In the inn, inside the room where Mireya had locked himself, sealed behind the fluctuating aurora, an inferno was unfolding.

"Ehhh... h-h-h... kgh!"

The air, heavy and dense, charged with waves of uncontrolled energy, swirled everywhere, smelling of copper and wet earth, a mixture of fresh blood and lush sap.

"Hkk!"

The floor and walls had been hastily covered with the few sheets and towels that could be gathered. However, this effort at cleanliness was futile, for the room was an inferno of manifest pain.

"Ggghhh!"

Arranged in the corners, there were at least a dozen buckets and vessels, most of them overflowing with a thick, reddish liquid.

(Boom-Boom!)

And in the center of the room, the oppressive sound of a constant, monotonous rumbling filled the room, an amplified sound that resonated directly in the bones.

(Boom-Boom! Boom-Boom!)

Each pulsation was a dull thunder, a violent confirmation of life.

"Agh!"

And the one experiencing all of this... Mireya lay curled up on the bed, soaked in cold sweat.

"J-j-j..."

His face was a mask of pale, tense pain. His hands, clutching his chest with desperate force, squeezed the sternum area, right where he felt the violent push of the core, tightening with such strength that his knuckles had turned white.

"Nnngh!"

He tried fervently to repress the screams. Every spasm that contracted his torso caused him unimaginable pain, like an explosion of agony that he suppressed with all his strength to avoid alerting anyone.

"Hhhhhk!"

The pain was so intense that he could no longer distinguish whether the dull, constant beat was his own heart or the core embedded in his chest.

Right in the sternum area, where the pain was sharpest, the cracked core gem was embedded. Not under the skin, but fused to the flesh, cracked and pulsing with a faint glow beneath the stretched dermis.

"Guh!"

Around this area, Mireya's skin was furrowed with swollen and pulsating veins that pumped with frenetic intensity, as if the core's energy were trying to expand throughout his entire body, causing the veins to bulge over the pale skin in a living map of agony.

"Mff!"

The rest of Mireya's skin looked pale, completely lacking in nourishment, as if the core were draining all energy and vitality, leaving him with the sickly appearance of a ghost.

"... sigh... hhh..."

His face reflected the hell he was living. His eyes were sunken, surrounded by deep dark circles resulting from the continuous and brutal lack of sleep.

(Don't scream, don't scream, don't scream, don't scream, don't scream, don't scream, don't scream, don't scream, don't scream, don't scream, don't scream, don't scream, don't scream, don't scream, don't scream, don't scream!!)

And the most unsettling was the transformation of his gaze. The irises of his eyes, which were naturally white, had changed shape and color. They had now transformed into a kind of spiral of an intense, changing color. They were like spirals slowly turning, trapped in a hypnotic and alien pattern that reflected the madness and unstable power stirring within him.

"Hhhhhk!"

However, despite this, Mireya desperately suppressed his screams...

(Knock, knock!)

... Because amidst the dull rumbling of the amplified heartbeats, a new sound interrupted the agony.

("Mom!!")

("Clink, clanck?!")

("?!")

He could hear the worried and muffled calls of his "babies."

(Mom, tell us you're okay!)

(Open the door!)

(Is everything stable?!)

Hearing the "voices" of Silver, Goldie, Brownie, and the countless straw dolls that, from outside, called out to their "mother."

"I-I'm... fine."

It was then that Mireya, despite the unbearable pain, clung desperately to his self-control, and with every remaining ounce of strength, he resisted worrying his "babies."

"I'm just... sleepy..."

His mind operated with a single directive: to appear calm. He couldn't let them know what was really happening, so he bit his lip until the taste of iron mixed with the decay in his mouth to finally manage to exhale words calmly.

The pain he was experiencing was truly an anomaly that normally would have already killed any ordinary living being. This was because the pain was so extreme as what was happening in his body was a total anomaly within the laws of nature.

Since normally, the birth of a Spirit of Nature is a sublime, albeit powerful, process. The natural energy of the environment, charged with will and intention, gradually concentrates and condenses in a single place of high purity, thus giving rise to a new spirit. An event as violent as the current one should not be possible in a natural gestation.

