Chapter 388: A miracle in a minute
Aether Formulas.
The secret language of the universe that allow cultivators to bend the rules of reality as they see fit by manipulating the fundamental energy that composes it, aka, aether.
But how does a cultivator tap into the power of these fabled formulas and begin making reality their plaything?
By carving the formulas into their souls of course.
Literally.
All mortals, hell, all souls are capable of tapping into the aether and manipulate parts of it in minute to negligible amounts.
Think of the soul as an unrefined ingot of copper and aether as electricity, one could technically use the ingot to store and conduct electricity, but it won’t be very good at it.
The copper ingot needs to be processed into a battery, a dynamo, or a circuit board in order to make use of electricity in some meaningful way. Of course, such end products normally require a blueprint made by someone else ahead of time or some in-depth know how to make such things.
Keeping to this analogy, a lot of the formulas cultivated by warriors today are either learned from nature, literally imprinted on the cores of aether beasts or found in unusual natural locations, why bother figuring out the hard part yourself if nature has a solution, or crafted by elites and masters who attained some insane level of enlightement and proceeded to spend years to lifetimes in developing a formula.
The creation of aether formulas has always been a tricky affair for even the most powerful of cultivators, because of just how insanely delicate they were when being made from the ground up.
One wrong character there, a mis-stroke here, an incorrect aether channel wherever, and one risks turning an aether formula that could give someone the power to level a mountain into an aether formula that could cause someone to spontaneously combust from shitting themselves to death.
The amount of times that has happened throughout history is unusually high, but not important for the moment.
Back at the topic at hand, aether formulas are easy to establish, but creating them in the first place is difficult beyond compare and it has taken lifetimes for even the wisest of sages to figure out how to make just one that works.
Now…imagine the look on all of their faces, when some random aether puppet given life in the middle of nowhere managed to make one out of sheer spite and desire to be the center of attention?
All in the course of a minute.
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“Uhhh….Jin Fang? I know you said you wouldn’t split my head open, but can you recon-BWAH!”
“WHOA! WHAT THE FUCK?!”
In the moment in time, Zhen Liu was still nursing an absolutely brain breaking headache that seemed to be trying to convince that his brain was made of nothing but worms.
However, that feeling got immediately overriden by what Zhen Liu could only describe as “deluxe enlightement”.
The sudden change was so powerful that it caused Zhen Liu to shoot up from his laying position in bed into an upright seated one.
The look in his eyes went from painful and tired to outright shock and awe.
<=New Kaijin has been created, delivering aether art knowledge in exchange for cultivation formula information, now.=>
A whole slew of new information got suddenly injected into his brain as his connection to Razor Maiden suddenly went from nebulous and ill-defined to incredibly defined and solid.
“Hold up…,” Zhen Liu said aloud, “her name isn’t Razor Maiden anymore… it’s…”
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‘What the fuck?,’ Razor Maiden asked herself as she felt like some secret of the universe just clicked in her head out of pure happenstance.
As a weirdly profound revelation overcame Razormaiden, she began to hear voices in her head.
{Establishing framework with a focus on agility, energetic movement and aggression…}
‘Wait, what the fuck?’
While at the same time, she saw that in real time, an aether formula was being established what appeared to be a huge glowing ball.
Her huge glowing ball.
Granted, it was all colorless, visible lines at first.
{Foundation for the formula has been established. Defining aether affinity…}
It took Razorsaiden a moment to realize that the voice she was hearing was, surprisingly, her own. It just didn’t have the same amount of “life” as her own.
‘Wait…is that what I sound like? Huh…I got a damn pretty voice.’
{Aether affinity established.}
{Type: Luxari}
{Subtype: Star}
{Attempting to suffuse into being…fail. Material body’s aether affinity has been established as Subtype: Metal. Attempting to consolidate aether types…success.
Formula affinity is now Luxari, Subtype: Star/Metal.}
‘Well that’s convenient.’
At the establishment of this affinity, the once colorless lines began to take on a white, almost silver coloration, forming into a colored pattern.
{Beginning suffusion and mutation of internal aether and structure to the defined affinity now.}
‘What the fuck does that-Oh, I feel tingly…wait a minute,I can feel things now?!’
Out of shock at the sudden sensation, Razorstiden brought her hand up to her face to see what was happening to it.
She noticed two changes right from the get-go.
