The chaotic energy Rune absorbed from Thanos was unlike any biomass he had ever consumed. It wasn't merely an increase in strength or rapid regeneration. Instead, it was a wild, relentless current, twisting and screaming within his every cell, as if trying to reshape him from within.
Rune found refuge amidst the rubble of an abandoned office building, far from the eyes of Vorn's operatives. The fever struck, more intense and agonizing than any transformation he had yet endured. His muscles convulsed incessantly, his bone armor rattling eerily as if being torn apart and reassembled. The blood in his veins boiled, then turned ice cold, a sudden temperature shift that forced him to brace himself.
He felt a strange urge. Not hunger, but a desperate craving to shape, to control this turbulent flow of energy. He closed his eyes, focusing on the energy's essence. It bore Thanos's imprint – raw physical power, but also an inherent instability, a "flaw" in its structure, perhaps a result of Vorn's "reconstruction."
As Rune struggled to subdue it, his body began to transform uncontrollably. One of his arms swelled abnormally, the black skin cracking to reveal pulsating, shadowy violet energy veins coiling beneath. He swung his arm, and the air before him exploded with a brutal physical shockwave – precisely the kinetic ability Thanos once possessed. But it was stronger, and far more chaotic.
Rune experimented. He tried to control this energy, to mold it. As he focused, the shadowy violet energy currents began to form a thin, vibrating membrane around his fist. He punched a crumbling wall, and the wall disintegrated into dust, not from his sheer muscle power, but from an invisible concussive force transmitted from his fist.
This wasn't mere ability mimicry. This was assimilation. Rune wasn't just absorbing biomass; he was absorbing and adapting the abilities of others, incorporating them into his own Flesh Weaver powers, but with a more chaotic and potent blend.
However, controlling this new energy was far from easy. Each time he attempted to use it, a portion of the chaotic energy would backlash, causing sharp pains or unwanted physical mutations. A patch of skin on his cheek would suddenly harden like stone, then revert. A bone spike would abruptly protrude from his bicep, then vanish. Rune realized he had to master this chaos, or it would consume him from within.
Thinking of Vorn, of the Dark Spire and the Eternal Gate, Rune's hunger for power intensified. He didn't just need his own strength; he needed the abilities of others. He needed to become something beyond the conventional concept of human or Awakened.
Though the chaotic fever still raged, Rune now had a new objective. He wasn't just seeking the Dark Spire. He would hunt down other powerful Awakened serving Vorn, to absorb their capabilities, to transform himself into the pinnacle of post-apocalyptic evolution. He would be an ability weaver, turning his enemies' power into his own.