[22 hours 45 minutes]
Dum… Dum… Dum…
As if the pulse of the planet itself was beating in his mind, faint dull sounds could be heard in a certain repetitive pattern. He didn’t know exactly why, but Emery instinctively knew that this uneasy feeling he had been receiving must have something to do with the Primordial Wisp.
Hence the reason he took out the crystal glass even though his companions were busy defending the base from the hordes of the Abyss creatures. He hoped that he could find some answers through the spirit butterflies.
Emery looked at the crystal glass in his hand. His gaze intently watched the four tiny, glowing spirit creatures that were contained within. After a while, he finally placed the glass in front of him as he sat down and assumed the lotus position.
As for the first butterfly, it should be still interacting with Twik and the five Chizpur brothers inside the Spatial Space at the moment. However, since he wanted to also experiment with it and its kins, Emery thought that he might as well take out all the plant creatures.
“Ku… ku… kuang.”
The moment they came out of the Spatial Space, Twik and the Chizpur brothers greeted Emery with their ever-present enthusiasm. Smiling at their actions for a moment, Emery clapped his hand and put his finger on his lips.
“Alright, now all of you stay quiet and watch,” Emery said to them before shifting his attention and concentrating on the glowing butterfly. To get this started, he decided to try with the butterfly he had caught himself as he had previously had interactions with it.
[Nature Grasp]
Light green streams of root-like energy started to seep out of Emery’s stretched hand and came in touch with the butterfly’s body. As soon as the two connected, Emery could feel a series of emotions that were certainly not his; they were the butterfly’s.
Distress, anxiety, and worry.
Turned out that the butterfly shared the same reaction to the feelings had been having the past few hours. Unfortunately, the message was not that clear and there was also no vision for him to see this time.
Now that the first butterfly was done, it was time to release the four butterflies contained inside the crystal glass.
Just as the creatures were about to come out from their container, Emery was ready with his spell [Aegis Void] to subdue them within a void bubble. After all, he couldn’t risk letting them get away freely.
After making sure they were securely restrained by the spell, with his other free hand, Emery began to use [Nature Grasp] to probe this group of spirit creatures. The familiar sight of green root-like energy seeping out of his hands quickly came into view again.
As the [Nature Grasp]’s energy started to interact with the spirit butterflies, they all one by one suddenly became chaotic. They all started frantically flapping their wings while flying around erratically.
This time, the emotions that Emery felt were vastly different than the first butterfly. There was anger… rage…; this left him both surprised and confused.
It took quite some time before the chaotic spirit butterflies began to calm down and return to normal. But by that point, he discovered that they were still unwilling to communicate with him.
The vastly different reactions left Emery at a loss.
Then, his mind suddenly thought of an idea. He proceeded to call the first butterfly as it swiftly flew over when it received his call, and without further ado, Emery let it enter the void bubble where the other spirit butterflies were. It quickly joined its kins and the reactions to its arrival were varied.
During the process, he could feel a powerful spirit energy undulating, then fluctuating, before finally flowing out of the bubble. It was as if they were all communicating with each other.
After a while, seeing that there seemed to be no problem with the other spirit butterflies, Emery decided to do a leap of trust and dispel the [Aegis Void] spell that contained them. The next thing that happened was something he didn’t expect at all.
He watched in a daze as the five freed butterflies flew between one another, emitting bright rays of light as they swiftly coalesced into a shining orb. Immediately, a violent tremor shook the tower he was currently at.
A few moments after this flashy occurrence, a series of notifications came.
[Is that your doing, Emery? What is going on?]
[Emery, I just saw something bright appear inside the base.What was it?]
Several messages asking what was really going on came from Julian, Klea, and the others. Realizing that what the spirit butterflies did attracted everyone’s attention, Emery smiled wryly before quickly sending them a message telling them not to worry.
After he finished messaging everyone, Emery returned his attention to the spirit butterflies. By now, the orb had turned the tower into a kind of beacon with how bright the light it gave off. What’s more, he could feel that the power it emitted was gradually increasing.
