Bro, I'm not an Undead!

The Luminant Seed.

This was a reward that Skullius had acquired after defeating Dezrael back in the Labyrinth of the Yoke, apart from the choice at the skills that he had been given.

Its description had also been interesting.

~~~

[Luminant Seed]

The soul of Dezrael has condensed the essence of his race and it has been passed to you. As a higher ranked existence, Dezrael's peak strength in relation to his racial abilities has found its way to you in the form of a seed from which you can extract the benefits of being a Luminant to a very limited degree.

~~~

He had absorbed the Seed into his body only to find that it would only awaken, bearing its full benefits, when he had reached the Advancement Stage.

This was something Skullius had been looking forward to, at least before he had received the First Trial which had gunned down his hopes of ever advancing from the Foundation Stage.

Now, as he suddenly got the opportunity to finish the Trial, he was reminded of this motivation of his as he saw the blinking notification... as well as the blinding golden light that erupted from his body, pumping him full of an outrageous amount of energy!

Without warning, Skullius' body started to disintegrate as the light washed over him, the Stacked Series of the VergeRider falling off of him as his flesh and bones turned into a mass of red matter that coiled around the radiant luminescence!

"Mister Sir!" Yuyui called with concern.

She was just getting used to the feeling of swallowing her pride, stuffing it down her throat when her master... suddenly broke down!

Literally!

After a few seconds of watching this unfold though, she got the sentiment that this wasn't as she thought. Perhaps her new master was doing something beyond all she could understand.

He was a man powerful enough to seemingly battle a guardian and win after all. At least according to what she could vaguely remember what the tests to reach this place were, it was so.

As the bright light stormed her vision, she saw something appear amidst the chunks of her master and the golden brilliance.

A mana core?

It floated amidst the red matter, a lens flare like tiny dot of blue light being surrounded by what looked like a partially finished crown.

It pulsed with strange power, a sound akin to crumpling paper and crumbling rock echoing from it!

"Woow..." Yuyui marvelled, her blue eye as well as her normal one reflecting the scene before her.

On the other hand, Skullius, who had just had his entire body destroyed and reduced to unfamiliar shit stuff partially sank in the feeling of seemingly endless power that roiled from Luminant Seed.

He felt his mind get clearer.

His awareness of everything around him grew infinitely more robust.

With all this, he recognised that he was currently only existent as a soul.

His short figure, patched up with other coloured pieces of soul showed but no one here could see it other than him.

'Unlike before... I feel... free...' Skullius thought, comparing this to when Somanda had pulled his soul out.

The Seed seemed to be gushing energy into his soul as he could feel certain bits of information being integrated into him while his soul nourished.

They were not memories or anything of the sort, but like brief flash with a sense of individuality about them that rang all across his soul with resounding fury, etching themselves onto it!

With this came a feeling of freedom and strength that Skullius had never known.

It was refreshing.

After revelling in this, Skullius turned to his core which was suspended above ground, waiting to be told how to proceed.

He felt every inch of it without the obstruction of his body, something he thought his [Elevated Mana Manipulation] was currently able to but frankly, that didn't seem to be the case.

'Phewww... I can feel the pure mana yearning to be wound and weaved. Unlike with my skills, it seems so.... obedient...' Skullius thought.

His core and the mana he produced were harder to control before but now, it seemed like they submitted to his soul's will especially with the outpour of energy from the Seed.

When he thought over it for a while... the Luminant Seed...

It was created from the remnants of the soul of Dezrael. Dezrael who was at the Incandescent Stage?

With all that he knew now about the soul, he could at least guess what was happening.

Some of this being's power, along with all the potential he held in his soul was condensed into this Seed and used to elevate Skullius.

Those at the Incandescent Stage were very much aware of their soul and proficient in manipulating and using it.

Skullius could swear he felt a little of what this entailed, a grand boon indeed.

With that came this temporary feeling of freedom and satiation that he would absolutely not waste!

Skullius moved his soul form, bringing his hands around his unfinished core.

With what he was capable of now with the energy funnelling into him, he was sure his proficiency in wielding his core was vastly superior to his [Elevated Mana Manipulation]!

The mana that leaked from his Centre was grasped under his control firmly as he willed, this bringing Skullius quite the surprise and quite the bit of wonder.

'The core anchors itself to my soul and body, right? If its the body part, I can guess that it has to do with its relationship to my skills and techniques that reside in my body but what about the soul?' Skullius questioned.

Seeing as an answer wasn't coming, with Sila once again uncharacteristically quiet during such a momentous occasion, Skullius went on to forge his core.

He was going to finish it this time and with a vastly more elegant level of design and finesse!

After having tasted what the mana formed with the specification for Distorted Gravity was like in practise, he could fine tune it as he wished even more!

The pristine mana was moulded elegantly as Skullius even began making adjustments to the portion of the Refinery he had already completed, his hands going as far as to even finish up with a portion of the Shell of wherever he was done.

When he reached this part of the core however...

'I see. The Shell determines how much mana leaves the Refinery and into the mana channels...' Skullius thought, his mind taking him back to what he had been able to do to the first creatures he had met in this Sacred Forest, the Burdened Ice Trolls!

He had caused their mana to rage out of their cores at absurd quantities which ruptured their mana channels as well as their bodies.

This was definitely terrifying as he witnessed it first hand but, for a brief moment, the bodies of these creatures had screamed of toughness and relief, as nourished by the abundant supply of mana before it got too much for them to handle.

Hmmm.

'What if I can channel all that outputted mana into strong mana channels that can handle that much power in one go?! Reinforcing my body with a lot more mana than normal would give me a greater edge in defence as well overall ability if I consider just the effect of Gravity!'

How Skullius had caused the ground to reject Bassbion came to mind.

If that effect, as well as the one that pulled him towards other surfaces at ridiculous fair speeds was heavily determined by how much output of mana he could muster from his core at one time then...

Skullius' chibi soul grinned.

With more time spent in this form, he had rapidly realised that his body was about to be reformed anew with grand features from what the Luminant Seed had to offer.

What was likely causing the delay was how he was apportioning some of the power given to tend to his core manually and he was glad that was the case.

With this idea in mind, Skullius would only want his new body to be as per his own specification!

'Let's do this!' Skullius roared in the silence!