How long Rou had been in the state he was in, even Rou couldn't tell. The last thing he recalled was the cold, scary feeling of his fingertips grasping the slime and then…

It was like every cell, every particle of his being, separately knew terror incarnate and fled, pulling him apart in the process. If he was conscious or not, lucid or not, neither Rou, or anyone else knew.

Fleeting images passed his mind now and then, hints that something may be passing by in front of him, but never anything tangible enough to understand what it was. Could he even understand? Rou's mind was almost gone. Broken beyond simply 'trapped in his own body'. Every aspect of consciousness had seemingly been erased, leaving his body limp and unresponsive, only his body's automatic functions remained. Breathing and so on.

–

This process continued, the images getting weaker, or stronger, slower or faster, his brain simply dead to everything until one day something clicked and his brain started to kick back in. Not that he knew it, but the Immaculate Soul perk and status he had since he was a child, combined with his Draconic Heart, had begun to repair his mind. It took time, more time than he understood, but by some miracle less time than even the Gods expected - which was to say they didn't know if he would ever recover.

Then eventually one day, quite a while later, consciousness returned to Rou and he was able to see. If there was any thoughts in his mind was another matter as he didn't move or speak or even register anything, but it was progress.

–

A week later a few thoughts.

–

A month after that his body finally jerked all at once, scaring the nearby woman who suddenly screamed and shouted, leaving him confused as he couldn't quite sort out who was saying what and what was being said, some senses still not proper.

–

It took Rou nearly six months from then before his mind and body were functioning properly once more enough to actually process his surroundings and gain a sense of self awareness. As if all at once, functions began to recover only to realize Millet was on his lap, asleep with her nose against his neck, the two wrapped in a blanket as he was sat, leaning against the headboard of a bed.

The place wasn't fully familiar. Some pieces of furniture looked familiar, but other aspects weren't.

Before Rou could respond, his head began to bang and he nearly fainted before he began to receive notifications.

Notice

Perk Lost - [ Contact: Affection ]

Perk Gained - [ Contact: Affection ]

Affection wishes to speak with you. [ Yes/No ]

Given he had gotten so used to speaking with her in the past, and too confused to sort out details, Rou agreed only to be bombarded with Affection trying to figure out if he could hear or understand her.

Notice

Creation wishes to speak with you. [ Yes/No ]

Barely able to sort out the concerned efforts on Affection's part, Creation's voice cut in as he agreed and asked, "Are you able to understand me?" Rou barely nodded, staring at the ceiling and blinking. "Can you… make out the aether node to your left?" Creation asked softly, Rou looking over as his head limply slumped a bit, nearly disturbing Millet. Seemingly understanding Creation's question and unspoken request, Rou took nearly an hour to slowly raise his arm and use a claw to insert into the node and rip it open before Creation's body suddenly appeared in the lower realm. His ancient, decrepit hand held Rou's arm up and aided him as the reincarnated fellow carefully spread open the hole under his direction. Widening it, carefully, no matter how long it took.

Creation couldn't do it himself, but he could at least hold Rou's arm as he did it. To manipulate the aether required to 'rip' it wasn't something they could risk. But the moment it was wide enough, Creation /could/ move Rou's body. And he promptly threw the fellow into the opened node and caused Millet to jolt awake, alarmed at first until Creation hushed her gently and promptly picked her up like a kitten and chucked her through the node as well.

In the next several minutes, Creation ventured around the home, grabbing Shiela, Dominic, and also grabbing the Head Priest who was quite confused only to be instructed by Creation to stand in front of the doorway to Rou's room, and that no one was allowed to enter. And once they were all thrown into the open node, Creation's body was sat where Rou's was and left as a final safeguard.

An open node to the higher dimensional realm was a large risk after all.

Even if none could see it to abuse it.

–

This was, of course, the first time Rou's parents or Millet had actually /seen/ the Gods in person. Well, his parents had met Creation through his body before and thus knew him, but Affection, in her fox body, who now clung to Rou sobbing as she finally got to hold onto him again, confused them all. Introductions were made and explanations were given, Creation explaining that time in their domain worked differently than in the lower world.

That it would be better for Rou to recover here, now that he had been able to bridge that gap.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

And in a display of mercy? Creation had granted those three unlimited access to come and go through the node in the room that Rou had opened from now until otherwise stated.

–

It also meant that all of them finally got to become better acquainted. In Affection's domain, she was the only god present, and his parents and Millet talked often from thereon out. Naturally Affection was clingy beyond reason and did not want to let Rou go, but did allow them to hug him as well. As selfish and scared as she was for Rou, she wasn't unreasonable. After all, Rou loved his family more than anything and she loved him more than anything, so how could she deny him that?

–

Overall, in the lower world, over two years and a half had passed since the incident with the Black Slime. And since Rou had managed to become aware enough to open the node, perhaps a few hundred years or even more in the higher realm. It was hard for Rou and his mortal family to keep track given how often they came and went. At first they left far more often, mixing up their duties in the lower realm. Especially Millet as she worried greatly for her siblings. But eventually Affection had setup a clock of sorts that accurately tracked how much time passed below, as well as pulled up screens for them to watch just to make sure.

