“And I told you already, no one…”

“I understand that, but...”

“If that’s the case then…”

Numerous voices faintly clashed against each other.

Anyone would have been shocked breathless if they knew their identities.

This was a specialized hospital, and Amon was seated on a nearby chair, waiting for his friend to wake up.

That was Elder Einstoldt, Elder Sugo, and Mr. Candor all in the same room. This got very serious.

Amon thought to himself as he cast his attention toward the opposing room where words were constantly being thrown back and forth. Originally, only some of it was audible, while other portions weren’t, but now the words were becoming more clear as the volume rose.

“I told you this was a bad idea. We all knew this was going to happen, and yet you both persisted and acquiesced to anything he said!”

A robust voice seethed angrily.

That was Mr. Candor. Is he really able to talk to the elders like that?

Amon’s thoughts ran wild as he observed his friend, who was passed out on the bed. It was times like this that he felt most useless.

“Know your place Sahves! What would you have us do then? Nothing we’ve thought of will work. This was already fated to happen!”

The voices were raised up a notch as the heated discussion intensified.

“Sien, Sahves is right. We should have looked for an opportunity off world.”

“You too, Lucius? You both know that there is nothing we could do!”

Sien’s temper flared as he continued explaining.

“It has to be his own personal merits. No matter how much we strive to find a way, there is simply no way to force merits onto another.”

“He has to go in, Sien. In this, I have to agree with Sahves. We should have sent him in earlier…”

Slam!

The sound of someone pounding their first on a table echoed into Amon’s room.

“What do you mean, earlier. How early is early? He’s merely fifteen years old!”

“He’s old enough to run an infamous nightclub with you secretly backing him.”

Lucius commented offhandedly.

“You know full well that Merdan entered PSI World when he was eleven.”

Sahves spoke in a deep voice, but he was quickly countered.

“I know that! But tell me, Sahves, in all this time do you think Merdan has amassed enough merit to handle anything pertaining to the soul?”

“Well-“

Before Sahves could say anything, Sien cut him off and continued.

“Even if Merdan has by now, do you think he would been able to obtain that amount by the mere age of fifteen?!”

Silence followed after this statement as the men stood around a table and glared at each other.

They are talking about PSI World merits?

Amon thought to himself.

But what does PSI World have anything to do with Jun? He hates PSI World with a passion. Also, he’s never entered PSI World a single time. He probably doesn’t even know what merits are.

He shook his head and let out a sigh.

At this point, he only wished for his friend’s swift recovery. At the same time, he also erased any thought of his friend joining him for the PSI World tutorial.

How could Jun possibly participate in this condition? He was clearly not healthy.

----------------------------------------

The patient in question slowly opened his eyes, but what greeted him was not the ceiling of his hospital room.

Instead, he was entertained by sparkling gems creating mystical swirls across a beautiful night sky.

He lied on his back while pink luminescent petals floated by, which were shed from the grand trees that encircled him.

With every fleeting moment, in our world of sorrow.

A sonorous voice echoed over the wind, causing Jun’s mouth to form a frown.

Am I bound by my sins. Am I forever unknown.

Jun shook his head and picked himself off the ground with a stretch. This was a song he had grown to hate over the years.

Perhaps one could ask how he was able to hate a song created by his inner consciousness. However from Jun’s point of view, his inner consciousness was always its own independent personality.

Ana’s thoughts and actions didn’t always reflect his feelings. That was just the way things were.

The beautiful voice floated in the air as Jun made his way toward the origin. An enchanting young woman sat on the edge of a vast cliff, gently swaying her body from side to side as she sung into the night sky.

The wind played with her white hair that seemed to be illuminated by a violet hue.

Her signature black dress grew in size over the years to match her developing body, which always reflected Jun’s age. Currently the young woman looked like a blossoming and vibrant fifteen-year-old.

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“You know I hate that song.”

Jun remarked as he got closer. He fearlessly sat next to her along the edge of the cliff.

“I know.”

She spoke curtly and didn’t look in his direction.

Her gaze continued to cast itself into the distance as if it were inspecting a distant galaxy. Jun looked out towards the sea of stars as well.

After a few minutes, he broke the comfortable silence.

“How long was I out this time?”

Ana’s body stilled for a moment, and after the small pause, she replied.

“About three days in here.”

Jun shifted his eyes towards her.

“So about eight hours in normal time.”

He was accustomed to the dramatic time dilation that occurred during these sessions with his inner consciousness. Over the last ten years he repeatedly confirmed that time moved about ten times faster in his dreams than when he was awake.

Naturally this also meant that he had spent an incredible amount of time alone with Ana.

If it were to be quantified, then he presumed he had easily spent over 30 years in this dream state. This is because most nights he spent about eight real world hours in here, which was equivalent to three days.

The blackouts are lasting longer, and the intervals are becoming more frequent.

Jun thought to himself as they shared an extended moment of silence.

“You sang again. I told you not to.”

Ana spoke in a cold tone, clearly she wasn’t very happy. Nonetheless, Jun smiled and shrugged innocently.

“You never told me why I can’t sing.”

“Yes, but you said you wouldn’t because I asked you not to. Is this all your word amounts to?”

Jun became unsettled when Ana countered by attacking his integrity.

Can I not break my word to myself? She’s such a taskmaster.

He frowned and turned to face her, but before he could reply, she turned to him with a piercing gaze. Her burning red eye flashed with a malicious light, while her other eye glimmered its sapphire brilliance.

“It seems I cannot trust you with yourself, but I suppose that’s my fault.”

She let out a sigh before gently floating off the cliff.

Wind currents swept past, causing her black dress to ripple about. She hovered in front of Jun, who was still seated, and maintained a leveled eye contact.

