"Wha.. where am I?!" Asked Edmund with confusion while looking at his surroundings, almost as if unable to remember why the four walls of the room, as well as the two men who were standing in front of him, looked so familiar.
After listening to Edmund's question, Daniel stepped closer to him, and said, "Edmund. This is your home. You have a wife named Emelnie, a daughter called Alesia, and a son called Tigue. I am Daniel. You've taught me spatial essence a few years back."
"Em.. yes.. I have a family!" Said Edmund with realization after finally being able to fish these memories out of the infinite number of images he had seen in the past few months. He then turned to look at Daniel, and added, "Dan. We were coming back.. What happened? I remember that I was doing something. I was raising? Thinking? NO! I WAS ASCENDING!"
"Yes. You were ascending, and obtained a gift that allows you to visit other dimensions. Unfortunately your mind was unable to withstand that power, and you fell unconscious. We have only managed to help you wake up." Said Daniel in an attempt to help him recollect his memories, and find a meaning to what he had gone through.
Still slightly confused, Edmund turned away for a moment, then asked, "Where is my family?"
This time, it was Daniel who remembered something important. When he and Aeron had entered into Edmund's mind, they did not expect to have to stay there for months. So with hurry, Daniel stood up, and said, "I'll go call your wife and son immediately. They have been waiting for a very long time to see you."
However, before he could walk out of the room, Aeron grabbed his arm, and said, "I did not know this before going in personally, but the time inside his mind was highly accelerated. It has only been a few minutes in the normal passage of time."
This revelation had been received in two different ways by Daniel. At first, he was relieved that in the precarious situation in which his group was in, they hadn't been missing for six months. Secondly, he was shocked by the increase in Aeron's powers which, from the perspective of someone that was observing him from the outside, had increased his power from a level comparable to the first phase of high immortality, to one comparable to a fiftieth phase in mere minutes worth of real time.
By locking Edmund's powers, Aeron had given up to a miraculous training ground for himself, in which he could have grown to be an impressive individual in little to no time. That simple action, more than each instance when he was helped by him, had shown to Daniel how good of a character Aeron truly possessed.
Before leaving the room, Daniel muttered, "Thank you for helping him." then left.
Once alone, Aeron stepped closer to Edmund, and said from behind his mask, "I cannot keep your mind and consciousness locked in your body forever. After you recover, I will help you get used to your powers, and strengthen your mind."
Suddenly, before Edmund could process what Aeron meant, the door burst open, and from behind it, walked a blonde teenager followed by a woman with platinum blond hair. On their faces, were expressions of joy, relief, and worry.
"Father!" Said Tigue emotionally, as he had not seen him in years. He then sat on the bed next to his father, and embraced him.
"Tigue.. Heavens, you are so big.." Said Edmund with shock. Behind his son, was the serious figure of his wife who, as always, was keeping her cold composure. Yet, it did not take long for him to notice her eyes start to well up.
As the family reunited, Aeron quietly disappeared from the room, and reappeared next to Daniel, who was now walking down the corridor that lead to Heimart's room, where Alis, their two children, and Ligart were waiting, while looking at the unconscious state of their relative.
Before taking care of Edmund, while Heimart's situation was less severe than his, since Daniel was not sure how long treating Edmund would take, he had decided to explain what had happened to Heimart to his family first.
Technically speaking, there were no problems with him. However, there was no certainty that the method which the Mindhive had used to brainwash him into becoming a bloodthirsty warrior, would not have permanent effects on him. That was the reason why, after breaking the mental loop, Aeron had changed replaced it with one formed by Heimart's real memories, in hope to brainwash him back into being his former self.
The Mindhive's methods were to make the warriors remove any attachment to their old lives in order to become bandits, and with the scenes he had been exposed to, if Heimart had been awake now, he would have likely seen his family as enemies, and tried to kill them.
Now all that was left to do was to wait for him to embrace this memories before being forced to wake up by Aeron.
Unable to do anything for him, Daniel left their family alone, and walked past their room with a look of dejection, and hatred. In his mind, was the faceless figure of the Mindhive, which had almost forced him to kill his own friend.
After a few minutes of pacing in silence, Daniel finally muttered, "You have helped me more than I have helped you. Your enemies are my enemies now."
Aeron did not respond, and instead stopped walking. He had understood Daniel's words, and yet, he knew that at the moment he would prefer to be alone, so he went back from the way they came from, leaving Daniel to walk by himself.
Buried in his own thoughts, Daniel mindlessly walked out of the castle, where a large number of young men and young women were grouped up. In the middle of this group were the seven who had participated in the event, and all around them, were the students of Hiel Academy who since they had come back, hadn't stopped asking them about the details of the competition.
