As a mortal, Elias had made these motions a thousand times as he practiced, to ensure that on the day he became a Siphon, he would be able to perform it flawlessly. He had also made many other preparations before this day, and it was a shame that he was able to use none of them.
Thrown into an unknown and dangerous situation, Elias had to improvise, and there was nothing he hated more than a lack of preparation; however, despite the situation that he saw himself in, he followed one important code, and that was that power did not reward haste; it rewards precision.
He was sitting under what he was sure would cause a war in Stormfall if so much Vitality was up for grabs, and he was not in a hurry; his hands did not shake, and the words in his head were spoken clearly.
Elias knew that the words did not matter. Brother Valerius, who taught him this technique, had encouraged him to choose a series of words that resonated with him; what was important were the hand gestures and hand position, the breathing pattern and the muscle sequence, and finally the mental imagery in his head that would resonate with the Lumina inside his body.
None of these steps could be missing, and if they were, then the Vitality Absorption technique would either fail or work suboptimally. With the complexity of this technique, it was impossible for anyone to copy what Elias was doing just by watching him, because a slight variation in a single step would change the focus of the entire technique.
Elias took three short inhales through the nose that were sharp and quick and one long, slow draw through the mouth. He held all of that cold air inside his lungs for exactly seven heartbeats before he released it in a single smooth exhale.
While he was doing this, his hand position was changing. His palms were facing each other in front of the sternum, fingers forming a diamond, with his thumbs touching at the bottom, and his index fingers extended upward like horns.
He remembered Brother Valerius telling him that he had to truly perfect this motion because it created a focal point for the mental vortex. His muscles began to vibrate in a peculiar rhythm that started from his diaphragm and rippled outward through his core, going from his arms, shoulders, and neck before finally returning back to his arms. It was as if his body had become a living conduit.
Finally, the mental image in his head was of a perfect counterclockwise spiral centered in the heart, pulling ribbons of vitality inward like water down a drain, and to accompany this mental image was the chant that Elias had created for himself. He drew inspiration from the words he had seen on the stone blade that summoned the Green Swarm, and he thought that this made the chant resonate with him on a deeper level.
"Blood of the slain, I tear it free,
Crimson veins, bow down to me.
Heart as forge, I burn your lives,
Spiral fierce, devour the tide,
All you were, now mine to take.
I am the hunter, I am the gate,
What you lost, I now claim."
Elias felt a tug in his core as his Status screen vibrated in his head, but he ignored this and focused on his actions. A growing heat began to rise from the center of his being, and Elias felt a sharp tingle traveling through his body, and suddenly he felt his Will connect to a well of power and vitality that nearly burned his mind to ash.
With a faint pop, his eyes exploded from their sockets as Elias coughed blood, and his bones groaned. Connecting to this ocean of vitality above him had shown Elias why no Wisp in their right mind would think of claiming such a potent source of vitality. He was like an ant trying to swallow an ocean.
His body and soul would shatter first before he could even devour a small fraction of it.
Elias growled, but he did not stop; he felt his vitality begin to pour from his body like he was a basket holding water, blood, and shattered internal organs poured out from his mouth, but he did not stop; instead, his chanting grew louder until it became a roar.
He painted a frightening figure at this moment, like a warrior from the days of the gods, bloody and naked, he stood in the midst of powers greater than himself, and he was not broken.
Elias's voice was naturally deep, but he usually made his voice a bit higher so others could let down their guard around him. Now he was not holding back, and he was chanting with a voice that was made for a general at the front of an army.
And this was how he saw himself, a general, and his body was his army. His body might be shattered into pieces, but as long as his Will was strong, he would drag his broken body through a field of devastation to get to his goals.
Above him, the swirling cloud of Lumina shuddered, their rotation halting for a moment as if his voice was a whip, and they were unwilling slaves in front of their master.
The amount of damage he was taking would not kill him, but for anyone else, it would cripple them, and so the old age question arose in times like these: how much are you willing to sacrifice for power?
Elias' mind was too occupied, and he could not think about anything but the challenge before him, but every muscle in his body, his voice, everything in him was screaming that he would sacrifice everything!
He did not know who he could have been without the voice of the Passenger in his head, or the urges that would kill him in the most painful ways if he did not fulfill their desires, his unknown pasts, these damned Fragment… all of these were matters that made him feel like a little paper boat left in the center of a raging ocean. He could not pick his direction, could not decide his future, could only be a tiny freaking boat in the midst of a hurricane… No More!
His heart was beating so hard and fast as if it was going to explode, and it should have, but his ungodly regeneration kept him at the threshold, and his voice had melded into one continuous chanting, and for a moment, it was as if he was multiple people speaking at the same time.
With a roar that shook the cavern, the cloud of Vitality above began to converge towards Elias, massive tentacles of red Lumina filled with enough vitality to give stone life began to twist their way to his side, and they crawled towards his hands, and with an unexpected thrust, they rushed into Elias body through the pattern created by his fingers.