It's Here. My Mood Light.
The blue lightning that had been Erkion's divine punishment was already a pure river of power, pouring endlessly into the heart of the ancient ruins.
Every time the current punched through me, my skin prickled and trembled. The vibration started at my fingertips, climbed my arms, and reached my heart — and from the core of the ruins, a low pulse answered in kind. It felt as if the colossal machine had recognized my body as just another circuit.
A vast energy crushed its way through me, but the pain gradually faded. The electricity-craving instinct sleeping inside me had begun to suck down a god's power like a dying man dying of thirst.
"You... you insignificant worm!"
Erkion's voice rolled out and shook the sky itself. Clouds tangled into a white-and-gray vortex and blotted out the sunlight as if a god had swallowed the sun whole. The air sank heavy with rage. That overwhelming fury reached even the elves still inside the ruins.
"Kyaaaaah!"
"Ghk...! Brace for impact!"
A second bolt fell — far thicker and more savage than the first. With a roar like a thousand peals of thunder crashing at once, the lightning tore the atmosphere open. The shock rattled my skull; my head went light, and for a moment my whole body felt dull and distant.
I staggered under the hit for only a second, then simply took the coming surge of energy as it was.
"The eastern passage is collapsing!"
The system screamed inside my head.
Energy overload imminent!
Core durability: 78%... 65%...
Physical strain level: CRITICAL. Immediate disconnection recommended.
I understood the part about disconnecting. The problem was how. If I pulled my hands free, the current flowing into the ruins' core would have nowhere to go — and the second that happened, it would reverse straight back into my body.
My fingertips shook. Instead of going numb, a hot pressure swelled up from inside the bone. This was nothing like the batteries or crystals I'd eaten before.
But I held on. My fingers were already blackened and smoking, fused to the sphere so tightly they wouldn't come off anyway.
A strange electrical warmth spread beneath my chest like a second heart. The pulse of the core at the center of the ruins began to beat in time with my own. It felt like the system was learning me, and I was learning the machine's flow in return.
Every time the core's current bent, fragments of the ruins' structure flashed through my mind — spires, a control room, a generator buried deep below. I still only half-understood what each part did, but one fact stood out clear as day.
These ruins had only just woken up.
"Your lightning... is a punishment?"
I muttered it in a hoarse voice. The taste of blood and ash spread through my mouth.
"This is a gift. A charge."
I forced the corner of my mouth up.
"And until I've burned your precious garden to the ground... I'll use every last volt. I won't leave a single one."
The sphere let out a deep, resonant vibration. The blinding white-blue light darkened into a rich azure and began to pulse in a steady rhythm.
The ruins under my feet started vibrating to a new beat. Characters carved into the walls woke one by one in blue light, and the vast structure that had slept for so long began to rise like a giant stirring from ages of slumber.
"Impossible!"
Erkion roared. And for the first time, a faint tremor slipped into that voice.
Fear.
From beyond the shattered window of the control room, the elf Heibrin watched it all with her eyes wide.
"It's... synchronizing with Lady Ara."
Heibrin murmured. Deep in the control room, the core she pointed to was pulsing madly in time with Ara's heartbeat.
"She isn't simply channeling power. Lady Ara's body is taking root in it... She is being reborn as the master of these colossal ruins."
Beside her, Ibrin shook her head in disbelief.
"She's human. A child, even... How can she control a god's wrath?"
"She is no ordinary human. And you already know — she is not merely a child. She is the spirit we have been searching for."
Heibrin fixed a sharp gaze on the sky flashing with rage.
"When a pure spirit is mixed with impurity and falls to corruption, it declines and is forgotten. Now I understand why the spirits vanished."
The sphere tore free of the spire. A perfect orb that had imprisoned the lightning floated up into the air, then slowly descended.
As if entranced, I stepped forward. My body, fused with the core, answered — and a gently vibrating platform of pure energy received me. Looking down at my hands, I saw faint blue veins of light shimmering through the cracks in my blackened, charred skin.
Erkion — the dragon whose form had been glitching and scattering like an error in the world — came crashing down from the sky. Pressure slammed into my shoulders and lungs, but the ancient technology that transcended space and time had already melted into me like a second skin.
Target: Erkion
Threat Level: OMEGA
"You are a mistake."
Erkion's voice rang out like a scream from something that had witnessed an incomprehensible horror.
"An error that has arisen in the order of this world. I will correct it."
