activa-t Chapter 32 Awakening of the Furnace Core
Chapter 32 Awakening of the Furnace Core
When Arthur returned to the tower, Morgan had already completed the preparations for the weaving spell.
The black stone table was cleaned up, and the parchment and potion bottles that were originally spread out were moved to one side, replaced by a circular array with dark purple petals as nodes.
There are seven petals in total, arranged according to some pattern that Arthur cannot understand, like the trails left by vines as they naturally climb.
The edges of each petal are imbued with Morgan's magic, emitting a faint, icy blue glow.
Between the petals are extremely fine silver-white threads, which are Morgan's magic itself stretched into threads and woven into a net.
Morgan knelt in the center of the formation, her long, silvery-white hair completely disheveled and hanging down to the floor, gleaming coldly in the candlelight.
Her hands were placed flat on her knees, palms facing up, fingers slightly curled, as if she were holding something unseen.
She opened her eyes when she heard Arthur's footsteps.
"Where's Merry?"
"They've gone to Avalon to collect the essence of the lake; they'll be back soon."
Morgan nodded without asking any further questions. She raised her right hand, gesturing for Arthur to sit down opposite her.
Arthur took off his coat, took the sword in the stone and the sword in the lake from his waist, and leaned them side by side against the wall.
The light from the two holy swords swirled in the dim tower, one blue and one gold, like two quiet lamps.
Then he sat down opposite Morgan, mimicking her posture, with his hands flat on his knees.
"The weaving technique is ready," Morgan said, her icy blue eyes appearing exceptionally deep in the candlelight.
"When Meryl returns, I will activate the spell. The spell will penetrate your Dragon Power River and form a 'web of vines' in the deepest part of your heart, where the fire seed awakens."
When the Dragon Factor is activated, it will spread everywhere like wildly growing vines. My net will not stop its growth, but it will guide the direction of its growth.
Let it climb along your dragon's power channel, instead of piercing your heart's walls.
She paused for a moment.
"This process will be extremely painful. When the Dragon Factor reshapes the heart structure, you will feel your chest being torn apart from the inside."
But you cannot faint. Once you lose consciousness, your Dragon Power River will lose its master, and the Dragon Factor will grow wildly according to its most violent instincts.
At that time, even my net couldn't hold them all.
"I see."
Arthur's voice was calm.
He returned alive from the Land of Shadows, alive from the countless trials of the Trial Grounds.
He was already used to the pain.
Habit taught him to coexist with pain.
Footsteps came from the stairs, very light, as if afraid of disturbing something.
Meili pushed open the door, holding a ceramic jar enveloped in a silvery-white light.
The jar was sealed with Avalon's unique starlight seal, but even through the seal, Arthur could feel the extremely pure power within the jar.
That is the essence of Lake Avalon, the source of life that the planet has solidified in its inner sea.
It possesses the power of "maintaining," keeping things in their current state, neither making them worse nor better, but simply maintaining them.
Mary sat down at the edge of the formation, placing the pottery jar on her lap. Her amethyst-like eyes swept across the petal formation, over Morgan's loose hair, and finally landed on Arthur's face.
"Arthur, are you sure you want to do this? It's not too late to back out now. I can pour this jar of essence back into the lake, and we can pretend nothing happened tonight."
"I won't go back on my word."
Mary stared at him for two seconds, then sighed softly.
"Although I knew from the beginning that you would say that."
She lifted the seal on the earthenware jar, and silvery starlight spilled from its mouth, illuminating the entire tower for a moment.
The essence of the three lakes rippled gently in the jar, like three galaxies compressed to their extreme.
"Let's begin."
Morgan formed a hand seal, and seven deep purple petals lit up simultaneously.
Ice-blue magic spread rapidly along the silver-white threads, and the entire vine net unfolded around Arthur.
Those extremely fine magical threads pierced through his skin, flesh, and ribs, extending all the way to the deepest part of his heart.
Reaching the deepest point in his heart, the place where the spark lies dormant, weaving an extremely intricate net.
The mesh size is just right, large enough for the tentacles of the dragon factor to pass through, but not enough to allow them to grow haphazardly.
Then, the spark sensed the net.
It woke up.
It felt like something suddenly exploded in Arthur's chest.
It's not pain; the word "pain" is too mild.
Like a seed that has been buried for more than ten years, it broke through the soil, sprouted, took root, and grew wildly in the same instant.
The tentacles of the Dragon Factor surged out from the deepest part of his heart chambers in all directions, each tentacle searching for a path to grow.
They crashed into Morgan's woven vine web, the mesh of which caught them and guided them to climb along the Dragon Power River.
But that impact, that net, could not dispel.
Arthur's body tensed up abruptly, his hands pressing tightly against his knees, his knuckles turning pale from the force.
The muscles on his back bulged, and sweat condensed into beads on his skin, rolling down his spine.
His jaw clenched so tightly that a faint taste of blood seeped from between his teeth.
My heart was pounding wildly in my chest, a rhythm that wasn't human, but the rhythm of a dragon.
Heavy, violent, each contraction pumps a scorching dragon force throughout the body.
The dragon's power surged along the river of his bones, flowing through the area like lava across ice.
Mary made her move.
She reached into the earthenware jar, her fingertips catching a drop of silvery-white lake water essence, and flicked it gently.
The essence transformed into a very faint silver mist, seeping into Arthur's mouth and nose, traveling down his trachea, and forming a very thin silver film on the surface of his heart.
Avalon's blessing locked his heart condition at the level of "being alive".
No matter how much the dragon factor churns inside the heart, the integrity of the heart wall remains locked and will not rupture.
Similarly, the pain was not locked.
Arthur's body was trembling violently, and his consciousness was terrifyingly clear.
The trajectory of the star was activated by this extreme physical impact, amplifying his perception several times over.
He could clearly "see" every path the dragon factor took to spread through his heart.
You can see how the web of vines gathers and guides those wild tentacles one by one.
You can see how Avalon's silver membrane firmly locks the heart wall, preventing any stray tendrils from piercing it.
But there was nothing he could do; he could only watch, feel, and endure.
Morgan's hand seals kept changing; her ten fingers wove rapidly in the air, tightening the vine net with each seal.
Secure the tentacles that have found the correct path, and guide the tentacles that are still wandering around towards the river channel.
Fine beads of sweat appeared on her forehead, sliding down her brow bone and dripping onto the array of petals, creating a faint ripple of icy blue.
Time lost its measure; Arthur didn't know how much time had passed—perhaps half an hour, perhaps the entire night.
His consciousness oscillated repeatedly between lucidity and confusion.
Each large-scale surge of the Dragon Factor pulled him back to his senses from his daze.
Each time the Avalon silver membrane was maintained, it gave him a strange illusion.
His heart pounded back and forth between "stopping" and "beating," but never truly stopped.
Then, at some point.
The surge of Dragon Factors began to slow down.
The tentacles that sprang from the fire had filled Morgan's woven web of vines, each one guided to its proper place.
Climb along the Dragon Power River, through his entire magical circulation system.
From the ventricle to the atrium, from the atrium to the blood vessels, from the blood vessels to the deep riverbed of the bones, and then back to the ventricle from the riverbed.
Finally, a complete cyclical network composed of dragon factors was formed.