of Creation didn’t have White Crystals like we did. 

They had Elemental, Vigor, and Psyka Crystals, and they didn’t have Crests, but Invocations. 

I recalled the book that Aki translated for me, and suddenly realized what I had been looking at. There were many names in there that I had no idea about, primarily for materials used in the installation of an Invocation. They called the Crystals different things, not simply a Vigor Crystal or the like. That’s why it didn’t ring any bells when I dove deep into enchanting and advanced. Despite the translation, the vocabulary still hid its own secrets. 

But now I knew. I had unintentionally created a bridge between the two different magic systems. 

Sure enough, Terrace also took out some pure Elemental and Vigor Crystals, ones they had obviously recently made with my knowledge. Then, he used a tool to melt down both and engrave them into Umara’s skin. 

He carefully drew a formation into her abdomen, back, and then up to the back of her neck. It ended at the base of her skull. 

It was intricate. Not enough to confuse me since nothing could be more complex than my advancement formations. Still, it took Terrace three hours to complete the Invocation. 

Once finished the entire thing flashed with magic, melting into her skin. For a few minutes I watched it diffuse into her body, but it still left behind visible inscriptions, just like what I had seen on Aki. These were bright red, like fresh arterial blood. 

Once it was finished integrating, Terrace lifted his hands and backed away. 

“Alright, the transformation is progressing as expected. The Crown and Invocation are installed as expected. My work is done. Now, it’s up to Umara.”

He suddenly looked at me. 

“We’re going to wake her up. You said you can help her activate the Invocation?”

“Not directly, but I’ll make sure she isn’t overwhelmed by the pain. Go ahead and wake her.”

“Very well.”

Terrace nodded toward one of his doctors, who brought over another pill, slipping it into Umara’s mouth. 

I stepped behind Umara’s body, placing my hands against her head as she was mercilessly brought to wakefulness. 

Her face contorted, groans seeping out, getting louder as the pain settled into her nervous system. 

She didn’t speak, forced to revel in the pain until I could get a hold of her mind. Tears fell and I was finally able to push myself into her mind. 

“Find me, Umara.”

“It hurts! Fuck, it hurts!”

“I know it hurts but you need to focus. You’ve got an Invocation to activate.”

I spoke and filled her mind with illusions, firing off bursts of visualizations to make her think about the Invocation and her Aura. 

Invocations were controlled directly by one’s Aura. That was why I had sensed an incredible Aura from Aki when I last saw her, one I hadn’t sensed at all before that. 

Umara was definitely able to do it. The issue was the lack of experience. She had never handled an Invocation before and it would be like learning to control a new limb. 

But it was for the sake of having children, a thought I used in order to sharpen her up. I also used my Aura to suppress hers, confining it to her body where she would best feel the Invocation. 

“John, I can’t! It hurts!”

“You can and you will. Focus on your back and stomach. It’s there.”

I started spamming more visualizations, causing her to go mute as the thoughts distracted her from the pain, just slightly. 

What was also transmitted was my urgency. If she wanted kids, she needed to do this. 

For a few minutes I could feel Umara’s thoughts move away from the pain and toward the Invocation. That’s when I saw it glow above her abdomen. 

“That’s it! Don’t stop now!”

I started reducing the visualizations so that she could focus on what only she could see and feel. The Invocation glowed stronger, Terrace smiling. 

“Good! She needs to keep that going until the transformation finishes!”

“Come on, babe.”

I tried to soothe her mind with my power as she struggled to concentrate. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a fast process, even after the three hours it took to install the invocation. 

The dichotomy of corruption and purification within her body continued for hours more. Terrace also injected more liquid Crystal, the remainder that sat at Authority 11. Thankfully, using Aura was only a matter of concentration, not energy use. I was gradually able to soothe Umara’s mind directly, filling it with more reward than pain by focusing her thoughts on the healing and protection aspect of the Invocation and distracting from the pain the transformation and liquid Crystal caused her. 

Still, hours of constant horrible pain took its toll on her. By hour three she was getting exhausted, but I kept pushing her, even if I had to force her awake with small streams of my psyka. 

I wouldn’t let her regret not doing everything she could. She just needed support, which was what I was here for. 

This process also gave a good glimpse into what the Corrupted had gone through. Forced, unguided mutation designed to twist the human image and torture their mind and body. This was a glimpse at that reality. 

Over time I could see her body start to take on visual changes. Her hair fell out first, and her skin went deathly pale. The new organ and its magic vessels glowed so bright that I could see them continuing to grow under her skin. 

Her finger and toenails all fell out, most of her skin peeling and becoming raw. Her muscles also spasmed, requiring others to pin her down lest she thrash around. 

With my hands on her head I could also feel her pulse, and it surpassed 200 bpm, sitting at 250 for far longer than I was comfortable with. 

The worst thing that happened was when she started vomiting chunks of something, including blood. Terrace had warned me it would happen but I still had the thought that she was actually dying. 

Perhaps she was. 

Finally, at hour seven, when every inch of skin had peeled at least one layer and she seemed to vomit up all of her intestines, the transformation finished

Umara’s Invocation started doing more healing than protection, and since she was no longer being corrupted or purified, Hallowlight was able to step in and assist in the healing, using the remainder of the overloading Magika within her to assist. 

It was slow, but any remaining scars from the incisions and injections were healed and wiped away like they had never happened. 

She was left bald, with raw skin and no nails on her fingers or toes. 

And she was beautiful. 

I caressed her temples and finally let her rest. She passed right back out and I stepped away. 

Terrace waved. 

“Let’s get her cleaned up. This operation has been a success.”

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