Path to Transcendence

Chapter 722: Soul Stabilization Token

Once he had finished up his meal and spent some time catching up with Drasil and Seraphyne, he was finally able to get to work. His soul was rebounding so quickly that he couldn’t even believe his own eyes. With [Phoenix Incarnate] rushing through his soul, he suspected that he was going to be healed sooner than anticipated.

Not only that, but he finally removed the Soul Stabilization Token from his dimensional space. The token felt warm in his palms, the silverish metal sparkling like a precious stone in the light. Drasil had crawled his way over to Julius’s hand and was poking the token curiously.

Julius didn’t wait any longer, not when his soul was showing such rapid improvement. He closed his eyes and let his aura connect to the token.

Would you like to consume Soul Stabilization Token (Pinnacle Grade)?

He accepted and watched as the token dissolved into motes of fine light. The particles sank into his skin, and he immediately felt his body explode with warmth. His soul, already on the mend, received a massive influx of energy. It wasn’t like anything he’d experienced before. It wasn’t just the energy going into his soul that caught his eye.

It was the amount of energy being concentrated around it. A large, complex web of threads started to appear all around his soul. At first, it seemed random, but over time it became clear that this wasn’t the case.

These threads slowly wove together, each tethered to another, making the combined weave stronger than before. There was so much going on that he couldn’t follow everything. Each thread was a different size and color, with a distinct vibrancy.

Slowly, the web of threads began to take on a spherical shape. Only this sphere was made up of smaller hexagons, gently layered on top of each other. Inside these hexagons were more unique shapes and runes inscribed on their surfaces. Each one had a signature that contrasted with the others. He had no idea what was going on. The only thing he knew for certain was that whatever was happening was far beyond his current abilities or what he could replicate.

Hell, forget about replicating; he wasn’t even able to begin comprehending what was happening in the first place. It was that complex and confusing.

That being said, he could tell how much it was helping his soul. With this sphere of concentric hexagons enclosing his soul, he felt a phenomenon at work within it. All the broken-off and worn pieces from the forced draining he had experienced were regenerating in a way his healing skill couldn’t.

The sphere wasn’t done either. It slowly began to compress and squeeze his soul. He panicked briefly but quickly realized that it wasn’t going to hurt him. In fact, the squeezing seemed to have a purpose.

It gathered all the stray strands of his soul and neatly collected them. Unfortunately, it then began to scrub his soul as one would with sandpaper. He grunted in pain while his soul was effectively ground by this barrier. The only reason why he bore with it was that he could feel his soul becoming smoother with each pass. The surface was becoming polished like marble, and all the while, his soul was being compressed even more intensely.

The compressed had gotten so strong that his soul was actually beginning to shrink slightly. Funnily enough, that part didn’t hurt at all, and once it was all over, he was left examining his soul with a complicated expression.

The scrubbing had ceased, and he was able to get a good look at what had happened. His soul, which had been in a sorry state, was now glistening like a sparkling jewel. The iridescence was blinding, and it was also quite a bit smaller than before. To his astonishment, he no longer sensed any flakes or damaged pieces of his soul. It was as if this sphere had compressed it, so that everything went back into place.

It wasn’t just a simple healing either. His soul had become stronger. Not in the same way it had gotten stronger with his soul evolution, but it had become denser.

Previously, his soul was a bit like a wooden ball. The surface was relatively firm but slightly porous and easily damaged when attacked directly. However, this token seemed to change things. It had altered the exterior of his soul, making it as hard as steel. But he could also feel that the interior was still pliable and flexible. He suspected that his soul had become more resilient to external attacks and other stimuli.

Admittedly, he was a bit worried about how his healing skill would affect this. When he evolved his body during his Tier 4 advancement, it became more difficult to heal, as it became tougher and more resilient. If his soul was in a similar state, he worried that his healing skill might find it more difficult to heal it.

However, if that was the case, then just like his body, he hoped that it would become a lot more difficult to inflict more serious damage to his soul. Preventing damage was better in many ways.

He sat up and immediately examined his soul with an eager grin. His healing skill was still working to heal it, but he didn’t believe it was necessary. That token had managed to heal whatever damage was left and then some.

It was so pretty, though. His soul sparkled in a way that mesmerized his senses. He couldn’t stop looking at it, and it was only when he felt Drasil pulling on his cheeks that he shook himself out of his thoughts. He hadn’t realized it, but while he was exploring his newly healed and stabilized soul, he had been releasing large amounts of aura.

“Sorry, got distracted,” he said to Drasil, who gave him a soft whistle in return.

Aura was intrinsically bound to his soul, which meant that when his soul got stronger, so did his aura. Trouble with that was that his aura was quite dangerous compared to normal auras. It was a little more destructive and hungrier than others.

