Adam was surprised when he heard his voice. This was the first time he had verbally spoken in a long time and the voice that came out was Jira's, of course. He also did not have full control over fine motor control, including speaking, due to not being fully connected to the body and having mostly a numb sensation of the body's senses. The words he had spoken had come out kind of slurred.

That wasn't truly important right now, so Adam put those thoughts aside. He had to figure out where he was. Adam was hoping that he had come out somewhere close to Heider. Adam moved across the stone room he was in to its sides. He was surprised to find that the walls were actually reinforced with spirit formations! It also appeared that there was no discernible door on any of the walls! Clearly, this room was made with the express purpose of housing the portal stele that was in the center of the room. The room was probably intended to protect the stele from being used and if anyone came through it, like Adam did, they would have to work at breaking down the walls to get out.

Adam thought to himself: “How am I to get out of here?”

Even though Adam was now in control of Jira's body, Adam had no knowledge on how to use any of its martial abilities. Sure, Adam knew how to cycle death essence through his body, but only in a manner that would sustain the body. Adam did not know how to cycle the death essence in a manner that would increase his strength, like Jira had done.

Adam felt a stream of bright spirit essence touch him. The spirit essence seemed to burn Adam at its touch and a voice suddenly sounded in Adam's mind! It sounded old, but not wizened. “Why did you activate the stele and come on your own? The declaration of war has yet to be given! There are easier ways to seek death!”

Adam was unsure of how to respond. He was also curious, as this was the second time a 'declaration of war' has been mentioned with the activation of the portal stele. Adam called out: “I don't know anything about this declaration of war. I was dragged into the plane of death and trapped there! I only used the portal stele to try and return home!”

“Ridiculous! There is no way any kind of 'innocent man' could possibly survive in a spirit plane long enough to use a portal stele to come back and remain unchanged! You speak your lies as you spread that black corruption from your body everywhere! You must have come here with some kind of intent or purpose, now speak it!”

Adam was at a loss. The person talking to Adam seemed to have already determined Adam's crossing through the stele as nefarious in nature. Adam had to somehow convince this man that he had no idea what he was talking about and was ignorant of whatever crime he committed by using the portal stele. “I... I'm just trying to get home! Death essence had started corrupting my body, but I did not let it infect my soul! If the black corruption you were talking about is the death essence in my body, I can tell you I would gladly be rid of it! The the body I inhabit is... there is no way I could remain in the same area as my mother and my friends! If there is a way to purify my body and wash away any doubt you have of me, I would take it!”

There was a moment of silence and then: “If what you say is true, do not resist!”

Before Adam could even respond, something flicked into the three meter space in which Adam could see! The thing was incorporeal, but yet still had substance. It was made of a dense amount of spirit essence, yet it seemed to have a mind of its own! Adam exclaimed: “A spirit!”

The spirit appeared bright, with a song of freedom and growth. Adam could only assume that it was a spirit of life! A tendril of spirit essence spread from the spirit and directly touched the forehead of Adam's body. A sudden sharp pain assaulted Adam as the tendril seemed to drill into Adam's body! It completely disrupted the flow of death essence in Adam's body and even his own threads of death essence seemed to lose functionality! Even those that formed the cocoon around his soul started to loosen! Adam collapsed as he lost all control. Adam could only think: “Is it trying to kill me!?”

Adam could no longer control any of the death essence in his body. There was no longer an abundance of death essence in his surroundings, either. Adam had nothing with which to form more threads to try and recover the situation! The techniques Adam had learned in the plane of death would only work with death essence, as Adam was never able to fully understand their fundamentals. All he knew was how to deftly use the techniques, not how they worked. As such, he couldn't use the techniques to form threads of other types of spirit essence.

Just a few moments after Adam had collapsed, there was the grating sound of stone sliding on stone. Adam could still hear as voices drifted over to him: “What the hell is that thing!”

The hulking mass of Jira's body, which was now Adam's, was a sight that could stun any man. A gigantic stature with horns sprouting from his head would easily fit the description of a devil in almost any culture.

“That thing was once a man and the Lord Spirit has given it a chance to become human once more! Quickly, we need to take it to the purification room before it dies and the chance given is wasted!”

“Yes, Cardinal!” The first voice replied.

Adam numbly felt his body being lifted and carried away. The cocoon was still together enough that it was preventing his elemental sight. At the same time, he also could not use the threads of death essence to view the area around him. Adam could not tell where they were taking him, not that he had much time to ponder on it anyways. Adam was trying everything he could to fasten down his threads of death essence and increase his connection with his body. There was little to no effect, unfortunately. Adam could only think to himself: “Why did I have to open my big mouth and tell that spirit to purify me!? If this isn't done right, I could easily die! After all I have done and experienced to come back, I refuse to simply die before I see Helen and mother!”

