At least, the plan had been to wait until the soul had fully regenerated, but unfortunately, after reaching a certain point in the process rather quickly, further recovery had ceased.
At this level, Martin’s sub-soul was still able to operate just as well as it had the moment it had been separated, no longer having to rely on his link to the unknown cosmic entity as a lifeline, but...
‘At this rate, I probably won’t last if I keep trying to connect to the same space as a living being until I can muscle through it without any injury.
That wouldn’t be a problem if I continued to live either in the void or this planet’s atmosphere –although I’d be in constant fear of birds- but now that I’m so close to an actual civilisation, so close to others, I can’t just turn back.
The possibility that my soul was corrupted and the fact this could spread it irks me, but I’ve got no choice but to call upon my main soul for now.
If I put it off until after I try connecting to the space a living creature is again, the chance of any negative effects would only increase, and, more than that, I want to live.’
And so, Martin was about to contact his main soul.
But a moment before that could happen, a new idea sprung forth within his mind. It wasn’t some miraculous way to heal himself, but instead, he decided to awaken the ‘space’ the link provided him to think with as a conscious entity again.
It felt slightly strange having two consciousnesses at once within him, as even in his united form, his main and sub soul were more like different parts of the same brain, whereas this was more like... having a second brain, still undeniably yours, but somehow different from the first.
Still, with how many separate processes Martin was used to concentrating on at once, the feeling wasn’t completely unfamiliar; within moments, he was already able to control his two minds, able to bring them closer or further from ‘unity’ at will.
It was the latter that Martin was looking for. While he was confident the damage to his soul was almost inconsequential, though still comparably more than the main soul had suffered when creating the sub-soul, using a part of him that was somewhat separate from his soul itself would bring him more relief.
Whilst the soul part of himself concentrated on practicing his various capabilities, the (even more) metaphysical part of himself concentrated on the link to the cosmic entity, specifically the part that led back to his main soul.
Interestingly enough, likely because this part of him was made of that same link, his perception of it seemed much greater in this state. More than simply being aware of what areas he could link to and how it could help, he could now somewhat glimpse at its inner workings.
...unfortunately for him, the entirety of it seemed beyond his understanding. He was aware there was something there, but all details eluded him.
Nevertheless, this was something new for him to investigate in the future, likely much later, when he gained a perception ability that could help him ‘see’ things that exist either on a separate wavelength to the rest of reality, or even things that didn’t exist at all, whatever the implications behind that might be.
With that, the metaphysical part of Martin finally decided to knock on the doors to his main soul, preparing the exchange of information that would unify them once more.
The knocking this time felt somewhat different. Whilst the standard procedure of sending all his memories up to the point of separation had been maintained, the origin of the signal seemed different this time.
To Martin’s main soul’s relief, the source was still evidently ‘himself’, it simply felt as if it wasn’t his sub-soul trying to communicate but rather the link to it itself.
Seeing how, stemming from the fact this same link had somehow modified his existence itself to be more resistant to corruption, Martin believed it to be less fallible than himself, so after considering the situation for a moment, he began the exchange of information without issue.
Learning of his sub-soul's predicament in an instant, he swept through his available list of options and realised there wasn’t much he could do in terms of assistance.
The best choice for now would be to wait until the spheres he was forming had condensed into whatever they seemed to be forming, then work out if anything he gained from that could help; so far, all major ‘breakthroughs’ he’d experienced had earnt him the ability to perform some new action, and with how lengthy this process had been, he was expecting something from it.
Naturally, this could also end up like the main sphere at the centre of his soul, which only became marginally useful some time after its inception, and still didn’t seem to have a major effect on his main soul.
Uncertain of what he could do to walk forward in this situation, Martin momentarily distracted himself with something that would, at the least, make his situation less time intensive.
He now knew he could form a consciousness separate from that of either his main or sub soul using his connection to the mysterious force itself, which had opened a new possibility; rather than waiting for the exchange of information to occur between his main and sub-souls every time they relinked, he could constantly maintain the link, but now with a separate consciousness monitoring for signs of potential corruption of either consciousness.