Even though Rou's body was recovering to a state of normalcy, his mind took much longer to fully recover. He would go from periods of awareness to nothing. A little more with time as it passed of course, and the lengths of time slowly increased, though he almost felt like a cripple as at times he couldn't even control his own body fully. But none of them had abandoned him. Especially Affection. A high-dimensional being as she was… she didn't tire. And time on his scale was nothing to her. For the hundreds of years time he spent in the higher dimension, she hadn't been separated from him once. She had physically held onto him for the entire time, at the very least one of her hands holding one of his.

–

Though finally, Dominic came to Affection's domain to check on him and found Rou curled up with Affection on the beanbag the Goddess had long ago made for them.

"Rou? How are you doing?" he asked, coming nearby to sit. Affection's long, fluffy tail curled around Dominic's side lightly as if tacitly approving him being there, the two having long since come to an agreement that Rou was more important to them both than something simple like physical proximity. Rou smiled at his father and actually managed to let go of Affection enough to give his father a hug with one arm. Of course his other, as ever, had the hand of which occupied by the goddess.

"Soon… I… hope…" Rou's ability to speak and coordinate was still rough, but given what he's survived? Even to the gods there, it was a miracle.

–

At best, Creation speculated because Dragons were inherently created by the Gods ages and ages ago to specifically combat the slimes, that being a natural enemy to such must have granted him some inherent resistance, in combination with his soul perk.

As Rou had been told while he was conscious, in the far, far ancient past, when the beings of this world had barely begun to form civilizations and band together, a plague was born. A race of creatures developed, Slimes. Originally simple elemental golems of sorts, they began to evolve some measure of hunger and went from consuming aether passively to consuming non-living material, then living material and eventually anything they could wrap around.

At one point, Slimes had almost destroyed all life in creation, slowly growing and replicating over the continents until by pure chance, the Slimes began to get ill. A plant had evolved to be toxic to slimes and the living beings that remained noticed the slimes feared that certain plant. They began to cultivate those plants and managed to push back the slimes. And eventually, in an attempt to counter this toxic plant, the slimes assimilated into another plant that nullified the toxin. But in exchange, they accidentally went from having a slimes body, to becoming a plant lifeform that was bound to where it grew roots.

A quirk of evolution. The super predator, pushed back by evolution, evolved to counter that, only to hit an evolutionary dead-end. But the slime plants also eventually began to reproduce, albeit unable to defend themselves as they had in the past. The Dragons eventually razed the world and tried to erase Slimes from existence, but even throughout all that, life finds a way and very rarely would certain kind of slimes remain. Some peaceful, harmless, even fun, like blue and green slimes. Some were helpful in their own way, Pink slimes causing feelings of lust and increased ability to reproduce, a marital and party aid.

But the legendary, terrifying Black Slime, had become folklore. Slimes, in ancient times? Were an unstoppable predator. In the same way humans seemed to be scared of the dark, afraid of something looking at them, afraid of things that looked like them, but weren’t, afraid of spiders no matter how small they are - in the same way a newborn chicken who had never seen a chicken hawk would panic in terror and flee if a hawk-shaped shadow flew over them - the notion of genetic memory existed.

All life in this world, genetically, had a primal terror of slimes. Sometimes it was harmless, like how humans enjoyed being scared at haunted houses. Fear could sometimes be endearing and funny. Discomfort could make some giggle, like the cold, clammy, awkward sensation of blue slime, or the smell of green slime.

But Black Slime… it had evolved into a combination of a hallucinogenic plant lifeform combined with the primal terror of the original slimes. For the ancient peoples of this world, if a slime touched you, it was death unless someone could somehow separate a limb if that was all that got touched. To burn them off with fire, no matter the damage done to the individual.

The ancient peoples bodies evolved to kill their mind as a failsafe, so they couldn't feel themselves slowly suffocating or being digested if their minds self-destructed.

–

That was what Rou had experienced. His mind collapsing to try and spare him the horror of being eaten by a slime. A memory a million years old, part of his lineage's genetic memories that were no longer even relevant.

And why he was struggling so. Because even though his body had recovered, his mind kept trying to shut itself down to avoid the slow death by slime.

Something else Rou came to realize? The 'Black Spore' outbreak of his childhood? Black Spores were the 'pollen' of the black slime plant, whereas the Black Slime that he had experienced was the fruit. But they weren't always tied together. Often times, hundreds of thousands of years old plants and pollen would get unearthed coincidentally by natural shifts, hardy as slimes were, and if they were never burned? They never went away. So apparently one had been unearthed by an unlucky someone and poof, an outbreak of Black Spore.

–

By the time Rou began to 'recover' to a discernible degree, he had been in the high-dimensional realm for at minimum hundreds of years, perhaps even a thousand or more. At least as far as 'counting the seconds' went. But for Rou? It wasn't nearly that long. In and out of awareness, perhaps he was conscious only for less than a month or two at most.

It seemed both like a few blinks, as well as forever. But luckily, time didn't truly 'pass' in the same sense it did elsewhere. At least not in the same scale. His body didn't age, but his mind and spirit did recover to a point. And eventually, after accepting some very concerned personal time with Affection, he finally made an effort to leave back to the lower dimension.