Time births all things. It gives them the opportunity to exist, to develop, and to evolve. Yet it is also responsible for their inevitable destruction and obliteration. That is to say, all improvements are born and restricted by time. What would happen if someone had a deep connection with time, caused the unsealing of its infinite power, and got hit by said power? Crazy evolution is what. In a similar manner to a rubber band snapping back to its resting position, Samuel’s mind was forced back into his body. But it was not alone. It brought with it his soul. The origin of spirituality, which remains in an unknown plane of reality that had never ever forced itself into a body, did so now. A soul is currently experiencing unknown mutations at unfathomable speed. The biggest mutation, however, was the fusion that took place between the three aspects of sentient beings. The indescribably opaque soul covered by muted and blurry runes, the weakened yet depraved mind, and the newfound primordial body Samuel possessed all proceeded to become one. Samuel, who remained fully conscious, was experiencing what was happening with heightened attention and focus from the “soul place,” where he could view his soul. Still a little stunned by what happened mere “moments” ago, Samuel found it hard to understand what was truly happening, but what he did know was that shit was going down. Visible to his eyes, the soul he had viewed for many years had already begun to transform into something else. Almost as if thrown into a vortex, the soul was sucked into a giant black hole with something that felt like him, but not quite. A loud boom resounded in his ears from the sudden event. It was not a sound of destruction, however, but of creation. The black hole began morphing into the shape of the rune Samuel just got blasted by, slowly beginning to emit a feeling of dreaded, unfathomable, and sheer power that scared even him. The increase did not show any signs of stopping, either. With every second, it just improved quicker and quicker. Its exponential growth became so ridiculous that the very fabric of the space around them began to tremble and crumble. Just as the situation looked like it would get out of hand, something emerged from its debts. Dozens of thousands of chains constructed from pure dark-gray matter began to wrap around the dark rune, covering it in its entirety. Samuel was suddenly pulled towards the carpeted rune with a tug, as all the spatial instabilities disappeared. Before he could reflect on what the fuck was happening, the rune began to morph yet again. Slowly taking on the form of a person. A few hundred chains turned into motes of dark gray light that were devoured by the slowly stabilizing figure. Visible of its form were nothing but two radiating lights and endless darkness, yet Samuel found it to be incredibly handsome. Yes, indeed, it could only be his original physical appearance distorted. The silver light radiating from his right temple was mild but steady and was clearly his inventory rune. The golden light was different, though. He could barely recognize it, with only bits and pieces oozing familiarity. A nearly identical replica of the infinite rune was engraved on his black-hole esc forehead with such elegance, such passion that time itself stopped passing for Samuel. No, wait, that’s not right. Sorry, it turns out that was actually caused by that golden light he was basking in.

“Gowla?” he uttered, not fully recognizing his long-lost love. It turns out it did not reciprocate his feelings, however, as Samuel suddenly found himself lying in a massive crater. Awoken from his lucid adventure of the unexplored aspects of creation, he was in a dazed state. Too many things went wrong much too fast, and all of them brought changes to things he didn’t recognize could change. “What did I just watch? Never mind the rune; just what the hell happened to my soul? It just got devoured by the black hole and then morphed into my appearance. Too many questions with not enough answers. Paul? How can you have done the setup this quickly? No, this time, I know you’re lying about the time. It is physically impossible for three weeks to have gone by. I simply closed my eyes for a few moments. Stop trying to be funny and get to it. Show me, then. Well… great. Can you give me a few moments before you initiate the sacrifice? Thank you for your understanding.”

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Samuel decided to throw all the unanswered questions he had into the far depths of his mind to focus on the task at hand. He needed this physique. Maybe not as much as previously, but one can never be too certain or overpowered, right? “Good things happen to good people,” he thought to himself. Surely there must be a reason for him to experience that entire ordeal just now. And if that reason is not to become powerful enough to fulfill his promise to Paul, then he wouldn’t know any more. Anyway, back to stealing, cough, honorably trading for that damned physique.

With a somber and serious tone, Samuel told Paul of his readiness. Paul, with the shed of a few tears, initiated the sacrifice by cutting open his "palm,” letting a viscous but ethereal liquid flow out of it onto a massive altar with a fabulous-looking statue of Samuel standing in the center. As the first drop encountered the altar, the entire stream that was to follow was sucked out of Paul’s soul projection without prompt, resulting in him collapsing onto the floor, unconscious. It was of no relevance, however, as his part was already done. All that remained was for Samuel to accept this sacred tas—he already accepted it. Great. Thank you, Samuel, for making my job easier. Not! This fucking imbecile is too annoying. Anyway, Samuel’s body shortly began to change in ways he had never, except for a few moments ago, experienced before. Parts of his blah blah blah. Long story short, Samuel now possesses the Eternal Master of Nothingness Traversal physique. What can it do? It allows its bearers to traverse the Nothingness with relative ease. What is the Nothingness? It depends on who you ask. If you ask the person who named the physique, they'll tell you it’s the expanse that hosts all the myriad universes. And if you ask someone with half a brain, they’d respectfully inform you that the Nothingness is the part of existence where all souls exist. A place where nothing but souls—no minds, bodies, or matter—remain for long. Similarly, souls cannot remain in Infinity for long, which is why Samuel’s transformation is mind-boggling to behold.

“Whoo! This is awesome. I didn’t know space could feel even more fluent and comfortable than it already did, yet here I am. Oh god, what is this pressure? Holy shit, I need to hurry! I didn’t know there was a time limit on when I had to fulfill my part of the bargain. Paul fucking passed out, so it’s damn lucky for me that the physique remembers where it came from. No time to waste; let’s travel to Nullspace IX at maximum speed.

“Whoosh” Samuel disappeared with a slightly cartoony whoosh as he began a very bizarre round of teleporting, floating, running, walking, hiding, teleporting, swimming, and then some more teleporting in this new experience of crossing the “Nothingness”. Realistically, whoever named the multiversal expanse “Nothingness” must have been on heavy narcotics, because there was anything but nothingness in the path of Samuel on his voyage. Regardless, Samuel, who did not ask too many questions about the things his physique guided him to do, shortly arrived in front of a giant slab of spatial essence.