I found myself floating in an endless darkness. It surrounded on all sides, stretching on into infinity. I had no body, not that it mattered. There was no light, no sound, no warmth. Nothing. The darkness was vast and empty, devoid of any life. I felt like an insignificant speck in comparison.
Despite this, the darkness felt comforting and soothing, like a mother's embrace. I knew this darkness. I rembered it. I had been here before. Back when the succubus, Ash, ripped my soul out of my body and I ended back on Earth. In between those two events, for a brief mont, I found myself in this place.
I basked in the darkness, enjoying it. I knew I needed to return soon, but I wanted to enjoy this a little longer. I still rembered the pain I felt after I ford my second mana core, and I wasn't eager to return just yet. So, I decided to enjoy being in this place for a little while longer, wherever it was.
"Hmm, you surprised , Gabriel," a familiar voice said. "I hadn't expected sothing like this from you. At least, not so soon."
In a panic, I "opened" my eyes and looked around for the source of the voice. However, I saw nothing except the endless darkness. Despite that, I didn't relax.
That voice sounded a lot like the Wandering Witch's. But that couldn't be. How could she end up in this place?
"I'm over here, Gabriel," the Wandering Witch said again.
I "looked" over in that direction and saw her. She stood, as if on solid ground instead of the middle of a void, wearing the uniform of a House Sturm retainer. I "stared" at her in shock.
"I've gone insane," I said. "I must be. Why else would I be dreaming about you?"
The Wandering Witch smirked.
"Eh, sanity is overrated," she said. "But no, you're not dreaming about ." She paused. "Rather, you are but also not. It's a little complicated. Let's just say I've entered this particular dream."
That's when I realized that the Wandering Witch in front of wasn't a fignt of my imagination. She was real. Fury and fear welled up inside my heart.
"Get out of my head!" I shouted.
The Wandering Witch snorted.
"I'm not in your head," she said. "I'm in your soul."
I stared at her in disbelief.
"What?"
The Wandering Witch gestured to the empty void all around .
"This is your soul," she said. "Or at least the core of it. Your sea of consciousness, so to speak." She gestured to herself. "I prefer to call it the Inner World, because that's what it is in the end."
"It doesn't matter. Get out!"
The Wandering Witch ignored and looked around.
"I'm impressed," she said. "I thought it would take you longer to reach this point. If I had known, I would've started your lessons sooner." She shrugged. "Oh well. I can wait until after you've finished your business at Mirkvale Forest. I'm in no hurry."
"I said get out!"
This place belonged to , whatever it was. Maybe it was the core of my soul, as the Wandering Witch said, or maybe it was a different place altogether. It didn't matter. This place belonged to , and alone. I refused to let her presence taint it.
As if in response to my wishes, I felt so kind of mysterious force well up inside of . It wasn't mana, but sothing different altogether. It responded to my wishes and lashed out at the Wandering Witch.
"Oh?" she said, raising an eyebrow at .
She "stood" there as the mysterious force slamd into her and sent her flying. For so reason, she started laughing.
"Yes!" she said. "I knew I made the right choice in picking you!"
The Wandering Witch grew smaller and smaller as she flew away from , until she beca little more than a dot in the distance. Soon, she disappeared from sight altogether. Despite this, I knew she was still here. I felt her presence.
"Leave before I hit you again," I growled.
I heard the Wandering Witch's laughter in my ears.
"Very well," she whispered, her voice coming from right beside . "I'll leave. I don't want to push you too hard."
With that, I felt her disappear. It was as if sothing irritating had been pulled out, a splinter that had been removed from my soul. I relaxed a little.
After the Wandering Witch left, I looked around. If this place was the core of my soul, why was it so empty? Why was it a void? Did that an I was empty on the inside? Or was there sothing else going on? I didn't know much about the soul, so I didn't know if having a void as the core of mine was a good thing.
Besides, where was Aurora? Our souls were connected by our contract. Shouldn't she be in this place? Or at least, shouldn't she be able to enter here? Either way, I wanted to see her. I wanted to see that there was so life to my soul. That it wasn't just an empty void.
As if in response to this, I felt the mysterious force rise up within again. However, instead of lashing out, sothing within shifted. I "moved" for a lack of a better term. Rather, it was more like my perspective changed.
One mont, I was in the empty void. The next, I found myself standing within an icy cave. It was massive, several dozen feet high and just as wide. The walls, the ceiling, the floor. All of it was made up of frosty ice. Stalactites and stalagmites jutted from the ceiling and floor, thin and sharp. It felt as if this cave were the inside of a beast's maw.
A blizzard raged outside the cave entrance, making it impossible to see anything beyond. A bone-chilling cold perated the entire area. Despite this, I felt no pain or discomfort. If anything, the cold felt just as comforting and soothing as the empty void.
In the center of the cave lay so kind of nest. It looked like it was made up of shredded black, white, and silver fabric. The fabric looked familiar.
In fact, now that I took a closer look, I realized that the nest seed to be made up of my clothing. It was as if soone took my entire wardrobe and tore it up to make this nest.
