When Alexander finally came to his senses, he found himself looking at an azure sky with only an ocean available for miles around him stretching out towards a distant horizon. There was no sign of any land anywhere within his sight. The shiny sun hung high up in the skies brightly illuminating everything around him. For some reason, he felt peaceful despite being surrounded by total emptiness.
He looked down at himself and saw that he had no legs! Such a sudden revelation startled Alexander immediately, but the moment he thought he must have legs, a pair appeared.
"What the..." He said confused as he looked down at his legs again only to see nothing wrong with them.
But he realized something else. He was floating in the air! At this exact moment, he began to fall down. The surface of the water was approaching fast and soon enough, he would land upon it with an impact that would shatter every bone in his body. He could not help but scream fearfully when he realized this was going to be the result! His body crashed into the surface of the water, but no pain appeared. In fact, he didn't feel anything at all!
Next, he realized he could stand on the surface of the water as if it was solid ground! It felt like his feet were firmly planted onto something solid beneath his feet even though this something looked like water.
"Am I going mad?" He asked himself as he looked around. He didn't see anyone else on this vast sea. "Am I dead?" He asked himself once again as he began searching for any signs of life on this vast ocean floor only to find nothing but water everywhere as far as his vision reached; however...he couldn't help but feel like something should be here...
"Maybe it's a dream? I should wake up..." He said aloud and his eyes opened wide. He found himself looking at the roof of the cavern.
"What? Wasn't I in water?" He asked himself puzzled while looking around him but everything seemed normal.
"Wait... there also was a red sky... and a skeleton before that. Did I faint and dream about all these things?" He asked himself confused again before sitting up abruptly and looking around him once again.
There was nothing particularly striking about this cave. It actually was rather small, very tiny even. Alexander got up and turned around. The first thing he saw was the remains of the stone gates. They were broken into pieces scattered all over the mouth of this small cave.
"So I didn't imagine the gate. Did I go past it and pass out from overexertion?" Alexander flexed his body and tried to move around. He felt good, in fact, he felt better than ever. He still felt some pain from all the bruises he accumulated recently, but his entire body was energized, he felt he could run a marathon without breaking a sweat. He stepped out of the small cave with a confident stride, only to be dumbfounded by the sight that greeted him.
The lake that was previously on the ceiling was now on the floor. The entire cavern was flooded and if not for an incline in that small cave he was in, he would probably drown while he was unconscious.
Alexander felt a shiver go up his spine. The thought of such a close call was certainly not the most pleasant one.
"Now... how do I get out from here?" He asked himself as he examined the surface of the newly formed underground lake.
The next second, something floating on the surface caught his eye.
"It is that confusion demon's corpse..." He muttered after taking a closer look. However, there was something shiny on the demon's body.
At first, he thought of ignoring it, but his curiosity got better of him.
"Well, since I'm going to get wet anyway..."
He jumped into the lake without hesitation and swam to the demon's body. In less than a minute he was already next to it.
"Well, what do we have here..." He muttered as he inspected the demon's lifeless body.
It was a rather gruesome sight. Broken bones poked out of its deformed chest. Alexander could clearly see how the center part of its torso was a little bit sunken. And in the center of this mess, was a small shiny crystal covered in blood.
"Are you a confusion demon or a diamond demon?" He asked, but obviously, no one answered him. He picked the crystal and swam back to the elevated outcropping in front of the small cave.
'Let's see what you are...' He sat down and produced the small crystal he found. It looked pretty rough, and it seemed as if there was some kind of liquid swirling inside of it. It was a little bit reminiscent of a Christmas water globe since it looked as if there were sparkles in this liquid, but It was clear that it was more viscous than water.
"So, what do I do with it?" The crystal looked pretty, but nothing happened as he held it in his hands. "Maybe I need to activate it somehow?"
Alexander took a deep breath and extended his consciousness towards the crystal to examine it closer. But aside from getting a pretty detailed look, and feeling that there was some energy inside, nothing happened.
"Hmm... maybe I need to do something else?" He quickly summoned the power of his Blood Qi. To his surprise, it was a lot stronger than before. A slight, formless reddish glow appeared around his hand.
"Woah, did it become stronger again?"
It seemed that his Blood Qi was around twice as strong as before. He felt that if he punched the confusion demon from before now, he would probably break all its bones in one hit.
"I'm not going to get anywhere like this." He clenched his fist with the crystal inside it.
Crack!
The crystal shattered in his hand. The liquid, previously confined inside the crystal, began to glow and quickly took on a new form.