After Arthur’s body had made contact with the ball of energy Theresa formed, his vision was inundated with a myriad of lights, all of which radiated random colors that made him think that he was looking at a rainbow. Though, with how close these lights were to him, the young man subconsciously began to squint his eyes.

After all, even though he wanted to appreciate the display of lights around him, he wouldn’t be able to appreciate it for long if he went blind.

However, as more and more time passed whilst he was surrounded by these lights, Arthur began to notice that there was more to the lights than he initially thought. What initially looked like a stream of lights that reminded him of a broken monitor, the lights now held small nuggets of various concepts and meanings that made him feel like they paved the way to a greater truth.

In fact, even a small shift in his focus caused the meanings he was gleaning upon to change. He would be looking at a certain part of the lights where he would understand what went into a flame in greater detail, only for it to change into the concept of rivers and oceans just because he moved his head a bit.

Nevertheless, that was more than enough to keep the young man occupied for the meantime, hoping to engrave the meanings he was gleaning upon to his mind in preparation for what was to come. Unfortunately, after what felt like days being surrounded by the nomological lights, even the small portions of truth he had come to understand end up not sticking to his mind, causing a bitter smile to creep up on Arthur’s face.

Though, just as he felt that such an endeavor would eventually become fruitful to him, the stream of lights around him disappeared all of a sudden as he was plunged into darkness once more.

Being enveloped by an all-consuming darkness yet again, a wry smile crept up the young man’s face as he was reminded of what he just experienced before appearing within Purgatory. Then again, Arthur did find it somewhat amusing, considering how he had just gone through the exact opposite of the previous process.

However, unlike the darkness from before that bombarded him with sensations that teetered on the edge of unbearable, the darkness surrounding him at the moment purely had nothing within it. It was more in line with the concept of darkness he had understood before his death where it signified the end.

Then again, that thought was also the reason why the young man began to slightly panic after sensing that his basic senses began to disappear one by one, as if it was being consumed by the darkness itself.

The first sense to go was his sense of touch, which surprisingly made him feel like he had become more in tune with the darkness for a bit. After that was the sense of taste and smell, which only amplified the feeling even further.

Rumble…

Just as he was expecting his sense of hearing or sight to go away like the other ones, he heard a loud rumble echo throughout the entire darkness, causing a new kind of panic to take over his body as he faintly wondered whether he had just taken an incredibly roundabout way of dying.

Thankfully, the rumblings stopped after a few seconds as something else had now begun to appear in the darkness surrounding him.

Out of nowhere, a vast gray plain appeared before his vision, its ends far beyond what Arthur’s sight could see at the moment. A few seconds later, a pedestal slowly began to rise from the ground, appearing at what looked to be the center of the plains.

Rumble…

With a localized portion of the plains visibly rumbling as more and more of the pedestal began to reveal itself, the young man kept his attention on it as he examined its appearance in great detail.

In a way, the pedestal resembled a marble pillar in terms of structure, though the color reminded him of the unpainted concrete pillars that he would occasionally see in some high-end houses. Nevertheless, the drabness of the entire structure allowed him to notice the engravings that covered the entirety of the pedestal, their thickness seemingly not greater than even a couple strands of hair.

As he stared at these engravings, he could feel like he was gleaning upon an obelisk that showed the myriad number of truths that existed throughout the new cosmos, reminding Arthur about the nomological lights that covered his vision before ending up in the darkness.

‘Could the two be related, perhaps?’ thought the young man to himself, deciding to toss the question aside for the meantime as something began to manifest on top of the pedestal.

Whoosh!

Out of thin air, an orb that reminded Arthur of the ones fortune tellers used began to hover above the pedestal through unknown means. With the orb being twice as large as the base of the pedestal, the young man briefly thought that he was looking at an enlarged round lollipop.

Then again, it didn’t help that the orb was the only splash of color within the drab landscape Arthur found himself in, taking on a slight tinge of blue as the engravings on the pedestal lit up for a brief moment.

“Is that all?” muttered Arthur to himself with a hint of uncertainty, seeing that there seemed to be no further changes to the landscape aside from the appearance of the pedestal and the orb. Though, just as the young man began to wonder whether this was the path Theresa had mentioned to him, a monotonous voice began to echo throughout the gray plains.

The Fatebreaker Apparatus has been activated. Searching for the new owner…

The new owner has been found. Integration process beginning…

Integration process complete. Initial booting sequence beginning…

Booting sequence complete. Purpose and intent identified. The Spirit Vein Ascension Apparatus is now online.

Whoosh!

Before the young man could even begin to comprehend what the voice was talking about, Arthur watched as the orb glowed for a bit before releasing a strand of its own light. Then, all of a sudden, this strand of light swiftly made its way towards where Arthur felt like he currently was, causing his vision to turn blue for a brief moment.

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“Agh!” Arthur screamed, expecting himself to feel a bit of pain from having a strand of light pierce through him. Yet, there was no sensation of pain at all. Instead, a familiar voice from who knows where began to resound throughout the plains, allowing the young man to inwardly let out a faint sigh of relief.

“Hello, Arthur? Can you hear me?”

“I can hear you,” Arthur responded, unsure whether the other side could hear him. “Can you hear me?”

“I can,” said the voice in response, to which Arthur let out a long sigh of relief. “I apologize. It seemed that the process of transferring you to the new cosmos took a bit longer than it should have. In any case, now that the Fatebreaker Apparatus is fully online, let’s move onto our main topic of business.”