For safety, the link would operate with a short time delay, and would still be disconnected during the most critical moments, but, after Martin found this part of himself could still operate when linked to both his souls, only one of them, or even neither, this didn’t seem to be a problem.
Now that both parts of him were linked but not fully integrated, Martin’s sub-soul began to re-accumulate its store of concepts, which it had almost entirely consumed in its recovery –notably, he reasoned creating a second set of the spheres of concepts would be too inefficient, so only the main sphere that was a mix of all types was recreated to break down strands of concepts- while his main soul decided to focus on the most interesting discovery the sub-soul had come across.
Naturally, the memories of the event that led his sub-soul to be injured were fragmented, so Martin couldn’t accurately pinpoint what linking to an area containing a living being felt like.
However, something that wasn’t nearly as vague was his response to the situation right afterwards; knowledge, albeit basic, of various abilities linked to recreating several bodily functions within his soul was now readily accessible.
Naturally, most were only performed out of a desperate last hope, and Martin wouldn’t want to risk them under normal circumstances, but there were nevertheless some he could currently apply.
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For example, he knew constricting his ‘veins’, or whatever the soul equivalent might be, would either cause soul damage outright or expedite it. However, he’d also learnt consuming truly vast quantities of concepts would help in recovery.
It was yet unknown whether the use of these concepts would somehow influence the mind, and for that reason, among others, he had only bridged his two souls rather than fully relinked them, taking the time to examine for abnormalities.
Lastly, other than knowing certain other processes that either sped up recovery or countered it, there was one thing that stood out: when trying to sense his pulse, rather than directly having his soul damaged, he’d simply been flooded with too much information.
Both from the fact it hadn’t caused him to die outright and that he still held a vague memory of the event, Martin knew he could handle it as long as he was using his main soul, even when factoring in the indescribably larger size of his main soul compared to the sub one.
This would be the first time he’d willingly be taking on an unnecessary risk as his main soul, but given the fact he didn’t want to weaken his sub-soul any further, combined with the fact that the new utilisation of the link to the cosmic entity seemed to have strengthened the reinforcing effects it granted him, Martin was confident he’d be at negligible risk even if he constantly upheld the process after beginning it.
Moreover, he knew it wasn’t entirely unnecessary; if he wanted to be able to survive linking himself to the same area as a living being, something that would inevitably happen if he were to head to the city still below him, he’d have to use every means possible to reinforce himself.
He wasn’t going to gamble with his own life, and if he was forced to, he’d do everything in his power to raise his chances.
With that, he’d finalised his decision: he’d proceed with his plan, but he’d wait for the spheres he’d formed to finish whatever process they were currently undergoing before that. And that was something that would happen very soon.
Looking at the centre of the sphere of the air concept, Martin saw that the individual particles of the concept that were now in a lattice-like structure were now extremely close together.
Fortunately, while the resistance they exhibited grew the closer they were pushed together, this wasn’t exponential, so with the strength his soul was able to output constantly growing, he hadn’t encountered any major roadblocks in the process.
Even in the time he’d taken to think that very thought, the concepts inched ever closer together. Now, down from the length of several thousands of their own lengths, each concept at the centre was now only a dozen of their lengths from each other.
But whilst the growth of the outwards pressure they presented had not been exponential, it had still been enough to make the final stretch something that would take a while longer.
And so Martin, on a whim, came up with a potential solution.
‘If I can use the space my link gives me both as extra space to process thought and as a half-separate consciousness itself, could that same consciousness do the opposite?’
In other words, he wanted to know whether his new mind could manipulate his soul; while there was a –constantly growing- limit to how much ‘strength’ he could exert with his soul, he hoped his new mind, something not entirely rooted in the soul, would be able to somehow help.
And after a few brief trials, the result came back: it could, and, for whatever reason, the new mind, while inferior to his main soul, possessed only slightly lower strength.
Leaving understanding why this was the case to a more knowledgeable, less vulnerable future self, he slowly began to use the new mind’s help with the process.
Now much faster, the concepts were pushed together –notably, this only occurred within the sphere of the air concept, as unlike his soul, this new mind’s ‘space’ was not unlimited- and, after a few painstaking moments, were now only a single particle’s width apart.
