Chapter 51 - First part done

As the pill dissolved in his stomach, Hati felt a rush of energy coursing through his veins, briefly making him wonder if he might have accidentally snorted something.

But he quickly pulled himself together and started guiding the energy towards his heart focal, quickly beginning to take his first steps onto the nine initial ranks.

He felt a hand press against his chest as the blood in his veins suddenly started absorbing and purifying the medicine with methodical precision, causing even more energy to be released.

They sat there like that for an hour before Sif shoved another pill into Hati's mouth. Hati was too busy refining and guiding the energy, so he barely noticed himself swallowing before another burst of energy filled his body.

Meanwhile, the toxins in the second pill began teaming up with the toxins from the first, causing Hati to start feeling extremely uncomfortable. 

His lust shard worked overtime to get rid of it all, which was giving Hati some relief, but clearly, an hour was not enough to eliminate one pill's worth of toxins, at least not in the lust shard's current state of suppression.

Still, his mother seemed to think it was going well enough as she fed him another pill an hour later. A small voice in Hati's head wanted to stop this, but it was quickly suppressed by the excitement he felt at becoming more powerful.

He loved this surge of energy coursing through him, accumulating in his heart focal and then spreading outwards once again in a different form, as it had become part of his own strength and was refining his muscles to correspond with the increase in heart focal strength.

So he endured the discomfort and, eventually, even pain from the growing build-up of toxins in his body. But ultimately, after ten hours of this, taking one pill an hour, it was finally over.

No more pills came, and the constant energy surge had quieted down, allowing him to focus on purging the toxins within him. This also turned out to be excellent training in using his blood element, as he quickly started to try and copy what his mother was doing.

Sif noticed this and was overjoyed her son still had the capability to focus and learn from her despite his current state. She kissed him on his forehead and tried to give him some encouragement, 

"Sssh, little Hati. You did great. I know this is uncomfortable and painful, but just like the toxins have become more powerful by building up quickly, the energy should have also been easier to absorb this way.

You can rest easier now; we'll focus on getting rid of the toxins before we take a little break and go again, alright?"

Hati could only nod his head as he kept practising with his blood element while focussing his attention on getting rid of the toxins.

Despite the terrible feeling, Hati couldn't wait to get started on the next round and even considered proposing to skip the break. He could feel himself already on the way to the first rank in his heart focal, and his excitement at getting stronger knew no bounds.

Two hours later, with the help of the lust shard, their combined efforts finally managed to get rid of all the toxins, even those that would have otherwise nestled into the crooks of his body, to weaken his foundation.

After a total of twelve hours, he had swallowed ten crimson foundation pills and got out the other end with no negative consequences besides a lousy time. Except that he actually felt quite tired.

It turns out that after the excitement died down during the last two hours of purifying, he noticed how tired he was. His idea of skipping the break was thrown out the window as he suddenly could barely keep his eyes open.

He may have finally become an Einherjar, but he was still only at the start. Most of Asgard still considered him a mortal at this point, so getting tired and having to sleep were still very much par for the course.

Noticing his state, Sif smiled at him, "You are already well on your way to the first rank. Go have a rest, and we'll continue when you wake up."

Hati nodded, went to lie down on his father's bed and almost immediately fell asleep after his head hit the pillow.

Sif looked at her peacefully sleeping son and sighed; she would have never expected to end up with such a troublesome child. Reincarnation, multiple sin shards, some kind of powerful entity, and the list might continue to grow.

Still, whether she had been manipulated through a lack of information or not, she loved her son. She may have forgotten that for a moment when she first found out about his past, but it was no less accurate.

Besides, she had seen his memories and the struggle to contain his sin shards around his family, especially around her. She knew he loved her. And when a mother and son both loved each other, what did the rest matter?

She stroked his hair for a second and then went to sit with Belphegor, who was currently making changes in a beautiful-looking book.

She asked, "How's it going, Belphi?"

Belphegor smiled and kissed his wife before answering, "It's fine; I just need to make a few changes based on his apparent ease of control and the new bloodline distribution. How about you? I know watching him suffer like this can't be easy for you."

Sif had a complicated expression when she heard his last words, saying, "It isn't. Six years ago, I could hardly accept him continuing his attempts at awakening. But now… what kind of mother would I be if I didn't help him grow stronger with everything I have?

Even if he has to suffer a little, with all the mystery and powerful entities surrounding him, he will need all the strength he can get." Her expression became determined, "Even if I have to be the one to make him suffer, I will make absolutely sure he can face whatever fate has in store for him in the future."

She then scoffed at her husband, "Anyway, as if you haven't been watching closely with your soul sense. You like our son quite a bit, don't you?"

To this, Belphegor smiled, "It's hard not to when he has such determination and ambition inside him while still wanting to care for the people he loves. 

You know, his reincarnation might have been a blessing; who knows how he would have grown up had he been a real child, locked inside a single house, only ever seeing the same five people."

Sif looked sad for a moment, "I know, I've considered the same. I wanted him to grow up around other people instead of just the two of us in this empty, grey fortress." 

She began to snicker, "No offence to your lovely house, of course." Causing Belphegor to roll his eyes at her.

She sighed, "I hadn't expected the Fenrir elders to react the way they did; I guess I was hoping for too much."

Belphegor looked kindly at his wife, "It's alright, little wolf. Things turned out pretty good in the end. Our son will become strong, and even though we may not have had much to do with shaping his personality, I believe you definitely left a positive influence on him."

He then snorted and continued, "Plus, the growth he went through in the last 12 hours would leave a man jealous."

Sif rolled her eyes, "Oh, be quiet; it's not like our shards are without benefits. Who else can say they cultivate in their sleep? Hati still has to endure an uncomfortable ordeal to get his cultivation benefits."

Belphegor laughed at that, "Well, you may have a point there. The only reason I managed to pass the sixth revolution is the ridiculous amount of time I spent sleeping, after all."

After their conversation, Belphegor returned to work on his gift for Hati. At the same time, Sif rested a little and more closely analysed her earlier session with Hati to figure out the most efficient way to continue.

A few hours later, Hati woke up, and his ordeal started once more. After a few days, he reached the first rank, which caused Sif to increase the dosage of crimson foundation pills since his body had become more robust.

So, the days started to string together for Hati. He would wake up, shove a large amount of pills down his throat, cultivate, deal with the pill toxins and go back to sleep. Night and day had become a thing of the past, as neither sun nor moon reached their little hole in the ground.

It was a very unpleasant experience for him, but not one without benefits. He had the opportunity to learn a lot about how to affect his own body with the blood element while gaining heart-focal ranks at a breakneck pace.

He had no idea how many days it had been when the end was finally in sight, but according to his parents, it had been 29 days since the ordeal started.

Currently, he was at the eighth heart focal rank and at the edge of stepping into the ninth. Doing so would also cause his spirit and soul cores to finish growing and become available to him.

This event had all of them a little on edge. After all, the spirit and soul cores had merged with that essence, and who knew how that would have affected them?