Chapter 138

138 Awake

Nicholas opened his heavy and groggy eyelids to a cold grey ceiling, his last coherent memory was his being connected to the will of the world and losing control of his body while his newly born core which was his will was being frantically assimilated, thinking up to her Nicholas quickly inspected himself and heaved a sigh of relief when he found the tiny wisp of illusory light that represented his will was still present and in fact better than before. The light although illusory felt clearer and cleaner than before, the array that was made up of cellular and organic structures felt more complete and was still constantly running. If the previous array he had was akin to a static two-dimensional painting, then the one presently on his body had been upgraded to a three-dimensional animation.

While inspecting himself Nicholas found some memories that weren’t present before he lost consciousness, it was mostly comprised of basic knowledge of various arrays and materials that could be used to activate them, Nicholas wasn’t surprised by this, the phenomenon was a common one that was brought about by the inauguration of a profession, although nothing powerful but comprised of the basics one needed to know, from the knowledge he even saw some shadows of the array he had created in his body, which was surprising because most of the array knowledge made used of elemental energy or various energies that abound in the environment while the one created by Nicholas was based entirely on the repulsion and cohesion characteristic of various magnetic fields, in fact the array was arguably something that did not originate from the world, to be precise the array was not even one he created it was one he completed the shadows of the structure was already present in his body, he had only restructured the array to suit his purposes.

Subtle footsteps brought Nicholas out of his reverie, Nicholas got up from the white bed as the door opened to reveal a pale faced woman wearing pale jeans and a rumpled shirt, a flabby white lab coat was draped over her body which made the dark circles under her eyes pop out more.

“You’re awake”, the woman murmured as soon as she stepped into the grey confines of the room.

“it’s been a long time cherry; you look worse than usual.” Nicholas quipped with a smile as he stepped forward to give her a brief hug. She was one if not the only close friend he had, they knew each other from his childhood back in the days when he was still a lackey, he had met her by chance and their special situation brought by their respective talents ensured they could slowly trust each other. In fact, she was instrumental in his escape while simultaneously helping him master and reduce the effects of his talents.

“Haven’t had enough rest in quite some time, meanwhile you’ve had quite the vacation.” Cherry released herself from his embrace as she replied jokingly.

“How long was I out.” Nicholas inquired as he stepped out of the room.

“About 3 months.” Cherry’s voice came from behind him as she followed, while Nicholas was slowly looking at the familiar environment, He had been here a few times this was base 66 a nonexistent secret laboratory in which various special and new technologies were researched and tested here, most of the weapons and small gadgets being used by the crows where created in this base even the composition of the special forces soldiers that had previously tried to rescue Nicholas was a product of this base.

“What is that?” Nicholas couldn’t help but ask as he saw the hideous monster being tied down to an experimental table, it was like a splice between an oversized spider and a human, with 8 huge spear like legs coming out from its back giving off a dangerous eerie and wrong feeling.

.....

Cherry noticed what he was referring to and replied “That is a pollutant, a lot has changed since you were captured.”

It had been three days since he had regained consciousness and he had been quickly brought up to speed by cherry, the world had once again been changed the gods had descended although albeit in the form of saints and only limited to exerting power comparable to that of a legendary peak but their status brought them immense bonus nonetheless, the once crippled churches had regained vigour and were quickly clashing with the federation and other countries in an attempt to gain more believers and control over their area of influence, most weak countries had already yielded to the churches sugar-coated cannonballs but the federation was one of the countries still resisting.

Not only that the precious treasures that were Alaya fragments had undergone huge changes the unowned fragments had mutated releasing their influence and knowledge eroding the land and area around them, the combination of this and the black mud mutated and distorted all life found in its vicinity turning them to bizarre creatures, it was rumoured these eroded areas were entrances to fragments of the new plane that had been opened up that knight when the gods had descended. The churches of the gods naturally possessed such eroded areas but due to the particularity of the deities and the fact that they were masters of the eroded area the mutation caused by their areas were more ingenious and based on subtly transforming individuals to be more susceptible to the church preaching.

The dangers of the eroded areas weren’t really the core of the problem or changes but the opportunities contained in those areas ensured people kept flocking to them despite the dangers, the emergence of a mortal who spent a week inside the area and emerged a legend with his own exclusive profession only served to fuel the frenzy, the numerous monsters that emerged because of individual’s failures did nothing to douse the flames.

The federation naturally owned a lot of Alaya fragments stored behind, the conflicting nature of different fragments and the preciousness of the storehouse ensured the fragments never went out of control, of course, this was still not safe enough and so during the 3 months Nicholas had been unconscious his physique had been studied and several arrangements had been born from this and applied to the treasure house after all Nicholas could also be considered an Alaya fragment and he did not lose control and erode his surroundings despite his absence of consciousness.

In fact, his status as an Alaya fragment was why he was still in the base at this time, one he needed to help perfect the arrangements that had been created based on his situation and the other was that he needed to be tested and observed under various conditions if an eroded space could be unconsciously or intentionally created by him, to ensure he wasn’t a ticking time bomb waiting to go off.