Chapter 46

Everywhere, various colors shimmered, incomprehensible images flitted from side to side, gradually forming clear outlines from a foggy nothingness...

"Damn it..." I said, hearing my own muffled voice. "I really didn't want to end up here again..."

The foggy haze dispersed, and I easily recognized the place where I found myself. The same place I ended up last time as well. The Foggy Swamp, a habitat for several not-too-dangerous types of spirits, as well as one peculiar creature - me.

Right here, in this very place, I woke up last time, from here I began my survival, and now I appeared here again. It seems I'm somehow tied to this place.

When I appeared here, the spirits around me started to stir more. Last time, I significantly thinned their ranks before I decided to venture further than the Foggy Swamp.

"So, better not to approach the high forests - they really don't like me there, but the dark forest is worth visiting again. Just have to avoid the Shay-Gan-Lung, last time only returning to my body saved me from it," I reminded myself, but then paused and, after thinking a bit, formulated my thoughts into words. "However, better to try connecting with my body now."

Without moving, I sat down right where I appeared and began to block out all familiar irritants, trying to find what connects me and my body. Here, I can do this without fear, as long as I remember myself here, I've never met anyone dangerous, and even if I was being chased, no one dared to come to the Foggy Swamp, leaving me in peace. Something here repelled the others. And the spirits around... they are, you could say, peaceful and foolish, so they won't attack me.

How long did I sit like this? I don't know. As before, I encountered the problem of measuring time. The constant fog and dark sky offered nothing to grasp to measure equal intervals of time. But I've encountered this before and have grown accustomed to it, finally coming to terms with it.

The first time I ended up here, I faced the problem that my spirit required energy, strength, but whereas it previously received it from the body, now, although I'm connected to it, I don't receive nourishment. That became a problem, and I started to feed on the spirits around. The first spirit was the hardest. Here I have no organs for digestion, and will is key. The first attempt to consume a spirit, even such a passive and peaceful, weak, brainless one, ended in a fierce battle of wills, for even without intellect, these spirits instinctively wanted to live! And they fought! Even the weakest spirit posed a threat to my will. To my soul.

But time passed, and the strength of the soul grew. I felt less and less hunger, and it appeared less frequently. However, the small spirits around were no longer enough for me, and I started to hunt beyond the Foggy Swamp, seeking richer food, covering vast distances, encountering the most incredible forms of spirits with the most amazing abilities. After that, I stopped feeling hunger altogether, realizing that I began generating more energy than I consumed, and I started to explore the world. In the process, I also occasionally absorbed spirits, gaining more and more strength. Bending here couldn't be used as I was accustomed to in the world of the living, but by observing the spirits, I gradually learned to use bending again. It was weaker than in the real world, so I had to compensate for the weakness with a larger amount of mana invested in each action. Perhaps that's why spirits are considered powerful, because ordinary strength here turns into crushing force in the real world!

I wasn't the strongest element user here. I had enough strength and skills only for precise strikes on strong spirits. Bending here couldn't be shaped into anything structured, no techniques, only crude application, with minimal control over the element. That's the kind of bending there was here.

Unfortunately, exploring the world led me into the territory of an exceptionally strong spirit, a huge snake with the head and legs of a frog, a sharp palisade of teeth, and a frog's tongue. And this spirit was sentient.

God knows how long I had to run from it while it played with me, but it only lost me because my body pulled me out of the spirit world.

Now I'm here again. But this time, I'm not planning to leave the Foggy Swamp. At least not now. This time, I'll try to return. I don't want to stay in this world. Maybe it's just my bad luck, but it's too unfriendly to me, so I prefer to live in the world of the living...

It seems I've found it.

I felt a burning pain in my chest, feeling my body's pain, feeling how I was dying. If only my body could be in water now, my chances of survival would be much higher, but as it is... only my own help remains.

I felt the pain more intensely, but at the same time, I felt my body, sensed it better and better, until I hit a barrier beyond which I couldn't pass. Well, this is enough for now.

I took control of the processes in the body. Somehow, subconsciously, I again put my body into a state close to hibernation with minimal consumption of the body's resources. Now, consciously managing the processes, I accelerated regeneration to its limit, creating water within myself, minerals that are part of the earth, in small amounts. Unfortunately, I don't know how to create biological components. By the way, this will need to be fixed if I return to the world of the living again.

I constantly controlled the regeneration processes, not allowing wasteful expenditure of resources so precious now. However, at some point, I felt an influx of resources into the organism. From somewhere outside, I was receiving a nutrient mixture that went directly into my stomach, and I manually maximized its efficiency, using absolutely everything that entered me!

With the arrival of resources, the regeneration processes improved significantly and accelerated since I previously had to use the body's own resources for this, something I desperately wanted to avoid due to the difficulty I experienced in recovering from my first death and journey in the spirit world. So, I took resources from everywhere as carefully and sparingly as possible.

I helped myself with bending as much as I could, creating water and minerals, while obtaining biological resources from the mixture that reached my stomach.

I don't know how much time passed. I fully restored my body, and now it is whole and completely healthy. Now I feel that trickle of energy flowing from the body to me, and from me, a stream of soul energy to the body. But the barrier is still not overcome, and I couldn't understand why. My body is in perfect condition, I am ready to return, but I cannot. What's the reason!?

I jumped out of the meditative trance and opened my eyes. Still in the spirit world. But something had changed. Something was wrong!

Looking around, I realized what it was - the Foggy Swamp had swallowed more than half of me, and only everything above my navel remained free!

In panic, I struck with a stream of fire, trying to hit beneath me, but the effect was minimal, and the process seemed to accelerate a hundredfold.

An air stream did nothing, ice spikes were completely unnoticed, as were stone ones.

Then I used lightning.

A scream and screech spread around, deafening me and scattering the spirits flying around. However, the Foggy Swamp receded, though not completely.

Quickly generating lightning and accumulating charge, I released it immediately upon readiness, into the swamp.

Again a screech, and this time the swamp recoiled far from me, and I felt that I was again free and being pulled towards my body.

Well, now I know that in the spirit world, Nothing can be trusted and One must never relax!!!

A few seconds of disorientation, and I began to feel life, and then I opened my eyes, seeing the ceiling of some house. Air rushed into my chest, but I felt a weight on my stomach.

I raise my head and look down. Azula. Sleeping Azula.

"Heh, well, I certainly completed one task. Azula, I dare hope, is already mine..."

After that, I closed my eyes and finally completely relaxed. This is no longer the spirit world; here, I am significant, it won't be so easy to deal with me! And the rest doesn't matter much. Surely, there will be questions about my healing, but that will come later, and now I just want to rest!

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