So how exactly did John plan to escape the weakness of relying on a soul?
He didn't have a method!
Yet...
Soul Domain was originally provided by his friend as a means of getting around getting sealed. John took this to an entirely new level by creating his own universe.
But how was John suppose to surpass himself in this safe environment?
That's right! John was becoming bolder! He was becoming more insane.
He was borderline thinking of doing something that could completely wipe him out!
When John had almost lost himself due to assimilation. He was blessed with a legendary thought.
"Assimilation!"
What if instead of getting assimilated by a law.
What if he did the reverse.
What if he took an original concept. Something he made from scratch.
Then have 'that' get assimilated by his consciousness.
He could then exist as long as that concept existed.
This meant he would need to essentially become a concept.
John didn't realize what he was doing. But he was mapping out a way to become something of an original incarnation. These were beings that made up the fabric of reality.
But he was going about it in a completely different way then others in the past.
First.
John needed something extremely simple.
Yet something that could have multiple meanings.
What is one word that could explain his entire life?
Some words like 'Lucky', 'Diligent', 'Immortal', 'Deathless', 'Eternal' came to mind.
But these were already words people were familiar with.
These were already concepts.
He needed something NEW!
Something never done before.
Time, Infinity, Destiny.
All cool concepts.
But those already existed.
He would just be getting himself assimilated.
John appeared on the lifeless planet in his universe.
He messaged those in the chaos holder world that he was doing an important experiment.
John held out his hand as a phantom soul formed. Then a new body formed. This time it had the special brain structure that could open up a portal to the chaos realm.
John used his body made of laws to explore the chaos realm.
He didn't have to control his immortality as his body's lifespan had been increased to millions of years.
Not to mention he could extend that through his immortality.
He wandered the chaos realm for awhile.
As he flew and looked at the many doors.
He remembered he had originally seen a road built in the chaos realm.
"Somebody capable of building a structure in the chaos realm, must also be eternal!'
John's eyes lit up as he saw a path forward.
"I just need to find that person."
John wandered the chaos realm for a few decades.
John noticed through his own universe that time was inconsistent in the chaos realm. Not just for himself, but for all of reality.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
He eventually found the road again.
He saw a door he had previously ignored.
It was covered in roots.
He opened it and stepped into it.
He found himself floating above an infinite stone maze.
There was a floating island in the air with a tree abomination sitting on it.
It spoke, it's voice sounding like screeching metal.
"How interesting. You dare travel the chaos realm with only immortality?"
John spoke.
"I have a question."
"Question?"
A blue light invaded John's brain.
"You don't have a system? Impressive!"
"To have made it this far... your will is quite strong."
The creature muttered to himself something that didn't make much sense to John.
"What is it that you want?"
"I want to know how to exist without a soul!"
The entire realm began to shake.
The eldritch abomination looked at John carefully.
"You have asked for something precious even to those at rank 9."
"What do you have to pay me for such information?"
John thought about his next words carefully.
"I have nothing of interest to you...Except. I've cracked the formation for this realm already."
Gaia looked confused.
"You what? What formation?"
John waved his hands and the infinite maze started to crack.
The realm began to twist and distort.
John was sweating. For some reason, manipulating the formation here was a thousand times more difficult then messing with Mer.
Gaia was amazed.
"That's Impossible! I turned the space without a name into my sea of consciousness. You are cracking the formations of original incarnations. Just how did you gain such profiency in formations?"
"I studied for a few years in a cultivation world."
Gaia frowned.
"That isn't possible... this is a level beyond sublime. Your skills are worth my time."
"I will give you the information for free. As for whether or not you'll be able to pull it off... perhaps your destiny will determine that! Hahaha"
John wasn't sure what was so funny.
But he bowed and thanked Gaia for his help.
"I have a friend that is rank 10. He knows a thing or two about what your trying to do... So you-"
"Rank 10!?"
Now John was surprised.
"You followed his road here didn't you?"
"That road in the chaos realm was built by a rank 10? It was so basic though..."
"Don't let him hear you say that..."
John was getting excited. He could definitely surpass himself!
"What's after rank 10? Rank 11?"
"There is nothing after rank 10. There use to be nothing after rank 9. I use to be at the top. Until he surpassed me!"
John then spoke in awe:
"So you're rank 9?"
Gaia sighed.
"Unfortunately... I never was able to become a rank 10."
Gaia spoke:
"I can only explain roughly what he did to be able to exist without his soul."
"His name is Zero #119. He originally was just a normal vat grown super soldier. He read a special book that allowed him to become something I call a 'Paradox'. Through his adventures after this he explored many worlds and acquired different power systems. He became a being of laws himself, left multiple layers of reality. He mastered time travel and gained the ability to observe constant time. He somehow created an artifact in the cosmic order. That is the key to existing without a soul properly."
"Cosmic Order?"
"That's right. Think of our reality like fiction. We could be text that someone is reading at this very moment."
"What Zero did was use the knowledge that his stream of thoughts and actions were being read. He read aloud his true existence or global existence. This allowed him to anchor himself to another reality. This is just one of many tricks he used to escape from 'fiction'. His goal is to invade all realities. Your goal is fundamentally different."
"It is?"
"You wish to surpass yourself, right? This doesn't mean you need to invade other realities. You just need to reach rank 10... Good luck with that."
"Well, I've told you about our realities biggest secret. Time for you to leave."
"Wait! What is the cosmic order?"
"Think of reality as you know it now. Have you ever read a book before?"
"Yes..."
"Well, when you visualized that book in your minds eye. Was that world real?"
"No?"
"Are you not god of what happens in your mind's eye? You can pretty much be omnipotent in your mind. I call such worlds lower dimensions. Of course, there are naturally higher dimensions that exist as well. To people in those dimensions. You are simply an idea, or otherwise fiction."
"I see..."
"You can then think of these dimensions stretching into infinity. You may escape this reality and invade another. But how do you know there isn't another even higher reality? Then an even higher reality after that."
"You don't."
"Exactly. So what is the Cosmic Order... and why is it so important?"
"It exist independently no matter what reality you are in. It is beyond the reach of all realities, lower dimensions? Higher dimensions? They are all trash compared to the cosmic order. The cosmic order can't be tampered with. The person reading our conversation now. They may exist in a higher reality. But they can never hope to reach the cosmic order. Because it is an impossible concept to understand. My friend Zero is the only person I know who has been able to store is consciousness in it. How he did so? How would I know?"
"Good luck!"
John was ejected out of Gaia's realm. Into chaotic space.
He survived due to his body made of laws.
He then went into deep thought.
"How do I reach the cosmic order?"