Dangerous operation

It took four hours and used up most of the resources Ellen brought her, but she finished the formations. It took another two hours to quadruple check everything. A new day came in that time, marked by the rising sun.

There were nine formations in total. Eight formed a multilayered hexagram and would force her to a stable near-death state. The ninth is a circle filled with the marrow and blood. It would diffuse them into the Seed floating above when she triggered it.

"Everything looks right, the alterations fit seamlessly too." She nodded in relief. It may seem excessive, but if one of these formations didn't work right, then the 'near' would be removed.

She sat in the center of the main formation. She took a deep breathe and sent a command through her strings. The strings were a necessary alteration for her. These formations weren't designed to be used alone, doing so was akin to doing surgery on oneself. But there was no one Marina trusted to control it in her stead.

The formations sprung to life moment the command passed through. The fourth turned to sand and swooped toward her. She resisted sneezing as it coated her entire body, the fifth and third formations then activated.

Hollow runes shot out of them towards Marina's body while still connected to the formations by chains. The runes sunk beneath the ash and her clothes, contacting her skin and seemingly becoming one with it.

She gasped painfully as the ash swarmed the runes like locust and filled up the hollow sections of it.

'Everything's fine, I'm still in control,' she assured herself through the pain and activated the sixth formation. It released a pulse of blue energy that caused the now brown runes to shine.

A scream escaped Marina's lips for a moment as the runes did their work. Sand replaced her blood and dragged through every part of her body, causing her excruciating pain.

The sandy energy faltered in its spread, and the pain subsided slightly, but rather than joy a hint of panic rose in Marina's eyes. She'd subconsciously fought back against the wild qi. Even now, expelling it wouldn't be hard, but that wasn't what she desired.

She needed to reach the brink. But what if something went wrong? She could lose everything here, this may be her last chance to turn back. Those thoughts flickered through her head before being burned away.

Her eyes shone with resolve as she recalled why she did this, and she activated the second and seventh formations. The seventh released a bunch of sealing runes that spread across the floor before crawling through the chains still connecting the fifth and third formations to her. Her unconscious resistance grew smaller and smaller as the chains were reinforced.

At the same time, the second formation released an intense pressure that held her down physically to the extent that it stopped her screams in their tracks. Now she couldn't escape the confines of the circle.

Free of its hindrances, the sandy qi quickly spread through her entire body. The pain subsided completely, and Marina's eyes became serious. This is the most important step. Her body would soon start to break down and she needed to activate the eighth formation to stop it.

If she activated it too soon, it'd waste all her efforts and her body wouldn't recover enough for another attempt before the exam. As for too late… sand to the wind.

A brown dot showed up on Marina's skin. Then another, and another. Her body racked in pain as she slowly disintegrated.

Over half her skin turned brown when she used the strings to check the Seed. It still floated there unhindered, aloof to the world.

Soon her entire skin turned a sandy brown, then the changes began to move inward. She was beyond caring about her image at this point was screaming to the full capacity of her lungs.

Her qi kept trying to protect her but was ruthlessly suppressed by the runic chains. She fell backwards as her body became completely unresponsive and panic set in. She checked the Seed again, but it was still indifferent.

A process that should've only taken a few minutes stretched for days and weeks as she reached her limits.

'a… little… more.' She encouraged herself as the cruel Seed finally wobbled a little. Her mind grew hazy as her body transformed inside out. With her body unresponsive, those strings became her only connection to the outside world, but soon, even they faded.

She tried to sense the current state of the seed, but she couldn't reach it. Her consciousness was consumed by pain, she couldn't feel or recognize anything else.

Cracks formed in her skin and sand poured out, but she was oblivious to it. She tried to use her anger, her most stalwart supporter, but her hazy and pain addled mind couldn't reach it either.

The cracks grew bigger and more sand covered the floor. The Seed completely deformed, looking more like an odd jellyfish now, but she was unaware of that too. Even if she knew, she couldn't activate the eight formation in her current state.

It was too much, nobody could do this to themselves and succeed. Her body started to sag, on the verge of crumbling, her mind too embroiled to even form last thoughts.

At that moment an ominous red glow rose from her finger. A feeling of pleasure suddenly came over her, strong enough to momentarily wash away all the pain. A feeling of becoming whole.

Though the pain flooded back a fraction of a second later, it'd been enough. The eighth formation sprung to life and then shrank. It shrank until it was Marina's size and glowed.

Her body stopped breaking down, right on the edge. Her cleared mind immediately got to work fusing the Seed with the blood and marrow.

The deformed jellyfish thrashed about desperately, like a frightened child throwing a tantrum. It held none of its previous mystery or regality, just an innate fear of termination.

Marina guided it to the blood and marrow, assured it that it would help. It wasn't easy. Her body stopped breaking down, but she was still in a state of more dead than alive.

The pain should've left her unresponsive, but there was another presence in her, carrying part of the burden that she couldn't. With their help, she managed to finish the fusion.

She activated the first formation the moment the Seed sucked up the last drop of blood. The formation rotated in place and a strong suction force came from it. Small particles of black sand left her body until no more came out.

The lock on the fifth and third formations deactivated, causing the chains and pressure to collapse. Her qi roared through her body, trying to support it and alleviated the damages.

She couldn't move a finger. Her body no longer tried to collapse, but she still had very deep wounds. Her skin still maintained a dry cracked state, and blood replaced sand, leaking out at a steady pace.

She'd gone a past the best stopping point and was in a more serious condition than she planned.

'But it succeeded.' Her only awareness of the outside world was the thin string that showed the Seed. Its silver color died blood red as it contorted unstably.

Unable to maintain itself It burst like a balloon and flowed back into Marina. She immediately felt a huge pressure tie itself to her and stress her already overtaxed body.

'I'd hoped I could at least clear away the formations, but oh well. I guess I'll leave the rest to you.' She directed her thoughts towards the presence sharing her pain before cutting them off. Her consciousness completely succumbed to the wave of exhaustion and pain as she passed out.