The formation had consumed every remaining drop of purified soul energy in Kael's possession while leaving his internal landscape eerily quiet. The hollow within the altered drone still pulsed faintly through their bond as a proof of concept that felt more dangerous than any spell he had cast. Kael sat in the heavy silence of the cave with his eyes closed while replaying the moment of creation again and again. He searched for hidden flaws as if repetition alone could expose the structural weaknesses he feared might be lurking beneath the surface.
The tentative formations had been burned into his memory with a ruthless clarity that bordered on physical pain. He knew these patterns would never fade because they were now etched into the deeper layers of his consciousness where even the compendium could not easily overwrite them. This was knowledge he could not afford to lose yet it was also knowledge he did not fully trust. To hold such power was to invite a scrutiny he was not yet prepared to face from the world outside this damp sanctuary.
Kael had finally found a way to keep his core memories beyond the reach of the compendium yet the victory felt incomplete and fragile. He still did not know how to anchor those fragments directly within his soul independent of every external influence or parasitic force. To achieve that level of autonomy he would eventually have to descend into the predator buried within him. He would have to face the part of his soul that devoured and rewrote existence with a hunger that never truly slept.
The thought of such a descent made his breathing slow and careful as he practiced the internal control necessary for survival. Some doors were never meant to be opened without knowing exactly how to close them again before the darkness spilled out. He could feel the predator stirring in response to his ambition as if it were a separate entity waiting for a single moment of weakness. It did not want precision or efficiency because it only craved the raw and chaotic act of consumption.
He opened his eyes and let the physical reality of the hive come back into focus through the dim light of the cave. The drones moved with a disciplined and eerie precision while their thoughts remained faint echoes at the edge of his awareness. Each one carried a fragment of the will belonging to Echo who served as the anchor for the entire collective. The altered drone felt fundamentally different from its siblings in a way that defied simple observation or mana sight.
It was not stronger or faster in any measurable way yet it possessed a depth that had been carved into its very existence. That hollow space inside the drone remained stable and obedient while waiting for the next command to be issued. He could not perceive the soul space directly regardless of which sensory layer he attempted to peel back during his inspection. He only knew the space existed because Echo could feel the weight of the void pressing against her own consciousness.
Now he only had to test the absolute limits of this soul space and determine how he could use it for his benefit and survival. Kael watched the drone for a long moment while measuring every subtle reaction or ripple in the surrounding mana. Its movements remained unchanged and its presence within the hive felt seamless yet he could not shake the feeling of looking at something altered. A container woven into the fabric of a living soul was not a trivial breakthrough by any standard.
It was a significant step toward rewriting the rules that governed existence within the academy and the wider world. He extended a thin and focused thread of mana through the bond to command the altered drone to release what it had absorbed. The drone hesitated for a heartbeat as its will brushed against the overwhelming essence of Echo before silver light spilled outward. The absorbed drone reformed in mid-air while appearing entirely intact yet slightly disoriented before it settled back into the hive.
The soul space collapsed inward and then stabilized again while remaining empty and waiting for his next complex command. He ordered the drone through Echo once more to store other units within its soul space to find the breaking point. One by one the drones dissolved into brilliant silver light and vanished into the hollow without leaving a trace of their presence. When the fourth drone was absorbed, the formation resisted with a physical shudder that vibrated through Kael's own teeth.
The fifth attempt failed entirely as the space refused to expand any further regardless of the pressure he applied. New ideas bloomed in Kael's mind with the speed of a rushing tide as he considered the tactical implications of this storage. He could send ten drones into a battle and then reveal forty at the critical moment to overwhelm an enemy. The shock alone would be enough to cripple any standard formation and the surprise would be lethal for his rivals.
A slow and steady breath left Kael's lips as he considered the possibilities that were now stretching out before him. Storage and release were possible and the process of integration had not destroyed the individuality of his swarm. The implications spiraled outward and touched ideas he was not ready to voice even to his own internal monologue. If this could be scaled successfully, the hive would become more than a simple swarm of constructs.
It would become a living archive of souls and power that could rival the very foundations of the academy itself. Kael was so occupied by the work around him that he did not notice the day passing into the shadows of evening. His stomach growled with a sudden and sharp intensity that pulled him back to the physical reality of his body. He stood up with stiff limbs and prepared a simple broth that tasted of little more than salt and effort.
He devoured the meal without ceremony while his mind continued to churn with the variables of his latest discovery. He could feel that his formation study would have to stop for the time being to allow his energy to recover. It would take time to convert more soul energy and he could sense that his runes needed hours to settle. With that realization in mind Kael lay down and allowed himself a short nap to refresh his mana and channels.
Kael woke to a subtle shift in the rhythm of the hive that resonated deep within his chest. The hum had changed again but this time it carried no warning of danger or instability from the surrounding cave. It carried the unmistakable sensation of completion as if a jagged edge had finally been smoothed over by constant pressure. His mind felt clear and the lingering pressure behind his eyes had vanished to be replaced by a calm awareness.
