Chapter 328: Refining [4]

As his thoughts reached a close, Damien felt a refreshing sensation wash over his entire mindspace. The flower in his hands had been reduced to nothing, with all its energy having been refined by him.

Finally, his mind space began to show signs of recovery. The infinite void was gradually being filled with an aura of life.

The greenish-white essence that had permeated his mindspace slowly integrated with it and disappeared. Once the integration finished, the two fused spiritual lands merged and became one.

Voom!

It was like an engine being kickstarted. All of a sudden, the infinite void split open, causing light to shine down on the massive spiritual land that represented his consciousness.

The barren land was fertilized under the light, becoming filled with green grasses as if it was a massive plain. When the light finally died down, peace once again returned to Damien's mindspace.

"Wow..."

Damien marveled at the sight. His mindspace now looked like the starry sky. Countless shining dots littered the once empty space, filling it with color.

Damien felt that he could now traverse past the amount of space he previously thought was present. And he immediately did so. His spiritual avatar left the spiritual land he was situated on and flew into the starry sky.

"This is..."

The starry sky was indistinct. All of the so-called stars didn't have substance, being mere flickers of light and nothing more. Or at least, that's what Damien originally thought.

But within those many unsubstantial lights, there were a few that stood out. One was a blazing red sun, one was the hazy outline of a familiar world, and the last was a solid planet. The sun was obvious, it was the source of his sun flames that had become an integral part of his strength. As for the two worlds...

'Apeiron and Earth.'

One was his starting point. If it wasn't for the dungeon on Apeiron, he wouldn't have reached his current heights. It was only obvious for him to have an inexplicable connection to it.

The second was his birthplace. The place he had called home for so many years of his life. And more importantly, it was the first and only world he had bound as a Celestial. On earth, he was a Star Master.

With the status of these two worlds taken into consideration, the levels at which they manifested also made sense. After all, his connection with earth was far stronger than what he had with Apeiron.

'But for them to appear in my mindspace...it seems like there are still many things I have yet to explore about my Celestial class.'

Damien was excited by his future prospects, but now wasn't the time to think about it. With his spiritual world blooming into fruition like this, he felt like it was finally time for him to awaken.

The space he was in right now was his mind, so it wasn't that difficult to find the connection he had with his main body. The only reason he couldn't get any feedback from it before was due to the horrendous state his mind was once in.

Comparing the scene he saw when he first woke up in his mindspace to what he was seeing right now, Damien was finally able to get a true grasp on how bad his situation had been.

'In fact, that flower was really a lifesaver. Looking at the current scene, it would've taken far longer for me to completely heal my spiritual world if I had done all the work on my own. Perhaps even several years.'

Damien once again marveled at the power of a Demigod before concentrating his attention back on his link to his body. Soon, Damien felt a sensation as if he was traveling through a wormhole before his vision suddenly went black.

Thump! Thump!

His heart was beating, his mama was beating along with it. The warm and refreshing sensation of mana coursing through his body made Damien involuntarily smile.

Roar!

His bloodlines raged as if to welcome him back. His six senses were also unnaturally active.

'Ahhh, it's good to be back.'

This was the feeling of a living, breathing body. It was incomparable to the spiritual form he had spent the past few years in.

'But...what is this situation?'

Damien soon realized he couldn't move or open his eyes. When he sent his awareness out, he noticed he was trapped within a strange cocoon.

'Greenish white, huh. It's obviously related.'

Damien shook off his thoughts. He gently circulated his mana to allow his body to get used to it once again before pushing it forward in waves.

Crack!

Faint cracks appeared on the cocoon. Just like he had done back when he first entered the Primordial Undying Realm, Damien broke out of its shell and slowly stood up.

"Nngh...my body feels like it just woke up from a coma, but my mind is even more active than it was previously. It's going to take a while to get used to it."

Damien stretched his body, which emitted a series of cracking and popping sounds. It hadn't moved for so many months, so it was only natural.

"Wait, shit. Didn't my life force get forcefully depleted back then? Don't tell me...I'm an old man now?!" Damien panicked.

"Fuck! I'm still a virgin! How is my wife going to agree to have sex with me if I look like a 60-year-old?! Fuck you, Demon God!"

Damien roared in rage as he rushed into the bathroom connected to the room he was in. He quickly arrived in front of a mirror to inspect his looks.

"Shi- wait, huh?"

What Damien saw in the mirror was in fact not the decrepit old face of a 60-year-old. Instead, he looked almost identical to before he had fallen.

Actually, he even looked slightly younger. Since Damien was approaching 23 years old with his time in the Trial World, his face had already started to carry a mature air, but now, he had regained some of the youthfulness he had when he was still around 20.

It wasn't a big difference, but it was a difference nonetheless.

"That cocoon must've had a similar effect to the flower I refined. Both my mind and body have returned to peak condition, so I should actually be able to get back into action right away." Damien mused. But in the end, he decided against it.

"I still have to get used to being awake again. Moving around in my actual body isn't anything like moving in my spiritual avatar after all. I don't know how long it's been out here, but in my perception, it's been years since I've last walked normally. I should familiarize myself with my body again before doing anything big."

With this thought in mind, Damien spread his awareness and finally got a look at where he was.

"This should be...Darknorth? Quite the distance away from Acier. Must've been the handiwork of those two girls."

Damien smiled. How thoughtful of them to move him so far away. It clearly showed their consideration in taking care of him.

"Actually, speaking of them, where have they run off to?" Damien muttered to himself. Shaking his head, he left Darknorth and began the process of familiarizing himself with his body.

***

Meanwhile, the two girls he was thinking about were currently standing in front of a massive temple that had remained buried underground for untold centuries.