'My gut is telling me something is wrong. Literally'
'Before I settled in to my new position, I started having a terrible stomachache. I was beyond shocked; how could someone like me still experience such simple and mundane drawbacks.'
'I mean, it's obvious that I still have a stomach, but it shouldn't bother me anymore!'
'Anyway, back when I was still a pitiful mortal, my stomach would ache whenever something bad was about to happen. If that's the case now, then I'm assuming it must be because of my deep, rooted connection to the Heavenly Dao.'
'The Heavens themselves must be giving me a sign! A staple of my new position, and testament to my newfound power.'
'However, just in case I perish in my attempts to carry out the Will of the Heavens, I think I'll leave a note explaining my departure so that the others know.'
'Yes, that seems like a good idea.'
|Thoughts of the Heavenly Immortal As He Prepares For Departure|
Following a sound like shattering glass, Gilgamesh entered an all new space-time. When he looked around, he saw that he was standing in the ruined, foggy countryside of a dismal place.
The sky was dark and cloudy, without stars, and a bleak wind eased through the land unendingly.
This place looked nothing like the world he had seen in his vision.
"I wonder... Could this be the mystic realm? Was it restored to its original state?"
Folding his arms behind him, Gilgamesh looked around some more and noticed a scintillating light in the distance. With no where else to go, he decided to walk to it.
As he did so, he started to feel the peculiar sensation that he was headed in the right direction, and realized that it was a passive effect of the Omniscient Author.
'Wait...'
Realizing this, he attempting to use his true energy natures. and realized that he had just as much freedom here as he did before. Becoming a bit excited, he quickly discerned the truth.
This was the exact same mystic realm, and it had indeed reverted to the way it was when Gilgamesh had died in the very beginning. He also figured out that he was heading towards the exit.
As he got closer to the light, it took an oval shape before he felt himself pass through a restrictive barrier. At first, it was as if he was slowly walking through a thin film, but he quickly broke through and proceeded toward the oval-shaped light.
"This must be the way out..."
Gilgamesh swallowed and stuck his hand into the portal, seeing it disappear, then he pulled it out and saw that it was fine.
"Here goes."
He pushed himself through the light, and was greeted by the sight of the ancient forest valley. In that moment, he heard a crack behind him.
Quickly turning around, he saw the same light that he had walked through, as well as the gigantic gate behind him. It seemed the mystic realm was linked to the gate somehow.
The portal lingered for only a moment before it snapped in two, then came apart. As it did so, a force from inside the mystic realm exploded to life, and started to propel something out of it.
In a matter of seconds, an object shot out of the portal, and Gilgamesh grabbed it. At the same time, the portal crashed and then imploded, sucking itself into itself then vanishing.
Gilgamesh gave a low whistle before he opened his hand and saw the object that had been brought out of the mystic realm. It was tiny, spherical, and seemingly constructed out of an exceptionally hard material.
There were intricate details on the sphere, as though it were fashioned after a planet, and Gilgamesh could sense a faint aura of life coming from it.
When he tried to tap into his true energy natures to further inspect it, he faced a shocking new truth.
His true energy had all but disappeared, meaning he could not even tap into any of his natures anymore. He was in for another rude awakening when he tried to use his spiritual sense, and felt the feebleness of his own spirit.
He was unable to extend his sense to a radius beyond a few dozen feet, which terrified him.
As if his discoveries set something into motion, Gilgamesh's entire body started feeling weak and he took a knee almost instantly. He started to find it difficult to breathe, and looked around as panic set into his eyes.
He didn't see anyone, so the world around him only seemed to grow larger and larger.
"What is this..." Gilgamesh spoke between gasps; it was much too difficult to breathe.
"What is this feeling?"
The reality had truly set in. He had entered the real world, and was being forced to come to terms with how weak he really was.
As he was struggling to withstand the change in atmosphere, clouds materialized in the air above his head, coming from no where.
In the distance, the sect disciples that were going about their daily lives noticed the change in the skies, and started speculating.
"That's odd. Was someone out cultivating near the Gate?"
"Maybe it's Big Brother Feral finally making a breakthrough!"
"Come on, let's go see!"
Meanwhile, atop a tall tree, a strange man was sitting on a branch and eying the clouds strangely, his gaze bright. "What kind of tribulation clouds are those?"
His eyes narrowed, "Something isn't right."
...
