Complex emotions swirled in Scarlet's mind as she slowly returned to her body from the battle inside her soul. The external power and assistance, which must have come from the ancient sword, had given her the strength to fight back. But the darkness in her soul was not something that could be defeated in a single effort. Parts of it had been weakened and cleared, but much of it still lingered.

It would be a long and arduous journey to restore her soul to its former state, or perhaps even to take the next step, but it was a battle worth fighting. The first seed of hope had been planted, and Scarlet didn’t plan on letting it go to waste.

When Scarlet finally opened her eyes, she wasn’t sure how much time had passed exactly. She glanced at the fireplace where they had cooked earlier, there was no trace of heat left. Even in the eternal ice, it took some time for the warmth to dissipate completely, so at least a few hours must have passed during her meditation.

Noticing that Puck was no longer sitting where he had been, Scarlet stood and began looking around. He wasn’t in sight. Not wanting to call out loudly and risk attracting attention from unwanted ears, she started to search the nearby area.

It took a while, but she eventually found him. Across the cavern, Puck had climbed one of the largest ice blocks and was now standing at the top holding his left hand in the air.

Her first instinct was to shout at him for his reckless behaviour, but in the last moment she hesitated. Instead, she decided to observe him more closely. After all, Puck shouldn’t have been able to climb up there without significant pain and danger, given his injuries.

Perhaps he had a good reason to do so.

Examining Puck’s figure more carefully, Scarlet noticed dozens of wounds, some from their earlier battle with the heart, but others that were clearly new. Oddly, these new wounds didn’t look fresh. They appeared as if they had been acquired weeks ago.

His worst injury was still the one on his arm, but after some scrutiny, Scarlet thought she saw signs of a broken foot as well. What had he been doing? Had he truly sustained these wounds within his own soul? Had he already reached it? That would be astoundingly fast!

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Sustaining that much real damage in one’s soul was no small feat. For many people, none of the injuries from soul battles manifested in their physical body at all. The connection between body and soul varied from person to person, the closer the connection, the more real the effects of happenings in your own soul became.

A strong connection was both a blessing and a curse. It allowed someone to manifest their ideals more easily in the physical world, but it also made every journey into the soul far more dangerous. And as souls, by their nature, were unpredictable and dangerous this was no small demerited.

Scarlet, for example, had an above-average connection to her soul, but nothing extraordinary. As a result, she couldn’t draw on her ideals as easily as some others. But on the plus side, the damage she had taken in her soul hadn’t translated to severe injuries in the real world. She had only a few surface wounds from her internal struggle remaining by now.

Sometimes, she had wished for a deeper connection, but most of her strength didn’t come from her ideals anyways. Afterall, her body’s strength was rooted in something else entirely.

Puck, however, seemed different. As he stood atop the monolith of ice, unmoving and focused on something Scarlet couldn’t see, she became increasingly certain that he was extraordinary in a way she hadn’t previously realized. He must have already reached his soul in that short time.

And whatever he was doing right now... she could only wait and watch.

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Standing atop the monolith, Puck wasn’t sure if it had been a good idea to strain his body this much and worsen his injuries, all because of a whim. The walk through the cavern and the climb up the icy block had pushed him physically and mentally to his limits. But now he was here.

Something inside him had wanted to reclaim the feeling of freedom he had experienced in his soul so desperately that nothing else mattered.

Here, at the top of the monolith, a gentle wind blew through the cavern, softly caressing his skin. It felt like home.

Instinctively, he reached his hand up, as if trying to grasp something beyond his reach. As he did, Puck felt a resonance, both within himself and in the world around him. Since his journey into his soul, everything seemed clearer, and his ideal felt like an old friend whispering in his ear.

It wanted to be born into the world, and Puck let it.

Slowly, a faint green light began to glow from his hand as he willed this ethereal feeling to come forth. A small green orb began to form above his hand, hovering in the air.

Minute by minute, it grew larger, eventually starting to take shape.

Though he hadn’t known what he was doing at first, Puck’s heart leapt with joy when he saw what he was creating. After a few more minutes, an eager cry echoed through the cavern as a majestic bird, a buzzard, as Puck somehow knew to call it, flew from his hand, flapping its wings in joyful freedom.

Tilting his head back, Puck squinted his eyes and laughed as the bird circled above him. It was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen.