I knew it was going to be bad. I just… didn't expect it to be that bad.
Veneri sat down in the center of the chamber, folding his legs into a lotus position with the same calm expression he wore before every dangerous stunt he ever pulled. The metallic floor beneath him reflected the faint glow of the ship's ambient lights but as he straightened his spine and closed his eyes, the atmosphere in the room shifted. He entered his Divine Transformation before he even began.
His body grew taller. His hair slightly grew and his Divine Presence came in form of waves. Even after everything I have seen him do, it still sent a chill through me every time he fully embraced that state.
Hansel and I stood a few meters in front of him, watching in silence.
When he fully released his Divine Presence, my form flickered as the density of it surged. It was saturated with Soul Energy. Being close to it felt like trying to breathe underwater.
"Veneri—"
Hansel raised a hand slightly, signaling me to stay back.
His Divine Presence continued to expand, filling every corner of the soundproof chamber. The golden Soul Energy was so concentrated that I could see it shimmering like heat haze around his body.
He inhaled slowly and activated Body Reconstruction five times at the same time.
Five distinct streams of energy came out of his pseudo-cores. Each stream carried a portion of his Soul Energy, shimmering with different hues; cerulean for Water, gold for Justice, green for Time, soft pink for Love, and sapphire for Protection.
His physical body began to… unravel.
His skin cracked. His flesh and soul began to separate under the force of the reconstruction process. It was like watching someone carefully pull apart a living sculpture that refused to come apart quietly. Inside his mind, I knew what he was experiencing because fragments of it leaked through our connection.
Five separate streams of consciousness were forced to diverge from a single point and each one dragged through the sensation of forming a new body from nothing. Five parallel rebirths were happening simultaneously inside his perception.
He shuddered violently as the first major fracture occurred.
Blood spilled from his nose, then from the corners of his mouth. His hands clenched on his knees as he forced himself to stay in position. The worst part, though, was the soul.
Dividing a body was already monstrous. Dividing a soul was something else entirely. He had to literally tear his soul into five fragments.
It was like a scream that didn't make any sound but still echoed through my consciousness. His soul stretched, resisted and then finally snapped into five distinct segments, each one immediately writhing as he embedded a Divinity into it to stabilize the fragment.
Each fragment had to accept the full conceptual weight of a Divinity while also being reconstructed into a functional, self-sustaining soul through Soul Reconstruction. It was like cutting off a hand and then forcing that severed hand to grow into a fully formed version of the original body.
This time he couldn't suppress it. A strangled, broken sound tore out of his throat. Blood began to seep from the pores of his skin. This time, he was bleeding too much.
"Veneri!"
Hansel's arm shot out in front of me, blocking my path.
"Do not interfere."
"He's dying!"
"If you interrupt the process, the incomplete soul fragments will collapse. The feedback will annihilate his remaining self. He will die instantly."
My hands trembled at my sides as I watched him suffer, completely powerless to help.
Five half-formed bodies began to take shape around him, each one initially translucent. Sapphire threads extended from the center of his original position, connecting each forming body back to a faint central nexus of light hovering just above where his original heart had been. The threads of the Sapphire Bond kept the fragments synchronized and preventing them from drifting too far apart conceptually.
His original body began to deteriorate as it was cannibalized to supply the mass and structure for the new forms. Flesh tore and reformed, bones cracked and reassembled, and every time one of the new bodies stabilized slightly, his main form spasmed violently as if something vital had just been ripped out of him.
And then came the Tethers.
Because his Pinnacle and Base Tethers are linked directly to his Divinities, separating those Divinities meant forcibly severing and rerouting them. It was like ripping nerves out of one limb and grafting them onto another while the patient was fully conscious.
His scream this time was real.
It echoed inside the supposedly soundproof chamber. His composure finally shattered under the sheer agony of having his metaphysical infrastructure torn apart and redistributed. I felt my own eyes sting as I felt a fraction of his pain.
"He's not going to survive this."
"He must. There is no alternative if he wishes to ascend."
The five bodies continued to solidify.
Each one bled as it formed. Organs and muscles settled into place. The sapphire threads glowed brighter, stabilizing the connection as each Pentarch's soul fragment finished reconstructing into a complete soul with a Divinity embedded inside it.
Veneri's original body—if it could still be called that—looked like it had been through a massacre. His clothes were soaked in blood and his breathing shallow and uneven as he fought to maintain consciousness across five separate streams.
There was nothing we could do except watch as the person I loved literally tore himself into five pieces and rebuilt himself from the inside out.
Veneri's original body—what was left of it at least—began to dissolve.
