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Chapter 257 Second Rise of the Elwood Family [VI] {The Stars Seek Compensation}

[Warning! Excessive exposure to Soran from collapse of photosynthetic core could result in-]

~Skip. Just tell me how to fix this!~ Lucius interrupted, already attempting to use Elmando to try and force the constantly expanding ball of energy back into a more stable form.

[Manual re-stability of core required.]

~Yeah, no shit. Tell me how!~ Lucius shot back, the core now at a stage where it seemed like it would burst at any moment.

Sadly, try as he might, Elmando simply would not work. The energy he was trying to command was not his; an apparent prerequisite required by Elmando for the manipulation of energy.

He quickly turned to his newest weapon, True Elmando, hoping that it could do what Elmando couldn\'t.

However, after attempting to communicate this to the tail, he realized he was in over his head. The task he was asking was simply too great for his current method of communication.

The tail could not do what he couldn\'t even communicate.

~Work, damn it!~

[Warning! Collapse of photosynthetic core imminent.]

The system\'s words sounded muffled, and time seemed to slow down as Asclepius\'s core began to glow erratically in multiple places.

Abandoning Elmando, he ran closer towards the core, stretching out his arms in an attempt to push it back manually.

The unstable core felt excruciatingly hot to the touch, searing at his body and causing pieces of him to disappear.

Still, the pain felt almost relieving. It gave him a needed distraction from what seemed like an inevitability at this point.

Asclepius was going to die.

"Please," he whispered, as the expanding core pushed him backward, now glowing even brighter and more erratically than before.

In those last few seconds, he could feel the membrane that held Asclepius\'s core together fizz away. And its energies began to seep out.

He attempted to call on his solar crux, on kumulipo; but it seemed that this vessel of his did not carry those over into the white void.

Yet another one of his children was going to die, the only difference was that this time they were dying right in front of him, and there wasn\'t a damn thing he could do about it.

In this sense, this world wasn\'t so different from the mindscape.

~I need to save her,~ he thought to himself, as he felt the Soran from her core burn away at his body. Still, even as he felt the wave of lava-like energy wash over him, he continued to recite this one thought.

She can\'t die.

Even though it was past time for wishful thinking, every iota of his mind willed for this singular task.

[Warning! Continued exposure to Soran will result in corruption!]

He could barely hear the system\'s words, as he suffered through this mental nightmare.

He could hear the voices of everyone in the commune asking to save her, taunting voices, impostors.

No, she will be saved! he thought to himself, completely certain without anything to back up this claim.

He opened his eyes and found himself surrounded by a sea of floating Soran.

Despite the agonizing pain that threatened to push him out of the white void every ticking second, he moved forward, stretching out both arms and his tail.

Save her, he commanded, imbuing Elmando with this single message.

He was uncertain of how exactly he was doing this, but still, he was completely convinced it would work.

Perhaps he was in denial of the reality of things.

...

~That\'s right, faster, stronger, use all my energy if you want. Just do it,~ he commanded, as his True Emando Tail began glowing.

With this, the tides of Soran began to flow backward, as if time itself were reversing the flow of a river.

And indeed it felt like he was fighting against literal tides.

As True Elmando was in effect, it felt as if he were drowning, while at the same time his very life force was being drained from his body.

~Faster,~ he commanded, pushing past the suffocating feeling to take a step forward.

At this point, multiple areas on his body were missing, the Soran had burned away strips of his vessel, leaving tiger-like patterns.

After a few moments, his mind began to overheat, though at this point all the Soran had been pushed back into the core.

~Mend~! he commanded next, flashes of light blinding him as he tried to push forward.

He could feel his hold over True Elmando slipping away... he was running out of energy.

Though it seemed that he had enough to complete this task, as the area of the membrane that fizzed away had been repaired.

Now all that remained was to stabilize the core. However, at this point, his mind had overheated to the point where he couldn\'t tell whether he was still conscious or not.

"Contract it!" he heaved, falling down to his knees. With this, he felt TrueElmando slip away from him, and his world slowly go dark.

~So useless,~ a voice called out to him, as his mind began to wander off.

~So truly... useless...

"Contract it!!" he shouted, interrupting the voice. He fought to stay conscious, though it felt like a very thin thread held him together.

As True Elmando pushed on the core from all sides, he could feel something within his mind set ablaze.

Indeed, there would be a price to pay once he got back; however, that wasn\'t something he was going to worry about right now.

[Photosynthetic core stable...]

[Evolution process commencing...]

"I-I did it..." Lucius whispered to himself, as his mind slowly untethered from this realm.

*

Once he got back to the physical world, he found that he was all alone, not a single commune member in sight. In fact, even Asclepius\'s pod was missing.

~Something\'s... different,~ he thought to himself, before looking up at the sky.

Even thoughthe sun was out, the sky was dark as if were night. With seven stars, all grouped together shining brightly.

The sun itself seemed dwarfed by the brilliance of these stars.

"What\'s going on here-" Lucius was about to ask before the sky accelerated down towards him. Or rather, he accelerated towards it.

A moment later, he found himself standing in a room of pitch-black abyss, with the seven stars floating but a few meters in front of him.

With his knowledge of physics, he knew well that these were no stars.

"The Forest Guardian, so it is you who tries to cheat me?" a voice boomed.

No, rather it wasn\'t a voice, but a will. He understood what it meant, merely because it willed him to.

An instant later, one of the stars began to glow, and the light it emitted started morphin into a figure.

"W-what?" Lucius stuttered, noticing what the star had fashioned itself into.

It was a mirror copy... of him.