"You manipulated aether as a dormant mundane mortal?!"
She stood to her feet.
"Do you know what that means?!"
Uriel looked at her, smiling. "Have we not established that I don't?"
His words seemed to pour a bucket of cold water over her, and she calmed down.
"Sorry."
She sat back down and gathered herself.
"Show me."
He did as told.
Raising a hand, he called for aether, and as if it had been impatiently waiting to be called out again, it soared forth, a thick tendril of white aether forming around his fingers, dancing in excitement.
His natal aether followed next, joining the dance.
At first, the two tendrils moved to their own whims, but within seconds, they fell under Uriel's control, assuming whatever shape or state he imagined.
They intertwined, forming a cube, then shifted to become liquid droplets, then changed once again, turning into elaborate spears and blades, before returning to amorphous tendrils.
Uriel flicked a finger, and the tendrils jumped toward Lady Ayah, sinking into her body before she could react. She panicked, but seconds later, she couldn't help herself and burst out laughing, the tendrils snaking across her body—
"Haha!"
—and tickling her.
Her own natal aether fell under Uriel's control, dancing and twirling around her in a harmonic display.
Uriel smiled. 'I'm getting better at this.'
BOOM!
Suddenly, from Lady Ayah, an echo of power emanated, her natal aether becoming denser and far more potent.
A notification appeared in front of her.
[Your True Core has been purified!]
Then another came.
[Your True Core has widened!]
Her laughter ceased, and she stared at Uriel in shock, something that seemed to happen far too often.
"H-how?"
…
Lady Ayah spent the next few hours explaining as much as she could to Uriel, focusing specifically on all matters related to power and, more importantly, the sheer oddity of his case.
Most of it he didn't understand, but he made sure to memorise everything, knowing Enoch would clarify the rest later.
Bidding her farewell, he returned to the last floor and finally entered his dimensional space.
Just like Enoch's, in the far distance, it was filled with rewards, though much larger and far more numerous than his own.
Not far from them, stacks of floating cards hovered in place: the furniture he'd obtained with Lady Ayah hours earlier.
'I'll do it tomorrow.'
Too tired to care or even summon a bed from one of the cards, he decided to simply sleep on the floor.
Curling into a ball, he closed his eyes, and for the first time in three years, he fell asleep, truly.
Not bound by chains.
Not drowned in darkness.
Not blind.
He fell asleep, free.
…
The sun rose, and a day passed.
Then the sun rose once more.
And with it, people began appearing one after another in the settlement center, each beaten and broken, yet each forged in a fire that had burned all weakness out of them.
Those who returned began to emanate a sharpness that would never disappear.
The groups that had formed during the trial and achieved good placements, earning at least one mark, made their way to the Emporium, worn and exhausted, while those who had gotten the worst positions began to beg and plead with the Inhumans for housing.
It was then that the Weave-System Contracts were introduced.
A spiritually binding contract between two parties, ensuring that both ends would respect the agreed-upon terms, unless they wished for their souls to be burned away.
Just like that, the Inhumans of the settlement rapidly gained workers, and the settlement city itself quickly filled with life and activity.
They were injured and traumatised, but without aether crystals there was no healing. Even with contracts in place, they had to work first to earn them.
Pushed to their limits, teetering on the edge of exhaustion, they labored and slaved on.
There was no rest for the wicked, it seemed.
…
Enoch woke up much later than he'd expected.
Groggily, he sat up, his body aching as he too had slept on the harsh ground of his dimensional space.
'Uriel's lash-out must've hit me harder than I thought.'
He stood to his feet, yawning and stretching. Stripping off his ripped and bloodied clothes, he put on one of the many sets he'd been given by the Inhumans on their way to the Emporium.
It was a simple ensemble: airy black pants, a tight black compression shirt, and a dark-silver oversized worker's tunic of surprisingly high quality.
It also possessed magical properties; naturally burning away sweat and grime as he moved, while constantly cooling his body.
'Oh my lord, how I missed enchanted items.'
The massive gash that had torn across his chest seemed to have healed overnight, leaving only a faint scar behind. All his other injuries and bruises were gone as well, his body mostly returned to full health.
With a thought, he exited his dimensional space and headed toward Uriel's. As he moved, he noticed that quite a few other terminals were currently in use.
He didn't linger on it.
Ensuring no one was watching, he tapped Uriel's terminal. His natal aether streamed from his body into the device as he altered its internal structure.
His hack succeeded. He gained access to Uriel's space.
WHOOSH!
He vanished.
…
'As expected.'
When his vision cleared and he laid eyes on Uriel, he saw a massive cocoon of gold and white, pulsating like a beating heart. It absorbed pure aether from the atmosphere and expelled impure aether back into it.
Who ever said the pill he'd given Uriel would only heal him?
He had worked on it for six years, after all, using their mortal planet's horrific limitations as best as he could to refine it.
Ignoring the cocoon Uriel was encased in, Enoch refocused on the towering stack of rewards within the space.
Flipping his palm upward, he summoned all of his own forth.
On his other hand, another mark appeared, glowing emerald, and from it he pulled out a collection of additional items.
He got to work.
'I'll start by arranging everything by order of priority. Then I'll—'
As Uriel slept, undergoing shocking changes, Enoch prepared for the coming days.