The cold air of the ice room was kept at bay by a dome of warm, amber light, its gentle glow sealing off the chill like a protective cocoon. At the heart of that warmth sat a large, circular bed, its surface faintly rumpled, bearing the quiet evidence of what had taken place there.

Three pale forms lay entangled upon it.

They had slept, after… quite some time.

Amber and Rainie Chen lay in a state of blissful exhaustion, limbs heavy with sated languor, their breathing slow and even. The faint tracks of dried tears still clung to the corners of their eyes, yet their expressions were peaceful, touched with the unmistakable softness of deep contentment. They were curled into Ethan, one on each side, their heads resting on his arms as though they belonged there, as though this was the most natural place in the world.

Truly the picture of having your cake and eating it too, one might think.

Ethan himself, freshly resurrected, lay perfectly still, his eyes closed and his expression unreadable. A profound silence filled the icy chamber, broken only by the quiet rhythm of breathing. The two women nestled closer to him, faces pressed to his chest, smiles lingering beneath the traces of earlier tears. They looked complete, as though nothing else existed beyond this small island of warmth.

Yet Ethan's consciousness was not with them.

It had withdrawn, retreating inward and returning to his Mindscape.

The sight that greeted him there was one of pure chaos.

His Mindscape, the sacred inner space of his spirit, looked as though a tornado had ripped through a storage unit and then taken personal offense at the aftermath. Items he had once carefully arranged within his Spatial Storage were scattered indiscriminately across the central platform of his consciousness, flung about as if by a tantrum-throwing god with no regard for order or reason.

The place resembled a junkyard.

"What the hell?" Ethan muttered, staring at the devastation. "Who did this?"

His mood upon entering had already been prickly with a strange, frustrated energy. The extended activities with Amber and Rainie had been… intense, far more than he had anticipated. Both women had eventually succumbed to exhaustion, their bodies finally giving in, while he himself had been left teetering on a precipice, suspended a maddening hair's breadth from release.

It was a uniquely torturous form of pleasure, one few could truly comprehend and one he had never asked for. The sensation had been overwhelming, stretched thin and drawn out until it bordered on cruelty. That final, infinitesimal distance felt like a thousand miles, utterly unreachable. No matter how fervently he tried, it was like running in place, expending effort without ever crossing the finish line.

The two women themselves had been both paradise and purgatory. One, with her Sacred Body, was warmth and fire, blazing and intoxicating. The other, bearing a Nether-Demon Physique, was coolness and water, deep and enveloping. Heaven and hell intertwined around him, driving him to the brink of madness while denying him the final, instinctive culmination of desire.

When both women had finally fallen unconscious, Ethan had felt a sharp pang of guilt at their state and forced himself to rein things in. He withdrew his focus, pulling his awareness back into his Mindscape. After detonating his Soul Power, he needed answers, and clarity could only be found here.

Instead, he found this mess, and it reignited his simmering frustration.

"Who did this?" he demanded again, his mental voice low and edged with irritation.

From behind the massive trunk of the Tree of Life, a small, furry figure peeked out, trembling as though she had been caught in the act.

Ethan's eyes narrowed as he focused his attention. It was Mirage, in her petite fox form.

"Was it you?" he asked flatly, his tone carrying a dangerous stillness.

"N-no… no! It wasn't me!" The little fox waved her front paws frantically, her expressive eyes wide with panic and fear.

"Who else could it be?" Ethan strode toward her, each step heavy with suspicion.

"It really wasn't! I swear!" Mirage's eyes began to glisten, tears pooling as her voice trembled. The normally ruthless, cold-blooded assassin looked utterly cowed.

Acting on sheer annoyance, Ethan reached down and grabbed the scruff of her neck, lifting her up until she was level with his gaze. "Still playing dumb? I should skin you and turn you into a fur collar."

"Wahhh… it really, really wasn't me!" The threat finally broke her composure, and she burst into genuine, hiccupping sobs.

Ethan froze, taken aback by the rawness of her reaction. For a brief moment, his mind flashed to the image of Mirage in her human form, that delicate, pretty face he had seen before. For reasons he did not immediately understand, the banked fires of his earlier frustration flared back to life with sudden intensity.

