The Broken Halo

The remnants of the white light came away slower than Simon wanted.

He isolated another trace beneath his left collarbone, brought Gluttony’s power into Devour, and carefully separated it from the wounded tissue.

Pain travelled down his chest.

However, the flesh behind it finally joined.

It was a little progress, but it was too little.

Most of his smaller wounds had closed, but the cut across his shoulder and chest remained stubborn. Forcing more energy into it only made the damaged pathways ache.

He reduced the pressure and settled into a steadier rhythm. Devour removed the interference. UnholyRegeneration repaired what it could. The rest of his demonic energy replenished his depleted heart and circulated through his exhausted body.

This would take time.

But waiting did not mean doing nothing.

Simon opened his eyes.

Something red drifted above the stones.

He initially thought it was lingering lightning. Then he focused, and the haze separated into countless fine strands gathering toward him.

Demonic energy.

He stopped absorbing for a breath. The strands ceased converging, drifting around the broken ground instead.

His third eye remained closed.

These were his ordinary eyes.

Simon raised his right hand and released a little demonic energy. He watched it spread between his fingers, clearly enough to notice where its density changed.

”I can see it.”

Lilith glanced toward him.

”See what?”

”Demonic energy. Without a technique.”

He could already sense it, but seeing its movement added something different. Concealed attacks, leaking formations, the moment an opponent gathered power...

His mouth curved.

However, looking farther into the ruined landscape blurred the finer details. This sight had limits too.

He turned inward again.

The Nine-Tailed Byakko and Uruqath both answered his awareness. Their power no longer fought over which shape his body should take.

And where their influences met, the cube stirred.

It sat at his solar plexus, most of its fist-sized structure buried within him. Beneath the exposed dark, glass-like surface, nine white flows moved around a black centre.

And these nine white flows represented his seven affinities and two bloodlines.

During the battle, he had mostly used it to distribute power.

Now he followed what happened afterward.

His seven affinities answered in turn.

Wind. Space. Lightning. Fire. Ice. Shadow. Earth.

Wind remained the easiest to call. Lightning still carried the destructive quality taken from the tribulation. But the cube responded to all seven, not merely those two.

He directed a small amount of Earth and Ice through it toward his right forearm.

The white patterns rearranged.

His black skin gained a faint crystalline sheen. Beneath it, the bones and surrounding tissue stiffened together.

Simon pressed a sharp stone against his wrist.

The stone chipped.

There was no separate shield around his arm.

His arm itself had changed.

He withdrew the arrangement, then tried Wind and Lightning.

The hardness eased. His fingers moved with a sharpness that made him stop before the motion pulled at his injured shoulder.

”So that’s what you do.”

The cube was not simply sending more power into a limb. It changed how that limb expressed the power.

The Uruqath’s structure and the Byakko’s physical gifts could be brought into different combinations without either bloodline replacing the other.

Defence in one arm. Speed in his legs. Destruction through a wing.

His heart supplied the energy. The cube allowed his hybrid body to take different forms of strength from it.

And Simon chose the arrangement.

He tried reinforcing his wrist while keeping his fingers fast.

The patterns held briefly.

Then his fingers stiffened.

Simon immediately released the attempt.

His understanding was still too shallow. He could not simply demand everything from the same tissue without consequences.

But the possibilities made his pulse quicken.

He had been treating the most important organ of his hybrid bloodline like a convenient distributor of his energies.

It could do far more.

The nine white flows also changed positions between tests. They did not appear to represent nine fixed elements or nine separate powers.

They formed arrangements.

He would have to learn what each arrangement could accomplish.

A sting from his chest interrupted him.

Simon returned his full attention to the wound until another trace of whiteness loosened. Only after the exposed tissue began closing did he continue.

His six wings shifted behind him.

Ivory spars supported black membranes with silver undersides. Along them, narrow vents opened independently, adjusting to his intent.

He had used them to accelerate, turn, block, and cut.

However, their functions were not fixed.

Simon guided Ice into a wing edge. A curved blade formed along it. Fire replaced the Ice, and the same edge carried a narrow black flame.

He extinguished it before it could spread.

