A massive surge of energy flowed out of Adyr, and his translucent aura coiled around the two Mindrake bodies in his hands. While he observed the procedure with clinical focus, each Spark's flesh unraveled, slowly disintegrating into shimmering particles that merged with his own energy and streamed into his body.
Up to this point, everything resembled the evolution he had performed with Dawn Raven, only smoother. Back then, he had sensed a faint resistance, but now, perhaps because the Mindrakes hovered on the brink of death, there was none. Their forms broke apart without protest, mixed with his essence, and vanished inside him.
The moment the final particle disappeared, the true ordeal began.
A sudden, brutal pain roared through his skull. It wasn't the dull throb of a migraine or the sharp sting of a blow; it felt as if someone had bored a hole into his cranium and forced air into the cavity, creating relentless internal pressure.
