After realizing that he was making no progress with his attempts to pierce through to the core, he decided to switch tactics. Instead of trying to break in, he would just break it entirely. So he wrapped his energy around the core, before constricting it from all directions at once.
Initially, there was a strong resistance, but soon after he could feel cracks appearing on the core. Strangely, the golem went silent at this, a mortified expression on its face.
As he increased the intensity with which he constricted even more tiny cracks began to appear, until eventually they became gaping fissures, releasing clouds of raw energy from within it.
As this energy seeped out, he could sense its density, it was a different sort of energy from anything he had ever experienced before, and it seemed to be affecting his crux as well.
Immediately, his energies snaked their way into the cracked core, before doing something odd. Unlike before, where foreign energy would first be converted and then absorbed, his energies began consuming that of the cores immediately.
In doing this, the core was completely shattered. Red light burst from Gevrot's eyes, dimming with every split second until eventually, all that remained were two black circles. Gevrot's last words were something of a whimper - and even Lucius could not decipher them.
[Processing...]
[New spell acquired... 『Glutonous Distortion』.]
[Adding 『Glutonous Distortion』 to 『Solar Sorcery Index』...]
[Complete. 『Glutonous Distortion』 has been added.] his system notified him, as he recalled his energy from Gevrot's body.
Its usual pure-yellow appearance had strips of red intertwined with it, much like the magic that Gevrot had used. It looked eerily similar to human blood, reminding Lucius of his time at war. He was well aware that back on Earth, what he had done would have him branded as a war criminal.
His utter silence was a testament to this, no creature deserved to squirm and scream in its last moments. Though sadly, he was in no position to accommodate such concepts. With this science experiment, he now had a better understanding of the nature of cores, and the networks they created within the body.
This would help him improve his magical research, after all, even on Earth, some of the greatest advances in technology were the fruits of the most heinous research.
~But what do I do about this?~ he thought to himself, as the reddish-yellow energy he had drained from Gevrot orbited around his crux.
He was a little skeptical of allowing foreign energy into his crux, after all, what if something like consciousness was present within it?
Unfortunately, his carefulness would go unrewarded, as his crux -as if having a mind of its own- absorbed the energy into itself.
An unreal rush traveled throughout his body, and for a moment he felt more powerful than he had ever felt before.
He got to his knees in unfamiliar euphoria, as thoughts that he never believed he could even fabricate ran through his mind. Thoughts of doing this again, over and over, of feeling this strange euphoria repeatedly, until there was nothing left.
However, it would take more than foreign thoughts to consume him at this point. This delusion of grandeur would have to try harder if it wanted to hinder his plans.
Once the feeling passed, he got back up to his feet. At this point, Avankor and the chief were making their way toward him, seeing that the threat had been neutralized.
"It seems that these creatures are more aggressive than I thought. The one I encountered first didn't use magic, even after I attacked it," Lucius explained to them as they approached. Now that he thought about it, Crenog could've killed him the first time they had met, it was a miracle that it was smart enough not to try and squash a bug with a truck.
Suddenly, Avankor and the chief paused, their fangs and claws bared at Lucius as if they had gone rabid.
"What's gotten into you guys?" Lucius asked, jumping off of Gevrot's body onto the ground.
~It healed me?~ Lucius thought to himself in surprise. The injuries he had sustained were nothing to scoff at, he had at least expected his legs to be unfunctional until he could cast solar cleanse.
"We should start moving again. We're burning daylight," he said after a few moments, realizing that his travel companions would not respond to him.
"Is that really you?" Avankor asked, his fangs still bared as he stared at Lucius skeptically.
"Who else would it be?" Lucius replied, before taking a moment to look at his arms, legs, and tail. After which he understood why they seemed hostile toward him.
His green skin had lost some of its colors towards his extremities, giving him a sort of black tip on his fingers, hind limbs, and tail.
Even past that, he noticed a slight difference in his size. Avankor and the chief didn't look as large as they seemed before.
"It seems the spell I cast made changes to my body," Lucius explained, trying to get a better look at how much he had grown.
After comparing his height to that of Avankor's, he estimated that he was at least 1.4 meters tall now, nearly a 15-centimeter difference from before.
His tail was now 3.5 meters long, which messed slightly with his balance as he walked around to get a feel of his new body.
~Mana cores are something else,~ he thought to himself. Even the around 5 million helios he had allocated towards evolution when he got here hadn't made this much of a difference. As heinous as destroying cores was, he had to admit, the benefits were nothing to scoff at.
[Processing...]
[Foreign mana successfully converted.]
[20 million Helios added.]
~20 million?~ Lucius thought to himself in surprise.
The benefits just kept getting better and better, something which bothered him quite a bit. There was always a catch to these things, if the normal solar crux prevented absurd amounts of helios from being absorbed at once, what limiters did the Kumulipo have?
Sadly, it seemed that would be a question for another time, as he heard massive footsteps approaching from the distance.
Avankor seemed to notice this just a moment after, as he spun to look in the direction of the sound.
