Julius woke up staring into the void. He didn’t see anything except darkness. He couldn’t feel his body either. He looked down and saw his body was gray, as if not entirely there. He had no idea what happened. His mind was cloudy, and he desperately tried to remember what happened to him.

  He scrunched his metaphysical eyebrows and concentrated deeply. It took a lot longer than he wanted, but he finally started to piece together small shards of memories. He compiled them and paused, worried.

  Was he dead? His final moments were of his entire body getting blown apart by that Tier 5 woman. The fact that he could sense anything in the real world certainly didn’t help assuage his fears.

  What if he had died? He normally would never have worried about dying like that. After all, he had come back alive from worse things. But with his healing skill occupied with stabilizing his soul, he didn’t know how much it could have helped him. The fact that his soul was in dire straits didn’t help matters either.

  He searched deeply and tried to examine his soul. If he were really dead, he was scared of what he would find. Was his soul completely destroyed?

  He quickly erased that theory. If his soul was totally destroyed, he doubted he would be able to think like this. So with that encouragement, he started to delve into his soul. His previous experience with soul-related matters helped him find it quite quickly.

  The more he investigated, the more he started to believe that this was indeed his soul space. However, he didn’t know where all his skills and other things were. What happened to Drasil and Seraphyne?

  He desperately started rifling through the space, trying to find where all his skill and his familiars were. However, after a long time without finding anything, he calmed down and started thinking more rationally.

  He first searched for the link that connected him to Drasil. If there were still any connections to his soul, he suspected his connection to Drasil would be the strongest. He tried to remember everything about Drasil. The way he looked, the way he consumed egregious amounts of mana, and even the way it felt when he woke up in the morning with Drasil splayed out over his face. He used every memory to try to find a point of leverage.

  It took a lot of trial and error, but he finally managed to feel the smallest piece of thread for him to tug on. He followed the thread off into the void. He didn’t know how long it took for him to arrive. Time was weird in this space. It could have been ten minutes or ten days.

  However, he spotted a flickering orange light in the distance. He chased after it, and once he got close enough, he realized that it was a cage of fire. To his senses, it almost felt like it was a product of his healing skill.

  He probed this cage of fire and started to piece together the missing details. It would appear that this cage of fire was something he had done subconsciously when his soul was deteriorating faster than he could handle.

  It was created to protect the most essential parts of his soul when everything else was being destroyed. His skills and familiars were obviously things he didn’t want to lose.

  He floated over and touched the cage of fire with his hands. He could feel the cage welcoming him the moment he touched it. Its fiery warmth was gentle as it pervaded his entire being.

  He took a few moments to steady himself before he started to unravel the cage. It was a difficult task, but he persevered, and piece by piece, he reintegrated his skills. Unfortunately, along with the skills, excruciating pain followed.

  He stifled the groan of pain and endured it. He slowly rebuilt the connection between himself and his familiars. He could feel that they were worried and helped him with it. However, once the connection snapped back into place, he felt like a piece of him had been found, and he immediately felt more alive.

  Drasil and Seraphyne both suddenly appeared in front of him. Drasil swiftly latched himself onto Julius’s face and started to radiate life mana in excess as he whistled angrily at him.

  “I’m sorry for worrying you,” Julius said, gently rubbing Drasil’s back and looking over at Seraphyne.

  “Do you have a good idea of what happened?” He asked the small turtle. Seraphyne wasn’t as affectionate as Drasil, but Julius could tell that she was relieved at his survival as well. She usually tried to be standoffish about their relationship, but her concern was clear as day.

  “I’m not sure what happened. I just remember your entire soul space exploding, and us being caged in by your healing skill. We weren’t able to help you at all,” she said with a frown on her little turtle face.

  “Can you sense anything outside my soul space?”

  She shook her head. “No, nothing. It is almost like I am entirely cut off from the outside world.”

  Julius cursed lightly and winced when another agonizing shock went through his soul. It would appear that, along with reuniting with his other parts of his soul, he had to deal with the mess that came along with it.

  The void around wasn’t stable, and it shook with every breath he took. The skill orbs off in the distance were pulsing frantically, as if they were trying to help protect his soul.

  His healing skill was the most active, though. [Phoenix Renewal] was shining like a bonfire in his soul. He could feel the skill struggling to hold his soul together, and he was forced to withstand the mental load.

  Thankfully, Drasil was already acting on his own. Julius felt the life spirit begin infusing Julius’s soul with life mana and his essence. Seraphyne tried to help as well. She attempted to mimic Drasil, but she wasn’t as effective. Instead, she opened up a connection to Drasil and let the gluttonous spirit consume her life mana.

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  With Drasil’s aid, the strain lessened significantly, and it gave him the freedom to start examining his soul more closely. He didn’t like what he saw. Not at all.

  It was like someone had forced their way into his home and let off a bomb. Everything was either destroyed or damaged badly. Large gashes in his soul were reminders of the turmoil his soul had just experienced.

  Then there was the massive hole in his soul that he suspected came from Casey’s initial attack. That hole was by far the most pressing issue to address. However, he had no idea how to start fixing it.

  He was barely able to keep his soul together as it was. How was he supposed to hold everything together and also fix this gaping pit?

