A New Beginning In A Mana Apocalypse - Chapter 72 Chapter 72

My head was aching when I opened my eyes. As soon as my eyelids parted I closed them again as the light flooded my vision making my headache worse, like a long metal spike shoved into both temples. Worse than any hangover I had ever experienced. I groaned in discomfort wondering what the hell had happened and what I needed to do to make the pain go away.

A soft hand caressed my head gently a warmth spreading from the soft fingers. That warmth eased the ache in my head but it didn’t make it go away.”He’s awake.” a voice said. It sounded familiar but my head hurt too much to think on who it could be.

A few more moments of the soft fingers caressing my temples and forehead caused the pain to ease back a bit more, almost allowing me to have some cognitive thought, almost.

“Oh thank heaven.” another female voice said, this one sounded even more familiar. I was sure that if I thought it about it just a little I could identify the voice, but I didn’t want to risk the pain, not yet. The fingers were working wonders on the headache.

“He’s in a great deal of pain still, I am helping ease it.” the first voice said.

“That bad?” the second voice asked.

I didn’t hear anything else, so the first must have nodded or something like that.

A hand grasped my own cradling it like it was a treasured jewel that could shatter at any moment. The hand was warm and comforting. I was a bit curious whose it was, but not enough to open my eyes, not yet.

The fingers continued to work on me easing the pain a little bit at a time. I had no idea how long I lay there but finally the pain receded to a manageable level, just a hair worse than the hangover I got after downing half a bottle of Everclear on a dare, after an epic two day cram session for my finals, on an empty stomach. Not one of my best decisions, but the darer had been a hot chick that was trying to get rid of me, I hadn’t known she wanted me to ‘fuck off’ until the next day.

I tried opening my eyes again. It still hurt, alot, but I was able to manage to keep my eyes open. That accomplishment was mostly due to the fact I was in a very dim room. What I had thought to be blinding light earlier was in reality a nearly dark room.

I had no idea where I was but I wasn’t concerned. After opening my eyes I could see who was with me. Calidia was sitting by my head her fingers working magic on my headache. Megan was by my side holding my hand a worried look on her face.

I smiled up at the pair of beautiful women who were my wives. They smiled back at me a look of concern still on their faces. They were worried about something and I had no idea what it was.

I closed my eyes in an attempt to feel the women through our bond. As soon as I closed my eyes I was able to see my innerspace. As soon as I saw it I had an idea why they looked so concerned.

It was a total mess. Nothing was where it should be. My abilities were all over the place having no reason to be where they were that I could understand. Concerned I scanned through all my abilities and tried to shift them around into a more orderly fashion.

None of my abilities resisted me. I shifted them all to resemble their positions when I first awakened, how many days ago was it? It already felt like years.

Looking at my abilities there were some obvious changes since I awakened. The outer ring held my six elemental abilities, but their appearance had changed. What had been six elements before were now six elementals, beings in the shape of humans but made up of the element they represented. It would have been great if they all looked like sexy women, but instead only the basic outline was human, nothing else about them even hinted towards a gender. Each element only had a single strong brightsteady light inside of it, but that was it. I wondered if I had degraded my power, yet glancing at each ability they felt far stronger than they ever had before. If the level of the power decreased then the type of power it was had changed. Yet even looking at the six elementals I wasn’t really sure what had changed. The information from each ability hadn’t changed.

Deciding to think about it later I shifted to the next orbit, this one had changed a bit. It still held my body, mind, beast, and plant abilities, but I added the twisted as it just seemed to fit. The beast, plant, twisted and all now resembled the gold core equivalent of the race. Nothing about any of the abilities had changed not even the levels.

The innermost orbit held the space, time, and bond abilities, nothing about them had changed neither shape or level. What had changed was my core. What had been the very heart of who I was was now orbiting a new center.

A large multi colored orb that swirled white, silver, gold, and red sat where my gold core used to be with seven lights glowing inside it flitting around like fireflies. My old core orbited around it by itself keeping a path separate from all the others. I tried to shift it and it moved away from my new center like any of my other abilities. Not sure what else to do with it I placed it in the second orbit with beast, plant, and twisted.

I saw no hint of the elemental lord ability I had earlier, or any sign of my peak ability Annitte had spoken of.

I tried to consider what was going on and more importantly what the new core in the center of my ability was when my inner space seemed to shiver.

My new center flashed brightly then all of my abilities shifted around again against my will. As I watched I saw my six elemental abilities join together into one ability that showed the six elements sitting together in a circle backs to each other facing outward. My beast, plant, twisted, and awakened merged together into my bond ability which now looked like a golden crown with six floating lights inside of it. My mind, body, space, and time abilities didn’t change in any way except their positions. Now there was only one orbit with six abilities.

I had no idea what to think about the changes, just that it was caused by my new core. I had tried to understand what it was earlier, but got nothing. I tried again now hoping that whatever just happened was it awakening.

I wasn’t disappointed this time. As I focused on my center I gained information from it, information that I had never expected. Yet it made some sense. The colors swirling inside the core were the same ones that had circled in the two cores inside Kayda. What I learned was simple. I was not human anymore, whatever Kayda had been was a stepping stone to something else that even it didn’t have a name for. With my bond to her and my control over her cores during the fusion which caused the transformation into what she is now. I was affected too and shared in the transformation.

All of my bonds had survived the change, but I had a feeling that it had not been a pretty transformation which was why they all seemed worried. Yet now that my vortex core, a name I gave it myself as it looked like a vortex of colors, I felt better than I ever had before, including right after I awakened my body ability, after the pain went away.

I opened my eyes to peer up at my wives. The pain was all gone now, and while I wasn’t human anymore I felt incredible. I smiled up at them reassuringly. “I am fine.” I told them. I had questions, so many questions, but I didn’t have the answers. Wherever the information about each of my abilities came from, it had nothing on this transformation. I was going to have to figure it all out on my own.

“Are you? Really?” Megan asked me still worried.

I nodded “Can’t you feel it though our bond?” I asked her teasingly.

Megan hesitated for a moment then seemed relieved. A moment later she was sprawled over my chest clinging to me tightly. “DON’T EVER DO THAT AGAIN!” she wailed at me as she started to sob. I could feel fear, anxiety, anger, everything that seemed to have been repressed while I was in the midst of this transformation.

I smiled a bit and held her tightly with one arm then reached up with the other to grab Calidia’s hand. She too seemed rather emotional, and very very tired.

With a gentle tug I pulled her down to lay beside me wrapping my arm around her in a way that it didn’t disturb Megan.

After wailing for a few moments Megan quieted down. Then to my surprise both Megan and Calidia fell asleep in my arms. It was a bit awkward for me, but I had a feeling they had been through a lot so I didn’t try and wake them. Besides I wasn’t in a rush. I sent messages to my other wives reassuring them that I was awake and fine. They greeted me happily, I felt a lot of emotions from most of them and promised to see them as soon as I could. Kayda didn’t seem to be conscious but I could still feel her and knew she was alive. Maybe she hadn’t finished her transformation? It would wait until Megan and Calidia got some rest.