The vents could discharge elemental attacks as well as provide thrust. The membranes could brace a defence, while the leading edges carried cutting power.

Six wings meant six surfaces he could prepare independently.

He could defend with one pair, move with another, and attack with the third. The cube let him change those roles without rebuilding the entire flow of demonic energy through his body.

Then he tested Space.

Only a little.

A wingtip approached a loose stone. The space between them creased, and a scratch appeared across the stone before the edge physically reached it.

Simon stopped.

That deserved proper practice.

Not while he was still bleeding.

As he withdrew the power, something above his temples answered.

His horns.

He followed the sensation through all four, discovering fine internal passages that narrowed toward their tips.

A trace of lightning entered them.

Instead of spreading, it compressed.

Tiny crimson points appeared above his head. Simon tilted toward an empty patch of rock and allowed one to escape.

A needle of light pierced the stone.

The hole was narrow, deep, and clean.

He stared at it.

The same amount released from his finger would have scattered far more.

His horns could concentrate power before releasing it. Fire, Lightning, perhaps combinations prepared through the cube...

And he could aim without occupying either hand.

Lilith looked at the smoking hole.

”I thought you were recovering.”

”I am.”

”Enthusiastically.”

Simon chuckled, then winced as his chest reminded him to be careful.

He stopped testing for a while.

His breathing gradually steadied. More of his strength returned, and the torn flesh beneath his collarbone covered a little more of the exposed rib.

Only then did he touch the closed third eye with his awareness.

He remembered the giant’s hands answering his own.

Why had he needed an entire body merely to use one hand?

The vertical seam opened slightly.

Its silver cross brightened within the black pupil.

Simon raised his right hand, permitting only a thin measure of power to pass through the cube and upward.

Black light gathered around his fingers.

A larger hand formed beyond them, broad enough to cover his head. It copied his movement and closed around a nearby stone.

The stone cracked.

Simon dismissed the projection immediately.

His reserves had dipped, but nothing like when he formed the complete giant.

A projected arm could extend his reach. A single wing could reinforce a defence. He did not have to summon the whole manifestation every time.

Simon also got to know the name of the complete manifestation.

Black Sky Incarnation.

The name suited the complete form.

But there was another change while the third eye remained open.

The demonic energy he could already see now showed its arrangement more clearly. When he formed a tiny sphere of wind above his palm, he could distinguish the places where his power crossed and held the spinning air together.

He disturbed one junction.

The sphere collapsed.

Simon went silent.

Seeing where a technique held together was not the same as being able to break it. Stronger power might hide its structure, and he would still need to reach whatever he saw.

Nevertheless...

He closed the eye before its ache grew worse.

There was still too much to explore.

Then an unfamiliar impulse travelled along his back.

Simon followed it cautiously.

All six wings drew closer.

However, they did not merely fold against him. Thin seams opened around their roots, and the membranes slipped inward as though the space behind his shoulders had deepened.

The ivory spars followed, shortening from sight without breaking or dissolving.

One pair vanished.

Then the next.

Soon, only six narrow marks remained on his back.

He could still feel the wings. Their physical structures rested within folded spaces connected to their roots, rather than being crushed inside his torso.

Simon slowly straightened.

”That’s convenient.”

He took a spare shirt from his spatial ring and used wind to hold part of its fabric against one mark.

A wingtip emerged beyond the cloth.

The fabric remained intact.

He withdrew it again, satisfied. Loose clothing could remain between his back and the point where the wing unfolded. Armour would require more care, but ordinary shirts did not have to become casualties of every fight.

He also relaxed the closed lid of his third eye until its outline narrowed into a thin black vertical mark.

It looked like an old scar.

For a moment, Simon sat quietly, considering how much he had discovered without even leaving his seat.

And these were only the abilities he had begun to understand.

He checked his condition again.

Roughly halfway recovered, judging his injuries, stamina, and demonic energy together. The white residue in his shoulder and chest remained the greatest obstacle.

The God of War would not become harmless because Simon had survived something stronger.

He lowered his hands onto his thighs and settled his breathing.

While his body continued healing, there were four seeds inside his heart that deserved a closer look.