While the ordeal with my mind was easily handled, my body took a bit longer to recover. Greenish veins ran up and down my body from the points where the energy of the infinity stones entered it.

My status revealed that it had little negative effect aside from a muscle-weakening debilitation. The other notification that showed up, however, gave me some pause.

Prolonged exposure to the Time stone increased your Time Affinity (Angel) and upgraded it from Low to Mid.

Congratulations: You've acquired Time Energy Resistance Adept.

I blinked. "Uh…Yao. You might want to hear this."

In the hour or two that we rested in preparation for the second round, Yao and I talked in private, and she concurred that my adaptability was off the charts, even for Nephilims.

Apparently, my brother would've taken at least a day to recover from the stunt I had just pulled, and I was already on my feet, all but the last of the green vein gone as my body seemingly absorbed and strengthened my affinity to Time.

"It could be the system thing Shin hitched onto my soul," I guessed, but Yao shook her head.

"Shin would've already had more of your soul if he was lending you that kind of substantive power. It's more likely an innate ability that has not quite crystalized like your mixed energy. Perhaps it's another reason why he wants you so badly."

"Possibly," I muttered as I again remembered that Shin was a cheap mother fucker.

"This new information contextualizes everything we know about you and Shin. This unknown ability of yours might be your saving grace."

I couldn't agree more. The second round of the time dilation went as smoothly as the first. Jean stood to the side while Kaecilius and Mordo maintained a powerful Mandala Shield that apparently kept the energy escaping in, and by the end of the session, my numbers had gone up again, and I was ready to use Unite.

Angel Energy: 67

Devil Energy: 79

Endurance: 80

Vitality: 84

Congratulations, Time Affinity (Angel) has reached High.

Everybody gave me a wide berth as I hefted Rebellion high. I winked at Jean. "Don't panic," I warned as I stabbed myself in the chest and was subsequently consumed in a pillar of multicolored light.

A scream ripped from Jean's throat and mine as my cosmic burn expanded and grew, covering most of my body. Pain resistance mapped onto it, dulling the pain substantially. Cosmic energy seeped into the skill, altering it forever as my mind grew clearer than it had in weeks. Then came fire resistance. The skill warped and expanded, mixing with the element in the cosmic energy that burned me and merged deeply with my robust fire affinity.

Earth Resistance caused a less profound change, reinforcing my body considerably, as did Arcane, Lightning, Blood, Affliction, Dark, Cold, and Kinetic. Space, Time, Mental, and Wind caused a more distinctive change, enhancing my abilities and body in ways I could not fully articulate.

I lost all sense of time as the Unification was underway, and it ended just as suddenly as it had begun. When I came to, I found myself floating mid-air, rapidly falling to the ground. I barely registered the pain as I landed.

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When I stretched to my full height, I noticed that Yao and the other sorcerers were slightly below my eye level.

'Agamotto, have mercy,' I heard Kaecilius say. 'He's huge.'

'The wounds are completely healed,' Mordo said.

Yao remained quiet while Jean rushed over to me and punched me in the chest, before wrapping me in a fierce hug. She felt feather-light.

"Thank goodness you're okay…You conveniently left out the part where Unify required you to literarily impale yourself." She didn't untangle from me until I called out her name, and when she did, she seemed fixed on my eyes. I could tell something about me was drastically different.

"What's wrong?"

I already knew I was a fair bit bulker. I hoped nothing had gone wrong during the process.

"It's your eyes," she said slowly. "They're purple."

"What now!"

I summoned Rebellion, which had fallen to the ground sometime during my Unification, and looked at my reflection. I was stunned by the face that stared back at me.

I looked exactly like Dante but estimated I was about 15-20 pounds heavier and a few inches taller. My eyes were purple like Jean had said, vibrating like they barely held back a storm, struggling to rise to the surface.

"That'll take some getting used to," I said.

"At least now you can claim to be clairvoyant without rousing suspicion."

I chuckled, turning Rebellion to the side to catch more light. Now that I looked hard, I noticed that my hair had also gained a faint shade of purple.

However, the biggest difference in my physique was my baby-smooth skin. My Cosmic Burn was healed entirely, I felt stronger and healthier than ever.

And my status reflected it. The difference was night and day.

HP: 1840/1840

SP:1800/1800

AE: 1370/1370

DE:1400/1400

Strength: 58+60

Dexterity: 61+60

Endurance: 80+100

Vitality: 84+100

Angelic Energy: 67+70

Demonic Energy: 70+70

My mouth fell open as an unhinged laugh slipped out. I goggled at what I was reading. Jean looked at me concerned, but she fell to the background as I crunched the mental numbers. I was at least twice as strong in every major category. I was in the strength class where I could flip cars easily, and my top speed put me at over 300 miles per hour before any skill boost.

I was officially broken, and I'd not checked for my new skill.

My jaw dropped when I eventually got to it.

(Transcendent)Cosmic Promethean Body (Basic)

Forged from the amalgam of 15 unique defensive skills and the Cosmic Fire of the Phoenix, it synergizes well with Dante's innate adaptability to grant an ever-evolving skill that provides robust defensive and offensive advantages. It also grants several powerful subskills.

Current stat bonuses:

+60 Strength

+60 Dexterity

+100 Endurance

+100 Vitality

+70 Angelic Energy

+70 Demonic Energy

From The Ashes: Remake your body once a day using the latent cosmic energy still flowing through your veins. Refills all resources and greatly enhances effects of the subskill: What doesn't kill me.

What Doesn't Kill Me: All resistance skills have been rolled into What Doesn't Kill Me, which grants a flat 35% boost on all resistances. Increased exposure to harmful magical elements helps grow the Cosmic Promethean Body, working towards the next evolution of the skill.

What Doesn't Kill Me dramatically reduces the strain required to acquire new stats in exchange for slower skill growth of Cosmic Promethean body.

Promethean Vitality: Grants a passive regeneration commensurate to your vitality stat. Generate 1/8th of your health pool every hour.

Nether Fire: Your fire affinity has dramatically improved and altered by Cosmic energy and the Phoenix's influence. Your fire burns twice as hot as before, lasts twice as long, and gains a pronounced corrosive property. Your Fire affinity has been upgraded to Peak, the highest ever recorded for mortals. You're also completely immune to fire attacks.

Astral Link: Your middling mental talent has been greatly strengthened by contact with the Cosmic fire of the Phoenix. Your Mind affinity has reached High tier.

Windborn: Your resistance skill synergized greatly with your affinity, bolstering it slightly. Your affinity has reached Very High.

Time-Sage: Your resistance skill synergized greatly with your affinity, bolstering it slightly. Your Time affinity has reached Very high. All skills that draw on the concept of time are doubly as effective. (includes Evasion)

Dimensional Consciousness: Your resistance skill synergized greatly with your Dimensional affinity, strengthening it. Your affinity has reached High. You're more attuned to the spaces between dimensions.

"Hot. Fucking. Damn," I let out a victorious laugh.

"Are you okay?" Jean asked.

"Never been better."