Chapter 777 – Hijacking a ritual (1)

“Are you sure about this?” Archibald asked. “It could kill you.”

“I don’t think it’ll be that bad,” Percy replied with a wry smile. “I’ve already survived two such baths with purely alien ingredients and no good source of healing. If I’m right about the demi-humans, my body should be more compatible with my potions. Even if I’m wrong, I can’t see this being too dangerous. Besides, you’re here to patch me up if things go to shit, and I’ve also got some Clear life mana from the Vault inside my seal.”

Metatron had given Percy that mana to compensate him when he had consumed his own green mushrooms to give the Moirais’ Decree to Cassiel. Due to Percy’s deal with the titan, he wasn’t supposed to waste his own resources to give new cores to his hosts, but the artificial world’s system had temporarily malfunctioned after his fusion with Micky, giving him a rare chance to practically extort the pentapus.

Percy had held on to the potent source of healing all this time, as he didn’t like wasting resources that he couldn’t easily replenish – at least not for temporary benefits. He’d even resisted regrowing his severed leg during the battle with Machaon, knowing that Archibald would have healed him for free later. The Thess’kalan ritual was precisely the sort of thing he’d kept the Clear mana for, as he’d much rather use the precious liquid in an attempt to acquire a permanent boost.

“Death isn’t the only outcome I’m worried about,” his grandfather admitted. “Have you considered what the mutation might do to your body?”

“I have,” Percy replied. “The Mimicry trait hasn’t failed me yet, so I’m fairly confident that I’ll be able to keep myself from turning into a monster.”

‘At least I hope so.’ Nesha would kill him if he showed up to their next date looking like a green-skinned freak with pointy ears and long tusks.

Before tossing the ingredients into the vat, there was one last thing that Percy needed to do. In a stroke of inspiration, he decided to spend a few minutes slowly flushing all the Green mana from his body and methodically lowering the grades of both of his cores to Yellow.

He’d never allowed this to happen after registering the Cradle, as every second he spent in this state would consume his remaining lifespan three times as fast, in addition to how much weaker it would make him. Reactivating the seals was also too tiresome to do on a whim. He’d probably have to spend an hour or two carefully elevating his grades again after the ritual.

However, there were certain benefits that he couldn’t ignore.

For one, he would widen the gap between his grade and the Violet potions even further. He didn’t know if his body would be able to handle them, but he’d rather have the option of pushing himself as far as possible. It would also be best if he didn’t have to worry about keeping his channels full and his boosting art active during the ritual.

The only issue was that lowering the grade of both cores would decrease his clone capacity by two, so he had to ensure he freed up enough cords for that. He hadn’t done anything important with the clone he had retrieved from Melodia, so the first cord wasn’t a problem. Unfortunately, Percy was forced to temporarily retrieve the clone working on Archibald’s second Cradle and hope that the incomplete network of seals inside the man’s abdomen wouldn’t degrade too much during the ritual.

A wave of weakness knocked Percy off his feet as soon as his cores were empty, sending him sliding down the vat’s frigid wall. The water hugging him felt slightly more unpleasant, though still within his ability to bear.

“Are you alright in there?” Archibald’s muffled voice asked, tinged with worry.

“I’m fine,” Percy reassured his grandfather after barely managing to stick his face out of the water.

Core demotions were surprisingly unpleasant. In theory, Percy had only lost two-thirds of his physical strength, but he honestly felt like he’d dropped all the way to Red. From what Elaine – who still had to deactivate her seals every night and reactivate them every morning – had told him, the rush of weakness tended to linger for longer than the euphoria brought about by an advancement. Percy supposed that it was more of a psychological thing – the human mind just liked to hyperfocus on one’s losses more than their gains.

In any case, there was no point delaying any longer. The sooner he finished, the sooner he’d be able to advance again and get rid of the side-effects.

Reaching into his seal, Percy located the vial containing the Greater Thess’kalan Heartblood and emptied it inside the vat. The water turned blood-red and started to boil. It seeped into Percy’s pores and tried to trigger the change, though his mutation was already too powerful for him to feel much.

“Here goes nothing,” he said, adding a drop of Blue trollsfury ink into the water.

He decided to start conservatively, since there would be plenty of time to increase the dosage or switch to the Violet potions after confirming that he could handle them. The bath was supposed to last for a couple of days, so he wasn’t in a rush.

That said, he might have been a little too cautious, as the first droplet did nothing. It was probably too heavily diluted to affect him. Easing up slightly, Percy poured half a vial next, eagerly studying the changes.

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Something happened this time. The trollsfury ink and the Heartblood entered his body, elevating his heartrate slightly and warming his flesh. Growing bolder, he went for a full dose of Blue ink next, and even made sure to inject it directly into his veins as he normally did, knowing that it would be more effective.

The change was immediate.

Percy’s heart thrummed violently, pumping wave after wave of scorching blood through his body. A familiar rush of power flooded his muscles, causing them to swell, and dispelling the lingering fatigue from his demotion.

This was Percy’s first time using trollsfury ink two grades higher than his body, though it looked like there was still some leeway.

