Chapter 221: Nothing Left Unchanged

The array continued working without pause, no matter how long Ravian suffered, utterly indifferent to how he might feel, as though it had already decided that whatever he experienced, he would endure it.

And apparently, its judgment was correct...

Because the same torment he had suffered so horribly in this very cave was beginning all over again... only worse.

A split opened in the skin on the back of his hand, releasing a thick drop of blood that trickled between his fingers, but he could not follow it; the pain had moved into his chest, and he felt his ribs spread apart before tightening around his lungs, while his body continued breathing in a way he could not understand amid everything happening inside it.

He knew the process had done this before, that bodily functions which should have failed had continued even as his bones shattered, but knowing that made the sensation no less terrifying or painful.

Especially when he lost all sense of where one of his feet was.

Ravian immediately looked at it.

It was still there, but he could neither move its toes nor feel it at all, until sensation returned all at once with the pain, making his leg jerk upward before slamming against the ground in an involuntary reaction to the sudden agony.

’System, what’s happening?’

[The connections within the physique are being restructured.]

[The Void component maintains the connection between its parts throughout their reconstruction.]

Ravian read the words, then closed his eyes and forced himself to lie still, trying to escape the pain however he could.

His body had become half human and half a being of the Void, but until now, he had treated that as a source of strength and a space where he could conceal his belongings. Feeling parts of himself lose their familiar form while continuing to function, however, was an entirely different experience.

He opened his eyes when the heat intensified.

The markings within his bones shifted, and the gray energy compressed into the fractures created by the process before the bone closed around it again. The pressure no longer felt confined to a single location; it spread throughout his entire skeleton, as though each bone now knew how much strain the others were bearing, while the markings grew deeper and more numerous.

Then his heart clenched.

Air escaped his mouth in a sharp burst, and his eyes flew wide as the next pulse began.

The previous pain had been confined deep within him, but now it spread with the blood through his arteries.

He felt it pass through his chest and abdomen, surge into his head, then return to his heart, which began pounding violently. His pulse accelerated until he could no longer distinguish one beat from the next, and blood trickled from his nose down the side of his face.

He tried to wipe it away, but his hand trembled above his chest and never reached it.

[Limits of the previous stage surpassed.]

[Beginning adaptation of the blood and organs to the new physique.]

’Ugh... Of course we’re not finished yet.’ Ravian gritted his teeth.

His body convulsed, forcing him to move both arms away from his chest and brace his palms against the ground as he felt something akin to his organs filling from within. His body was trying to receive the new power, and every part that had yet to finish changing became an obstacle against which the energy pressed before passing into the next.

The array continued channeling it into him.

With every pulse, his need for air grew while moving his chest became harder, as though he were ascending higher and higher into the sky.

Even his thoughts began to grow sluggish.

The image of a green axe descending toward him before his death and regression flashed through his mind, followed by the trees he had shattered with his body before finding himself unable to move a single finger.

He did not want to experience that helplessness again.

’Reduce the flow,’ Ravian ordered, his crimson eyes gleaming.

Contrary to his expectations, the array responded with remarkable ease, and the next pulse diminished before it could enter in full, but the energy already inside him continued moving, leaving him to deal with it.

Ravian tried to steady his breathing, then realized he was repeating the same mistake he had made when facing the orcs during his first attempt: reacting to each immediate threat without accounting for the rest. Here, he was waiting for the pain to reach each part of him before trying to resist it, shifting from his arm to his chest to his head until he exhausted his attention without changing anything.

He forced himself to keep his eyes open and let Absolute Focus bring his awareness of his body together instead of scattering it among its separate parts.

He felt his heartbeat, then the movement of his blood, then the points of pressure shifting with every pulse of energy.

He did not understand everything that was happening, nor did he need to pretend otherwise. He confined himself to what he could follow, steadying his breathing whenever a wave approached his chest and relaxing the muscles he had been instinctively tensing against the pain.

Some of them were trying to transform while he resisted with every ounce of strength he possessed.

’All right... Continue, but keep the flow at this rate.’

[Understood, Host.]

The turmoil within him subsided without much relief from the pain, but the difference was enough for Ravian to remain conscious. Air began reaching his lungs more steadily, and he could feel blood passing through vessels that had nearly closed under the pressure moments earlier.

A short laugh escaped him, quickly turning into a cough.

’You could have told me to do that from the beginning.’

[You requested a reduction in the flow, and the array carried it out, not me, Host.]

Ravian stared at the window for a moment.

’Ah, right... Looks like the pain made me lose focus.’

No answer came, and the energy continued its work.

His muscles began changing next, contracting in groups beneath his skin before settling into a firmer connection with his bones than ever before. He could feel strength gathering within them, but could not use it yet; every attempt to bend a finger sent another wave of pain through his forearm.

His arms did not swell the way they had when he assumed Shiro’s appearance, instead growing denser as he watched, until even the slightest movement carried a sense of weight far greater than he was accustomed to.

Then it was his skin’s turn.

Ravian watched the back of his hand with a dark expression as the earlier split widened and a thin, dry layer peeled away along its edge.

’Come on, no.’

A piece of it fell onto the stone.

"No, we’ve done this before."

[The existing tissues are no longer suitable for accommodating the new physique.]

Ravian closed his eyes, then opened them and looked at his hand again.

’Is there a single part of this body you intend to keep?’