Firstly, her normally oversized knife-like fingers were starting to become more and more delicate and defined. Still looking wicked sharp, but now it looked like she could pick up things without cutting them to ribbons.
Second, and more importantly, she was glowing.
Literally.
‘Wait…my whole body is glowing?!’
{Suffusion of Luxari aether at fifty percent. Composition of relavent mantras, sutras and exercises needed to complete the formula, now.}
The silver-white pattern suddenly began to spin rapidly as the glowing ball in the middle shrank in unison. As the two actions occured, runic character after runic character began to populate the empty space between pattern and core.
As Razorsteden looked over her body, she realized that she was glowing, not in the same neon subtle manner like Hurricroak, but like star in the night sky, gentle yet bright.
This glow however was bright enough that the darkness surrounding Razorstelen gave way to her glowing form, allowing her to see not only the warehouse floor again, but also the surprised face of Jasper the orphan boy.
While Razorstelen wasn’t the greatest at identifying emotions yet, she could still tell the boy was surprised.
Possibly due to the sudden light appearing in the darkness, possibly due to him realizing the gentle voiced older sister type comforting him actually looked like a horror movie monster that was now glowing.
Razorstelln looked a bit sheepish as she scratched her cheek at the boy’s surprised face. She had honestly expected screaming and crying out of terror over how she looked, not staring.
“So…sorry for my creepy appearance. Bet you weren’t expecting-”
“Pretty…”
“Huh?”
“So pretty…like a star…,” Jasper repeated, absolutely gobsmacked.
“Oh…thank you.”
This was the third time she had been complimented about her appearance this night alone, once from the shopkeepers at the textile store and once more from that beaver dude…but this was the first time someone had complimented her form as is.
No human disguise, no fake elegance, and not fancy dress, just…her.
And it was arguably the best compliment she had received in her whole lifetime…even if the aforementioned lifetime wasn’t that long to begin with.
“Big sister… what’s your name?,” Jasper asked in pure adoration.
“My name? It’s…”
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{OH WHAT FUN, WHAT FUN! I CAN’T WAIT TO HEAR WHAT OTHER SOUNDS THEY…huh? What’s that light}
[I DON’T…know…but I’m starting to feel sleepy.]
[Oh…shit…losing…steam…]
[Puta Madre…why does my head feel like it’s been rubberbanded back together?]
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{Formula information has been fully composed.}
{New Formula: [Star Dancer’s Path] has been established.}
{Congratulations on becoming complete, kaijin.}
<=Now go kick their asses.=>
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“Alright you stupid ox-horned bimbo! Get ready to eat my…huh?”
“Oh my…”
“Huh? Why the hell are you two demons not…oh what the fuck?”
Lacerage and Archanidame were still locked in heated combat against Fia Venus, but all three suddenly paused as an unusually sharp increase in aether activity happened close by them.
None of them knew what to make of it, but it was too loud not to notice.
[Wait a minute…isn’t that signature’s Razor Maiden?,] Lacerage asked.
[It is, but…it seems that’s not her name anymore,] Archanidame answered.
[Oh? Then what is it.]
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“ROAR!”
“BY THE GODS, HOW MANY OF THESE BASTARDS ARE THERE?!”
“I ain’t complaining about the numbers, I’m complaining that they won’t stay the fuck down!”
The battle between the shadows and zakos reached a strange stalemate.
The zakos were clearly trying to break apart the [Five Shadow Kings] formation, but the shadows were preventing such things from happening by simultaneously fighting off the zakos and having people not fighting the zakos to take over to supply aether to the formation.
This pattern held true for a long while…until the ones meditating noticed something deeply wrong.
“Uhh…is it just me or is it getting a lot harder to supply aether to this thing?”
“It’s not, I’m feeling that too.”
“Why is…Hold up, why is it glowing like that?”
“What?!”
From inside of the domed darkness, the shadows and zakos could see glowing spots like stars appearing one after the other within the darkness of the formation.
No one had any clue as to why this was occurring…but then they noticed something a bit more disturbing.
“Guys…I hear cracking!”
“What?!”
“The shield is breaking?! Fucking haul ass before-!”
BOOM!
An explosion of aether occured as both the formation and the defensive array shattered into pieces and a giant ball of light suddenly shot into the air like a firework.
As it did, an aether empowered voice rocked the area.
“Stop! Stare! And stand in attention! Razorstella is making her debut at this moment!”
