Kael planted his foot firmly on the beast's head, his muscles tensing beneath his coat, the fabric pulling tight around his shoulders. Letting out a low groan, he wrapped his fingers around one of the saber teeth and gave it a forceful yank.
A sharp crunch echoed through the forest, and the tooth came loose in his grip. Kael stumbled back a few steps before regaining his balance.
'Second to last ingredient, once again…'
He turned the tooth in his hand, studying it carefully. Its pale, polished surface gleamed faintly in the filtered forest light.
'To think I found a Wolf Tiger on my first attempt. Maybe my luck is slowly turning around.'
After a Luminaire failed or succeeded in a refinement, all the ingredients used would vanish without a trace. That was why Kael found himself back in the forest, hunting for ingredients once more.
'I managed to find the other two ingredients at the market. That leaves just two… well, one now.'
He turned the tooth over in his fingers, feeling its weight.
'Just the human heart left.'
Kael stepped back to the beast, planted his foot firmly against its skull, and gripped the remaining saber tooth. With another forceful yank, he pulled it free.
He placed the two teeth on the ground and wiped it clean on the low-growing shrub, covering the forest like a green carpet, before placing it back in its hilt.
He was just about to turn away when a faint rustling came from a nearby thicket. Kael's gaze turned cold, his muscles tensing for an instant before easing.
A young man pushed aside the tangled branches, stepping out, his head turned back as he spoke a few indistinct words. Moments later, a woman followed, brushing leaves from her shoulder.
The two walked, chatting quietly, but then their heads turned toward Kael's direction. The sight of the massive Wolf Tiger's corpse stopped them in their tracks. Their faces drained of color, eyes wide with shock.
But when they noticed Kael standing beside the bloodied beast, his clothes stained crimson, they seemed to relax a bit. An uneasy calm settled over them, though their eyes never left the massive corpse.
"Calm down, it's dead."
Kael's voice cut through the air as he casually picked up the teeth, brushing off a few lingering drops of blood.
The pair exhaled, a hint of tension leaving their bodies after hearing his words.
"It's dead? What do you mean it's dead? Did you kill it?"
The young man's voice was a mix of confusion and disbelief. A human killing a Wolf Tiger alone? That was nearly impossible.
"Yep, I killed it. Why are you out here?"
Kael turned to face them directly, his gaze growing colder, his expression unreadable. His mind raced. Why were these two so deep in the forest? Were they a threat? This was far from ideal. With a bounty on his head, being seen, especially like this, was dangerous. Even if they meant no harm, the fact they had seen him and would remember him was a problem.
"You… you killed it yourself?" The young man's initial smile faded, a pale shade washing over his face as realization struck. Panic surged through him. In an instant, he bent forward in a deep bow, his face drained of all color.
"I'm sorry, sir. We didn't mean to intrude. We didn't expect to stumble upon a Luminaire. Our deepest apologies."
His voice shook, and when he noticed that his companion was still staring at the Wolf Tiger's corpse, frozen in shock, he quickly reached out. Placing his palm firmly on her head, he pressed her down into a bow beside him.
She let out a startled yelp, her wide eyes shifting to Kael, confusion and fear warring in her expression.
Kael's posture eased just slightly, but his gaze remained cold and calculating.
'Seems like they're just mortals who happened to stumble upon me.'
He let out a quiet sigh, a subtle release of tension, and waved a hand dismissively through the air.
"No worries. Mistakes happen."
At his words, the pair's rigid bodies seemed to soften, their tense shoulders relaxing. They exchanged a brief, almost disbelieving glance, a silent relief flooding over them.
Walking up to a Luminaire as a mortal, especially one standing beside a bloodied beast, could easily be a death sentence if the Luminaire was in a foul mood. And the young man's casual tone had been nothing short of reckless. But it seemed they had been granted a narrow escape.
—
Kael summoned the golden rod once more. He leaned over the bowl, pressing the rod against the saber tooth, grinding it down into a fine, pale powder that trickled steadily into the bowl below.
'I finally have all the ingredients again. The only thing that remains now is the refinement... once again.'
His brows furrowed, a shadow crossing his expression. Four times. He had already tried four times, each attempt ending in failure, each one consuming every precious ingredient he had painstakingly gathered. Four human hearts. two saber teeth. Gone.
