The last image that is etched into the back of my mind as the green divine energy completely covers my body is the enormous mouth of the serpent before me, open wide.
I can't tell if it's the mental and physical pressure from the green aura around me that rattles my mind, or the ear-piercing hiss that comes out of the creature's mouth.
It feels like a dream.
My body is pressed inward by the pressure as if mountain-sized anvils are pushing toward me on every surface of my body.
The vibrating hissing noise in my mind increases in intensity every millisecond that passes.
The feeling of being repelled by a planet-sized magnet comes back, and I'm forcefully expelled downward as my skin and muscles are compressed, torn, melted, and shredded at a microscopic level from every side.
I allow a constant flow of mana crystals to surround me, falling out of my item storage, and have to rely on the intuitive properties of my skills intertwining with the yellow divine energy that covers my vitals.
It is intertwined with my plunderer skill to keep my MP stores from hitting 0 like my Qi, allowing me to continue regenerating my body where the pressure destroys it. However, the intrinsic properties of my absorption skill are activated as well.
My brain is functioning on autopilot to survive the pressures, and it reverts back to what is the most natural state for the highest rate of survival in this scenario.
It is similar to the process I used while flying over the battlefield to defeat the Dark One's Army, absorbing everything around me in order to withstand this dire situation. All of the abilities I have at my fingertips meld together to create a thick yellow glowing aura around my body.
Regardless of all my attempts to push it away, green divine energy flows through me and tears me apart, but with every passing moment, I'm pushed further down and the pressure lifts more and more.
That instance of pure autopilot is the worst it will get.
I let out a distorted half-conscious laugh the moment the pressure lifts enough for me to realize I survived and my vocal cords are regenerated enough to even form a noise.
The weight of what feels like hundreds of hours of high-intensity mental attacks all washes over my psyche once my brain realizes it's safe enough to let up.
The moment my echoing laugh ceases, I fall into a deep sleep while my body continues to plummet through the endless sky.
The large mass of mana crystals I released floats around me and I continue to subconsciously absorb their energy to heal my body as I plummet down out of the densest portion of the green divine aura.
The image of the serpent hissing is the only thing left plastered in my mind even now as I'm unconscious, falling through the sky.
It's impossible to know for sure if it was all an illusion or not in my current mental state.
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As my body slowly falls through the sky, the serpent's hiss echoes throughout the entire construct.
All of the floating islands in the sky shake, their chains rattle, the endless ocean the metal chains fall into creates massive waves, and even the cliffside and lush forest below shake lightly similar to a small earthquake.
In a fluid motion, the serpent's eyes point downward to focus on the object that just interrupted its peace, then it closes its mouth and turns its head.
The entire length of the creature is visible in the sky as it turns around and shows the hundreds of kilometers of shimmering green scales.
The sky is just slightly visible behind it, as the monster is transparent, completely made of densely packed green divine threads.
It slithers upward in a graceful manner and disappears into the sky as my body continues to fall.
Not being propelled by any external factors, and with the natural wind pressure still pushing up on me despite the intense push from the serpent's aura, it still takes several hours to fall back down to where the obsidian forest of the highest island in the sky comes into view.
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By now, healing the flesh of my body from the external forces and the natural decay from even my yellow divine energy use isn't too tough of a task. I'm far out of the danger zone, and my passive use of my skills is more than enough to keep me alive.
However, there is a different unforeseen issue that's made itself known.
From the use of mythic-grade plunderer, and activation of absorption's raw traits intertwined with my yellow core while my entire body was fully saturated by green divine energy, an odd phenomenon has occurred.
The green tendrils of seemingly holographic divine energy are now intertwined in my flesh, and have even seeped into my yellow core.
Instead of disappearing from existence the moment I touch the tendrils, my aura and body have started to react with the material.
This could be perceived as a good sign, giving me a pathway to the new core evolution, however, my body is rejecting the divine threads at a cellular level.
All of the flesh that is attached to these tendrils has a much harder time regenerating quickly, and some portions of my flesh have stopped almost entirely leaving open holes with nothing but a green aura in its place.