“Yes? Fine, I won’t do it again. I’m not stupid you know. I can see that the blackouts are correlated.”

Ana stared at his face with her arms folded beneath her chest. It was both a fortune and misfortune that Jun had been conditioned from a young age in the presence of this otherworldly beauty.

On one hand, he was fortunate in his ability to respect the woman around him with an integrity that was extremely uncommon for his age.

While most developing males would have lust on their mind, Jun had already ascended to a point where no woman around him could stimulate that same carnal desire.

This same idea could also be considered a misfortune unto itself. This wasn’t to say that he had no lust or desire whatsoever, but after years upon years of basking in the presence of Ana, what woman could possibly enter his eyes?

Ultimately, this was an issue he knew existed within his mindset but had decided to resolve at a later date.

After all, it wasn’t looks that defined the most compatible partner; that was just a single element out of the many different considerations that went into the complicated subject.

“Do these blackouts frighten you?”

She asked him with an emotionless face.

“No. Although, I do feel some pain just before each blackout, but I’m perfectly healthy every time I wake up. I just find it weird.”

Jun scratched his head.

This was indeed a matter he gave some thought. The blackouts didn’t necessarily inhibit his day-to-day activities, but it also had to be said that this was the first time he blacked out in public.

“You never considered the possibility of never waking up again?”

Jun opened his mouth to reply, but he couldn’t find any words to say. Instead, he developed into a frown while deep in thought.

The blackouts are getting longer, therefore, it’s feasible to assume they could become so long that I would never wake up. Is that how it would work? How long is too long?

“You’ve been sleeping a lot more, haven’t you? You can’t help it, can you?”

Ana continued to speak, provoking more thoughts and questions within Jun’s mind.

I’m exhausted all of the time, and not in a good way. But, I thought it’s because I stay up all night? Is it not? This started a year ago. Was it always such an issue?

Ana caressed Jun’s cheek in the palm of one of her ethereal hands.

“I tried finding a solution for us, but I couldn’t. So I’ll have to open your eyes to the truth.”

Jun couldn’t help but become slightly nervous as he heard this. Ana usually didn’t speak with such gravity.

“Inspect your soul body, we’ve practiced countless times before. Do it again, but this time I want you to focus specifically on the core.”

Jun let out a deep breath and closed his eyes.

When he was young, the only way to visual his soul core was in the form of a house. This was because there was no easy way for an untrained individual to visualize the concept of the soul.

However, after spending countless years under the tutelage of Ana, visualizing his soul body was child’s play for the current Jun.

It didn’t take him more than a second for the hazy image of a boy to appear in Jun’s mind. The image sharpened in clarity after a few more seconds, revealing a replica of himself staring back at him.

She wants me to focus on the core. Okay, sure.

Excess thoughts filtered out of his mind as he honed in on the center of the body within his mind.

Eventually, a small sphere appeared as the rest of the body melted away. The sphere rippled with a misty white energy that served as an outer shell, while a flowing azure-blue type of energy swirled within the sphere.

“So, what about my soul core?”

Jun asked aloud without breaking concentration. Ana’s gentle voice filtered in soon after.

“Right now, the core looks normal. Focus on it… How about now?”

Just as she said that, the white and blue sphere soon underwent a dramatic change. The outside shell still remained the same. Even the azure energy within looked similar. However, the striking changes occurred at the very center of the sphere.

A sinister black ball of energy madly pulsated at the center of the sphere.

Surrounding the fear inducing mass of darkness, was an electrifying and erratic golden coating. The coating feebly flickered as black energy continued to push outward in different sections.

Whenever the coating thinned in one spot, a surge of lightning raced across the yellow film and reinforced the weakened area.

“W-What is this??”

Jun’s mentality was deeply disturbed, which pulled him out of his hyper focused state of being. He opened his eyes in a panic, only to be met with Ana’s calm demeanor hovering in front of him.

“That’s what your soul core truly looks like.”

A look of bewilderment flashed across Jun’s face.

“How did I not ever notice this before? How many years had we practiced these types of techniques, and not once did I see this?”

Ana looked away briefly before returning his gaze. She moved a loose strand of hair behind her ear before folding her arms underneath her chest, creating a breathtaking scenery.

“Because I hid it away from sight.”

The soul stirring beauty didn’t faze Jun in the slightest.

“What?! Why would you be compelled to ever do that? Don’t you think I should have known about this?”

Wait, was this a self-defense mechanism that I subconsciously did to myself? Am I the one to blame this whole time?

Jun swiftly silenced himself, drawing his own conclusions.

“If you must know, I was searching for a solution. Clearly I failed…”

Ana’s voice lingered in the air.

This was the first time Jun had ever heard this visage of perfection admit to failure. Ana cast her gaze off into the distance as silence once again took root.

Jun grimaced before letting out a sigh. Even if this wasn’t particularly his fault, he still most likely made it worse in some way.

“Ana, I’m sorry. I’ll never break my word with you, or myself, again. I was blind. You are not the one who failed, but it is me. I promise I won’t manipulate world energy without an extenuating circumstance, such as life or death.”

Jun stared at her with an uncommonly serious expression. She glanced at him sideways. A few second went by before suddenly…

“Heh.”

She covered her mouth with a hand as she suppressed some degree of laughter. Jun’s face was soon coated with a pink hue as the embarrassment set in.

“I’m serious!”

He pouted his lips and looked away.

Ana smiled faintly after seeing this reaction. Despite having spent many years together, Jun often times still acted like a child, which was something she wished would never change.

“I know.”

“Ouch! Hey!”

Jun cried out while rubbing his head.

Ana pretended like she didn’t just smack him and started floating away.

“That’s for not listening. Also, it’s time for you to wake up. Since you blacked out in public this time, your family will be worried about you.”