The two girls watched in astonishment as the pills were slowly broken down to their most tiny portions.
A cloud of colorful dust wafted in the cave, filling the area with a distinctly medicinal smell.
The purity path energy from the cave slowly removed the previous impurities of past pills, making the process much easier on Dyon. This was actually part of the reason he insisted on doing it here. He wanted to open as much of Ri's aurora as he could all at once.
Minutes went by, and soon hours. Before researching this aurora awakening pill, Dyon had thought that it would be far less complex than constitution awakening pills. But, he was very wrong.
A body's innate constitution was in line with nature. It was naturally their body, so they were only tapping into something they already had.
On the other hand, although everyone could technically make an initial contact with their aurora, they were going against the laws of the universe themselves by forcibly opening it past that point. This was exactly why the higher percentage an aurora was awakened to, the harder it was.
Each 30% interval was a major watershed moment, with the last 10% being in the realm of near impossibility, even for the Celestial Deer Sect. In fact, even the Celestial Deer Sect at their peak wouldn't be able to awaken an aurora past 70%, let alone 90.
In the midst of the slowly passing time, Little Lyla had long since fallen asleep hugging Little Black. It wasn't that the little girl had lost interest, but she was truly too tired. Ri couldn't help but loving stroke the adorable girl's hair as she watched Dyon slowly separate the important components to bring them back together.
Ri couldn't help but praise Dyon in her heart. Not only had he remained focused for many hours past what she thought was possible, the nuanced control of his time will, the intricacies of his arrays, his understanding of the fundamental parts of the pill and how to properly separate them so as not to lose the potency regained through his time will. Ri found it hard to believe that he really was just a few months older than her.
Soon, the setting sun could be vaguely seen in the cave, reflecting orange and red hues that made the gently fluttering snow and ice sparkle beautifully.
Dyon finally closed his eyes in rest, a large 3cm wide pill resting in his hands. It was almost transparent, but clouds of a rainbow of colors could be seen swirling under its surface.
Opening his eyes, Dyon smiled at Ri. "Here you go."
Ri took the pill delicately, as though she was holding something of untold value. And truthfully, she was. Within the Elvin Kingdom, the guild leaders and elders would pay whatever they had to for this pill. To Dyon, it meant nothing more than a few hours to practice his alchemy, but to others, this pill was life changing.
Watching Ri with interesting, Dyon's smile didn't fade.
"Go on, swallow it," Dyon waved his hand in the air as though this was nothing much. He seemed to take too much pleasure in his word choice. Luckily, Ri didn't seem to notice.
Dyon thought back to the endless gardens within the spatial world in his ring. He had never touched the plants and had no real need to. If they could be sustained thousands of years after the destruction of the Celestial Deer Sect, then, a few months with Dyon would hardly change anything. But, this experience made him realize how important the pills he could make were to everyone else.
'Haha, can't I twirl the alchemy guild around my finger like this?'
Dyon watched on in amusement as Ri swallowed the pill, crossing her legs to meditate seriously.
Her forehead glowed with a white light, but then, something odd happened. As Ri felt her aurora astonishingly breaking past the 30% barrier, the light within her forehead changed to a cold blue flame.
Dyon started. 'Her aurora flame is blue? Not white? Not gold? What does that mean?'
Dyon searched in his master's memories but couldn't find such an occurrence anywhere. That only meant one of two things: either the 25th White Mother had no idea, or it was within her sealed memories.
Pondering on the second option, Dyon suddenly thought of a possibility. His eyes widened in realization, but he buried the thought… there wasn't enough evidence and he wasn't a fan of jumping to conclusions. All he knew was that since the aurora was a reflection of the soul – literally being a main link to it… Ri's soul had to be special.
**
About half an hour passed by before Ri's aurora flame finally settled down. The feeling coming from her was such a bone chilling cold that Dyon had to layer Little Lyla with array after array, just to make sure she felt no discomfort.
Just as she finally relaxed, the butterflies of the cave began to float around her. But, Dyon couldn't help but gulp.
Ri's hair stuck to her face ever so slightly, evidence of how much pressure she had just been under. Her chest still heaved as she caught her breath, but the sight was much too enticing for Dyon's demon essence to handle. Despite this, he couldn't look away from the sweat slowly dripping down her subtle, but very present ravine.
By the time Dyon's eyes reached down to her exposed and tone belly, he could only shake himself awake.
Luckily Ri hadn't noticed, or else he'd probably be a dead man by now.
Trying to calm himself, Dyon stretched his hand out to one of the fluttering butterflies.
Meanwhile, Ri had finally taken her last deep breath and was shocked beyond belief.
"65%?!"
She turned a complicated gaze towards Dyon. 'Just who are you really?...'
Just as she was deciding on whether she should ask Dyon and open herself up to being questioned as well, she noticed Dyon frowning.
"What is it?" Ri asked.
Dyon's confused voice rang out. "My ring… it's vibrating… why?..."
Ri's eyebrows furrowed, "ring?... vibrating?..."
Ri looked at what Dyon what talking about only to find him staring at the very same spatial ring she had once held around her neck. But, Dyon's hand was visibly shaking, and it clearly had nothing to do with him.
'What's going on?' they both thought at once.
Suddenly, Dyon's eyes widened with a sudden realization.
He jumped up, running to Ri. He quickly took off the ring and put it in her hand.
"Whatever you do, Ri, do not take this ring out of this cave."
