Instead of resuming her fruitless efforts, Lua turned her attention to the [Assimilate] enchantment on the Blood Relic. Moving to a different room, she dismissed both Winter's Warmth and Scale Suit before summoning the Blood Relic.
Bright red liquid flowed over her body, then solidified into a pitch-black bodysuit. Following that, a substance identical to blood began forming in patches before shifting to an onyx color.
By the end of the process, hundreds of tiny armor plates had formed over the bodysuit, covering most of her body—except for the lower abdomen, the inside of her biceps, and her thighs.
Each piece is inlaid with another, leaving only small gaps between the plates. Gold overlaid portions of the onyx, forming thicker boots, gauntlets, parts of the chest and ribs, and stretching down to the abdomen—stopping just short of the onyx plating. The armor curved up the sides of her head before forming a set of horns over her ears, which arched forward and downward.
Lua extended her gauntleted hand and flexed, then executed a series of fast movements. Her golden eyes studied the armor carefully, noticing how the small onyx plates granted her a much greater degree of movement—offering no restriction at all.
'It's amazing,' Lua nearly exclaimed. She reached up and ran her fingers along the horns on either side of her head. 'Protection from sonic attacks?' She raised an eyebrow. Lowering her hand, she dismissed the gauntlets.
The gauntlets flowed into the liquid and returned into the rest of the armour. Lua stared at her hands and the black gloves of the bodysuit over her slender fingers. She paused before attempting to use the [Assimilate] enchantment.
Nothing happened.
'...Weird,' Lua thought. Instead she summoned Talon of Unrest and then pulled on the enchantment. The armour reacted. Her right gauntlet reformed on its own, and the dagger dissolved into white sparks before surging into the gauntlet.
A white, bone-like layer formed over the gauntlet, and her fingers shifted into a more clawed shape. Curious, Lua lowered her hand to the ground and made a vague scratching motion.
Her gauntlets tore through the stone. 'The dagger became the claws' Lua smirked at the revelation. Summoning the other gauntlet, she observed as the same bone-like material appeared.
'It's on both,' she noted. After a moment of thought, she dismissed the right gauntlet completely and attempted to modify the assimilation process.
The bone material shifted, extending into a long blade along her forearm. Lua tugged on the mental link to the dagger, and it detached—manifesting in the form of a short sword attached to her forearm. She swung her arm a few times before dismissing the memory. 'It's good, but it's not augmenting the enchantments at all. Better use it with another memory.'
Lua shook her arm, dismissing the other gauntlet, then summoned Winter's Warmth in its cloak form. Its enchantment, [Blessing of Warmth], activated immediately, and Lua relished the comforting heat as she pulled the fur-lined hood over her head and horns.
Stepping into the main room, she was greeted by an enthusiastic whistle from Effie.
"Looking good. But, why is it bare in certain places?" Effie smirked.
"It's only dormant rank at the moment, the armour will strengthen when it increases in tiers, but it is the most comfortable armour I have." Lua sat down, her boots clicking lightly against the floor with each step.
Lua decided to spend some time focusing on the armor. It was a unique memory—far more intimately linked to her soul than a standard one. To get more comfortable, she dismissed the armor pieces above her waist, allowing herself to relax.
'What could be a good memory to Assimilate.'
Her mind spun through options before settling on Scale Suit. Lua smirked, knowing that its enchantments, [Living] and [Reactive], would be augmented—enhancing regeneration and making the armor respond dynamically to damage.
As she commanded the armor to assimilate the other memory, the Blood Relic's black bodysuit began to change. The pure black darkened further, and small golden scales inlaid themselves within the fabric.
Lua formed a weak essence blade and dragged it lightly across her arm.
The armour reacted, hardening and a new layer of onyx plates forming over the path of the knife. 'It works,' Lua watched the armour sow itself back together, the enchantments [Living] and [Blood Bound] working in perfect tandem to repair it as quickly as possible.
***
The next few days were hectic as Nephis began setting up her base of operations—leveraging people's desperation and their desire for what those in the castle had. A few more hunts took place, but most of the time was spent solidifying Nephis' power base.
