The color is off. He's changed it somehow. Or maybe his body can't handle the purity of that kind of mana? What the hell did he do to it? Athar thought momentarily.
However, after a moment of observation, he turned to face Athar, whose thoughts he'd forgotten to shield. "Shit. No, wait!" the young man said in a panic, watching the materialized claw begin to be drawn backward.
Before he could say anything to defend himself, however, he felt something warm deep in his chest with one swift motion. He could feel it wrapping around his core like an eagle's talon grasping a fish from the river.
Fuck. This is it? This is how I go out? In a mist of blood, guts, and bone? Damn it. There was still so much I wanted to do, Athar thought in the heartbeat that passed as he looked down at the tainted claw buried into his solar plexus.
He could feel the mana being pushed into his chest, but instead of being immediately turned into an aerated soup of blood and bone, he watched as his core was extracted from his body. The small sphere glowed with a warm yellow light, but just beneath the glass-like surface, he could see a small, dark blob.
Is that…? His thoughts trailed, realizing he was about to lose consciousness.
"There you are," Nexis said, drawing it closer to his face. He pushed more mana toward the end of the claw, forcing it to crack just enough to allow the blob to escape. He used a tendril of dark mana to wrap around it, holding it aloft like an addia's tentacle holding a freshly laid egg. "What are you doing to him?" Ardrin asked, still a little dazed from his own wounds.
With a flash of movement, a second claw-like structure split the alternate's chest, revealing an empty cavity where a core was supposed to be.
"This decrepit form of mine won't sustain the abrupt influx of power that is going to occur once I complete this exchange, and since this Alternate hasn't quite had that opportunity, you've done well to train his body in the ways of mana," Nexis said, placing Athar's damaged core into the exposed cavity, sealing the wound shut with mana.
Turning to face the blob he held in the tendril, he drew an incredible amount of mixed mana and infused it into his body. He reached inside his chest with his free hand and tore out his own core, bringing with it a mass of rotting flesh. With a grunt of pain and exertion, he held his core aloft. Its blackened visage held a visibly empty portion like a bottle of wine that hadn't been completely filled.
His brow furrowed in pain and focus, using the mana he'd absorbed earlier to keep himself both awake and able to perform his next task. He cracked his own core and slowly filled it with the small blob still contained in the tendril. As the blob was fully absorbed back into his core, he enveloped it in dark mana to provide a protective casing.
"Accretion," he said, pushing the mana-wrapped core into Athar's former body, allowing for a trail of dark mana to seal the wound enough to hold the core in place. Suddenly, the low hum of the spells Nexis had cast fell silent, dropping all of them onto the floor simultaneously.
Ardrin, the only one awake, crawled over to Athar's new body, placing a pair of fingers to his jugular.
There's a pulse! He thought, immediately reassessing his options.
"Athar! Athar, wake up!" he hissed desperately. "Get up," he commanded. The only response he received was a slight flick of his finger. Realizing that there was little more he could do, he poured the contents of the last vial into Athar's mouth and held it shut.
Let this be enough, he said, closing his eyes after visibly watching his larynx move down to show that he was, in fact, ingesting the liquid.
Athar's new form coughed, nearly choking on the remains of the vial's contents. "Wh-what the fuck just h-happened?" he asked weakly before losing consciousness again.
Damn it, he's too weak to stay awake right now. I need to get him out of here, Ardrin thought as he glanced behind him momentarily.
The creatures that were once holding reverent poses of raised arms and bowed heads now turned to face the trio. Within moments, they began to move toward them as if stalking their prey.
They want to feed off our cores. Not only that, they want his core the most, it seems, Ardrin thought, slinging Athar's body over his shoulder as he turned to look at Nexis' unconscious body.
"If you're so fucking powerful, then why don't you wake up? A little wound like that would be nothing for you, right?" Ardrin spat derisively, preparing a defensive spell. Without a moment between his last word and the charge of the creatures, there was an immense pulse of violet mana that expanded far beyond the reaches of the citadel, tearing the clothes from Athar's body in the process.
Even for someone as accustomed to power as me, that is an immense amount of mana, Ardrin thought, bracing himself against the blast and watching the changes happening to his former servant's now naked body.
As Athar's old vessel began to levitate, pale white strands soon replaced the once-dark hair, and the rounded ears grew sharper near the tips. His chin extended a little further, exchanging much of the width of Athar's jaw for length. The eyes burst open to reveal violet irises with streaks of pale green that closely resembled that of the sickly glow surrounding Pyrdredd racing across them.
A third source of power? How is this possible? Did the Wardens know of this? Ardrin thought, realizing the implications of this new information immediately.
As Nexis descended, he softly landed on the balls of his feet, the power that radiated from him holding his hair in a way that reminded Ardrin of being underwater. Nexis looked at his hand in wonder, flexing his fingers and moving his arms as he tested his new vessel.
"Ah, I can feel it again: the air in my lungs, the ground beneath my feet, and the passage of time upon my skin," Nexis said with no small amount of relief. His voice carried a smooth honey tone that belied his true nature. After inhaling deeply, he scrunched his nose and looked at his former skinless vessel, squatting down to examine it more closely. He pinched his former corpse at the wrist between his index finger and thumb, lifting it in front of him as if disgusted by it.
"I have suffered eons being caged in this repulsive gargoyle of a corpse. The weakness of my former flesh disgusts me now, and I admit, I have long since forgotten what it is like to sleep without hunger and drink to quench my parched throat. It is strange to finally be rid of it all and return to my former self, but I swear that I will never allow them to be taken from me again for as long as I draw breath," Nexis said, tearing the arm from the decrepit corpse and throwing it to the small crowd of creatures that were anxiously staring.
The creatures clamored to devour pieces of the large, skinless arm, tearing at sinew and rotten muscle using their sharp teeth and claws. Ardrin took a few steps back from the corpse and began to follow his ancestor to the far end of the hall.
"You know, Ardrin, it was never my plan to keep Athar alive," Nexis began. "Why did you, then?" Ardrin asked plaintively. "When I first met him during the summoning in Valdis, I was going to kill him and use his corpse as my vessel right then and there. However, I realized that I could get more use out of you both if I kept him alive; a favor for a favor, if you will," Nexis replied with a wry grin as he sat in his throne.
And I walked right into it, Ardrin noted silently.
"You kept him alive as a bargaining token?" he asked, spreading his one free arm out beside him in a sweeping gesture. "Oh, of course. There is still more work that I will require your expertise on after you…take care of your pet," Nexis replied, gesturing toward Athar's unconscious body slung over Ardrin's shoulder.
"You speak as if you don't have enough power to fulfill the second half of your plan," Ardrin said in a half-questioning tone. Nexis began to chuckle, but like before, there was no real joy, only the taunting feeling of being looked down upon.
Without a word, he lifted his hand straight up into the air above his head, spreading his fingers widely. He stared straight into Ardrin's eyes as his own flared with mana, bending the space between them before a bright beam of sickly green and violet light pierced through the top of the citadel.
"I'd say I have enough," he grinned wickedly.