Chapter 264: What happened after the miracle?

​Elian stood frozen, his horse shifting beneath him as he watched the wave of pure, unfiltered sincerity wash over the valley, healing the sick and pushing back the miasma.

He had spent his entire life around ’holy’ men, but he had never seen anything like this. This wasn’t a practiced spell or a ritual. This was a man pouring his entire soul out for people he didn’t even know.

​Elian’s cold, calculating expression softened. A slow, genuine smile spread across his face as he looked at Julian, who remained kneeling in the center of the miracle.

​Truly remarkable, Elian thought, feeling the same warmth he had felt the first time he held Julian’s hand. This is the Saint. Not the scholar, not the prisoner... but the Saint with the purest heart.

But then, Julian’s shoulders began to sway, his breath hitching as the golden glow finally began to recede from the valley.

The immense pressure of the Light vanished as quickly as it had appeared, leaving his body feeling hollowed out and impossibly heavy.

Cold sweat rolled down Julian’s chin and his breath came out heavy and shaky. He couldn’t hold on any longer, and his consciousness was fading.

​Elian noticed it first. He saw Julian’s head drop, his posture collapsing like a marionette with its strings cut. Before the Purifier could even shout out, Julian slumped forward, his forehead hitting the dirt as he lost consciousness completely.

It was chaos watching the Saint that had just healed hundreds with a single prayer collapse before their very eyes.

Making sure the saint was alright was the top priority.

But while all this was going on, Julian felt his consciousness being drawn away to a far off destination. Then, he blinked his eyes open.

The scene in front of him was not the smoke-filled southern pass or the bloodied grass.

​He was standing in the middle of a room that smelled clean, air conditioned and a lingering scent of his shampoo he used to use back in his old world.

The light was soft, filtered through sheer white curtains that fluttered over a row of potted plans.

This... was his apartment. The wooden floors were polished, his books were lined up in perfect alphabetical order, and his favorite armchair sat in the corner, looking exactly as it always had.

Seeing this, a cold, sharp dread immediately coiled in his stomach. He backed away from the desk, his mind screaming for him to get out of this dream.

Such a Lucid dream was never a good sign.

It meant something was happening to his body outside. This was just like the time when the real Julian had taken over his body and used it to create a show.

The real Julian was gone, but there was no telling what was going on with his body. He needed to get out of here. Somehow.

He hurried to the front door and reached for the door handle, but his fingers passed through the wood as if it were mist.

​"This... can’t be happening," Julian whispered, his voice echoing in the unnaturally quiet space. "I’m supposed to be in the Sanctum. In the Pass... There..." his vision went back to the dying and the fallen. "There are people who need my help. I can’t be stuck here!" He yelled. "Let me out!"

But even as his voice echoed off the hollow space of his apartment, there was no response.

Julian panted, worried and out of his mind.

He had not seen the aftermath of his holy powers surge but even if he did, being stuck in this space and not being able to get out was the worst case scenario. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

​Suddenly, a slow, hollow whistle began to echo through the apartment. It was a low, mournful sound that didn’t seem to have a source, vibrating in the walls and under his feet.

"Who’s there?" He asked but there was no response, only the whistling.

Julian turned around, searching the corners of the room to find the source, but he was entirely alone and the source was unknown.

This was driving him crazy. Just what did they want from him?

​Then, a familiar ’ding’ echoed and a blue glow flickered in the center of the air.

​The System window—the interface that had been silent and severed since his trial with the Mirror of True Purity—materialized with a sharp, digital hum.

The text was rough, pulsing with an erratic red light.

> ​[I TOLD YOU TO BE CAREFUL.]

​Julian stared at it, his heart hammering. "System window? How are you here? The connection was cut. I shouldn’t be able to see you."

​The window ignored his question, the text shifting rapidly.

> ​[YOU GAVE TOO MUCH. YOU OPENED THE DOOR.]

​"What does that mean? Are you talking about what I did at the pass?" Julian asked but the window did not respond. "I had to save them!" He shouted at the empty room.

The whistling grew louder, more piercing and it filled Julian’s heart with dread.

"I don’t know how but after everything, it was discovered that I had holy powers. I don’t even know how I got it." He said, looking at his hands. "This warm power, are you also responsible?"

The System window glitched, the blue frame flickering into a jagged, bloody crimson.

The text didn’t scroll—it appeared all at once, as if the entity behind it was losing its patience.

> ​[IT WAS NEVER YOURS TO GIVE. YOU SIMPLY REACHED INTO THE WELL.]

​Julian’s breath hitched, the words sounding even more confusing the more he heard them. "The well? What well?"

​The whistling sound reached a deafening pitch, sounding less like a melody and more like the screech of metal on metal.

The air in the apartment began to distort, the edges of his bookshelves blurring into dark, oily smoke.

> ​[YOU WERE BROUGHT TO BE A SPECTATOR. A SHADOW. BUT YOU SOUGHT TO BE A SAVIOR. YOU POURED OUT YOUR SOUL, AND IN THE VOID YOU CREATED, SOMETHING ELSE STEPPED IN.]

Julian still couldn’t understand it. It seemed like the reason he had been brought into Julian’s body was to be a spectator for the chaos Julian would release.

But he didn’t stop at being a spectator and became a saint. It wasn’t like he asked to be a saint. This power... he didn’t know where it came from and the System wasn’t planning to explain it properly either.

It was always like this. Even with the chronicles it was in a language he could not understand. If he could just decipher it, maybe he would’ve seen this coming.

Or maybe... none of this was in the original plot either.

He was tired and so he sighed.

​"Just tell me how to get out of here!" Julian said, but then his hands started trembling. He looked at the tremor and gulped. "My body... what’s happening to me?"