Formless Ascension: My Affinity Is Limitless

The Prime Sapien was still there, slowly dying, and now in a much worse state. He showed no reaction to the doors as they hissed open, or the sound of several footsteps echoing through the large room.

Uhtred stopped at the doors and faced White Raven before they proceeded.

”I haven’t the time to explain the nitty-gritty details, but we have a prisoner whose lips are sealed shut and we’d like you to—”

”A Prime Sapien?” White Raven asked curtly.

Uhtred paused. ”Yes. I take it you’ve heard about the recent operation at Stormcaller’s territory then? That’ll make this easier.”

He leaned to the side and gestured to the Prime Sapien strapped at the center of the facility. ”The Prime Sapien... We have him... And we’d like to get some useful information out of him before he dies. His core is decaying as we speak, and he’s in more pain than we can deal, so if there’s anything you can do to bypass that, it will be greatly appreciated.”

He stared at her with clear eyes, waiting for her response.

For someone who had been brought to an unknown facility without any prior briefing or knowledge of what to expect, White Raven took the whole thing very calmly.

She strode forward to the Prime Sapien while Uhtred followed closely behind her. Even though he had seen her class and knew she was capable of getting something out of the Prime Sapien, he still remained ready for any suspicious move.

Without preamble, White Raven stepped up behind the Prime Sapien and clasped his head in both her hands.

His eyes fluttered open, his consciousness nearly gone from the pain eating through him. In that vulnerable state, White Raven went to work.

In an instant, the surrounding temperature plummeted. A frigid cold began to permeate the facility, with the core being where White Raven stood.

Along with the cold, a weird, illusory sensation followed.

For Uhtred, it felt like the frigid cold had become a living entity. It began to seep deeper into his skin, threatening to reach his bones.

Then came the gnawing fear — or at least, what would have been a gnawing fear. Before it could take root in his mind, his danger senses kicked into gear and he instinctively activated [Inferno Violence].

In a flash, the surrounding cold disappeared, replaced by a burning inferno. Uhtred snapped out of the trance of the spell, realizing what White Raven had cast: [Mind Frostbite].

Quickly, he deciphered that there was no way that spell alone was enough to have such an effect on him. Even though it was clearly Esoteric magic — a powerful one at that — he was still a Level 48 powerhouse, compared to her Level 32.

She definitely paired it with something else, likely her [Scry of the Seiðr] spell.

Still, though, now that he had broken free of the trance, he realized that there was no ill will targeted at him at all. It had all just been a passive effect of White Raven forcefully using both spells to their maximum.

He would have broken out of it naturally after a couple of seconds. Him activating [Inferno Violence] on instinct had only expedited the process immediately.

The entire series of deductions flashed through his mind in less than a brief second, and Uhtred quickly deactivated his [Inferno Violence]... But some damage had already been done.

Because of how violently powerful [Inferno Violence] was — a natural bane to ice magic, and a Manifestation ability at that, something only those of the Awakened Realm could do — even that brief second was enough to alter the surroundings drastically.

The ground at his feet, made of hard stone and inlaid with arrays, had turned red and was nearly molten already.

Zara and Diya, who were closest to him, were also violently snapped out of their brief trances, suffering some damage.

The outer layer of the side of Zara’s clothes that faced Uhtred caught fire, and she hastily snuffed it out the moment she snapped out of her trance. Beyond that, she suffered no burns to her body.

Diya, on the other hand, experienced the same thing, but due to her much lower level compared to Zara, her skin suffered a light burn before she snapped awake to put the fire out.

She immediately cycled her healing essence to mend the burned skin, not even thinking twice about what had happened; her gaze and Zara’s were instead locked onto the center of the room, where White Raven still stood with the Prime Sapien’s head between her hands, a grimace on her face.

Both Diya and Zara still thought she had targeted her spell at them and were primed for action, but Uhtred quickly calmed them down.

”Hold it! Hold it!” He held a hand up, a scowl on his face as he watched White Raven visibly struggling with her spell now.

In the first place, it was a difficult ask for a Level 32 ascender to try and probe the mind of a Level 51 powerhouse like the Prime Sapien — even in such a severely weakened state.

It was why White Raven had likely used her maximum power from the get-go. She had clearly felt the vast difference between them and concluded that the only way she had a chance with her [Mind Frostbite] and [Scry of the Seiðr] was to go all out.

But Uhtred’s instinctive [Inferno Violence] had bitten harshly into her spell. She now required significantly more to maintain the structure.

The frigid cold permeating the surroundings had shrunk to a mere shell around her body and the Prime Sapien’s. Blood began to trail down her nostrils from exertion. A pained grimace colored her face, her hands trembling hard as she held the Prime Sapien’s head.

Suddenly, she dropped to her knees, unable to hold on any longer. She heaved loudly, gasping for air as her body visibly recoiled from the action of trying to maintain her spells despite a severe, biting backlash.

Diya rushed to her slumped form, quickly administering healing magic. Zara moved over to the Prime Sapien, observing his breathing — or rather, a lack of it.

”He’s dead,” she said, looking at Uhtred. ”He must have burned what little essence was left in his decaying core to try and fight against her...”

Uhtred nodded, his expression terse. Internally, he was questioning himself:

Why did I react so strongly? Zara didn’t, and neither did Diya...

Of course both girls had thought White Raven was attacking them, but that was only because of his interference. Everyone would have come out of the trance in all but a few seconds. It was his reaction that sent them into such a startled frenzy.

Uhtred couldn’t just attribute this to an instinctive reaction.

On one hand, it could be taken as him being alert and quick to react. But he knew that even then, he wouldn’t have reacted so violently... He had straightaway used [Inferno Violence], for goodness’ sake.

At that proximity, Zara and Diya could have been harmed — Diya had actually been harmed!

As Uhtred reflected internally, trying to identify the source of his reaction, he finally realized what it was.

The combination of Esoteric Magic... with the fact that he felt threatened and was losing control...

All of it was similar to that incident back in the Trial of Ages. The one time he had nearly been assassinated... The Esoteric attack by the female Ancient Variant General.

The elements were exactly the same... Uhtred muttered internally with a frown. Do I have some sort of trauma from that incident?

The moment he pinpointed the source, he clenched his jaw hard and mentally filed it as something he needed to address.

Then, with purpose, he strode forward to take care of the present situation.

”How is she? Stable?” he asked, squatting down next to Diya as she sent healing essence into White Raven’s body.

”She’s alright,” Diya replied. ”She’s a tough one, actually... able to last that long in that state of pain.”

Uhtred grunted at that, feeling guilty. ”I guess even this attempt was a bust then—”

He had barely finished his words when White Raven suddenly spoke, her voice coming out weakly:

”No... Not a bust... An outpost... Zone 2...” she whispered, her eyes parting open as she slowly raised her head to look up at Uhtred. ”I was able to scry the location of a major Ancient Variant outpost within Zone 2.”