Chapter 394 The Merging

?The fact that there is another artifact like the red crystal humbled Raith a lot. Surely, he had felt like the most powerful one way or the other. [The Source] was what brought him to life, released him from the shackles of Cor - Ellion's time loop and was subtly feeding him strength.

He had not even be able to grasp0.1% of what it consisted and could do but Raith was already filled with so much expectation anytime he thought about it.

He felt like, only time will tell, as long as he had a crystal that was linked to the first primordial, something that even primordials covet then he would eventually be distinguished from the rest of the world.

However, all that was on a table with unbalanced leg. Fear slowly crept into Raith's mundane heart. To think that one of those REVERIE grade artifact could be something he would get entangled with very soon.

Raith frowned. There were so many things tied to this mission. What if the primordials discover that he is with the red crystal? Or what if that broken throne is able to do something to take the red crystal away from him.

After all, Sage had said nothing can be said about them, those particular grade cannot be comprehended in a sense. And he sorta understood that, he was merged with one himself.

So, nothing is impossible.. and he had not even began to scratch the surface of what [The Source] can do.

He slowly touched his right side heart.. the extraordinary heart. Raith closed his eyes and mutter.

"Maybe it is time to start daring some things." His eyes glowered with resolve. "I can't afford to stay in this mediocrity anymore. If my safety is being challenged then I have to push myself out of my shell."

With those words of determination, Raith lifted his legs and sat crossed them. He comfortably put his hands on his knee and closed his eyes, transitioning to his soul plane.

The reflecting water, the retreating darkness at the edges of the plane - towards the horizon, and the crimson star. Everything was just as he had left it. The crimson glow from the star however, seemed to have grown more gentle and beauty, before it was a harsh red but now it seemed warm and casting a twilight-like radiance in the whole place.

On the surface of the water, the two birds were running after each other. This time, when Raith entered, they paused to look at him and continued their play like he didn't just come.

'Are they growing comfortable of me? Or less aware of me?'

And then Greed. The solid mist of darkness was just floating on a point, piercing Raith with a nasty grin. It was uncomfortable. The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B1jn.

Raith looked away and sat cross-legged on the reflecting surface. He was here for something after all.

He had been proposing the idea that the different energies he has in himself are probably not meant to be used interchangeably. Sage had advised him not to use them interchangeably and just focus on using one till more can be said about the others.

With so much power within his vessels, Raith wondered if that was really the thing to do..

Since he tried channeling his energies, he had been getting this nudging. If he is the vessel, one that connotes balance to the diversity of energies that toiled inside of him.

Then as a vessel shouldn't he be doing something to make them coexist together. Raith frowned.. no, coexisting was not the word.

He closed his eyes and clutched his fingers into each other.

'...they need to be one.'

It was a wild idea, cocky in fact when he put to the thought an extraordinary element like the source. That alone far outshines others, although the light which he had no idea why he could contain also spoke of great might. The dark power, malicious and menacing but definitely a reckonable power.

Raith let out a sigh and began.

Right now he was in the plane, where the vivid representation of these entities rested. But it was only a representation - something that showed him their state within him. The real thing was inside and so if he wanted to merge them together, the work had to start from inside.

Raith stayed focused, not moving a single part of his body, for the next few hours he was frozen, looking like the statue of a monastic master on the very edge of enlightenment.

The birds lifted their heads to look at him, tilted left and tilted right. They came nearer and lowered their legs, sitting gently beside him.

Meanwhile Greed watched from afar, a deadpan expression on his face.

After a few more hours, Raith's brow finally twitched. A couple of seconds later, they furrowed and drew tight lines on his forehead. Stones of sweat formed all over his head and after a few more minutes, they began to trickle down.

Inside him was a raging storm, trying to merge three different entities into a single one didn't exactly come as easy as he thought it would. Each one was like a liquid storm, the darkness was like a formidable flood threatening to swallow his entire being in whole— the light however, even though it served only as a reflection, it was blinding and was like a veil of Luminous that refused to be undone.

It was strong and no matter how much this veil collided with the liquid storm of darkness, it didn't come down, nor did the darkness retreat. Raith's body shook with terror and was on the edge of breaking.

The sweats on his body increased. As it was happening in the soul plane, so it was in reality. Raith's shirt was dampened with sweat. And even more poured down from his body, his face grew pale and the frown on his face showed the struggles within him.

His body was trembling and he was barely holding it together, parts of him were begging to tear apart, the moment he yielded to it that was a certain failure.

Although he didn't know how long he was supposed to hold out for, he didn't know if they would even be able to accept each other to become one.

Raith tightened his eyes bit down on his lips to hold on stronger.

He endured for another few more hours, before the radiance of the source began to permeate both the storm of darkness and veil of light. Within them was a crimson ethereal glow that seemed to be turning them from inside out.

At that moment, Raith understood something.

[The Source] was never supposed to be on the level of this two. Perhaps that thing is a mediator, a force that pulls other forces together. It was incredibly powerful and seems like the only entity endearing enough to attempt to merge light and darkness.

"Raven.. Raith.."

Raith's frown deepened as he heard the silky voice, it's been an awful while he heard it but he was sure, it was familiar and undoubtedly.

'Mother?'