"What the hell is this?!"

Avis appeared in front of Sky and turned the screen around. All of Sky's information has been replaced with a single piece of text.

"When the system user becomes one with ether, their status will read as such," Avis read aloud.

Sky grew curious about the information, aside from the fact that everything was greyed out and whatnot, there was something else of particular interest.

"That…" Sky said, pointing to the information, "that isn't something you'd normally see on a normal status." Avis moved closer to Sky to read the tiny, barely legible text.

"Are those numbers?" Sky asked.

"Ah, don't worry about that. The system has gone through some iterations over the centuries and has improved itself during those years. The numbers you're seeing is its current version. Originally it was version 1.8, and now it is an astounding 2.0. It made great efforts to gain that little number, so don't belittle it!" Avis said proudly with a smug grin. He then looked at Sky's status page. "Anyway, thanks to the system's stubbornness, we obviously can't view your status yet, so why don't we do something more useful and get out of here."

"Isn't my body still mush?!"

"When you did that whole breathing thing, you should've seen how excited the system was. It quite literally pieced you back together in mere hours. Compared to the two days it would've initially taken, you are now a free man! A free man enslaved by me, of course, hehe~."

Avis's face was one where a simple smile would mean a heinous crime was being committed. His grin grew even wider if that was at all possible.

Sky blinked, and his surroundings darkened. The sky, trees, and grass were gone, replaced with dirt in his mouth, the croaking of frogs, and a sparkling black sky. Sky felt pain, pain that made the pain he experienced in the dream world seem like a paper cut. It was a sharp, excruciating pain that stabbed his body all over.

"Ugh… What's going on?" Sky groaned as he tried to pry himself up.

"Whatever it is, it's not like I know what's going on. The only thing I could tell from the system's notification is that it won't kill you for incompetence, whatever that means."

A pinging sound echoed around Sky, and a prompt appeared within his vision.

"Body restructure completed.

"Nerve restructuring process beginning..."

"What the hell's going on?!" Sky yelled out.

"The nerve restructuring is necessary to bring the nervous system up to par with the rest of your body. We should probably find some shelter, though." Avis said, ignoring Sky's complaints.

Sky lay on the ground, trembling with immense pain caused by the slightest movements. His body felt overly sensitive, with every fibre of his being making him aware of them.

"Raagh!" Sky groaned as he forced his body to kneel and then stand on its own.

"...Nearly there."

Sky groaned as he moved his body about, trying to become accustomed to his very lacking body structure. The pain ranged from an intense stinging feeling all over to a burning, splintering agony.

Avis floated above him once again, impatiently waiting for him to simply move.

"Get a move on already. Do you think I can float here all day whilst you try and walk? How difficult can it possibly be?!"

Sky took staggering steps towards the top of the crater the Darkness dimension created when tossing him out. His muscles ached, as did his bones and every facet of his body. Sky took a few more steps, but gradually his pace slowed as the crater's edges were steeper. Eventually, a hand reached out passed the crater's edge and gripped the ground surrounding it. He was finally out.

Sky was on his knees. He was barely conscious at this point and was struggling to stay awake.

"Tired already? What a disappointment." Avis taunted.

"Avis… what's happening to me?"

"That question is going to be answered soon enough. I'm pretty sure you're just going through some kind of rewiring. It'll be like this for a short while, anyway."

Using a strange technique, Avis managed to lift Sky up and levitated him off the ground. Sky's body was still weak, and he wobbled under Avis's smooth movement. Avis then dropped him, seemingly at random. A small chuckle followed as Sky tried to remove his face from the muddy dirt. 'I really hope this is mud.' he thought to himself.

"Come on, get up! Unless you enjoy rolling around in the mud?" Avis said with obvious sarcasm. He then floated a few inches above Sky to not get dirty himself.

Sky tried to crawl back up, but he quickly gave up on that idea due to the slipperiness of the mud and simply crawled towards the direction Avis pointed his eye at. He slipped and tossed around, trying to get his bearing straight until a sneaky slithering sound could be heard to Sky's left. Within the corner of his eye, he saw a large shadow wiggle about. The shadow slipped over his mud-covered hand, causing Sky to freeze.

'Reptiles.' he thought to himself, not daring to speak or move for that matter.

He looked around for Avis and found him nonchalantly floating towards the slithering creatures.

'Don't provoke them?! They'll see you!' Sky shouted within his mind.

In response to the sudden shouting from Sky, Avis physically flinched.

"You dimwit! Don't you understand that only you can see me?! Don't shout in your damn head. It hurts!" Avis shouted as he shot forwards toward the creatures.

