Death... and me

Rean could vaguely remember that he had heard the sound of footsteps before. It's just that with his partially transformed brain, he couldn't think straight. With that said, he didn't pay attention to whatever the one coming was doing.

In any case, the sound of footsteps got louder until Rean could tell that the one walking stopped by his side. Following that, Rean felt like something cold was poured on some parts of his body. 'Now that I think about it, whatever was used on me was probably poured over my entire body. It's just that I could only feel it on the parts that had already returned to normal.'

A moment later, Rean heard the same footsteps move away but stopping not too far soon alter. He didn't need to think too much into it to realize that whoever poured that thing on him was doing the same thing to Roan. Those sounds continued for a few minutes before they disappeared.

Rean then asked System Orb after that. 'Sister Orb, now that I'm awake, can you tell if whatever was poured on me was the reason for my body returning to normal?'

[Just a moment...] Sister Orb then went silent for a few seconds before replying. [Indeed, it's some kind of liquid that acts on the mixed elements of the white powder. As you probably can guess, these elements were mixed in a specific way with Divine Stones' dust, which created the white powder. This liquid separates the elements into their individual states. You could say that it simply returns the white powder to elements and Divine Energy.] Sister Orb explained.

That only raised more questions than answers, though. 'Just what is happening here? Who's helping us? First of all, are we really being helped? Since whoever's helping my body return to normal knows the formula to revert the transformation, it's possible that they also know how to create the white powder. If that's the case, they would be the culprits for it. Could it be the Sacred Undersea Kingdom?'

Celis answered that through Sister Orb's help. [At the moment, it's impossible to tell. All you can do now is wait until you can at least open your eyes.]

Rean agreed with Celis, saying, 'That's true.' Soon after, he asked something else to Sister Orb. 'Hey, Sister Orb. How long do you think this will take?'

[At least four more months for your entire body to return to normal.]

'Guess I'm stuck here until then...' Rean felt helpless but had no other choice.

And just like that, time continued to pass until a month and a half later, Rean and Sister Orb finally heard Roan. 'What's happening here?'

Naturally, they immediately explained to Roan the situation they were in. Roan was Roan, so he took it all without batting an eye. 'I understand. Rean, can you already open your eyes at least?'

'No. However, I'm very close to being able to do it. As long as that liquid is kept being poured on my body, that is.'

Roan then added, 'Let's exchange elements. Use my Dark Element to help destroy the transformed parts.'

Rean immediately denied the idea, telling him, 'Are you crazy? That means I would destroy several of my organs that are partially transformed. Don't forget I can't regrow things without the necessary nutrients. At the moment, I have no way to take your pills.'

Roan didn't mind, saying, 'Whatever. Let's just keep waiting. At the very least, it seems that my dantian is back to normal.'

Rean was surprised to hear that. 'Really? It seems like we're returning to normal in different ways. My dantian is still completely transformed.'

Roan ignored that and focused on his dantian. 'Sure enough, the Nascent Soul is gone. Sister Orb, we'll need to buy the Nascent Soul Revival in the future. Otherwise, we would need to cultivate from the Peak Stage of the Core and Soul Fusion Realm again.'

[You'll be able to do it once the system considers that you aren't in danger. At that time, just come inside and buy it yourselves. I can't buy it for you while the Dimensional Realm is closed.]

'So be it. I'm going to sleep for now. Wake me up if you find anything else.' After that, Roan fell asleep in an instant.

Rean felt like crying when Roan did that. Back when they were inside their mother's womb, Roan did the exact same thing. He simply slept during the next few months until they were finally born. Rean could still remember the boredom from that time. 'At least I have Sister Orb and Celis to talk during  this time...'

Time continued to pass, and another ten days went by. Eventually, Rean felt that the blockage on one of his eyelids disappeared as he tried to open it. The first signs of light entered his eyes, showing him a big room. Unfortunately, Rean couldn't move his head yet, so he didn't have a good vision from his perspective. 'Well, better than nothing, I guess.'

He already knew the frequency that the being who poured the cold liquid on him appeared. 'The person should be back in the next two hours. When that happens, I might be able to obtain some information.' Of course, Rean tried to see more, but the only thing he could make out other than the room was the other beds not far away from him. 'That one there is Roan, as for the smaller one... great! It seems like that one is Luan... or so I believe. I can't see well from here.'

Rean then tried to move his head, even just slightly. Fortunately, even though his head didn't move more than a centimeter, that allowed him to peek at something very big from the corner of his eye. 'Big, feathery... definitely Kentucky. It seems like our group of four was put together in the same room. Did they know we were coming? Well, that's hard to say...'

*cla, cla, cla, cla, cla...*

Sure enough, the being who poured the cold liquid on them appeared two hours later. With that, Rean could finally see the person helping his group.

Well, the other side also noticed Rean's open eye, saying, "Oh, so you're awake!"