Jason fell out of the portal and immediately ate a mouthful of sand. He spat it out and looked around. Desert and sand dunes for kilometers and no people. Right where he wanted. The Egyptian desert. He pulled out his [Cloud Flask]

[Cloud Flask] (silver rank, [growth], legendary)

He really needed to upgrade it and he had all the materials needed.

"Shade, can you set up another circle?" Jason questioned.

"Certainly Mr Asano. Do you have the materials?"

Jason passed them over.

"Thank you."

A few minutes later...

[Cloud Flask] (gold rank, [growth], legendary, soulbound)

This item is bound to you and cannot be used by anyone else.

Use the energies within the cloud flask to create buildings and vehicles made of clouds. Available forms are restricted by rank.

Items contained within the cloud construct when it is returned to the flask are stored in a dimensional space and cannot be recovered until another cloud construct is formed.

* Available forms (iron rank): Cloud House (grand), Cloud House (adaptive).

* Available forms (bronze rank): Carriage House (grand), Carriage House (adaptive).

* Available forms (silver rank): Cloud Palace (grand), Cloud Palace (adaptive).

* Available forms (gold rank): Cloud Skyship (grand), Cloud Skyship (adaptive).

* Set Bonus (Regalia of the Dark Hegemon) (Item: [Cloud Flask]): Shrouds the wearer in mist. Mist can be controlled through aura manipulation to condense into small cloud constructs. Cloud constructs created in this manner only maintain integrity against attacks lower than the rank of this item; attacks of its rank and above are minimally impeded. Shroud can be withdrawn into the flask.

[Cloud Flask] is an authority artifact.

Maximum potential rank is [Transcendent].

* Your ability to influence the fundamental rules of reality within temporary spirit domains created through the [Cloud Flask] is increased, matching your ability to do so in permanent spirit domains.

* [Cloud Flask] has been linked to your permanent spirit domains. Your spirit domains may use properties of the [Cloud Flask] within their areas of influence. The [Cloud Flask] can be used to open a gate from your spirit domains to your spirit realm. There are no restrictions on who can use this portal to access your spirit realm.

Additional materials can be fed to the flask to create more complex items and furniture.

While Shade was doing that Jason had resummoned Gordon.

[Avatar of Doom] (gold rank, familiar, voice candidate)

* Effect (iron): Summon an [Avatar of Doom] to serve as a familiar.

The familiar has two orbs. Each orb can make sustained beam attacks. One orb inflicts disruptive-force damage, the other, resonating-force damage.

Enemies damaged by the avatar are afflicted with [Vulnerable]. Sustained beam damage will cause additional instances to be accrued.

The avatar’s normal movement is slow but it can make rapid energy dashes, inflicting disruptive-force damage on enemies in the path of the dash. Orbs do not attack during the dash.

Can be subsumed into the summoner’s aura, making the summoner’s aura much harder to detect and read.

[Vulnerable] (affliction, unholy, stacking): All resistances are reduced. Additional instances have a cumulative effect. Consumed to cleanse instances of [Resistant] on a 1:1 basis.

* Effect (bronze): Summons a bronze rank vessel for your familiar with enhanced abilities.

[Avatar of Doom] now has four orbs to attack with.

Orbs can manifest around the summoner as a shield. Disruptive force orb shields are resistant to disruptive force attacks. Resonating force orb shields are resistant to resonating force attacks.

* Effect (silver): Summons a silver rank vessel for your familiar with enhanced abilities.

[Avatar of Doom] now has six orbs to attack with.

The orbs can be consumed on contact with an enemy to afflict the enemy with an instance of [Harbinger of Doom].

Each orb can make resonating force and disruptive force beam attacks.

[Harbinger of Doom] (affliction, unholy, stacking): Continually drain mana from the victim to conjure a butterfly that seeks out nearby enemies. The butterflies are incorporeal and deal disruptive force damage in a small area when destroyed. Butterflies that contact enemies inflict one instance of each non-holy affliction present on the enemy it manifested from, including [Harbinger of Doom]. This effect cannot be cleansed while any other non-holy affliction is in effect. Additional instances can be accumulated. At the time of manifestation, one butterfly is generated for each instance of this affliction.

* Effect (gold): Summons a gold rank vessel for your familiar with enhanced abilities.

[Avatar of Doom] now has eight orbs to attack with. Butterflies are now discorporal and require disruptive force damage to destroy. Resonating force beams now inflict [Vibrant Echo]. The longer the beam stays on the target, more instances will be applied. Disruptive force beams now inflict [Radiant Echo]. The longer the beam stays on the target, more instances will be applied.

[Vibrant Echo] (damage-over-time, magic, stacking): Deal ongoing resonating force damage. Additional instances have a cumulative effect.

[Radiant Echo] (damage-over-time, magic, stacking): Deal ongoing disruptive force damage. Additional instances have a cumulative effect.

