The scene before Jake's eyes flickered… and then vanished.
Once again, he found himself floating in the black abyss — endless, silent, and cold. It felt like he had sunk deep into the hidden layers of his own mind, lost in the void between existence and memory.
Where… am I ? he wondered, his voice echoing faintly in the emptiness.
Then — faintly — tiny sparks of light began to blink around him. One by one, they shimmered into existence, glowing softly like floating crystals. Soon, the entire darkness was filled with hundreds… then thousands of glowing screens, each flickering like a holographic window.
Jake turned slowly, eyes widening. "It's like… monitors… showing my life?"
The abyss was no longer dark. Every corner of it lit up with the glow of memories.
Each screen showed a different life — a different Jake. One wielded a sword under a blood-red sky. Another mixed potions with steady hands, his eyes reflecting alchemical flames. Others showed him fighting monstrous beasts, traveling through otherworldly cities, standing atop shattered ruins, laughing, bleeding, surviving.
A thousand worlds.
A thousand lives.
All — him.
"Whoa… this is amazing," Jake breathed, awe softening his voice.
He moved closer, brushing his hand through the drifting images. Some reacted — flashing brighter, showing glimpses of his journeys: training under the moonlight, dueling a blade master, mastering fire alchemy, saving a realm from collapse.
But amidst all of it, he searched desperately for something else — Earth.
His true home.
"There must be something… where I actually came from," he muttered, eyes scanning the sea of screens.
He drifted through countless memories — flashes of learning, solving problems, sitting under dim lights studying, repairing something, coding, creating — all fragments of the man he once was.
But then… something changed.
The screens began to shift.
At first, just a slow rotation — graceful, gentle. But then faster… faster… until they blurred into glowing circles of light spinning around him.
"Wait—what's happening!?" Jake shouted, panic rising.
The light grew harsher, the hum louder — a piercing vibration that crawled through his soul. He grabbed his head as pain exploded inside his mind.
"Ahhhhhhh! Stop this! Stop!!"
He screamed, his voice echoing endlessly through the void. The spinning became a storm — memories collapsing into chaos. Images shattered, lights flared, and it felt like his very existence was being torn apart.
His body — or rather, his soul form — began to distort, flickering between transparency and solid light. He could feel himself slipping.
"No… no! I won't lose! Not again!" he roared, trying to endure.
But the pain kept climbing — burning, cracking, consuming. It went beyond anything human. Every nerve of his soul screamed in agony as if all the thousands of lives inside him were tearing themselves free at once.
And in that unbearable storm — somewhere beyond the whirling light — a pair of eyes opened. Cold. Predatory. Watching.
Something was waiting for him.
A predator born of the white void itself, silently watching, ready to strike.
Jake's strength faltered. The agony surged past his limits.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
And with one final scream, his form collapsed — light scattering, his consciousness plunging into nothingness.
In the endless expanse of the white void, there was nothing but stillness.
It was an infinite ocean — not of water, but of flowing, luminous energy. Waves of white essence rippled endlessly in every direction, soft and silent, like a sea made of pure light. There was no sky, no ground… only the gentle current of power drifting through eternity.
And somewhere, deep within that endless ocean — a soul floated.
It glowed faintly, its shape human but ethereal, a being sculpted from translucent energy.
The soul's posture was strange, almost serene. It sat cross-legged, suspended in the glowing ocean, hands resting upon invisible knees, eyes closed in absolute stillness. Around it, faint geometric lines of light — soul circuits — rotated slowly, forming ancient patterns that pulsed with rhythm.
It looked as if the soul was cultivating — silently practising some profound technique that transcended body and mind.
The flow of the white ocean responded to it, spiraling gently around like a protective current. Streams of light entered and exited its form in perfect harmony, feeding the soul, mending every crack, strengthening every thread of its existence.
No sound. No movement. No time.
Perhaps moments passed.
Perhaps centuries.
No one could tell.
The soul did not move.
It did not think.
It only existed — deep in meditation, surrounded by the eternal calm of the white void.
And for the first time since his fall into chaos…
Jake's soul was healing.
Yet, deep within his being, something ancient still stirred — the Ethereal Mind Scripture.
Though Jake himself was unconscious, the scripture continued to circulate on its own, guiding the flow of soul energy through his essence. Gentle currents of light moved in intricate patterns, repairing what was damaged, soothing what was torn apart.
The white energy of the void responded to it — drawn toward him like waves to the moon. It flowed into his soul, layer by layer, weaving itself into threads of restoration. Each cycle of the Ethereal Mind Scripture dissolved the lingering corruption left by the unknown entity that had once struck him on Earth.
Slowly but steadily, Jake's soul began to stabilize, its light growing clearer with every passing moment — as though the universe itself was helping him recover.
Time drifted on in silence.
In the endless white ocean, there was no sense of hours or years — only the ceaseless rhythm of stillness.
Jake's soul remained in its meditative posture, unmoving, unresponsive. The surrounding energy flowed quietly around him, obeying a pattern that had long surpassed conscious control.
But then… something began to shift.
A faint hum resonated from within the soul. The soft white glow that had surrounded it flickered, deepened, and began to pulse with an otherworldly rhythm. Streams of energy gathered from every direction, spiraling toward the center of Jake's being.
The light grew sharper — purer — until it blazed like a miniature sun in the heart of the void.
It was the awakening of the Third Phase of the Ethereal Mind Scripture — The Mirror of Tranquility.
In this phase, the soul no longer merely heals; it reflects. The Mirror of Tranquility manifests when the practitioner's inner essence reaches a state of absolute balance — where all chaos, emotion, and memory are stilled, allowing the soul to see its own truth.
Within that radiance, it felt as though countless reflections of Jake appeared, each representing fragments of his past lives and scattered identities. One by one, those reflections dissolved into the center, merging seamlessly into the core of his soul.
The void trembled. Energy currents swirled violently, then softened, flowing like calm water after a storm.
Jake's soul hovered in the midst of it all, glowing with serene brilliance — like a mirror that no longer showed distortion, only pure clarity.
The Mirror of Tranquility had awakened.
And with it, Jake's soul was stepping into a realm of consciousness it had never touched before.