Speed Is King

It was a completely unprecedented development.

Baltamiros was already one of a kind, a God unlike any god in existence.

His power level was an entire qualitative upgrade higher than all the other gods, and although gods granting mortals a portion of their power was not an uncommon occurrence, none had ever done so in such a stupid manner that jeopardized their own side of the deal.

But Baltamiros was a sincere God who would rather suffer a loss than deviate from being true to his own heart, so he did what he felt like doing, and that was to take the once in a lifetime opportunity of combining his newfound power with the process of Elliot's rebirth.

"This is too good an opportunity to miss." Baltamiros told himself. "It will be good to see what effects my liquefied power have on such a powerful seed undergoing rebirth. My power would form the fabric of his strength starting from deep within his very core, and combined with his strong mental state, the result would be very interesting indeed.

He would walk the higher planes as a complete anomaly, as his rise through the ranks of power would be phenomenal to watch. Worst case scenario, I lose an Apostle and gain years of entertainment. And a huge favor I can claim whenever I want."

Baltamiros mused lightly as he watched his liquefied power spread.

When creating metal alloys, iron would be mixed with other substances to create a product that was many times stronger than iron itself in its pure state.

On the other hand, a single drop of catalyst was also able to create a chain reaction within a concoction that could drastically alter the product.

What happened in Elliot's process of rebirth was a little bit of both.

Like a catalyst, Baltamiros' liquefied power triggered a massive change in Elliot's fundamental element of being, and caused it to be highly receptive and reactive to the power of the gods.

At the same time, his liquefied power also assimilated itself in Elliot's seat of power, his heart, providing it with a minor power source that was more powerful than anything in existence, even including the other gods.

Though not quite a god in the grand measure of such things, Elliot was also definitely not hanging out in the realms of mere mortals either.

He was a unique being, a demigod capable of rivaling the power of the gods in the right conditions.

The first to reform around Elliot's fabric of being where Elliot's bones and soul.

Together, they combined and remade themselves into what was previously Elliot, but upgraded and enhanced to perfection.

A slightly ethereal looking skeletal structure soon appeared, standing at an optimal 1.9 meters tall.

"Soul infused skeleton, done. Excellent quality, I must say. I expect nothing less from him after receiving the benefits my awesome contribution." Baltamiros said proudly.

His organs were next to reform.

Red energy swirled around his chest area and formed into a powerful looking heart which started to beat steadily.

Ba dump!

Ba dump!

Each pump of his heart sent forth a wave of blood which shot out in strangely predetermined pathways and formed blood vessels as they went.

A swirl of red energy then reformed his brain, lungs and every single organ before moving on to his perfectly formed muscles and covering them with perfectly unblemished pale bronze coloured skin.

After a few more seconds, the completely reborn Elliot opened his eyes.

He was quiet for a moment as he processed everything his new body had to offer.

"I see. So this is the way the world works. We are not human bodies with a spirit. We are actually spirits with a human body. No wonder the process of training the spirit only at the ancient level is horribly erroneous.

The growth of the human body apart from the growth of the spirit weakens the spirit.

They both must be developed at the same time. In fact, it might even be more beneficial to focus on the spirit a little bit more." Elliot thought aloud.

"Excellent observation!" Baltamiros exclaimed warmly. "Not many cultivators realize that particular point at all, much less one who is merely starting on his journey."

"Restarting." Elliot corrected. "And cultivator? What is that?"

"Starting." Baltamiros re corrected him. "Your previous progress was so drastically wrong that you might as well consider yourself a brand new cultivator. And yes, we call those who walk the long road of power towards the apex "cultivators". As in you guys are all cultivating yourselves."

"Strange. But fine. Cultivator it is." Elliot nodded and continued to explore his brand new body.

He realized that his cold, draconic mindset was still there, and that most of his energy had transformed into something different.

Traces of his darklight energy was still there, but as it were, it was only contributing around fifteen percent of his current energy's character.

"Interesting. My energy is different." Elliot remarked.

Baltamiros curiously sank his senses into Elliot's body structure and studied him as well.

Of course he knew why Elliot's energy changed. He'll be damned if Elliot's energy remained the same even after ingesting his power. That would mean that his power was not as potent as Elliot's energy.

What he was curious about was just how much it changed.

"WHAT? You still have ten percent of your old energy left? TEN PERCENT??" Baltamiros shouted in indignation.

"Oh? It seems like you know why my energy made that change. What did you do to me, huh?" Elliot asked Baltamiros calmly.

"I did nothing bad to you." Baltamiros said rather crossly. "I granted you a tiny drop of my power. Of my NEW and upgraded power. What it should have done was to completely overwhelm your energy and cause your body to run only on it. But you have ten percent of your old energy left… Ridiculous."

"Ten?" Elliot chuckled. He did not expect that even a god would fail to read his energy composition correctly!