"Will, time to wake up. How long do you plan to sleep?" an adorable voice asked. "If you don't wake up soon, I'm going to give you a kiss."
William's eyes slowly opened when he heard the familiar voice that whispered in his ears. The adorable face of the Loli Goddess appeared in his vision with her lips puckered outward to give him a smooch.
William hurriedly raised his hand to block her lips, but was surprised by what he saw.
Instead of his hand, the one that blocked Lily's lips was a furry, padded, hand that made the Loli Goddess giggle.
"Awwww, William is so shy," Lily chuckled as she raised William high in the air and spun him around. "I should have done this sooner. You look cuter this way!"
"Lily? Why are you here?" William asked via telepathy. "Where am I? Better yet, what am I?"
It didn't take long for William to realize that there was something very strange about his body because it felt "weird". It was as if he wasn't fully accustomed to his body and was having trouble moving its parts.
"Alright, calm down, Little Will," Lily happily poked William's nose with a big grin on her face. "I know that you are currently confused, but my explanation will have to wait until we arrive at our destination."
Lily happily carried William out of her residence to meet with Issei and David. Gavin was currently resting in his hut on the outskirts of the Temple in order to recover. The Forceful God Descent he made to save William had rendered him paralyzed and it would take him a long period of time to fully recover.
"We're here!" Lily announced as she arrived at the picnic area of the temple where several other Gods were lazing around.
Issei and David were already seated beside a picnic table and waved at the approaching Loli Goddess.
"How did it go?" Issei inquired.
"It went perfectly well!" Lily replied with a victory pose.
David played with his beard as he stared at the Pink Teddy Bear in Lily's hands. Since Lily had declared that her attempt was successful then the consciousness residing within the stuffed toy was none other than William.
Lily casually placed the Teddy Bear on top of the table with a big smile on her face. "Tadah! I present to you, Little Will version 1.1!"
Issei and David humored Lily by clapping their hands to praise her.
William who was still in a confused state tilted his head as he waited for an explanation.
"Um, can someone tell me what's going on?" William asked. "Did I crossover? Am I dead?"
Lily giggled and poked the Teddy Bear's nose and started her explanation. "Technically, you are now a Half-Dead-Half-Elf. The only thing that is keeping you from crossing over is the newly implanted Spirit Core inside your body. If not for that, you'd be entering the Cycle of Reincarnation right at this moment."
William tried to recall what happened before he lost consciousness and remembered a pair of purple eyes that looked at him in an affectionate manner. He knew to whom those pairs of eyes belonged to and a complicated feeling rose in his heart.
'Looks like I owe her one,' William thought as he sighed internally.
"You have been sleeping for three days and, during that time, your body, and spirit have been taken care of by three beauties," Issei commented on the side. "You should properly thank them when you recover."
"T-Three days? I've been sleeping for three days?!" William gasped in shock. "What happened while I was unconscious? Are the others safe?! What about Wendy?"
"Calm down," David replied. "All of them are safe. At least for now."
"For now?"
"Yes. For now."
William wanted to know more, but David didn't say anything else. Lily and Issei also didn't say anything to follow up which made William feel anxious.
"Look. Before you worry about others, why don't you worry about yourself first?" Lily said as she patted her forehead. "Do you know how serious the damage to your soul is? It's a miracle that I was still able to drag your consciousness out of your body."
William quieted down after hearing Lily's words. If his soul remained inside his body, and only his consciousness was dragged out, it just showed how dire his current situation was.
"Mah, there's no use worrying about things outside of your control," Issei said as he patted the Teddy Bear's shoulder. "What you need to think about is what you're going to do from here. Clearly, you can't return to your body in your current state. Even if you were to return, nothing would change. You will just remain in a vegetable state for a month or two."
William closed his eyes and did his best to calm down. Issei was right. Even though he wanted to return to his body, the damage to his Sea of Consciousness remained. After calming down, he once again opened his eyes and faced the three Gods who supported him from the Heavens.
"What should I do now?" William inquired. "Is there a way for my body to recover? Can any of you help me?"
The Three Gods exchanged a glance and looked back at him with serious expressions on their faces.
"The damage in your Sea of Consciousness will recover in time, but it will take at least a few months for it to fully recover," Issei answered with confidence. "Right now, Ian and the others are doing their best to speed up the process, but you can't rush something like this. Souls are very delicate things. It takes a great amount of spiritual energy to damage them, and requires the same amount to restore them."
David cleared his throat as he looked at the depressed Teddy Bear in front of him. "However, that doesn't necessarily mean that you can't awaken from your current state. Of course you can. In fact, you can even fight, but you can only do that for a very short period of time.
"If you exceed your limit, your already crumbling soul will collapse completely. When that happens, it will take at least a thousand years for your soul to recover and enter the Cycle of Reincarnation."
William sighed in relief when he heard that there was still hope for him to awaken in the real world. Although the part about his soul collapsing completely scared him, he was more worried about staying in a vegetable state for months.
"Mah, let's not talk about these things first," Lily interjected. "Let's talk about the important ones. William, it's about time that you learned how to use the Divinities that we gave you. Don't tell me that you only thought of my Lollipop as an ordinary snack to lure cute little girls to follow you around. Although I don't mind if you do that, people around you will definitely treat you as scum."
"Eh? Your lollipop isn't just a snack?" William scratched his head. "I thought it was just a candy that dispelled other status effects. It can do more than that?"
"Of course it can," Lily said in an arrogant manner. "At most, you are only using 10% of its full power."
"And you're using mine at 25%," Issei commented.
"You're also not fully utilizing the power of the Shepherd Job Class," David joined his friends in nagging at William. "You're missing out on a lot of things!"
The Three Gods stared at William with mischievous smiles on their faces.
"Don't be in a hurry to return, Little Will," Lily said with a big grin on her face. "You will be undergoing Divinity Training so that you don't waste the precious gifts that we gave you.
"I still can't stomach the fact that a 'Worm' almost benefitted from the blessings that we gave you. If that really happened, I would have descended into your world and ripped that worm to pieces!"
After Lily's outburst, the three Gods dragged William to the outskirts of the Temple to start his Divinity Training. Issei, and David, shared the same opinion as the Loli Goddess. If William had known how to utilize the Divine Powers that they had given him, even in his weakened state, the Astral Worm wouldn't have been able to beat him so easily.