Chapter 584: Getting Help

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