OP Absorption
Chapter 59: Life

Chapter 59: Life

The Queen leaned over Fin’s body, her fingers tracing the faint outline where Hana’s sword had pierced him. She paused, her head tilted, a predator assessing wounded prey.

"Still warm," she murmured, a note of clinical interest in her voice. "Life clings stubbornly, doesn’t it?" Her eyes narrowed, focusing intently on his chest.

"Ah. There." Recognition sparked in her deep eyes. "A Silver Core embedded within him. How... unexpected. A rare prize indeed."

She straightened, a thoughtful expression crossing her features. She turned toward the pedestal beside her throne and retrieved the dark Mana Cell. It pulsed with a deep, internal rhythm in her grasp, radiating contained power. Walking back, she knelt beside him once more, holding the crystal above the wound.

"If you possess such a rarity," she mused, her voice soft, almost gentle, "perhaps you can withstand this, too? A worthy vessel for greater things."

She pressed the Mana Cell firmly onto the wound in his chest.

For several seconds, nothing happened. The crystal pulsed against his still skin, a dark jewel against pale flesh. Arachne, watching from the wall where she huddled, flinched back instinctively, shielding her eyes as if anticipating an explosion.

Arexa stood sentinel, impassive but watchful.

Then, the Mana Cell flared violently. Its internal light erupted, not outwards, but inwards, swallowed instantly by Fin’s body. Green energy lines, brighter and far denser than the faint traces he’d shown before, exploded across his skin like lightning trapped beneath glass.

They traced complex, almost geometric patterns over his chest, snaking up his neck, down his arms, branching across his face. The Cell itself seemed to dissolve, consumed in less than ten seconds, leaving behind only the glowing, intricate network on his skin.

His hair flashed through colors – brown, to red, to blue, to white, then snapping back to brown – the rapid cycling leaving afterimages in the air. The ambient mana in the throne room seemed to churn, drawn towards him, swirling like disturbed water.

The Queen watched, her lips slightly parted, fascination overriding her usual regal composure. "Magnificent," she breathed, the word filled with genuine awe. "Such power... such potential."

But the wonder quickly faded, replaced by cold calculation. Her expression shifted, hardening. She extended a single, sharp fingernail from her index finger.

"A shame to dull such potential with crude bindings," she said softly, almost regretfully. "But obedience is paramount. A tool must answer its master."

She moved with swift precision, plunging the sharpened nail deep into the side of his neck, just below the jawline. He didn’t react, didn’t even twitch. She held it there for a moment, a slight frown creasing her brow as if concentrating.

She withdrew it moments later, a single drop of viscous, dark fluid clinging to the tip before it shimmered and receded back into her finger.

She stood back then, folding her arms, her gaze fixed on Fin’s face. Waiting.

Minutes passed in thick silence.

Until.

Fin’s eyes snapped open.

They were brown, his natural color, but the pupils were wrong. Terribly wrong. They were no longer round, but perfect, razor-edged cubes, reflecting the throne room’s cold, silvery light with an unnatural, dead flatness.

The air around him felt suddenly colder, charged with an alien presence that had nothing of the boy who had fallen there moments before.

He sat up, the movement unnervingly fluid, almost mechanical. The gaping wound in his chest was gone, replaced by smooth, unblemished skin marked only by the glowing green lines that now pulsed with a slow, steady, rhythmic light.

He looked at the Queen. His expression was blank. Utterly empty. A mask carved from ice.

He tilted his head slightly, a bird-like gesture that was deeply unsettling. His pupils fixed on the Queen. "Did you revive me?" His voice was monotone, devoid of inflection.

The Queen smiled, a predatory curve of her lips, though a flicker of something uncertain touched her eyes. She reached out, cupping his cheek gently, a gesture of possession. "Yes. A gift. You belong to me now, my interesting little human."

He stared at her for three long seconds, his expression unchanging, the cube pupils seeming to absorb the light, giving nothing back. "Is that so?"

A sliver of unease finally pierced the Queen’s confidence. That flat tone, those dead eyes... this wasn’t the reaction she’d expected. Before she could pull back, before she could formulate a command, his hand shot out with impossible speed, clamping around her throat.

The blankness in his eyes didn’t shift. His fingers tightened around her throat, the pressure sudden, immense. Bone threatened to give way under the mechanical force.

The Queen’s surprise vanished, replaced by incandescent fury. Faster than thought, her hand lashed out, backhanding him with contemptuous force. The impact cracked like thunder. He flew sideways, slamming into a distant pillar hard enough to shear off stone fragments.

He slid down, landing in a heap.

"Ungrateful whelp!" she hissed, her voice tight with rage, rubbing her throat where his fingers had been. The air around her throne shimmered, power coiling visibly. "I give you life, power beyond imagining, and you dare?!" She took a half-step forward, then paused, a slight frown touching her brow despite the fury.

The binding... it didn’t take? Her eyes narrowed fractionally. Resistant to poison, yes, but control immunity? Impossible.

Before she could act further, Fin pushed himself up from the rubble at the pillar’s base. He moved with the same unsettling fluidity, seemingly unaffected by the impact. The glowing green lines pulsed steadily one his skin. His cube pupils swiveled, locking onto the nearest threat.

A sharp crack split the air. Arexa lashed out. Her whip blurred, the tip aimed directly at Fin’s face.

He didn’t flinch. His free hand shot up, catching the whip’s tip inches from his eye. His grip was absolute, stopping the attack cold. Leather strained against his fingers.

His gaze shifted, fixing on Arexa across the hall. She blinked, startled by the effortless catch.

In that blink, he was gone from the pillar.

He reappeared directly in front of her, closer than breathing distance. Her six eyes widened, unable to track the instantaneous movement.

His fist drove forward. Not a wild swing, but a perfectly straight, piston-like blow connecting squarely with her sternum, right where Hana’s desperate punch had landed before.

THUMP.

The sound was deceptively dull, absorbed entirely by Arexa’s body. She stood frozen for a full second, shock registering on her face, the intricate crimson aura around her flickering violently.

Then, physics caught up. Her body folded around the point of impact, and she was launched backward like a cannonball, hitting the far wall with catastrophic force. Stone shattered outwards, and she vanished into the dust cloud, leaving only a sickening crunch echoing in the sudden silence.