Fortunately, he had some experience handling it, and after half an hour, he was able to strike a nice balance that kept his aura available whenever he wanted, yet restrained enough that it didn’t bleed out of him and become a nuisance.

Once he got a handle on that, he began to play with his skills. Since he hadn’t used them in so long, they felt rusty, and so he began testing each one individually.

However, when he reached [Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin], things took a turn. He didn’t know if it was because the skill had been sitting at level 30 for so long, or if his subconscious desire to evolve the skill now that he had the requisite soul strength to push it over the edge.

The skill that he’d been holding back for a while now exploded viciously. It was so violent that his flesh was becoming severely damaged while the skill flowed through his body. He tried to control it, but it overwhelmed his willpower.

His skin began to burn, and his flesh was eaten away by the ruinous energy.

It wasn’t that bad, though. At least to his standards. His healing skill was more than enough to help him deal with the damage. The problem was that he didn’t feel it evolving, nor did he get a notification. He had a feeling that he would need to actually use the skill if he wanted to do that. He also didnʼt mind. After all, he was still thinking about using his Skill Combination Crystal on it.

If only he had some enemies here that could help him out. Too bad he was still trapped inside here. He would need to find—

He paused because just as he was thinking about finding a way out of here, he felt something within this realm shift. It wasn’t just the realm, either; it was his connection to the array that was helping his soul. It must have been because his soul was no longer in danger of collapsing, but the array began to withdraw from his soul. He felt its tendrils release him, and with that, the entire realm changed.

Thorik said something about him being allowed to leave once he healed his soul. And so Julius suspected that the connection to the array was one of the things binding him to it. But now that he was being released, it would seem that those restrictions were being released along with it.

It was also at this point that he was bombarded with information. He sank to his knees as information assaulted his brain. He already had some general knowledge about the realm he was trapped in, but there were things hidden from him as well. Like how to leave.

However, now that he had been released by the array, it would seem there was no reason to keep such things hidden. He was made aware of the exit and how to use it.

Considering how long he’d been stuck inside this place, he didn’t need any convincing to use the exit either. He immediately shoved his senses into the enchantments and grabbed hold of the controls. It was a bit weird, and he made several mistakes, which shook the realm unsteadily. But after half an hour of testing, he got a decent handle on the control panel that was directing the enchantments. At least enough to open a hole to the outside world.

It was surprisingly hard, though, and despite sensing a core revolving at the center of the realm, he couldn’t figure out how to use it. He tried, he really did. But either Thorik didn’t give him authority to use it, or he was just dumb.

Either way, he decided to just fuel it himself. He had more than enough mana to open up a hole, and only after six failed attempts did he finally manage to tear open the fabric of space.

He was a little hesitant and couldn’t tell what lay on the other side, so he decided to be smart and place a [Phoenix Mark] on a random piece of wood he found on the ground. Then he chucked it into the tear in space, watching it vanish to the other side.

He frowned when he couldn’t feel where it ended. To be fair, he hadn’t tried to see whether his skill could bounce a signal back to him from another spatial dimension. However, he could tell it was still there and active. That had to mean something, right?

He frowned, and before he could doubt himself any further, he leaned forward and poked his head into the tear. He immediately knew something was wrong when he felt the spatial literally attack him from all sides of his poor head.

He let out an unmanly yelp and pulled his head back, holding his neck while it bled all over the floor. His healing skill fixed him up. However, while it was not exactly what he had imagined, he was able to catch a brief glimpse of the other side of the portal.

From what he could tell, it was the same forest where the door to the Obsidian Vault had been. The one outside of Goldmere. He wasn’t a hundred percent sure it was safe, but he was confident enough to shrug and chuck himself through the tears before he could convince himself it was a bad idea.

He protected himself in multiple layers of mana, but the spatial tear still wasn’t very nice to him and tore his sensitive skill apart. When he fell to the ground, he was bleeding everywhere and cursed when a pokey stick stabbed into one of the deeper cuts.

He looked around and spotted that the door he entered the vault through was not far away. However, he also noticed that the tear was still there. He felt he could close it, so he did. There was no need for someone to accidentally get sucked inside and torn to bits.

Despite the rift closing, he could still feel his connection to the realm. He knew that he could open up another portal there as long as he was close enough to the door. Not that he was planning to go back anytime soon. He was in there for way too long as it was. Perhaps once he had some time in the outside world, he would go back and explore.

For now, he wanted to sleep in a warm bed and eat some real food. He also needed to find out how long he’d been stuck in there.

He really, really hoped he used the time dilation correctly and was only gone for a few months rather than a few years. He crossed his fingers and offered a short prayer before making his way back to Goldmere.