Chapter 258 Working Together
The next six months were spent in constant pain as I forced myself to do the same grueling absorption of the Red Eyes' power. I would have to spend hours in the light every day, and it seemed to get harder and harder every day. I had never felt so much pain in my life, but I never backed down. The red crystal room was starting to feel like a second home to me at this point, but one of chaos and discord.
Lilith was with me the whole time, pushing me to be stronger and never give up. She believed in me, even when I didn't believe in myself. The thing that was between us had been palpable at night, so we spent all of our time projecting to different places in the dimension. Projecting outside of this place would create a paradox, and there is a chance that I would get sucked out of this loop, which might cause this body to go out of control.
There was a lot that wasn't known about how my powers would react to certain things, and this was one of the main reasons why they needed to show me how to control all the power that the Great Red Eye possessed. I would only get one chance to confront the storm, and it would do or die when I did it.
While the two of us practiced projecting, I would lose focus, and then we would give up for the night. After that, Lilith let me work on figuring out how to absorb her power so I could return her to her human form. At first, she was apprehensive about it, but after some long talks about it, she let me start trying. The problem was, I hadn't gotten any farther than that since I started trying.
Unlike while I was in the Power Cube, the power wasn't being forced into me, and it wasn't like I could just touch her and absorb it from her. Something was stopping me from connecting with her, but I was starting to get the feeling that it was the entity in the storm. It was somehow only allowing me to take power from it and stopping me from taking her power into my own body.
"I think you will have to wait until you can conquer the Great Red Eye when you leave this place," Lilith said as she relaxed on the bed, and I floated around the room in a pacing pattern.
"No, it is just a matter of figuring out how this place works and what I can actually do about it. This suit restricts my Systems, but it can't completely stop them now that I have gotten stronger. The problem is that I still can't scan you or anything in this place. I need to get a reading on the Great Red Eye so I can determine what this energy is. If I can figure this out, then I can create a shield within this room that will block that power completely," I explained, and Lilith only shrugged in indifference. This was not the first time I had gone over this same point, but it felt like each training day was bringing me closer.
The only thing that I still couldn't understand was why it was doing this. The power inside of the Great Red Eye wanted to be free, so why was it stopping me from helping Lilith? It didn't make sense, but I knew there had to be a reason.
"I think you are just overthinking this," Lilith said as she stood up from the bed and walked over to me. " Maybe you should take a break for a while."
I wanted to keep going, but Lilith was right. I had been pushing myself non-stop for months now, and I needed a break. My power was still growing, but it wasn't growing as fast as it had been. Maybe it was time to take a step back and reassess the situation.
"Alright," I said as I floated over to the bed and sat down. Lilith sat down next to me and leaned against my chest as she wrapped her arms around me.
"Just relax for a while," Lilith said as she closed her eyes, and I did the same. It felt good just to relax and not think about anything for a change.
After taking a break for a few days, I was finally starting to feel better. My mind was clear, and I was able to focus on training again. Lilith had been helping me every step of the way, but even she was starting to get frustrated with the lack of progress we were making in returning her back to normal.
I had tried everything that I could think of, but nothing seemed to be working so far, no matter how much power I absorbed from the Great Red Eye itself or how long we spent projecting into other parts of the dimension together. It was like I had hit a wall, but I wasn't ready to give up yet.
"Maybe we should take a break for a while," Lilith said as she watched me from the door of my room, and I just shook my head.
"No, I am not ready to give up yet," I insisted as I floated over to her. "I know that there has to be a way to help you change back, and I am not going to stop until I figure it out."
"But what if there is no way?" Lilith asked, and I could hear the fear in her voice. She was starting to lose hope, but I refused to let that happen.
"There is always a way; we just have not found it yet," I assured her as I took her hand in mine. "I promise you that we will find a way back for you. Before I came here, there was nothing that I couldn't complete if I put my mind to it. I have had close calls in the past, but we need to turn the training up. Is there any way that we can get the others to help? You all know how to use the power, so maybe the answer is beating it into me?"
"I do not think that is a good idea," Lilith said, but I was starting to get desperate. This whole thing was starting to stress me out.
When I was outside of this place, I never seemed to hit a wall. Even if I did, I was always about to get the help of everyone else. Now it felt like it was just Lilith and me against this insurmountable mountain that was the Great Red Eye.
"It is worth a try," I insisted, and Lilith just sighed.
"Fine, but if it gets too out of hand, then we are stopping," Lilith said as she led me out of the room and toward the training area.
When we got there, everyone was already gathered and waiting for us. It seemed that word had gotten around that I wanted to try something different with my training, and they were all curious to see what it was.
"Daniel wants us to help him beat information on how to use his power into his head," Lilith explained, and everyone just stared at me in disbelief.
"That is not what I meant," I insisted, but it was too late; they had already made up their minds about what I wanted to do.
"We will help you, Daniel," Abraxas said as he floated over to me with a serious look on his face. "But if things get out of hand, then we are stopping immediately."
I nodded in agreement before we all got into formation. Lilith joined the others that surrounded me in the center. It was time to see if this would work or not.
The first thing that Abraxas did was hit me with a powerful blast of energy. I was able to shield myself from it, but just barely. The next thing I knew, everyone else was attacking me with everything they had.
I was getting bombarded from all sides with blasts of energy, and it was all I could do to keep my shields up. This wasn't working; they were just too strong. I needed to find another way before this got out of hand, as Lilith had warned.
"Stop!" I shouted as loudly as I could, and everyone immediately stopped attacking me. "This isn't working; we need to try something else."
"Like what?" Abraxas asked as he floated over to me with a raised eyebrow, and I racked my brain for an answer but came up empty-handed yet again.
"I do not know, but we need to try something different. This is not working," I said as I looked around at everyone.
"Well, what do you expect us to do?" Azrael, the plant woman, asked, and I could see the frustration in her eyes. "This is the only thing that we know how to do."
"There has to be something else that we can try," I insisted, but no one had any ideas. We were all just standing there staring at each other until Lilith finally spoke up.
"Daniel is right; we need to try something else. Maybe if we work together, we can come up with something," Lilith said as she floated over to me and took my hand.
Everyone nodded in agreement before getting into formation again. This time, instead of attacking me, they surrounded me and linked hands. I could feel the energy flowing between us, and it was unlike anything I had ever felt before.
We were all connected now, and I could feel everyone's power running through me. It was almost too much to handle at first, but I quickly adjusted to it and started absorbing it like I had been doing with the Great Red Eye.
Once I had taken in all of their power, I turned my attention to Lilith. Her power was still there, just out of reach, but this time when I tried to absorb it into my own body, nothing happened. It was like hitting a wall; her power just wouldn't budge, no matter how hard I tried or how much power from the others ran through me first.
Then something inside of me started to pull at all the energy that was being fed into me, and I started to devour the energy of all those around me. Slowly, Abraxas, Lilith, Azrael, and the rest started to shift back into human form, but then suddenly, I burst with energy, and everyone was blown backward from me.
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