Reincarnated as a Phoenix

Chapter 79 - Awakening

'Where the hell am I?'

I swear I've been wondering this place for what feels like days now, might only be hours but time does feel a little skewed in here, maybe because there's nothing to base it off after all.

There's just nothing but pure darkness and it seems endless, no walls in sight nor I can't even see the floor thinking about it, it doesn't feel like I'm floating but it doesn't feel like I'm walking either. Pretty sure I still have a body, at least from touch but can't see it, I bet this is how Petra used to see before she gained her 'eyesight', I'll go to the ends of the earth to find her a cure if this ever becomes a permanent thing for her once again.

'I'm not in a coma or something, right?'

I've got no memory problems or anything like that inside here, literally remember everything up to the moment I collapsed back in the last dungeon, clearly this has to be something related to breaking the curse but why am I in a place like this and for so long? All alone in a dark, desolate void with nothing else but my thoughts to keep me company, I can't even speak for some reason and Aesa isn't here either, I'd go mad if it wasn't kinda relaxing.

It's strange, feel a sense of calm and peace inside here, I'm unsure if it's down to this place being inside my head or somewhere else, I'm assuming it's inside my head because I have no idea how I'd be somewhere else, that dungeon was completed after all and all the other phoenixes were around me, it's either that or I've been teleported somewhere else but this place in some ways feels like a dream so I've scrapped that idea.

If I see a bright light though, I'm running the other direction, I'm not stupid enough to walk into a bright light and kill myself off doing something stupid like that. That's how death always works though, right? You see a bright light and to stay alive, you avoid it like the plague, at least that's what you'd think from all those near-death experiences people have told throughout the years, most are probably bullshit and made-up thinking about it.

It is a little boring though, only so much sleeping you can do around here and stuff like meditation bores me even further, I'd probably be able to do it if it made me slowly get stronger like with Petra. Actually, that's not how regulating ki works, I think. I've got to stop asking her about it since even now, I still can't understand anything she tells me when it comes to cultivation. I really should've read more novels but there are only so many hours in a day and they are sooo long and confusing.

Without giving me a warning though, a voice suddenly rings through my skull.

<HELLO, CAN YOU HEAR ME!?!>

'Jesus fucking Christ! How loud was that!?'

I've actually grabbed my ears, it wouldn't help in the slightest since the sound isn't even entering my ears but it was instinctive of me, that was really loud after all.

<Ah, sorry little phoenix, didn't realize how loud this damn thing comes across, that should be better now>

Like when I speak to my parents or that mad God Lyssa I came across, telepathy is being used right now, this guy's voice does sound a little odd though, it's pretty relaxed and almost sounds like a dude or a bro, like a drinking buddy perhaps? I've got to stop using that comparison, my excessive drinking days are kinda over, I might get pissed when my birthday comes back around though.

I'd give him a response but it's not exactly like I can speak in here, unsure if it's God or dungeon related but the same type of silent voice effect is taking place here like in that madness dungeon. Using my thoughts to communicate back doesn't seem to work either.

<Sorry for the long wait, first time trying to use this stupid thing, can see why the other Gods frown on it, stupid piece of modern magic. Can you respond to me by any chance?>