The next thing he could feel was a tingling sensation covering his whole body. He could not understand it at first as his brain started functioning again slowly, but after he felt that his eyes were recreated, he saw his body was healing up like a puddle forming into a shape. He was in some sort of lake, and his blood was gushing out from some of his veins, yet swimming back to his "puddle" without going too far away. When his lungs and his mouth were recreated, he realized he was not breathing until then.
He did not know what was going on, but the water gave him the sensation of his mother's womb.
"It is not spring healing thee; that is I," a soothing voice whispered into his mind.
Balendon wanted to thank that voice, yet he forgot how to do so.
The voice replied, "I apprehend thine thoughts since I dwell along with your soul momentarily. Fret not, for I scheme not to possess thine flesh nor harm thou. Bear obeisance a while longer."
Balendon could not help but feel meek against this archaic being and did as he was told. He felt weak compared to before as his body fully shaped back to its former self. His magic power was gone.
"Thou art lucky to preserve the purest form of your flesh, tainted not by other essences," commended the voice, then the owner of the voice appeared. Standing afloat in front of him, it was an elderly male fairy, like a mentor lecturing a child, demanding respect with his presence alone.
On the other side, Balendon, an everyday, normal guy, with an extraordinary will to survive that which even he cannot explain why. He was completely broken and was full of hatred towards the injustice and evil in the world.
It was not a sense of justice- no, he was too weak for that. It was grudge. One had to be strong to be good or defend justice. He started seeing around him instead of looking. He was in a scenery that could truly be called heaven. The warm, colorful flora, distant mountains and valleys along with rivers and majestic forests made it feel as if one was seeing all the beauty the world could offer at once.
The sky was vast and enchanting. Just by looking at the forest, one wanted to be a fawn running among the trees; or by looking at the sky, a sparrow; or by looking at the ponds formed by the calmly flowing rivers, a carp or an angelfish. Only by looking at this beauty, his cold, grey vision and shattered point of view were healing. Colors were pouring back into his heart, and pieces of beauty and appreciation were coming back together.
"What is the purpose of living?" he thought again.
"To live this beauty to the fullest!" he replied to himself with childish excitement.
"Can I live here until I die?" he asked.
"Me is not of the might to grant thine wish," replied the fairy.
Suddenly, an ominous second question came to his mind, as if his life was set to torture him in every possible way.
"Can one be happy alone?"
Suddenly, he felt a sharp cut around his neck where Lennya's life had slipped away. He felt something he had forgotten long ago. This time, there was no blizzard to freeze him, and warm tears poured down his cheeks as his newly forming joy was shattered again.
He truly wished his wife could see this scenery as he cried a river onto the river for the first time in his life. With brief hope, he looked at the fairy, wondering if he could resurrect his wife or something.
The fairy shook his head.
"A demise cannot be undone after seven years, yet who might be in the lumination of such knowledge!? O! The Ancients without a debate! One might not bring the dead back, yet time-space is truly a marvel."
Balendon's eyes started blazing with hope after hearing those words, and his tears stopped coming. He did not understand what the fairy was saying in words, but he could understand his meaning.
"Heed mine words; do not take them as fact but as possibility. This sphere is full of maddening mysteries! Such as the spring of world marrowing into thine flesh as we converse, which is able to turn miracles into ordinary as long as you know how they happen. The power of world essence."
Balendon looked confused but was also filled with anticipation. The fairy continued.
"Thou art not tainted by other essences and feasted on mana all this time. Although thine foundation is feeble in comparison to those of before, fret not! Thine potential is unlimited regardless, but..."
The fairy hesitated. His face turned mournful as if he regretted something.
"Even this fairy has regrets and has troubles," thought Balendon.
"Precise!" replied the fairy, as if he had given up his previous concerns. "Is it thine desire to obtain the might to reshape worlds?"
Balendon answered, "Yes," without hesitation.
The fairy replied, "Why?"
Balendon delved into deep thoughts for a brief time. He imagined himself on top of the food chain. He wanted to destroy, dominate, and deform- not the good things, but only the distasteful, irritating, evil parts of the world.
