In Asgard's rune-covered central chamber, two spheres of light, one large and one small, bathed the room in their mingled radiance.
The larger sphere was the Floating Island's energy core, while the smaller one was a Purple Light Cocoon formed from countless strands of the power of faith.
Shawn's figure flickered in and out of view inside the cocoon, while Kunikuzushi floated several feet behind him, slowly bobbing in midair.
Countless strands of purple faith were forced out of the Purple Light Cocoon, streaming backward like flowing silk and slowly merging into Kunikuzushi.
Inside the cocoon, Shawn sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, examining the "system." Little remained of the level 1, 2, and 3 faith previously accumulated in the faith pool.
Almost all the faith he now collected had been transferred into the Wish-Power Collector that truly belonged to him alone.
The "system" now constrained Shawn less than ever before.
He had only managed this because he had accidentally discovered another function of the energy sphere: faith repulsion.
The closer he came to the energy sphere, the harder it became to wield faith's wondrous effects, as though things of the same kind were competing with and repelling one another.
Taking advantage of this property, Shawn had spent more than a month finally transferring the vast reserves of faith accumulated in the "system" into Kunikuzushi.
The process had not only brought Shawn's ability to command faith to new heights, but also confirmed his suspicions about what the energy sphere actually was!
The energy sphere and the "system" were creations of the same order, perhaps even the same kind of thing in some sense.
After an unknown stretch of time, all the purple faith surrounding the Purple Light Cocoon finally flowed into Kunikuzushi, fully revealing Shawn's figure.
He opened his eyes,