He sat upright and turned his attention inward to examine the progress of the rune he had been nurturing. The manipulation rune no longer felt unstable or like a foreign construct forced into the delicate architecture of his mindscape. It had fused with his soul in a way that felt permanent and natural rather than a forced addition. It existed as a part of him now and served as a pattern engraved into the foundation of his being.
He entered his mindscape with practiced ease to view the rune which hovered there without any flickering or distortion. Its structure was elegant in a way that his previous creations had never managed to achieve during his early training. Every line felt intentional and every curve was designed to guide his intent rather than simply force it into reality. This was not the brute shaping he had relied on before but was instead an authority given physical form.
Kael reached toward the rune cautiously while feeling the threads of intent extending outward as if they were waiting for instruction. He did not flood the structure with mana or force it to act through sheer willpower alone. Instead, he brushed it with a soft thought to test the sensitivity and responsiveness of the complex mental architecture. Kael started the process very slowly because he could feel the immense potency of this new tool within his mindscape.
He knew he could do much more than he was previously able to achieve yet his own limitations still haunted him. The previous evaluation from his power had shown him that he was truly lacking in the refined art of shaping. Kael infused the manipulation rune with earth mana and watched as the whole cave glowed within his vision. The stone he had already forged could be reshaped even after all the previous modifications he had made.
There were still some parts of the cave that he had purposely left unaltered for the purpose of future testing. He took a block of raw stone and used the manipulation rune to start carving a statue from the material. He could feel that his control was far more precise than before as he easily bent the stone to his will. After controlling the process as much as he could Kael looked at the final product he had created.
A facsimile of Rakshar stared back at him with a cold and clinical expression that brought back memories of humiliation. The strike to his face and the disdain in the eyes of the nobles felt like they were happening again. Kael could see that the carved stone was not as perfected as he could potentially make it with more effort. The attempt was far better than his previous ones, yet it still felt like the work of an amateur.
"Review my attempt pertaining to this stone statue," Kael requested as he directed his focus toward the internal aspect of his power.
[Query Initiated: The carving efficiency is only at 53 percent.]
Kael stared at the stone statue in a heavy silence that was only broken by the distant dripping of water. Fifty three percent was a number that felt like a physical blow to his pride as an aspirant of the academy. He had expected the number to be a little higher but seeing it quantified made the gap feel tangible. The flaw was not in his power but was instead in his lack of refinement and patient mastery.
"What methods can we use to attain one hundred percent efficiency," he asked while feeling the predator within sneer at his failure.
[Training can be designed for host to achieve that one hundred percent efficiency. Cost 500 CP. Balance 543 CP.]
Kael grimaced at the steep cost because his reserves were already thin and the future remained uncertain and dangerous. Hesitation was a luxury he could not afford if he intended to survive the upcoming trials at the academy. He had already seen how crude his shaping truly was and he knew this was not an optional path. This training was foundational to everything he hoped to build within the hive and within his own soul.
"I authorize the training," he stated with a cold resolve that pushed back the exhaustion clinging to his mind.
[CP Deducted: 500. Remaining Balance: 43 CP.]
His thoughts erupted into motion as structured knowledge began threading itself into his consciousness with the force of a storm. Unlike raw data, this came in guided sequences that were anchored to sensation and intuition to become a new instinct. The mental friction felt like a scorching heat behind his eyes as the architecture of his mind was expanded. It was a brutal process that demanded he abandon his old and inefficient ways of thinking about mana.
[Initiating first exercise: Create stone spheres of 3 mm. Quantity required: 100.]
Kael exhaled slowly and raised his hand while the manipulation rune responded to his focus with immediate and sharp intensity. The stone beneath him became a living medium where every grain and fracture was visible within his heightened awareness. He pinched a fragment of stone and began the process of shaping it into the required form for the exercise. The first sphere emerged crude and uneven with a surface that rippled like the water of a disturbed pond.
[Evaluation: Sphere One efficiency 27 percent. Structural imbalance detected.]
He tried again while slowing down to define the sphere in his mind before he ever touched the physical stone. He imagined its mass and its internal structure as if he were building it from the atoms upward with intent. The second sphere formed much smoother than the first yet it was still far from the perfection he required. Sweat began to roll down his temple as the mental strain grew with every new attempt he made.
The exercise was not physically taxing yet it felt mentally suffocating as if he were trying to breathe in a void. Every sphere demanded absolute clarity of intent and microscopic control of the mana flow that sustained the shape. Any lapse in concentration resulted in a deformation that the compendium would immediately flag as a failure. By the fiftieth sphere his fingers were trembling and a dull ache had settled into the base of his skull.
He began to understand the purpose of this mental torture as the hours passed in the dim light of the cave. Small scale shaping forced a level of precision that brute force could never teach a student of the arts. It required a harmony between the mind and the material that he had previously ignored in his search for power. By the hundredth sphere his mind felt as though it had been scraped raw by a coarse stone.