Lua, however, stayed out of most of it. She participated in hunts, earning slivers of fragments, but nothing too significant.
Late one evening, while meditating, she felt a sudden surge of powerful emotions erupt from her Flaw.
Lua opened her eyes and turned in the direction of the feelings. Among them were; fear, regret, confusion and most prominently anger. Pure boiling anger. Lua starred in that direction before going to investigate.
As she rounded the final corner she found Nephis yelling and a departing Sunny "I said come back, Sunny! This conversation isn't over! Come back here right now!"
Lua slowly approached Nephis as she realised Sunny wasn't coming back.
"Couple's fight?" Lua teased, only for Nephis to whirl on her, furious. "Alright, alright—sorry." Lua raised her hands quickly.
She looked sheepish as Nephis turned away. Lua could feel the veil attempting to suppress Nephis' emotions. "Let me guess. He didn't take your plan well?"
"No. He didn't" Nephis ground out through gritted teeth. Lua placed a hand on her shoulder, guiding her back toward the building. "He doesn't agree with manipulating the people to rise up against Gunlung."
'To be fair, I wouldn't want to face him either—even with weapons that could hurt him,' Lua thought to herself.
Lua idly twirled Sky's Gift'This could probably break his armor… maybe... but it's still a gamble.'
It only took a few minutes for the two to return to the main building in which Nephis' operation was taking form. The two eventually returned to find Effie standing waiting.
"Hey, Lua. Mind if I borrow your wolf?" Effie asked.
"Wolf?" Nephis tilted her head, confused.
"An echo I have," Lua explained. "Why?"
"Going on a small hunt for food. Don't want to bring anyone else."
"...Fine. But don't get it killed," Lua said with resignation as she summoned the Echo.
A wolf appeared from shimmering white sparks, standing at Lua's hip. Its body was clad in crystal-plated armor, with fur that gleamed like gemstones—topaz, ruby, and emerald. Its claws shimmered with brilliant crystal, and its fangs glowed in shifting hues of light.
Nephis studied the Echo with a complicated expression. "What rank and class is it?" she asked, stone faced.
"Ascended Demon" Lua looked into the wolf's glimmering topaz eyes whilst ignoring Nephis' look of surprise. 'Go with her' She mentally commanded the wolf. Gesturing with her head to Effie.
The wolf wordlessly turned its head and trotted over to Effie. In turn the giant hunter gleefully patted the wolf on the head, and rubbed it behind the ears. The two proceed to march down the main road before disappearing at a corner.
"Why don't you use it more?" Nehpis asked.
"Only a few times where I've needed to consider it," Lua replied absently.
As she entered the building, her thoughts drifted to her Aspect Legacy. It was time to push it further.
Lua idly contemplated ways to advance her Aspect Legacy as she leisurely walked into her room. Sitting down on the bed, she summoned two completed essence blades into her hands.
She then attempted to form a third. Purple essence flowed from her cores into her palms, gathering into a rough, stick-like shape before dispersing. Frowning, Lua poured more essence and willpower into the forming blade, but it refused to stabilize.
'Is it limited to how many cores I have?' Lua thought. Instead of continuing her fruitless attempts, she dismissed one of the existing blades and focused on augmenting the remaining one. 'It worked.'
Lua grinned with satisfaction as the single remaining blade became twice as powerful. 'So, the number of blades I can form depends on my core count. But rather than wielding multiple weaker ones, I can condense their power into a single, stronger weapon.'
Her mind raced with possibilities, considering different ways to perfect the art of essence weaponry. 'If merging two blades doubles the power, does that mean that when I have seven cores, I can augment a blade to be seven times as strong?'
She decided to change her approach. Raising the single augmented blade in her hand, she attempted to disconnect it from her grip. The blade hovered two inches above her palm, but its silhouette instantly became hazy.
'What am I missing?' Lua's eyes narrowed. It was common for Awakened to struggle with using essence without a medium. Normally, memories absorb essence automatically, requiring only a simple infusion of power from their wielder.
The floating blade flickered between a foggy and crackling form—neither stable enough to be useful, even for practice. 'It's hopeless for now. But, I'm sure that disconnecting the blades from my physical form is the next step, it's only logical.'