Re: Timeless Apocalypse-Chapter 111: The Seal

But it wasn’t so simple. Not in the least.

The ambient atmospheric aether of the cave shook violently, then, shockingly, transmuted into a radiant sea of white fire that consumed all things, sparking from energy to flame in but a blink.

The old stone ground and the rough, cavernous walls of the cave were immediately scorched and burned, glowing a fierce red before becoming a blinding white as fog and steam rose, the moisture in the air violently evaporating.

With the sea of white fire contrasting against the white-hot walls, it was so overwhelmingly white it felt as though they had returned to the white void.

The sea of flames consumed the cave, now a vast white expanse, dancing and flickering across air and earth alike, burning Uriel’s remains down to nothingness.

WHOOOSH!

The flames grew hotter and thicker, and as this happened, they began to swirl and move in spiraling patterns, cycling around one another, turning into a maelstrom of fire.

The flickering tongues of flame concentrated toward the eye of the storm and, as the seconds passed, gathered more and more until all that remained was a singular point of radiant white light, so hot the ground and ceiling shifted from blinding white to a bloody crimson, beginning to melt.

A pool of magma replaced the ancient cobblestone floor, and droplets of liquid fire fell from above, an infernal pelting shower crashing down within the now-destroyed, titanic cave.

At the center of it all, the point of fire stood.

Then, it crystallized, turning into a scintillating white marble bead, pure and unblemished, radiant and impossibly reflective.

In the now hell-like expanse of the cave, fire falling from above and hellish rivers flowing below, it seemed like a lone star of purity and holiness.

The marble bead shook, then greedily devoured oceans upon oceans of atmospheric aether, ballooning into a gigantic orb before compressing back into a tiny bead, as small as a grain of sand.

Then, the process repeated.

The marble bead endlessly drank in aether, cycling in size and only growing in quality and quantity, its energetic weight pressing heavily upon the world around it.

Time passed.

And finally, the core settled; a small, tiny grain, as radiant as the highest stars of heaven, overflowing with aether of a quality worlds beyond the mere diamond grade.

It was so dense that mere fumes of aether bled from the core into the air like a heavy veil of white fog, further morphing the infernal cave.

’...’

The core shook, and rapidly, layers began to form over it. From a grain of sand, it grew, beautiful runes emerging during the process, etched meticulously across its layers.

But as the core grew, even more shocking changes occurred.

The marble core trembled, spinning upon its own axis, pulling aether from the world and the void alike, but it didn’t pull just any aether.

Elemental aether.

During his dire battle against the Flon-Men Emperor, while delirious and with his mind half-broken and mad, Uriel had begun to undergo a transformation the Emperor had called Elemental Anchoring.

Uriel himself hadn’t known what that meant, but he had clearly seen its effects. It had stripped him of his control over natal aether and altered his control over atmospheric aether, yet it had also granted him access to the elements.

Somehow, while lost in his trance, he had been able to conjure armors of darkness, weapons of light, exoskeletons of vine, and shifting structures of sand. He had turned into a natural-born elemental warrior.

At the time, he had been far too unstable to care or question the changes, but now, it seemed the transformation would finally be completed.

With each spin of the marble core, more and more elemental aether was drawn in, of incredible purity and quantity, shimmering dark amethyst, radiant gold, pale yellows, and deep emerald hues.

The colors swirled and layered, forming additional runes and strata over the marble core.

Then, from the core, thin filaments, tiny strings of incredibly pure silver energy, emerged, weaving and layering around the core and throughout the air itself.

Strings of elemental aether arose alongside the silver threads, the two dancing and weaving in tandem.

They sank into one another, crystallizing into bone, then layering into flesh. Curves of organs followed, and then...

A body.

Uriel’s body was rebuilt from the very essence of the elements.

And as it happened, buffeting waves of timeless resonance drowning his mind seemed to spill outward, infusing themselves into the very fabric of his body and its layers, through his core, its depths, and his sparks.

Just as his body was about to fully emerge, a wonder the world had never seen, it shattered yet again, breaking apart and spilling blood, summoning fresh floods of aether to restart the process, driven further and further by timeless resonance.

Each collapse of his body and its layers meant that a barrier, a fundamental limit, had been broken, that a new peak had been reached. As the hours passed, trickling into days, the strength pouring from his body became truly shocking.

So much so that the waves of timeless resonance gradually lost their effect, as if it were no longer possible to break further limits, as though there were no more peaks left to seek.

As if there were no more limits to be broken.

KAH!

The cave fell silent.

Rivers of magma flowed below, and droplets of liquid flame continued to fall, illuminating the dark depths above as they descended.

It was silent, eerily so.

And in the center of the cave, floating midair, was a body, hidden behind thick silver fog. Its features were impossible to discern, yet the pressure it exerted upon the world was impossible to ignore.

’...’

Just as Uriel’s perfected and rebuilt body was about to emerge from the silver cloud of essence, a loud crack echoed, and from the depths of Uriel’s existence, something seemed to snap.

A seal shattered.

The seal broke and unleashed tides of something... obscure, yet radiant, a wave of something difficult to name, yet impossible to ignore.

In stark contrast to the silver cloud clinging to Uriel’s body, a dark cloud rose, carrying with it something foul and impure.

His illness.