However, several factors converged to allow this catastrophic biological anomaly to occur.

Namely that the core, the object Mireya ingested, was exceptionally powerful. For it had been created directly by the Queen of Spirits herself, the ultimate source of natural energy.

Therefore, that core was not a simple gem. It was made of the highest purity and quality to function as an Operational Avatar under the Queen's direct control. Its intrinsic design was to absorb and store the natural energy of the environment, concentrating it within itself to be able to take physical form at will.

However, having been swallowed in a shattered state, yet still trying to carry out the last order received from the Queen of Spirits to explode, the core continued to try to absorb natural energy.

However, after being consumed and assimilated, the core encountered Mireya's vast and chaotic energy reserves which it immediately began to utilize, resulting in a process similar to the gestation of a natural spirit where the new one began to use Mireya's body as a living and available matrix, absorbing his chaotic energy and using it as fuel to dramatically accelerate its own gestation and manifestation process.

As a result, instead of a slow and calm environmental condensation process, Mireya was experiencing the explosive condensation that gave birth to a new spirit born from his own energy source, making his body literally a biological furnace about to fracture from the pressure.

"Partner, you are at your limit."

It was then that amidst the agony and forced concentration, Echidna's telepathic voice resonated in Mireya's mind, calm but filled with concern.

"This process is not normal."

"....."

Mireya, with his spiraled eyes fixed on the ceiling, kept his hands covering his mouth, silencing his own screams.

"There's nothing wrong with screaming if it hurts."

"..."

Despite hearing the words, Mireya forced himself to ignore them and instead did the only thing he could to maintain his facade of calm before his "babies," keeping his mouth covered with both hands, pressing his fingers against his lips, strangling any sound that might escape while the dry blood from his cracked lips mixed with the sweat.

"Haaa... I knew it."

Thus, seeing that state, a sigh of resignation was transmitted through the telepathic link.

"I knew you wouldn't listen to me, it's your nature."

(Thump-Thump! Thump-Thump!)

"?!"

But at that instant, the core gem embedded in Mireya's sternum began to pulsate fiercely.

(BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!)

Each beat growing more intense and stronger...

(Lup-Thump! Lup-Thump!)

... Each beat becoming faster, chaotic, and uneven.

(Tick-Tock, TICK-TOCK!)

It was a catastrophic ticking.

"Nnggghhh!"

Mireya's body arched in a violent spasm.

"Ah-k... k-k-k!"

And he tried to open his mouth to let out a moan.

"Glup! Pluuuagh!"

But instead, he once again vomited a mouthful of thick, black blood that fell onto the floor.

"It's about to be born! The condensation process is over. Get ready. Whatever happens, it will be now!"

"!!"

After Echidna's words, Mireya felt flooded by the greatest wave of pain he had ever experienced, a tide of agony that ran from the embedded gem in his sternum to the spiral in his eyes.

(It really... HURTS!!)

Simultaneously, he felt his strength completely draining away. The will to resist and the energy that kept him conscious vanished. His arms, which had so desperately covered his mouth, fell heavily to the floor.

"You can leave it out. You are alone. There's no need to hold it in."

As Mireya's mind was on the verge of breaking due to the pain, he heard the words whispered into his mind with great calm and care.

"Now... Let the pain out."

"Ugh..."

And with those words as a cue, Mireya, letting go of his already cracked and bleeding lips, released all the pain and madness accumulated over weeks of confinement.

"SKREEEEEEEEEEÓNG!!"

A scream erupted from his throat. It wasn't a simple sound, but a sonic blast of pure madness.

(WHRROOOUUMMM!!)

The chaotic energy, physical pain, and involuntary concentration were channeled into that single release.

(KÁ-ZHOOOWW!!)

The sonic blast was not limited to the room; it traveled through the very fabric of the world of Ky'lar, propagating with an irresistible force.

"Truly interesting!!"

In the process, it knocked out every conscious living being within an eighty-kilometer radius, leaving the environment in total silence.

(KCRACK-WHUM!!)

In this way, amidst the silence, the core vanished...

"Mmm... Mom...?"

And a new spirit was born.