"What next now?" He asked himself.
Legion-1 replied, "This is considered a failure. It was expected that at least one out of 8 will fail so this is not a surprise. We will try again with another race."
They began planning for Legion-7's second race while he continued to search the egg for signs of life. The race that Legion is interested in next is a particular race that a certain female who could wield the power of annihilation belongs to.
He saw that lady earlier during the final section of the trial of heaven. It was during the challenge section. The lady was fighting a grand god of disaster but none of the disasters could affect her.
The disasters were not destroyed. He could tell that much. Destruction will unravel matter and produce energy. But the attacks that came close to that lady simply disappeared. He would like to get that kind of power unfortunately he doesn't know her race. So Legion-1 intends to search for the information about her race so that Legion-7 can reincarnate into it.
Legion-1 said to Legion-7, "Hang on. I am currently being chased by the troublesome stone race Origin gods. It will take a while before I can become free enough to acquire what we need for the next reincarnation."
Legion-7 shrugged. "There's no hurry. I am in no danger."
He would be delayed but he is willing to wait because the power of annihilation is too powerful to be impatient for. Besides, he can use this opportunity to analyze the flames of rebirth so his failed reincarnation might not be a complete waste. He is also currently safe in the egg so he doesn't mind waiting.
He was wrong about that. He was very wrong. The egg began to combust a while after the red soul fragment disappeared. It turned to pure flames all around Legion-7. But he wasn't alarmed because he wasn't harmed. The fire didn't burn him.
"What is this now? It is one thing after another. Is this normal? Is this how the flames of rebirth behave?" he asked.
He doesn't know the answer to those questions because he has only been studying for a few seconds. He doesn't know if it is abnormal or not since he doesn't know much about phoenixes. Maybe it is normal for phoenix eggs to turn into flames occasionally. He doesn't know but he is certain that it didn't show these features when Gehaldirah inspected one and when he just arrived in the egg.
Eggs should be solid or liquid. They shouldn't be gaseous. And they surely shouldn't be flames. But this egg took things further than that. It turned into a vortex of fire. The vortex formed a whirlpool that swallowed and dragged Legion-7 down below the law matrix. Legion-7 couldn't resist at all. He was dragged into a place he had never seen or heard about.
"This is bad. This is very bad." He said as he looked around.
He seems to be at the bottom of an ocean. Except that the water is grey and not life-giving like water ought to be. Instead, his surroundings are siphoning life from him. This siphoning is not working on him because of his immortal traits. But he is not feeling fortunate at all.
His surprise and his dread continued to increase as he observed his environment. "I can't sense the void universe at all. Where am I?"
This place doesn't feel like the void universe at all. There are no laws and there is no law matrix. There is no mana, origin energy, or even void energy. The water around him is not an energy he can use. It feels more like acid. It is corroding and breaking down everything.
If not for the fact that he can sense the other souls of Legion, he would be freaking out right now. He was still calm so he tried to spread his divine sense to examine his surroundings. His divine sense was ground down immediately after it left his body. The deathly water around him broke it down and siphoned it away.
He tried again with soul force. The grey deathly water didn't do anything to it so he was able to see beyond him.
"Fortunately I have the soul force."
If not for soul force then the deathly water around him would have destroyed him and he would be blind in this hostile and unknown world. With sight came some confidence. Some of his fears receded and he became curious instead.
His search found something interesting that drew his attention. He saw the whirlpool of fire that brought him here. It is beneath him. It is congregating around the remnant of the red soul fragment that he had defeated.
The soul fragment was being replenished by the fire of rebirth as he watched.
"Is this the mechanism of rebirth? Is this how phoenixes return from the dead?" He said in awe. "This is fascinating."
Then he sensed something that made his feelings of excitement fall into the abyss and become dread. He saw a white thread attached to the soul fragment. His divine sense connected with the white thread and brought his vision to a faraway place.
He saw a large white creature. It is a large bird with multiple white feathers. It is so large, it is bigger than Legion-1's full world beast body. Legion-1 is as big as half a plane so this large white bird must be massive in size.
Each of its feathers shimmered with motes of sparkling lights. It made the bird possess an otherworldly beauty that is further enhanced by the grey world around it. The bird is the only beautiful thing in this bleak grey world.
If there is such a thing as an angel, then this creature might be it. He also noticed that there were white threads that extended out of the bird into the distance. One of those threads is connected to the red soul fragment.
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