Chapter 152: One Year Later (3)
After freeing Jovian, Akasha effortlessly conjured a portal back to the original Dreamer’s Peak with just a thought.
He had set one there long ago, and with his newly evolved powers, opening it now required hardly any effort.
The moment they stepped through, the sheer scale of what Dreamer’s Peak had become settled around them in all its glory.
The mountain itself had grown vast enough to span an entire continent.
Its slopes rose in layered forests and glowing gardens that stretched beyond the horizon, while the true summit pierced far above the clouds and into the thin edge of the void.
Behind the main peak, where the racial and duplication ponds once sat in relative isolation, new expanses of dense forest and open land had unfolded in every direction, turning the rear of the mountain into a second, quieter world of its own.
At the center of the highest plateau, the Golden Apple Tree had become even more glorious; its trunk was now so wide that entire structures could be built into the tree, and its canopy of golden leaves and pure white apples spread like a second sky.
The treehouse that had once been slightly modest had adapted with it—rooms and walkways grown directly from the trunk and major branches, seamless and alive, glowing faintly with the same life force that saturated the fruit.
Distant waterfalls fed clear streams that wound through the expanded summit.
Ethereal mist clung to the upper ridges, and the entire mountain radiated a constant, gentle wave of healing and growth energy strong enough that even the air itself felt denser.
Akasha released Jovian’s skeletal form without ceremony.
HUMMMM!!!!!
The moment he did, Absolute Purification bloomed around the broken man in a clean, radiant surge.
His flesh started knitting itself back together right before their eyes, muscle wrapping neatly over the bones as if guided by invisible hands.
Warmth and color slowly seeped into skin that moments ago had been the lifeless gray of someone teetering on the edge of death.
His white hair regained its former luster and length.
And most importantly of all, his rank, his power, and the tattered fragments of his identity came flooding back in one overwhelming wave.
As the healing went on, Jovian’s body rose from the grass on its own, drifting upward into the open air above the plateau.
He hung there in the cleansing glow, suspended as every piece of what had been stripped away was gently restored.
Akasha watched the process, shaking his head slightly as a quiet notification flickered at the edge of his vision.
[Jovian Savant’s Favorability: 60/100]
Seeing the scene, a quiet chuckle escaped him.
"Uhh, how does he even know I’m the one who pulled him out of that cell?"
Luna’s gentle laughter drifted against his side as she replied, "Love... who else would be the most obvious person to have done it?"
In that moment, the radiant light encasing Jovian at last faded away.
He drifted down and touched lightly on the grass, his strength and vigor fully restored.
However, the familiar pure white blindfold was no longer there. Instead, sharp, gleaming eyes the shade of polished gold swept over the three figures before him.
Bit by bit, his trademark carefree demeanor eased back into place as the favorability in the air climbed steadily, finally resting at seventy-five.
[Jovian Savant’s Favorability: 75/100]
Akasha arched a brow and took a single measured step back.
Jovian’s usual reckless smile was still in place when he first landed, the same easy posture he had always worn.
Then his golden eyes fully focused on the three figures in front of him—and locked onto Akasha.
And in that moment.... the smile vanished.
"Who the... fuck?"
The words left him in a low, stunned mutter. In the next moment, He looked down at his own hands as if they belonged to someone else, flexing the fingers slowly.
"My Divinity is increasing on its own... just from standing here."
He turned in a slow circle, truly taking in the mountain for the first time.
The Golden Apple Tree rose at the center of the plateau, its canopy of golden leaves and white apples spreading wide enough to cast shifting light across the grass.
And above them, the summit itself pierced so high that the void felt close enough to touch—cold, star-flecked emptiness hanging just beyond the thin upper air.
When Jovian looked back at Akasha, he took an involuntary step backward.
"Dude... come on, be straight with me," he said, his tone completely serious.
"Are you some kind of Main Character or what?" he asked, his voice teetering between disbelief and genuine frustration.
"Look, I usually don’t give a damn about most things... and honestly, I would’ve just let it slide, like I always did."
Then he started listing it all off—Akasha single-handedly wiping out invasions, that bizarre barrier he stepped out of in the Underside, and even the time he nearly killed both him and Sunya.
He’d always written those things off as the kind of nonsense you’d expect in a fantasy story...
But deep down, he knew five years wasn’t enough for anyone to change this much.
"And all of that," he finished, "doesn’t even cover wherever the hell you’ve managed to drag me now."
He gestured widely at the continental-scale mountain, the void hanging above them, and the quiet, overwhelming density of power that saturated every blade of grass and every breath of air.
The playful edge that usually defined him had been replaced by something sharper and far more unsettled as he continued to stare at the luminous, hornless form of the man who had just pulled him out of a cell five years almost too late.
Hearing all of this, Akasha let out a short, quiet laugh under his breath.
Yume’s brow arched, blue-streaked hair drifting as she regarded Jovian with cool appraisal.
"Did Absolute Purification clean out his brain as well?" she asked mildly.
Jovian’s mouth opened, ready with a retort, but Akasha’s voice cut across him first. One purple-and-white eye narrowed in clear warning.
"Don’t.... Not unless you plan on ruining a partnership that still has potential."
Jovian’s expression twisted into pure exasperation. He dragged a hand down his face, shook his head once, and waited in pointed silence for an actual answer.
Akasha shrugged, the gesture relaxed and unconcerned.
"Hmmm, a main character, huh?" he asked with a sly smile. "Maybe I am. Maybe I’m not."
Clap!
A bright, sudden smile broke across Jovian’s face. He clapped his hands together once, the sound sharp in the clean mountain air.
"So, you are a Transmigrator as well, huh?"
Akasha already knew exactly what Jovian was getting at with all these questions.
For one, he could picture it clearly in his mind, and for another, the question, while seemingly simple, carried the weight of a double-edged sword.
As far as Akasha was concerned, they were merely partners with the potential to benefit each other, nothing more.
He saw no reason to satisfy Jovian’s curiosity, and in response to the question, his second shrug mirrored the first almost perfectly.
"Maybe... maybe not," he said, his tone shifting, curiosity sharpening its edges.
"More importantly—what exactly did you do that nearly got you hollowed out by a Pantheon of Dark Elves?"