  Fortunately for him, he wasn’t exactly going anywhere. So with a determined grit of his teeth, he began working on it. If he was going to get better, he needed to start from somewhere. He gave his willpower a firm tug as he forcibly held his soul together while he started to collect the broken fragments of his soul.

  He would glue all of his soul back together. He swore it. And after that, he was going to fuck up whoever had decided to attack him. Promises of vengeance and anger fueled his actions, and he got to work.

  ***

  Freya POV

  “I’m calling him,” she said to her husband.

  “You can’t heal him yourself?” Cain asked her with a deep frown.

  She flinched when his question hurt her more than she cared to admit. But she was wise enough to know when she was out of her element. In this case, she didn’t know if she could help Julius.

  The damage to his soul was frightening. She didn’t even know how he was still alive after seeing the state of his soul. His body was already bad, but his soul looked even worse. At least his body still had his head somewhat intact. However, his soul was in so many pieces that it took all of her effort to keep it from fading into nothing. She could tell that it wasn't even due to the soul attack he had experienced. The damage all showed signs that it was Julius's continued pressure and use of his skills that pushed his soul to this point.

  It was only due to his healing skill and the monstrous willpower that he managed to keep it somewhat stable.

  Unfortunately, Julius’s own healing skill was interrupting her own healing skill from working. She tried to work around it, but Julius’s skill was in such an alert state that it wasn’t allowing anything foreign come close to Julius’s soul.

  It was quite the conundrum. The very same skill that was the reason why Julius was alive was also the reason why Freya couldn’t help him as much as she could. The only thing she was able to do was heal his demolished body. That was the easy part, and his body was completely healed. There were a few large scars on his torso, but he was healed for the most part. She did take notice that the one particularly large one was in the place where the woman had impaled his heart with her arm.

  “Do you think Doren will even come?” Cain asked her, pointing out a very reasonable concern.

  “He was abnormally interested in Julius. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have bothered to send him over to us. Doren wants something from Julius, and he needs Julius to grow in order to get it,” Freya said with more confidence than she felt.

  She was ninety percent certain of that. Doren wasn’t just someone who did something for no reason. There was always something that the man wanted when he acted. The fact that he had previously saved Julius was even more evidence.

  The question, though, was whether or not he would help Julius again.

  Cain sighed, realizing that asking Doren didn’t come without costs either. But they didn’t exactly have many other options. Freya was pretty confident that she could heal Julius if she forced her way through his skill. She was powerful enough to do that.

  However, she didn’t feel confident that she could do it without hurting Julius. Odds are that a forceful method like that would only hurt Julius, and if he were healed, it would be too traumatic on Julius’s soul, regardless of his titanic willpower. He might end up with missing parts of his soul and become someone else entirely.

  Even if things go perfectly, there is still a very high chance that Julius’s foundation would be damaged far past the point of return. He might be lucky to advance to Tier 4 even if he were healed.

  She didn’t want to risk his future to save him, not when there were other options to explore. It was just that she was worried about what Doren would ask of them. What he would ask of Julius.

  She looked down at Julius's still form, noticing that his soul was showing signs of stability and severe damage.

  “I don’t think we have much of a choice,” she said with deflated shoulders.

  Cain clicked his tongue. “Shit. Well, we might as well contact him as soon as possible. No point in drawing it out.”

  She knew how much it probably irked Cain to admit that. He disliked Doren more than anyone, and his agreeing to call Doren showed his concern more than his outward appearance would indicate.

  She nodded and removed the token that Doren had left with them for this very reason. The man had likely already predicted something like this would happen. Which only made their decision more annoying.

  What was even more irritating was that she got a response immediately. No longer than a minute had passed when she felt the token respond to her. Then, in a display of spatial mastery that she hadn’t come anywhere near to, she felt a portal open beside her. Doren, as if taking a morning stroll, paced into their home with a slight grin on his face.

  What was even more alarming was that the man had avoided every enchantment and protective ward she had placed around their home. Not to mention the ones that encapsulated the entire capital.

  The fact that he had been able to do this spoke volumes about his skill and exemplified why he was likely their best option for helping Julius.

  “What do I owe this pleasure to, huh?” Doren asked brightly and turned to Freya’s side, where Cain was standing. The man had the audacity to look surprised to see Cain there. “Oh! Cain, my dear friend! It is wonderful to see you again.”

  “Can you help him?” Cain didn’t bother to explain anything and went straight to the point.

  “Help who? I don’t know what you are talking about.”

  “Can you heal him?” Cain said. His impatience slipped through into his tone.

  Doren’s bright smile slowly faded into one of a more serious nature. “I could,” he said calmly.

  Freya wasn’t even surprised that Doren already knew what was going on. She would not have been surprised if he had placed something on Julius before they met the boy.

  “But?” Freya pressed.

  Doren held his hand to his chest, as if in offense. “But nothing. I would never exploit young Julius’s dire condition to ask you two of anything.”

  Freya felt some worry ebb away.

  “But… I do have something I would like to discuss with you two. If you would be willing to hear me out.”

  Freya turned to her husband and shared a look. There it was. This was what they had been dreading when they decided to ask Doren for help.

  Doren must have sensed their feelings and grinned widely. “Let’s not worry about that now. For the moment, let’s discuss how we can help poor little Julius so that his soul doesn’t collapse onto itself and fall into the dark abyss, yeah?”

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