For a while, the clashes between the live forces were minimal and the mana cores remained dormant. The more the fusion progressed, the more Nalrond's body started to change. Both forms now had pink flesh and orange scales, constantly shifting in mass and size.
The human body slowly grew bigger while the Rezar's shrunk, the two vessels broke down as they shaped a third one that would take their place.
At the same time, however, the wall collapsed faster and faster until Lith and Quylla were incapable of keeping up with the speed new openings formed.
When it happened, the life forces rejection triggered the cores which used fusion magic to unravel everything the Healers had done up to that moment.
"Awaken, now!" Lith said while using the Master Hands to conjure a flow of world energy that countered the mana cores and the Mouth to conjure and maintain as many Chisels as he needed without any burden on his focus.
Nalrond felt dizzy and nauseous, but did as instructed. He used his breathing technique to stimulate his cores and establish a mana flow. Unlike that time in Faluel's lair, the Forbidden Magic inside his body was weakened and his life forces partially fused.
His body didn't swell like a balloon nor did he bleed from his orifices, yet the pain of Awakening was inevitable. Also, the sudden convergence of impurities on both cores brought their influence on the life forces to a stop.
Impurities were natural mana insulants and as long as the cores were coated in impurities, their link with their respective bodies would be limited. All of their energy had to be accumulated and amplified to reach the breaking point and release a mana wave strong enough to push the impurities away.
"Shit!" Faluel avoided the mind link to not add mana poisoning to the long list of problems they already had. "Both cores are now bright blue. The bastards really are in synch."
The group had hoped that the breakthrough would happen at different times so that the strain on the bodies would be just above that of a single core. Now, instead, two mana flows were flooding Nalrond at the same time.
It wasn't just that the fused areas would now endure twice the strain. With double the life force, they were supposed to hold. The problem was that the flows of impurities moved in different directions and overlapped at multiple points.
If a clog were to form, the pressure from the mana cores would make the fused areas burst and once they regenerated, they would do it in their original and split form. Quylla and Lith couldn't risk throwing all their work so far in the gutter.
They used the Hands to conjure a counter flow that slowed down the impurities, Invigoration to keep them from clumping together, and Chisel to create the best next thing to a temporary exhaust port where the mana flows overlapped.
Luckily, the constant shapeshifting made the life forces malleable.
The impurities encountered small resistance as they moved through the two bodies and it didn't take Lith and Quylla long to create a way out for the impurities that wouldn't mess with their work.
The problem was that less impurities also meant a stronger mana flow. No body could handle two bright blue cores without exploding but after being just promoted, alone they lacked the energy to reach the violet even though Nalrond knew how to do it.
'We need to keep as many impurities as we can inside until the mana cores are fused.' Lith said via the mind link while using everything he had to make the fusion process of the life forces faster than the Awakening.
'And how do you propose to do that?' Quylla replied as she had come to the same conclusion.
"Clench your teeth, pal. You are not going to like this." Lith said while putting a Hushed gag in Nalrond's mouth to ensure he wouldn't hurt himself. "The silver lining is that you can scream as much as you want. No one is going to hear you."
'Solus, contingency plan F.'
'Engaged.' She replied while storing the scroll containing the details of the procedure inside the Library.
'I fucking hate you!' Quylla and Nalrond said in unison the moment they accessed the scroll's contents.
'Make it so, number one.' Lith had prepared several contingency plans, all of them arranged in the Library in alphabetical order.
Some letters were missing but everyone had just assumed it was because of his peculiar naming sense. The truth was that the missing parchments were about plans that Lith had kept to himself so as not to upset the others before the procedure.
The idea was to share them only if it was strictly necessary and during a crisis to avoid pointless debates, nagging, or another psych evaluation.
'Marvelous!' Kalla fell in love with both the plan and the Library.
It gave her access to a vast amount of knowledge with but a thought and left her free to take notes without being bothered to read or listen to others.
Plan F stood for fireworks.
Quylla followed Lith's lead, forced to set her moral dilemmas and professional ethics aside for later. Lith reversed the effects of Chisel and Invigoration while using the Hands to redirect the impurities toward the zones of Nalrond's body that offered the most resistance.
There, the impurities would accumulate and clump together, causing the flesh and life forces to swell until they couldn't stand the pressure of the mana flow any longer. At that point, they would explode in a burst of blood and bones.
The Immortal Body array would quickly repair the damage while Lith exploited the scattered state of the life forces to merge them before they could return to their original position.
Once the body was mended, the healing process further mixed the life forces. Survival took priority so instead of wasting energy trying to split, the human and Rezar parts rearranged themselves in a way that would prevent another clogging.
On top of that, the array would also put back the impurities into place, keeping the mana resistance of the tissues high and limiting the mana flow. Bloody fireworks bloomed from Nalrond's body, blowing the recalcitrant parts of his life force to bits as many times as necessary.
Quylla had to use her Injection spell with multiple potions at a time to ensure that Nalrond would have enough nutrients in his bloodstream to survive the shock from the constant damage and regeneration.
'It's disgusting but it's working.' Faluel saw with the Eyes that as the life forces merged, the mana cores were pushed toward the same place. 'Rearrange the impurities at the following points.'
The artifact followed the evolution of the mana flow and predicted its path.Lith and Quylla created dead ends until the mana cores only had one available path and slowly moved to occupy the same space.
The moment they started overlapping, the bright blue became lighter and lighter. Then, the first streaks of violet appeared and Nalrond's whole body started to crack and swell.
'Do it! Just pick a technique for the violet and use it!' Lith and Quylla focused on expelling the impurities as fast as they could.