This time, as his [Nature Grasp] reached over to the shining orb, Emery hoped that he could understand what was happening with it, or at least, would be able to receive a more definite message.
However, instead of what he wanted to know, a deluge of spirit energy appeared and rapidly flowed through the connection his [Nature Grasp] made. Every second that passed, Emery could feel a tremendous amount of energy flowing into him and his cultivation increasing.
[Nature Grasp] was a special Rank A skill that was given by Gaia, and from the moment he obtained it Emery had always depended on it to fill his Spirit Pool or to upgrade his spirit core. And now, it worked the same manner to the shining orb, only a few times than usual.
It wasn’t as rapid as what he received from [Spirit Devour], but it was still several times faster than his normal cultivation speed. As if to prove it, a notification popped up every few minutes.
[Spirit force increased.]
With every passing minute, Emery could clearly feel the apparent boost in power. Not only that, but he also comprehended a new understanding regarding the elements of nature.
[22 hours 10 minutes]
After half an hour, Emery suddenly felt something swiftly approaching from a distance. Fortunately, it was anything but bad news.
A distance away, a tiny speck of light could be seen dashing towards the tower. When it finally neared, it slowed down and revealed its appearance.
It was another glowing golden butterfly. It flew around a bit before quickly merging into the orb, causing the light it gave off to shine even brighter. After that, Emery felt a slight increase in the spirit energy flowing into him.
[Spirit force increased.]
[21 hours, 42 minutes]
Another golden light approached. Just like before, it merged with the orb.
[Spirit force increased.]
A few minutes after the third spirit butterfly arrived, Emery finally became sure about his conjecture that the orb was summoning all the tiny spirit creatures all around the planet into it.
The orb continued to grow.
As Emery felt his power increase with every passing moment, he also noticed that it wasn’t just him who received the abundant spirit energy, his six plant creatures unexpectedly received the boon as well.
Unknowingly, Twik and the 5 Chizpur brothers all had calmly sat down around Emery, as their bodies basked in the glowing energy.
[18 hours 30 minutes]
It had been three hours since the shining orb made its appearance and the spirit creatures started to gather to it. At this point, 8 golden lights had arrived and entered the orb, giving a total of 13 spirit butterflies gathered into one glowing orb.
As if it had finished doing whatever it was trying to do, the orb finally stopped.
[Spirit Force: 1,372 (1,401)]
In a short span of three hours, Emery received an increase of 29 spirit force points. It was also at this time that the message he received from his connection with the spirit butterfly finally became much clearer.
It still wasn’t in the form of words, but he could clearly feel that the intent was calling for help.
“Help? What do you mean? Who are you?”
At this moment, a bright light suddenly appeared and blinded his eyes. When Emery opened his eyes again, he was no longer at the tower but returned to the vision he once had before. However, the scenery that appeared in front of him had subtly changed.
It was the same vision of leaves falling from the Tree of Light, but this time he could feel that thirteen different leaves were falling at different times.
After feeling it for a moment, Emery realized that the 13 leaves were part of the Primordial Wisp’s offspring. On the other hand, the spirit butterflies were the result of the rebirth of a new lifeform with the partial power of the Primordial Wisp.
However, while the realization was dawning upon him, the intent conveyed “danger” into his mind.
“Danger? What do you mean?”
Unfortunately, the orb didn’t immediately respond. Emery already had a bad premonition when he heard there was danger, and this sudden unresponsiveness made him even more anxious.
“Show me the danger!”
As if the orb understood, it emitted bright light again, but this time, it was more vivid.
Multiple loud echoes immediately greeted him, and soon after, he saw it; the monstrous golden centipede with its body cracking all over.
Sure enough, he realized that he was watching the fight between the enforcers and the stage 7 Abyss creature – the Royal Centipede. However, the sight that he saw was something that he didn’t expect, or rather, didn’t dare to think.
Before his eyes, Magus Hyokai was standing among the corpses of his four comrades.
“They lost?”