"I... Accept..."
Taixuan's voice softly echoed in the empty void, making the shadow's lips stretch apart, turning into an eerie smile that spoke of nothing but joy that hid behind the walls of schemes.
"Very well," the shadow then raised his hand further, slowly bringing it closer to his side before clicking his fingers.
As soon as he did so, a similar dark energy began to slowly crawl onto his body.
"Go, tread the path that they falsely accused you of. Become the demon they so feared. Let them face death in their lives."
With that said, the dark energy itself began to dissipate along with Taixuan. Within a matter of seconds, Taixuan was gone, and the world around him had returned to normal.
With a space-like realm where countless stars resided, the shadow silently gazed at the countless worlds that sprouted and ended at the same time below.
Soon, his body—made up of the dark energy—began to emanate fumes as the energy itself started to dissipate.
Moments before he was about to completely disappear, the last words of the shadow resonated throughout the entirety of the space, causing the stars to seal their shine for a brief moment, and pausing the flow of time and space itself.
"Let your rage be the fuel to your growth."
***
On the other hand, Taixuan's vision blurred all of a sudden.
And not just his vision, but it seemed as though all 5 of his senses had been sealed for a brief amount of time.
Gradually, as time passed, he felt something solid beneath him. As if he were lying on a rock. His neck hung mid-air, causing the muscles to strain and making it harder for him to move at all.
However, this feeling seemed somewhat familiar.
Lying on a rock, helplessly, while a soft downpour slowly enticed his body into numbness, trying to ease his pain by numbing all his senses.
"Am... I... Back?" He muttered under his breath, his voice barely audible.
With all the remnants of strength left scattered in his body, Taixuan forced his body to move. First, he placed his palms onto the wet, slippery rock and tightened his grip on its edges.
Then, he proceeded to raise his body upwards. His whole body shook uncontrollably; however, he succeeded on the very first try.
Although, the price he had to pay for exerting such strength was too much for his body to handle.
*Cough!*
After a series of guttural and wet coughs accompanied by blood, he hoarsely gasped for air as a sharp, hot sensation surged through his throat, making it harder for him to breathe.
His eyes—blurred—slowly started to regain their vision, and he saw a color that seemed quite out of place.
Within the darkened image of the greenery of a dense forest, a pitch black colored rectangular thing hovered in the air right before his eyes with something inscribed on it.
At first, it looked as though he, himself, was hallucinating.
However, as his vision slowly returned, the picture only seemed to grow more and more clear.
---
[Demon System]
[• Condition - Booting...]
[Connecting to the host...]
---
"Demon... System?" He mumbled as he looked at the glass-like thing hovering in the air with weakened, trembling eyes.
It was only normal for him to be confused, as not once in either of his two lives had he ever seen such a thing before.
Suddenly, the things written on the glass changed.
---
[The Demon System has been booted successfully.]
[Please provide a sample of your blood to bind the system to your existence.]
---
"Bl..ood..?" His condition grew worse and worse with every passing second, making it harder for him to even breathe.
However, seeing the strange instructions after a dream-like sequence he had faced while retrieving memories of his past life, he decided to follow the instructions without hesitation.
After all, his one and only goal was to survive.
With trembling hands, he smudged his thumb over the crevice of his mouth, collecting the continuously dripping blood over its tip.
Then, he extended his hand forward, as though trying to touch the glass itself, and pressed his finger against it, slowly letting it trace down the glass, creating a smudged line of crimson that was barely visible over the black color.
All of a sudden, the screen began to emanate a bright white glow, pulsing through the very centre while bright particles of white light emerged over the traces of his smeared blood.
Fumes rose from the edges of the glass and all of it began to disintegrate into particles, dissipating altogether into bright white threads, slowly flying towards Taixuan.
The threads quickly closed their distance with him and approached his head. Then, as if entering into his very existence, the threads touched the very centre of his forehead and phased through.
Within the blink of an eye, all the threads were gone and Taixuan's body suddenly grew warmer, his pain subsiding under the influence of something warm that soothed his wounds from the inside, allowing him to move his body.
At the same time, the atmosphere around him began to change dramatically.
Clouds that once bore a soft touch of downpour shifted, colliding into one another as they soon inhabited the mighty wrath of the thunder.
The animals that called the surrounding forest their home suddenly became restless.
Yearning howls, thunderous roars, concerned shrieks—in a matter of seconds, the entire forest felt a wave of unforeseen danger concentrate into a single entity.
The nature, the Earth, and the Heavens—the commotion piqued the attention of all, making them look down upon Taixuan with concerned looks as they foresaw the seeds of danger sprouting deep within his very existence.
They all concentrated their energies to discard such threats before things could go worse; however, they feared the intervention of a deity that even they together could not outmatch.
A shadow that seemed to be protecting him from somewhere far from their reach.