Julius was glad he was no longer trapped in his own soul space, but unfortunately, his return didn’t bring feelings of gratitude. The pain he experienced while he was stuck in his soul was of a different kind than the one he was experiencing now. Real, physical pain had a different flavor, and Julius was forced to rely on [Sage of Savagery] to help manage the pain.

  On the bright side, he was greeted by a smiling Freya, so that was a plus. He gave her the warmest grin he could manage, given the current circumstances. He wanted to express his gratitude to her, who was undoubtedly a huge reason he was alive.

  His healing skill definitely helped keep his soul somewhat intact, but he knew right away that she was the one who had healed him when that Tier 5 woman had destroyed most of his body. No matter if he had kept his soul together, he wouldn’t be alive if he didn’t have a body to house said soul.

  He could also tell right away that she was trying her best to make him feel comfortable. Unfortunately, it wasn’t something that healing magic could handle. It was his advancement, not an infection or injury. The most she could do was give him some life mana to help ease his pain. But even that was quite limited in effectiveness.

  “Hey, fancy seeing you here,” he greeted her with a chuckle that was a mixture of amusement and pain.

  “Shhh. Worry about your body's evolution. We can talk later. I’m glad you’re safe, though,” she said, holding up a hand to cup his cheek tenderly.

  He gave one last smile and a firm nod before he took her advice. His body’s evolution was rapidly approaching, and with the obtainment of his Authority, he was quite certain it was going to be even more powerful than what the three had hypothesized.

  His Seed of Phoenix's Ruin had already taken the spot where his Special Emblem had resided. The small seed was but a speck of brilliant light in the dark void of his soul. However, he could feel energy leeching off it and funneling into his body, essentially powering his evolution.

  Heat began to gather throughout his body. He was no stranger to this. After all, he had a fire affinity and a certain proclivity to explosions. But this was different. It wasn’t direct or simple heat, but rather felt full of life and warmth.

  Of course, this pleasant feeling couldn’t last forever, and it began to feel uncomfortable. The energy was becoming too much for his current body to handle. The life mana started to create tumors all over his body. Red and purple sores the size of ping pong balls appeared all over his skin.

  To make matters worse, these tumors would continue to grow so large that they eventually popped. All of the pus and flesh went everywhere. It was only thanks to Freya’s foresight that she already set up something that cleaned up the mess before it could stain the floor.

  Then the warmth gradually turned into a searing bonfire. His already exposed flesh and nerve endings were set on fire. The pain took all of the air from his lungs, and he could only wheeze as he withstood the agony.

  He was a mess. His healing skill was doing everything in its power to heal him. But unfortunately, his healing skill was partly to blame for the level of suffering he was experiencing. His body needed to adapt and improve in accordance with his advancement to Tier 4. That meant his body needed to be able to handle his powerful skills. Skills like [Phoenix Renewal].

  Unfortunately, that meant he was plagued by dozens of tumors and had to experience his flesh getting blackened from the overwhelming heat.

  It was only due to his new Seed of Phoenix's Ruin that he was able to keep it up. The seed helped fuel his healing skill when it began to falter. His Concept of Will also pitched in. It gave him small boosts of energy and motivation to keep on enduring.

  However, no matter how strong his will was. Or how stubborn he could be. There wasn’t anything to do when his mind was the first to fail. He felt blood leaking out of his orifices and felt the familiar shades of darkness creeping up on him.

  He tried his best to stay conscious. He really did. He had only just woken up and didn’t want to go back to sleep, for all he knew would be his last waking moments. But there was nothing he was able to do as the abyss swallowed him once more.

  ***

  Freya POV

  She flinched when she saw another tumor pop open, and the fire wrapping around his body cauterized it within seconds. The smell of burnt human flesh was irritating her nose, and she quickly used some aura to get rid of it. Then she controlled the circle beneath her feet to remove any traces of the lingering stench.

  She dug her fingers into her palm so hard that she was bleeding from her hands. She knew that Julius would experience an enormously difficult advancement. But she didn't expect something like this.

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  It wasn’t just physical either. She could tell that his newly reformed soul was in the midst of being torn apart once again. She knew that it would only be temporary and was purposeful this time around. But the pain must have been immense.

  She still didn’t quite understand how Doren managed to heal Julius’s soul. The man had somehow forced his way inside of Julius’s soul space. A feat that was as ridiculous as it sounded. Then he somehow fixed Julius’s soul.