And despite all of it, despite the countless hours spent and the agony of each failed refinement, he was still at the same stage he had been three weeks ago. The only thing he had gained was a sliver of experience, nothing more.
Experience alone was a poor consolation for the resources he had sacrificed.
But then again, what was failure if not an inevitability that lingered over every act of creation? To attempt refinement was to challenge the fundamental nature of the world, to grasp at power that was never meant to be wielded.
Failure was not a matter of if, but when. It was the shadow cast by ambition, a consequence of daring to force the laws of existence into submission. He just happened to be unfortunate this time.
But resources were simply that, resources. They were nothing more than transient, material things, meant to be gained and lost, a fleeting currency in the endless exchange of desire and consequence. They came and went like leaves torn free by the wind, scattered and forgotten.
What mattered was growth, his growth. With each failure, his understanding deepened, his will sharpened, his resolve thickened like tempered steel. The dust of lost ingredients, the ache of wasted time, they were nothing but fuel for the fire of his determination.
'Loss is the price of progress,' he thought. 'Resources can be reclaimed. Time can be spent again. But a will that withers is a death that comes before dying.'
He gave a mental command, and the same familiar sensation stirred deep within him. A subtle pulse echoed within his chest, and crimson streams of will began to ooze from his fingertips, weaving together and swirling into a dense sphere in his palm. The refinement orb was born once more, a fragile illusion of power balanced between his will and the world's resistance.
'This time I will succeed.' His thoughts were clear, unwavering. Despite each failure, his determination stood like an unmoving mountain, a monolith unshaken by the relentless winds that clawed at its surface.
A moment passed, and the orb pulsed with a faint, otherworldly glow. Kael's gaze remained locked on it, his focus as sharp as a blade. Without a hint of hesitation, he reached for the bowl beside him, grabbed a handful of the finely ground sabre tooth dust, and slowly let it cascade into the swirling sphere.
The powder vanished the instant it touched the orb, dissolving like mist, merging with the crimson light. Each grain was consumed, leaving no trace, absorbed into the chaotic dance of will and laws within the orb.
As soon as he finished pouring the dust, Kael activated the Obsidian Shard mote.
This was the most enigmatic of his three motes, the one he had used and experimented with the least, and for good reason. It had no immediate use in combat, and its activation was always a gamble.
Upon activation, his senses sharpened, a heightened awareness tingling at his fingertips. If he touched an object, he would gain an intimate understanding of it. A sense of its structure, its fragility, the exact force needed to shatter it, the subtle balance that held it together. But living beings were a different matter. Their complexity was far greater, a web of systems and functions layered upon each other.
Unlike his Titanwood Stalker mote, he could not control the Obsidian Shard's consumption of thoughts. It drew upon his mind in proportion to the complexity of the object he touched, and the depth of understanding he sought. A simple object would cost little, but a complex one, a living being, could drain his thoughts in an instant.
But what about refinement? Once the question had appeared in his mind, it refused to leave.
'Even if I can't fully understand the process immediately, deepening my understanding of refinement alone would be priceless.'
As he activated his mote, a familiar sensation swept over him, followed by an immediate drain on his thoughts. One thousand, two thousand, three thousand… The numbers ticked away with each passing minute.
Yet he did not flinch. He watched, focused and unyielding, as the crimson orb of refinement pulsed in his palm, each grain of dust he added dissolving into swirling light. His senses were sharper than ever, and beneath the vibrant dance of energy, he felt something else. An undercurrent, a web of invisible connections, the subtle interactions of laws and will weaving together.
This was the true nature of refinement, a dance between chaos and order, a negotiation between his will and the fundamental truths of the world. And as his thoughts continued to drain, he embraced it, letting his understanding slowly deepen.
Then he felt it, a sudden, sharp clarity as if a shroud had been lifted from his mind. For the first time, he could distinguish between the dissolved powder and the essence of his own will within the refinement orb. He could perceive the difference between the laws embedded in the ingredients and the force of his own will guiding them.
Kael's eyes widened, his gaze turning hyper-focused, locking onto the swirling crimson sphere.
He felt every moving part within the orb, each fragment of powdered sabre tooth suspended in the dance of energy. The mental strain was immense, as if he were refining four motes at once, but his understanding had deepened beyond anything he had ever experienced before.
