Soren's heart burst into a localized cloud of vaporized blood and gore, completely obliterated from a physical organ into a mist of fluid and microscopic flesh.
Fortunately, his physical nerves were currently being rewritten by the esoteric glyphs of the Codex, allowing his brain to only register a mere fraction of the lethal pain.
However, that didn't stop Soren from experiencing the trauma from the depths of his soul; after all, no one would watch a mortal's soul be slowly fed into a grinding array without recoiling in horror.
As the warring sentience of the Ryujin and Mimic Drakon Genes recoiled from the mutual destruction, the Ryu-Gene found its chance within the absolute apex of chaos and unceremoniously seized it.
Supported by Soren's conscious intent and cushioned by the endless regenerative purity of the Eden Gene, the Ryu-Gene shaved another fragment of the Origin Essence. But this time, it wasn't for battle.
It latched onto the floating, microscopic cloud of blood and gore that used to be Soren's heart.
Then guided by the exact profound methods Soren had conceptualized during his trials with the Cauldron of Primal Harmony; it began to forge a biological supreme artifact.
The Origin Essence, being the very life energy of all creation definitely had the properties and capabilities of all the ingredients Soren had requested during his trials.
As such, the moment the first chamber solidified—radiating the unmistakable, dominating pressure of a true Dragon Heart—the haughty sentience of the Mimic Drakon instantly vaporized as it fled toward the Bloodline Core in Soren's abdomen.
It understood it was now utterly outmatched. The Ryu-Gene now wielded the regenerative authority of the Eden Gene, the kinetic mass of Ryujin Gene, and the absolute creation law of the Origin Essence.
As such, in a single, paradoxical twist of fate, the catastrophic destruction of Soren's heart had become the greatest boon of his Awakening.
Soon enough, where Soren's previous fragile mortal heart had once been, a newly forged organ of terrifying, profound architecture now hung, anchored to his chest cavity.
Though it retained its original biological size, the internal schematic of this new heart completely broke all mortal logic and limiters.
It was no longer a simple muscle meant to pump blood, having been elevated into a multi-phase refinement engine designed to process the kinetic weight of the cosmos.
An Octochambered Heart.
Dumbstruck... Awed... Weirded... Apprehensive... Flabbergasted.
Various series of emotions flooded through Soren, leaving him not knowing what to feel or react, so he simply stared and kept looking at the marvel that resulted from the madness of his bloodlines' frenzy.
Each pair of chambers now governed different functions.
The Upper Auricle pair became the domain of the Ryujin Gene, the command center of Soren's heart where the Ryu-Gene acted as the administrator.
The Ryu-Gene detects and reads the signatures of any incoming or ambient energies, parsing and sorting them all by their origin, and sentience (whether destructive, adaptive, or regenerative), preventing any possible contamination or collapse from any abrupt influx of power.
Once recognized, the energies were marked with its sentience, almost like a tag with a specific set of instructions embedded within their energy signatures, telling them where to go, which part of Soren's Gene to encounter, and finally what to do with it.
Afterwards, these energies forcefully shunted down into the Lower Auricle pair; the domain where the nature of the Eden Gene took absolute control.
It acted as a divine cushion and a strict arbiter, taming any part of the incoming energies that may conflict with the natives of Soren's bloodline, by tainting them with its docile, adaptive, purifying properties, before letting them proceed to the next stage.
It was within the third stage that the true horror and majesty of his Quaternary System revealed itself.
The sorted, instructed, and tempered energies arrive at the Primary Ventricle pair, the heart of the crucible.
In here, the newly resuscitated Tranquil Poison Essence—the silent, paradoxical killer that had once threatened Soren for a major part of his life—was introduced into the fray.
It acted as an executioner, testing the strength and integrity of the incoming energies, violently corroding their inherent impurities and dissolving any weak or useless traits it finds within them.
Then came the final part, the last chamber pair, the domain of the arrogant, proud, and still incensed Mimic Drakon Gene.
