After finding an adequate hiding place- underneath ten feet of rubble, in a little compartment he'd made for himself-, he began his ascension. A few seconds later, Turi was welcomed back into the increasingly-familiar void. Now that he was stronger and knew more, it was clear that the void was filled with an incredibly dense essence that he couldn’t make out exactly. It was attuned to lots of things relating to ascension, though, and so he simply called it ascension essence.

According to the Guardian and, by extension, the empire she’d gotten the information from, ascending to the third Realm was very different from the second.

To begin with, it was an entirely personal endeavor. His Tome could no longer assist him in ascension, and so, he did not even spare it a glance.

Instead, Turi entered his mindscape. Contrary to his decision a week or so ago, Turi had messed around with it after learning of Psionics- now that he knew the rules and what to avoid, he’d felt safe enough to take the very first, tentative step.

That first step was adding his essence core to his mindscape. It was not the real thing, of course, but at the same time, it was. It granted him access to his essence even in his mindscape, which would allow him to more easily create things here- however, that was not why he was here.

Turi approached his essence core, examining it as he did. It was a beautiful thing- a golf-ball sized sphere, dozens of colors spattered across its surface. Most prominently was a light blue and a dark, royal purple, which were representative of his attunements. The light blue was knowledge, and the purple was… well, it was a brand new addition, so he didn’t know yet.

Turi pressed his wing against its surface, examining the essence within his core. The royal purple did not just represent one attunement; it represented many different attunements, mashed into one. Elements of leadership, salvation, magic, ascension, independence and creativity were all there, merging into something else that he couldn’t quite describe. ‘What is this?’ Turi wondered.

He delved deeper and deeper into his essence, immersing himself in who he was. The process was dangerous- very much so- but it was necessary. His doubts and fears of being turned into an Avatar of Essence were easily suppressed in the face of his very existence.

A while later, Turi pulled his wing away from his core with a much greater understanding of who he was, and a much greater understanding of his new attunement. He still did not know what to call it, because it was likely a very unique essence. There were an unending number of essences, after all- similarly to how the humans just named the trillionth exoplanet they spotted a random string of letters and numbers, his likely did not have any real, serious name of its own. For now, he simply dubbed it ‘pharaoh essence’, as it had similar vibes to the ancient Egyptian monarchs.

With that finished, Turi began shaping his new form. The difference between second and third Realm was colossal, and thus, the changes he could make to his species were equally colossal.

***

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He stared at the mental representation of his new form, a bit uncertain. Undeniably, it represented who he was- but he and his essence were two distinct individuals- he had to keep that in mind. After taking a while to chop away the most absurd things he’d tried to push for in his essence-fueled haze, like a want for omnipotence, Turi took in his new body in its entirety.

Ascenturi’s body would not become much larger than it had been before his ascension- he liked his current size, anyway. His plumage was a beautiful tapestry; dark, royal purple extended across the majority of his body, interspersed with veins of gold, tracing intricate patterns across his body. His tail feathers were entirely claimed by the gold as well. His face was claimed by light blue feathers, his golden eyes glowing faintly even when he was not actively casting magic. Lastly, white specks were spattered across his feathers, glowing and pulsing like distant stars- a perfect representation of knowledge being one of the highest pursuits.

It balanced on a thin line between being too gaudy and not, but it was fine- he could change the appearance of his feathers at any time now, after all. For the same reason that his eyes would always be faintly glowing even when he wasn’t actively casting magic, his body would receive a constant trickle of essence, allowing it to firmly cross into the bounds of being undeniably supernatural. He would be able to become larger and smaller at will, to burst with strength in an instant- faster even than he could shoot essence through his body, which was significantly more expensive as well.

His talons and beak were also more capable of absorbing his essence, allowing them to become significantly sharper and more durable than before, and his eyes had a few extra features. Lastly, however, was the most drastic change.

Turi would be capable of temporarily taking a more humanoid form. This was not because he thought humans were cool- although that certainly paid a part-, but because of the many weapons and armors he’d seen the humans wearing and wielding, increasing their power massively through little of their own efforts.

His humanoid form was, well, humanoid- standing on two legs, with two arms, at about six feet tall. His proportions were very similar to those of humans, so that he’d be able to effectively wield their weapons, but it was impossible to mistake him for a real human. Wings sprouted from his back. feathers covered his body, his plumage equally opalescent to his real form, and his limbs ended in talons. His face was adorned with a beak. He’d found that ears looked strange on him, and so rather than ears, he had two owl-like crests atop his head, designed to ‘catch’ sound much better while also making him look better.

Turi wasn’t sure about the inclusion of this second form at all, really. It provided huge benefits, of course, allowing him to use weapons and grab things much better, but… was it really worth all the resources he’d spent on it?

Turi felt around the void, confirming that every bit of the ascension essence would be expended to turn his new form into reality. Over a quarter of that was directed towards the complex mechanics necessary to allow him to switch forms.

Speaking of the void and ascension essence, Turi had spent quite a while in here and had thus gained a better understanding of where he was. He had at first thought that it was a place similar to his mindscape, but he’d changed his mind- it appeared to be some form of alternate dimension with nothing but ascension essence in it. It was colossal, too- Turi had expended every bit of ascension essence he could manipulate, but he could feel much farther than he could manipulate- he was missing out on a ton of ascension essence. That was assuming that it just cut off after he couldn’t feel the essence, too, which was seriously unlikely.

Despite his doubts, Turi was ready to move on. He’d spent far too long in here anyway- he needed to fulfill his promise. Dubbing his new species ‘Ascension Crow’- it no longer felt too arrogant of a title-, he pushed.