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*Gasp* "Haah.. Haah.." I woke up in a panic, gripping my chest after having my reserve rip apart my insides.

*Heavy Breathing* -Huh..- I looked down and noticed I was in my humanoid form.

Deciding not to question it yet, I laid back down and closed my eyes to try and calm down.

-Well I'm alive.. maybe..- I vividly remembered everything that happened right before I woke up which was already unusual.

After taking a moment to finally catch my breath, I sat back up and looked around.

-So Im here again..- I was in a small clearing in a forest and at the center of the clearing was a familiar hut.

-So it's another one of those 'dreams'..- After figuring out where I was, I finally looked at myself.

My body looked just like my true form, but I was much taller and less childish. I looked to be around 15 or 16, quite a jump from the 12 year old self I was used to.

But how I looked on the outside was of far less concern, there was nothing inside of me, no organs, no bones, and no reserve.

I was simply a ball of.. something.. in the shape of a humanoid.

-Am I dead and dreaming of all of this? I'm not made of mana.. or atoms..- The best way to describe it was as if mana was shrunk several million times, but kept the same effectiveness.

The energy was so mind blowingly small, I could manipulate mana like an atom with it.

I originally believed that mana was something like a cloud, that it was something that just filled the gaps of nothingness in space, but with this energy, I could clearly see that mana was actually a particle.

To put this to scale, with mana, I could accurately manipulate atoms, one electron or proton at a time, but with this new energy, I could manipulate mana, one particle at a time, although currently I couldn't control it nearly well enough.

I was frozen, my mind stuttering trying to make sense of it, but after an hour of trying to figure literally anything else out about it, I was still confused.

Shaking my head, I decided to move on. All I knew was that this energy is what I was made of in my current state.

-Well I guess there I should move on and not waste time..- The only times I had been here in the past were very short visits, so I wanted to make the most of it this time.

To start, -lets explore this cottage shall we?-

Heading inside, I found various equipment that looked like things for alchemy with various books laying around.

The first book I saw was one laying next to a row of flasks.

'Step 24: Pour flask in b and c with equal proportions.

Step 25: Heat both until flask b is orange and c is blue.'

-Oddly scientific..-

Deciding I probably shouldnt touch any of it, I continued to look around.

I ended up finding a small area I could only half call a kitchen, and one other room with two beds, but nothing else that was interesting.

Realizing there was nothing else around, I decided it was time to leave.

As soon as I walked out of the door to explore more, I felt something 'call' me.

-It's just like back then..- The thing 'calling me' gave me the same feeling of attraction as the purple tesseract I touched right after I reincarnated.

Being unable to think of anything else, I started speeding up, floating my way towards the source of it.

It took ages. I mindlessly flew over several kingdoms and endless ocean until I lost track of time.

But when I finally arrived, my mind became more clear.

-Im in Kaelallan..-

I was hovering over the city, feeling a source of attraction come from below the palace.

Lowering myself to the surface, I noticed everyone was moving impossibly slow. Time was moving, but only barely.

The only two things that told me that time wasn't stopped was that atoms were vibrating and mana was moving.

Flying through the city, everyone looked like they were in panic, and as I approached the palace, I could see more and more people laying on the ground, unconscious, with mana flowing out of their bodies.

-..Just what is happening... Is this what happened after I died?-

My mind started to wander in odd directions, but I decided to not make any assumptions and instead just follow the flow of mana.

By the time I got in the palace, it had been a while since I saw anyone else who was awake. Everyone in the palace was unconscious, be it maids or knights.

-But they aren't injured.. is it just mana exhaustion?- Mana, just like with the people outside, wasn't even entering their reserves, but instead just being pulled through them and the ground.

-But what could cause this..- Deciding to check it out, I hovered through the floor and into a huge but familiar room. At the bottom of the cave-like room, I could see my dragon form lying there next to Ilios wrapped in a dark bubble.

The mana flowing through the room was being pulled into my dragon form and Ilios. -So I really am having a dragon sleep..- I had my own assumptions since the last two times I came to this 4th dimensional world, I was in a dragon sleep, but I didn't really believe it this time.

It was as untimely as it got, I didn't have time to have a dragon sleep currently otherwise Kaelallan was going to fall.

-It's not all bad though.. I'm alive, plus the bubble around my dragon body seems to massively speed up time.-

Things within the barrier were moving quickly even when compared to the outside where time felt like it stopped.

"To think you unconsciously made this kind of barrier."

A chill went down my spine as I heard a familiar mature female voice. "What kind of barrier is it?"

"You'll figure it out eventually."

Below me, the woman walked out from the other side of the bubble and looked up at me with lustful eyes.

I gave her a look of disgust as her look made me incredibly uncomfortable.

"Awe dont look at me like that, you'll love me soon enough."

"I doubt that."

"Oh come on." She flew up behind me and wrapped her arms around me, "I spent so much effort to find your physical body so I could watch over you and you ended up nearly killing yourself. How do you not feel sorry for me at all." She tried giving me 'puppy eyes'.

"What's with you showing so much more.. emotion.. from last time.." The first time we met, she looked at me like a new toy, the second she looked at me like food, but now she treated me more like a person.. sort of.. Maybe more like an equal fits better.

"Oh so am I supposed to be emotionless after seeing the person most important to me almost die?"

I looked into her void-like pupils which no longer made me feel uncomfortable, "It would’ve made me less uncomfortable." My eyes were filled with disbelief.

"You don't believe me, do you.."

"Of course not, how am I supposed to believe that the person I've only seen 3 times now, is suddenly super attached to me."

"Hmph, you wouldnt understand." She pouted immaturely.

"Well since you won't answer my questions, I'm gonna do what I came here for." I quickly flew to the ground and towards my dragon body.

I reached out to touch it but my wrist was grabbed by that woman. "You can't do that yet.." she looked oddly sad.

Her sadness seemed genuine, but I wasn't one to change my stance so easily. "And why is that?"

"You'll die if you do it now.."

"Do what?"

"If you touch your body now, you will die.. your physical body isnt ready yet.."

I was starting to get annoyed at her obscurity, "why wont you just answer my questions?"

Seeing my annoyance, she was quick to respond, "They're just questions I can't answer for you.."

"So there are things I can ask?"

"Yes of course."

"Then how about this. What happened to me after I passed out?"

"Ah, about that.. You went to eat that monster core and nearly killed yourself.. Luckily, you managed to unconsciously create that barrier before you passed out though."

"Well since you can't tell me anything about the barrier, can you at least tell me why I seem to be in a dragon sleep?"

"That's because after you passed out, your body began to slowly heal and rebuild itself, and after a while you entered a dragon sleep.."

"..." Having a decent grasp on what happened, I confirmed my hypothesis that the barrier slowed time and decided to ask a more pressing question. "Then what is this body?" I spread my arms out as I looked at her.

"Right now you're just a.. soul.. I can't say anything more than that."

"..." My mind went blank.

"I'm sorry.. but that's all I can say right now. You'll understand more next time.." She looked down awkwardly and put her hand on my face making me lose consciousness once again.

The energy that made up my soul 'dissipated' into the air as she looked back towards my dragon body. "You wont grow enough if I give you all of the answers.."