Flying high above the sky, Spencer's eyes were glued on the mountain range below. From what seemed to be a single tall mountain from the ground it ended up being a large range that slithered for thousands of miles into the distance.
"This is truly a great place to hide from the world. If I wouldn't be able to sense you, even I would have difficulties finding you whoever you are…"
With a thoughtful gaze and a contemplative tone, Spencer was looking at the ridge that reached out further to the distance above the clouds.
Seconds passed in silence, as he sent out several psionic energy pulses down below, drawing a map in his head of the various lifeforms that found home and solace in the steep slopes and deadly reaches.
Eventually from the responses he got, he could point out a gathering of signals a bit further ahead. From the many signals, he could only differentiate a few, but a lot were ranging from weak to decently powerful that he never felt before.
���Could it be a hidden valley of some sort?!" He creased his eyebrows at the thought. However, the strong signal that he kept following was also coming from that direction, so in the end, he decided to investigate.
A purple streak crossed through the sky, as Spencer flew towards the place with the large gathering of various signals. As he closed on, he slowly descended below the clouds. Even though he was flying at a relatively slow speed, it only took him a few seconds for the picturesque sight of a lush vibrant valley to appear right before his eyes.
Looking at it from above, the place looked like a literal paradise. Purple, emerald green, and azure deep blue dominated the beautiful landscape. At the far end, his eyes could barely make it a large stone-like wall separating a smaller section. Strangely though, he couldn't sense any signals coming from it apart from one. That was coming from that direction, albeit deep beneath the surface.
"Is that the remains of a tribe? Here?" He looked at the walls with an incredulous stare. He descended to the other side of the valley in the midst of a small but colorful forest. As his feet touched the soil and as he felt the muddy, still watery, rich ground, and as his lungs became filled with the fresh energy-rich air, he was surprised.
Something was lingering in the air, that caused his Fasha to buzz with excitement. He felt as his gathered essence became restless. It was a very unique feeling, he couldn't really place it. The gathered Fasha inside him began to pulsate, the dark red markings on his body suddenly began to glow.
"What the hell…" Feeling how his body was starting to go out of control, Spencer quickly sat down in a lotus position, and began to inhale, taking in a large gasp of air, and stored it in his diaphragm for a short time, before he slowly began to exhale it out.
Once he felt his lungs were emptied out, he repeated the process and began to focus on his inner self, where the previously small seedling of collected Fashacalli Essence joyfully buzzed around his Spiritual Body. The small seed was already bigger, taking the size of a grape.
This sudden change shocked and puzzled Spencer greatly. What was the meaning, the reason behind this strange development? Even now, as he looked at it the small Fashacalli essence kept circling around him as if it was a living organic being and not just a collection of DNA.
As his body took in another large gasp of air and his lungs were filled with the rich, fresh air, the surface of the little seedling began to tremble and lit up. The dark red hue that it had, began to change, taking on gradient red and golden color. Spencer could visibly feel the surrounding energy that came from the air in his lungs was being rapidly sucked inside the core.
As it continued to collect energy, small changes could be observed. His size for one began to change again, and the small grape grew just a tiny bit. As its energy increased, the dark red color started to mix together creating an orange tone. On the outside, currently not known to Spencer, his dark red marking began to also change, following the same pattern as his Fashacalli core. From the initial dominating dark red, it first took on a few spots of golden mostly as the outline for the marking and changed once more to the full-on orange-colored variant in the end.
Besides the color, its surface also grew, covering more of his upper body with the tribal tattoos.
"Is it the air?" Spencer arrived at the most likely scenario. "Something is different in the air, that is causing my Fasha Energy to increase at a rapid pace… Is this the doing of that being? Or maybe this place was some sacred ground that was lost in history?" He contemplated.
He kept on meditating, focusing on his Fasha core, injecting his own energies into the mix to try and control the flow of change whilst discreetly adjusting the potency of the Fashacalli DNA's ability to absorb the surrounding energy. While he still had no set path of what the apex of this species would be, he still could control the change and stabilize it to some degree, which would allow for him to gain a much greater comprehension as the essence slowly grew in size.
Eventually, he managed to calm the small core and change its surface back to the original dark red coloring, reversing the change, but keeping all the gathered Fasha and even enhancing the absorption process slightly. He didn't want to change too much as he would much rather keep it like this, preferring to preserve what he already knows than to let it go on its own course and cause some issues. Not before his inevitable meeting with the presence that lorded over this valley.
He opened his eyes and stood up. An expectant smirk settled on his face as he looked forward, where the dilapidated stone walls were already visible. With the increase of his Fasha, he felt more and more comfortable in this place. The air carried some strange energy that caused his body a great deal of comfort. As the air entered his lungs, the energy it carried with it, reinvigorated him, keeping him in top shape.
Although he could just simply stop his breathing during his short stay in the valley and possibly fix the current problem, he did not want to do that. After all, this place was a great boon to his Fasha, he just needed to control the amount that his body would process, but that didn't pose much of an issue due to him already modifying the genome to have a higher capacity.
So, as a temporary fix, he decided to do just that. He decided to not store all the energy inside, but also let it out as if turning a valve and controlling the pressure inside a tank. Energy began to surge and radiate out of him, creating a dark red coat made out of energy that acted as a sort of aura.
Unfortunately, it also alerted and scared away all the animals that took their residence, leaving Spencer unable to go for them and have a chance to find and gather any unique trait they might be possessing.
His only option was to go and meet with the Lord of the Valley, the strong signal that came from inside and below the abandoned settlement.
---
Deep inside the ground, a couple of miles below the surface in a dark place void of any source of light, a powerful being, the source of the strong signal was currently still in its million year-long slumber.
However, the peace of this eternal rest was interrupted. A powerful aura suddenly lit up above the surface, closing in on his direction. His mind slowly returned to reality, his eyelids begin to tremble, and slowly peel open.
As he slowly raised his head and looked up, towards the direction of the strange, and unidentifiable aura that found his hidden valley, the walls of the small cave that he resided in suddenly began to shake. His aura began to surge forth, the incredible powerful torrents of energy began to shake the ground, creating an earthquake that was soon felt even on the surface.
The being slowly raised his head looking in the direction of the now alert stranger. Suddenly his entire body was covered in a golden luster. After countless millennia, he was ready, his body had finally recuperated.
He was ready to emerge and set the scores with the world once and for all!