The mud-covered Sky quickly scrambled to kneel and crawled towards a nearby rock. He did his best to keep himself away from danger as he heard bits of growling erupt from the slithering creatures. The creatures' horrid demon-like sounds were enough to send shivers down his spine.

"Hurry up, already! I got more than enough meat here to sustain us." Avis said as he floated towards Sky with the live serpent-like creatures, except instead of multiple bodies, there was a multitude of heads hosting themselves on a single serpentine body.

The slithering creatures squirmed in the air, trying to free themselves. Sky reached the safety of the rock wall and watched as Avis casually floated alongside the bizarre creatures. The slithering creature's body was about four feet long with twelve beady, irregular yellow eyes looking upon everything with hostility. Each of the heads had razor-sharp fangs, and upon closer inspection, Sky noticed that the fangs were serrated. Avis looked at Sky, smiled, and then pointed with his maw towards the mass of creatures.

The creatures tried moving towards Sky and were immediately stopped by Avis. "Come now, these are yummy snakeskins, and they're littered everywhere. It'd be a shame if they weren't put to use while they're still fresh."

Sky looked at them and came to the conclusion that he could eat them if cooked correctly. Just the thought made his belly rumble. "I think I'll cook them." Sky said, surprised at his lack of disgust at the thought of eating what was once something alive.

"That's fantastic. I'll deal with these; go get the firewood." Avis said as he floated closer towards Sky. Sky looked at Avis, then back at the creatures. He watched as the eager reptile coiled around itself, squirming and slithering in the air. Then, he staggered towards the forestry. Finding some dead, dry branches scattered on the ground didn't take long in the vast forest. He used his weight to snap the branches and picked them up. He walked by Avis with a branch in one hand and the rest of the branches in the other.

"I rather kill them before cooking them."

"How merciful of you," Avis sneered.

Before Sky could do anything, Avis uncoiled the creature, brought it close to his mouth, and ripped one of its heads off with his teeth. The other heads hissed and snapped, trying to retaliate, but it was a wasted effort. One by one, Avis ripped off their head until none were left. Sky stood there with a gaped jaw.

"What're you standing there for? Get the fire going!" Avis shouted, licking his blood-stained lips as he threw the decapitated creature in Sky's direction.

Sky quickly got over the initial shock and began preparing the fire. He stripped the bark off of the branches and then broke them into smaller pieces. Once he had a good amount, he placed them on top of one another and looked toward Avis. He simply sighed, and a small ember turned into a large fire. The wood caught fire almost immediately, and Sky was able to cook the creatures fairly quickly.

The slithering creatures tasted like chicken, albeit a bit tough. The multiple necks made it difficult to chew, but Sky managed. He was pleasantly surprised at how filling they were. Avis floated over with a sly grin and asked, "Had your fill already? You didn't eat their venom sacks, did you?" Sky's face flushed white, and looked down at the remains of the serpentine creature.

"No, I didn't see any." He said, trying to sound convincing.

"Good, because those things are incredibly poisonous. A single drop of venom from those sacks could kill a human." Avis said as he began devouring the leftover cooked meat.

Sky sat there in silence as he stared at the remains of the creature he had just eaten. He felt his stomach churning and his throat burning. He tried to vomit, but nothing came out. It felt like his insides were on fire. He clutched his stomach and writhed in pain on the ground.

"What's wrong with you?" Avis asked between bites.

"I think I'm going to be sick." Sky managed to get out before he hurled the chunky meat his mouth had processed.

"Heh, so you did eat the sacks. What a shame~." Avis said, snickering.

Sky glared at Avis as he continued to writhe in pain. He wished he could pass out and escape the pain, but it was too strong. He felt like he was going to die. Suddenly, the pain subsided, and Sky's vision began to clear. He sat up and looked around, surprised that he was still alive.

"What happened?" He asked Avis.

"You built up an immunity to the venom. It'll take a while for your body to flush it out completely, but you should be fine now." Avis said matter-of-factly. "Often, you'll find that digesting venom sacks directly will digest not just the venom but the sack itself, which is made of the corresponding antidote. Without that, the sack would just dissolve due to the acidity."

Sky stared at Avis in disbelief. He had just eaten something poisonous, and not only did he survive, but he built an immunity. It was hard to believe, but he supposed it made sense. After all, Avis did say that he had been alive for a long time.

"Now then, we should get going. We've wasted enough time here." Avis said as he floated off into the distance. Sky staggered to his feet and walked behind Avis.