At this distance, martin could feel something about the concepts changing. It was as if they were destabilising somehow, but rather than being on the edge of a violent explosion, they seemed to be... liquefying, somehow.
And true to his assumptions, the particles, which had initially seemed like the smallest possible form of matter, began to gently ripple. Now that he saw it in the centremost ones, he could make out signs of this occurring to a lesser extent in many of the particles further out.
The rippling intensifying, the particles moved even closer together, now close to touching, until...
The centremost particle and the ones immediately surrounding it rippled even more, then suddenly made contact. The group, pressured by the surrounding concepts, collapsed inwards, forming a larger particle. At the same time, all the surrounding particles rushed inwards to fill the void that this caused, stopping short of touching the new particle.
‘...
That was it?
That’s... slightly anticlimactic, I’ll admit’
Disappointed by the lack of immediate change, Martin looked closer at the new, larger particle. He assumed he could grow it by feeding it more particles of ‘air’, which he was already in the process of doing, but in its current state, there wasn’t anything too extraordinary about it.
‘Unfortunately, there isn’t much I can do to test what this can do, since I can’t exactly remove it from the sphere. For now, I’ll just continue to grow it while I make more of these in the other spheres.’
The thought of consuming it using the same ability his soul used to consume strands of concepts crossed his mind, but he decided that it would be wasteful of his hard work, and put it off until his soul could exert enough strength to create this new form of particle more easily.
Continuing to bring the particles around it closer to grow it, Martin changed his focus to the other spheres, procedurally focussing the bonus strength his new mind provided on each one, waiting for the concepts at the very centre to merge, then moving onto the next.
The process becoming slightly faster with each iteration, most of the spheres quickly formed this new type of particle at their core, with only those consisting of the least abundant concepts still remaining.
One curiosity Martin had noticed was that, unlike what he’d observed in the lesser forms of each concept, the larger particles seemed to have subtle differences based on what exactly they represented.
For now, the observable differences were only that they seemed to exert a slightly different amount of pressure on the particles of concepts surrounding them, that they would ripple to different extents, and that, aside from simply being a stronger representation of their own concept, they now seemed to embody it more closely, ‘feeling’ more or less ‘active’ than the other particles.
Naturally, with zero current understanding and minimal time to observe, it was difficult to interpret anything useful from this, but it was at least a starting point for future knowledge.
With the process of forming the particles essentially complete, the least abundant concepts temporarily left to accumulate until they were sufficient in quantity, Martin shifted his focus back to the sphere of ‘air’.
Since it had been the first to form, and given the fact the larger particle of the concept exerted less pressure compared to almost all the other fused particles, it had managed to grow during the time he was absent.
Deciding this wasn’t enough, Martin pushed using the mind within the link to accelerate the process. The surrounding individual concepts visibly sped up, with one joining almost every moment.
‘This should be enough for now’
After confirming he could ‘eat’ only part of a strand of concepts in a faraway part of his soul, the plan to consume a small part of the new matter had been born.
‘This will either be as disappointing as what happened when I consumed the strands, or something entirely revolutionary’
And so, he took a bite out of the sphere of ‘air’...
...only to find nothing happen yet again.
‘Well, I say that, but unlike last time, now, I actually feel close to something. It’s as if, with only a few times more than what I’ve currently consumed, something major may happen. Since concepts have so far mostly served the purpose of a fuel of some sort, I doubt this should change anything fundamental about the structure of my soul itself.
I should be wary either way, but currently, all my other options for progress seem as, if not more, dangerous. Going for something shown to be harmless until now should be the best way forward.’
Even whilst saying that, Martin had managed to regrow the part of the larger concept that he’d just consumed, and had even increased its volume roughly twofold. With how the strength he could exert with his soul was constantly increasing, it wouldn’t be long before he’d arrive at the breakpoint he was heading towards.
‘Immediately after that, I’ll try to feel for my soul’s pulse. I’m getting more and more curious as to what that might entail. In fact, I could very likely do it now without risk, but I’ll hold off for this final stretch.’
The decision made, it was only a matter of time. With every moment, the present was eroding to give way to the radiant future underneath.