John observed everything Astor experienced. He wasn't idle these years and had been experimenting with energy particles. The powers displayed by Astor were the results of his experimenting behind the scenes.
"The goldenfinger I created for him should take him far..."
John dealt with Astor's fragile soul by creating the perfect scenario to grow it naturally. All those years he spent in the black cube had transformed Astor and his destiny.
John was acting as deus ex machina essentially. It was him who guided him to the continent with rich resources while Astor was out in the sea.
Astor didn't remember John at all. But on a subconscious level, he was guided by him.
Right now Astor was outside of a town. There was a wizard tower in the center of this town and a formation had been set up protecting the entire town in a field of energy.
Astor walked through this barrier and lined up at one of the gates of the town. There weren't any identification checks. But there was a fee to enter the town. There was also a curfew too. You would get arrested if you were out at night without permission.
John watched Astor use one of his abilities to sneak into town. This was a town of wizards... But the majority of people were still ordinary. There was a clear seperation between ordinary people and wizards. If you weren't an acolyte. You basically had no rights.
In this town. The owner of the wizard tower was only a rank 2. This was seen as one of the higher-ups in this continent.
A much better place to be then where he was originally where even an acolyte was as rare as a unicorn.
John was using Astor as his test subject regarding supernatural power in this world. He found that the energy particles in this world were far more fantastical then spiritual energy. Some rather unique abilities and phenomenon could be induced through energy particles. But this was also John's first time coming into contact with the wizards of this world.
Astor decided to remain low key and hide his abilities. He didn't want to turn into a research subject and end up dissected. He was however already John's experiment subject! He just had no idea. John's methods were less 'invasive' and more beneficial to the host.
100 magic stones. That was the price required to become a disciple of the town's wizard. A single magic stone could be sold for a 100 gold coins. But trying to trade gold for magic stones was far harder to do.
A family could live off a few silver a year if they lived frugally. This was an astronomical amount of money needed to become just an acolyte!
So how were there so many acolytes in this town then? Did they gather a 100 magic stones? Only the top 1% in terms of wealth had any hope of paying these fees. To receive guidance from the guardian of this town. You needed to sign a contract with various terms. You basically had to dedicate your life to serving the town and helping with experiments.
By becoming an acolyte. Your status would instantly surpass ordinary people. But Astor felt that signing a contract was a waste.
John however was using Eyes of Time on him and felt that a 'contract' would be a useless promise. Astor's consciousness had been transformed.
So with some mental hints Astor gave up on hunting demonic beast using his physique as a knight to save time. He instead went to sign the contract.
The contract burst into flames and a flash of light shot into Astor's head.
Because of Eyes of Time. The contract traced back into John's consciousness.
John was standing in his paradise looking like an eldritch being. There was another entity that had appeared.
This entity was called 'The Chains of Truth'. It was a being that had little self awareness and ate the souls of those who broke its contracts.
But as these 'chains' looked at John.
Despite its little awareness.
It felt fear.
John spoke with interest.
"Oh? You dare gaze upon me?"
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The chains of truth was a sort of avatar of a bigger entity. Various supernatural creatures had been born in this universe thanks to the supernatural factor of energy particles. The Iron Maiden was originally a normal human that became a evil magus.
They had reached rank 7. But were besieged by multiple rank 7's and a rank 8 and then trapped.
It was sealed in its own dimension. It was literally trapped within an iron maiden for centuries. As this creature experienced eternal torture. It started to evolve and give birth to weaker entities. Since it reached rank 7. It's body had been deified.
It was unable to be destroyed and its lifespan was infinite. Over time, it forgot its name and acted purely on instinct. It made contracts with lower level mages and consumed the souls of those who didn't honor the contracts.
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Even the top powerhouses of this universe couldn't destroy it.
But for some reason.
It felt its consciousness get sucked into a space.
It saw a creature with eight arms. Six formed wing like structures on its back. Two were holding a what looked like a blackhole. Above its head was an hourglass. Rotating around this was a black and white sphere. They chased one another like yin and yang.
This entity was wearing robes with its chest exposed. The skin was slightly transparent and a blue star was in the center of the ribcage.
Its head lacked a mouth. But its eyes were like portals to another dimension. It watched a mouth get ripped open exposing many teeth. This creature was terrifying.
As a 'hidden existence' itself. It hadn't interacted much with others...
It felt a deep pressure and even... fear.
The creature trapped in an iron maiden tried to string together words, but it couldn't communicate clearly.
Destinatus frowned and looked down at this creature.
"A body of laws? Interesting. You seem to be sealed?"
John had experience having his consciousness unravel. He could easily destroy this entity that had caused headaches to high ranking magi. But why would he?
He clearly felt a connection between this creature and the avatar of the chains for the contract.