It acted as a tyrant flow that sought to crush and overwrite anything weaker than itself.
As for the ones worthy of sharing host with its primal predatory self, it copied their signatures, hybridizing itself, and by doing so, perfectly fusing the various versions of impossible abilities into a single, terrifying proto-bloodline essence.
One would have thought having an eight-chambered heart to be counterintuitive, since it might result in cardiac arret.
However, with Soren's boasting the muscle density of an ant (size-strength wise), Soren's heartbeats now sent blood circulating through his being at ten times its previous speed.
Soren's analytical mind—the grand pavilion of the Origin Codex—processed this entire miraculous anatomical cycle in a fraction of a microsecond.
He understood the profound relationship immediately.
The Heart is the Refinery. The Bloodline Core is the Crystallizer.
His Octochambered Heart would violently refine the chaotic, conflicting essences, turning them into a unified, supreme flow of power.
It would then send these refined streams crashing downward through his major, newly forged arteries deep into his abdomen where the Bloodline Core awaited the harvest.
As the refined energy gathered, the Core would compress it, solidifying the refined power into a crystallized identity.
The Codex analyzed the infinite variables of this dynamic, revealing glimpses of terrifying future paths.
Depending on which essence he allowed to dominate his cultivation in the future, his Bloodline Core could evolve into a Perfect Hybrid Core.
But for now, governed by the absolute neutrality of the Origin Essence, it would forge a Primordial Core—a foundation of perfect control and unstoppable, heavy growth.
~ BA-DUMP! ~
The Octochambered Heart gave its first, true beat.
The sound did not echo through the physical air; it vibrated through the laws of reality within the subterranean crater.
A torrent of living, hybridized energy fluid—no longer mere mortal blood—exploded outward from the Primary Ventricles.
It surged through the impossibly wide, newly carved blood vessels that had replaced his shredded veins.
The transformation was absolute and terrifying to behold.
The pure, relentless life-force of the Eden Gene flooded his lungs, supercharging his oxygen intake and granting an instant, overwhelming surge of stamina.
The chaotic tyranny of the Ryujin Gene anchored itself to his musculature, weaving a terrifying, explosive density into his fibers.
The Mimic Drakon infused his cellular structure with an adaptive resilience, preparing his body for constant, grueling evolution.
And beneath the scorched, toxic earth of the Sword Graveyard, the carbonized husk of a seven-year-old boy began to crack.
The heavy, metallic stench of dried blood was suddenly incinerated by a wave of pure, blistering physical heat.
The black, cracked obsidian glass that entombed Soren's body spider-webbed, unable to contain the localized gravitational pressure emanating from his newly established Bloodline Core.
Crack. Crack.
~ KACHA! ~.
The layers of dead, charred flesh that clung to his bones began to turn to fine ash, peeling away to reveal a terrifying, flawless physical architecture beneath.
His skeletal structure had been completely reforged, shimmering with the indestructible, heavy luster of Star-Iron and the flawless density of Bone-Jade.
Over this unbreakable chassis, the previous steel-coiled muscle fibers wove themselves together with violent speed, albeit it now more tensile, and purer.
The suffocating, toxic Wood Qi that hung in the air above the crater was suddenly caught in a violent vacuum.
It swirled into a localized vortex, aggressively inhaled by the very pores of Soren's newly forged skin.
The Tranquil Poison Essence within his heart eagerly met the toxic invasion, instantly dissolving its impurities and converting the lethal Wood Qi into raw, usable energy.
He was no longer surviving the environment; he was consuming it.
Then the ash settled, and the gravitational anomaly slowly stabilized into a heavy, pervasive aura of absolute authority.
Deep within the ruined crater, a pale, perfectly formed hand reached upward, its fingers effortlessly piercing through the thick slab of fused obsidian that buried him.
With a casual, almost biomechanical flex of his Star-Iron reinforced muscles, Soren shattered the ton of solid rock above him into a shower of harmless gravel.
