Shades of the New World

Chapter 97: Half-core

For the first time in a long while, Evin had the nightmares about his twin sisters melting from above him.

This time, though, there was no panic and fear. It was like watching an old horror movie: a bit disturbing, but not quite scary. And for Evin, it felt quite nostalgic.

Evin knew he was dreaming, but he had full control over his actions and he was fully conscious as well. Evin didn't know how long he was dreaming, and he knew it was quite long. But he wasn't dissatisfied.

He knew he was alive, since Kena had come to save him. That was all that mattered.

Evin couldn't really focus on things other than staying alive when he was conscious, but details of what happened during that time popped into his mind one after another, which allowed Evin to guess at what occurred.

He also felt truly calm and at peace with himself in this dream of his.

'I guess I could compare it to lying on a comfy bed, knowing that your every problem is solved and no one else needed you doing nothing,' Evin thought.

The former spirit was not someone hard to satisfy or amuse.

He even found the fact that his twin sisters melting above him to be funny. He remembered that when he was a teenager, only 12- or 13-years old back on Earth, he would condemn himself for feeling disgusted and fearful of his sisters, and cursed to himself that he would someday end up like them.

The fact that he actually melted down like a candle amused him to no end. The irony was too thick.

As Evin spent some time alone in this state of his, taking a holiday of some sorts, he could see signs that the dream was about to end. He would sometimes hear unknown voices resound in his head, speaking mostly gibberish at first, but eventually it started making sense. But Evin didn't know if he liked what he was hearing.

"Oh shit, where'd his ears go?" an unknown woman's voice, speaking in a thick eastern accent, sounded inside his head.

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"I don't think the ears are of importance, as I can't see a single point of resemblance to the previous Evin," Kena's staticky voice sounded next.

"Who cares? Let's just say puberty happened. And besides, how am I supposed to know how the boy looked like? It's not like I've seen him," the woman replied.

"Here, I'll create a projection," Kena seemed to say.

For a brief moment after, Evin could only hear muffled sounds, but after that period ended, Evin noticed that he was finally awake.

He glanced at his surroundings, but had some trouble focusing his eyesight.

'Well, at least my eyes aren't melted now,' he thought, before trying to see around himself.

"Oh, you're awake. You okay, hon? You looked terrible when Kena first brought you to me. Thought he'd mixed a damn human boy with a mudman first, but he told me it's a melted human boy, can you believe it? Anyhow, does it hurt anywhere? Anything feeling out of place?" the familiar voice said after noticing Evin.

Evin found a silhouette of a small black woman in front of him, two pink glowing lights around where the eye of the woman was supposed to be.

"I can't see well, my vision is unfocused," Evin said and found it impressive how he could actually talk without problems.

"Oh, shoot, thought I'd messed something up around your head First it was the ears, but I guess the eyes were also quite broken. Sorry, hon, for the sloppy work, but you must understand that there wasn't much left for me to work with All of your eyes were melted into your skin, you see? Those goddamn Luminous mages, always making a mess of their victims Fire mages as well. What's so fun about melting a damn person, right?" the woman said, nudging Evin with her fingers.

Evin found it hard to disagree, as he felt firsthand how it was to melt.

The woman started working on Evin's eyes and Evin could feel a tingling itch around his eyes. He could feel that an enormous amount of raw Life mana was swirling around his eyes, until it turned into living tissue. Evin was too tired to care about the miracle that was happening to his body.

The woman supposedly transformed Evin from a melting wax statue to a proper human being. A little something like a materializing a functional real eyeball wasn't that impressive compared to that.

A few moments later, Evin could actually look around himself with the new eyes of his. He had a proper look at the woman in front of him. Tall body, round face, bald head, shining pink eyes, and a bunch of pink tattoos all over her body.

"Thank you," Evin said.

"No problem! Though, you might want to look at yourself in the mirror before saying that. Also, try walking around! I'll help you up!" the woman said and helped Evin to his feet.

"I haven't heard your name," Evin mentioned, though he could guess that it was a certain someone who ruled a World.

"Va'eri Solvatum. Nice to meet you, Evin," the woman replied.

'Well, as expected, the Authority of Life,' Evin thought.

Evin looked around and found himself in a brightly illuminated room, one that seemed awfully familiar to him. The mix of books and botany served to inform Evin that he was in Kena's study.

Evin walked towards one of the mirrors and was shocked at how his body had changed.

"How long was it, since I was unconscious?" Evin asked.

"Only a day or so, as far as I know," the Authority replied.

"Then why do I look so much bigger than before?" Evin asked. Evin remembered that he was about a meter(3.28 ft) tall, but now, he was a good 20 cm(7.87 inch) taller than before. His face also looked a bit different as well, Evin could now call himself handsome.

"Well, as one of the best medics in the World, I can tell with confidence that your body was influenced by the effects of Time energy. Aside from corroding anything and everything, it also makes people age faster. So I'd say you're about two years older compared to yesterday," Va'eri replied.

Evin was dumbfounded, and then he entered the World of Life and checked inside his heart.

'I've become a half-core' he thought. He knew he should be happy, but he was a bit underwhelmed by the growth of his core. From his initial 3.99 cm, his core only increased to about 4.02 cm, which meant a total increase of 2 kg of mana.

'At this point, I'll become a Lesser-imposer in 98 years...'

Then, as if remembering something, he hurriedly glanced inside his shadows. He remembered putting Arza and Ssatsko inside the thing for safekeeping.

"Ah, don't worry about your companions, Helain took them out of your shadows for you. The old man and the kid also became much older, though they still look generally the same. Oh, and, do you like the new look I gave you?" the Authority asked.

"You mean my new face?" Evin asked.

"Yep! You looked kinda average in my books, so I nudged some deformities here and there when I was reconstructing your face. Hope you don't mind"

Evin didn't mind getting pretty.

"I like the new looks. Though, can you tell me about what had happened?" Evin needed to learn about the things that occurred after he went unconscious.

"Well, I don't really know everything exactly, since I was one of the people who were called last But Alanor called every Authority for a meeting at the insistence of Kena.

When I came, Veidra and Helain were already here, catching up on things here in this room. Those two usually have nothing to do, so they came the fastest, I suppose. Kena saw me and told me to fix you somehow, and I was busy with that for most of the time. Afterwards, most of the other Authorities who usually come to these meetings came.

Anyway, they're all in one of the meeting rooms inside the mansion, and they've actually asked me to bring you to them, when you awakened," Va'eri finished talking.

"Me? Why?"

"Not sure. But it's probably best not to keep them waiting some of them are new Authorities, so they're quite worried for the wars that their offsprings are waging, so I'd guess they would want to go back as soon as possible. Here, wear these," the woman said and threw some clothes towards Evin.

After Evin finished wearing them, Va'eri lead Evin to another room inside Kena's mansion.

Entering, Evin found a bunch of people, most of them having a pair of glowing eyes. There was also a subtle tension in the air, which made the room feel deprived of air.

Noticing the newcomer, they curtly glanced at him, but didn't continue to stare.

Evin could see a few familiar faces in the room. There was Two Tales with his dark modern suit, Alanor with his monocles and crimson clothing, and Kena in his white cloak and mask. There was also another familiar face in the room. Rith, who Evin supposed had melted to death before him, was apologetically glancing at Evin.

'I guess she kinda ditched me there, huh?' Evin realized, as he remembered her voice saying sorry in his head after Rith's carcass fell to the ground.

'Well, we'll have time to talk later,' Evin thought.

Aside from the familiar faces, there were six other individuals in the room.