[ECHO]: 1x earth seed, 1x metal seed, 1x wood seed.

[ECHO]: 1x fire seed, 1x water seed, 1x light seed.

[ECHO]: 1x dark seed, 1x essence of space, 1x essence of time.

Atesh clearly felt two connections to his consciousness. He had successfully completed the steps of water and fire sovereign.

Normally, a person wouldn't be able to house two elemental seeds within their consciousness, this wasn't exactly what he was doing. Atesh was just built different. Literally, he had spent 300 years partially integrating the water seed. His body had been blessed through essence stolen from devour. He also spent 300 years doing the same with the fire seed. Both offered different types of deconstruction and rebirth.

Now he had spent a few decades using his weird method of generating dream force. But he felt it was time that he returned to the world. Not only to collect the other seeds, but also to find a permanent information network. In this tower, all he found was low level knowledge orbs. If he could get his hands on a higher level orb that didn't disperse the information upon use. He could get the full potential of his mental palace technique. Or if he could get a large amount of low-level orbs to do in a single session.

Most of the towers functions had been destroyed in his battle with the high ranking magus. Despite putting it back together. The more delicate parts he couldn't fix. Leakage of the energy pools, the connection with the information network, the operator system. All of these were offline.

[ECHO]: Calculating based on vitality...

[ECHO]: 3379 years old!

"Priority should be given to opening a connection to F554."

He was surprised he could remember the universe despite nearly all the information of the technique vanishing from his mind.

Atesh was glad he hadn't completely forgotten about his ultimate plan.

"I noticed from my little fight. If I didn't awaken dream force. I would've been destroyed by that wizard."

"I need to learn how to fight. Not only am I not able to best use my techniques. But I am also not ruthless enough. I allowed some part of them to escape."

"I must develop a fighting style..."

"Mortals develop techniques that allow them to use the force they have access to in the most efficient ways."

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"Martial arts!"

Somnus deeply looked down on such techniques.

"There is knight training in this world. But I am different then an ordinary person."

Why did he look down on martial arts? Being a grandmaster in martial arts and being able to smash your hand through bricks or leap great distances. Or tempering your body to resist blades. All of these he could do through applications of his sovereign will.

A mortal had nothing to teach him in his opinion.

Discipline? Pain tolerance? Inner Qi?

Useless tricks! Just try to fight an eldritch horror with these tricks. Your only destination is death.

Atesh's body had gone through a bloodline changing ritual. The manifestation of nature and Gaia's blessing itself were ingrained deeply into his existence.

He had noticed long ago. That even though his body had been reformed from distorting reality. His lifespan wasn't reset and his bloodline didn't change. What did this mean? It meant that his reconstruction relied on information before his death.

It wasn't true rebirth. It was just extreme tempering and reformation.

He spent countless years perfecting devour in the water mages inheritance. But all memories of that time had been destroyed. He spent 300 years in a cocoon transforming his body. He also spent 300 years as ashes in space as his body went through a different type of transformation.

"Martial arts are useless for a hidden existence. To deal with other hidden existences... The most important thing is knowledge!"

"I have set my past self on the route to gaining my inheritance. The only problem is I am out of that loop. I have come so far, but I am almost a blank slate now."

"Distort and Dream Force are the cornerstones of my power."

"Distort has become a part of me. The energy needed to use it is made up of my memories..."

"Just like how martial artist try to use the most amount of force in the least amount of effort. I must adopt a similar mindset. A technique. A fighting style that completely belongs to me."

"But one cannot just make up a fighting system out of thin air. I need experience fighting hidden existences..."

"I spent all those years on Gaia's island learning how to use my sovereign abilities. They are quite powerful."

Atesh got an idea!

"A battle between existences isn't about physical damage. Just like how I distorted reality and brought myself back from the abyss. Another existence could do the same."

"But what if you wiped out their memories? What if you messed with their soul?"

Atesh decided to meditate in space on these ideas...

10 years later...

Atesh had practiced all of his abilities during this decade. He simulated battles with imaginary foes. He thought about what aspects of an existence he would attack. He then directly attacked himself using these methods.

For example, he had attacked his memories and soul. He had tried to distort his personality. Through his attempts. He had developed a firewall of sorts for his existence. This meant not only could he avoid other hidden existences from tampering with his mind, soul, and will. He could directly attack others through traces of their existence.

The defense was beyond just theory crafting stage.

The offense however... He was itching to try it!

He had spent the last decade attacking his mind and looking for loopholes. He didn't attack himself with dream force due to how precious it was.

But he imagined the methods he had grasped would be amplified through dream force.

After spending all these years in space.

He was finally ready!