The Insane Regressor: Throne of Pride

The System did not answer him immediately, but the blood he had used to draw the array began to move.

Ravian watched the line near his shoulder tremble against the stone, then connect to the next as though something were flowing through it, pushing from behind. The movement spread along the markings surrounding his body, and a thin gray thread emerged from his chest, descending toward the ground until it touched the center of the array.

The moment it connected, the red faded beneath the gray spreading through the markings.

[Modified absorption array activated.]

[Host established as the center of the process.]

[Beginning energy extraction and purification.]

Ravian relaxed his fists over his chest and let Shiro’s features recede as he stopped using Exalted Identity. He no longer needed to waste his attention on maintaining the appearance of an orc who had died hours ago, especially while preparing to absorb everything that remained of the camp it had belonged to.

The corpses he had retrieved from his void space lay around him, some piled atop one another along the edges of the array, while the commander remained closer to its center. He had transported the dead here one by one through that space, but he had been forced to carry this orc himself; keeping it alive preserved the benefit he wanted from it, but also prevented him from storing it with the others.

The commander’s head shifted as the gray spread toward it, then its eyes settled on Ravian lying among the markings.

”What is this?”

Ravian did not turn toward it, watching instead as the lines began branching beneath the bodies and climbing their sides like fine threads seeping into cracks and wounds.

’Start with the weakest, just like last time.’

[Absorption sequence confirmed.]

Pale threads appeared above the nearest corpse, their color difficult to distinguish beneath the gray light. They slowly emerged from the flesh and wound around one another before the array drew them away from the body, whose tissues had begun to shrink.

Ravian watched with interest, waiting for the sensation he remembered from his previous absorption, but felt only a faint warmth spreading through his extremities.

This energy was too meager to strain his current body.

The threads moved into a ring drawn around him, where the gray enveloped them until they lost their original color, after which the purified energy passed into his body. The moment it disappeared into his chest, another body began to shrink, followed by a third on the opposite side.

The activity inside the cave gradually intensified, filling the air with a faint sound like dry fabric rubbing together as flesh shriveled and the bulk resting on the stone dwindled.

Last time, skeletons had remained before him after the absorption was complete, but now the threads reached into the bones themselves, penetrating them until the remnants of power within had faded. One skeleton collapsed under its own weight, but the fragments never settled on the ground; the gray enveloped them along with the last remnants of the corpse, and they disappeared into the lines.

The commander raised its head slightly and looked at the spot where one of its soldiers had been lying.

Nothing remained.

”You...”

The word caught in its throat as the neighboring body began to suffer the same fate.

Ravian opened his eyes fully and looked at it.

”What? Would you prefer that I leave them here to rot?”

The orc’s jaw moved, but Ravian returned his attention to the array before hearing its answer. He was not about to ruin something that had taken so much time over another conversation with a stupid green commander.

’Does this count as racism, I wonder?’

The unawakened bodies began disappearing more quickly, and with each one, the gray circulating around Ravian grew denser. The energy extracted from a single body was meager, but their steady succession spread the warmth in his extremities into his back and chest, then deep into his muscles.

He moved his fingers slightly.

They responded easily, but the sensation was different; he could distinctly feel the small muscles in his palm contracting, something he had never needed to pay much attention to before.

’All right, this is a good start.’

Only a short while passed before the nature of the process changed.

The array had finally reached the bodies of the Tenth-Rank Awakened.

More distinct threads emerged from them, carrying a murky green hue, and the ring surrounding Ravian began taking longer to purify them before allowing them through. The pressure in his chest increased, and the warmth he had calmly welcomed became a heat that made him slow his breathing.

It was not painful yet, but the temperature was rising.

[Energy available for physique refinement increasing.]

[Sovereign Pride Physique progression increasing.]

The array channeled energy through his body in a continuous succession of pulses, each spreading from his chest to his extremities before the next followed. The muscles in his legs began contracting without his moving them, and his heart pounded hard enough that he could feel its beat in his clenched teeth.

He briefly closed his eyes, then opened them when he heard a sound from the other side.

The commander was trying to lift its shoulder off the ground.

A dark green glow spread around its torso, and one of the gray threads connected to it shuddered until it snapped, a small, incomplete blade tip rising in its place.

Ravian fixed his gaze on it.

He did not need to see the blade fully formed to remember what it could do.

’System.’

[The primary source is resisting extraction.]

’I can see that. Thanks for clarifying.’

The glow gathered near the commander’s neck, but trembled before it could settle into a definite shape. The attempt to use its power made its breathing increasingly erratic, while the lines connected to its torso drew away whatever energy leaked out and channeled it into the purification ring.

Ravian saw its eyes shift toward one of the nearby corpses, then remembered who she was.

The female orc lay there with her body intact, and the gray threads had already reached her.

”Stay away from her.”

The commander’s voice was so low that it bore little resemblance to its earlier roar.

Ravian looked at it for a moment, then returned his attention to the threads gathering around the blade.

”You don’t even have enough strength to protect yourself.”

The green light suddenly surged, and another thread snapped with a sharp sound, but the blade never reached him. Its tip unraveled as the pull on the commander’s body intensified, dragging the green energy into the surrounding gray and forcing the orc to abandon its attack to keep what remained of its power from slipping away.

It had been only one attempt, but it forced Ravian to acknowledge that keeping an Eighth-Rank being alive beside him was no trivial matter, regardless of its condition.

’Don’t let anything from it enter my body until it’s completely purified.’

[Understood. Do not worry, Host.]

The ring surrounding him stabilized, and the gray energy began accumulating above it instead of flowing directly into his chest.

This was the part he remembered well.

Purification outside the body.