Adam was brought into another stone room that had even more spirit formations across its walls, ceiling, and floor. Adam was placed in the center of the room. Left there, Adam tried to get up but couldn't summon the strength to move more than a few inches. The man who was called Cardinal spoke out to Adam: “May the spirits have mercy on you and successfully purify your body! If you are unable to become human again and die, may the spirits guide your soul to rest!”

After his brief sermon, the Cardinal left the room as another stone doorway that was inlaid in the room's wall closed behind him. Right after the door closed, the spirit formations all lit up and a massive amount of spirit essence started flow into the room! It all swirled around and focused to the center of the room, where Adam lied. It was a massive spirit essence gathering formation that was centered on Adam! Before the spirit essence hit Adam's body, it first hit the commander's armor he was currently wearing. As it did so, the armor smoked and started to disintegrate as though the spirit essence was burning it away!

After the armor had mostly been burned away, nothing stopped it from invading Adam's body! As the spirit essence rushed in, it pushed out and replaced the death essence that existed in his body. Adam felt a certain amount of pain as the spirit essence invading his body began to seemingly burn away the death essence in his body!. Luckily, he didn't have a very firm connection with the body so it didn't hurt too much. Adam could tell, however, that his body was shrinking and shriveling up! It was as though he was loosing all his vigor and vitality!

Adam became the most worried when the spirit essence started to flush its way through what was left of Jira's soul! Adam was holding the soul down and together with threads of death essence he had created and the spirit essence that was forcing its way in was destroying everything! Even the cocoon surrounding Adam's own soul was under siege! The cocoon was weaved by Adam long ago and lasted the longest against the spirit essence that was suddenly invading his body. However, it too gave way in the face of the vast amount of spirit essence the formation was flushing through Adam's body and soul! Even as Adam desperately fought to keep everything together, it all fell apart. When the cocoon finally broke, Adam expected death. If his soul didn't begin to disperse, it would surely be crushed by the spirit essence invading his soul. Adam was actually only partially right. Adam felt a surge of pain flush his mind as the spirit essence slammed into his soul, but it did not disperse! Instead, the spirit essence seemed to press down on Adam's soul and shove it into the new spirit essence that was contained in his body! The spirit essence that was now in his body also fought to push its way into Adam's soul and he found himself being caught in a pincer! Through the immense pain that suddenly surged forth, Adam could also feel something had drastically changed. He felt more... alive! It was as though the spirit essence that was surging from his body was entering and merging with his soul... it was actually connecting to him on a deeper level than even the threads of death essence could reach!

Not long after Adam started to feel this, the spirit gathering formation started to weaken and less spirit essence was trying to assault his body. As it did so, Adam began to feel more relaxed as the burning pain receded. In the end, Adam passed out from the sudden vast amounts of pain followed by a sudden relaxing feeling.

When Adam came to, he could feel the soft cotton that made up the bed sheets of the bed he was currently laying on. He could now fully and distinctly feel through the senses of his body, instead of the numb sensations he had previously! Though, he could not see through his eyes, but could now use his elemental sight again! It was so comfortable to finally be able to see again in the manner he had been so accustomed to.

Adam spread his sight out and was able to see that he was inside a small simple stone room. There was a proper door instead of the sliding stone walls that were present in the room with the portal stele and the spirit essence gathering formation. As Adam spread his sight out, it appeared that he was currently lodged in the room of some type of sanctuary. Adam could tell that it was day time and most of the people walking about were dressed in white robes. Adam's sight was able to cover the entirety of the compound, but couldn't find the rooms that housed the portal stele or the spirit essence gathering formation. Nor could he find that spirit who had ordered his body to be purified. “Did they move me somewhere else?” Adam thought to himself.

Adam tried to get up from the bed, but found he felt too weary to even move! When Adam woke up, he had put more of an emphasis on figuring out what was around him than the condition of his body. As he took the chance to examine himself, he was incredibly shocked! The previously large and robust body that Adam stole from Jira had shrunken by quite a bit! Adam was now a little shorter than a normal man his age and his body was incredibly emaciated, as though he had not properly eaten in years! The horns that used to be on his head were also gone! His emaciated body was where the source of Adam's weakness came from, his body was simply too weak now! One bit of good news, though, was that his body was now almost entirely free of death essence! It now had a proper balance of the other types of spirit essence that one would normally find in a person's body. Adam could tell, however, that there was still some death essence that existed in the marrow of his bones...