A massive claw of lightning shot toward me at a speed that ignored all logic.
I didn't dodge. I raised my hand. The will of the core dwelling in my body answered at once.
Crack!
A blue energy barrier surged up and collided with the claw.
The world seemed to explode. The shockwave tore through the surrounding forest, ripping trees out by the roots, and deep fissures split the ground. Pain rattled my bones; blood ran from my nose down my chin — but I did not fall.
"You can't win. The more you attack... the stronger the core inside me becomes."
Erkion stopped. Behind those twin suns of eyes, I could see the calculations turning. A self-proclaimed "god" had started fretting over how to kill a single human.
"Parasite."
Erkion spat the word with cold contempt.
"You live by devouring my power. But what happens when I stop feeding you?"
The lightning around us wavered. The sphere's vibration weakened. He was right. If Erkion stopped attacking, the supply would cut off. So I had to provoke him again.
"Then... I'll just make you mad enough that you want to keep hitting me."
I shouted toward the elves beyond the ruined window.
"Heibrin! Is the main cannon ready to fire? I want one really big shot!"
I reminded them of the facility instructions I'd given during the prep.
Heibrin's face went pale.
"The main cannon?! It is not ready! It will take several hours at the very least!"
"We don't have several hours! Get it ready now — I'll buy us time!"
"How exactly do you plan to buy time against that?!"
At Ibrin's desperate cry, I turned back to Erkion with a twisted smile.
"By becoming the most annoying human in the world."
I gathered the energy absorbed into my body, and twelve small orbs of lightning began to orbit me like satellites, humming as they spun.
"Hey, lizard! You call those claws? My grandma's back-scratcher hurt worse than that! You're a god? You look like a giant glowing salamander! What, did you lose a bet with some lesser deity and get stuck out here?"
"...Human. What of it."
I ignored him and kept going, spitting the words like song lyrics.
"All flash, no substance! Why don't you try breathing some fire out of that ridiculous maw—!"
"You dare run that loose mouth of yours!"
The air around Erkion boiled. His massive body swelled as reason left him.
Enemy is preparing a high-output attack!
"Perfect. Come on, electric lizard. Give me everything you've got."
A beam of annihilation formed in Erkion's maw.
"DIIIIIE!"
A pillar of light surged toward me. Instead of blocking it, I flung open the channel of the Mobius Core linked to my body and swallowed the destruction beam whole.
Energy Level: 1000%... 5000%... 10000%!!
Capture Sphere 'Mobius – 0' — Forced Capture Sequence Initiated!
My skin split. My blood boiled. I endured it.
"Lady Ara! The main cannon is ready!"
"Now! Fire the main cannon!"
The sphere floating in the air spun so violently its shape nearly vanished, then fired a beam of annihilation and gravity near absolute zero.
KRAAAAAANG!
The beam punched clean through Erkion's breath and formed a massive gravitational field right in the center of his chest.
"Th-this is... what in the—?!"
Space itself began to warp geometrically. Erkion's essence and the body forged of lightning were caught in an irresistible vortex of gravity and violently sucked into the Mobius sphere.
"Release me! How dare a lowly worm try to bind this body—!"
The colossal dragon form that had filled the sky crumpled and converged, wretchedly, into the tiny sphere.
KRA-KOOM!
A shockwave that shook heaven and earth rolled outward. The thunderclouds blanketing the sky vanished as if they'd never been, and a clear stillness settled over the ruins.
◈ Target: Erkion
◈ Status: Converted to Continuous Power Source
◈ Result: Unlimited Power Source Secured
◈ Power Plant Development Progress: 1%
Erkion roared from inside the sphere.
"...Quiet."
I pressed the switch.
Click.
Strength drained from my legs and I collapsed. Pain crashed over me as if every bone and muscle in my body had been shattered — but the pulse of the linked core proved I was still alive.
"She's alive!"
Ibrin rushed over in a panic. Heibrin slowly bowed her head, her face frozen in shock.
"You have subdued the fallen spirit... and imprisoned it."
"Subdued, nothing... I just secured a battery I can use for the rest of my life..."
I forced out a breath and managed a small smile.
"So... it's over now, right?"
The blue sphere turned slowly.
Huummm—
A soft light came on across the power plant.
"..."
Perfect for a mood light.
In a pleasant haze of exhaustion, I slowly closed my eyes and slipped away into the far side of consciousness.