Time continued to pass and at some point, Damien realized that there were no longer any stray floating islands remaining in the void. Instead, there were two massive fused spiritual lands whose combined size would reach that of a continent.
"Most of the work is completed now," Damien muttered.
Essentially, his mind was almost complete. Once the two halves reconnected, he was generally certain he'd be able to exit his mindspace.
"The pull of that light has gotten much stronger in these last few days. If I wasn't consciously controlling my territory, it probably would've been drawn over by now."
Damien glanced at the light with a hint of trepidation in his eyes. No matter how much he knew it didn't have hostility towards him, in the end, it was still a foreign entity within his mind space. He didn't know what its goal was or even what its identity was.
"Logically speaking, I could just let go of my control and allow my fused spiritual land to connect with the rest, but I can't do that. I won't feel secure unless I take care of it myself."
The only reason this game of tug of war continued was because of Damien's insistence on completing the task himself. If not, he probably would've woken up already.
But something in the back of his mind kept telling him not to give that light control. It was telling him that he'd regret not fighting for his position.
And so, he continued this grueling task.
While putting his mind back together hadn't been too hard of a task once he had gotten used to the process, the main obstacle was the sheer amount of time and willpower it took to do so.
How long had it been since he entered this strange state? Damien didn't have any way of knowing. What felt like years within this realm may as well have been only a few hours in the outside world. But regardless, to him, it had been years.
Besides the time factor, the second most challenging part of the situation was the loneliness of it all. There was quite literally nothing within this space, which was why Damien had been calling it a void.
Besides the mind prison and the fused spiritual lands, it was just an unending blackness. In this kind of environment with no company besides one's own thoughts for years on end, it wouldn't be far-fetched to say that most would go insane.
'But for me, coping wasn't that hard.'
It wasn't the first time. That was what made it easier for him.
The first time he had been in a similar situation, it was at the very start of his journey. Back then, he was weak in both mind and body. The only sliver of will he had came from the fleeting words of his deadbeat father and his motivation to save his mother from her predicament.
In such circumstances, he had prevailed and came out stronger than ever. He had reformed himself into the person he was today, someone with the qualifications to roam the myriad worlds and experience the adventures he was currently experiencing.
The will he had now was incomparable to what he had back then, so how could he be fazed by this loneliness? If it wasn't for the fact that he had things to do both here and in the outside world, he would've capitalized on this solitude to sort out some of the problems he had been facing recently.
"But none of that matters right now. I should focus on trying to usurp control from that light."
Damien stood up and floated towards the wall of the mind prison. When he reached out to touch the transparent walls again, he noticed how much more corporeal his body had become.
"En. In this time, I never dared to leave the confines of the Mind Prison in fear of my ego scattering. But with my current mental power, that should no longer be a problem."
When he first woke up, his mind space was in a chaotic state. Along with the fact that his spiritual land was severed into thousands of floating islands, the chaotic void itself was a danger.
He would occasionally encounter large storms of mental power that tried to tear the floating continents asunder. If his avatar had been caught in one of those storms, it would've been like a wisp of flame within a hurricane.
It was due to these storms that he first discovered the existence of that light. It had shone brightly and bathed his mindspace in its aura, immediately quelling the whipping winds.
But those were all problems of the past.
His current mindspace was no longer plagued by spiritual storms, and his avatar was no longer on the verge of collapse.
Thinking such, he slowly pushed his hand forward.
Click!
The faint clicking of a lock resounded through the void, and Damien felt the corporeal walls of the Mind Prison become illusory. His hand soon passed through and entered the void, followed by the rest of his body.
"Wow…"
He couldn't help but let out a gasp of admiration. This feeling was completely different than what it was like inside the Mind Prison.
"Is this my true mindspace? It feels similar to what it was like to drift through the starry sky on my way to the Cloud Plane. Actually, I should go back there when I have the time. Outer space is an extremely beneficial environment for me to cultivate in."
Throwing away his stray thoughts, Damien once again turned his attention back to the greenish-white light in the distance.
"I don't feel any risk in approaching it. In the first place, there's no safety precaution I could possibly take against it."
His thought process was simple. So far, it had been a war between underlings, where the kings watched over and directed their forces from the back lines.
But the war was reaching its close. In the final phase, it was time for a battle between kings. If Damien could defeat that light or gain control over it, it would be much easier to subsequently control the second fused spiritual land.
Damien willed his avatar to move through the void. It was a similar feeling to traveling between spatial layers. Soon enough, he arrived in front of the light that he had been combatting for all this time.
"As it turns out, it was actually a flower…"
In the middle of that greenish-white light stood a small flower with twenty-three petals. Its surface seemed to go through a myriad of changes every second, never once maintaining the same shape.
"What a mysterious thing. But then, how do I combat a flower?"
It was different if it was a plant that had gained intelligence and cultivated, but this flower was completely spiritual and didn't seem to have any attack power.
"Ah! Maybe I should refine it?"
Refining treasures to enhance the body was something Damien had heard mentioned many times, but because of his devour skill, he had never felt the need to try it. Instead, he had already directly refined his physical body plenty of times.
But now, the situation was slightly different. He was a spiritual avatar and the treasure in front of him was a spiritual flower. He didn't know if things worked the same in such a situation, but he still felt like it was the best course of action.
"In the worst case, I fail and have to think of another way to complete my spiritual land. In the best case, this flower benefits me and makes me stronger, while I also gain the former advantage as well. Since there aren't any terrible repercussions to acting right now, then I might as well try it."
If the flower had offensive ability or the intention to harm him, it would've done so already. It was present when he was at his weakest point, and it could've acted then if it really wanted to.
Since it didn't, Damien had some minor confidence about the stakes of his current gamble.
And since there wasn't any need for more hesitation, Damien directly dove into the cloud of greenish-white light and extended his hand towards the flower within.
