Splash!

Khal watched as his vision turned all white while a warm sensation enveloped his body while an even warmer feeling pierced his pores, invading every inch of his whole all the way to the bones.

The feeling was akin to submerging himself into a hot spring while thousands of needles pierced his body through his pores one by one.

One would believe it was a weird and unpleasant sensation, but strangely, it was not. As a fact, Khal felt as his body began to relax while every cell in his body underwent a great change, an evolution!

'Wait... Am I going to ascend!?' Khal suddenly snapped his eyes open upon realizing what was happening and tried to move, only to find out that his body didn't listen to his command. It was like he was tied down by chains, restricting and sealing his movements completely!

[Once you enter the Pond of Ascension, you cannot halt the ascension process. You have to let your body evolve and break the border of your Realm to reach the next Realm.]

'No, no... This is not right at all! Stop it! Now!' Khal struggled even more, but the results were the same as before. He was floating in the middle of whiteness without any chance of him moving even an inch much less escape from the pond.

He was truly ascending to the Second Realm, like it or not.

'Stop it! Come on!' Khal clenched his teeth to utter some strength into his body, 'Liza and Miss Mary are still there, I can't leave just yet! Their lives will be in danger!'

Although Miss Mary was an influential figure with a great and powerful background in the Western Continent, she could be considered a no one when it came to the leader of the Southern Continent, the Ourvi Family. Til he does not obliterate them from the planet's surface once and for all, Khal couldn't be at ease, especially after witnessing how they tried to force Liza to join them.

'Fuck! Is there really no way for me to halt my ascension?!' Khal roared inwardly, feeling helpless and angry. If he wouldn't have stood up right away after becoming dizzy but waited for a while to recover his strength, all of this wouldn't have happened at all.

[Calm down. There is still a way for you to go back. Although it will take a while, I am sure you will be able to do it.]

'How?' Khal asked as he calmed himself. He knew becoming angry won't change anything, so instead let the warmth sweep through his body even more and calm down his mind.

[First of all, you have to understand your ascension is a must, there is no way to stop it, or at least not until if you cripple yourself completely. But I think you don't want to do that, right?]

Hearing that Khal was silent Nova hummed with satisfaction and continued to speak.

[Now then... As for how you will be able to go back to the First Realm, there is only one way. It's easy, but at the same time an incredibly risky method, so I would recommend you do it only when you reached the peak of the Second Realm.]

'And the method is?' Khal asked calmly.

[As you know, the Zero Realm is in connection with all the other Realms, so the only thing you have to do is...]

'Is to use it as a passage to get me back to the First Realm. However, because it won't be a separate space from the one where I previously was, I can easily meet with beings or creatures from Higher Realms. Death will lurk from all sides and the possibility of me successfully going back is close to nil, right?'

historical

[I like that I don't have to explain everything to you.]

Khal remained silent. He closed his eyes to ponder only to sigh deeply after a moment later.

'So that's how it is...'

Khal now completely realized that he could do nothing about his current situation. What already happened can't be changed, like it or not. Now the only thing he could do is to do what Nova told him, no shortcuts.

While Khal pondered, suddenly he noticed as a strange power inside him started to swell while a voice pierced his mind.

[Your body has evolved!]

[Congratulations, you have successfully become an Awakened!]

[All of your Power Cores have evolved and become First Stage!]

[Seal has been shattered!]

[Your Blessing has evolved and become First Stage!]

'Shattered seal? Don't tell me...' Khal widened his eyes and wanted to check if things were true or not, but the voice in his head continued to speak.

[All of your accumulated Cultivator Traits now will merge with your body completely!]

In seconds, Khal felt as his bones, muscles, tendons and every cell in his body underwent another change, while even a strange feeling swept through his Soul World.

[Congratulations, you have successfully become a Body Refiner!]

[All of your Power Cores have evolved and become Second Stage!]

[Your Blessing has evolved and become Second Stage!]

At that very moment, Khal felt a powerful force pull his body toward the surface and soon found himself flying out of the white pond like a bullet.

Boom!

With tremendous force, Khal's flying figure destroyed several trees in split seconds before coming to a complete halt with a loud 'bang' once he crashed into a huge boulder that immediately turned into small chunks of debris and dust.

"Cough~Cough... Where... Am I?" coughed Khal as he waved his hand to make the flying dust around him go away.

Khal stood up slowly from the debris with a painful grimace and looked around. Although he was just shot out from the pond like a cannonball, demolishing tens of trees and a single ship-sized boulder with his mere body, it was shocking to see that he sustained zero-damage and injury!

However, Khal didn't notice this at all as he was more focused on the sight around him, or to be more precise at the three humanoid creatures in the distance that were approaching him with mocking smiles.

It was obvious they were not approaching him to become friends, particularly because of the way they were holding their weapons in their hands.

They wanted trouble for sure.