  She had been warned that Julius would experience an advancement after this treatment. Doren had been thoughtful enough that he made sure it was all right with Cain and her before he began. But she didn’t think it would happen so soon. It had only been several hours since Doren began the treatment.

  She had no idea what kind of Authority he had chosen, but there was no doubt in her mind that it was a powerful variant. Her own seed had been a little underwhelming, considering her other options. But she was glad that she had chosen it in hindsight. It had evolved and changed over time, becoming a pillar of her strength.

  With how many concepts and abilities he had, it was very likely that he was being offered many options. She hoped that there were at least a few that would be a good fit for him.

  Cain was there, squeezing her shoulder as they watched Julius suffer. However, she could feel that her husband took pride in his disciple. Despite the pain that Julius was in, he wasn’t screaming or begging for relief. He was enduring the process with as much grace as one could hope for.

  Still, she couldn’t help but wince when she saw his evolution sharply increase in intensity once more. She had never seen a Tier 4 advancement that was so rough in all her years. Even her own advancement seemed like a breeze in comparison. And she remembered that she had been whimpering in pain for days, even after her advancement had been completed.

  Fortunately, it would appear that Julius was no longer conscious. He would still feel the pain in his soul, but it would be dulled.

  She wished there was more she could do for him, but that wasn’t the way advancements worked. He needed to do this on his own, and all she could offer was her silent support as he persevered.

  On the other hand, she noticed that Doren looked abnormally excited. The man shouldn’t be excited to see a Tier 4 advancement. He had likely seen more than either her or Cain combined. In fact, with his experimentations, she wouldn’t be surprised if he had seen many times that number.

  If she thought the man had been fascinated by Julius before, she would say he looked positively obsessed now. There was zero doubt in her mind that Doren would let Julius die now. He was too intrigued by the boy. That was both a blessing and a curse.

  Only time would tell which one it would be.

  ***

  It had already been several hours, and the flames around Julius’s body hadn’t shown the slightest signs of slowing down. The tumors had at least stopped popping. The sound of exploding puss had been really grating on her ears.

  She glanced over at the disfigured form of Julius. His body barely looked like a body at this point. It was an utter mess. If not for the powerful surges of life mana coming from Julius, she would have thought he was dead or turned into some variation of an undead monster.

  She had been worried that he would be offered something along that path. His skill with life mana and something so destructive as his aura would have qualified him for an undead-related Seed of Authority.

  She didn’t think he would be dumb enough to choose that option, but she had no clue what kind of state his soul or mind had been in after he was healed.

  She propped back up and poked Cain when she suddenly felt subtle changes within the aura of Julius. The flames around his body surged with such violence that her Tier 6 body winced from the heat.

  To her concern, when the flames dissipated, she noticed that there was a black shell of what looked like obsidian around Julius’s body. It was such a weird material that it blocked her senses from detecting what was happening underneath.

  It must have also prevented Doren’s own senses because the man frowned, looking up from his close examination, and removed several instruments from his storage space.

  It stayed like this for several more hours. There were no fluctuations of mana or aura from this obsidian shell; the only thing she could sense was the occasional vibrations emanating from the shell.

  She suspected this was his kinetic affinity at work. However, she couldn’t even begin to guess what was happening underneath there and why it felt like someone was detonating large charges of concentrated kinetic energy inside. She didn’t want to imagine what kind of trauma his body was undergoing.

  Thankfully, the vibrations stopped, and finally she heard a cracking sound from the shell. A hairline fracture appeared just on the surface. This fracture slowly grew, and before long, the shell shattered and fell apart into small black dust.

  However, to her panic, she didn’t sense Julius inside the shell. It was empty. All that was left inside was dust. Cain made a move and he was suddenly above the broken shell, she could feel his warring emotions.

  “Hold on,” she said, grabbing him by the arm quickly.

  She would have been this way as well, but at the last moment, she realized that it wasn’t dust she was looking at. It was a pile of ash. Recalling her body's evolution through her Ice Phoenix Concept, she felt this was purposeful.

  Then, before her very eyes, the pile of black ash glowed with massive amounts of mana and aura. It was so powerful that it threatened to break out of her containment circle, and she was forced to push more mana to support it.

  Doren had a dazzling smile on his face while he got as close as he could without interrupting the process.

  A minute later, the glow gradually faded, and she saw a puff of ash balloon upward. Then it shifted aside as a pale hand reached out and a very naked Julius crawled his way out of it. She let out a sigh of relief. She didn’t know if he would make it, but she was glad to see that his evolution and advancement had been successful.

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