“…ster.”

A soft voice echoed in Red’s head as his consciousness slowly returned to him. Although he tried to make sense of it, his mind felt as if it was drowning in a sea of information and he was struggling to find breath to think.

“Master… Master!”

The same raspy voice called out again. Its tone was grating to his ears, but little by little Red felt as if he could understand its words.

‘Master…? Then I’m back-’

Before he could finish his train of thought, there was another pang of pain in his head. He let out a grunt of pain, and his entire body contorted involuntarily.

“Master?! Are you okay?!”

The shrill voice, which he could now recognize as the imp’s, seemed more concerned this time. Red tried to inspect his surroundings, but when he opened his eyes, all he saw was a blurry mess, and his body still seemed far too weak to move around.

None of this would have been a problem if he could at least think properly. Yet, countless flashing images continued to assault his mind, too fast for him to make sense of. He tried to compose himself and sort through this information, but his attempts only worsened his pain.

It seemed neither focusing on the problem nor ignoring it would lessen the throbbing pain in his head, which left Red completely bewildered as cold sweat ran down his skin.

‘What do I do?’

“Suppress it, you idiot!”

As if hearing his thoughts, Aurora’s voice echoed in his mind with far more clarity than the imp’s pleas.

‘But how do I…?’

“Use your consciousness! Suppress your thoughts before your head explodes!”

‘My consciousness?’

Red never used the sixth sense tempered by his meditation technique on his mind. For one, his expanded awareness only seemed capable of interacting with his physical body, so he wasn’t entirely sure how to use it to suppress his thoughts.

Yet, any sort of deeper consideration was thrown out the window as soon as another shock of pain ran through his head. Without hesitation, Red entered his meditative state, one of the few things he seemed capable of doing in his current state. Expanded awareness came to him, and he was greeted by the quivering state of his inner body. Every part of him was trembling in pain, even though no harmful force was acting over them. The instigator of this was made clear when Red’s consciousness travelled up to his head.

His brain was pulsating in an effort to digest the unending stream of thoughts that were forcefully inserted into Red’s mind. The organ had expanded substantially, pushing against his cranium as it could not find any more room to grow into.

It seemed as if Aurelia was being quite literal when she warned him about his head exploding.

The youth was still unsure about what the woman meant by suppressing his thoughts, and no obvious solution presented itself as he inspected his head. The only thing Red could do in this situation was to use his expanded awareness to relax his brain.

Red had accumulated a lot of knowledge about human anatomy through reading, so he knew that the human brain was composed of many components responsible for varied functions. The pain spreading through the organ originated from a particular area are near the core of his brain, which was one of the main parts responsible for memory. The youth could only guess it was overloaded with sudden information, and it was almost exploding trying to absorb it.

He tried to lighten the burden from there, relaxing his brain and trying to facilitate the blood flow. Yet he was quick to find out that, unlike his muscles, his ability to ease tension from his brain was not nearly as effective. The strain lessened somewhat, but Red still felt like he was drowning in this information.

“What are you doing?! Focus on reaching your mind palace!”

Red gritted his teeth. Aurora’s lack of specificity frustrated him, but he didn’t have the time to complain.

‘My mind palace… Where is my mind palace?’

He wasn’t unfamiliar with the concept. The soul was divided into two parts: the consciousness and the mind. His consciousness was his awareness of his own being, while his mind was the combination of all his memories, emotions, and knowledge. The problem was, of course, that Red only had control over the former, while the latter was a far more complex and difficult part of his soul to access.

If it was just a matter of locating it, then he would have done it a long time ago.

Red was struggling with keeping his brain intact already, and he wasn’t so lucky as to have a sudden epiphany that revealed to him how to access his mind. It was then that another idea came to him.

Although Red couldn’t stop these thoughts from attacking him, there was something he could do to ease the burden on his brain - and that was to force himself asleep.

‘They told me I could lose connection to my body this way, but… It’s not like I have a choice.’

With no further hesitation, Red forced his entire body to relax through his expanded awareness. It was a hard task with his throbbing headache, but as his other bodily functions started to slow down, the strain on his brain eased ever so slightly.

Of course, Red couldn’t examine it as he felt awareness over his body slip away.

The last thing he heard before everything went dark was Aurelia’s roar.

“Where are you…?!”

Then everything went dark.

…

However, this time, he wasn’t truly asleep. No, his consciousness was still there, and he felt wide awake.

Except, other than his thoughts and emotions, there was nothing else to feel. No pain, no heat, no smell. All his senses were gone, and Red’s awareness floated in the endless nothingness of the void, only aware and capable of sensing itself.

It was his second time entering such a state. This time around, though, he didn’t panic.

A few seconds later, he felt it, a vibration that reached his floating consciousness, which was then interpreted as a faint blue light to him by his mind. A star.

When the first one appeared, the floodgates were open. Countless shining dots of all varieties of colors spread around him, assaulting his consciousness with sensations. Some seemed to be extremely far away, while others felt as if they were right next to him. Some were moving, while others laid still in the endless dark void.

