Michael's eyes shot wide open when he got back to his senses. He shot up from the ground and circulated some energy through his eyes to activate Seer.

Seer revealed the surroundings in its full glory if there was any glory in a sealed cave with a massive root as the floor.

"Not a root. The primal root" Michael snickered to himself. It was odd, but he knew what had happened when he was unconscious. It was almost like the Curses and things inside him had told him about everything that happened when the Incubation Trial incapacitated him.

The moment he heard the fourth trial's name, Michael realized something was wrong. He couldn't stop it, though. Michael didn't feel great at this moment. He sighed deeply and allowed the memories of his body's habitants to verify his guesses.

"My mortal vessel was shed when I lost my power. They used the energy to create a Tier-5 powerhouse with several eight-star, seven-star, and six-star Soultraits to form a Divine Shell. That is how I was able to create the Energy Vortex even though I'm not yet a Divine Lifeform. Rune Vortex needs a Divine Shell, a body capable of withstanding the pressure of the Energy Vortex, to form it."

Michael scratched the back of his head as a flood of memories and information swept through him. The Divine Shell augmented his physical strength. It expanded his soul considerably and it accelerated his thinking and mental capacities. His DIvine Shell helped him absorb more of the surrounding energy and control the surrounding energy and energies his body contained, and itshattered his need for a Divine Ascension.

Michael wouldn't have to undergo the usual Divine Ascension because his body was already void of impurities also a gain from shedding his mortal vessel and forming a Divine Shell and on the same level as a Divine Lifeform. The only 'issue' was that his Energy Vortex was still at the 6th Tier. But that was something enough resources and effort could solve easily.

But even if his Energy Vortex and Tier weren't a big problem, Michael considered it an issue that made his body feel like it was bursting apart. His physique was on the verge of breaking, and his soul felt like it would explode at any moment. Michael would have used some SoulStar Fragments to treat his soul and expand it slowly if he still had some left. Unfortunately, all remaining SoulStar Fragments had been left in the Jungle Shop. Maybe that was for the best. The Untamed Awakened and others required every bit of strength right now.

"How can I leave this place?" Michael as the Beast God Curses, but neither Fenrir nor Jormungandr answered.

[You know how to leave. Listen to the Heart.]

Michael winced when he heard a woman's voice in his mind. It sounded oddly familiar, as if he'd heard it before but couldn't quite grasp it anymore. It took Michael several minutes to recall where he'd heard the voice.

"You sound different. I expected you to be a massive monster, not their sister." He responded with a faint smile.

The voice was none other than the terrifying creature whose voice they'd heard underneath the Elementals Cave. It was the voice from the massive cavern tunnel that Michael had sealed with a gigantic gate to reassure Zeroa and her Elementals.

[I didn't expect the first living being entering my domain to leave and build a gate before we could talk again, either. But that is fine. You are here, and I'm inside you.]

Michael winced. She said that in a matter-of-fact tone, something Michael didn't like. Unfortunately, it was a matter of fact. The woman, the sister of Fenrir and Jormungandr, was inside him. She had transformed into a God Curse, just like her brothers.

"Why did you transform into a Curse? Were you locked in this place?" Michael asked, looking around before tapping the surface of the primal root.

[Locked? I was never locked. You cannot lock away Death. That is not how it works]

Michael couldn't quite understand what was happening anymore, but it seemed like Hel enjoyed that.

[I was to stay here and gather my strength. The Primordial Untamed Jungle grew weaker after its Deity Guardian died, and I chose to replace the Fallen God in exchange for a few favors. You don't have to know any details about those favors, but I think you can tell how I used my connection with the Untamed Jungle to grow myself and the Untamed Jungle. You can feel the familiarity of our connection, can't you?]

Michael frowned but closed his eyes to sense the familiarity Hel had mentioned. He sensed his Soul Sphere and noticed that the sealed Soul Socket the socket that had required only one more SoulStar Fragment to be unlocked was no longer there. The empty Soul Socket had been dragged to the Core of the Soul Sphere, where it resided with Extraction, Insert, and Sacred Constitution.

No. It wasn't an empty Soul Socket anymore. A Soultrait Symbol had formed in the Soul Socketa Soultrait radiating an odd familiarity. A flash of information impacted heavily, imprinting itself deep into Michael's mind.

"You're the one who absorbs all corpses in the Untamed Jungle. You nourish the Untamed Jungle using the bodies of the dead while youconsume a portion of power from all deaths in and around the Untamed Jungle?"

[That's correct. I am also the one who influenced the Untamed Jungle. Not that it required many words. The Primordial Tree Spirit liked you a lot already. All it took was a little push and some more help when the Temple of the Forgotten was about to throw you into Trials that would have lasted decades to complete. I don't know what that idiotic Deity Guardian expected, but who in the right mind would waste decades of their life in an ancient ruin?]

Fenrir had once mentioned that the trials were weird, customized, and somewhat easier than they should have been, but Michael realized only now how much someone had altered the trials.

"So, you urged the Untamed Jungle, the Primordial Tree Spirit, to accept me. That is also why I'm here at the primal root and why thisthing is in my heart?" Hel hesitated a little this time. She didn't answer right away and considered her answer carefully.

[The Heart is something I didn't expect. I was certain the Primordial Tree Spirit would do something, but I didn't expect it to do anything like that. No Pseudo-Divinity would surrender a Fragment of their Divinity after spending thousands of years consuming the Divinity of a Fallen God. The Primordial Untamed Jungle was attacked and taken a portion of its might in those thousands of years, yet it never diverted its focusonly to give you a portion of its Divinity Fragments and more authority over the Grand Region than anyone else will ever acquire.]

[You are now officially the Lord of the Untamed Jungle. The one and only Lord, who can control everything.] Fenrir explained, but the wolf's explanation didn't really help him in any way.

"Iam the Lord of the Untamed Jungle? And what is this talk about the Heart and the Untamed Jungle's Divinity Fragment?"

Realization dawned upon Michael as the words escaped his lips.

"WaitYou are saying the Heart in my chest is a fragment of the Untamed Jungle's Divinity?"