Floating above the water as if it didn’t want to touch it, Liam’s soul looked at the cracks rapidly spreading in the sky. It reached out with its arms as if to grasp the heavens themselves. It opened its mouth, but no sound came out. Nevertheless, it continued to roar soundlessly. The cracks’ spread slowed down until it gradually stopped completely. With a ferocious expression, the spirit faced the water once more, looked past its surface, and stared directly at what lay beyond it. It curbed its fear and simply looked on for as long as it could. It tried to withstand the sight. It tried to withstand it because it could not truly comprehend what it was that it saw.

In the middle of infinite, pure darkness, indescribable beings lay. They couldn’t be said to be formless, since they did have a shape; every single one of them was unique in form, but they were all similarly incomprehensible. Liam could only describe their shapes as “square circles” or with similarly illogical terms. This was without considering that their form changed countless times every instant, never repeating any of its past versions. The endless sounds they emitted threatened to make his mind burst. He knew that they weren’t intentionally directing themselves to him. The changes in shape were because he couldn’t grasp their true form, while the sounds were due to his inability to understand their words.

He now understood what the voices had meant. This was a sight he would never be able to forget. It was burned onto his brain forevermore. Nonetheless, this wasn’t all.

Liam’s soul’s legs bent. The weight it could feel was nonsensical. The mere existence of the Chaos beings inside his soul threatened to crush him completely.

In the midst of it all, Liam felt desperate. It was a primal instinct born from the depths of his soul, and one he hadn’t felt in a long time. The fear of death. The absolute dread that filled him made it clear that he could indeed perish if his Will faltered for even a moment. It was still the only thing that kept him afloat.

Trembling, the soul focused. Liam knew that this wouldn’t change. What he currently felt was a consequence of raising his Perception; the only way to get rid of this feeling would be to lower the stat, which he wouldn’t do. As such, he had to find a way to deal with this maddening sensation. The feeling, which had severed the connection between his soul and his body and driven the latter to madness, would now be permanent, just like the pain he felt.

Liam’s highest priority was to rebuild the bond with his body. He had no idea what was happening in reality, but it couldn’t be good. Slowly, his soul descended and stood on the water once more, despite its shakings. After a while, it sat down and closed its trembling eyes. It started to meditate.

Just like whenever he wanted to get his consciousness out of his Inner World, Liam tried to picture himself leaving. This time, it failed. Anxiety flooded his mind as the thought that he wouldn’t be able to recover his body hit him. He tried again and again, failing each time. Without giving up, he continued.

It was only an unknown amount of time later that he felt some progress. It was the beginning of a connection; a mere inkling of a new link between his soul and body. Still, it elated him to no end. It meant that there was a chance. Liam kept struggling until he finally felt his consciousness be pulled away.

His blurry eyes grew more focused. The first thing he could see and smell was blood. The previously pristine floor of the training room was almost completely covered in blood, traces of destroyed organs, and limbs. Liam tried to stand up from his previous laying position, but soon realized he couldn’t. Even though his body was currently in a perfect state, he couldn’t move. It was as if it weren’t responding to his consciousness’ commands. A moment later, his consciousness was pulled into his Inner World again.

With a sigh, Liam tried to go back to his body. It took less time than before, but he was soon pushed back to the Inner World. This pattern repeated itself hundreds of times until he finally managed to take a stable footing in his own body.

Liam stood up shakingly and took in the destruction he’d caused. While the walls weren’t cracked, there were definite traces of damage. He looked down, analyzing the degree of his self-mutilation. He struggled to understand what he saw. Not because the scene was unclear, but because his thoughts were moving unusually slowly. It was only after tens of seconds that a single sentence could come into being.

‘I definitely completely tore myself apart a few times.’

He could see at least twenty limbs strewn about on the floor, an even higher number of ripped-out hearts and eyes, and tens of liters of blood. He sighed to himself. Thankfully, he had done this inside the training room. There was no telling what could have happened to others if this happened outside.

