Chapter 53: A Brand New Home (2)
Ding!
[Welcome back host~]
The bright light shining around Hinata soon began to vanish. Once it did, he was left alone in the same place he had been sitting before using the temporary ticket.
The entire forest around him was quiet, yet each time he concentrated he could hear the sounds of a battle happening some distance away.
Hinata tried to take a breath, only for a blinding, searing pain to tear through him.
His stomach burned as though he had swallowed something rotten, and his mouth tasted like rags — the same taste he’d had when he first swallowed the shadow god core.
Purple veins protruded from his body as if trying to tear him apart from within. They crept higher along his arms until they reached his face and crawled into his eyes.
A scream tore from his lips as his eyes began to burn, blood seeping from their edges.
Hinata clenched his jaw.
His mind began to blur and the sounds around him faded. He couldn’t feel any sensation in his body, nor could he breathe.
Gradually the pain receded, and black sweat reeking of a pungent odor poured from his body. As it poured out, a strange lightness spread through him, even his body felt stronger than ever before.
Hinata opened his eyes and instantly the world changed. Colours seemed to drift lazily through the air — colours he hadn’t known existed before.
Around the trees drifted hues of brown, red, green, and blue. Hinata’s gaze shifted to the side where a bird was feeding her young.
Around the bird was only a soft green, but over its heart glowed a pink light.
As he studied the nest, a larger bird swooped in and snatched one of her chicks. The pink in her heart shifted immediately to red, and the green around her thickened as she launched herself into the sky.
Hinata rubbed his eyes and looked again. The colours were still there.
’What the hell is that?’ He thought, eyes darting across his surroundings. ’Are those affinities and... emotions?’
It was the only reasonable conclusion he could draw from what he had witnessed.
The bird’s heart shifting from pink to red was surely love turning to rage, and the green surrounding her had to be the wind element.
Hinata pushed the thought aside. The colours were fascinating, but they weren’t going to help him right now.
The moment he stood, the sharp odor rising from his own body hit him.
He gagged, only then realizing he was the source.
"I smell like crap."
Hinata raised his hand to summon the Endless Flask from the Slime King’s inventory, but nothing came.
He tried again. Still nothing.
His face tightened into a stern frown. Even if he had truly lost his powers, it shouldn’t have affected the Slime King — unless he couldn’t draw on its abilities without a core.
He was about to give up on a quick bath when his gaze landed on the Endless Flask resting against the side of a tree alongside the rest of his belongings.
An idea struck immediately, and he turned his focus inward, reaching for a clear image of his abdomen. If he was truly unawakened, he wouldn’t be able to see inside himself at all, plus there would be nothing there to find.
In the next instant, his consciousness drifted into his own body and there it was.
A glowing round orb pulsing with a strong purple light that seemed to nourish him from the inside out. Around it orbited nine small jagged purple crystals, revolving around the orb as if it were a sun.
Hinata’s body tensed; not because he didn’t want to have a core, but because this core looked nothing like his previous one.
The shadow god’s power had always radiated a purple aura, yet his core had been black, dark and menacing in aura. This one was purple, and its energy was soft.
As though only just remembering, he raised his hand, drew a breath, and spoke. "System."
For a moment nothing happened. Then several status panels loaded before him, each pulling up a different interface.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
[Welcome back, host, Nishikawa Hinata.]
[Due to the fact that you broke the heavenly laws and travelled to another world without an official ticket, then returned through the aether void, your body is now brimming with aether.]
[You have successfully absorbed fragments of the shadow god core.]
[Because of the existence of aether in your body and your core’s ability to refine mana into aether, you have awakened a special path.]
[Projecting path based on your class.]
[Class: Unique Variant.]
[Class name: Sorcery.]
[... You have absorbed a dead Slime King.]
[You have earned the power of a Devourer.]
[You have absorbed fragments of the shadow core.]
[You have earned a new trait: Evolution of Shadows.]
---
Hinata felt his body rise into the air. Energy from each cardinal point began churning, sending ripples of air and massive mana fluctuations through the surroundings.
[Heavenly restrictions have been bypassed for a brief moment.]
[Personal security feature has been activated: No one shall know who is awakening.]
Streams of multi-colored energy poured in from across the world, converging on him like an ancient river flowing through time.
"Hey, system... what the hell is happening?"
[Relax, user. This always occurs when an awakened absorbs aether, forms a unique path, and breaks the heavenly shackles.]
"...So this is making me stronger?"
[Not exactly. It’s best you sit back and watch.]
The moment the system finished speaking, the energy reached him.
It didn’t stop at his body.
Instead, it spiraled outward, washing over the land—replenishing every tree and blade of grass, leaving them glowing with a soft, almost sacred light.
Hinata’s eyes widened at the breathtaking phenomenon. In the next moment the energy from the spiral drove into his body, his head snapping upward. His eyes, nose, and mouth turned white as the energy within erupted from them toward the sky.
The multi-colored light flooding his body broke his bones, muscles, and skin down in rapid succession, mending them just as quickly.
The four main elements and the deviant elements all took shape within the spiral, their brilliant light surging toward him at once.
The phenomenon of his awakening was so glorious that its light, however faint, reached the ends of the world, drawing different powerhouses to look toward the sky.
The light shooting from his body shifted from white to purple, and the energy spiralling around him took on a deep violet hue.
The spiralling energy then burst outward, sending massive ripples across the entire wasteland.
With each surge of energy, every living creature that breathed it in began to change.
Those who were unawakened received divine gifts, and those who had already awakened began experiencing breakthroughs they had never imagined possible.
Ordinary grasses and fruits transformed into rare century herbs and pill-refining materials.
The energy that had surged through the wasteland, breathing life into the dry ruins left behind by the gods, rose skyward — each current carrying the residual energy of every living person it had touched.
The energy formed circles that spiralled against circles until they reached the light piercing the heavens.
The world fell silent as the energy converged at the center, as though a heavenly pill were being refined.
A magnificent orb visible from across the world formed at the heart of the light that had pierced the sky.
All the elements began spiralling around it at once. Then it cracked with a resounding sound and the light from within exploded outward, sending a massive ripple of force shooting in every direction.
From within it, a vast projection of an unrecognizable yet ethereal young man formed from light — his head reaching the sky itself.
Different people from across the world could not help but fall to their knees in awe before this great being.
In the next moment the figure dissolved, his energy wrapping around the dry wasteland and nourishing it, granting both life and mana that rivalled even the finest regions of the outer zones.
Hinata descended slowly to the ground, landing with barely a sound.
He felt... different.
More refreshed than he had ever been. His mind was clear, his body light, and the foul odor that had once clung to him was gone without a trace.
His gaze swept across his surroundings, taking in the tall green trees and lush grass stretching in every direction.
Yet, as he turned inward, his expression tightened into a frown.
His body had improved. It was lighter now. Stronger. Sturdier.
But his energy... was now that of a low-rank Aspirant.
He had started from zero again, in the middle of enemy territory.
And worse, he had just announced his existence to the entire world.
Hinata exhaled slowly. "...System, show me my status."
[Got it, host. Loading status panel...]