leonardwarren Chapter 618 - Leybound Assimilation
Chapter 618 - Leybound Assimilation
Leybound Assimilation. It was the same method Lucien used to reach the First Stage of the Metamorphosis Realm. His version was crude because he was not a slime, but the principle worked. (Chapter 178 for reference)Lucien explained the principle to the others, "It allows slimes to bond with the world itself through resonance. A symbiotic tether to a leyline."
He pointed at the glowing veins beneath the projected map.
"To the invisible veins through which the world’s energy flows."
The pressure-bearing lock markers pulsed faintly.
"They do not need to rip the fragments out. That would be the mistake the Keepers are waiting for us to make."
Marie nodded slowly.
"The world is gripping the wound."
"And the fragment has become part of that grip," Lucien said. "So the slime does not pull. It listens."
Marina understood.
"It matches the leyline’s rhythm."
Kaia’s eyes brightened.
"Then separates the world’s pulse from the lock’s command."
Sylra finished softly, "And for one breath, the world stops clenching around the stolen authority."
Lucien nodded.
"That breath is enough."
The map shifted.
Origin Core fragment markers overlapped several pressure-bearing locks.
"The slimes will enter Leybound Assimilation near the affected leyline. Once they connect, they can reduce the lock’s grip on the fragment. They will not take the fragment themselves."
Lucien continued,
"During Ley Slumber, the slime becomes immobile. Its awareness spreads through the ley current, but its body cannot defend itself properly. That means each operation needs protectors and takers."
Seran leaned closer to Skittles.
"So the slime opens the world’s fist, and someone else removes the thorn."
Lucien nodded.
Seran smiled.
The tension in the shrine loosened slightly.
•••
Lucien crouched in front of Skittles.
The rainbow slime stood on the shrine floor like a very small commander awaiting military appointment.
"Skittles."
Skittles bounced once.
"I will give you a mission. You will lead the slimes."
The slime stilled.
Lucien’s voice lowered.
"This mission may decide whether we can remove the fragments without hurting the Big World. Do you understand?"
Skittles’ soft body shifted.
A small limb rose from its side.
It pressed against the place where a forehead should have been.
Then a bright, cute voice rang through the shrine.
"Yes, Master. I will call the others now."
Lucien stared at Skittles.
"So you could already speak too. Good!"
Skittles bounced.
"Mission~"
Then it hopped toward the exit.
"Mission~ Mission~ Mission~"
The tune was cheerful.
The speed was not.
The Rainbow Slime shot out of the shrine like a colorful disaster with purpose.
The tense feeling from earlier vanished in several directions at once.
Seran watched the entrance.
"The Sage of Six Paths has spoken."
Lucien shook his head, but the corner of his mouth still lifted.
•••
The slime response came faster than many armies could march.
Lucien did not need messengers.
The bond between master and pet carried the order more cleanly than any written command.
Through Lootwell’s network, the call spread.
Slimes moved.
Nihility Slimes simply deleted the distance between where they were and where they needed to be.
Oreo emerged from a dark corridor with silent confidence.
Nyxis appeared beside a branch array without walking.
Skittles arrived last at the assembly point because it had stopped to gather too many followers and possibly receive tribute from three confused children.
The slime forces gathered across Lootwell branches.
Then they moved.
Nihility Slimes disappeared from one place and appeared at another as if distance had been a suggestion made by someone without authority.
Across the four active continents, slime teams deployed toward pressure-bearing locks that held stolen Origin Core fragments.
They were not sent alone.
Lucien divided roles clearly.
Slimes would connect.
Protectors would guard.
Recovery specialists would take the fragment once the lock loosened.
No one was allowed to strike the lock directly.
No one was allowed to pull with brute force.
No one was allowed to be heroic in a way that damaged the world.
Lucien’s order was simple.
[The slime opens the vein. The team removes the thorn. The scar remains closed.]
That order traveled through the network.
Every branch understood.
And then the first operation began.
•••
Lucien did not leave the Origin Core Shrine.
If he personally moved to one lock, he could solve one crisis.
If he stayed in the shrine, he could command twenty.
That was the difference between strength and authority.
Across the four active continents, the slime teams arrived near the pressure-bearing locks one after another.
They moved in small groups, each assigned to a lock where an Origin Core fragment marker had overlapped with Marie’s pressure-bearing map.
At every site, the instructions were the same.
The slimes would connect.
The local protectors would defend.
The recovery specialists would wait.
In the Origin Core Shrine, the projected map brightened.
One slime marker reached an eastern valley.
Another reached a northern stone ridge.
Three appeared near a middle continent underground river.
Two more reached a southern shrine road.
Lucien watched them all.
"Begin one by one," he said.
The command passed through the bond.
A moment later, the first slime settled.
•••
The first successful connection came from the East.
A Nihility Slime rested beside a riverbank where the water flowed too quietly.
Its body flattened against the stone.
Its colors dimmed.
Then its awareness sank into the leyline beneath.
Leybound Assimilation began.
The map in the shrine trembled faintly.
Lucien felt the change through the merged Origin Core.
At first, there were two rhythms.
The world’s rhythm.
And the lock’s rhythm.
The world’s rhythm was tired, deep, and uneven.
The lock’s rhythm was sharper, artificial, and commanding.
It beat against the leyline like a finger tapping on a wound and calling itself medicine.
The slime did not fight it.
It matched the world instead.
The riverbank shimmered.
On the map, the stolen Origin Core fragment marker loosened by a hair’s breadth.
Lucien’s eyes narrowed.
"East. Prepare recovery."
The team moved.
