He focused his consciousness entirely on the Rune of Absolute Destruction, using the newly engineered pathway metrics to draw ambient cosmic energy from the surrounding atmosphere.
As the pure, dense golden energy of the domain was forcefully sucked through his skin pores, Aeon guided it along his meridians toward his dantian.
He clamped down on the incoming tide with his ironclad will, collecting the raw energy into a densely packed sphere inside his dantian near his core rather than allowing it to scatter or be absorbed by his core.
Once he had stabilized a fist-sized ball of highly condensed cosmic energy, he began the carving process.
Using a localized fraction of that very same energy, he manifested a razor-sharp conceptual tool he dubbed the ’Rune Chisel’.
With delicate, calculating precision, he began to slice away at the main sphere, carving away microscopic shavings of condensed power. The detached pieces did not dissipate. He immediately gathered them back into his control, using the excess energy to repeatedly reinforce the conceptual edge of his Rune Chisel.
After a period of intense focus, the first carving was complete. The manifested glyph was a stunning, three-dimensional rune.
Its primary structure featured five intricately connected spikes that resembled a star, capped by a brilliant, curved crest shaped exactly like a crescent moon. Directly at the absolute center of the spiked star sat a terrifying, swirling circle that looked like a miniature black hole.
The entire structure resonated with a dark, heavy color scheme of deep black and royal purple.
With the first blueprint successfully anchored, Aeon didn’t pause. He immediately began carving the remaining three Runes.
After one full hour of relentless, exhausting mental carving, Aeon completed the primary matrix. Suspending themselves in a perfect, rotating orbit around his dantian core were four entirely unique runes, each vibrating with its own distinctive shape, frequency, and incandescent color.
But he was only halfway through the setup. Aeon drew another massive wave of cosmic energy from the atmosphere, channeling the raw power straight into the floating matrix, starting with the Rune of Absolute Destruction.
The primary glyph flared with a blinding light, vibrating violently before spitting out countless microscopic, exact replicas of itself.
These thousands of tiny sub-runes zipped through his internal pathways, migrating to every single anatomical layer of his body.
Across the outermost layer of his flesh, the intricate patterns of the Rune of Absolute Destruction began to etch themselves directly into his skin like a glowing tattoo.
He repeated the exact same duplication sequence for the other three primary runes. Within minutes, his body—both inside and out was entirely mapped with complex, overlapping runic arrays, while the four primary master runes continued to hover harmlessly around his core in a silent, glowing circle.
Aeon briefly snapped his eyes open. His white sclerae now held four distinct, microscopic runic patterns, each burning with a different shape and color.
The third phase of the theoretical framework was complete. Now came the brutal reality of refining The 9 Core Body Refinement Components.
With a sharp mental command, Aeon gritted his teeth, focused his authority, and activated the full runic matrix, designating his Skin as the very first target for the refinement cycle.
The Rune of Absolute Destruction triggered first. The sub-runes engraved across his flesh flared with a malicious black-and-purple light, violently absorbing the rich energy of the surrounding golden atmosphere.
Crack!
In an instant, Aeon’s entire skin layer completely crumbled, atomizing into absolute dust.
"Urgh..."
A wave of white-hot, unimaginable agony slammed into his consciousness. Aeon tried to scream, but the sheer speed of the technique didn’t even grant his vocal cords the time to vibrate.
Before his nervous system could fully register the shock of his exposed muscles, the Rune of Cosmic Genesis detonated.
Absorbing cosmic energy from the surrounding, it instantly synthesized a brand new, hyper-dense skin layer from scratch. Immediately after, the Rune of Endless Evolution flared, aggressively forcing the entire horrific loop to reset.
The Rune of Primal Life flashed a split immediately, anchoring his fading soul to his body, keeping his consciousness fully intact while numbing the worst of the traumatic pain.
This entire, multi-staged apocalyptic cycle occurred within a fraction of a second.
And so, the purgatory continued without mercy. Over and over again, his body went through the relentless rhythm of absolute destruction and instant creation.
Every time the black-and-purple glyphs flared, his skin was violently stripped from his body, exposing the raw, pulsing muscle tissue beneath, only for a pristine, more durable layer to snap back into existence a millisecond later.
Realizing that the intense pain was still threatening to fracture his concentration, Aeon utilized his absolute authority over the Ocean of Eternal Genesis. With a harsh flick of his mind, he willed a massive current of the golden liquid to rise from the sea and flow directly into his open mouth.
The moment the golden water entered his internal pathways, a torrent of pure, unadulterated vitality surged through his veins. He felt instantly rejuvenated, the blinding agony of the atomization process lessening to a manageable, dull throb.
However, introducing such a dense source of origin-tier life force had an immediate side effect. The runic matrices across his body began to glow with a blinding, incandescent radiance.
The entire destruction-and-creation process accelerated exponentially, the runes feeding greedily on the tremendous energy of the golden water.
With every single rapid repetition of the loop, his newly generated skin became noticeably more resilient, denser, and infinitely more durable than the last.
After a grueling hour that felt like an eternity locked inside an iron maiden, the cycle of endless consumption and reconstruction finally drew to a close. With a single, exhausted thought, Aeon deactivated the active matrices.
Aeon sat entirely naked on top of the golden waves, his body slick with condensation. His brand-new skin emitted a soft, ethereal golden glow for a few seconds before the energy receded, leaving his complexion looking perfectly normal on the surface.
However, a closer look revealed a faint, intricate network of runic scarring permanently engraved into the very cells of his flesh.
The sheer intensity of the prolonged cellular trauma left his mind carrying a layer of mental fatigue, but his unyielding determination refused to let him rest.
"For one full hour, this process of refining the skin triggered at a blistering pace of roughly 0.1 seconds per loop," Aeon murmured, his voice slightly raspy as he calculated the exact biological destruction his body had successfully weathered. "This means my flesh was completely atomized and reconstructed for approximately 36,000 consecutive cycles. I can’t even begin to comprehend how tough my skin is now."
He looked down at his bare hands, feeling the terrifying, hidden density resting right beneath his palms.
"Alright, then. Let’s move straight to the Blood Stream next," Aeon declared, not even bothering to wear new clothes. He knew any fabric would be instantly reduced to cinders the second his apocalyptic cycle starts again.
With a decisive mental push, he reactivated the dormant runic arrays, shifting the primary targeting coordinates directly onto his circulatory system.
The sub-runes waiting inside his cardiovascular pathways flared to life. The Rune of Absolute Destruction went to work inside his veins, completely obliterating every single drop of his blood. Red cells, white cells, and plasma alike. The cosmic energy didn’t discriminate, turning his entire circulatory system into a hollow, scorched vacuum. In the exact same millisecond, the Rune of Cosmic Genesis drew from the gold water in his stomach, synthesizing a brand-new, hyper-pure, and heavily refined bloodline solution to fill the void.
But for Aeon, having his entire circulatory system turned into a raging furnace of destruction was an entirely different level of agony.
"Khhhh... Aaaah! Fuuuuuuuuck!"