"How are you, Gordon? Have a nice time with the All Devouring Eye?"

The hovering cloak flashed all eight orbs orange, his way of saying yes.

"Shade, what's a voice candidate?"

"Ah. I thought this would happen. Astral Kings can make some beings they are connected to them their Voice of Will. When you absorbed the Astral Throne, Gordon, Colin and I were given the option to strengthen our bond with you. They both accepted it instantly, but they are both young and prone to making decisions that last forever at the drop of a hat. Like you."

"Hey!"

"I still am deciding on whether to take it. The Reaper may be disappointed in me, but you have his favor and would probably be fine. Colin and Gordon just need a significant source of power to turn into a Voice of Will which may manifest in different ways. Until that, it just means their souls are tied to you for eternity."

"Shade, I wouldn't care if you left me as my familiar and never came back. You were and always are my friend. That cannot change."

"Thank you, Jason. That means a lot to me."

Shade made a reasonable imitation of crying.

"I'm going to take a crystal wash shower."

"Mr Asano, may I suggest a different approach to this?" Shade questioned.

"Shoot."

"Your racial gift allows you to enter your soul. We should have a look around to see that everything is in place. You are essentially a god in there too, so cleaning off all the sand is a thought away."

"That sounds like a good idea Shade. Colin, Gordon, make sure nobody invades the cloud palace."

Colin released a sound like a blade tearing into flesh, while Gordon flashed all orbs orange again. Jason summoned a portal into his soul and stepped through it. He exited and saw everything he had stored inside.

From Greg's board games to random looted items, he had a lot of sorting in the near future. It was all over the place. The moment he thought of how he wanted them placed, they all instantly teleported into place.

"Woah. I did not expect it to be that easy," said Jason, quite shocked at the ease of movement. He teleported to the next largest concentration of magic. His essences were represented as a large circular garden split into four quarters for each one. He walked along the trail, observing the various flora and fauna.

The blood essence garden was filled with carnivorous plants, blood sucking animals of all type, with each in a different shade of red and black. The sin essence garden had white, blue and yellow gemstones with crystal facades of various plants. Golems of the stones, around knee height were moving around, each move and grind of the joints, make them flash slightly. The dark essence garden was filled with never-ending blackness with luminous patches of moss, mushrooms and other fungi. Small dark shadows flittered around, only seen going past the light patches. The doom confluence garden was an eerie purple landscape with orange and blue plants twisting in ways that they shouldn't be able to, bearing fruits that could heal or kill. The animals weren't exactly animals, rather than the beings who inhabited the place. Odd, whimsical and unnatural things that owned the garden and protected it from harm. Together they were an unbreakable sphere.

"That's what essences are Shade? A big garden in your soul? I was hoping for more, pizzazz, sparkles, rotten flesh."

Shade sighed.

"Mr Asano, essences are part of you that can be interpreted in many different ways. You might see a garden, but others might see a path to build with the four tools they have been given. If you see a way forward, use it."

Jason teleported to the next place he wanted to see. A large monolithic throne sat on the ground with an empty ring behind it and a hole wide enough to fit a decent sized walking stick on the left next to it. On the right there was two spheres hovering in the air. One was a roiling cloud of blood, the other a blue and orange sphere, both fighting for dominance over the other color.

"Okay what am I looking at? I feel the throne and its power, but it feels, incomplete."

"It's the [Astral Throne] you looted. The World Phoenix stabilized it within your soul by making you a gestalt. Astral Kings use it to focus the power of the Astral."

"The World Phoenix made me a WHAT!?"

"Mr Asano, have you heard of messengers?"

"No."

"They are human sized angelic looking creatures with wings. They believe that they are the superior race and have gone on more than many purges throughout the universes, led by Astral Kings. The unique thing about them is their soul and body are fused just like yours. That gives them a path to being an Astral King, because without this, you would have exploded from too much power being shoved into both body and soul separately."

"Not exploding is good."

"We need at minimum an [Astral Gate] for this to even be feasible. And you need to find one before the throne tears you apart anyway. Large entities may have a chance that they overindulged on an [Astral Gate] and the Astral mana had nowhere to go but grow them larger and larger. We're going to need another miracle on top of the ones we already have. Anyway, the spheres are visible representation of Colin and Gordon bonding themselves to you."

Jason teleported to the final destination he wanted to see. The outer edge of his soul. A giant barrier stretching up, down and around to create an egg shape.

"Mr Asano, you do realize instead of moving yourself to the destination, you can move the entire reality to you."

"But this is more traditional. You have no sense of fun Shade."

"Why did you come here?"

"To see what happens if I poke around my soul while inside myself."

Jason gave the wall a good hard poke.

"Feels fuzzy."

"Poetic as always, Mr Asano."