Awakening

At Joseph's affirmation Aden quickly retrieved the vial of angels blood from his storage space. Handing it to Joseph he said, "In order for the process to begin you will need to drink this, once you start to feel the energy build up retrieve the stone and begin."

Joseph nodded his understanding and quickly downed the vials contents. It had a very strong flavor which Joseph couldn't quite place, it also caused him to feel like he was being constantly electrocuted. It wasn't painful in any way, more along the lines of causing his body to vibrate incessantly.

Joseph's complete focus was on the energy that had begun to spread from his stomach throughout his body. It was fast and brilliant white, like small tendrils of lightning coursing through his veins causing his muscles to spasm and a smell of Ozone to permeate his senses. It was at this moment when he felt the energy start to rush towards his heart that he took out the awakening stone and held it close to him.

He could immediately feel a reciprocal response between the stone and the lightning, it was as though the stone was feeding the lightning something that it lacked, changing its nature to a more constructive version of itself.

This is where Aden stepped in, activating the series of formations he had created he sealed off the room entirely. He also ensured that a steady stream of healing energy was directed towards Joseph at all times. He didn't really know how bad this was gonna be, he had never seen a catalyst of this grade be used before. He had taken every precaution he could think of to protect Joseph's life, he just had to hope it was enough.

Joseph was unaware of anything going on around him, his entire being was determinedly focused upon what was happening inside of him. Currently the energy from the angel blood was continually building up within his heart, the awakening stone was also feeding it a steady stream causing it to dim gradually until it looked like a simple piece of glass.

When all of its energy ran out the stone turned to dust and evaporated away, leaving behind the fully charged lightning within him. Joseph watched closely for a few moments, waiting for the ball of energy to coalesce into its final shape. Once it had done so it looked as if a sphere of brilliant white light rested within him, gentle pulses of energy emanated from it doing nothing but signaling that something was about to happen.

1…2…3…Joseph counted the pulses, noting that they were speeding up approaching the same rhythm as his heart beat. He braced himself for whatever would come next as the pulses finally matched up and stayed there for a few moments. Then suddenly everything stopped, the pulses, the tingling sensation, even his heartbeat.

He was enormously confused, "What the hell is going on?" After this question barely crossed his mind he felt a great wave of energy pulse through his body, the ball of light had released a large wave in time with his newly started heart beat. This pulse of energy completely crushed his skeletal structure, causing fractures from his head to his toes rendering him entirely unable to move or even think really due to the enormous pain. This first pulse was followed by another shortly after which caused his crushed bones to turn into a sort of liquid state, as the pure white energy slowly fused with them altering their structure and function.

Truth be told it was only due to the formations that Aden had prepared that Joseph was still alive, the constant wave of healing energy accelerated the process of assimilation he was going through, and prevented him from collapsing which would cause the awakening to terminate prematurely.

It was during these first few moments when Joseph was fighting to maintain his sanity, that a monotonous feminine voice rang loudly within his mind, the distraction allowed him to momentarily distance himself from the pain and listen to what was being said.

"Congratulations! You have begun your first steps on the path of evolution. The system will now evaluate you to determine your new abilities."

"Finally!" Joseph shouted inwardly, he knew that this is where the awakening truly began. This is where the system would fully integrate with him allowing him to both see and understand his attributes and abilities. The system itself was probably the greatest mystery of the towers. It had arrived when the first 7 had succeeded in awakening, teaching them, and enabling their steady progress. It could be said that the system is a second ability as the things you can do with it are monstrously beneficial. But Joseph couldn't dwell on this for very long as another wave of energy rocked his body, causing his pain to spike and focus to shatter.

A few moments later the system voice came back, cutting through the fog of pain allowing Joseph to once again regain focus.

"Congratulations! System has detected that a SSS grade catalyst is in use. Your innate ability will be overwritten in favor of the catalyst. Please do not fall unconscious during bodily reconstruction, death will be the result."

Joseph knew this already so he didn't pay any attention to it, he needed this to work not only to honor his parents last sacrifice, but to enable him to achieve his goals of punishing those responsible for their death, and of finally freeing this world from the invasion he thought the towers were.

All of these thoughts and notifications happened in a split second, they had begun with the first wave of energy that shattered his bones, and ended before the second wave had hit. To Joseph it seemed like he had been going through this process for some time but it hadn't even been a full minute yet. The pain was so intense it warped his sense of time and dominated his focus, the only real lucid moments he had were when the system voice pierced his thoughts, and those moments were fleeting and few.

During this time Aden was valiantly standing behind him, his hand placed on Joseph's back providing support and a steady stream of energy. Aden used this energy to wrap Joseph's mind in a kind of barrier, reducing the amount of pain that Joseph actually perceived. This, along with the brutal training he had gone through was what really saved Joseph's mind from permanent damage. Everyone has a threshold, you cross it and the consequences are not pretty.

It took several pulses of energy before Joseph's bones had resolidified into their final shape. They were several times more dense with long runic chains wrapping around them. After they were solid they immediately began to produce new blood cells that were vastly different than normal ones. These cells were golden in color and seemed to be charged with energy as microscopic arch's of electricity seemed to constantly jump from cell to cell. If you were to look at it on a macro scale it would appear as if Joseph's blood was flowing with lightning.

As the new blood was being produced another large wave of energy swept through his body, pushing out all of his old blood through his skin. It looked to Aden as if the boys skin had become porous enough to allow all of his blood to leak out. It was grotesque to say the least but the following wave of energy made it even worse.

Now that the old blood was gone and new blood was being rapidly produced, the energy turned its attention to Joseph's organs. Breaking them down one by one, expelling the waste and leaving behind newly formed golden hued organs in their place. It started with his reproductive organs than moved progressively upwards, the gory mess need not be described as it can be imagined how horrifying the scene would be. Suffice it to say that to all those who may be unfortunate enough to look inside, the room appeared to be a human slaughter house with blood and organs strewn about everywhere, and a heavy scent of blood hanging in the air.

Aden had seen worse things within the towers, and on the battlefield resisting the many tides that came from them. But he was still rather shocked at the totality of Joseph's reconstruction. It appeared as though there wasn't a single part of him that did not require significant changes, if not out right replacement.

After several minutes of his organs being reconstructed the energy focused on his brain and heart. The energy seemed to be much more methodical with these organs than any other. It didn't immediately destroy what was there and replace it, but instead allowed the energy to seep inside and change their structures more gradually. The fluid that his brain rested in became nearly 3 times thicker and had golden colored sparks within it, while his brain itself seemed to be covered in a crisscross of runic chains that ran all the way down his spinal cord. His heart seemed to have grown slightly, and changed from pink and fleshy to golden and slightly metallic. The same runic chains could be seen running their way through the surface of the organ and all through his major arteries.

It was at this point that the energy stored in his heart seeped into those runic chains causing them to light up brilliantly, as the light permeated his body his muscles began to melt simultaneously. It was a similar process to what his bones went through but much faster, as the newly constructed muscles were finished in only a couple of minutes. Once this was done the final wisp of energy traveled to his eyes, etching more runic signs in them and changing their color to a vibrant gold. When done all was silent within Joseph's body, no more pulses of energy, no more pain, it was all over now. Joseph had done the unthinkable, and at this very moment the voice came back,

"Congratulations! Your awakening and assimilation were successful! You have been granted the unique SSS grade bloodline ARCHANGEL OF VENGEANCE!"