By the time I fall into the jet-black forest, the effects from the green tendrils that are slowly collecting and taking over my body have reached a critical stage.
It looks as if all of the threads are deteriorating my arms, legs, and abdomen while slowly flowing toward my core.
Meanwhile, I'm still fast asleep, mentally recovering from the shock of the creature's hiss, and peacefully dissolving cell by cell while falling through the branches of the obsidian forest, not hitting a single one.
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I wake up from a loud crashing sound as my body hits the rocky ground of the island in the heart of the obsidian forest full of hungry trees.
The physical pain of falling dozens of kilometers down to hit the ground isn't as bad as the burning sensation that fills my mind and body as the realization of what's happening to me all floods into my mind.
My entire aura is glowing bright green, and I can see through my skin and bones as they're constantly trying to regenerate but the foreign green tendrils of energy that surround me make it harder and harder to do so each time.
Millions of MP worth of mana crystals fall all around me like it's raining as they were what I last pulled from my item storage and my mind starts to think of as many ideas as I can to solve this problem.
I consider using a teleportation crystal to bring myself back to the start of the construct to try and escape, but I can't think of any way that would help my situation at all. It would just put me in more danger than I'm in now.
The only one capable of giving me advice in this scenario is also out cold.
Less than a second has passed in Ember's perception as he's still held in my item storage in suspended animation. However, he too is already fast asleep and will need months inside an isolation pod to recover.
I pull out handfuls of yellow fragments and fruits that I have leftover, eating a few, feeling a surge of energy, but nothing stops the green tendrils from spreading further and further.
It gets to the point where I fall to my knees as the pain is becoming so unbearable as the threads try to overtake my entire body.
Instead of the empowering feeling I got from the red, orange, and yellow gems, this one feels much different.
It feels like it's going to take something away from me if I allow it to take control. Every moment I wait for it to complete its process is a moment that brings me closer to losing my body like the serpent in the sky.
Whatever immense power it may grant isn't worth giving up my body and possibly even my mind if I don't have the control to regenerate what it takes away.
I slow my breathing and continue to let my thoughts run wild, coming up with possible ideas and scenarios in my head, burning through MP, even restoring my Qi with a handful of pills and attempting to counteract the threads with soul energy, but nothing works.
Every time I use any portion of power, it actually speeds up the process. More portions of my physical body fade away and a green aura is all that's left in its place, showing a version of myself as a pure energy being that I am not ready to convert to on a whim.
I'm covered in sweat, breathing heavily, and lying face down in the dirt after another failed experiment with only one option left on my mental list.
I let out a groggy whisper while dragging myself closer to the nearest trunk of an obsidian tree.
"This is my only choice. I wanted to control this power, but maybe I'm just not capable of wielding it yet..."
I smirk and place my deteriorated open palm on the base of the tree to feel an endless black hungry void reply to my whisper.
The cold feeling, like losing a large amount of blood, washes over me instantly.
I want to take my hand off, but the visual of the green tendrils being ripped from my flesh and drained into the darkness of the tree keeps me from doing so.
I take a gasp of air as the pull from the endless void gets stronger and stronger, I watch more green threads be torn from my body.
It feels both painful and satisfying at the same time.
While I'm positive I'm losing access to an indescribable power of a higher lifeform, vitality rushes back into my body and mind as my self-regeneration skill finally activates to its full potential again and begins mending my muscles and bones where the green energy is removed.
I can't tell if the entire process takes a single second or a full hour; all I know is when I rip my hand away from the tree and fall on my back to let out a groan, my entire body feels as good as new, and there isn't a single drop of green energy left in my core or flesh.
While I recollect my thoughts, activate enemy detection, and try to figure out where I am and what's going on now that I have a clear mind; a new low-hanging branch grows from the base of the tree near where my hand pressed a moment ago.
On the very end of it, an enormous green fruit forms, holding nearly all of the compressed divine energy that was forcefully ripped out of me.