Standing by the side, while looking particularly confused, were Virgil, Hannah, George, Josh, James, Alex, and Felix. While they had seen the magical side of the world of cultivation, they had never seen elementals, people that floated in the sky while using wind, or even humanoid beasts.
For them, their surroundings appeared like something that, in a world governed by technology like theirs, they could have only seen in comic books, or read in novels.
As soon as Daniel appeared, Nilo immediately turned to look at him, and with a joyful expression, he shouted, "DAN!" His arms were lifted up high in an attempt to catch his attention.
Amongst the students, Nilo was not known to be the strongest, but he was still considered as one of the elder disciples of Hiel academy. After all, after Daniel, he was the first person to be accepted by Daniel's teachers after his escape from Phyrri, so when Nilo shouted Daniel's name, every single one of the students turned to look at him.
Within the crowd were all the young cultivators which Daniel had met in the past, including Mea, Miri, Riri, and Yala, who were immediately able to recognize him. However, in the eyes of the newer students, Daniel appeared like a normal human. After all, compared to them, his power was immense, and they could not hope to see through it.
"Nilo, who is that guy?" Asked one of the students with curiosity.
Just as Nilo was about to admonish him for not being respectful towards the owner of the space which they were occupying, Daniel interjected, "A new student.. Just like them." he said before pointing his finger at Virgil and the others.
It did not take long for the students who knew Daniel to understand that he did not wish to be seen as the owner of everything. He did not wanted people to follow him because they knew he had the power, but because they agreed with his methods. Otherwise, he might have as well kept the followers of Sewah, who had followed him simply out of their fanaticism.
Since Daniel had entered the pocket dimension, the spatial essence which formed it was updated by his power, allowing the area to become much bigger than before. Compared to the size it had before, its surface was now larger than that of a small star, and was too big for his perfect spheres to affect it completely.
Yet, he could observe every bit of it, as if his presence was that of an omnipresent and omniscient God. For example, he could feel the presence of Xargy, who while transformed in his original draconic form, was wandering the pocket dimension in hope to find a good place to make his own dwelling. Similarly, he could feel the presence of Lady Night, who by keeping her human form, explored the beauty of True Hiel City, tried refined clothes, ate odd foods, and attracted every sort of attention from the young bachelors of the many families.
It was a moment of peace for Daniel's friends, so he decided not to bother them. Instead, he turned to look at Nilo, and through a wisp of sound essence, he said, "It is time."
A smile formed on Nilo's face, and after nodding faintly, he walked towards him, and together, they teleported away.
When they reappeared, they were standing outside of a house on the outskirts of the city.
"When is daddy coming home?" Asked a young and tender voice from within the upper floor of the house.
"He won't come back until you finish eating your lunch!" Responded a woman with a voice which, to Daniel, sounded extremely familiar. Each of these words, he had heard them whenever he would find himself in front of the unlikeable food that his sister would force him to eat. The same loving anger which made all the stress caused by spending hours trying to rob people out of their pocket change, disappear into nothing.
For some reason, Daniel started to feel extremely nervous, to a point where his nervousness was so visible, that it was easily noticed by Nilo.
"What are you nervous for? This is your family." Said Nilo before reaching for the door's handle, and opening it.
As the door was opened, numerous small steps could be heard rushing from upstairs, and before Nilo could even walk in, a small blur came crashing against his body. To both Daniel and Nilo, it was obvious that this blur was none other than Than, but something was odd.
Instead of welcoming his father with a heartfelt embrace, he had welcomed him with a well placed kick to the middle of his chest, which left no damage to Nilo, but whom still fell on his knees, and said with feigned pain, "So s-strong.. I can't breathe!"
"Haha! I am stronger than dad now!" Said the little boy with pride, right before being grabbed by the ankle, and being lifted a meter above the ground. "It was a joke dad! A JOKE!"
"You rascal. I can't look away for a minute that you stop learning the martial arts of my family, and listen to your uncle!" Said Nilo while making his son dangle in mid air. Only a few days had passed since Nilo had entered the One Above All, so they had not been separated from each other for too long.
"Nilo!" Said Reila while following her son down the stairs, and towards the entrance, where she saw her husband and son play around. Daniel, on the other hand, had instinctively hidden behind the door frame.
Nilo put down his son as Reila walked in his direction with haste, and after reaching him, she gave him an intimate and loving embrace. However, It did not take long for Reila to notice the embarrassed expression on her husband's face, who was looking at someone who was standing behind her.
When she turned around in confusion, what she saw caused her such a shock, that unable to withstand it, she passed out.
