Blinding light that blocked all sight surrounded Marcus, its brilliance so blinding it Possessed a physical weight. Time seemed to have no meaning, there was no sound, touch or feeling to measure the seconds or hours with no external stimuli beside the blinding white light. He tried to move his body, tried to close his eyes, cover his face or just turn away from the light but nothing happened. Forever or just a moment seemed to pass he couldn't tell, before a deep hum which vibrated his entire being brought change to this prison, he found himself in. a beam of darkness pierced the light pulling Marcus toward its center. He tried to fight the pull, doing anything to affect his surroundings but failed as he was sucked into the dark beam. Energy cascaded through what he realized was not a body but an amorphous cloud that he seemed to have become. With each surge of… Mana? Cosmic energy? New terms, new information was left behind giving Marcus something he dearly needed, answers. He was dead or at least what came after death for most sentient organisms with souls, but he was a glitch or mistake depending on how you looked at it. The vast cosmos or existence as we know it was some kind of massive collective will. This god? No not God it did not have conscious thoughts more an instinctive or reactionary process that managed all known creation. This cosmic will made up all the energy of creation was what kept this dimension running. Marcus was a piece of creation that did not fit; he was a glitch, something that was causing the cosmic will to distress, he was not supposed to be. Feeling fear for his situation Marcus tried to speak with the energy that continued to rush through him. 

“I'm sorry! Please help me! I don't Understand what's happening!” 

The hum stopped; the beam of darkness froze holding Marcus in place. Marcus held his metaphorical breath dreading what would happen next. “Humm!!” again, the humming vibration but this time Marcus got something a bit different as the mana or cosmic energy rushed into him, he felt a sort of push which seemed to move him farther away from the center, more information was available to him as he was pushed along with each contact with the wave of energy. He was being banished. No... it seems that due to his situation the Will decided he did not belong and was moving him to outside its sphere. There was no hatred or condemnation, The Will simply viewed it as he did not belong here anymore. As Marcus moved his mind raced, with each new thought information was provided most of which was useless, products of his scattered thoughts but some, some had merit. Magic! Magic seemed to be real. He focused on this concept and felt such a vast field of knowledge that he was overwhelmed for a moment. So, his home universe was in fact not magicless, just that it was all funneled into the cosmic will. This magic was then used to maintain some sort of barrier to keep out anything foreign which he now seemed to be labeled as. As he traveled through existence Marcus suddenly found it odd how calm he was over this whole thing he could feel fear as he was right now, but it was muted or more of a thought than feeling. Ahh! He was provided with the answer he was a conscious mind enveloped by his soul; he did not have a body to add the extra bits whenever a person felt a particular emotion. Thinking about this he thought of his past finding parts missing from his memory. He still did not know how he ended up here or even how he died. His memories of his family were foggy at best he remembered his schooling and job, but his personal side of things seemed to be damaged or outright missing. Thinking of his schooling knowledge of concepts and ideas were provided mathematical formulas and new ways of solving problems he never heard of roared through his thoughts. History of his planet was expanded upon showing truths he never would have believed before. Scientific discoveries and new inventions of the future smashed against old world innovations and forgotten knowledge in his head. Marcus was amazed he was able retain this much information let alone understand most of it. He again focused on magic which seemed to call out to him. As the waves of energy pushed him along, he suddenly wondered what was going to happen as soon as he reached where he was going. OH? Apparently, this was not the only Universe or Cosmos in existence. They met sometimes brushing up against each other allowing for objects... no not objects but thoughts or dreams certainly. Strange but with everything going on this seemed par for the course. Marcus focused on his destination trying to map out where he was heading. This seemed to be a similar reality to his home, nothing incredibly different from his, he had been given memories of some truly insanity inducing things before he was able to change his thoughts away from what was out there. His current destination seemed to be almost an identical copy of his current cosmos; besides the magic which allowed for a whole host of fantastical things to happen, he was unable to glimpse everything that was in this new place since it was only a brief contact that happened some time ago. Marcus saw almost all typical fantasy races represented in what few galaxies were close to the contact point between realities. Thinking of this he decided that this was not such a bad outcome he can learn magic, explore fantastical land and be whatever he wanted. He could remake himself. The thought of what was possible brought with it some more knowledge from what Marcus decided to call his home reality. He would not be able to enter any other reality; the very will of those existences would fight to keep him out. This burst of thought brought him to new ideas he had to become something that was allowed, something that fit in. Focusing his metaphysical mind on finding a solution he glimpsed how the whole soul thing worked. There was not a very complicated process as upon death most souls joined with the very fabric of reality they first manifested from. Others were able to leave pieces of themselves with items or people they cherished in life, not really able to affect the physical world in any way. Still these pieces sometimes merged with new souls giving either memories or dreams to their new host, most likely giving rise to the whole reincarnation theories. Macus himself was in a similar position but while others would have to tie themselves to a physical object to retain any sort of will or even existence, he was tied to nothing, and it seemed was immune to whatever broke down souls after death. While all of this was fascinating and disturbing in equal measure, Marcus sought something else. How to fool a will of the universe into thinking he belonged? If he could tie himself to something physical, it seemed the universe would leave him alone until again he died and became a soul. Was this how Lichs were made tying themselves to objects to maintain their lives? Well, that did not seem like something he wanted at all.