“The Fatebreaker Apparatus? What’s that?” asked the young man. “Also, where am I?”

In response to his question, Arthur heard a faint chuckle from Theresa. “The Fatebreaker Apparatus is the general term for the system you have, Arthur. To be more specific, it’s the blue orb that’s currently in front of you.”

Ignoring the shock Arthur felt from hearing that the orb was in fact the system he had been given, she continued. “Considering that you’ve chosen to be reborn as a spirit vein, the Fatebreaker Apparatus has changed itself to suit your needs. I presume you’ve heard it call itself the Spirit Vein Ascension Apparatus, right?”

“Yeah.” Arthur nodded after some time, trying to recall the words that echoed throughout the plains earlier before Theresa’s voice appeared. “Anyways, where am I?”

“If we’re talking about what you’re currently looking at, then that would be your internal world,” replied Theresa, her words filling Arthur with a sense of calm. “In fact, if you change your frame of focus real quick, you could probably look outside your internal world. Though, with your current strength, your vision would undoubtedly be limited.”

Keeping the woman’s words in his mind, Arthur took in a deep breath before changing his thoughts to look at what was presumably the outside of his internal world. Within seconds, the drab gray landscape before him disappeared. Instead, what greeted him was the sight of pure gray wherever he looked, with a few dull colors interspersed here and there.

“What am I looking at exactly?” Returning his attention back to his internal world after feeling a bit of confusion, Arthur threw a question at Theresa, hoping that she understood what he was talking about.

“Stone,” said Theresa succinctly. “You’re now a spirit nucleus, after all. With that being said, almost all spirit nuclei exist deep underground.”

“I see…” muttered the young man in response, slowly trying to wrap his head around his current situation. “Now that I think about it, how can you see what I’m seeing?”

“The same way I can freely converse with you at the moment.” Theresa chuckled. “Partly it’s due to the fact that I’m a goddess, but it’s mostly due to the connection I have with you as your supervisor for the New Cosmos Project.”

“Supervisor…” Arthur muttered before eventually nodding. “I guess that makes sense, seeing as you’re the one who introduced me to the path in the first place.”

“I’m glad you’ve caught on,” said Theresa. “In any case, this is where we’ll have to part ways for now. In the meantime, I’ll be giving you an assistant that would aid you during your journey. They’ll also be acting as a bridge between the two of us when you have any questions they can’t answer.”

“And with that, farewell for now, Arthur.”

“Sicut fatum vult.”

Rumble…

Feeling his internal world slightly rumble in response to the last three words Theresa uttered, Arthur felt slightly curious as to what those words meant. Though, with her mentioning that he would be getting an assistant that would be helping him out sometime soon, he decided to push the thought to the side for the meantime as he wondered when the assistant would appear.

Whoosh!

Thankfully, it only took a few minutes of waiting on Arthur’s part for the assistant Theresa mentioned to appear. However, rather than appear in his internal world in a physical form, this assistant instead appeared through the orb itself, making it glow for a brief moment before transforming into a faint layer of haze that covered the orb’s surface.

“Greetings!” A few seconds after the haze’s appearance, a young female voice began to echo from the orb. “Are you the one called Arthur James Marshall?”

Arthur nodded. “That would be me.”

“Great!” The voice let out a bit of laughter in response, prompting the young man to think that the assistant Theresa chose for him was quite energetic. “Nice to meet you, Arthur! My name is Sisa. I’ve been created by Theresa to act as your assistant throughout your journey.”

“Nice to meet you as well.” Arthur returned the greeting, though there was a part in her greeting that made him think for a bit. “Wait… you’ve been created by Theresa?”

“Yep!” Sisa replied, making Arthur feel as if she was grinning at him. “According to her, she was pondering whether to have a higher being act as your assistant. Though, in the end, she decided to create a being from scratch… which ended up being me!”

“In any case, whether it be questions regarding the Spirit Vein Ascension Apparatus, the world you’re currently in, or the multiple facets of cultivation, feel free to ask me and I’ll answer you to the best of my abilities!”

“Got it.” Arthur nodded back, remaining silent for a bit as yet another part of Sisa’s words made him ponder once more. However, this time around, it did not have anything to do with Sisa’s origins. Instead, it had something to do with a specific term she had mentioned.

‘Cultivation…’ thought Arthur to himself, feeling like the term was something he had heard in his past life before.

Fortunately, a bit of introspection was more than enough to bring up the necessary information he needed, his eyes briefly widening in understanding as he now knew what Theresa meant by him needing to reach the peak of strength in this place.

‘So, if I’m getting this right, Theresa wants me to go through the path of cultivation in the new cosmos to reach the peak of strength,’ Arthur muttered to himself, nodding in understanding. ‘Guess I’ll be pestering this new assistant quite often in the near future since I don’t know much about it. At most, all I know about it is that it has something to do with absorbing and refining energy.’

‘But before that, let’s take a look at the system I got.’

“So, uh… how do I access the system?” Focusing his attention towards the orb, Arthur threw out a question towards Sisa.

“Well, the apparatus has multiple parts to it, with each one having a specific codeword in order to access,” said Sisa in response. “Though, the main part of the system is the status screen, which can be easily accessed by saying Status.”

Thanking Sisa for responding to his query, Arthur decided to say the codeword she mentioned, even though a small part of him was curious as to what other parts the system had. However, before he could even utter it out, Sisa had interrupted him, letting out a peal of laughter as she told him something he was not expecting to hear.

“But before that… how about we do a little bit of gacha?”