It had been three agonizing months since the attack of the Demon Clan, and the caravan would arrive at the Human Tribe soon. Mikhail had long since healed from the severe injuries that the orc of the Demon Clan had inflicted upon him, yet…
There was an all-encompassing pain that radiated outwards from his Cerebral Core.
When he underwent his Spiritual Awakening, the power of his Spiritual Pressure was unveiled… One of the main features of a person's spirit. An involuntary defense mechanism the body made use of to try and suppress its enemies.
According to Yagnar, it had directly broken through to the second Minor Realm of the spirit, the Spiritual Tempering Stage. However, the Cerebral Core itself was only in the mortal realm.
As such — not only did Mikhail have no way to control his Spiritual Pressure like a normal Evolver at the Spiritual Tempering Realm could — his Spiritual Pressure was too much even for his own body.
On top of that, he had trouble sleeping. Not only because of the ever-present pain, but because of the nightmares. In that somber moment, three months ago, his bloodthirsty doppelganger was just like him.
Afraid of dying…
"How do you feel, fool?!"
The sound of Mog's voice from outside the carriage made Mikhail wince in pain.
"Like… shit..."
Yagnar echoed Mikhail's words for him, since they were too soft to travel the distance.
Which made him groan.
'Does he really need to shout right next to me?! Fuck!'
Mikhail had just taken some pain relief medicine, a pill made from the frill of some beast called an Elvisaur along with some other herbs that also contained traces of the Ice Element.
It would take at least thirty minutes for the medication to take effect, and even then, it wasn't potent enough to substantially subdue the pain he felt.
Mog nodded and left, letting Yagnar close the door to the storage carriage. Yagnar then sat down on one of the crates, reading his book silently as per usual. Because of Mikhail's Spiritual Pressure, only the adults of the caravan could get close to Mikhail safely.
Mog had once made the mistake of getting too close and was out cold for two hours after the fact.
"Hey… Uncle Yagnar…"
"Hm?"
"You said that… The… Grand Elder… Had… powerful pain pills… right?"
"Uh-huh. That old hag will be able to help you."
"This… what was it called… state of… imbalance… really fucking sucks…"
His spiritual pressure was putting massive strain on his refined body, hence the ever-present pain. Had he been a mortal, it was very likely that his Spiritual Pressure would have outright crushed his body into a puddle of gore.
Yagnar postulated that chances were that the pain would follow him until he broke through to the second Minor Martial Realm, or until he awakened the Water Element.
However, since Yagnar wasn't well versed in fields like imbalance, that was the extent of knowledge he could realistically offer Mikhail in his troubling times.
Again, they'd need to arrive at the human tribe and Mikhail would need to have an audience with the Grand Elder...
And thankfully, the time was finally about to arrive..
It was nearly midnight when the caravan began to slow down, many hours since he had taken his daily dose of pain relief.
And then, after a few minutes had passed, they came to a full stop.
"Alright, kid. Up and at 'em, we're here."
He stretched his hand out to Mikhail, who took it and pulled himself up. The effort was vomit-inducing, yet Mikhail managed to keep his lunch down. The pain medicine was circulating in his system at full throttle, and he had long since gotten used to forcing himself to move when he absolutely needed to.
It almost felt natural to push through the pain…
"With spunk like yours, you'll manage to get through this hardship, kid. Don't forget that when the going gets tough."
He weakly nodded, following Yagnar out of the carriage.
Despite his expectations, the terrain around them was almost completely flat, unlike the mountainous and uneven terrain of the Shagar Jungle.
The houses he could see right now were all made of a pale-yellow stone, and their outsides were dense with detail, bands of carvings adorning their edges and doorways. They all had unique designs carved into them, with wooden poles sticking out the sides of the walls towards the roof.
Several alleyways formed as the result of the tightly knit houses, but he also noticed how there were walkways connecting the different houses at the roof level over those alleyways, and even over some of the larger paths visible from where he stood!
There even seemed to be bonfires burning on some of the roofs, as thin trails of smoke rose into the air, illuminated by the orange light of the fire below.
These buildings were all sizable single story abodes, and they all had towers rising from their roofs at different spots. He recognized them as Wind Towers, meant to create cross ventilation and passive cooling within the buildings.
He could see huge palm trees rising above the towers here and there from where he was, with all of them bearing an assortment of different fruits. However, one structure stood taller than the rest in the corner of his vision.
It looked like a cathedral of his old world, with four Wind Towers at each corner. On the roof was a grand looking dome, with a spire that seemed to pierce the heavens above.
And there was another thing that he immediately noticed. Something truly, horrifyingly terrible.
It was hot as fuck!
'This heat is strangely familiar… I hate it.'
He slowly went down the two carriage steps, and felt his feet dig into the arid soil.
They were in some open area filled with wooden wagons and an assortment of different crates lying around. There were a few rectangular crates with water, and the Chasmosaurs were being led from the carriages to drink from them to his left in that expansive area.
The heat started to get to him, and he sat down on the carriage steps.
There was a commotion going on now that everyone had arrived, a commotion that quickly drained his mental stamina. His face turned to the ground, and beads of sweat fell from his head.
The pain was beginning to return in its entirety. His focus began to waver, and his consciousness began to fade. He fought against the urge to pass out, but ultimately began to lose and fell forward. Yet he was caught by someone.
"Easy there. I heard everything from Yagnar, I'll take you to the Grand Elder so we can get you patched up, cousin."
A deep voice reached Mikhail's ears. He knew that that was the voice of a human man, and was surprised when he heard that he was speaking the orc tongue.
Mikhail then felt his body getting effortlessly lifted up, before being gently placed on the man's shoulder. All he could make out from his deteriorating vision was that the man's skin was black, and that he had some brutal looking scars along his arms.
He was brought away, and his consciousness slipped back and forth as the man carried Mikhail somewhere. He caught glimpses of other human adults looking at him with concern, and occasionally the shocked glances of paralyzed adolescents.
"Hey… The others… You need… to be… careful…"
"They'll be fine! Worry about yourself, you idiot!"
A short while later, his vision blacked out completely.