The Cradle Seed's energy spread through him in threads.
Not thick channels — fine, almost delicate filaments of elemental energy extending outward from his core, working their way through muscle and bone and mana pathways and deeper places he couldn't identify with any vocabulary he currently had. They moved slowly and with purpose, finding every corner of him before settling into place.
It was mildly painful.
Leon registered the pain the way he registered most things — as information rather than experience. Compared to what he'd been through, the physical reconstruction after his race change, the worst moments of the fight against the entity in the dimensional world, the broken ribs and chest wounds that had become routine — this was barely worth acknowledging. A background sensation, present but irrelevant to his focus.
What demanded his attention was everything else.
