Chapter 462: Insert

The silver mass wiggled as Michael touched it. A white tendril emerged from his War Rune. It shot straight into the wiggling silver mass, coiled around it and encased it into a cocoon.

Michael's eyes narrowed because he had never ordered the War Rune to do this, but he didn't use his will to stop the tendrils. Instead, he watched in rapt attention as the tendril as it pulled the cocoon inside the War Rune.

His War Rune began to shimmer brightly and before Michael knew a silver droplet coalesced in the bottom of his War Rune.

"Great. Another change in my War Rune," Michael murmured quietly. He eyed the Mark of Fate for a second before he turned his attention away.

"The Aethyr Artifact doesn't enhance me externally. It doesn't feel like an Artifact either."

Instead of calling it an Artifact, Michael decided to refer to it as just that; Aethyr. He sensed a faint connection to Aethyr. It was stronger than the link he had to the Soultrait Shard of Maria's Archangel's Grace.

Michael tried using Archangel's Grace once but it didn't work. According to Kaleb, that was because he had to be near Maria so that her presence could charge the Soultrait Shard that had invaded his War Rune. She could also charge it actively, but Michael couldn't bother asking Maria at this point. They hadn't met since the incident and Michael was not about to rush to her to ask her to fuel the Soultrait Shard before disappearing once again.

"It's not a natural Artifact so it won't enhance you externally," Alice explained, "Either way. There are a few things you have to understand. First, you have to strengthen your link with the Aethyr Artifact to use all of its forms. You can order the Aethyr Artifact to change its shape on command. The stronger your connection to the Aethyr Artifact the faster you can change forms and summon it in your hand. To adjust the shape of the 28 weapons you can form with it, you need a high understanding of those weapons. That means you will either have to learn to wield all the weapons until you reach the Intermediate mastery, or you have to focus on a few forms. From what I can tell, you should be able to use the Bow, Longsword, and Spear forms quite easily. I will teach you in the next few days and continue to do so until the Interdimensional Flag War starts so that you can use the Aethyr Artifact well enough in fights. Don't worry, I'm good with many weapons!"

Michael had already closed his eyes while listening to Alice. He sensed the silver mass inside his War Rune. It was attached to the pillar of light, yet it was somewhat distant. It revolved around the Sphere of Light, but was far enough to avoid affecting the Sphere.

There was something odd about the Aethyr Artifact. It was not compressed into its mass. Instead, silvery tentacles tried to spread out to the pillar of light, the Sphere of Light, and...SoulStar Fragments.

None of the silver tentacles could reach either because they were repelled, but Michael's curiosity was piqued.

'I understand the pillar of light. Aether is sentient according to the Immortal Knight. Therefore it wants to grow stronger at all times to strengthen its forms and attain more intelligence. Increasing its Tier by devouring origin energy makes that happen. But...why is Aethyr drawn to the Sphere of Light and the SoulStar Fragments? Or is the trace of Aether within Aethyr drawn to both?'

Michael wished to do a few experiments with Aethyr because it felt like his SoulStar Fragments and the existence of the Sphere of Light could change something about Aethyr - maybe even enhance it somehow.

That would be amazing.

Unfortunately, Alice wouldn't allow him to leave just like that.

He kept his eyes closed and concentrated on the silver mass. Once his mind was fully focused on the silver mass, he manifested the Aethyr in his right hand.

"Sword." Michael mumbled, and the silver mass morphed into the shape of a silver longsword - precisely a replica of Tigerfang.

"Spear."

The longsword changed to a spear that looked just like Wyverntooth.

"Bow."

Now the spear changed to Zark's replica.

"It's using my memories and imagination to change its form," Michael theorized.

"War Axe," He murmured and Aethyr shaped itself into a large two-headed axe - one of the weapons Immortal Knight wished him to test out.

"Mace."

"Saber."

"Dagger."

"Whip."

"Scythe."

Michael experimented with Aethyr a little bit. He first changed its form using verbal commands. The verbal commands triggered Michael's memories to create an image of the weapon he wished Aethyr to change to.

