No one knew how long he had been unconscious.....
It seemed to have been a very long time, yet perhaps only an instant.
When the man lifted his eyelids, a sun hung in the sky. That piercing and dazzling light forced him to close his eyes again temporarily.
After slightly adapting, the man reopened his eyes, confusion within his gaze like someone who had just awakened. He stiffly turned his neck to examine his surroundings, only for an endless desert to suddenly enter his sight.
A desert..... wait, a desert?!
The man suddenly froze. He clearly remembered that his final battle with the Original Body had ended with him collapsing in the snowy mountains.
How could he wake up in a desert after merely sleeping?
Although he would rather believe he was dreaming, the scorching hot sand beneath him was undoubtedly reminding him that everything before his eyes was not an illusion, nor a dream, but something that had truly happened.
"Could it be... someone moved me from the Alps into the desert while I was unconscious?"
The man frowned, but immediately afterward rejected that guess, because doing something like that had no meaning whatsoever.
While thinking, the man somewhat helplessly wiped his face.
But the instant his hand rose, his pupils suddenly shrank, and his entire body was struck like lightning, his mind turning blank.
"This... isn't my hand!"
Shock appeared on the man's face. That hand's skin was bronze-colored, and huge like a cattail fan.
Turning over the palm, it was covered in calluses, clearly the result of long years of labor or weapon use.
Then his gaze lowered as he rapidly swept across his entire body, and the man finally confirmed that this absolutely was not his body.
His lower body was wrapped in a rough cloth skirt, while the length of his legs was astonishing enough to make countless celebrities jealous, aside from the thigh muscles comparable to an adult's waist thickness and the powerful calf muscles.
The man lightly clenched a fist, and his finger bones crackled as abundant power flowed through his body.
Suddenly, a bold guess emerged in his mind. The man impatiently stood to verify it. After carefully examining this body, the distance from his eyes to the ground was at least close to three meters tall, causing his expression to become extremely strange.
Among everyone he knew, the only one with a gigantic body nearly three meters tall was that man clad in power armor.
Unfortunately, there was no water source in the desert. Otherwise, he would only need to look at his face to know who he had become instead of continuing to guess.
After standing silently in the desert for a long time, the man could not help sighing softly: "Although I don't understand what's happening, for now I can only take things one step at a time. That guy... probably wouldn't harm me, right?"
With such thoughts, he decided to first find the nearest water source.
Despite never having been to a desert before, he strangely seemed already familiar with everything here. Guided by bodily instinct, he easily found a 'city.'
Actually, rather than calling it a city, it was more like a cluster of stone buildings, filled with extremely ancient style and atmosphere.
The man pondered slightly before stepping into the 'ancient city.' Approaching him was a black-haired man, only around one meter eighty-something tall, with handsome and refined features. His bronze skin resembled the man's own, while warmth and kindness shone within his brows.
"Father, you've returned?"
The man performed a respectful salute and gently said: "Brother still hasn't returned. Mother already went to the temple first."
The man hesitated for a moment, uncertain how to answer him.
Yet at this moment, this body moved on its own. It raised a hand and touched the black-haired youth's head while speaking in a low and heavy voice:
"I'll go immediately. Stay here first. Once he returns, come to the temple together."
"Yes, Father."
The black-haired youth gently nodded.
Realizing control had returned to himself, the man became completely confused and stood stiffly in place without moving.
He did not even know where the temple was...
"Father... is something wrong?"
Meeting the black-haired youth's puzzled gaze, the man's lips twitched almost imperceptibly as he forced himself to say: "Nothing. I just wanted to look at you a little longer."
"Father, if you don't go to the temple soon, the gods might become angry."
Hidden joy flickered deep within the black-haired youth's eyes before he quickly concealed it, smiling as he said: "And I've already grown up. You don't need to worry about me."
Without waiting for the man's answer, the black-haired youth gestured toward somewhere and said: "Mother has already waited for you for a long time."
The man followed the direction indicated and saw a very familiar circular stone formation standing there. Presumably, that was the so-called 'temple.' He immediately felt relieved and nodded before striding toward the stone formation.
Only upon approaching did the man realize that the temple mentioned by the black-haired youth was astonishingly crude.
Dozens of gigantic stone pillars were arranged in a circular pattern.
Animal relief carvings covered the surfaces of the pillars—herds of antelope, snakes, foxes, scorpions, wild boars, and more. Although he did not understand their meaning, judging from the lifelike carving skill, they were likely created by an extremely impressive figure.
Yet the structure of this temple was merely this simple, inferior to any temple from later generations.
The man strode into the center of the stone formation, where a gentle-faced woman stood, her skin likewise bronze-colored.
"You finally came..."
The woman cast him a slightly resentful glance, her lips pouting a little as she unhappily said: "Today is their coming-of-age day. You should have come earlier. What if the gods become angry later?"
"I was delayed a little by something."
The man awkwardly replied before coming beside the woman. After hesitating briefly, he ultimately chose to suppress the doubts within his heart.
He was certain that he was merely a 'spectator.' Although he did not understand why he had become that armored man, there had to be a reason for appearing here. He only needed to properly 'watch.'
Holding such thoughts, the man accompanied the woman as they stood inside the temple for half an hour.
Not long afterward, the black-haired youth arrived, bringing another person alongside him.
This newcomer greatly resembled the black-haired youth—black hair, bronze skin, blue eyes—but his brows carried violent coldness, as though he hated all things in the world.
"Father, we've arrived."
The black-haired youth tugged at the person beside him and whispered softly: "Brother, hurry and greet Father and Mother."
Yet the latter remained arrogantly violent, even coldly shaking off the youth's hand as he said: "Don't touch me with your hands."
The black-haired youth pouted in grievance, yet still gently advised: "Brother, today is our adulthood ceremony. I hope that under the gods' witness, we can get along well in the future."
"Enough arguing. Have you prepared your sacrificial offerings?"
The woman rubbed her forehead and sighed, seemingly equally helpless regarding the brothers' relationship.
"We've prepared them, Mother."
The black-haired youth gently smiled: "I brought the antelope from the pasture."
The woman glanced toward the cold blue-eyed youth beside him: "What about yours?"
The blue-eyed youth coldly replied: "I brought cultivated grain."
"That's good. The gods will surely like them."
The woman gently smiled and nodded, hooking her arm through the man's as she said: "The time is about right. We should depart now."
Depart? To where?
The man froze slightly, yet before he could react—
The stone pillars arranged in a circle suddenly bloomed with blazing white radiance, while pure white feathers drifted down from the sky.
The next moment, the surrounding space suddenly changed.
The dry desert climate vanished, replaced by an endless garden.
Gold, pearls, and red agate covered the ground. Countless trees rose from the earth, blooming with all kinds of strange flowers that released refreshing fragrances. Merely smelling them invigorated the spirit.
"E.....den..."
The woman appeared extremely emotional, tears filling her eyes as she choked with sobs:
"We've finally returned... Adam..."
Eden? Adam?
The man's pupils suddenly contracted violently. His entire body trembled uncontrollably as though struck by ten thousand bolts of lightning, feeling as though ten thousand alpacas were stampeding wildly through his mind.