He tried to summon his Aura and incinerate some of his lost body parts and blood but failed miserably. How could he use Aura when he barely managed to even think? Minutes ticked by as he kept trying over and over again. An unknown amount of time later, Liam managed to summon just enough Aura to destroy the remains of his past bodies. Oddly, the disconnected body parts didn’t regenerate. He tilted his head and furrowed his brow, struggling to understand what that meant.

‘…Why?’

Why didn’t they regenerate as well? His vitality filled every cell in his body. Whenever his limbs were severed, they grew right back, but he’d never stopped to think about what happened to the severed one. Liam gazed at the left arm a few meters in front of him as if he were looking at an alien creature. His eyes were still confused and his thoughts muddled, but he had managed to achieve a chain of thought.

With careful movements, he incinerated it into nothingness.

‘Regenerate…?’

An instant later, the arm reconstructed itself and lay on the floor as if it had never been destroyed in the first place. His severed limbs could regenerate as long as he wanted them to?

‘…Creepy…’

Could he regenerate his whole body from a separate body part? Did this mean he could create clones? Would they be the same as him or contain a separate consciousness? Liam shivered as his thoughts reached this point. His head throbbed with pain and he readily dropped such deliberations. He currently had nowhere near the mental faculties to consider the implications of his regenerative abilities and the creation of clones.

It was better to leave it alone. Throwing what had just happened to the back of his mind, he incinerated the traces of his self-harm until the room was pristine once more. Taking a deep breath, he frowned.

The constant pain he felt had been magnified, which meant the damage to his soul had grown and his lifespan had been reduced. It wasn’t by too much, however. What worried him more was the sheer weight pressing down on him and the whispers at the very edge of his perception. Combined, the two created a permanent, madness-inducing environment that Liam had to force himself to withstand at all times. He could tell that if he relaxed for even a moment, the weight would crush his soul and increase the damage done to it, while the whispers would ravage his sanity.

‘From now on, I’m going to be on edge virtually all the time.’

He no longer had any time to rest. Even if slept in Cassandra’s arms, he would never be able to allow himself to let his guard down. His Will was under eternal pressure in a trial by fire.

As Liam analyzed his condition, he soon felt something that made him freeze in place. The approach of something far too great.

[It is good.]

[You are currently stable.]

[You have succeeded. For now.]

He resisted the urge to collapse while his eyes almost popped out of their sockets. The weight pressing down on him multiplied, while the whispers became screams. In their cacophony, the infinite voices rang out clearer than ever. Much more distinct and louder, they had gained an indescribable edge at the same time.

[You must bear it.]

[This is the path you chose.]

[You must succeed.]

They were right. He couldn’t act like this every time the voices reached out to him, no matter how much he felt like his soul was about to explode. All he could do was desperately hold on using his Will. He had no room to think or come up with a response. He barely even managed to comprehend their words. As if they understood this, the voices spoke without waiting for him to reply.

[You took only two months to regain your sanity.]

[It was done quickly at the expense of completion.]

[You still aren’t whole.]

Two months had passed by so fast? Trapped in his Inner World and struggling to reacquire control over his body, Liam hadn’t noticed the days go by at all. So the reason why the voices could speak to him right now was that it had already been more than a month since their last appearance.

As he digested the rest of their words, he realized they were right. He was still struggling to keep himself from falling into madness; he was far from being in his peak state. While he could think more clearly and faster now, it was only an unknown amount of time after regaining his body. His adaptation to his current state was slow and gradual.

[Do not give up.]

[Let your desperation become what pushes you forward.]

[Our time together is over.]

[Be careful.]

[From now on, the difficulty of the trials you have to withstand will only increase.]

With those parting words, the voices retreated back into the depths of his soul, away from his reach. This time around, however, he could still feel their presence. It was as if someone had removed thousands of burning nails from his skull but left a couple of them behind. The pressure on his mind and soul was omnipresent and eternal. It only varied in intensity.