Chương 3: Chapter 3
(Cyrus Pov)
The last thing I remembered before passing out was Solaris ripping out my core and replacing it with something else.
"A gift, you say? Nearly sending me to an early grave doesn't sound like much of a gift at all," I thought as my eyes began to adjust to my surroundings.
I was no longer in the temples of the past; I had returned to the astral realm, lying in the same spot as before. But this time, the Solaris constellation was gone. In its place was a dark celestial body, a void that swallowed the light around it. I felt an invisible force pulling me toward it, an irresistible force that brought me face-to-face with the ominous entity.
The celestial body loomed before me, its presence immense and oppressive. Its surface seemed like a bottomless pit of darkness, unyielding and uncaring. It destroyed and consumed without thought or purpose—chaos and power incarnate. Yet, as terrifying as it was, I found myself resonating with it. It embodied everything I had ever desired: raw, uncontrollable strength.
I placed my hand on the celestial body, forging a tether to its mysterious source of power. As soon as the connection was made, a surge of cosmic energy coursed through me, flowing into my new core and spreading throughout my body. Unlike before, the sensation wasn't painful—it was comforting. I felt my very essence rewriting itself. My bones grew denser, my muscles surged with explosive strength, and I felt reborn in every sense of the word.
When the connection was complete, the dark celestial body shifted. Its form dissolved and reassembled into a pattern of concentric circles, each made of smaller celestial bodies. The structure glowed with a purplish-pink hue and projected itself toward me, stopping at my chest. Then, it shrank and shot directly into my core.
A burning sensation flared from my chest, accompanied by the same glowing hue. I tore off my shirt to reveal an astral tattoo that had formed on my skin. It was intricate, its patterns embedded with runes. As I gazed at it, the phrase "Even in death, a star is dangerous" echoed in my mind.
It hit me then: this was no ordinary constellation. This was a fate constellation composed entirely of dead stars.
Excitement surged within me—I had obtained an extraordinary new power. But the excitement was tempered by frustration. Years of grueling training had prepared me to inherit the power of Solaris, and now I was starting over.
"This is going to be tedious," I muttered.
After my revelation, I studied the runes embedded in the astral tattoo. My father had taught me that the paths of insight typically unlock runes after each astral trial. But the rune on my tattoo was unlike anything I'd seen before. Though I couldn't read it, I instinctively understood its meaning: gravity.
"So, this is tied to my new constellation," I said aloud, though frustration colored my voice. "But how am I supposed to use this? It's not like it came with an instruction manual."
Then, an idea struck. Recalling how my father wielded his abilities, I channeled cosmic energy into the astral tattoo. The inner circle lit up with a purplish-pink hue. At first, nothing seemed to happen, but then I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. Nearby celestial bodies in the astral realm were slowly being drawn toward me. The closer they were, the stronger the pull.
"Oh, I can have some fun with this," I said with a grin. "But I should probably head back and fill Father in on what happened."
I settled into a meditative position, focusing on the tether that would guide me back to my physical body.
(Ezra's POV)
The Stellar fiend chimera that appeared in our camp was a surprising case of events. These creatures are drawn by strong cosmic energy signatures. Which would be the case if i activated ten percent of my power, but i only activated maybe 5 percent of what i was capable of. I also did not sense any other strong enough signatures to warrant its presence. "I wonder if it was drawn by Cyrus's energy," i thought to myself.
When i took another glance at Cyrus in the barrier I noticed he position was lower than before. There was little crater where he was sitting. "I have never seen that before when someone goes through the first trial with the Solaris constellation," I said out loud. I notice the Stellarfiend shift its attention from me to Cyrus as well. The behemoth flapped its wings and propelled itself toward Cyrus eager to drain my son of his cosmic energy.
