"Wait—why did you say hosts...?"
Azrael thinks that since he has given the body to Master White, only he will experience the pain.
He couldn't be more wrong.
All these years, after wearing "the veil", they have become accustomed to talking and expressing individually, but the fact remains that they are still one person, with one mind.
Pain is experienced through the receptors present all over the body, which are connected to the brain. So the response of pain is generated by one's mind.
Azrael and Master White through "the veil" can be represented separately, but are ultimately products of one mind.
So they both will experience pain equally.
*******
A long time passes.
They remain unconscious. Until suddenly,
Azrael and Master White snap their eyes open at the same time breathing heavily.
"Ha...ha...I don't want to experience anything like that ever again." Azrael speaks, still struggling to breathe.
Master White is in the same condition, panting heavily by his side.
The clothes on Azrael's body are drenched with sweat.
[Congratulations Azrael and Master White for stepping into the first realm.]
Hearing the system's voice, pulls them back to their senses.
Looking around, they still find themselves in the same white space inside the cube.
They take a few minutes to calm and steady their minds after that traumatizing experience.
Finally, they start focusing on themselves, looking for any changes.
But they don't notice any major changes.
All they find, is that they feel extremely fresh and rejuvenated, even after going through that gut-wrenching pain.
And they have become a bit taller.
"Is this all the changes, system?" Master White questions.
[As I said, it will be a slow process of assimilating the blood into your body. It will take almost a year for major noticeable changes.]
Master White nods and continues examining for anymore changes.
Azrael suddenly cuts in,
"System, status."
[Name - Azrael Vaeloreth(Master White) ]
[Assimilation - 3%... ]
"That's all?" Azrael asks.
[As the blood integrates more, there will be new changes happening constantly. So once it is fully assimilated, I will show you the final status.]
"Okay." Says Azrael.
"How long have we been unconscious?" questions Master White.
[It has been two weeks, Master White.]
"What.. two weeks?!" Azrael exclaims.
Even Master White narrows his eyes hearing that.
[Don't worry, two weeks has passed inside the cube, which exists on a different temporal plane than the world of Terralon.]
[In Terralon, it is still the same evening after your first day of training, and not a single moment has passed.]
They are not concerned anymore about the fact that two weeks have gone by in the white space, where they remained unconscious most of the time.
But they are more shocked to hear, that not a single second has passed in the outside world.
Silence settles until Azrael finally speaks.
"Is time dilation on this level even possible?"
"I don't know." Master White mutters.
[You both have a very limited understanding of the universe.]
[Broaden your horizons, as things like these will be common occurrences from now on.]
And the system is right.
They can't be surprised at every little thing that happens, and they shouldn't be judging anything through their mortal lenses.
After a while—
Azrael breaks the silence.
"Whew.. we have finally stepped into the first realm." Azrael says to Master White excitedly.
"Yes." He replies with a light smile.
"I can feel that with every little passing moment, we are getting stronger, and it is improving at a steady pace." Says Master White.
Azrael nods happily.
They still remain inside the cube and discuss their plans going forward, and after a while, exit the white space with the system's help.
Back in Azrael's room,
The ethereal glowing cube shrinks back to its compact form and is stored in the system space.
"You should change your clothes." comments Azrael, seeing the drenched fabric sticking to the skin.
"First, let's switch back, and you can clean up afterwards." replies Master White.
With that, they swap, and Azrael heads to the bath.
After cleaning up, Azrael orders a maid to bring him dinner early as he is feeling hungry after all that pain.
He finishes eating and goes straight to sleep, because he is mentally exhausted.
Days and weeks go by,
Azrael is following a single routine,
Morning classes with Instructor Howard which goes on till evening, then dinner in his room, afterwards reviewing the lessons and sleeping early.
Occasionally he will go and play with his little sister Cesia, who is growing up healthy and when he is playing with her sister. He will talk to his mother, who is still as strange as ever.
*******
A year and half later—
"That marks the end of today's class, young master." Says Howard.
Azrael nods and leaves in a hurry.
"Why is he in such a hurry today?" Howard wonders, then brushes it off.
In Azrael's room,
When he reaches his room, Master White materializes and is looking expectantly.
Azrael also exclaims,
"Finally!"
They have been experiencing strength and vitality slowly building up inside their body over the year and when they tested it with a practice wooden dummy in the training grounds.
They saw visible improvement by each month.
It took longer than they expected, but today—assimilation is complete and they have officially stepped into the first realm.
"Status." Azrael commands.
[Assimilation - 100% ]
[Loading status screen....]
A golden panel unfolds before Master White and Azrael.
[Name - Azrael Vaeloreth (Master White)]
[Age - 13]
[Existence - Beginner Layer-1]
[Realm - Blood revitalization]
[Rank - Mediocre]
[Battle power - 5000]
[Soul power - 0]
[Law (incomplete) - Life and death]
[Affinities - Fire, water, earth, wind, metal...]
[Passive abilities : Super strength, Energy circulation, poison immunity, curse immunity, Elemental overlord...]
[Active abilities : Force manipulation, Energy manipulation.]
[Items - The veil(ultimate).]
[System store] (unlocked)
[Legacies] (locked)
The sheer amount of information overwhelms and also confuses them at the same time.
Because they couldn't make sense of half of the things on the panel.
"System, we understand almost nothing on the panel except for the obvious ones." Says Azrael.
"What is a rank? What are our abilities? And is our battle power supposed to be this high? It was only ten before—now it's five thousand."
Master White immediately starts firing questions.
It is extremely rare to see Master White this impatient.
[Calm down, Master White. I will answer all your questions one by one.]