"It would seem, you serve an important function in this world."
"I'll give you a single warning. The soul of 'Astor' is mine. This is my last warning!"
This being that controlled contracts and consumed souls understood this command. It then disappeared from John's Paradise.
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Astor Nelius's POV:
"Here is the contract. You will become an official disciple after signing it."
I sign the contract with hesitation and watch it burn. A light shoots into my head.
I am very sensitive regarding matters of the soul thanks to my ability to use souls as powers. Although I am not able to see my soul. I however can see the souls of other people when they leave their bodies.
I feel a spiritual chain start to wrap around my soul. I feel emotions on this chain like greed and hunger. I feel as if my soul will get consumed if I break this contract.
But something weird happens.
The chain seems to hesitate... and seems scared?
"My soul must be so strong that even the contract fears it!"
I feel the chains shatter!
But I keep my expression neutral and pretend to be affected by the contract.
"Good. Welcome to the 'Calla Order'!"
Astor was given some robes that self cleaned and shoes. He was also told that he would get a free magic stone every year. He learned some information such as this essentially being an outpost for a bigger academy.
He also got guidance from a rank 1 wizard! He learned that mages were essentially a 'reactor' and that the fuel was energy particles.
Knights focus on tempering the body.
Wizards focus on growing their spirituality.
Astor recieved a visualization technique called 'Calla Surge'.
He was even given a room in the wizard tower. The tower was so big that it could house hundreds of acolytes. Most of them lived inside of the tower. As the energy particles emitted from their bodies were dangerous to normal humans. He turned down getting tested as it costed a magic stone to see what your qualifications were. They did test the strength of his soul before even giving him the option of signing a contract. Not just everyone could become an acolyte. But his soul proved to be quite strong.
The tower had some function in making the environment livable for those that were ordinary. But it was only within a certain range and wasn't perfect.
Astor followed the instructions of the visualization technique.
He looked into his mind's eye and was a bit confused.
"The technique requires one to create runes in their sea of consciousness. But my sea of consciousness is filled with souls..."
"Forget it. I might as well try."
John was observing Astor's situation and making adjustments in real time.
Astor was able to eventually inscribe a rune in his sea of consciousness. But his souls actually attacked the rune! A few hours were completely wasted.
"Why did the souls attack the rune?"
The rune had been completely destroyed.
John was also surprised.
Astor spent weeks inscribing a single rune in his sea of consciousness. But each time he did so, the souls would attack it. John soon found out the reason for this.
"I see... there is a backdoor in this kind of low level technique. It is malicious!"
"The souls regard Astor as their master and have seen through this trick. This kids luck is too good!"
Astor had made some friends among the acolytes in the tower. But his friends worried about his slow progress. If you can't form the basic runes and condense a 'mana controller'.
You can't baptize your body with energy particles.
If you can't do this. You won't even be an acolyte!
A normal person hanging out with acolytes and wizards. It isn't that it is a social problem. It is a health problem.
Astor was developing early signs of energy sickness.
He had to use one of his souls to repair the damage done to his body. But this wasn't a permanent solution.
Luckily, Astor had the ultimate form of deus ex machina! He had the backing of the origin of calamity. He had made a wish and John planned to help him out.
John studied 'Calla Surge'. He didn't use his own consciousness. John didn't like such weak techniques and he didn't need any more powers. A basic technique for transforming consciousness wasn't attractive to him at all.
But he still savored the feeling of inscribing a rune. He adjusted the technique and removed the back doors and malicious secrets.
John created his own visualization technique called:
'Path of Aspect: Basic Mana Control'.
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John was facing a problem.
"How should I give this technique to him?"
Astor rarely went outside of the tower. So running into him was pretty much impossible. John also couldn't pretend to give it to him in a dream.
Because Astor didn't sleep! Whenever his body was unconscious. His spirit body would roam the area within the barrier of the wizard tower.
His journey to collect wizard souls wasn't going well.
Wizards behaved quite well, knowing they were observed by the guardian of the town. There was hardly any crime at all in this town.
Astor hadn't ran into a situation of a dead wizard once in the entire time he had been here.
John was unable to use 'eyes of time' on a wizard. But he was quite curious. He had eyes of time always active on Astor.
Wouldn't his eyes of time get promoted by osmosis through Astor's breakthrough?
John had a few ideas on how to give the technique to him. But he quickly ruled most of them out.
If a voice randomly appeared in your head and solved a problem for you that you had been stuck on for weeks. What would your reaction be?
Would you trust this voice? Wouldn't you wonder if they could hear your thoughts? If they could see your actions?
John could hear Astor's thoughts! He could also see everything from his perspective! He was like a god. But he didn't want his experiment to become paranoid.
"Perhaps I need to return to my roots. It is time to make a fake inheritance!"