As time passed, the darkness grew thick and heavier, only the small grunt and hissing sound of Zephyr could be heard in the eerie darkness as Black watched her tightening her body coiled on the ground.
Her obsidian scale's grinding against the rough surface of the earth, leaving them slightly blooded. Yet Zephyr's obsidian scale's still shimmered with an amethyst-dark glow like the living violet stars in a deep space while strange patterns, resembling runes and forgotten inscriptions, flared and faded at uneven intervals.
Black had already put Zephyr's body and soul into a state similar to hibernation, mainly because of 2 reasons —
Primarily Zephyr couldn't withstand the pain caused by her racial evolution, even though the pain wasn't strong since he had even used his Ability [ Sensory Discordance ] where he practically broke the connection between her sense of pain and her body.
But the problem was that the pain came from both her 'Soul' and 'Body' something that was utterly unforeseen even by him.
Although Black had thought about the pain problem and had solved it since he knew that even as a magical beast, she was only a five hours old baby, so her pain tolerance and mental fortitude wasn't that high.
However how could he have known that during her evolution Zephyr would be undergoing both physical and spiritual pain.
...
15 minutes ago...
Black couldn't do anything when suddenly, Zephyr screamed in pain...
"Black it hurts so much.. my whole body is in so much pain. It's.. it's like I'm being torn-apart from inside-out.. it is too much.. I can't.. hicc.. hicc.. please.. please do something Black!!!" Zephyr cried, her voice desperate and croaked even pained, her scarlett gaze filled with tears locked at Black, unblinking with hope and a silent plea.
She didn't even have the strength to lift her head while speaking, that was how much pain she was in. It was downright torture for her little self.
Furthermore it also came as a shock to him when he learned that the pain Zephyr was feeling came from her soul through there soul bond and not from her body, and hearing Zephyr's voice, her hopeful gaze directed at him — Black's thoughts turned chaotic!!
He was desperate! even confused!.
Although he had thought of every little thing he could do to complete Zephyr's racial evolution without any complications yet a problem still came. One which he didn't know how to solve.
Black looked at Zephyr's pained expression, if the soul pain continued Black didn't know what would happen, would the racial evolution succeed or fail or worst case, would she die.
Still he composed his chaotic thoughts within seconds as he knew that loosing his composer and calm now would only lead to disastrous results.
'I can't nullify the soul pain Zephyr is feeling, not with my beginner Level Mastery in the Dissonance trait'. Black wondered with a calm mind while he put Zephyr on the ground careful not to cause her even more pain.
Meanwhile, Black felt depressed, dispirited even shaken as he heard Zephyr's pained cries echoing in the darkness.
"Aauuuuu...." *Hicc..*
"Aauuuuu...." *Hicc..*
Additionally after placing her down, he too knelt in front of her, slowly running his fingers through her obsidian scale's trying to elevate her pain. but how can that work, it was not a physical pain.
He had already solved that problem using his ability [ Sensory Discordance ], it was a spiritual pain, something not physical —
Then in 1 minute, Zephyr's dispirited cries quietened, as though lost, silence returned to the dark cave, but it was a silence that almost broke Black thinking he had killed her.
Since he could feel her will/Ego or self-awareness was collapsing due to the immense pain her soul was going through which her little self just couldn't bare, her mental fortitude wasn't that strong to began with.
Now even if her racial evolution succeed she would be no different than a body without a soul if her self-awareness collapsed, after all a soul without a will of it's own was a dead soul.
In his desperation Black finally remembered something which he had forgotten.
His eyes widened, in part self-blame and part releaf, 'how can I be so pathetic!!.'
Black asked his Partial-Omniscint ability for a solution, and as luck would have it, he got one, the solution. Yet if he messed this up the result would be Zephyr's death, but black was confident that this time he wouldn't mess-up. He would not fail.
Black's golden eyes shone in the dark-vail enshroudeing the small cave with a determination like the blazing sun as he stretched his hand towards her.
When Black's right hand touched the obsidian scale's on Zephyr's forehead, who was coiled on the ground, eyes closed, body unmoving, just like a dead body. He only knew that she wasn't dead because of there Soul Bond and the inaudible weeping sound she was making.
He could still see the small traces of tears on the sides of her closed eyes, silently falling to the ground indicating the world of pain she was experiencing.
His heart ached at such a sight as he blamed himself for her current condition 'If only I knew Better, If only I wasn't that hasty, Zephyr is in so much pain because of me' Black thought in self-blame.
However he just shook his head to clear his thoughts, right now he couldn't get lost in self-blame, he would surely apologise to her later but for now He had to concentrate on the daunting task ahead.
Meanwhile Zephyr was still conscious but didn't have the ability to move because of the immense pain her soul was in — Black poured his magical energy into her body through her forehead more specifically towards and into her soul sea.
As his consciousness entered her soul sea in his ethereal body, what he saw was darkness, absolute darkness just like a black-hole but he didn't have the time to think about that so he ignored it, he had to reach her soul essence as soon as possible.
Then as he moved, suddenly the darkness turned into brightness, so bright that he couldn't see past a meter, then the brightness turned into the darkness again.
The process repeated itself as he moved, practically running towards her soul essence, darkness, brightness, darkness, brightness.
The scenery changed in a chaotic manner but he didn't stop...
Since Zephyr was still undergoing her evolution so her soul sea was simply chaotic, ever-changing between the two opposites.
And if this continued she would surely die, Black didn't have much time so he raced towards her soul essence, he knew were it was because of there Soul Bond, otherwise finding it would've proven to be an impossible task to him in this chaotic soul sea.
In the next 30 seconds Black manage to reach her soul essence, now he just have to locate her ego/self-awareness, temporary brake the bond between Zephyr's ego and her soul using 'Dissonance', connect her ego/self-awareness to his soul through there soul bond to prevent it from collapsing and induce hibernation in her soul and body, and again connect her ego to her soul, at which point when her evolution completes she would simply feel like she had taken a long nap, no pain, no anything.
It sure sounded simple in his mind but the process was complicated and hard. Any miss-up and Black could ultimately destroy her ego, but he preserved and did all that with a practiced precision like he wasn't someone performing an evolution for the first time.
He was a Progenitor after all — no matter what he still knew what to do and how to do just by his instincts alone.
If he wanted to evolve someone into a member of his own race, there is no way he would fail and let that someone die, Black's Pride won't allow him such a failure, He would be ashamed to even call himself a Progenitor if he did.
'I won't let anything happen to you Zephyr, you would become a Quantiarch one way or another.. that I promise you..' Black thought while at the same time he also tried to communicate with her ego through there soul bond.
'Hmm.. I.. trust you..' Zephyr whispered though her voice was quiet weak, she didn't even ask or question what a Quantiarch was.
'Yes, just trust me, leave everything to me.. ' Black was tuched by her quick reply even after all this she still trusted him to have no second thoughts.
A minute passed...
Black managed to do all that without any slip-up...
Zephyr had fallen into a state similar to hibernation, Now he just have to wait for her racial evolution to complete —
...
30 minute later —
...