"You all have become operators of this space." Atesh talked with the group.

"Operators?" Lo spoke.

"It means you have permissions that others do not have. As an operator. You can build structures and adjust other peoples permission level. You can also directly kick or ban other entities."

"You all have a very important job."

"Welcome to God's Death; welcome to the spiritual forum."

Atesh himself didn't know the limits of this space. He was operating off of intuition. But the fact that he could turn the false to true in this spiritual space gave him confidence.

Jay, Lo, Zhar, and Ta all had imprints on their existence now. This was different then the past when Visdre formed contracts with souls. This was something deeper then soul. It was the sum of their parts. Their existence itself.

He hadn't planned this. But he had essentially turned them into a hidden existence. But instead of them being independent. They relied on his dream domain.

"Alright. You all have been in a sleep for 16 years. Now your consciousness has been pulled into this space. But your body is still integrating with the elemental seed. So that leaves us with 14 years!"

"14 years for what?" Ta said.

"14 years to train."

Atesh showed them around the palace and told them about region locks and such. There were certain areas you couldn't enter without high enough permissions.

Soon they left the palace and floated to an empty void.

"Who would like to go first?" Atesh asked.

"I'll try." Zhar was a few years older then the rest of the group.

"Perfect. I want you to make an arena!"

While Zhar was a scavenger and at the bottom of society. He used to have electronic devices and had seen various forms of entertainment.

He looked at Atesh in confusion.

"How?"

"Just will it into existence. This space is isn't bound by the same rules as reality. You aren't actually here and you aren't limited to the various laws."

"I see!" Zhar held out both hands and shouted.

A foundation was built and he was shaking. He then built a large stadium starting from the bottom to the top. It wasn't perfect or even symetrical. But he sighed in satisfaction.

"It worked!" Zhar was quite excited.

Atesh snapped his fingers and the arena vanished.

"Alright. Who's next?"

Everyone took turns and enjoyed the process of creation. While this process didn't take energy from them. It directly used the energy particles that had been infused over the years. The process itself stressed their souls.

This was a form of training!

"Now that all of you know about creation. It is time I've taught you destruction."

Atesh spent time teaching them everything he knew about manipulating reality. He had the highest control over this space, so he didn't feel like he would get betrayed. The imprint on their existence used their thoughts to chain actions. So if they had any ill intentions. He would be the first to know.

The main problem was the future. The more people he invited to his dream domain. He couldn't possibly pay attention to every minor thought of every single person. That is why he designed a permission system. He could leave the management to other people.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

Somnus ruled the dream domain and Atesh was now like a puppet. He had imprinted Atesh's existence just like the others. He didn't consider Atesh himself. It was just a vessel used to interact with the world.

The soul had been transported to the abyss. If it weren't for him having spent thousands of years in that body. He might've lost connection by now.

Zhar did something that surprised Atesh. He made a request.

"Interesting. You want me to allow you all to have your own layer?"

Basically, Somnus existed on a separate layer of the dream domain. That was why although it covered the entire domain. It didn't interact with everyone or mess with them. But from talking with Zhar. Atesh thought of a way to create layers by messing with timelines. This was a different method then what he had used to live in an illusory form.

Zhar didn't know this was possible. But he wanted his own space.

"You essentially want me to make a private portal system..."

"I apologize if I have offended you!" Zhar quickly spoke.

"No... this... It should be possible." Atesh waved his hands. Somnus added more data to Zhar's imprint and another layer to his key. He then fundamentally changed how layers worked.

"It is done."

"Really!?"

"How do I access it?"

"You can't."

"Huh?"

Atesh smiled.

"Do you think I am a god? With the mere wave of my hands I can reconstruct the rules of this space?"

"Well... yea..."

Atesh could in fact change the rules of his dream domain without even using a gesture. But he didn't want such perks to be seen as common candy that was easily acquired.

"Nonsense! This change will require messing with space and time. Follow me!"

Atesh left his throne and walked out of the palace that was in the center of his dream domain. Just like when Visdre first operated his spiritual body. The others learned to innately fly using their bodies in this space.

Zhar and Atesh floated to the sky of the dream domain.

"Look down! Doesn't everything seem so small from up here?"

"I suppose..."

"There are two main things needed to realize your idea. A nexus and a altar to select which layer to enter."

Atesh snapped his fingers and reality started to warp as everything turned white.

"Where are we?" Zhar was confused. There was just a spiritual fire and fire, besides that. Everything was empty!

"We are in the same exact spot. But on a different layer. You can think of spacetime like a sheet of cloth. We are in the same location in terms of x, y, and z. But it's the WHEN are we. Time is weird in the abyss and this spiritual forum is built on the foundation of it. Essentially, if we were in reality. This would cause some weird paradoxes and inconsistences. But just like how you used your will to create something from almost nothing but energy. Here, we can directly open up other potential timelines to use as 'storage'."

"Now let's get to work. Nobody is going to build the nexus if we sit here doing nothing!"

"I have a question?" Zhar spoke.

"What is it?" Atesh looked at Zhar.

"If we are using different timelines. What is happening to the others? Didn't you say we had 14 years to train? How does that work?"

"That has to do with the time ratio. Time is just a construct made by mortals. You can think of the spiritual forum you know as layer zero. It is the foundation of this entire space, it is the origin. The only reason time matters at all when in it is because it has a direct connection to reality. That being you guys at this moment."

"But now. While I am switching timelines here. Or you should really think of it as a switching layers. You could think of where we are now as layer 10. Right now, I have transported both of our spiritual bodies here. Since you and I have a physical body. The time ratio cannot be tampered with in any layer we are in."

"But let's say neither of us was in this layer. Then time wouldn't exist for it anymore!"

"Whether it was a thousand years or a hundred. There is no difference."

"Because the abyss's perspective of time is based on the observer. In some universes, one second may be a year in the other."

"I am basically abusing the concept of time and its continuity."

"Take for example. Let's say that it is year 540 of whatever calendar."

"In real life. Let's say we could travel back to 539 afterwards."

"We would see the history from back then. But would our tampering with reality cause us to never travel back in the first place?"

"A single action can set off a massive change of events. So our future would be destroyed."

"Instead. Think of it this way. The moment you go back to year 539. No matter what you do or what changes you make. The year 540 would never change. Why is that? It is because another seperate timeline will appear with the altered history."

"I am not a time traveler. I just have high permissions of this space and thus can manipulate its attributes and laws."

"So let's repeat this experiment in the spiritual forum."

"There is no concept of years in the abyss. But let's imagine it is the year 540. If I take you back to the year 539. Instead of finding history. You will see what you see now. Nothing."

"Because there is no such thing as years or time. This is why I call it another layer. It is like creating a seperate timeline that we can tap into that will never affect the others."

"So layer zero is where you first manifested. I have brought us to layer 10. Even though some aspects of time have been changed. Due to the special nature of this space. I recommend you don't try to wrap your mind around the mechanics. Because I can see the confusion on your face..."

"If things are too complicated. Just think of it like each layer is it's own isolated realm."

"Don't think of it as a form of time travel, because it isn't."

"It is just creating another layer."

"You can sort of think of it like running a virtual environment or an emulator on your computer. There is an inherent seperation. But you can still use all the functions of the program."

"These different layers can be seen as different programs..."

"This was your idea after all..."

"Now... let us get started!"