‘The Realm of Souls.’

Red learned how to enter this place by accident back in that cavern, and that was to force himself to sleep with his Radiant Current meditation technique. Back then, he just so happened to catch the attention of a passing cultivator in their consciousness form, who was kind enough to explain where he was and the dangers of this place.

As that person claimed, this sea of stars was a dangerous place to explore with his strength, and there was also the risk of losing connection to his body the longer he stayed here. If there were benefits to be had in this realm, it was clear the youth wasn’t strong enough to take advantage of them yet, and nothing much about the strength of his consciousness had changed from back then as far as he could tell.

Yet, it was exactly this danger that provided Red with a perfect escape plan. Since this place cut off the connection from his awareness to his body, then he wouldn’t feel the pain assaulting his brain, and it would also ease much of the strain from having to keep him conscious and under such torture.

‘Still, is that enough?’

Perhaps his brain would still explode, but he just wouldn’t be in his body to feel it. In any case, he wouldn’t have done it if he felt there was another choice, but at that moment the method to access his mind palace still eluded him, and this was the only solution he could think of.

As he inspected the Sea of Stars, his attention was drawn by all the countless motes of light floating around the realm. They were innumerable, and yet they seemed to be too few to fill the endless void of this space, their vibrations echoing through the nothingness. There was no sign, however, of the cultivator who helped him previously

Red couldn’t help but wonder what each of these “stars” represented. Were they the consciousnesses of other living beings? If so, why did none of them seem to react to his presence, unlike that cultivator from back then? If they weren’t made up of consciousnesses, then what were they?

He felt curious and almost compelled to reach out to one of these stars close to him. Yet, he heeded the warning of the cultivator and refrained from interacting with them.

‘How much time has passed?’

It was hard to discern that without physical reference, as Red came to learn quickly. In his silence, though, he was quick to notice another strange matter.

‘My brain should be absorbing all that information, but why do I feel nothing change in my mind?’

Since memories and knowledge were stored in his mind, then he should be aware of the information being forcefully assimilated by his brain. Yet, nothing was changing. Did that mean there was a disconnect between his consciousness and his mind while he was in this place?

‘If that’s the case, though… How can I still remember everything I know?’

The question confused him, yet before he could think about it much further, he felt something strange. A vibration reached his consciousness, which wasn’t weird in this realm, but this one stood apart from the others.

When Red focused on it, he saw a crimson burning star. It seemed to be extremely far from him, and yet he could feel its immense size and power even from that distance. The vibrations reaching his consciousness had already awed him from that far, so he could only imagine how they looked up close.

What caused him concern, however, was that this star seemed to be moving closer to him.

‘Is it coming towards me?’

It was hard to say, as he could just be caught in the path of that enormous star. In any case, it didn’t seem wise to remain still.

‘Should I return?’

He remembered the method to return to his body that cultivator had taught him, but he wasn’t sure if enough time had passed in the real world for the crisis to be resolved. Instead, he considered simply moving out of the star’s way.

It was at that moment, though, that he “heard” it.

“… f…”

It was faint, almost impossible to hear, yet it cause Red to seize. Was it a sound?

“… ef…”

This time, he was sure. It wasn’t just a sound - it was a word - and it was coming directly from the vibrations of that enormous crimson star. It was speaking to him, and as it approached, the sound got clearer and louder as it resonated with his soul.

“… ief…”

Red’s consciousness trembled. He felt some recognition at the sound of this voice.

“…. Thief…”

This time, the word was clear to him.

“… Thief… Thief… THIEF!”

A fear the likes of which the youth never felt before gripped his soul.

Rage incarnate, all consuming.

The manifestation of hatred.

All directed at Red.

The star only grew in size as it approached him, until it felt as if it was about to occupy the previously endless void that surrounded him. All the other stars were snuffed and consumed like they were but dust in front of this crimson hatred.

And yet, despite how quickly it grew in his sights, there seemed to be an incalculable distance between the two of them. This was the only thing that afforded Red enough time to compose himself and start his escape.

He repeated the method he had learned to return to the real world, anchoring himself to the image of his body. He felt the world around him become fainter, but the crimson star continued to grow in his sight.

“THIEF!”

The flames of hatred burned even brighter as they felt Red slip away from its grasp again.

“RETURN IT!”

As the reality anchor took over, the youth felt awareness of his own body return to him little by little. Yet, the rage’s words still sounded as clear as day in his mind.

“YOU WILL PAY!”

The star faded away from his view.

“YOU WILL SUFFER! YOU WILL…”

Silence and darkness. The image of the star and its voice, however, were still burned bright in his mind.

When Red opened his eyes again, though, he found himself staring at the ceiling of a familiar house with two people, or rather two beings, carrying very different expressions as they saw him open his eyes.

“Master! You’re awake!”

“You damn idiot! What did you do this time?!”

Red laid his head down once more and closed his eyes.

At the very least, the headache was gone.