Seducing the Guideverse With My System — Raising an Anomaly [BL]

Chapter 117: _Doing The Impossible

’What are you?’

The question took Ambrose off guard for a beat. He blinked once, shaking his head. ’This thing can read my mind?’

’We... are getting there.’ the core’s voice continued, its energies wrapping harder around him. ’... But first, you aren’t a normal human. So... what are you?’

’Your fucking nightmare.’ he snapped. ’Fuck the hell out of my head.’

He fought through the strain hitting his muscles, pushing his other hand forward. Once he pressed it against the core too, he gasped, body jerking until his back arched.

Across the cavern, Viktor placed a finger on his temple. He lay his back on a wall, fighting to stay conscious despite the heavy bleeding from his right shoulder.

Devon—who squatted beside him—also got the same sting in his skull, forcing him to grunt. ’Shit... the link...’

He cut his gaze to Ambrose, barely able to see him under the blinding mix of black and white lights. The permanent link thrummed like a chain tightening around his chest, making breathing short.

A plethora of emotions flowed from Ambrose into both men. Fear was the most prevalent. Then there was anger. Confusion.

Viktor swerved his head to Devon, noticing the way his face twitched. Then he turned his gaze back to Ambrose, repeating the movement until a thought played in his brain.

’He... can he feel it too?’

He didn’t understand what was happening but he knew what he felt. These emotions surging through him weren’t his. Right now all he could feel was concern and urgency to get out of here—before he bleeds to death.

[WARNING: Host has reached core’s primary aether pathways.] Aura warned Ambrose just then. [Psychic overload detected. Risk of certain death multiplied.]

The words echoed in his head, but Ambrose barely heard them. His vision darkened at the edges, his arms quivering like they were about to flake off.

Blood dripped from his nostrils, staining his Hunter uniform in small crimson streaks. Still, he ignored it all, gnashing his teeth as he drove even deeper into the core’s aether.

’You must be desperate,’ the core’s voice was beginning to sound more human by the second. ’Such minuscule Aether. You’re like a fly in the midst of—’

’You talk too much for a piece of scrambled parts,’ Ambrose snorted. ’Perhaps you’re the desperate one.’

There was a pause, as if the core didn’t predict that response. When it spoke again, Ambrose could’ve sworn he caught a hint of amusement.

’You really aren’t human, are you?’ it said. ’Your essence... will be instrumental.’

Ambrose faltered for the first time, his brows knitting.

His essence? What the heck was this glorified alien battery talking about?

From another end of the cave, Valentine and Gabriel stood side-by-side, watching the scene unfold. Both SS-Ranks had different thoughts regarding Ambrose’s attempt to hijack the core.

Yet both still circled back to the same conclusion.

This Guide was beyond anything they’d originally thought of him.

’He shouldn’t even be so near it,’ Gabriel marvelled. ’At most maybe he would’ve been able to handle all that energy for a few seconds... but... but this...’

His iridescent orbs gleamed with a calculating light. ’Could he be a higher ranking Guide and has been hiding it?’ he frowned, spinning his neck to Valentine. ’Did Valentine know about his true potential all this time?’

Little did he know that Valentine was equally stunned. The Necromancer’s fingers twitched, every hair across his body standing on end at the raw power exuding from the core. The same power Ambrose was channeling without crumbling.

’I knew it,’ the corner of his lips curved despite himself. ’I knew you were something special—and still you’ve managed to surpass any expectations.’

At this point, the veins around the cave had stopped trying to restrain the rest of the group. It was as if the core was focusing every ounce of attention on the new threat before it.

"There must be a way for us to assist!" Gabriel yelled, eyes flitting past the faces of the others.

Gritting his teeth, he placed an arm over his face. He inched past the pressure from the core, eyes squinting hard with every step.

Before he could get within five meters of the core, an invisible force made him stumble backwards. His breath hitched. "Shit." He snapped his neck back to the others. "I can’t get through!"

While this went down, the core began reacting differently to Ambrose. At first, it was waiting. Studying his attempt to take control.

And now it appeared to have learned enough.

Several black and white veins sprouted out of it, wrapping around his waist. Then his arms and legs—not to pull him off it. But to pull him in.

Ambrose’s face paled when his palms began sinking past the core’s physical layer, inch by inch.

[WARNING: EP and HP meters dropping drastically.]

"What the..." Ambrose’s voice shook. "It’s... this thing..."

He lifted his head again, sniffing back the blood rushing out of his nose. "... This thing is trying to absorb me."

So far, he was really close to overriding the core’s aether flow. A feat that should be impossible... if it weren’t for his Aether hybrid nature.

Guides could channel aether, either from themselves or by ’Guiding’ another’s energy. Espers could shape that aether to power their abilities.

He was both at once.

If the core manages to fully integrate him into its network.

Fuck.

More veins coiled around him, tugging harder. He was forced to root his foot into the ground until cracks spread around him.

"Ambrose!" Devon and Viktor shouted in unison, both getting on their feet. Then Viktor snarled. "Is that thing trying to absorb him?"

They were about to charge forward when Valentine raised a hand.

"Look." He gestured at the ceiling. Cracks had begun spiderwebbing through it, dust and debris raining on them. "He’s actually doing it. He’s overriding the core."

Gabriel sucked in a breath, pointing a palm forward. He took control of the cave’s gravity, manipulating it enough to get a hold of Ambrose.

His forehead creased but he didn’t give up, careful with how much he pulled back. "Come on, Ambrose..."

[Host’s EP: 215/4000.]

[HP: 150.]

He didn’t need to be a mathematician to know that was trouble. He couldn’t feel his legs and was losing feeling in his arms too.

"I’m... almost there." He stuttered, gathering the last of his energy as he connected with the core’s aether again. "You... Will not... take... ME!"

He roared.

The veins from the core twitched just then.

’What’s this?’ the core’s voice trembled with disbelief. ’This shouldn’t be possible. You—’

"You don’t know the beginning of what’s possible." Ambrose chuckled dryly, a bright blue light flaring in his eyes.

BOOM!

A burst of pure aether detonated from the core’s centre. The veins around Ambrose disintegrated as he was flung through the air like discarded trash.

Fortunately, before he could hit the ground—Devon moved. The Esper caught him mid-air, landing far enough from the core.

"I got you." He muttered, relief washing through him.

The core spasmed like a failing heart, the light from its veins flickering out. Strings of pure aether twisted out of its form before bleeding out like a dying star.

"It..." Gabriel’s mouth parted, his arms falling beside him. "It worked."

He snapped his gaze to Ambrose. The Guide was stable but losing consciousness, clinging to Devon like life support. Viktor sauntered to them, rasping with a hand pressed to his bleeding shoulder.

The cracks across the cave walls and ceiling widened as tremors came from every corner.

Gabriel’s spatial awareness sensed a pivotal shift just then. "The fabric of space in the dungeon is stable again!"

"Not so helpful now!" Valentine shot. "With the core destabilised, the dungeon—"

A flick of Gabriel’s wrist twisted the space beside him like rumples in a fabric. A portal gradually flickered into being, shimmering with a bright white light.

He grinned victoriously. "Let’s go!"

Devon carried Ambrose in his arms, bolting toward the portal first. Valentine followed before Viktor and Gabriel rushed in last.

As the portal closed behind them, a notification rang in Ambrose’s head. One he was able to catch with what was left of his fading consciousness.

[SPECIAL MISSION COMPLETED.]

[BONUS OBJECTIVE ACHIEVED.]

[Mission rewards loading...]