{Outside The Projection}
The crowd was not surprised...
Sure, they were not expecting the Well to look like that.
They were not expecting its position in the realm to be so far back.
Heaven and Hell weren't lost on them either; it was quite... poetic.
Neither was the Well's Corruption, nor its reaction to Malik's presence.
But... but... that was extra. Fluff on what really mattered.
It was said again and again, this was expected.
Still, seeing it actually happen made them pause.
They had not yet said a word, their mouths sewn shut.
Even now, after the nightmare began.
They saw themselves unfit to speak.
Malik had undoubtedly gone beyond the believable in his life.
Beyond any and everything ever conceivable by both mortal and Magi.
And yet... and fucking yet, this before them seemed to eclipse all of that.
His one wish for every person that he lost was simple.
So simple, it could not be misinterpreted.
He didn't want to be forgotten.
He didn't want to be known only as a number in a list of men buried in a mass grave.
His sense of worthlessness as a beggar had remained with him even as he had become a Jinn. Even as he had become someone that people bowed to. Respected. Adored. Feared.
It manifested in this way. And his constant defeat certainly didn't help in that regard.
Everything that happened only worsened his dwindling self-worth.
He was unable to see himself for who he was.
A man who was truly larger than life.
Someone unlike any other.
But, despite all of that, his wish wasn't set in only one direction.
It went both ways. Give and take.
Malik promised to remember them too. Promising to never forget them.
Now... he broke that promise. Literally, in a sense. Throwing away what connected them.
This twisted the crowd's hearts, making them feel a fraction of a fraction of his pain.
They knew not what to do with themselves, and that applied even more so to Huda.
The very one who had given him that necklace.
She didn't understand any of what was happening.
Had he really forgotten them? Forgotten all their memories together, the good and the bad?
Then... then, when they met back in the palace, was he just pretending to know her?
Was he pretending all along? Or had his memory returned?
She was terrified of the answer.
But Huda wasn't the only one.
Unlike Safira, her "arc" was yet to be over.
She met Malik once more, she married him, and even had... Hm.
What was she to do if it turned out that he never remembered her?
That he, in all their years together, had never once realized why she hated him so?
Indeed, this was a nightmare.
Now, Malik's words could be seen in a new light.
Once, its listeners might think he was referring to the "pop" when thinking that this was going to be the worst "volume" yet, but now... now they'd know that it referred to this.
The only thing that could've hurt him more than the death of a loved one...
{Inside The Projection}
Many days had passed since Malik immersed himself in the Well, and the question that once dominated his mind was gone, practically forgotten, like everything else...
Everything he loved... everything he hated.
There was only one thing now.
During those days, he remained in a state of constant absorption, circulation, and release.
His mind and body were completely intertwined with the Aether of the Well.
His Crowned Sun Aspect, his primary focus, had consumed his every waking moment.
He delved into its intricacies, seeking to unlock more of its potential, deepening his foundation.
Malik kept at it until Crowned Sun coursed through his veins more clearly, intertwining with his very being, becoming an extension of himself.
A symbiotic relationship between Magi and Aspect.
This essentially made it much easier for him to cultivate, which in turn made it much easier to replenish his Aether reserves, even in the middle of a battle.
He had also gotten better used to his new abilities, especially Goliath's Fall, using it to constantly strengthen random parts of his body. From something as small as the nails on his fingers to the entirety of his upper body.
And, unbeknownst to him, his stature began to change, making him even bigger, though only slightly, his growth spurt long since past.
It was all because of the constant changes occurring in his body with every passing day, where his Aether core was continuously enhanced along with the entirety of his inner organs and muscles.
At the end, when progress began to slow, glimpses of his path toward his next destination were revealed—the Al-Wali sub-rank, a Demon Sovereign, the penultimate step before the status of an Al-Azim, a Great Demon.
But... it wasn't all Shamshine and rainbows.
He felt stuck on the border of ascending to the next sub-rank, as if he needed to step forward once more but felt unable to do so, his body stuck to the ground, unmoving.
So, he knew that his journey in the Well of Eternity was far from over.
There was one more thing he had to figure out.
His Divine Essence, his Aether.
He needed to study it.
Completely understand it.
Without uttering a single grunt of pain, he allowed the burning Aether to go further up, past his neck, his eyes, reaching his mind, shocking it with heat.
His entire being was enveloped by the transcendental Aspects the Well contained, not only his.
Malik was called upon once more, and this time, he seized hold of that sensation, forcing it to pull himself alongside it, deeper within itself, enveloping him both in body and mind.
Suddenly, he felt the world squashing him into himself.
Though only for a moment, as after that, he blinked his eyes open...
And was greeted by a world of fire and blood.
A world bathed in vibrant reds, seemingly devoid of anything else.