Its form broke apart into fine motes of light that were drawn into the five sapphire threads stretching outward. I watched as the body I had known for so long dissolved completely, leaving behind nothing but the five fully formed figures lying on the floor around the chamber.
All five of them inhaled sharply at the exact same time, coughing violently as if they had just been pulled out of deep water. Air rushed into lungs that had only existed for a few seconds. The sound of five identical coughs echoing in the chamber was… unsettling, to say the least.
I didn't even realize I had moved until I was right beside them. I looked from one to the other, not knowing who to go to first. They were all sprawled on the floor. They were also…
"Why are you all naked?" I blurted out before I could stop myself.
Five identical heads turned toward me. That was when I noticed the differences.
Their faces were the same, their builds were identical and their presence equally overwhelming but their eyes were different. Also, since his heart and prosthetic arms are connected to the soul, they all had the same.
One had deep cerulean irises. Another had a darker sapphire blue colour. A third had brilliant gold eyes that seemed to glow faintly even in the dim light. The fourth had soft green eyes.
And the last one—the one who made my brain short-circuit for a second—had gentle soft pink eyes and his hair was noticeably longer. They all stared at me, clearly just as disoriented as I was.
"Okay," I said slowly, pointing between them. "Which one of you has the main consciousness?"
All five of them answered at the exact same time.
"It's me."
"Well that didn't help."
Hansel stepped forward.
"His consciousness has been evenly divided. There is no longer an original self. Each of them possesses an equal portion of his identity and memory. They are all Veneri."
I stared at her, then at them, then back at her.
"So you're telling me I now have five beloveds?"
"That is an emotionally simplified but technically accurate description, yes."
"I'm going to need a minute."
Meanwhile, the five Veneris were starting to regain their composure. Almost in unison, they lifted their hands and made a small summoning gesture. Only one of them succeeded.
Clothes shimmered into existence over the body of the one with sapphire eyes, forming his usual attire seamlessly as if it had been waiting just beneath his skin. The other four remained very, very naked.
They all froze for a second, then turned slowly to look at him.
"Oh."
That was when it clicked for me.
"You're the Protection Pentarch."
Of course he was the only one who could materialize clothes instantly. The Protection Divinity carried his Magecraft-oriented Tethers, which meant he still had access to his auto-equipping outfit system using his runes.
The other four groaned in unison.
"Seriously?" The gold-eyed one muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. "First thing after being born and I'm already underdressed."
"Stop complaining," the green-eyed one groaned. "At least we're alive."
They all raised their hands again, this time manually opening their inventory portals. Small spatial rifts appeared in front of each of them, from which they awkwardly pulled out casual outfits and started getting dressed.
I very deliberately looked at the ceiling.
"I'm not staring," I muttered, even though my face was definitely heating up. "I'm just… respectfully not looking."
"You can look," the pink-eyed one said gently. "You've seen it before."
"That was one of you. This is five. There's a difference."
Hearing five slightly different versions of the same laugh made my heart ache and flutter at the same time.
Once they were all clothed, they also pulled out Nanorune armor modules, letting the metallic plates snap into place over their outfits with soft clicks. The sight of five fully dressed versions of Veneri standing up at once was… honestly terrifying. They rose to their feet and instinctively spread out slightly, surrounding me without even realizing it.
And that was when I realized something else. They were all still taller than me.
I found myself standing in the middle of five identical men, all looking down at me with different colored eyes, My cheeks burned as I took a small step back.
"You're… you're scaring me."
"We're literally just standing," the cerulean-eyed one said.
"That's not the point!"
I cleared my throat and pointed at them quickly, trying to regain some semblance of composure.
"Okay. Important question. Which one of you can turn into a woman?"
Two hands went up immediately.
The one with the soft pink eyes raised his hand with a small smile, and the one with the cerulean eyes raised his hand a second later, looking mildly amused.
"Good. At least that part didn't get lost in the splitting."
I pointed at each of them as I mentally sorted them out.
"Cerulean eyes. you're the Water Pentarch."
"Makes sense."
I pointed at the pink-eyed one. "You're Love."
He smiled warmly. "Guilty."
I shifted to the green-eyed one. "You're Time."
He gave a calm, analytical nod.
Then I pointed at the gold-eyed one. "Which leaves you as Justice."
"Sounds about right."
Finally, I looked at the sapphire-eyed one who had dressed first. "And you're Protection."
He adjusted his sleeve casually. "The responsible one, apparently."
I stared at all five of them. Seriously, why am I thinking that they can all pin me on the bed and—