Startled by his own thoughts, he hastily dropped her. Damn it, what's wrong with me? Getting ideas about a beast? Have I really been pushed that far over the edge?

Before he could spiral further, a cheerful, familiar voice rang out.

"Master! You're back!"

Ethan turned to see five child-like figures standing behind him, three boys and two girls. The sight of them stirred a surge of warmth in his chest, like reuniting with family he had not realized he missed.

As he turned fully, Luna launched herself toward him, arms outstretched for a hug. Ethan's own arms, which had begun to rise instinctively, dropped back to his sides as he sidestepped without thinking.

Luna sailed past him and landed with a small stumble. "Master!" she pouted, stamping a tiny foot in protest.

Ethan ignored her complaint, his attention snapping to the other four. These were the spirit artifacts formed from the Four City Lord Seals, and they looked… terrible. Even Aqua, usually serene and unblemished, had a nasty bruise at the corner of her mouth. The others were worse. Beastie, normally a chubby, cheerful doll of a child, was mottled with greens, purples, and yellows, his face swollen to nearly twice its usual size.

The pieces fell into place. Ethan shot a glance at Mirage, who was watching timidly from a distance, and a flicker of guilt passed through him. So I really did wrong her.

All the signs pointed to a five-way brawl. His gaze returned to Luna, and he noticed that one of her signature twin pigtails had been yanked half out, now hanging at a crooked, ridiculous angle.

A fresh wave of exasperation washed over him. He had only been gone for a short while, and they had managed to wreck the place completely.

"You… you're like a pack of hyperactive puppies," he sputtered, too irritated to come up with a better insult. If this were anyone else, they would already be tasting the back of his hand, but facing these five, he simply could not bring himself to do it.

Sensing his anger, Luna stuck her tongue out at him briefly before looking away.

"It's not our fault," Beastie mumbled, his voice small and shaky. "Luna… wouldn't listen… and she hit first."

Aqua said nothing, only blinking her enormous, innocent eyes as tears welled up, looking entirely too convincing.

"Oh?" Ethan turned his stern gaze back to Luna. "Is that so?"

"It's not my fault!" Luna shot back, shaking her little fists. "They said they had to suppress me! They said Yaya told them to!"

Ethan rolled his eyes. Getting a clear explanation from Luna was a lost cause. He turned back to Beastie. "Explain. Now."

Beastie began recounting the events as best he could, mentioning Yaya and her instructions, the need to restrain Luna, and how everything had quickly spiraled out of control. As Ethan listened, his irritation slowly drained away, replaced by a thoughtful silence.

He remembered the words of his past life's echo, how it had only appeared because Yaya was absent. It seemed she had known about that lingering Soul Phantom all along and had been quietly suppressing it. Her decision to remain on Ascension Isle had not been random at all; it had been calculated.

'No wonder when I tried to call Luna and the others before, there was no response. Yaya must have arranged all of this before she left.'

As the realization settled in, Ethan noticed a change in the sky of his Mindscape. The once-familiar firmament of his consciousness was no longer clear. In its place hovered a vast, slowly rotating Convergence Sigil, a symbol of perfect balance. One half glowed with warm amber light, steady and comforting, while the other pulsed with deep violet-black radiance, mysterious and profound.

What Ethan did not know was that before this sigil appeared, the sky here had been a crystal-clear blue, like the world after a cleansing storm.

He knew exactly where the two halves came from.

The amber was from Amber.

The violet-black was from Rainie.

Both women had turned out to be his lucky stars. Without them, he would truly be dead this time, beyond any chance of return. He had never imagined that this was how his Soul Power would be reshaped, reforged through connection and balance rather than destruction alone.

'Was all of this preordained?'

Or was he nothing more than a piece on a vast chessboard?

If so, who was moving the pieces?

Morzan?

Ethan shook his head slowly. Somehow, he felt that Morzan, too, was merely another piece in the game.

A subtle, unsettling sensation unfurled deep within his heart, quiet but impossible to ignore, as though the board itself was far larger than he had ever imagined.

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