"What the fuck?" I asked, before I realized sothing.
Unlike the void from earlier, I had a body now. I wore the sa clothes I had when I fell unconscious. Just to make sure this wasn't a hallucination, I touched one of the nearby stalagmites. It felt cold and smooth against my skin.
"What is this place?" I asked.
"Who dares trespass upon my domain?!" a familiar voice shouted.
I turned towards the cave entrance just as a great beast erged from the raging blizzard and entered the cave. The beast snarled in my direction, but stopped when she saw . The two of us stared at one another.
"Aurora?" I asked.
The great beast in front of looked similar to my familiar, but bigger and more mature version of her. She still looked sleek and serpentine, but her features appeared more grown up, for lack of a better term. The wings on her back looked bigger as well. They now looked big enough for her to fly.
All in all, the great beast in front of looked like an adult version of Aurora. A young adult, yes, but still an adult. Not only that, but her size matched that of an actual dragon. She towered over , which I couldn't get used to.
"Gabriel?" Aurora asked. "Is that really you?"
I nodded.
"Gabriel!"
Aurora's features lit up with joy, before she rushed forward to embrace . This would've been fine if she were her usual size. However, she wasn't her usual size. It was a small hill bearing down on .
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"Wait, Aurora! Stop!"
In her excitent, my familiar ignored my words and pulled into an embrace. Dragon surrounded on all sides. I felt her scales press against my entire body. To my surprise, it didn't hurt. Nor did it feel suffocating. Which I found odd. Aurora squeezed hard enough to crush a regular human, but I felt fine.
"Aurora, let go of ," I said, my voice muffled.
My familiar listened to this ti and pulled away, though she still held in her claws. Her massive claws, with talons the size of my legs.
Huh.
I never noticed before, but Aurora was kind of terrifying. I always thought of her as cute because she was so small. However, that wasn't the case anymore now that she was the size of a proper dragon.
"Wait a minute," Aurora said, a confused expression on her face. "How did you end up in this place?"
Okay, nevermind. My familiar still looked cute. I resisted the urge to chuckle at her confused expression.
"I'm not entirely sure," I said. "I wanted to see you and ended up here." I looked around. "Where is this place?"
Aurora puffed her chest out.
"This is my ho inside your body," she said. "Well, your soul to be exact."
I blinked at her.
"Wait, your ho is inside my soul?"
"Of course," Aurora said. "Where did you think it was?"
I shrugged.
"I don't know. I thought you lived inside my body."
"I do, since your soul is inside your body."
Okay, she got there.
"Anyway," Aurora said. "How did you end up here? I thought you were still unconscious."
"It's sothing of a story," I said.
I gave her a brief rundown of my earlier encounter with the Wandering Witch. Aurora snarled, which was much scarier now that she was this size.
"I wish we could tear that woman to shreds," my familiar growled.
"We will," I said. "Once we grow powerful enough."
Aurora huffed and then nodded.
"Well, we're one step closer now that you ford a second mana core," Aurora said. "Speaking of which."
She put down and took a pose, flaunting her body.
"What do you think? When your second mana core remade your body, it affected as well." Aurora grinned. My, what sharp teeth she had. "I'm now a fully grown dragon!" She stretched out her wings and gave them a little flap. "Look! I have proper wings now! I can fly!"
"Yes, they are beautiful." I smiled at her. "My familiar is now all grown up. It makes a little sad."
Aurora reached down with her head and bumped with her nose.
"No matter what, I'll always be your cute little frost dragon."
I chuckled, before I reached over to scratch underneath Aurora's chin. She purred in contentnt, the sound resembling a diesel engine.
"Wait a mont," I said. "What do you an the second mana core remade my body?"
Aurora lifted her head and nodded.
"You look different now, but in a good way."
I frowned.
"I'm not sure how I feel about that."
"It's a good thing, trust . Wake up and see for yourself."
"Um, I don't know how. This is all new to ."
Aurora frowned in thought.
"Well, why don't you wish for it?" she asked. "According to your story, you made things happen when you wanted them enough. What if you can use that to wake up?"
That made sense. When I wanted the Wandering Witch to leave my soul, the mysterious force lashed out at her. Sothing similar happened when I wanted to see Aurora.
What was this mysterious force? Soul magic?
It didn't matter. I had more urgent things to worry about at the mont. I could explore this phenonon later on. Even if I didn't, my intuition warned that the Wandering Witch would force the issue.
Following Aurora's suggestion, I willed myself to wake up. The mysterious force reacted right away. Unlike before, when it responded to my wants, directing it with my will seed to have a more dramatic effect.
The mysterious force yanked towards the cave entrance. It felt as if I were falling, but controlling the direction I fell in. My body passed through the blizzard. I heard Aurora follow from behind.
I fell and fell, until I woke up.
My eyes snapped open right away. There was no transition between consciousness and unconsciousness. One mont in the blizzard outside of Aurora's cave. In the next, I was awake.
