The Almighty Ring

As he made his way to the secured storage room, Jiang Fei glanced around and examined the place. Compared to the previous Core Storage facility, this one was in pristine condition. The interior was clean, the walls were spotless, and most important of all, all security systems were still working. It seemed like no one had entered the place before and chances were the Core of Will was still there.

Although the security system was working, 0542 had disabled them since Jiang Fei was coming in. Without being stopped by torrents, everyone made their way deeper into the storage facility.

“Open the safe,” ordered Jiang Fei when he arrived at the secured storage room that was locked behind a large metal door.

After a series of unlocking, the door of the safe was opened and a small whirring sound of energy could be heard.

“Is that the Core of Will?” Jiang Fei asked as he gazed into the safe. Inside the safe was a small cube-like encasement that was holding a small, blue-colored jewel the size of a quail’s egg. From its appearance, the Core of Will looked no different than a regular sapphire jewel. When Jiang Fei reached out to grab the Core, the cube encasement dissolved, dropping the jewel onto a layer of red velvet cloth.

“Yes, captain. This is the Core of Will. Currently, the core is still inactive. When it has not been awakened, no one would detect its presence,” 0542 explained.

“Dear… I can feel something odd about it. The energy that it’s giving off… it feels like… a person?” said Ariel. Even though she was not a true Level 5 Metahuman, her psychic powers were stronger than anyone in that room.

“A person, you say?” Jiang Fei said as he stopped in his tracks. Was the jewel conscious the entire time? Did the jewel have a will of its own?

“Captain. It seems that you are misunderstanding the concept of will. The Core of Will contains the will of the cosmos itself. The jewel contains no will of its own. Its power could strengthen the willpower of any intelligence lifeform, allowing them to harness the power of unlimited Will power,” said 0542.

“You said it could help Isabella. How?” Jiang Fei barked.

“In our current predicament, the Core of Will could be used to strengthen Isabella’s Willpower, allowing her to protect her consciousness from being corrupted by the Power of Berserk,” 0542 explained.

“Oh! That’s what I want to hear. So, what should I do now? Should I just let Isabella swallow this?” Jiang Fei frantically asked. The sooner he could solve this problem, the better. He still had enough Valium in his Zhanlu Sword to support Isabella for some time. However, it would be hard to predict the possibility of Bella getting into a fight. The damage that she inflicted on herself was already hard to cure. Having the Core of Will now would be a life-saver!

Even so, the Core of Will was not a treatment, but merely a symptom suppressor. Jiang Fei would need to hunt for the Core of Life in order to properly treat Isabella. With that being said, with the Core of Will, Isabella’s condition would not worsen any further.

“There is no need for fusion. Based on Isabella’s condition, fusing the Core of Will would be a waste. It is best for her to just hold onto it.”

Now that Jiang Fei had actually held the Core of Will, he had successfully unlocked a few restrictions, allowing 0542 to reveal more detailed information about the function of the Core of Will.

The function of the Core could be activated through two methods; fusion and attachment. Fusing the Core with the user would grant the user the ability to harness the full power of the Core. However, unless the user perished, the Core would forever remain in the user’s body. Additionally, one lifeform was limited to only one Core. Even if one was able to collect all the Energy Cores in the entire universe, one could only fuse one Core into one’s body. The only way to use the power of the other Core, albeit weakened, was through attachment.

Attachment, or simple temporary contact could never truly unlock the full potential of the Core. However, it was the best method to use multiple cores’ power, like swappable equipment.

“Judging from Isabella’s condition, the best method to save her life is to have her fuse with the Core of Life. Attachment with the Core of Life would not be the best or safest way to save her,” 0542 explained further.

“Alright. How do I… attach this to her?” Jiang Fei asked.

“You can just put it onto the place that was most affected. All that is needed is physical contact with the jewel.”

“So…?”

“The head,” 0542 ended the conversation with Jiang Fei before it switched to Isabella.

A series of crown-like designs were projected from the ring.

“Miss Isabella, what do you think of this design?” 0542 asked Isabella directly.

“Oh! This one’s nice!” she said, pointing out to one of the designs that she liked.

“0542, how long would you need to make this?” said Jiang Fei after he had absorbed the Core of Will into the ring.

“In no time at all,” 0542 replied. Making the crown was not as complicated as making a weapon. Seeing that it only took a couple of seconds for 0542 to make a fully functioning infantry weapon for Jiang Fei, a crown would take less than a second.

As such, one second later, a crown with the Core of Will embellished onto it was created.

“Sister Bella, put it on!” said Ariel, excited.

The crown was actually a thin tiara with the Core of Will attached to the front. Jiang Fei, holding the tiara in his hands, blushed immediately as he thought of putting it on top of Isabella’s head.

“My princess, it is this humble servant’s honor to deliver the Tiara of Will for the princess!” said Jiang Fei.

His act made Isabella fidget around bashfully. It had been a while since someone actually addressed her as a princess. It was especially more embarrassing since it was coming from Jiang Fei. Before he could stand up to put the tiara on her head, 0542 butted in, ruining the moment.

“Wait!”

“What…”

“There might be some side effects after putting on the tiara.”

“What kind?” Jiang Fei asked. His voice became serious. Side effects were the least that he wanted at that moment.

“It is inappropriate to call it a side effect… the power of the Core of Will is to strengthen one’s conscience. Her state of mind would always be protected from the power of Berserk. At the same time… certain aspects of her personality would be strengthened as well…”

0542 was trying to be as subtle as possible. Wearing the tiara would enhance one’s personality, including one’s behavior or temperament. If one was a bad-tempered person, the Core of Will would only make things worse. In the case of Isabella, her behavior, or personality, that Jiang Fei did not want enhanced was her intense jealousy. After the little princess wears the tiara, Jiang Fei would need to be extremely careful about making her jealous. Things might turn ugly if Jiang Fei did not behave…