'Success!'
Feng Qing'er silently celebrated her victory. Although it didn't go exactly how she wanted it to, it was still an overall success.
The main factor that allowed her to kill the Apostle with such ease, though, was the shadow bird.
Firstly, it had created a paranoia that turned the Apostle's entire focus onto it. This way, Feng Qing'er's existence had been completely disregarded. Because of this, she was able to silently prepare all of her fire needles without any interruption.
Secondly, it had focused the Apostle's attention on Qing Tan. When it was caught in the end, the Apostle was thinking only of how to lure Qing Tan to his location, which gave Feng Qing'er the opening she needed to strike.
But her own achievements couldn't be ignored. Her Reincarnation Flame needles had similar power to the Phoenix phantoms she usually used in battle when they were just condensed. But on top of that, Feng Qing'er had used her flame runes to exponentially increase their power output.
Although her attack looked simple on the outside, it contained enough force to raze an unprotected mountain to the ground within minutes.
And because she had the element of surprise on her side, she was able to interrupt the opponent's mana flow with her own raging flame mana as the force was transferred into his body.
It was only natural for the Apostle to die when such force was concentrated in his unprotected body.
'Nevertheless, I can't do something like assassination on my own yet.'
If the shadow bird wasn't present, Feng Qing'er wouldn't have been able to prepare such an attack and use it precisely. Nor would she have been able to launch her attack successfully.
Sighing lightly, she lamented how unsuitable she was for this kind of job. But still, the thrill and intent of being at the forefront of a true battle were much more suited for her. She didn't mind being untalented in assassination.
Shaking off her thoughts, she directed her gaze at another part of the forest. Most likely, Qing Tan was having a blast torturing the other Apostle that had arrived.
***
"Finally. That's ten connected islands."
A tired sigh rang out within an endless void. Damien looked at the fruits of his strenuous effort over this unknown period of time.
"How long has it been in the outside world? I hope it's not the same as it is in here."
He couldn't tell the time very well in the mind space, but it felt like months had gone by. The worst part was, even within this time he had only connected 10 islands together.
"Each time I can connect a spiritual string to an island and pull it to connect to the next one, my mental power increases by a slight margin. Whenever the islands are actually connected to each other, I experience an exponential increase in mental clarity. Although the process gets faster with every island that I connect; the increase isn't worth mentioning at this juncture."
Damien signed again. With his tireless effort, he learned much more about his situation. As he had expected before, these islands were something of a manifestation of his broken mind space. If he wanted to heal his mind and return to the land of the living, he had to connect them into one fused plane again.
"This is too slow. Even if I'm experiencing some sort of time dilation or illusion, I can't keep doing this for years on end. Even if my mind is repaired after I finish, I'll probably lose my grip on reality when I wake up. I can only try to speed up."
With this thought in mind, Damien didn't hesitate any longer. Now that he had more mental power available for use, he could achieve more with less effort.
His eyes closed as he entered meditation once again. From his forehead, ten shimmering blue strings emerged and shot into the void ahead.
They expanded for what seemed like tens of kilometers before reaching their destinations. Unlike before, Damien was directly trying to build spiritual links with 10 islands at once.
"Argh!"
The connection was hazily established as he expected, but his mind felt like it was tearing apart when it happened. The fused spiritual land that Damien had created up until this point began to tremble as if its foundation was being rocked.
"Fuck! I can't let it crumble. If it crumbles, everything I've worked for will collapse along with it. I need to…speed up!"
Damien poured out waves of mental power into the spiritual strings he had created. His connection with the ten floating islands slowly became firmer.
Boom!
A loud explosion rang out from the fused spiritual land. Pieces of rock drifted away into the void as a portion of it collapsed.
"Dammit! Condense!"
Damien furiously roared into the void. He handled the ten floating islands without care, forcefully dragging them to the location of the fused spiritual land.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
As the floating islands drew closer, they scraped against each other and created small explosions. Pieces of rock and debris fell into the void from the point of collision, but at the same time, the floating islands began to fuse into one.
"Condense! Condense! Condense!"
Damien roared madly without pause. His mental power wrapped around the fused spiritual land and pushed it towards the ten floating islands.
Now, the two sides were moving towards each other at a rapid pace.
"AHHHHH!"
Damien screamed out. His incorporeal body started burning with blue flames. His lower body was already starting to disappear.
The overuse of his mental power came with severe consequences. At this point, he was also just a condensed bundle of mental power that housed his consciousness. If he burned too much of it, his ego would be erased.
"DAMNIT! LISTEN TO ME!"
With another furious roar, he pushed even harder. Now, it was all or nothing. If he could fuse the fused spiritual land with the ten floating islands before his spiritual avatar burned away, his mental power would be replenished and even heightened. But if he failed, the only path left for him was death.
The blue flames burning on his body became fiercer, completely enveloping his lower body and turning it to nothingness. Even the Mind Prison couldn't protect him from damage he was purposefully inflicting on himself.
The space between the ten floating islands and the fused spiritual land continued to shorten; but as it did, more and more chunks of rock and debris fell into the void.
"You think I'll die here? This is my own mind, dammit! All of you shitty islands belong to me! So, obey me you little shits!"
From the start of his journey, he had forged a will of steel. A will to remain unafraid even under the threat of death. In the current situation where he was within his own mind space, this kind of will became even more important.
It seemed as if the floating islands had been dominated by his call. The speed they moved towards each other rapidly increased until finally…
BOOM!
A huge explosion resounded through the void as the fused spiritual land came into contact with the ten floating islands. The fused spiritual land soon began devouring those islands into itself, rapidly expanding in size until it was the size of a small city.
The blue flames on Damien's body had already grown into a raging inferno. His upper body was nearly completely consumed, leaving only his head wholly intact. But he didn't seem fazed by this at all.
"Hahahaha! Hahahahahaha! I fucking won you bastard!"
He yelled like a crazy person, letting the flames sweep over his body. The difference was, he now felt comfort within these flames instead of pain.
The fused spiritual land soon finished devouring the ten floating continents and consolidated its power. Waves of mental energy burst through Damien's body, solidifying his avatar and returning it to its peak state.
"I did it! Now that the fused spiritual land has doubled in size, doing the same thing again won't consume all my mental power. Taking ten islands at a time instead of one, now my progress will naturally speed up!"
Damien excitedly muttered to himself. His eyes were closed as he reveled in the sensation of his mind slowly healing.
Perhaps, that was the reason why he didn't notice the flash of greenish-white light that was flickering in a certain area of the void.
