76 Boundless Restoration?
"What is this strange book anyway?" A tall, handsome figure with flowing white robes asked with a quizzical expression.
His hands were moving throughout the pages of the book as if trying to find something, and yet, even after a few seconds of skimming, nothing of notice caught his eye.
"This book must be capable of doing something, right? I mean, who would just leave a useless book with a funny chicken on it in the center of an ocean dimension??" He began brooding over the subject of the odd book, but before he could formulate a single thought,
A bright light flashed.
"...Hmm? Seriously, what is with this sense of deja vu I have been getting lately?" Azmond spoke with a bored look.
The dazzling light only got brighter as the nanoseconds passed, until something quite reminiscent of Azmond's first few days in this world began to occur.
An extreme feeling overcame his pain receptors as he noticed this pain was quite similar to a scenario he experienced a few years ago. "Information transmission, huh?" A slightly strained voice sounded out of Azmond's mouth as he recalled the time he first acquired the Divine Devil Arts Scripture.
The resplendent light reached an all-time high, as the pain being inflicted upon Azmond had also reached a level that he had never experienced before.
"Ugh." He grunted through gritted teeth as the pain only intensified as time went on.
"What is with this ridiculousness?? I have never felt anything remotely close to this level of pain in my entire life!? This is thousands of times worse than what I felt when I first gained the Divine Devil Arts Scripture." Azmond was writhing in pain, but he refused to give in.
He held his ground and forbade himself from entertaining the idea of kneeling.
He took the pain like a man as he persevered for what felt like an eternity, but in reality, Only 10 minutes had passed.
Azmond was now foaming at the mouth while holding himself up against one of the sturdy walls that made up the tiny hut.
He was on the verge of collapse until, like a shining light in his dark world, the pain ultimately subsided and he was finally able to relax his muscles.
Azmond materialized a seat out of his storage ring before his fatigue hit him like a bullet train. His exhaustion caught up to him in the end, and he fell into a coma right then and there.
.....
Meanwhile, in the pocket dimension that lay above the vast ocean below, two apex figures were currently going through a multitude of emotions.
Thor may not be the brightest tool in the tool shed, but he wasn't stupid. "C-Could it be...?" His rich timbre voice came out on a slightly shaky note as he used his divine sense to confirm his theory.
He didn't even have the chance to confirm it himself before he got the answer from his brother.
"H-He opened the book…"
"What do you mean, HE Opened the book?!?" Thor shouted at the top of his lungs. The very space that surrounded the pocket dimension almost shattered from just the pure decibel level that came out of the red giants mouth.
Thor, wanting to confirm this ludicrous information for himself, leaked his divine sense out and scanned the ocean dimension. What he saw left him in a state of stupefaction.
He saw a man who resembled that of a fallen immortal flipping through the pages of Boundless Restoration before ultimately succumbing to the torturous pain that was inflicted on those who try to gain the book's recognition.
"T-This is insane." Thor's deep voice came out in an almost inaudible tone as he nearly fell to the floor from the shock he was receiving right now.
"Welcome to the club, brother." Loki's lifeless voice echoed out as he joined Thor in his daze before continuing to watch Azmond's suffering.
Azmond had long been knocked out cold. Thor and Loki were waiting with bated breath, speculating whether or not he would make it out of this in one piece.
They were betting on him dying the same as all the immortals and gods who attempted to bond with that book before him.
....
3 days have passed... It was a section of time that felt like less than the blink of an eye for the spectating gods.
The overwhelming presences that Thor and Loki had exhibited when they were fighting earlier had already significantly diminished.
The both of them now felt like empty shells, completely and utterly shellshocked at this development. Neither of them had moved a single inch these last few days.
They were simply waiting...
Waiting to see the outcome of the mortals' fight against a fate that shouldn't even be possible for one as low as him to have.
"He has to be dead now, right...?" Thor's dull voice muttered out as he looked to his brother, seeking guidance.
Guidance he would never get, as Loki was in just as dazed a state as him.
"I don't know..." Loki, for the first time in what could be counted as an eternity, was unable to confidently answer a question asked of him.
Loki didn't have the necessary skill to affirm or deny the state of the beings outside the pocket dimension.
In fact, no one stationed inside the pocket dimension during their shifts had that privilege.
No one was allowed to peer into the secrets of those outside the pocket dimension. No one was allowed to discover the existence of the gods on shift.
Although beings lower than them on the scale of existence would never be able to tell who was spying on them, they could still get a vague feeling that someone was up there, as long as their instincts were strong enough.
That was all that was needed to deter the ones who took shifts in the pocket dimension from ever entertaining the idea of spying in depth on those outside their dimension.
This was the reason why Loki previously said they would both be killed if Thor successfully broke out of the pocket dimension.
Their superiors up above would immediately notice the disturbance and come down to investigate the problem. And, once they found out what exactly happened, they would execute Thor and Loki on the spot. No matter who they were...
The pocket dimension was sealed off for this exact reason. Even if Loki and Thor now had the grounds to go and exterminate the mortal in the sea dimension, they wouldn't...
It was already too late…