It was truly ironic, Cades had indeed expected that he was on the verge of ascending one more, but he had more so expected that because he hadn't been absorbing magic power lately, or even absorbing much at all during the entirety of that which he now began referring to as the wooden world in his mind, on the other hand he had been growing weaker physically while also growing stronger.
Indeed, physically speaking he was slightly weaker than when he was at the peak of the lord-level, but back then he had no idea how to control that strength, he hadn't even realized, with his back then foolish mind, that his entire body was falling apart because of his own false strength, no, he had only begun realizing this as of this very moment, and as soon as he did he began realizing that which he already knew to be true was now more true than ever before.
One could say two opposite thing about Cades right now, and yet both would be true in their own way.
The first was that Cades was much weaker than before, and that would be true in a physical and even partially mental way, in relation to a healthy mind, but on the other hand one could also say that Cades was stronger than ever, and indeed, in almost every other way Cades was incomparably stronger than before, even his own, fractured and slowly failing, mind was much more capable than before.
And yet, despite his physical strength slowly fading away, growing fainter and weaker over time, it grew more powerful, his utilization, his will and every single ounce of his intent began to flood his body, empowering it far beyond what was normal, far beyond his capabilities of back when he had been an apex, he could now feel how he was growing, he could feel, and that was the power of this rank after all, the rank of the transcribe was also something one could refer to as the rank of a reader, the rank of understanding, it was the rank that made one understand others and as it seems also oneself.
Finally, as his body had finally stopped paining his mind, he began to show a sly and crooked smile, one that he would normally never show, but right now his facial muscles had ever so slightly deteriorated so he wasn't as capable of smiling, or really anything else, right now.
But at the same time he felt happy, he felt happy not because he had grown stronger once more, sure that was part of the reason, a big one, but he more so felt happy because he had learned something new.
Cades had already forgotten a lot of what he had perceived, by now it felt more so like a kind of dream, a beautiful nightmare if one may, a nightmare that filled his head with knowledge he couldn't access, with books he could not decipher, could not read, and indeed Cades was once more wiser, he only remembered fleeting moments, he remembered the intent that wished to be, he remembered the intent to be complete, he remembered the wish to move, he remembered the silver sweat, and he remembered other things, but as he did his head began to be filled with a stabbing pain and he forgot even more, or rather he forgot what he wished to remember, but as soon as he didn't wish for it it came back to him.
To Cades that seemed incredibly interesting, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to, nor should he, try to remember or interact with it right now, feeling danger at the thought of it, danger which he subconsciously remembered, danger that his body had felt while his soul was gone, a bottomless panic, a horrible smell that came from nowhere, and a scream that wouldn't stop.
But to be fair, that very scream, Manug's scream hadn't stopped at all, even now he could still feel it in the back of his mind, it was more so that Cades had simply locked it away, together with all that remained of his self, with all other emotions, with all that had hindered him, with all that had bound him to the dead archer.
And yet, all of this didn't last long, soon enough he had all but forgotten and all but stopped caring, simply deciding to try again the next time despite the primal fear that had now taken root within himself, the fear of being incomplete as he now began betitling it, something he wasn't, however, entirely certain about.
Soon after, while his eyes were closed almost the whole time, trying to savour the feeling and knowledge of what had just happened, the experience of being incomplete, he opened his eyes once more and looked ahead, far below the chains, directly at the ocean of light below.
His smile widened, almost tearing his muscles anew, nothing too bad since the energy was still faintly residing within him, though almost having stopped it's flow already, but Cades didn't care, he had just realized something, something good, something he had already known but put aside at first due to the sheer absurdity of what had just happened shortly before.
But indeed, he felt something new deep within him, not just his very own intent that he could now feel much, much more clearly than before, as if it was waiting, residing, squirming for something that was not meant to be, now once more uncontrollable in his current state of mind, but also something else, something that resided purely in the form of intent now, spread all across his entire body, faint, barely noticeable, but there.
Within his body, now finally, truly useable for him, was a new active, one that he could already, quite easily tell, had something to do with transportation, perhaps the way how the golem-like beast had simply appeared right next to him out of nowhere.
Finally, after thinking for a little bit he decided that it was time to finally test it instead of simply trying to search with his intent, something that he couldn't do right now anyways.