A sigh escaped from Adam as he said to himself with a wispy voice: “At least I finally made it back! I wonder how Helen and mother are doing...”

Adam began to work on a plan for his next move. He needed to gain more strength in his body before he could move. He would also have to figure out where exactly he was and how far it was to Heider. In the midst of his thoughts, Adam noticed a woman approaching his room! Adam was unsure of if he should act like he was still sleeping or not, as he was not certain what the purpose of the people who lived in this sanctuary was. As she got close, Adam noticed that the colors and the song of her soul were gentle in nature. She was also carrying a bowl of warm soup on a tray. Adam decided that he should ask her some questions to figure things out, rather than pretending to be asleep.

The woman opened the door to his room. From what Adam could tell, she appeared to be in her forties. As the woman entered the room, joyous surprise filled her face as she noticed Adam's eyes were open! Even though they were unfocused, they were looking in her general direction so she felt that Adam was clearly awake and had some form of cognition.

She entered the room further and placed the tray on a small night stand by Adam's bed. As she did so, she gave a comforting smile and said: “Hello, my name is Selene. I am a caretaker to those who have been purified. Your purification seems to have been a hard one, but you made it through to the end, congratulations!”

The gentleness Adam had detected in Selene's soul exuded through her actions. She truly appeared to be a caring woman. Adam relaxed a little as he asked: “Where am I?”

Selene gave an understanding smile as she said: “It is alright to be a little confused, the purification can be disorienting. I myself have also been through it! You are currently in a recuperating cloister of the Church of Spirits! You were brought in yesterday by Cardinal Alexander himself! Truly, I had not expected you to awake so soon after being purified.”

Adam was secretly stunned: “The Church of Spirits!”

Some things made some sense now. Cardinal must be a position in the church and they were apparently guarding over a portal stele. The Church of Spirits had always claimed to have high ranking members who could see or speak to spirits and is that not what happened earlier? Adam could recall the so called Cardinal referring to the light spirit as 'Lord Spirit'. This didn't really help Adam understand why it was the church that was guarding a portal stele or the war the spirit had talked about, though. Adam didn't bother asking Selene about these questions as it was doubtful a caretaker would know. The answers were probably a high level secret, considering that Cathryn had never mentioned a thing about portal stele when they talked about portals or the spirit planes.

Selene interrupted Adam's thoughts when she asked: “May I know your name?”

Adam came out of his thoughts as he responded: “Ah? Oh, I am Adam... can you tell me-”

Adam suddenly paused as fear gripped his heart. He was going to ask what year it was, but he truly feared to know. He did not know how long it had been since he had left Helen. He was afraid that the time he had been gone was longer than he had assumed. Selene gave him a questioning look, as he had left his question half-asked.

“Can you tell me what month it is?” Adam finally asked.

“We are presently in the month of Sellen. Today is the seventh day of Sellen, to be exact.”

Adam decided to only know what time of year it was until he had the courage to ask which year it currently was. Before Adam could think of another question to ask, Selene said: “Before anything more, let's get you fed. Your body is weak and the only way to regain your strength is to eat heartily!”

Selene looked proud as she said that and Adam could only nod with a small smile. Selene propped Adam up with a few pillows at his back. Adam unfortunately did not even have the strength to lift his hand, so Selene had to spoon feed him the soup. It was only after the first spoon full of soup hit his stomach that Adam realized just how hungry he was. After the bowl was finished off, Adam was surprised to find that he had become exhausted just from talking and eating. Before he realize it, he had slipped into a deep slumber once again.

When Adam awoke again, it was night time. There was a window in his room and it was partially opened. It allowed for the sounds of crickets and other insects going about their nightly business to slip into his room. Compared to the constant sounds of being surrounded by ghouls that Adam had become accustomed to, it was very pleasant. Adam simply relaxed and solely listened to the sounds, reveling in them. After a small while, Adam even began to hum along with the sounds he heard. Creating his own song to complement what was coming through his window. Enjoying the sounds and the music of his humming, Adam drifted to sleep once more.

Adam heard the creak of a door opening and he opened up his own eyes as he became awake. Selene apologetically said: “Sorry to wake you, but it's time for breakfast!”

The next few weeks all played out much the same for Adam. Selene was the only one who would come to take care of him during this time. As the days passed, Adam was able to stay awake for longer and longer and even became able to move his arms and legs with some effort! Adam was extremely thankful that he was able to at least move around a little in his bed before Selene told him he needed a sponge bath! Adam was able to take care of it himself, instead of having Selene do it for him. Selene was also able to get Adam a flute that he could play. Adam had learned that he was in the kingdom of Kurland. It was a few kingdoms to the east of Heider! While that was still too far a distance for Adam to currently take, he was still fairly close! Adam thought about writing a letter home, but whenever he thought of what to put in the letter his mind would go blank! He had no idea how to go about telling Helen and his mother that he was back! He didn't even know how long he was gone and felt that there was a chance that the letter would just be viewed as a fake. All his worries put together made it so that he did not send a letter off to them.