He sat up amidst the ruin.
The Physical Reconstruction was complete.
The Quaternary Alignment had been paved within his flesh.
Slowly and deliberately, Soren opened his eyes.
The abyssal black voids of his Origin Pupils met the dim, toxic light of the Sword Graveyard.
The fractured, prismatic halos framing his irises spun with a slow, analyzing majesty.
In an instant, the infinite variables of the ruined landscape, the exact density of the dead air, and the structural weaknesses of every shattered sword around him were processed, categorized, and filed within his Origin Codex.
Then he took his first, true waking breath.
It sounded like the drawing of a steel blade.
The ambient Qi of the graveyard rushed into his lungs, instantly subjected to the brutal refinement of his Octochambered Heart.
He looked down at his own flawless, pale hands, feeling the terrifying, unyielding weight of the Origin Cube anchored invisibly onto his immediate ambience.
It almost felt like the Cube was intent on tempering not only his Soul World and Soul Body, but also his Physical Body and Aura.
He then turned his gaze slightly, his omnidirectional sight locking onto the mound of scorched earth a few yards away, where the faint, silver karmic thread pulsed with the chaotic, shifting energy of a dual personality.
Buried beneath the same scorched earth, Liora's physical form lay equally broken.
But through the esoteric connection, Soren could see her internal spiritual architecture shifting violently.
The dormant bloodlines of the Dark Elf, Shadow Fairy, and Primal Succubus were no longer stagnant.
They were boiling.
The Renegade Goddess, Ji Min, was actively weaving her millennia of deceptive Daos and primal truths into her foundation, forcing a horrific, yet beautiful metamorphosis upon her host.
The Shadow was taking form in the dark, tethered irrevocably to his own fate.
Soren pulled his awareness back to his own center.
The external truths were accounted for.
The internal foundation was laid.
He felt the sheer, suffocating density of the Origin Qi resting within his cracked, dormant and dead Black Sun.
It was no longer a dormant drop of essence; it was now homing, like a cosmic spark waiting to ignite the localized black hole.
"The Canvas is prepared," Soren whispered into the toxic silence of the graveyard, his voice no longer the fragile tone of a child, but the cold, resonating absolute truth of the Herald.
"Let the Natural Awakening begin."
Then with a slow, agonizing exertion of his will, Soren sought out the Medallion of Awakening within him and clamped down on it.
He did not gently coax it. He ruthlessly shattered it causing the drop of Origin Qi violently activate.
The Origin Qi did not burst outward like a normal cultivator's Qi; it inverted, activating the prowess of the Black Sun to pull in the sheer density of the ambient energy before exploding with catastrophic kinetic force.
The heavy, primordial energy surged out of the Sword Graveyard, rippling past the borders of the Ignis Tribe, the Wastelands, the Continent, the Minor World, and even the Major Worlds of the 3rd Plane.
Every living being, both plant and animal, beast and human, fallen gods, deities, demons, and as much as anything that had breath and currently existed within the entire 3rd Plane, felt the expanding wave wash over them.
The pervasive sensation clamped upon the entire 3rd Plane, and after suffusing every inch, nook and cranny of it, began to shrink back towards its source.
As it receded, every being that felt the aura wash past them on its return suddenly felt something inexplicable leave the core of their very being. Almost as if it was stolen; or to be precise, unwillingly ripped out of them.
Furthermore, as the aura receded, every effect caused by the Chaos of the Infinite began to slow to a halt, be repaired and then reinforced with amplified strength and energy.
As expected, all of these beings had varying response to the situation; for some, it induced a sensation of awe and servitude deep within their souls.
For some others, it was a feeling of fear and terror, and then there were those who felt absolute fury and then greed.
Nevertheless, and regardless of whatever it was they felt, they altogether turned towards the possible source of the commotion, with a single unified inquisitive thought in their minds.
'A Cosmic Reset?'