"I can see the outside. So can you, you left your power within that very same master of yours, didn't you? Causality." Zhou Tian spoke in a matter-of-fact tone.
Hamar nodded, Hou too heard what he said and quickly the two of them worked together to use their connection to the causality they had left within Mo Huai.
"Don't force it, just feel..." Zhou Tian gave a simple instructions as he saw Hamar's confusion in his face.
Hou heard his advice and changed the way he was interacting with the causality, a vision came to him. It wasn't sensory, not exactly, it was a sort of intangible feeling.
Hamar, also using that same 'string' of connection felt the shift from Hou's action and he too felt the vision.
'An all out attack...', they muttered in synchronisation.
Clap!
Zhou Tian clapped, the loud noise bringing Hamar back to the situation at hand. He looked into his eyes, "But! Don't pay attention to that, why do you think I sent us here?"
"And where is 'here'?" Hamar looked around, discerning no detail except the vague motion from behind the veil that had been lowered earlier, "And who were they?" He pointed.
Zhou Tian leant forward, the chair's leather creaking and squeaking, "This is a...pocket, a vacuum, somewhere where we shouldn't be," he followed Hamar's finger, "and they? They are the reason we can be here."
Hamar groaned, Hou stayed silent while taking in the conversation and trying his best to figure it all out. He opened his mouth to speak but as he looked back up from his pondering–
His eyes widened and his head shot back. Zhou Tian chuckled, "I don't need this anymore, I must thank you though."
By his side, a body had appeared in a chrysalis (cocoon) of earth. It had been partially uncovered and it's galactic skin flushed with various colours.
"I apologise, too, for taking it. I did improve it in the process though."
Hou, grimaced, 'It could be a trap' he warned. Hamar, however, shook his head and spoke aloud to Hou's inner voice, "No, he...I don't think he would do that. Leave."
Hou was a lone consciousness within Hamar's body and migrated inside the Inner True World...he was an offshoot, and now he could rejoin himself and become whole again...and have a body to himself.
He smiled, though he hid some pain and sadness below it, "Alright..." He closed his eyes and separated from a spare body he was inhibiting, the original consciousness that the body contained regained control.
Hou floated up inside the Inner True World, then he reached the border. It was not a physical space per se, he did not travel a great distance it was over as soon as he wanted it to.
At the border, he paused for a brief moment then left. He entered Hamar's physical body, and continued to pass. As a lone consciousness outside of 'his world', he should've been feeling an attack, trying to erase and recycle him.
Instead, he felt no pressure. If he wanted, he could've stayed din a consciousness state forever floating in an endless void. But that is not what he knew he needed to do, he moved past Hamar and Zhou Tian.
Reaching his body, he hovers just before...he looks behind, Hamar nods.
'Welcome back, me' to the outside world it may have been only a few years...but to him, and to Hamar, they had lived more-than a hundred years in the time-chamber enhanced by Araxis' world's causality.
He walked inside his own body, the main consciousness awoke and the two became one. They assimilated their experiences, awake and asleep.
The hard chrysalis started to crack, then burst in a brilliant flash, sand particles shot into the air...then stopped, reversing and flinging themselves onto the bare celestial body they had been repelled by just before.
The tiny particles formed a beautiful balance between armour and robe which stood form in areas, and flowed in others.
He opened his eyes, seeing the world through his own eyes, "Hamar," he nodded, "Zhou Tian."
He walked by and from the void a third chair formed, he promptly sat down. He first turned to Zhou Tian, "I don't suppose I could take the last portion of myself I left...it is outside." He raised an eyebrow (or a form that resembled an eyebrow. His entire body was made of that singular galaxy-blood material, only contrasted by the sandy armour-cum-robe).
Zhou Tian shook his head slowly, "I do not believe so, not easily. Pay it no mind, you are here mostly, aren't you?"
Hou shrugged, "Yes, I guess I am." He lamented not being able to retrieve the last portion he had left with Jin, luckily for his cause as outside she was one of the few left remaining; her control over the Grand Formation giving her the authority to stay.
Zhou Tian smiled and interlaced his fingers together, "Now that we're all here." He took a deep breath through his nose, "We shall wait. Outside a war is occuring between the sides we have supported."
He closed his eyes for a moment and gathered the entire battlefield in his mind, projecting it as a table wargame in front of him. Hamar, Hou and himself forming a triangle with the circular table in the middle.
"Don't worry about looking through your 'player', my pieces are in opposition, they won't be able to hide. Any important movements I will spot."
"Players..." Hamar spoke aloud, "You...your causality is placed within them?"
Zhou Tian raised one eyebrow lightly and scanned Hou waiting for his guess. Hou obliged, "You..." He strained to think of a theory, "You are bound to them to continue living? You should be...quite old now."
He snorted, "Both of you are close, that's all I'll say. The point is that if they die, you will have an easier time defeating me."
Hamar flinched, his finger traced his pommel, "You still want to fight?"
"Of course, this is merely a parlay. We will wait until the 'mortals' finish, then we will have the final decision."
Hamar threw himself back, leaning deep in the chair, "Let me just say it, why? Why are you doing all this? Couldn't you just...kill them, then kill us? Then...destroy the world, or whatever? Why do this farce?"
"Why?" Zhou Tian seemed to ponder, his finger shot up, "A little fun!"