His thoughts were sharper, his perception clearer. He could sense how the powdered dust was meant to move, each particle carrying a trace of its inherent law. It was not just chaos, it was a symphony of rules and principles woven together.
And he could touch it, control it.
With a sheer act of will, he began to guide the dissolved powder, each speck of its essence, aligning the laws it carried into their rightful place within the orb. This was not just brute force. It was an art, a delicate manipulation of the world's most fundamental truths.
"Incredible."
Kael couldn't help but exclaim in utter shock.
"This is incredible. Normally, the process within the orb would rely on pure probability, each particle drifting randomly until it found its rightful place. But with my guidance… I can shorten the refinement time many times over, and the success rate will increase immensely."
Even though he was hyper-focused, he couldn't suppress the rush of excitement flooding his mind. He wasn't just refining a mote; he was rewriting the process itself.
And beyond that, he was pushing the Obsidian Shard mote to its limits, using it in a way he had never considered before. Understanding, control, mastery.
Time pressed on, and Kael's forehead was slick with sweat, droplets gathering and running down his face. His head throbbed with a fierce, pulsing ache, his mind teetering on the edge of collapse from the relentless strain. Yet his eyes gleamed with a cold, focused light, and beneath that, a quiet thrill.
'Final stage of the refinement.'
He reached out, fingers wrapping around one of the two human hearts resting on the desk, its crimson surface faintly glistening. Without hesitation, he lowered it into the swirling refinement orb. The heart began to dissolve, its essence spreading out like dark veins in the crimson mist, merging with the swirling laws and particles.
'One hundred twenty thousand thoughts left.'
His gaze flicked to the dwindling mental reservoir, but he brushed aside the worry. He wiped the sweat from his brow, shut his eyes for a moment, and took a deep breath.
This was it.
He forced himself to forget the pain, the exhaustion, even the pounding ache in his skull. Nothing else mattered except the orb in his hand. The delicate balance of laws, will, and soul was everything now.
Every ounce of his focus poured into it, guiding, stabilizing, aligning each particle, each fragment of law to its rightful place. The complexity was overwhelming, each law pushing against the other, threatening to collapse, but Kael's will was like iron.
'Just a little more…'
His fingers tightened slightly, his focus unwavering. The orb pulsed in his palm, the laws within it twisting and locking into place.
After what felt like a lifetime, Kael felt it ,the final piece settling, the swirling chaos within the orb falling into perfect harmony. In an instant, the orb flashed with a dull, ghostly light, and then it was gone.
Kael's shoulders slumped, and he let out a shuddering breath, his chest rising and falling heavily as the pressure on his mind finally eased. The relentless strain lifted, leaving behind a dull, throbbing ache.
'Yes! I finally succeeded.'
A faint smile broke through his exhaustion, a rare spark of satisfaction igniting in his cold, emerald eyes.
His gaze settled on the desk before him, where the newly formed mote rested.
There it lay, a small stone coffin, no larger than his inner palm, barely the thickness of a finger. Despite its size, it radiated an ancient, dignified presence. The surface was adorned with intricate, masterful engravings. Two majestic figures with grand, feathered wings locked in fierce combat, their forms captured with haunting detail. Each feather, each muscle, each twist of their bodies had been etched with an artisan's touch. Beneath their warring forms, delicate, swirling patterns traced the edges, adding an air of mystique.
Kael's fingers traced the cool, smooth surface of the coffin. It felt unnaturally heavy in his hand, despite its size.
He wasted no time, splitting his consciousness and diving into the mote, his will surging forward like a tidal wave. He felt the faint, instinctual resistance within, its own will, raw and formless. But it crumbled beneath the weight of his will, bending and breaking until nothing remained.
Kael exhaled, his shoulders sinking as a sense of relief washed over him.
"Finally... it's actually mine. A storage-type mote."
The small stone coffin shimmered faintly before vanishing from the desk, its essence drawn into his inner realm, settling among the swirling crimson river and silver sparks of his thoughts.
But before he could even begin to relish his success, before the thrill of achievement could settle, exhaustion crashed over him like a wave.
His legs wobbled, and his vision blurred. Without a second thought, he leaned forward, letting his arms drape over the desk. His cheek rested against the cool surface of the wood, his eyelids growing impossibly heavy.
His thoughts faded into a gentle, soothing darkness. For the first time in weeks, Kael allowed himself to simply sleep.