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“Ok so first I will need magic pertaining to the soul.” 

As soon as the thought crossed his mind knowledge began to flow through him until he hit upon a kind of binding that would join his soul to that of another effectively becoming one and in the process losing his foreign designation in the new universe. 

“Now what else would I need?”

He held a vast field of magical knowledge after first discovering he could use his current contact with the will to sort of download whatever pertained to his thoughts. Ok so since he would not be stealing a perfectly healthy person's body, he would need some kind of healing magic something that works no matter the race. He had seen some races that would be considered evil or dark to most that normal fantasy type healing would damage instead of healing. So, some kind of blood or biological focused magic. Biomancy seemed to be it for most all living beings which was amazing; plants, animals, and bacteria, really anything that was made up of living tissue although its true strengths lay in not just healing wounds or disease but in the versatility that he found. He could create and destroy with this field of magic, growing and creating monstrous beings or even stopping someone's heart; and in the reverse making the body so efficient that it never aged or even reversing the effects of aging all together the limits seemed to be almost non-existent. Excitement built as Marcus continued to hurtle through space toward the border of his home reality as he continued to think of what he could add to help him along the way. 

“So, I have Biomancy, what else can I grab on my way out?” Thought Marcus. 

Combate would most likely be a must, something he was not at all used to his life as far as he could remember was peaceful if a bit dull. No, he would need something to help protect himself.

“Force fields?” He thought. 

Force was a field of knowledge he skimmed through, but it was limited to physical interaction; anything magical would not be stopped.

“Hmm what about wards?” He mused.

Warding was a very extensive field that seemed to move well beyond just physical interference. It even allowed one to omit parts of a whole such as warding nitrogen out of oxygen that passed through or stopping certain individuals while allowing others through or even keeping certain magics out. 

“Barriers?” 

This concept seemed to hold most of what warding did and even encompassed the physical side of the spectrum. Satisfied with the results of these three different fields he moved on to anything else he believed could be useful.

“Space?” He thought.

Space magic seemed useful but would be extremely tricky to use in any sort of fight requiring so much computational ability it was terrifying to even think of using it while in a fight. Would be nice to be able to set up stable portals though.

“Enchanting or artifact creation?” Marcus continued to muse.

Enchanting was incredibly versatile, spreading through or requiring knowledge in almost every other field. While he could use this to create his own items or even make golems to help fight for him. It also required time and space to build up said arsenal. He perused through this field for a bit but quickly turned his attention to what he thought would definitely be needed.

“Elemental magic.” The thought rushed through his mind. 

Earth, water, air and fire the 4 primary elements he skimmed the others, but earth and water seemed to draw him in more than air and fire. Earth was amazing; the ability to build and create, to mold the very bones of existence was like a siren song to him while the ability and versatility of water kept his mind spinning. He learned the ability to summon all four elements from thin air and to control them while doing so, but with earth he learned the ability to change one element into another to strengthen and improve existing material. He was able to pick up architectural knowledge after thinking of what he could create. A sudden jolt brought him back to his current predicament thinking about his location as he realized he had wasted time and was just about to pass the barrier into the void. Thinking quickly Marcus shouted in his mind.

“Void.” 

Knowledge of the corrosive and hostile element entered his thoughts of how it attempted to eat at the barrier around existence. Void was downright dangerous to anything and everything in existence but mana the stuff magic was made out of could hold it off and did for the different existences that floated in its infinite sea. He found what he needed and quickly thought of anything else to help himself.

“Contract magic.” He frantically thought about going over what he was able to learn. Building and creating contracts that would tie to or more individuals to an agreement allowing for punishments if said agreement breaks and…… 

Marcus was violently expelled from his home reality into a vast sea of nothing. The void seemed to Boil and twist around him as he suddenly felt pain. Hurriedly drawing from his knowledge, he gave up some of his own energy to build the barrier that would keep him safe. Only now realizing that he had grown during his journey out of his home reality. Compared to before he was hundreds of times larger. As he felt his knowledge of different worlds' histories fading from his mind, he was able to sense a barrier spring into existence around his massive form, which was shrinking as he watched or sensed in this case. Realizing his fervent pursuit of new magical knowledge was the cause of his new size he jolted fear beginning to take effect as the thought that he would need to sacrifice what he just learned to keep the barrier active and to even find the new reality he was heading toward. Unable to tell if he was even moving forward but feeling the void move across his new barrier. Marcus Prayed to his old and hopefully new cosmic wills that he would make it before he lost too much.