They did not attack the lock.
They waited for the exact breath.
The slime pulsed once.
The world’s grip softened.
The recovery specialist reached in and pulled the fragment free before the lock could close again.
The origin core marker vanished from the pressure-bearing site.
In the shrine, Kael exhaled.
"One."
Lucien did not smile yet.
"Check the scar."
A moment later, the report returned.
[East pressure-bearing lock stable.]
[No leyline rupture.]
[Fragment recovered.]
[Slime in Ley Slumber. Unharmed.]
Only then did Lucien nod.
"Continue."
•••
The North was not as clean.
The lock beneath it had accepted a stolen fragment earlier than the eastern site.
Its grip was deeper.
When Leybound Assimilation began, the ridge groaned.
For a moment, the map showed promise.
Then the lock struck back.
The artificial rhythm sharpened and tried to pull the slime deeper, not into the leyline, but into the lock itself.
Lucien’s face changed.
"North. Withdraw if resonance destabilizes."
The reply came from the branch team.
[Slime said it can do it.].
The slime trembled.
Then the side vein opened.
The rhythm changed.
The lock had prepared for force from the front.
It had not expected harmony from the side.
The slime stabilized.
The northern fragment marker loosened.
"Recovery," Lucien said.
The branch team acted.
The fragment came free with resistance, but it came free.
The ridge shook once.
Then settled.
A report arrived.
[North pressure-bearing lock stable.]
[Fragment recovered.]
[Slime condition: Unharmed.]
Lucien smiled.
•••
The Middle Continent produced the first fight.
The slime team had reached an underground river connected to a pressure-bearing lock beneath an old trade valley.
The recovery team waited beside the hidden current.
Protectors remained farther out, near the tunnel mouths..
The Nihility Slime team began Leybound Assimilation.
The fragment loosened quickly.
Lucien’s eyes sharpened.
"Middle. Standby."
The warning arrived almost at the same time as the Keepers.
Two black-robed figures appeared at the outer tunnel.
They attacked the ceiling.
If the tunnel collapsed, the underground river would change pressure. If the pressure changed while the slime was connected, the lock could use the backlash to drag the stolen fragment deeper.
The protectors moved.
They intercepted.
One Keeper’s blade cut toward the stone supports.
A Celestial Eternal blocked the strike with a shield of light.
The other Keeper tried to send a command pulse through the water.
Oreo moved.
The command pulse entered a shadow and did not come back.
In the shrine, Lucien watched the fragment marker flicker.
"Do not rush. Let the slime finish the breath."
The recovery specialist’s hand hovered.
The Nihility Slime deleted the last finger-width of resistance.
The fragment slipped free.
"Now."
The recovery team closed around it.
The middle marker vanished from the lock.
At the same moment, the protectors drove the Keepers back.
One escaped through a collapsing tunnel.
The other was caught when the Nihility Slime appeared behind him and removed the distance between his retreat and the floor.
He hit the ground very hard.
The report arrived a breath later.
[Middle pressure-bearing lock stable.]
[Fragment recovered.]
[One Keeper captured.]
[One Keeper escaped.]
•••
The South was the most dangerous.
The southern pressure-bearing site lay beneath an old ancestral shrine that had already been abandoned by its clan after Lootwell’s warning.
The bad news was that the lock had been fed by two fragments, not one.
The merged Origin Core sensed both.
They pulsed close together on the map, overlapping with Marie’s danger marker.
Lucien’s eyes darkened.
"Two fragments in one lock."
Eirene’s brush stopped.
Vivian’s voice softened.
"They are trying to deepen the grip."
"Yes."
The slime assigned there was Nyxis.
Leybound Assimilation began quietly.
The southern lock tried to hide its command rhythm inside the old shrine’s incense traces, ancestor worship, blood offerings, and generations of belief.
Nyxis did not tear any of it apart.
It separated them.
Faith here.
Memory there.
World pulse beneath.
Lock command behind.
Stolen authority inside.
Lucien watched silently.
This was Nyxis taking apart a lie that had been buried inside a clan’s history.
The first fragment loosened.
"Take the outer one," Lucien said.
The southern recovery team obeyed.
The first fragment came free.
The lock reacted.
The second fragment sank deeper.
The shrine tree cracked.
Marie’s expression changed.
"The scar is clenching."
Lucien’s voice remained calm.
"Nyxis, withdraw from the second fragment. Stabilize the vein."
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then it obeyed.
It stopped chasing the second fragment and spread through the surrounding ley current instead.
The southern lock kept one stolen key.
But the world scar did not open.
Lucien accepted the result without hesitation.
"One recovered. One remains. Mark the site for later."
•••
Operation reports continued through the shrine.
Some fragments came free smoothly.
Some needed repeated attempts.
Skittles moved between branch points as coordinator, hopping through teleportation arrays and giving orders in a cheerful voice.
"Left vein first."
"Do not pull."
"Bad lock."
"Good slime."
"Mission~"
Somehow, the slimes understood perfectly.
Lucien remained in the Origin Core Shrine through all of it.
He watched markers shift.
He stopped reckless attempts.
He approved safe extractions.
He denied three requests from overenthusiastic slimes.
He redirected two teams before the locks tightened.
He ordered one full withdrawal when the world scar began to tremble.
That fragment remained inside the lock.
It annoyed him.
It did not make him stupid.
By the time the first round ended, the map had changed.
Several stolen Origin Core fragments had been recovered from pressure-bearing locks.
More remained.
But now there was a method.
Now the Keepers’ hostage tactic had a weakness.
A real one.
That was enough to change war.