Sol remained in a deep sleep due to her exhaustion. Inside that dream, she flew through the skies beside another creature she found familiar. Its visage remained blurred, however there was a sense of security she felt from the depths of her soul.
The two tumbled through the air with one occasionally taunting or toying with the other. The fantasy aspect of the dream kept Sol from noticing anything abnormal or asking questions. Rather, she fell deeper into slumber as if to remain in that dream forever.
The two flew through the skies leaving an occasional scar on the land whenever they dipped low enough. During one of these dips, Sol found her gaze drift to the surface of a lake they were passing over. The moment her reflection entered her sights, her mind was ripped from its lackadaisical state.
The beast looking back at her from the lake surface was massive in size with 6 wings jutting from various parts of its body. Silver skin covered its surface, yet despite her clear view, she was unable to isolate any particular detail from the covering. It was as if the skin were a liquid mercury wrapping the beast as a shell.
Sol remained fixed on the view until her eyelids grew heavy. Her will remained strong, wanting to capture that familiar visage even longer, however her body gradually slipped from her control and an overwhelming exhaustion overtook her.
“NO!” Sol screamed out loud with her eyes widening. That dream faded from her memory before she even had the chance to recall it. She stared at the starry sky with a faint realization. Lost in her thoughts, she didn’t even notice An as he approached.
After Sol passed out from her breakthrough, An placed a protective restriction around the small adobe and left to retrieve a change of clothes for the girl. Although her first refinement didn’t destroy her clothing, her clothes were still drenched.
He was in the middle of returning when he heard Sol’s scream from afar. Without a second thought, An’s figure distorted and he warped to her location at his greatest speed. Despite his worries, he only found the girl wide eyed and staring at the stars with an extended hand.
It was clear Sol was in deep reflection. He couldn’t tell what bothered her, however the girl even failed to notice his approach. An gave her a few minutes to collect her thoughts before he approached her with the clothes in hand.
Sol’s eyes drifted to An with a hazy gaze. There was a pleading look in her eyes as if she lost something. “An, who am I?” Her voice was broken and there was a hint of desperation tinting her tone. An could feel his heart clench slightly, however there was a proper order to things and it wasn’t up to him to bypass those.
He tossed the clothes over her head to cover the pitiful gaze. “You’re Sol Reviarra. That’s not a lie. Don’t confuse yourself with anyone else. As you grow stronger, you’ll understand your situation yourself. Anything I tell you now will only confuse you.” An’s gaze drifted to the stars before he continued.
“That being said, I can tell you that you once died a long, long, time ago. It’s inappropriate for me to speak of that era since it was before my time, but I know something happened that required you to sacrifice yourself. As a result, your soul was damaged and fell into the lower realms somehow. Those fragments of memories you see are part of your past.”
Sol remained silent as she listened to An. Her mind was surprisingly calm, as if she had already thought of the possibility. Rather than concern herself with the details of her death, she was more curious about her dream.
The memory had already faded, however there was a warmth it left behind that reminded her of when she first collapsed. That dream was one she always retained and within it she was flying with a colossal beast. Despite being unable to recall her recent dream, the warmth matched that past dream perfectly.
“Was… Was this lady close to someone back then?” She felt she knew the answer already, but was hoping for external validation. Of all her memories she had access to, they could be classified in two categories. Practical or Emotional. Through the entire collection, Sol only discovered two emotional memories so far, and both were related to that beast.
It was obvious to Sol how important that creature was to her. Despite its hazy image in her memories, her heart fluttered just at its outline. Such emotions were preserved despite her soul being so heavily injured. Sol understood herself rather well.
Assuming she retained her personality from the past, then she would only protect the memories she felt were useful, or the memories she absolutely couldn’t let go of. Following that logic, Sol waited with a faint breath for An’s answer.
“I don’t know. That era was before my time. There are stories and rumors, but the sheer variety is enough to drown out the truth. What I do know is that there’s a lot of people hunting for you. Many of those people are far more powerful than you can imagine. I can’t answer for others, however my Master sent me here specifically to locate and protect you. When you become strong enough, or he finishes his preparations, there will be a chance to ask him whatever you want.”
Sol only replied with a silent hum. There was nothing she could do for now about it and her emotions were gradually coming back under her control. As they stabilized, Sol began taking stock of her body’s situation.
Her eyes closed and her spiritual awareness surrounded herself. She found the density of her soul’s membrane had nearly quadrupled in strength. Unlike before, she felt the faint draw of magic from the environment slipping into her soul to fill her up.
‘So this was what An meant by attracting magic with a stronger soul…’ She thought in her mind. There was a sense of emptiness inside her that she found difficult to ignore. It was as if spent her entire life near the ocean listening to the constant sound of waves and then suddenly was placed into a silent room.
Though difficult to ignore, the emptiness only drew her attention rather than demanded it. Her awareness turned to her physical body and found slight alterations to it. Within her chest near her heart, Sol found the start of a small unidentified organ.
Her awareness funneled in on that organ to examine it further, however it rejected any probing from the outside as if insulated from spiritual awareness. Though surprised, Sol moved on to the rest of her body since the organ wasn’t disturbing her in any way.
An had already warned her that different cultivation methods alter the body as one progresses in that method. After a complete overview of her body, she found the tendons in her body became slightly more flexible despite also gaining a small boost to density.
Finding everything to be in order, Sol took the clothes thrown at her and started changing in the adobe. Upon leaving, she found An right outside the door with a solemn expression. She wondered if their previous conversation caused his mood to plummet.
“An, can you look at my heart? There’s something there I can’t identify.” There’s an expert right next to her. Why wouldn’t Sol utilize them? She shamelessly requested his help and felt the intrusion of a spiritual awareness in the next moment.
She was rather surprised by that. Previously, Sol could only tell if there was a spiritual awareness interacting with hers, yet now she was able to feel someone else probing her body. Her face blushed instantly after realizing the implications and her spiritual awareness acted on her emotions to directly attack the spiritual awareness probing her.
An only grinned at her response. “Kid, you’re too young and wiley for this King to desire. Don’t bother fighting back with that meager strength.” Though rude, Sol noticed the change in An’s approach to her as well. Prior to their conversation, An would never use such a tone with her.
As if catching her flickering thoughts, An continued his examination while chatting. “You and I are beyond the point of faking relations at this point. My master sent me here to protect you, but you should be aware that I’m thousands of years older than you at this stage. It’d be a joke to keep pretending to be a kid.”
“This Lady has never treated you as a child, An.” Sol replied rather cooly to his statement as if she didn’t care, however there was a subtle sense of loss in her heart. She felt the spiritual awareness withdraw from her body a second later.
An’s face held a rather confused expression. “I don’t know what that is. You said the Unchained Queen Beast method was evolving, so there’s a chance that the organ is from the mutation…” Despite saying so, there was a hint of confusion linked into his statement.
Although Sol couldn’t pick up on his expression or tone at that moment, she felt the situation was rather strange. An, on the other hand, was baffled. Sol had only practiced The Unchained Queen Beast method for a few years now and this was her first refinement.
Unless the method was evolving from the start, it would be impossible for such an organ to appear in the first refinement. The first refinement only targeted the soul since the body refinement stage prepared the body. The situation was somewhat outside his control, however he had no intention of stopping Sol from continuing.
Regardless of the changes, Sol’s soul implemented it and the original Unchained Queen Beast method was already a high level cultivation method. The odds of anything going wrong was low.