‘Good. At least I haven’t wasted my time brewing all those Violet potions,’ he thought, though he was still glad that he hadn’t foolishly gone all out from the start, as he wasn’t sure that a full dose would have been safe.

Switching to the next grade, Percy emptied half a vial into his veins, bracing himself for the pain.

His heart started beating even faster, feeling like it was about to burst. His skin tore as his muscles bulged, spilling hot blood into the vat. The regenerative properties of the ink rushed to close the wounds, though they could barely keep up with the damage, bringing Percy’s body to a new equilibrium of destruction and healing.

Percy didn’t mind the physical pain too much, having experienced far worse things in the past. However, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to fight like this. It was clear that a two-grade gap to his potions was the most he could handle during combat, as his body would fall apart if he tried to strain himself under the influence of the Violet ink.

Fortunately, the effect was a lot easier to manage if he was just sitting still inside a vat and cautiously experimenting with his mutation.

He was tempted to inject the rest of the dose. The passive regeneration from the ink wouldn’t be enough to keep his body in one piece, but he’d be fine once his grandfather started healing him. However, he decided to stick to the current equilibrium for now. He’d rather introduce the other ingredients before pushing any of them to its limit. ℴ

“How do you feel?” Archibald asked. “I can see the potion affecting you, but I can’t tell if the Heartblood has interacted with it.”

Percy frowned. His grandfather had raised a good point. The bath was supposed to consolidate the effects of his potions into a permanent mutation, though Percy wasn’t sure that it was working. Concentrating on his body, he thought that the ink felt slightly different – almost as if it had bonded to his blood more strongly. But it could just as easily be his imagination, fooled by wishful thinking.

He could always just wait the effect out and see if it lingered, yet he didn’t want to waste his ingredients like that. It was better to stack as many potions as he could for as long as possible, and worry about the results later. Even if his efforts hit a dead end, it wasn’t like he could recover the Heartblood – he had basically lost it the moment he’d poured it into the vat.

“I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” Percy said with a shrug. “I’m going to switch things up. Don’t panic if I start bleeding a lot. I’ll let you know if I need healing.”

It had only been about five minutes since he’d poured the Heartblood into the vat, and the Violet ink he’d injected into his blood should last five more. If he kept drip-feeding the remaining six and a half doses into his veins, he should be able to extend the effect to well over an hour. That was more than enough time to add the other ingredients and then decide how much further to push them.

He decided to go for the marshblood tonic next, as enhancing his metabolism sounded like the perfect way to build a strong foundation for the other potions. The fact that his blood was currently circulating through his body much faster than normal would hopefully help.

This time, Percy skipped the Blue version entirely, jumping directly to Violet. He poured a quarter of a dose into his stomach and waited a few seconds for it to seep into his bloodstream.

Percy clenched his fists as the tonic mixed with the ink and the Heartblood.

His body grew even hotter, and he felt bubbles forming inside his veins. Thankfully, his heart didn’t beat any faster – he didn’t think that it could – but his wounds began spreading, leaking copious amounts of blood that looked closer to foam than liquid in the vat.

Percy caught his grandfather tensing by the edge of his vision, seemingly about to start pouring life mana into his body, though Micky grabbed the Violet’s shoulder and shook his head, assuring him that the situation was still under control.

The marshblood tonic also contained some life mana, but it didn’t rush to close Percy’s wounds, as it worked a little differently from the trollsfury ink.

A wave of indescribable hunger washed over Percy, reminding him that the tonic essentially accelerated his metabolism, and would need proper fuel to show its effects.

Scrounging through his spatial seal, Percy searched for anything edible, dropping random morsels of food into his stomach. His body digested everything within seconds, flooding his veins with nutrients.

The damage on his skin slowed down at last, though it didn’t halt entirely, nor did his injuries close. His body was still tearing itself apart, and he was leaking blood almost as quickly as it was being replenished, meaning that he wouldn’t be able to sustain this state indefinitely.

Still, he felt like he could easily last an hour. Even without external healing, he wouldn’t bleed out before then, and he certainly had enough food inside his seal to keep feeding the tonic.

Feeling more confident, Percy emptied another quarter-dose of marshblood into his stomach, matching the ink. After that, he continued drip feeding both potions into his body while also tossing more pieces of food into his belly.

His blood churned even more aggressively and his wounds looked like they were about to open again when something inside him finally clicked.

The pressure and temperature inside his veins climbed to a new height, as the bloody foam seeped into his joints and washed over his marrow. The water inside the vat grew a couple shades darker as Percy felt tiny chunks of something much thicker than blood spill out of his wounds.

Speaking of his wounds, they suddenly started knitting themselves shut much faster, causing Percy’s body to demand twice as much food.

Cautiously stretching his limbs, he thought that they were slightly more flexible than before. Every breath that entered his lungs also felt more refreshing, and he was confident that his heart could still pump blood a little faster, after all.

The corners of Percy’s lips curled up.

This wasn’t his first time combining the trollsfury ink with the marshblood tonic, but their effects had never compounded like this. And he still had three more potions to add…