3830 Earth Sovereign

Seconds passed, and I waited with the bated breath. The third step is the most painful one and also the most dangerous.

I will need to survive the merging and this time; I have good hopes. I did everything, that was needed for the safe merging of the body and soul. I took them to the limit and completed levels of the method.

I had also cleansed my soul and body.

It is purest of all Sovereigns; I had seen and also the Earth Sovereigns. If the other did, what I did, I would give them 99% success chances, but my condition is different.

There is a thing, that is called forbidden power. It complicates things and makes things dangerous, and this time, I had merged with a lot.

Buzz!

It was at the seventeen second, I felt the merging begin and at that same time, the formation activated.

Before there was no aid during the merging; this time there is. The faint power of the twelve elements begins to release into my body and soul like I had expected. They didn't regret it.

The pain came, and for the first few seconds, it was manageable, but it increased fast.

'Ehh…'

In several seconds, I gritted my teeth and screamed through it. It was really painful, and it is becoming painful every second.

"Ahhhh…"

I screamed loudly when it became unbearable. I am glad, that breakthrough formation makes everything foggy to the girl and mute; she will see me in pain and hear my screams.

The pain increased and my screams got louder. It threatened to break me and send me to oblivion.

I had reached close to its door, and it was forcing me to take a step inside, but I was resisting, despite wanting to do it so badly. The step will take away all the pain and send me into a peaceful oblivion.

It will be a death of me, and I don't want to die, not yet. Not during the breakthrough.

So, I bore the pain, no matter how intense it had become. There is no other choice, well there is, but I already said, I don't want to die.

Time passed, it felt like days were passing, but it had not, a few hours at most. If the day, had passed, I wouldn't have been sitting alive. I would have been tossed out of this formation and eaten by the Grimms or died by some other danger.

Every moment felt excruciating, but I could see I was making progress at every moment. My body and soul are fusing, and the fusion is perfect.

I couldn't see a single flaw in their fusion; it was the best; I had seen, among the hundreds of breakthroughs, I had done.

Finally, after what felt like months, the pain had started receding, before it had completely disappeared.

I was so tired, so much so that I wanted to close my eyes and fall asleep, but I didn't. Instead, I looked around with a smile and was relieved to see, that I was still in the formation with the girl watching me.

I was looking at her when the quarter of the satellite separated from it, and a small part of my core separated from it.

Both parts reach each other, before touching. I watched them with the bated breath as they merged with each other.

I have made a lot of improvements in the satellite; I am quite proud of them.

Soon, they merged fully and stayed as such for over a minute, before separating again, but this time into the equal parts. One part had gone to the core and merged with it, while the other went to the satellite and merged with it.

In a few seconds, everything had calmed down, and my face turned serious.

Now, only the last stage had remained. The consolidation. It is not as dangerous as merging, but a lot of problems I had faced came from this stage and I hope, there won't be any problem this time.

It took nearly a minute before the consolidation began.

Within seconds, a thin solid layer appeared at the core and the satellite, before it progressed deeper.

Hun!

A few minutes and consolidation were going well, when the core suddenly shook, and consolidation seemed to have stopped.

I looked worried, trying to find a problem, but I didn't see any.

The consolidation had stopped. While there are no cracks or pores appearing, the stopping itself is a bad sign.

A few seconds passed, and things didn't change. I started to feel dread, because I could feel what was happening to my body and soul. If the consolidation didn't start soon, the collapse would begin.

I was shaking with dread when the consolidation started.

I don't know, how it happened and what is the cause of the stop and right now, I don't care. I am happy that the consolidation refused and with it, the feeling of the collapse receded till it had completely disappeared.

Eight and a half minutes passed when the consolidation stopped. It is finished, revealing the core, which has become even more beautiful and realistic.

Buzz!

I was looking at it in wonder when it buzzed, and the runes came out of it. The runes are massive, and one can clearly see a large number of ancient rune formations.

I have made massive progress on the ancient runes; I think, my understanding is on the verge of entering another level.

I have not reached it yet. If I had, the teacher would have told me as she did the last time.

It didn't take long for the runes to spread into every part of my body. Going deeper, they had never gone before and were relieved that there was no problem.

I had a small fear that the inheritance would collapse. I didn't get a chance, to check the inheritance properly, but seeing nothing happen; I could tell, there were no serious problems.

This fear come from the number of ancient runes, in the inheritance. It is 12.7%, above my target of 10%.

It might not seem like a big thing, but it is a huge thing, and it will help my inheritance tremendously. Now, I need to keep working, as the next target is bigger; 25%.

It will be extremely hard, seeing the formations ahead would not be the simple ones, but I will give my all to achieve it.

Buzz!

A moment later, the runes finished. The core buzzed again and released a flood of breakthrough energy.

Gasp!

They filled the runes before entering my body. Making me gasp in shock, my body and soul begin to absorb it hungrily.

The breakthrough energy is thick and extremely powerful. I could feel my strength rising rapidly beyond the speed, I had throught.

It made me excited and a little scared.

It is really a lot, but my body and soul seemed to be hungry for it and the more they absorb, the hungrier they seemed to be getting.

I watched with a smile on my face, becoming bigger every second the energies fused with me.

Minutes passed, and the energies were still coming, and my body was still absorbing. It was another four minutes before the energies slowed down and a few seconds after that; they had stopped, making me, the Earth Sovereign.

"The strength," I said breathlessly, as I felt the power in my veins. It made me feel like a god.