Aethyr changed between the forms rather quickly. He didn't even give it exact commands to do so. A simple word to provok his memories and imagination was more than enough. Once Michael imagined a new form for Aethyr to assume it would change. The switch in forms was much faster than replacing the Wyverntooth Spear with Zark mid-battle manually- and it could go even faster than that once his connection with Aethyr improved. Michael was certain to take his enemies by surprise with Aethyr. It was a great weapon that ought to give him an edge in battle as long as he could wield it with high proficiency.

'Mental commands should also work.' He thought right before starting to change Aethyr's form with mental commands.

The response rate was a little bit slower but Michael was certain that this would improve as he got more accustomed to the act.

"Are you proficient with that many weapons? I didn't expect that," Alice revealed honestly.

"I got a good Summon, who's teaching me how to fight without Soultraits. He told me to practice with a wide variety of weapons to find out what's the best for me. That didn't work too well since most weapons are quite suitable as far as I can tell," Michael said, swinging the scythe around his body.

He rotated it smoothly and changed Aethyr's form into a dagger right before hitting Kaleb. Aethyr then turned into a longsword that nearly pricked Kaleb.

"Don't play around when someone else is around. Especially if that someone is me!" Kaleb protested.

"Well, you guys can persist to play. I will get Michael's Summoning Scrolls," Alice uttered all of a sudden, "She then turned to Michael and disclosed a frosty expression, "After that you will have some fun training with me until you break down!"

"...Yay..." Michael mumbled, summoning the Runic Gate before he informed, "I will be in the Origin Expanse for an hour or so. There is something I have to do before someone beats me up with lots of love. What a wonderful way to spend the days left before the Interdimensional Flag War. Beaten until I'm unrecognizable..."

Michael disappeared inside the Runic Gate before Alice, or Kaleb could say something. The siblings looked at each other, and Kaleb couldn't contain himself anymore.

"You know. Sometimes, I feel like Michael is doing much better than me. You look somewhat human with Michael around."

"Somewhat?" Alice raised an eyebrow, only to see Kaleb nod.

"Yup."

"Cheeky brat."

Alice ruffled her brother's hair and manifested her Runic Gate as well. She left to collect Michael's Summoning Scrolls, leaving Kaleb alone for the next hour.

There was one particular thing Michael had wished to do before the Interdimensional Flag War started. He wanted to fuse Insert with his War Rune.

Michael felt that Insert was a powerful Soultrait with extremely high compatibility with Extraction. The future potential of Insert was nothing to scoff at. At least, that was what Michael sensed.

Combining Insert with Extraction should allow him to insert tendrils of Extraction inside other beings without the need to injure them. That should help him drain their lifeforce and origin energy from within without them realizing what was going on at first. Simultaneously, Michael felt like experimenting with Insert and Extraction might help him quite a lot. He had always been curious about Unique Racial abilities and Innate abilities. If he could extract them, shouldn't it be possible to Insert them into others?

Would Inserting Unique Racial Abilities change their DNA, would their DNA collapse, or would the Unique Racial Abilities be repelled? Was it possible to insert Unique Racial Abilities into others, in the first place? Michael had no idea, but he could find out.

In one way or another, Insert and Extraction were a great combination. Furthermore, thinking about the wide variety of Insert's uses, Michael felt that it should be possible to use Insert to insert the Power of Enhancement onto others. It may only be temporary but it was definitely worth fusing with Insert.

With that in mind, Michael retrieved the emerald box. He opened it and removed the Soultrait Symbol of Insert. Then he created the 10th socket in the Sphere of Light using 3,000 SoulStar Fragments before allowing the white tendrils of his War Rune to devour Insert.

The Symbol of Insert appeared in the Sphere of Light where it linked to the 10th socket.

Michael expected it to stay in the outer ring of the Sphere of Light, but Insert's position changed almost instantaneously. The socket was dragged through the Sphere of Light until it began to revolve around Extraction. A faint link was created between the Symbol of Extraction and Insert thereafter.

It was very very faint, but Michael could tell that it was the beginning of something big. He then spent 3,000 SoulStar Fragments to upgrade Insert from 1-Star to 5-Star right away.

The link between Extraction and Insert grew stronger as Insert's star rating increased.

Michael licked his dry lips and a bright smile blossomed on his face as the stream of information flooded his mind.

'That...is very interesting!'