Chapter 42: The Sea of Consciousness
Seraphel
"The white lotus? Amazing," I muttered slowly, looking him up and down. "But I honestly prefer Castiel because it’s a beautiful name."
Castiel just shrugged his shoulders elegantly. "I am perfectly fine with whatever name you choose to call me."
I nodded, folding my arms tightly against my chest as I pointed a finger toward him again. "Who are you really, and why exactly have you appeared to me right now? The last thing I remembered, I was collapsing in pain. Did I actually die?"
Castiel chuckled softly, shaking his head. "You are currently inside your own sea of consciousness. It is a spiritual cultivation space that you share directly with your dormant powers."
"Oh," I said, clapping my hands together in realization. "So the white lotus is basically Seraphel’s main cultivation power, right?"
He nodded firmly.
"So why the hell am I here then?" I asked yet again, heaving another deep, exhausted sigh. "See," I began, clearing my throat to explain my situation. "I am absolutely not supposed to be here because I am not a real part of this story. I am actually—"
I choked on my words, the sentences suddenly getting completely stuck in my throat no matter how hard I tried to force them out.
What the hell was happening to me? Why couldn’t I physically speak about why I was here or who I truly was?
"My real name is... Nathan..." I tried to yell out my actual name, but my throat felt completely constricted yet again, and I couldn’t even manage to finish the words. "Why the hell can’t I say my last name?!"
Castiel sighed softly, a look of profound understanding in his eyes as he stared at my panicked state. "I know very well that you are not the original Seraphel. But since the old one has completely died now, it biologically means that you are the real Seraphel."
My eyes widened in absolute horror as I processed what he had just said. It couldn’t be. There was absolutely no way in hell.
"I can’t be the real Seraphel! I have a whole life back home! I have a reality I am supposed to return to! There is no way in hell I am stuck as Seraphel forever! What about my friends? My parents? My entire life!"
Castiel began to slowly pace in a circle around my body, and then he raised his hand, pointing it forward into the blue void.
Suddenly, a massive, glowing screen manifested in the air, showing what looked like a vivid replay of my past life.
I watched in stunned silence as the memories played out—showing exactly how I, Nathan, had grown up. I had been completely abandoned at birth, just like the tragic backstory of Seraphel. I had lived a miserable, quiet life under the thumb of my annoying, toxic uncle and aunt, completely isolated because everyone saw me as weird, and nobody ever wanted to be around me.
The screen showed how my only escape from that pathetic, lonely reality was surviving through reading web novels, specifically The Prince of Lust. My entire existence back there had been utterly miserable.
"But it is still my life!" I said, my voice shaking violently with emotion as the tears threatened to spill. "This is still my own life, no matter how pathetic it looks! I am—"
"Which is exactly why I need to ask you a serious question," Castiel interrupted gently, his glowing eyes fixed on mine. "Would you honestly rather return to that exact life right now, only to stay completely miserable, drowning in endless debts with no future? Or would you rather find a way to resolve the massive conflicts here in this universe, and if you succeed, you can return back to your world? I will personally grant you any single wish you desire at that time. What do you say?" Castiel asked layout out the terms.
I heaved a deep, ragged sigh, staring back at the floating videos of my past life still replaying in the blue water.
I ran a frantic hand through my hair, weighing my options.
He was entirely right. My life back in my world was completely crazy and depressing. Even though I always tried my best to look on the bright side and be happy, I would never truly be free—not when the debts kept piling up daily and my toxic aunt and uncle were actively ruining me.
"I agree to finish the story but are you some kind of story system?" I suddenly asked, narrowing my eyes.
Castiel gave me a thoroughly blank, questioning look, and that reaction alone was enough to make me understand that he had absolutely no clue what a ’system’ was.
"So you are just my cultivation spirit?"
He nodded firmly. "If you choose to stay and help resolve the conflict here, you shall cultivate my power to become significantly stronger, both for the sake of the child you carry and because of the massive war that is rapidly coming."
"A war?" I asked, stepping forward.
But just like the old Seraphel from earlier, Castiel’s white-clothed form suddenly began to fade into light particles right in front of my face.
"It seems my time is completely up for now," he muttered slowly, his voice fading.
My eyes widened in pure shock because I was absolutely not done getting answers. "Wait! No, wait!"
"We shall meet again, Seraphel. And until then... I highly hope you don’t die," Castiel said with a final, serene smile before he faded into nothingness.
I let out a loud, frustrated scream as I watched the bright light pull back into the tiny white lotus, and then, everything around me violently began to turn pitch black again.
But when light finally returned to my vision, I was no longer floating in a spiritual ocean. Instead, I was lying flat on top of something incredibly grand and soft.
I slowly fluttered my eyes open, blinking repeatedly against the dim, ambient lighting of the room.
As my vision finally cleared, I froze completely.
Right there, hovering dangerously close over my face, a pair of glowing crimson eyes was staring intensely down at me.
I almost let out a terrified scream, my heart leaping into my throat as I instinctively tried to jump straight out of the bed, fully thinking it was Azriel about to torment me again—but it was just his silent, imposing image looking down at my trembling form.