Eventually, Adam was able to stay awake all day long, but he still could not get up out of bed! It also seemed, that he would not get any better than this! Adam had begun to noticed that the death essence in his bones seemed to actively wither away whatever strength Adam manged to gain from properly eating and resting! Before, Adam had been severely malnourished and that was why he couldn't move at all when he first woke up, but now he had finally met a balance point where he could no longer gain more strength than what he was loosing.

Adam brought this up to Selene. He had already told her about his elemental sight and how he could be considered a spiritualist, but he had not brought up the fact that there was still death essence embedded deep in his bones. She was surprised when he told her: “You still have death essence in you, even after being purified!? I haven't heard of such a case before!”

Selene paused a moment in thought before saying: “I don't suppose you would be willing to tell me the story about how you had death essence start to corrupt your body? I could use that and try to talk to Cardinal Alexander or somebody who might know something and maybe they can help.”

Adam hesitated to tell her his story, as it was simply too unbelievable. Not even the 'Lord Spirit' truly believed what Adam had to say earlier. The Cardinal should also already know a majority of his situation, considering he was one of the people who pulled him from the room that housed the portal stele. Though, that could have been a different Cardinal than Alexander. Adam briefly explained some of the main points about how he got trapped in the plane of death and came to possess a commander's body that was a demonic beast and had been corrupted by death essence for who knows how long.

Selene stared at Adam, wide eyed. “That's... that's quite a story! I don't suppose you would think others might be able to survive like you had?”

Adam thought for a moment before shaking his head and saying: “Unless they were a spirit martial artist or a spiritualist, no. Even spiritualists who have tried to step through the planes rarely make it back, and those that do loose their mind in the process....”

Adam suddenly thought of something as he curiously looked at Selene. “Actually, their symptoms would be produced by being corrupted by spirit essence. They would likely be able to be cured by this purification process that the Church of Spirits has, why haven't I ever heard of it before?”

Selene was surprised by this counter question. “I don't know much about the purification itself, but I know that it is not always successful. There are times where peoples bodies are successfully purified, but they never regain their mind. There are a few stories of people not even surviving the process! Even with the guidance of the spirits, the Cardinals are unable to perform an exact purification that is successful every time. As such, this rite is not widely publicized since it does not guarantee the salvation of any who undergo the rite.”

Adam thought that perhaps the other spiritualists who had tried to explore the spirit planes before had the opposite problem than he currently had. Even with a purification, their bodies may have been fully purified while their souls were not. Regardless, it was unlikely that another person could survive in a spirit plane like Adam had. When Adam brought himself out of his thoughts, he noticed that Selene looked a little depressed. It was only then that he realized the implication of her question. He asked: “Did someone you know get dragged through a portal?”

Selene nodded. “Long ago, I had a fiance. Our engagement had been made when we were young, but we truly liked each other. I was still too young to marry him, but we always dreamed of the future we would have together. One night, we were having a nice walk through the night when three commanders came out of nowhere! Before we could even turn and run, they grabbed us and pulled us away!... I don't remember what happened after that but I was later found unconsciousness by myself. My soul was being attacked by corrupt spirit essence and no matter what my parents tried, they could not wake me up. My parents are devout believers in the Church of Spirits so they quickly took me there when nothing else worked. Luckily, there was a Cardinal visiting at that time and he took me here to be purified. I survived the purification and ever since then I have decided to serve here and help those who also fall victim to corrupt spirit essence... nobody ever found out what happened to my fiance, but it was likely that there was some type of portal nearby that they took him through. Why I was left behind though... I will never know.”

The story reminded Adam of that couple that Private Dullard had captured. Adam had saved the girl, but was unable to save the young man. Adam didn't want to tell Selene a similar story to hers but that he had killed the young man after the rift closed. That would simply be depressing for her! Instead, he said: “Whatever happened to your fiance, I think that the reason you were found alone was because he was somehow able to free you from the grasps of the commanders! If he surprised them, he could probably do it and managed to save you before it was too late...”

It was not a perfect story, but a nice one. Selene appreciated that Adam was trying to comfort her in his own way. Both Adam and Selene stepped back into their own thoughts for a minute. Adam suddenly thought of something and said: “Selene, I just thought of something. Bring me some crutches!”

[AN: Just like to say; as always thanks for the comments =D]