GROWL! GROWL!

Ether became concerned when he saw Fionn in this state and began running around him while growling.

"Don't worry buddy, I'm fine it's just that my body is petrified for some reason, what I want you to do is guard me until I revert to normal, I'm really sorry for causing you this inconvenience." Fionn apologised a little to Ether via his psychic link.

When Ether heard Fionn's response, he calmed down and growled, as if asking a question.

Understanding his question, Fionn responded, "I can't say how long this will last, but I have a feeling it will be quite a while, because even my consciousness is becoming blurry as I converse with you, as if going into hibernation, but don't worry, nothing harmful is happening to my body."

Ether growled with understanding after hearing Fionn's response, and sat down near him silently, having nothing to do he begin digesting all the energy he had consumed up to this point from all the killing.

Time passed, seconds became minutes, minutes became hours, and hours became days, soon a month passed, and no significant changes appeared on Fionn, who remained motionless in his position, with the only changes occurring on the Chaos crystal that he was holding. It was emitting a resplendent multicoloured light at first, but as the days passed, the colours it was emitting began to diminish in quantity, first silver, then purple, then green, and they continued to disappear until today, 1 month later, when it was only emitting yellow and it was also gradually disappearing.

Ether stayed by Fionn's side for the entire month, not moving from his position; he spent the first week digesting the massive amount of blood energy he had consumed since entering the plane; by the second week, he was bored with nothing to do in his hand, So he began sleeping most of the time, but his sleep was interrupted by Lucius, who would come to check on the situation from time to time, fully recovered to his prime condition, Lucius was becoming annoyed living in this lifeless plane.

Another major change that occurred this month was with the plane itself; since 15 days ago, huge cracks began to appear on the plane's boundaries, resulting in the collapse of some outer regions of the plane and the mana inside the plane began to leak and the vegetation began to die as a result of their loss of sustenance. As the days passed, the cracks began to widen and more regions of the plane began to collapse, and mana loss accelerated, indicating that this plane is dying.

WOOOSH!

THUD!

"This plane won't last long, the inner region has already started collapsing, if he doesn't wake up soon, we're all going to die here," Lucius said as he returned from his routine check up.

Hearing his words, Ether lifted his head, yawned lazily, and resumed his nap.

Ignoring Ether's lazy attitude, Lucius murmured to himself, his gaze fixed on the Chaos crystal in Fionn's hands. "The energy in that crystal should run out today,"

CRACK! CRACK!

Suddenly, Lucius, who was dazedly staring into the Chaos crystal, squinted his eyes and noticed minute cracks on its surface; the dim yellow light on its surface also began to flicker, as if about to go out any second.

RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!

Just as the cracks began to appear on the Chaos crystals, the ground all over the plane began to shake with a terrifying intensity, and the cavern in which they were staying began to collapse. Ether, who had been laying lazily, moved quickly and erected a barrier of blood energy around them, protecting them from the falling debris.

"We don't have much time left, the energy has run out, we need to force him to wake up or we'll all perish." Lucius, alarmed by the sudden change, said solemnly to Ether.

"What is this strange sensation, and where am I? ..... Oh, I remember the Chaos crystal, it triggered something strange in my body, is the process over, is this sensation a result of it? "Fionn, who is slowly regaining consciousness, is disoriented and confused.

The sensation he was having was similar to being reborn; every cell in his body felt rejuvenated, and as for the petrification of his body, he could feel it gradually reverting, slowly restoring his control of his five senses, giving him optimism that he would recover soon. While waiting for his body to recover, he decided to examine it to see what changes had occurred. Fionn discovered few changes; his physical strength appears to have improved, the Abyss fire within his body burned more vigorously, and his mana pool appears to have expanded significantly.

Fionn felt a surge of joy after checking his body, thinking "the suffering was worth it," and then he shifted his attention to his avatars, the source of all this unnecessary trouble. The majority of his avatar did not change; obviously, if evolving avatars were this simple, everyone would be legends; the only one that appears to have some changes was his skysurf board avatar, which has been emitting a strange aura since the process ended; to gauge its changes, he would need to conduct some tests, which he cannot do right now due to his condition.

Suddenly, From his barely invigorated senses, Fionn felt as if someone was calling his name, focusing his ears Fionn heard the voice of Lucius, saying something along the lines of "Fionn, get up!, get up!, the plane is collapsing, we don't have much time left."

Alarmed by Lucius' words, Fionn desperately tried to move his body, but it wouldn't budge; it felt as if something was shackling him.

"It must be the remnant of Chaos energy, no wonder practitioners are afraid to use it," Fionn grumbled, annoyed.

After a brief moment of contemplation, Fionn decided to try using the abyss fire in his body to purge the remaining Chaos energy from his system.

Having made his decision, the Abyss fire in his body sprang into action with a thought of his mind.

Outside, Lucius, who was vigorously shaking Fionn to wake him up, suddenly got goosebumps all over his body, and hurriedly distances himself from Fionn, feeling a foreboding premonition.

BOOOM!

Just as he stepped back, a blaze of purple flames erupted from Fionn's body, transforming him into a living torch.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

Fionn, who was engulfed in Abyss fire, suddenly moved his body, his joints cracking due to prolonged inactivity, moving his stiff body with difficulty, Fionn said in a rather hoarse voice, "bring me out of this cavern, hurry."

Hearing Fionn's words Lucius grabbed him and ether without a second's hesitation and shot out of the cavern, easily destroying the already crumbling ceiling.

Outside, with no proper footing to land, Lucius bolted straight towards the sky, reaching a safe altitude, Lucius stopped, looking around, what greeted them was an apocalyptic scene, the plane was in shambles, with huge crevices spanning both in the sky and the ground, like the maws of prehistoric beasts, from the crevices one could even see the turbulent spatial currents outside. Trees that were as tall as mountains were nowhere to be found, the black haze that used to cover the plane's entire sky has also vanished, and the mana, which was once abundant, is now as scarce as water in the desert, leaving one with an empty feeling. It was a truly terrifying scene.

"So destroying a Chaos crystal can do this to the plane," Fionn reflected, feeling a twinge of regret.

"There's no point in regretting it; it's a common occurrence in this universe; let's get off the plane as soon as possible." Said Lucius, who was already tired of living in the plane.

Fionn sighed and inserted his mana into the star mark on the back of his hand, signalling his void gate to open the portal.

Soon after, the space in front of them began to distort and warp, and a spiralling portal appeared in front of them.

"Let's go," Fionn said to an impatient Lucius after the portal stabilised.