A miniature bulky being without legs hovered before Liam's human body.
It had a third eye and most of its body became hidden underneath some kind of transparent armor.
The small spiritual body before him consisted of one of many forms he thought he'd concentrate on creating.
Many options gave him a tough time to choose. He decided to create a few prototypes.
Liam had plenty of time, anyway. When the enemy got close or he expanded far enough to use the spirit body.
Then he would be able to test it against various enemies. His best bet would be humans and their awakened elders as of now.
However, that would mean that his secret would no longer be one. Many other problems could arise.
Higher ups didn't see him as a threat because he couldn't do anything dangerous to the human race except for research.
A bad ending might end a few lives. That kind of loss wouldn't be unacceptable for those standing high above.
Rogue spirit, on the other hand. It became another whole wild card with unpredictable results.
No matter what. If they let it grow and one day, Liam decided to go on a rampage.
Many might not be able to stop him. He had time and could grow in peace with the help of humans.
Unless he grew his strength a hundredfold higher than in the form, he'd show to the outside world.
He didn't want to expose his new form.
Liam began to contact the outside world more and returned to researching for at least an hour.
Results had to be made. Otherwise, the people outside might find something amiss.
He didn't fear the humans alone that much. The mysterious God entity he felt wary of.
When the memories of his last era awakened, they could have avoided many things if this so called God appeared.
All of this boiled down to an important question.
Did the God arrive earlier and took over the planet like the other invaders planned to do or did the planet itself give birth to it as a defense mechanism?
In the end. He had to grind for power. That's all to it.
The more he had, the better he'd be off against any kind of new enemy, be it God or not.
And the spirit gave him hope.
Unlike before, where he could enhance his human side.
The purely 4D spirit could absorb mana and grow in power.
It's one weakness remained in the dependency on mana. Such weakness shared the human body in different forms, so he didn't worry much.
While he could imagine some kind of nullifying magic.
Such powerful means should have shown up in records a long time ago.
Either way, he had no plans to search for something he might not find.
The spiritual body of his gave him more and more surprises.
Circulation of mana and the overall mana control improved whenever he took control over the spirit.
A much better conductor for mana allowed him to further create better mana crystals.
They grew to a point where comparing them to the previous mana crystals would be unjust.
Liam called them Tier 2 mana crystals. Their potency didn't increase that much, but the amount of mana exceeded seven or more.
He just had to refine it to above ten, and then he would readjust the scaling system.
The tier 2 mana crystals boosted the growth of his spiritual body, and it almost grew by an entire meter every month.
Sadly, it slowed down in the second year.
He also stumbled upon another entire realm of spells. Contrary to the use of runes.
Spells didn't use solely mana.
It needed some kind of basic control mechanism that ensured the surrounding mana would listen and use the greatest power it could muster.
The progress of finding it slowed his progress down. Although runes had a bit better potency.
Comparing it to the almost endless barrages that the new system represented gave him ideas.
He already imagined the scene. Thousands of enemies hurling themselves at him before a meteor shower purged them all.
Endless healing didn't matter to endless damage.
His ideas grew deeper and deeper. Maybe he could one day create some kind of formation that would rain endless meteors.
Like the scene where tornadoes, volcanoes and other powerful phenomena held the enemy at bay for so many years.
Four years later, after the creation of his spirit. He met his first major roadblock.
With months wasted and little to no progress. Liam took a bit of a break and checked out any smaller news.
Over the years, the battlefield stabilised with the introduction of mana crystals.
Some talented people made tier 1s.
It boosted the progress of many weaker unawakened elders and became a sort of currency for awakened elders.
Mana refiners kept gaining higher and higher foothold in the world.
They turned into literal money printing machines.
With Liam's retreat. Akand became a bit of a stranger and such feelings went both ways.
Their meetings revolved either around urgent business or the once in a year meeting.
Sometimes, even that got put off.
Any news about Talia remained unknown.
Years later, even her own family didn't know where she went.
Liam prayed for her safety, but respected her own choice to pursue something instead of sitting like a duck.
He remembered those older days and cringed. Where he prepared some kind of speeches to make Talia and Akand stay forever.
He never went through with it. But it became a seared memory of his that he may never be able to forget.
Now that he thought about it. The entire time, most of the speeches could compare to those romcoms.
Destined shame aside.
Terran entered the absolute top of the awakened realm and his fame spread everywhere.
Almost everyone thought of him as a destined for the new potential saint.
Over the years. A saint would appear and test the most powerful generation.
If they manage to pass. They would join the saint and seldom appear throughout the history.
Some records suggested immortality.
Many craved such fruit and Liam could understand why as well.
Though people looked at immortality as a curse. He saw it as a natural process of evolution.
One day, the most perfected human must reach immortality and become eternal.
It may sound like a torture. But one immortal in existence and thousands or more like him meant something else.
A fundamental change.
One side became a monster, oddity and a cursed being. The other changed into a thriving civilization that got rid of the shackles of time.
The mysterious God alone proved that at least a very long lasting being already existed.
Liam himself must have existed for many years.
So, while he slept or hibernated through almost all of it. Having a companion for immortality didn't sound so bad.
He kept imagining the future of a powerful sect of people he'd lead to pave the way to true immortality.
Liam slapped himself and got out of it.
Ever since he gained the spiritual body, he began to shoot at the stars a bit too much.
To take his mind off the recent things. Liam decided to observe people he forged powerful connections with.
Many new people shared quite the bond. He never met them or interacted with most of them.
Nevertheless, the bridge stood there as a reminder that they held some kind of level of affinity.
Watching these people go about their days. Liam often fell into deep thought.
He never considered it, but his relationship with Akand grew quite fast even compared to others amongst those in the city.
Not many possessed that kind of affinity.
Yet, he couldn't understand Akand. His outbursts and seeming changes in emotions.
It didn't conform with his ideas of total freedom or stoicism.
Their connection never faltered, either.
Perhaps he misunderstood the person, but he'd have to dig deeper.
Time would be the final judge of their friendship.
Akand became a conundrum for him and he didn't know how to go on about it.
In the end, he decided to not do much. While he might regret not being too proactive, but going strong out of nowhere might backfire.
Another interesting piece of news gave him a pleasant change of flavour in his mundane life.
Terran announced his return. His arrival got scheduled to be a week or two after he finished his recent mission.
It shook the frontlines as Terran never took a break.
Liam welcomed it very much.
Their brief exchanges throughout the years could never compare to those brief months he spent with him.
He wondered how big of a change Terran experienced.
Maybe he'd turn from that bookworm to a man packed with more muscles than brains.
Or he never changed, which Liam doubted.
Overall, he planned a small celebration party welcoming his arrival.
He briefly considered telling him about the spirit body, but decided against him.
They might have hit it off. However, time changed everyone.
And when saints arrived, he didn't know what kind of means they had.
Two weeks later.
A man surrounded by an invisible aura that made way for him appeared without anyone's knowledge.
Only a silent bridge lightened up to celebrate his arrival...