Undead Lord of Gluttonous Pride

'Am I now connected to this one?' Damien thought, still wondering about where the one he had thought up had disappeared to, along with the line that led him to the core covered in roots.

'Makes sense... They're both the same.'

After making sense of the logic, he focused on how to spread his soul energy throughout his body. 'But how, if that's not inside my head, how would it send the energy to me?'

He decided to try anyway. He focused his intention on the energy and tried to pull it out—trying to vacuum it out of the spherical container. The energy moved slightly and created waves, but it inevitably failed.

Damien sighed in disappointment.

"Here's a tip, boy." Damien raised his head towards Howrah, who seemed to have discovered Damien's confusion in completing the task. "Try not to overcomplicate things. Such things will only lead to more confusion as you try to solve an unrelated or unhelpful answer in solving the intended one."

"Think of two men stranded on an island—naked, with nothing from the outside world to help them but their knowledge. One is physically weak but smart, the other dumb but physically strong. They're both looking for a way to acquire food, and all they have around them are fish, sand, and some thick, long sticks—not even a blade of grass. Which one do you think might get the fish first?"

"Would the smart one get it?"

"Why would you think so? Is it because he's smart?"

Damien nodded. His gesture caused him to get a—

THWACK!

—smack from Howrah.

"WRONG!" Howrah yelled, his staff rebounding off Damien's abnormally tough skull. "The dumb one would." He then shook his head slowly, almost saying that the answer was obvious.

Damien widened his eyes, outraged by such an answer, "How would that be the answer? Wouldn't the smart one know what to do in the situation since they're so smart?"

"That's something you got right. But that's something YOU have to find out. Just like how you have to find out how to draw your soul energy from that core over there and throughout your body."

Damien scratched his head in frustration, "You can't even give me a hint?" He asked. Howrah eyed him before sighing, "Fine, I'll help you a bit and tell you the answer later on when I see fit."

Damien shuffled in his seat and urged the old man to begin. Seeing that Damien was ready for his words, he began:

"Let's take this from the smart one's perspective. You're weak, but you have the intellect to compensate for that. You would first look at what you could use to achieve your goal. Your surroundings would be a good start." He explained before urging Damien to continue with his task.

"There's your hint. Now go focus on your task instead of this question for now."

Damien sighed again and switched his focus to the task on hand. With what he had gathered and learnt from this peculiar question, how would he use his surroundings to aid him?

'Don't overcomplicate things?'

Damien held that in his mind. 'I guess I was...' But the real question still remains: how would he get the energy to spread across his body? Were there channels for them to flow into? How exactly would he get the energy out of his core?

Such thoughts passed through his mind, but they eventually led back to him, staring at the core in his mind. He stared, and he stared—scrutinising the core and the roots wrapping tightly around it.

That was until an idea popped into his mind.

'This is a matter of imagination and talent.' He quoted Howrah. Since Howrah's way of doing it—no visualisation—didn't work, his imagination would have to do it, and he believed he had found a way to do it.

'The roots.'

The roots that tightly clung to the orb and sucked at it like it was some lollipop came to his mind. What if he tried to visualise that way? The imagination of roots gathering around his core and spreading the energy through the roots inside his body.

He decided to implement this. What could go wrong? And like that, he then began to imagine the roots wrapping around his core, sending the energy gathered from it towards him.

He felt a subtle connection with the roots and also the feeling of them pulsating with energy. On the outside, Howrah, who was staring blankly into the air, caught sight of something in the corner of his eyes.

He gave Damien a brief stare before hopping down from the root he was sitting on and walking inside the entrance into the tree. After making pass the several obstacles hanging in the air, he caught sight of the three cores.

However, there was something different, "Hm?" He hummed curiously as he stared at one of the roots connected around the red core. Unlike before, when it was purely grey, it was now brimming with a red colour, and it continuously became like that.

The red light passed through the part of it connecting to the core and continued down through it. Howrah watched this happen in real-time and widened his eyes, "I thought time was suspended here."

He rubbed his chin and caught sight of the inside of the core; a spark of realisation passed through him as his eyes lit up, "I see... So this is how you're doing it."

From inside the core, the energy in it decreased at a fast pace, even more so when the other roots attached to it began to drink at it as well. The red light passed through the roots and into the wooden flooring.

The roots crawling and sticking on the walls began to glow consecutively with a reddish colour.

"Hm..." Howrah narrowed his eyes as he watched the room begin to light up. "So this is the Beacon? How problematic it is for all three cores to be here as well." He shook his head, "It's easier to protect I suppose..."

"I should hurry to leave; my energy signature may disrupt the process."

He said but started walking unhurriedly to the exit of the inside of the hollowed-out tree that was now beginning to...