"Oh no you don't," I yelled as I transformed my sword into a javelin and hurled it towards the flying beast. I clipped one of the wings of the chimera instantly stopping the momentum of its propulsion making it crash into the ground. The behemoth picked itself off the ground and shifted its focus back to me once again, "now what type of creature attacks a defensless boy." The creature let out deep growl as it shook off some of the debris from its crash. "See i was gonna let you go with a warning, because i know you really dont know any better." I said to the monster as i slowly walked towards the towering creature. "But you see that boy you were so desperately trying to get to is my son," i said to the chimera as I was now standing in front of it. "What would you do if something tried to kill your ofsrping," i said as i formed a solar long sword in my hand. The creature tried side swiping me with one of its claws but i blocked the attack with my forearm easily. Immediately I unleashed a counter with a descending slash of my long sword cutting clean through its massive paw. The monster wailed in pain and in a rage it blasted fireball at me in retaliation.
I let the fire ball hit me because I immune to any heat-based attack and just stepped through it as if it were a light breeze. Next I concentrated the energy into my feet and let solar energy propel me to the main head of the chimera. "Me personally I would crush anything that ever tried into oblivion like the little ants they are," I said to behemoth as I grasped the hair around its central head. The monster snarled and tried to fire one more fire ball, but it was too slow because I sliced through its neck before it finished its charge.
I gently floated down to the ground after severing the main head. I watched the two other heads analyze the decapitated part of themselves and contemplate its next options. This wasn't something out of the norm for Stellarfiend astral behemoths. Generally, behemoths of the third rank had a great deal of intelligence compared to its lower counterparts, but this behemoth does not seem to be smart all. The chimera emitted more pressure than it did before by releasing more of its cosmic energy due to the fact it was going through a transformation. This is an ability they obtain once they reach the Stellarfiernd rank.
The chimera transformation resulted in the split of the monster's heads each forming its own body similar to the one it had before. Now i was faced with the task of keeping the both of them away from Cyrus without drawing to much attention to the area. One of the beasts sent several fire balls my while the other vanished. I Ignored the fire balls and let them hit me while was trying to sense the cosmic energy of the other beast so i can intercept its attack. The beast reappeared behind me and took a slash at my back, but i perceived the attack a second before it was going to land and side stepped it. The beast that shot the fire ball dashed towards me and tried to sweep my legs with its tail. I dodge the attack by jumping and used both legs to throw kicks at the beasts as if I was performing the splits midair. Both of the behemoths both slid multiple meters away from me.
When I landed on the ground I noticed the behemoths both shared a glance at each other. They both sent a barrage of fire balls at me, and both vanished from their positions. "When are you guys going to learn that these don't work on me," I yelled out to the behemoths as I patiently waited for the fire balls to dissipate after colliding against my body. I threw up my guard in anticipation of them trying to attack me again in my blind spots. But the attacks never came. I remembered too late what their true goal was from the beginning when they were one. They wanted Cyrus.
I dashed to where Cyrus was sitting in the barrier. One of the beasts had thrown multiple strikes at the barrier creating several cracks then the second beast winded up to through its tail at the barrier with all its momentum. "Fuck I'm not going to be fast enough if I don't use more of my power," I thought to myself. I charged and condensed cosmic energy imbued with solar energy into my palm and released a wave of energy to destroy these monsters now that they broke through the barrier and Cyrus was left defenseless.
The monsters for some reason stopped in their tracks and no longer tried to attack Cyrus. When my wave of energy got to the area, it seemed to have been redirected from the zone and slipped by the monsters and Cyrus as if it was sling shotted from orbit. The closer i got to the area the more I could feel this weird resistance getting stronger and stronger suppressing my movements. I noticed the behemoths were struggling to stand and they started to fall to the ground because of the immense pressure. "This pressure is what was causing the mini crater underneath Cyrus earlier," I thought to myself. When I looked closer at Cyrus, I saw his free form dreads flowing in the area as if the pressure was not affecting him the same. Then his eyes opened but his dark brown eyes were not present anymore. They were replaced by a purplish pink hew of light. Cyrus stood up off the ground and walked towards the struggling Stellar fiends. He kneeled next to them and placed both hands on them.
"Begone you pathetic creatures," I heard Cyrus say in an unbothered tone. The pressure increased even further around the area. The Behemoths started to fold and crumble on each other, and then they exploded sending blood flying everywhere. With the astral behemoths defeated, Cyrus's eyes faded back to their normal color and then he collapsed to the ground.
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