With each breath Gilgamesh took, he felt himself slowly acclimatizing to his new environment. As the fear slowly dissipated, he felt a new sensation through his spiritual sense.
For example, he could now feel the richness of true energy in this world. It was so exaggerated that, in something as commonplace as the wind, he felt an abundance of true energy that was comparable to what he had felt himself exhibit back in the mystic realm.
His understandings were ruthlessly dashed.
Gilgamesh's ideas regarding the new heights of power were all wrong, and he was forced to accept that he was nothing. Not even a helpless ant in this world would be worse off than him.
He only just started feeling normal again when he noticed the storm brewing above him. What started off as a small gathering of clouds now encompassed the entire sky.
Within the swirling eye, he could see thunderous flashes and hear the rumbling of the heavens, but worse than that was what he felt. He instantly felt as though something had set its eyes on him, and was beginning to make a move.
Alarm bells rung in his mind; his instincts told him to get the hell away from that storm!
Gilgamesh sighed, 'At least I still have my instincts.'
Following that, he prepared himself to leave the area.
That was when he heard the sound of a large number of people arriving.
"Huh? Who the hell is that?"
"Boo! That isn't Big Brother Feral. What a waste!"
"Wait a minute..."
"Isn't that Gilgamesh!"
Gilgamesh saw a small crowd of outer sect disciples gather in front of the gate, looking directly at him. He froze for a second as he subconsciously sized them up, and realized that they were all incredibly powerful.
Just the true energy fluctuations coming from their bodies was enough to destroy him completely. He gulped, then felt a number of powerful spirits peruse his body.
"But wasn't Gilgamesh an Outer Disciple at the peak of Condensation? This whelp has barely any true energy to speak of."
"She's right. Oi! You there, what's your name?"
Also noticing that the clouds were still swirling above them, the disciples looked around to see if they could find anyone else.
"Is this your heavenly tribulation?"
Gilgamesh heard the questions and took a deep breath. It would have been better if he could have avoided this until after the effects of the world subsided completely, but that was not the case.
Trying his best to stave off the debilitation, Gilgamesh looked at them with a level expression and said, "I am Gilgamesh, an Outer Disciple. I only just came out of the mystic realm."
"The mystic realm?" One of them mused.
"If you really are Gilgamesh, then why are you so weak?" A girl asked, sparking the interest of the others.
"I... don't know. My... cultivation... seems to have regressed a bit."
Hearing this, the disciples seemed a bit skeptical but chose to believe it in the end.
"You said this was a heavenly tribulation?"
"Huh!? What else could it be?" A trace of ridicule came from a female disciple as she said this.
While they were discussing things among themselves, Gilgamesh felt a chill run down his spine. He instinctively looked up at the storm; it had reached a crux.
Within the storm's eyes, a single opening was made. With a flash of blinding light, a person cloaked in starlight appeared in the sky. At first, that person went unnoticed, but as they descended they came out from within the storm clouds and exposed themself.
"Is that a man?"
"Could this be his tribulation, then? But his realm seems so high."
"Aw, that isn't Big Brother Feral either..."
Gilgamesh looked at the man that descended from the sky and felt his heart racing, pounding at the confines of his chest.
The man looked around at them with clear disinterest, but his eyes lingered on Gilgamesh.
"You."
When he spoke, his voice became one with heaven and earth, resounding in all the world.
The disciples fell silent as Gilgamesh turned to face the man.
"Me?" Gilgamesh pointed at himself dumbly. This was because he felt way too much true energy from that man. So much so that he was unable to even discern just how much of it there was.
There was simply too much for him to even comprehend.
"What are you?"
There was silence. Gilgamesh was silent, the disciples were silent-- all the world was silent. Neither the wind, nor the trees dared to make a sound. The man commanded the attention of this world, and the world had to keep itself in check in his presence.
'So this is a god? This is what a real god feels like?' Gilgamesh could not fight the thought as it came. A sense of reverence was beginning to well up in him as well.
Suddenly, the man's head snapped in the sect's direction.
While they were all staring at the man with incredulous gazes, a voice spoke from the direction of the sect, coming from the top of a distant tree.
"What is he? What kind of question is that?"
After saying this, a loosely dressed, lackadaisical-looking man appeared in the air above the sect, directly opposing the man that stood in the air beneath the storm.
"Gilgamesh is a disciple of my master's sect, Lord Cloud, and so he is under my protection."