‎"But to go back to life... you have to die here too." The replica said, and before Damon could react, ’he’ separated Damon’s head from his body.

The head rose into the air for a few seconds, before eventually falling back to the ground with a soft thud, then rolled all the way to the replica’s feet.

The replica bent his legs and squated down to the ground then extended his hand and grabbed a tuft of Damon’s jet black hair. He then lifted the head up using the hair.

"It sure is weird to have my dead face staring at me." he muttered in an amused tone as he took in the lightless gaze of Damon’s striking grey eyes that had dimmed down considerably.

The replica then stood up, and began walking towards Damon’s headless body one step at a time with each of his steps echoing through the nebulous void.

As he walked towards the body, a smile appeared on his face as he couldn’t help but think about Damon would feel if he were to come to realize that ’he’ was the one responsible for his death, and that ’he’ was the one who stopped Damon from swapping with his reflections at that critical time.

"Hahahahahahaha, it certainly won’t be pretty." he burst out laughing."

The replica soon reached the headless body and crouched before it, while still holding Damon’s head.

"Sigh, casting both ’Origin restoration and Reanimation’ is going to take a lot out of me." The replica sighed. But it was all worth it, with Damon’s agreement, the replica gets to have a whole minute where he would be in control of Damon’s body.

"Take, why did that damn reptile have to turn the body to nothingness." He further clicked his tongue. If Damon’s body had still been around in the material world, he would have only had to cast Reanimation.

Still, amid his grumbles, he still placed the head on the headless body, then placed his hand on Damon’s chest and chanted;

"Rerun all to it’s essential form: Origin restoration."

A wide glowing silver circle with flowing runes and inscriptions instantly materialized, floating above Damon’s, and another materialized beneath the ground his corpse laid on, encapsulating him.

Under the wide silver circle, Damon’s headless body and his head began to knit back together. Flesh warped, veins and arteries connected, and the spinal cord fixed itself back in position, until the head and the body were one and the same, without any sign of both having been separated before.

At the same time, somewhere in the Remea continent, out in the sea, in the exact place Damon had sunk in before being obliterated by the black beam, a single cell far invisible to the naked eye appeared.

The cell then turned into a cluster of cells, or more precisely, a tissue. Almost immediately, the cells in the tissue propagated, and slowly but surely became a heart.

After the heart was formed, came the brain, then the spine, the arteries and veins, the liver, the kidneys. Organs comprised in a human body all began to form until they completed a human body with the skin being the finishing touch.

The human body was that of a handsome young man with jet black hair, and a serene expression on his face. He floated stark naked and suspended on the seabed. He looked so real that it almost seemed like he would wake up anytime soon, but that was just an illusion.

The body had everything but life. In short, it was just an empty shell.

Back in the nebulous void meanwhile, the replica was bleeding from all seven orifices. "I knew this was going to cost me a lot, but not this much." He wheezed. He knew he was going to be out of commission for a long time.

Still, he had to do it. He raised his hand once more and slammed it down on Damon’s chest, chanting;

"Bargaining a quarter of my power, I summon you back to life: Reanimation."

Damon’s body which was in front of him vanished the moment the chants took effect. The replica however, stumbled forward and collapsed face first onto the ground.

"I’ll be damned." he choked out as blood continued pouring from his seven orifices.

----------

Meanwhile, in the Remea continent where a human body had formed underneath the sea, the body stayed lifeless and still, but the next moment,

Thud!

The heart beat slightly, then stopped. When it almost seemed like it wouldn’t continue, the heart began beating rhythmically.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

After that, all the functions of the normal human body began to function as they were supposed to, until one of the fingers on the right hand twitched, then the body’s eyes snapped open, revealing two bright orbs of grey that shine in a silver light.

"What the fuck?!" He tried to say, but instead the salty sea water rushed into his mouth.

----------

***Damon’s pov***

It was dark.

The darkness stretched all around me, wrapping around me with its cold touch.

’What’s going on?’ I didn’t understand what was happening. It felt as though I was drifting in this endless darkness, with no end in sight.

’Oh right.’ I thought. It was also then that I recalled what had happened prior to finding myself in this situation, and my heart sank.

Indeed, that bastard must have tricked me. I was to blame for trusting a shady entity such as that. It was probably wearing my skin like a skinwalker for all I knew.

The realization left me completely unwilling as I continued to drift in this pitch black darkness. The darkness thickened, growing colder with every passing second—each one dragging on as if it would never end. I just drifted in the darkness, waiting for my soul to slowly fade away.

Just like in the nebulous void, I thought of Rose, Dion, Aric, and Sia. Would they even care if I died? How much time had passed since I died. They had already all moved on with their lives for all I knew.

I hated to admit it, but it hurt. The thought of being forgotten, It hurt so much. The thought clung to me, buried deep within my chest, clawing its way inward as if trying to wrench my heart wide open.

It hurt.

It hurt so much.

And the more it hurt, the more I started to feel something amiss. For someone who was supposed to be dead, this pain felt a little too real.

How could that be?

And then I felt it—

Thud!

’Hm?’

Thud! Thud! I began hearing the sound even better, it was as if a drum was being beat next to my ears.

The darkness around me began to lift as I slowly raised my head, only to find myself before what looked like a giant sphere, around which what looked like countless stars dotted the surroundings.

’Is that... my core?’

The aether core was nestled inside the heart, and it was what held one’s reservoir of aether. But why was I seeing my core? Was I not dead after all?

The massive sphere before me began to pulse slightly. Instinctively, I began moving towards it.

But then...

’What’s happening?’

My entire body froze on the spot as my mouth slowly opened in shock.

An utterly unexpected sight unfolded before my eyes as the stars began twinkling, their forms warping and shifting to reveal a cascade of scenes—each one vivid and surreal. And within them... I saw myself. There was the Damon version of me, and... the Evan version of me.

Before I could even think of the current situation, my consciousness went dark.

I didn’t know how much time had passed, but slowly, and one at a time, I began to feel a cold sensation all over me like my consciousness was moving through some strong viscous liquid.

It had started to get suffocating, before I began feeling my body.

’...This...’

I was alive. It was the only conclusion I could come to. It seemed that the entity hadn’t lied to me after all. Though, that didn’t mean I’d come to trust him one bit. If anything, it only made me paranoid.

I was damn sure I was dead, so for that entity to be able to bring me back to life, it meant that he was truly on a whole other scale compared to my entire existence. I was even starting to suspect that he was responsible for my transmigration.

But then again, that was just my speculation. As my consciousness continued to flow in suspended animation, my motor functions slowly returned.

The moment control returned to me, my eyes snapped open almost instantly. However, I found myself underneath the sea.

"What the fuck?!"

*********

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