The last image that is etched into the back of my mind as the green divine energy completely covers my body is the enormous mouth of the serpent before me, open wide. I can't tell if it's the mental and physical pressure from the green aura around me that rattles my mind, or the ear-piercing hiss that comes out of the creature's mouth. It feels like a dream. My body is pressed inward by the pressure as if mountain-sized anvils are pushing toward me on every surface of my body. The vibrating hissing noise in my mind increases in intensity every millisecond that passes. The feeling of being repelled by a planet-sized magnet comes back, and I'm forcefully expelled downward as my skin and muscles are compressed, torn, melted, and shredded at a microscopic level from every side. I allow a constant flow of mana crystals to surround me, falling out of my item storage, and have to rely on the intuitive properties of my skills intertwining with the yellow divine energy that covers my vitals. It is intertwined with my plunderer skill to keep my MP stores from hitting 0 like my Qi, allowing me to continue regenerating my body where the pressure destroys it. However, the intrinsic properties of my absorption skill are activated as well. My brain is functioning on autopilot to survive the pressures, and it reverts back to what is the most natural state for the highest rate of survival in this scenario. All of the flesh that is attached to these tendrils has a much harder time regenerating quickly, and some portions of my flesh have stopped almost entirely leaving open holes with nothing but a green aura in its place. By the time I fall into the jet-black forest, the effects from the green tendrils that are slowly collecting and taking over my body have reached a critical stage. It looks as if all of the threads are deteriorating my arms, legs, and abdomen while slowly flowing toward my core. Meanwhile, I'm still fast asleep, mentally recovering from the shock of the creature's hiss, and peacefully dissolving cell by cell while falling through the branches of the obsidian forest, not hitting a single one. I wake up from a loud crashing sound as my body hits the rocky ground of the island in the heart of the obsidian forest full of hungry trees. The physical pain of falling dozens of kilometers down to hit the ground isn't as bad as the burning sensation that fills my mind and body as the realization of what's happening to me all floods into my mind. My entire aura is glowing bright green, and I can see through my skin and bones as they're constantly trying to regenerate but the foreign green tendrils of energy that surround me make it harder and harder to do so each time. Millions of MP worth of mana crystals fall all around me like it's raining as they were what I last pulled from my item storage and my mind starts to think of as many ideas as I can to solve this problem. I consider using a teleportation crystal to bring myself back to the start of the construct to try and escape, but I can't think of any way that would help my situation at all. It would just put me in more danger than I'm in now. The only one capable of giving me advice in this scenario is also out cold. Less than a second has passed in Ember's perception as he's still held in my item storage in suspended animation. However, he too is already fast asleep and will need months inside an isolation pod to recover. I pull out handfuls of yellow fragments and fruits that I have leftover, eating a few, feeling a surge of energy, but nothing stops the green tendrils from spreading further and further. It gets to the point where I fall to my knees as the pain is becoming so unbearable as the threads try to overtake my entire body. Instead of the empowering feeling I got from the red, orange, and yellow gems, this one feels much different. It feels like it's going to take something away from me if I allow it to take control. Every moment I wait for it to complete its process is a moment that brings me closer to losing my body like the serpent in the sky. Whatever immense power it may grant isn't worth giving up my body and possibly even my mind if I don't have the control to regenerate what it takes away. I slow my breathing and continue to let my thoughts run wild, coming up with possible ideas and scenarios in my head, burning through MP, even restoring my Qi with a handful of pills and attempting to counteract the threads with soul energy, but nothing works. Every time I use any portion of power, it actually speeds up the process. More portions of my physical body fade away and a green aura is all that's left in its place, showing a version of myself as a pure energy being that I am not ready to convert to on a whim. I'm covered in sweat, breathing heavily, and lying face down in the dirt after another failed experiment with only one option left on my mental list. I let out a groggy whisper while dragging myself closer to the nearest trunk of an obsidian tree. "This is my only choice. I wanted to control this power, but maybe I'm just not capable of wielding it yet..." I smirk and place my deteriorated open palm on the base of the tree to feel an endless black hungry void reply to my whisper. The cold feeling, like losing a large amount of blood, washes over me instantly. I want to take my hand off, but the visual of the green tendrils being ripped from my flesh and drained into the darkness of the tree keeps me from doing so. I take a gasp of air as the pull from the endless void gets stronger and stronger, I watch more green threads be torn from my body.