Pain!
An unimaginable, ultimate pain!
The moment his negative emotions and will to protect poured into his core, a bone-chilling torrent of horrific energy erupted from the depths of his "Colorless Core." This energy felt as if it could freeze his soul and contained the properties of "void" and "returning to zero."
It was the ultimate agony, as if his soul were being flayed from his body, thrown into absolute zero to be crushed, then forcibly welded and reshaped by some cold, merciless, higher-dimensional cosmic law using "anti-color" energy filaments.
However, accompanying this unbearable pain was a strange sense of absolute release, as if he had broken free from invisible shackles and an ancient seal that had bound his soul since birth.
He could clearly feel something within him that had been dormant for far too long—something he had never been aware of—finally awakening.
"INTERFACE... ACTIVATE—!"
It was no longer a carefully considered command, but an instinctive roar erupting from the depths of his soul, mingling with his blood, tears, pain, and resolve.
The instant his hoarse, inhuman roar sounded, the gray combat suit on his chest silently disintegrated by an invisible force, annihilated into its most basic particles and revealing the strange grayish-white core energy interface beneath.
Then, from the center of that core interface, a strange black crystal slowly yet absolutely emerged from beneath the flesh of his chest. Roughly the size of an adult's palm, it was as if the crystal were constructed from eternally solidified pure void and constantly flowing chaotic light and shadow. Its edges shimmered with an irregular "anti-reflection."
This was Shen Kai's "Colorless Core." It was a unique, taboo existence that could not be explained or categorized by any known theoretical system in the Pan-Abyssal Federation.
"Vrmmm—"
An extremely low energy hum, seemingly originating from another dimension or perhaps the sigh of the universe itself, emanated from the Colorless Core.
Immediately after, a high-density stream of energy particles—somewhere between the deepest matte grayish-white and the purest, most profound silver-black with a bone-chillingly cold metallic texture—erupted madly from the core's surface with a "swoosh!"
These neutral-colored energy particles moved at an astonishing speed that surpassed the limits of conventional physics and instantly covered Shen Kai's entire body. They rapidly constructed a brand-new suit of synchro-armor, filled with an ominous aura, on his form—the first and most basic form of the "Colorless Interface": "Basic Mimicry."
The design of this nascent armor was extremely simple; one might even say it was extremely rudimentary. Its entire body presented that strange matte color that could absorb and distort all surrounding light. It bore none of the common insignia, serial numbers, or modular interfaces found on Federation standard-issue equipment.
Only a few mysterious energy lines, also "colorless," pulsed with rhythmic light on key joints like the shoulders, elbows, and knees, as if a living creature were breathing slowly.
The entire suit of armor gave off a strong sense of being a prototype or an unfinished conceptual work—mysterious and unknown.
"Basic Mimicry"... link... complete.
Shen Kai muttered subconsciously. His voice, affected by the violent surge of core energy, had become hoarse and low. It carried a strange hollowness and inhuman coldness.
He felt a perfectly fitting, unprecedented link established between himself and the "Colorless Interface" that had just formed on his body, as if it were innate.
This armor felt like an inseparable part of his body. It was his bones; it was his skin.