Chapter 46 - Strength, strength to carry on

Liam watched the stars as they shone and danced around with each other.

Another couple of years passed and the town into a bustling city filled with cheers of people and many young souls trying to find their calling.

The dark blanket of night couldn't muffle the life filled city. Talents from all over the world gathered.

With one goal in mind. To attain the position of a mana refiner.

After so many years. Liam's dedicated field gained a real position in the world.

Blacksmiths aside, it became the first magical occupation. That day, he felt his breath leave him and cracked a few jokes with Akand.

Unawakened elder alone could share the pie. A couple of high tier awakened elders took over and even gave Liam an authority over the development of the city as they had.

A sign of fostering trust.

He worked for it and so he shrugged it off pretty well. The idea of the new occupation still lorded over his mind.

Liam found a new type of joy in his research. One where he fell into a trance and woke up a few hours later.

It became as easy as lifting up a feather.

Like a storm after a severe drought. Liam kept getting flooded by good news.

His crystals proved to be a great help in attaining the awakened realm.

Not to mention that. The published theory of another energy that only living beings controlled spread very far.

Schools that sprouted up became official. Almost another whole field appeared in a blink of an eye.

Massive changes brought many wild emotions with them. Some rebuked the ways of a new energy.

Others welcomed it with a chance to gain better odds during battles.

Liam soon stopped with his festivities and even paused the development of his mana research for a while.

The parts of his body he invested in. Liam felt a subtle change.

Senses began to thrive in his own space as well. Although he needed to use quite a bit of mana to create real things like scent.

It proved to be an effective exercise. He let go of his thought about pure and mixed elements.

The seducing beauty turned out to be a mix of mental strength and magic.

With them, the world inside turned into his playground. Things he couldn't do now took a lot of energy.

His progress followed him. The further he invested into his five senses, the more he felt like he could interfere with the world inside and make it real.

Every day, another discovery brought him deeper and deeper. The flowers that swayed in the fake wind now had a breath of life on their own.

While they couldn't reproduce or do anything. Liam felt a faint spark of life.

Almost an instinct. Perhaps the future experiments would prove him wrong, however, he enjoyed the present.

Year after, he focused solely on his mental strength and the power of his own body.

He felt it grow satisfied. It turned from an ethereal vessel which formed thanks to his mental strength and soul.

Into a real, physical body.

He felt his now semi real heart drum out its feelings along with the forgotten feeling of sweat trickling down his body.

Liam sprinted into one of the connections. Thoughts emerged as he put them down.

Not now...

His lungs trembled as they breathed in mana unbeknownst to him.

Full tunnel vision, he jumped into a connection. And like a bucket of cold water, his endless sprouting thoughts got put out.

Liam didn't give up and went back. The feeling of realness once again filled his mind.

This time, he shot a spell and connected himself to it. Result remained the same.

Liam tried anything he could, knocked himself out many times and almost tore his hair off.

Nothing worked.

He bit his lips and swallowed the blood that came out of it. Unlike a normal human.

The blood sparkled in many colours, with green and brown dominating the largest part.

Weight of anticipation that crushed his shoulders for a week straight fell down.

Replaced by a small chuckle. He breathed a deep breath and got back to work.

Liam resumed his research on mana as he delved deeper than he ever did.

Many times, he forgot about time. His mind filled with nothing but research.

Experiments that sucked all of his energy knocked him out uncountable a number of times as he lost the track of time.

Every day, the lily and daisy watched Liam as his dull eyes returned to work.

The small spark of life began to foster. Blinded by his research, Liam continued with his endeavour.

Work that used to be so simple turned into a chore as one day he smashed a table.

"WHY?" He yelled into the void.

It didn't answer.

Like a tease, it gave him a body. A piece of his own body stuck inside the prison he always resided in.

The small piece of heaven he carved into it.

Heaven? Or hell that he carved into something more bearable.

After his roar into the void. The entire place returned to its state.

Quiet without a single sound except his own. He exhaled the pent up air inside his lungs as the surrounding mana trembled.

Days flashed by. He stopped experimenting and began to sleep more and more.

He mumbled inaudible words as his perfectly clean clothes turned into a disheveled mess.

Times when he couldn't sleep. He watched the mana swirl around him in a daze.

No matter how hard he worked for. Without pause or hesitation, life gave him hope.

A piece of meat he longed for, and it all turned into a dream. A mirage filled with illusions.

What good a body could do when he couldn't go outside. Smell the fresh air himself.

Without anyone or with someone. Not inside as an observer, but the one doing whatever he wants.

"What am I even doing? Seriously..." He said to himself with a voice laced in poison.

The man who had grand plans. To see the world, universe, and dimensions beyond.

Promise to himself to become free got toppled down with one small alluring failure.

Mist around swirled faster and faster as it fell down like snowflakes.

But could he deny the thought of gaining a body right now? To join the wider society.

See the legendary frontlines. Enemies he kept devising plans against without ever seeing them up close.

His eyes turned to the gate that stood there.

The one he feared for so long. When he lacked the advanced emotions, he attained later on.

Primal fear he felt from that gate and those memories, he couldn't deny.

Then what gave him the courage to continue?

He wanted to know for himself.

Liam stood up and walked up to the gate.

The time he spent in here. And yet he couldn't remember how the gate looked.

Intricate details along its arched edges. Beauty in some way and a mystery in another.

He knew for sure he didn't engrave them. So, who did?

Questions of this caliber right next to him. Those that he would investigate with the greatest fervor if it meant mana or ways to grow stronger.

Liam kept asking himself questions. Why would he get scared of the encounter?

The promise he held deep inside his heart dictated that he couldn't cower after one defeat.

Life or death battle didn't matter. Defeat meant defeat, no matter how many flowery words he added.

Liam took a deep breath and pushed the gate open with one go.

He looked at the foreign world. Memories, pictures, videos all floated around him.

Some he felt a great connection with and others he almost didn't care about.

The memories swirled like a tornado. Liam walked deeper and began to descend at one point.

They became more intimate the deeper he went. Names of people he chose to forget flooded back in.

His first friend. The one who taught him to speak the native language.

First betrayal that made him realise the world.

"Mhmm, bars to replace the meters sounds so stupid." Liam said to himself.

His lips bent upwards ever so slightly.

The good and bad mixed together. One of the deepest places held the grim scenes before humanity lost.

Flashes of the helplessness and the emotions slammed into his body head on.

He staggered. His left arm protested as he held it hard with his right arm.

Instead of his left arm, his entire body began to protest. It wanted to forget the feeling that would soon come.

Liam didn't walk further. He didn't turn around either.

He stood there as those feelings slammed into him.

Flashes of the pain surfaced as the tornado rotated his memories and experiences.

It sped up as the tornado got smaller and smaller.

The pain... He tried to accept it, wanted to move on.

But it didn't go his way. It wanted to forget again, throw the memories and get the gate closed again.

Liam couldn't hold on anymore.

He stood up and walked in, bracing himself for the worst.

What hid at the core center? The one that became the foundation of his first life...