Satisfied with Balendon's thoughts, it seemed, the fairy burst into exhilarated but somewhat malicious laughter.
"Thine desire is purer than those ten hypocrite brats from the past."
Balendon gave the possibility some thought but couldn't believe that the 'brats' mentioned were the ten gods.
"But they are!" exclaimed the fairy. "It was too late until they realized their self-folly! Even after absorbing their predecessors' soul shards! They knew it better than anyone, yet still they plunged the world into chaos, causing great devastation upon these beautiful lands! Ah, yet again! Ah! I do not care anymore! Thou art the last one. Be sure to engrave their stupidity onto their minds. Alas, I do not have any more ancestral soul shards to guide thee, but I know what will compensate for that."
The fairy raised his hands. Balendon felt a mysterious force shaping and condensing the spring he was in into a vial of glittering water.
The fairy said, "Sip forth!"
The vial landed in Balendon's hand, from which he took a sip.
"This vial is to enrich one's conception towards the source of all- the essence of all!"
Balendon started seeing and feeling things he could not describe. Colors became livelier with a higher bluish tint, as if every string of detail in the scenery was something to learn. The most important thing he was feeling at that moment was his body.
He could feel tiny things forming up to be something alive and moving! Then those alive things would combine into bigger, string-like things, and then they would form his organs and then his body.
He focused on his body, which was screaming with knowledge to be discovered. He realized every time the small things divided, something was fewer in them. By using world force, in a short time and with the knowledge bestowed by the fairy, he comprehended how his body worked and attained immortality by fixing what needed to be fixed.
A lot of information was flowing into his mind from the fairy, which he could feel but not name nor explain. He also started feeling power flowing into his body and mind- the power of knowledge to make things happen.
The world force was the essence that shaped everything. He could absorb the world force and form it into things he knew. He became the master of his body. He strengthened his body, improved his regenerative properties, enhanced his five senses, and purified his body of his scars from the past. However, he could still feel the sharp pain on his neck due to his trauma. His body now felt in top shape.
He even spat out some unhealthy teeth to grow healthy ones. He burned unnecessary fat and grew flexible muscles in his body. The basic idea of power in the world was utilizing mana to lift or push, so people did not care much about physical prowess.
Balendon, however, knew the amazing benefits of boosting mana with physical power. Thus, he paid extra attention to every detail of his body. His blood could now contain more air and world force instead of mana.
The fairy said, "It was precise to gamble on the world river's power. From now on, thou shall comprehend things unseen to the eye, unfelt by the heart, faster than those brats. Our naught stunt ends here. I shall chase you off now."
With a satisfied grin on his face, it was at that moment Balendon realized this old being also wanted purification through destruction. He was not innocent, either. For the first time after Lennya, Balendon felt some sort of empathy, though it was not lovely but hateful.
As the scenery shifted from the heaven-like landscape to the dark cave where Balendon had fallen, he could still hear the diminishing voice of the fairy saying, "Forget not thine purpose!"
He could feel the cold, but not strongly since he was hundreds of meters below. He was naked, like a newborn. He conjured a flame with mana to see his surroundings.
Using the skill to cast flame made him realize how flame worked and led him to try conjuring it with world essence. He had survived so far even without learning combat skills. As he raised the heat of the small particles with the help of his new force instead of mana, to make them burn, he realized that the world force was omnipotent compared to mana.
It became a law for the world force to burn. His purpose was to see his surroundings, but his arm set ablaze instantly. After immense pain, he could not extinguish it nor heal his arm. Instead, he came up with a more practical solution- he cut off his arm, enduring even greater pain.
Applying world force to daily survival skills instead of mana echoed a sentence in his mind: "Play not with fire."
He was surprised more by the fact that he thought like the fairy for a moment. He resolved to get rid of that way of talking or he would sound like a hermit living like a savage away from civilization.
Suddenly, he shivered after being pummeled in the face with another fact. He gazed at the sky where the northern lights swirled, looked like they were mocking him with their ethereal and constant dance.