I took a mont to gather my bearings. Ironically, waking up all of a sudden, without any kind of transition, left a little disoriented. Right away, I felt that there was sothing off about . As a martial artist, I knew my body on an intimate level. The way it felt, the way it moved, the way it responded. Even minute changes felt wrong to .
The changes I felt right now were anything but minute.
I looked around and realized that I was in the cabin I shared with Anna. From the light streaming in through a nearby window, I guessed it was about mid-morning or so. There was no one else in the room.
After studying my surroundings, I sat up to examine my body. That's when I noticed that I was naked. A blanket covered my bottom half, but left my upper half bare.
I studied my arms. They looked a little larger and more defined than before. Not only that, but they seed a little longer too. Not by a lot, an inch or two at most, but that was enough to alarm .
I threw off the blanket and got out of bed to examine the rest of my body. That's when I discovered that I was a little taller than before. In fact, my body was larger. It felt as if I gained a few inches and added so muscle mass, though my proportions remained the sa overall.
"What the fuck?" I asked, before freezing.
My voice sounded a little deeper than before. Not by a lot, but enough for my voice to sound strange to my ears.
This went beyond anything I had experienced before. The only thing that ca close was when I almost died as Brandon Norwood and transmigrated back to Lumina. Back then, I went from a healthy twenty-five year old martial artist, to a weak eighteen year old on death's door.
Forming my first mana core had changed my body, but not to this degree. It almost felt as if I had beco a different person altogether.
As I stood there, trying not to freak out at the changes to my body, the door to the cabin opened and my mother walked in. The two of us froze when we saw each other. We stared at one another for a few seconds, before I grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around my waist.
"Mother!" I said, horrified.
She rolled her eyes at .
"Please," she said. "It's nothing I haven't seen before. Besides, I thought you were still unconscious."
Her words made sense, but that didn't make feel any less mortified. Any son, no matter his age, would be embarrassed by having his mother walk in on him while he was naked.
"What are you doing here?" I snapped. "Where's Anna?"
Mother snorted.
"This is why they say don't have a son," she said. "The mont he falls in love, he abandons his mother."
This ti, I rolled my eyes.
"This is our cabin," I pointed out.
"Don't worry," Mother said. "Your beloved fiancée is training. As for why I'm here, it's my turn to keep an eye on you. Anna, Grandmother, and I decided to look after you in shifts."
Ah, I see. Now I felt like a dick.
"I apologize for my rude words earlier," I said in a contrite tone.
Mother smirked at .
"It's fine," she said. "I did catch you in a compromising position."
My cheeks heated up.
"In my defense, it's normal for a person to examine their body after going through what I went through."
Mother's expression darkened.
"It should've never happened," she said. "If I had known what your great grandmother had planned, I would've never allowed it."
"It was my choice," I said in a firm tone. "I would've consud the spirit core with or without Grandmother Sky's help. In fact, her guidance prevented the worst from happening."
That said, I was a little pissed that she hadn't warned about the changes to my body. I knew sothing like this might've happened, but I hadn't expected it to be this severe.
"Was it really necessary, Gabriel?" Mother asked. "Did you have to risk your life like that?"
I nodded.
"You know what we're facing," I said. "I need to beco as strong as possible within the shortest amount of ti available if I want to be able to protect my ho and my loved ones."
Mother looked away.
"It shouldn't be your burden to bear," she said in a quiet voice. "You are still a child." She looked back at . "Yes, I know you're older than you look, but you will always be my baby boy. As your mother, it's my responsibility to protect you. Not the other way around."
"Why don't we promise to protect each other?" I said. "That's what a family should do. However, in order for to fulfill my part, I need to take certain risks."
Mother sighed.
"I know," she said. "It's just… All I want is for you to be happy and healthy."
I gave my mother a warm smile.
"I love you too, Mother. However, I'm not one to stand by and let others protect . That isn't who I am."
Mother snorted.
"I'm beginning to see why your friends are so exasperated with you." She shook her head. "Fine. I won't bring this up anymore. I'll just follow your friends' example and try to keep you safe from yourself."
I didn't know how to respond to that, so I changed the topic.
"So, how do I look?" I asked.
According to Grandmother Sky, practicing the Wandering Soul Technique would change my body to match my soul. In my case, that ant making my body larger overall. However, without a mirror, I couldn't see the changes to my face, if there were any.
What if I was less beautiful than before? I'll admit, I was a little nervous about that. Not out of vanity, but because Anna liked good-looking faces. I an, she beca attracted to when she thought I was plain-faced, but still.
The Wandering Soul Technique was also supposed to change my elental affinities to match my soul. However, I felt no changes there. I guess my elental affinities were already good on that front.
"Let's just say that I'm jealous of you," Mother said in a strange tone.
I blinked at her.
"What's that supposed to an?" I asked.
"Let get a mirror and I'll show you."
Mother left the cabin and returned a few minutes later with a hand-held mirror. She gave it to and I examined my face.
I almost dropped the mirror in shock.
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