Chapter 1193 You Really Scared Me

Chapter 1193 You Really Scared Me

'Then, the second option it is,' the Moon Spirit yawned nonchalantly. 'Though I'm no daughter of any moon. I am the moon itself.'

'Yeah, sure. Amaris it is,' Jake confirmed, mentally ticking off one more thing from his to-do list.

Calling her "Moon" made him cringe every time—not to mention, how would he tell them apart if he met others? Unlikely, but after everything he'd been through these past years, nothing seemed impossible anymore. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

The two World Spirits then left him alone to settle into their new temporary digs. Ray spontaneously shifted back into a glowing plasma orb and floated up to the top of the dome to indulge in one of his signature unproductive naps. Amaris, on the other hand, simply remained motionless in her golem form—the dome made any orbiting impossible.

Jake resumed his descent through the deadly atmosphere, gritting his teeth. The return trip felt just as interminable as the ascent, but Xi gave him a morale boost by informing him that his injuries were less severe and he'd beaten his previous ascent time by over ten seconds. His increased resilience played a part, but it was mostly thanks to his Lumyst Cores soaking up more of the destructive Lumyst tearing through his body.

"At least reaching Saint stage wasn't for nothing," he consoled himself, forcefully piercing the membrane still isolating Twyluxia before slipping through the breach without slowing down.

Looking up, he was relieved to see it regenerating after his passage, but he had a hunch it was taking longer this time. As for its fragility, he preferred to chalk it up to the fact that he'd grown stronger over the past few hours.

Jake scanned his surroundings to figure out where he was, and after locating one of the Lumyst River's tributaries, he followed it upstream without hesitation, heading toward the Underworld Cascade. This was the final step in his nighttime prep.

The first thing he noticed upon returning to the continent was that his body and soul were once again under the yoke of Twyluxia's anti-Aether laws. Most of his powers—except for his Lumyst cultivation—had been sealed again.

Yet, he noted a significant difference: the world's suppression over him had lessened—a side benefit of his cultivation breakthroughs.

It wasn't a game-changer. Instead of accessing 5 or 10% of his total power, he now had at least double that. He wouldn't know the exact amount until he was in the thick of battle.

Being stronger and having higher cultivation meant his affinity for Lumyst had significantly increased, so he could risk more ambitious Lumyst baptisms.

It was obvious Jake wasn't the only one with this idea, given the large number of Players he passed bathing in the river as he made his way upstream. He also encountered Players from the opposing camp, but as long as they behaved, he decided to let them be. They'd need all the firepower they could muster to face the Blade Spirit once this war was over.

"If I had all the time in the world, that's what I'd do," he shot back determinedly. "But to beat an enemy considered invincible, you have to do things that prudence and common sense would balk at."

Even though the end of the Ordeal was near, Jake hadn't forgotten that he still hadn't received a third Side Mission explicitly ordering him to defeat the Blade Spirit or purge Klayr's corpse of its influence. His second mission was only to unite Twyluxia under his dominion. Twyluxia being, as he now knew, not a territory but the name of a World Spirit, he realized this task could be interpreted in many ways.

[Have it your way...] Xi sighed, then went quiet again, keeping her worries to herself.

Knowing he had her support no matter what, Jake's expression hardened with resolve. Fifteen minutes later, he "survived" his twenty-second baptism.

To pull off this miracle, he'd danced with death in every sense. Luck hadn't been on his side this time, and he owed his survival solely to his massive biomass reserves and the incredible regenerative abilities granted by his Energy Body. Three of the twelve total instant regenerations his biomass allowed had been used up.

In other words, if he hadn't had all those spare cells brimming with vitality, he'd have burned through a terrifying amount of blood essence. Even if he'd miraculously survived, his strength would've been knocked down to that of a nobody in this Ordeal.

The real issue was his soul and Spirit Body, for which he couldn't provide ready-to-use spare cells. Spells, meds, tech, and bloodlines capable of restoring those were insanely rare, and their effectiveness was often limited and mediocre at best, requiring time he didn't have.

With his Energy Body on lockdown, he owed his resurrection this time solely to his Spirit Lumyst Cores. Only by brushing death way too closely did he remember that it was the Lumyst's ability to convert interchangeably into its source attributes that made this energy so incredible. Klayr was an even more brilliant genius than he'd given him credit for.

"Any closer, and I'd be a vegetable," Jake croaked hoarsely, eyes glazed over. He'd just remembered his own name.

[You really scared me this time. Any other bloodline wouldn't have been able to restore such a wrecked soul. Rebuilding a computer identically doesn't mean you save the data stored inside. You're playing with fire.]

She was right. The Spirit Lumyst had provided the spiritual energy needed for his healing, but it was his unique soul and bloodline that truly saved his ass. At the critical moment, he'd felt his adaptability power unleash like never before to yank him back from oblivion. He'd already blacked out by then, so he couldn't really say what had happened.

However, during this near-death experience, he'd vaguely sensed a mysterious power surging from the deepest parts of his being to retrieve directly from the abysses of the Aetherdream the information of his soul, which was on the brink of disintegration. His Soul Class might have also played a mysterious role in saving his soul.

"Anyway, I survived," Jake cleared his throat. "The hardest part is done. The Life Lumyst baptism will be a walk in the park compared to this."

Not giving Xi another chance to lecture him, he decisively swam back downstream, heading toward the Heaven Cascade. The night was still young...