Astor Nelius's POV:

Astor sat back down on his bed and began to meditate. He focused on his soul and saw it turn blue for a second as information flowed into his consciousness.

He watched his soul return to normal as he began to practice this technique.

"Wow. These runes are far more simple."

Astor was really surprised.

"That's it?"

There was only two runes!

"How is that possible? A rank 9 technique with only two runes?"

Astor had underestimated John. The foundation of the origin race. The foundation of their universe was two states. This was an ultimate technique.

What were the runes?

'0' and '1'.

These two states of on and off could be used to represent any word or concept. Astor was confused at how such a thing was possible.

Memories flooded his mind from the brand in his soul.

"I see..."

Astor began to inscribe the runes into his sea of consciousness. This was very simple and took him only a few seconds.

He looked at the '1' in his sea of consciousness. It was surrounded by his souls.

"It worked!"

This time, there was no movement from his souls. Not only were there no backdoors in this technique. But it was incredibly simple.

"As expected of a rank 9 technique!"

Astor noticed that there was a special way he had to sort these runes. The ordering seemed to matter.

Astor started to inscribe the runes in the order he was supposed to based on the instructions from his brand.

'1000001'

The moment he had seven runes chained together. He felt the chain of '0' and '1' started to wiggle and then distort.

They collapsed on themselves and a weird rune appeared.

'1000001' transformed into a single rune.

'1000001' became 'A'.

Astor continued to work dilligently.

Currently the sequence looked like 'A111001'

The moment it became 'A1110011'. It began to distort again as the symbols collapsed. The '0' and '1' shifted becoming a single rune again.

'As'

He continued to follow the technique.

'As111000' was normal, until he added another '0'.

It transformed into a 'Asp'.

Astor continued...

"Asp1100101' turned to 'Aspe'.

'Aspe1100011' turned to 'Aspec'.

'Aspec1110100' turned to 'Aspect'.

Astor felt as if somebody was kicking the inside of his skull as he saw a word form in his sea of consciousness.

He couldn't help but shout through instinct:

"Aspect!"

"Aspect? What is that?"

This word had replaced his runes and his souls seemed to become restless. His intuition told him that this was some sort of opportunity.

He felt emotions such as 'longing' by all of his souls. But he hesitated as he wasn't sure what was happening.

"I might lose the soul if I let it fuse with this rune..."

Astor was scared.

But then he thought to himself:

"This is a path to rank 9! What do I have to fear? He clearly has already walked this path. I will not be a coward!"

Astor had no idea that John was just as surprised as him at the reaction of the souls. If he knew, he would probably curse John's ancestors.

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Astor had seven souls currently.

Intangibility

Healing Factor

Flight

Self-Resurrection

Stealthed-Presence

Illusion

Stamina

He couldn't control the temptation and allowed his souls to rush towards the runes.

"Perhaps... they just wish to consume it like the other runes."

But they didn't consume 'Aspect' at all.

Each one was sucked into 'Aspect'.

He then had a weird inclination.

"I am the Aspect of [redacted]?"

Astor had no idea what an aspect was, but he felt as if he had gone through a qualitative change.

He then felt a cool feeling in his body.

"My mana controller?"

The connection between the sea of consciousness and the body was mysterious. Wizards act as reactors and produce a sort of radiation.

By manifesting runes in reality. They can manipulate the energy particles in the environment to spellcast.

But wizards could also absorb the energy particles in the environment to enhance themselves.

Astor was confused as he had seen both techniques and knew this state clearly. He should have a point in his sea of consciousness where he would arrange runes to perform spells.

But all he had was the word 'Aspect' in his sea of consciousness.

"Did Viv scam me?"

Astor had no idea that he had stepped on an entirely different path. He would still be a wizard... but he was a bit special.

Astor didn't lose hope.

Now that energy particles were circulating through his body. He was officially an acolyte! He no longer had to worry about energy sickness.

This however didn't mean he could learn spells yet.

There were three stages to being an acolyte. He had just entered the first stage and his energy particle manipulation was at its weakest.

He celebrated with his friends for a night and had a fun time.

He then returned to his room and went to bed. You see... he never sleeps. Whenever he becomes unconscious, his spirit leaves his body and roams the town.

He had mastered this ability over time.

But as he was lying in bed. He found something weird. He wasn't able to enter that special state!

He couldn't help but think of the technique he practiced.

"This technique..."

"Is it robbing me of all my abilities!?"

He stood up from his bed and paced in his room. In the past he could step outside of his body anytime he wanted. This was his method of collecting souls.

No matter how hard he tried. He wasn't able to leave his body now.

He started to panic slightly...

He then focused on his soul.

It was a white ball of energy.

Astor didn't know the secrets of soul or the otz room. But what he did next was crazy. He felt as if he had gained control of his soul.

His soul left the otz room!

It appeared in his sea of consciousness.

Just like how the other souls were sucked into 'Aspect'. The same was true for his actual soul.

His final thoughts were:

"I fucked up..."

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Your brain carries your consciousness. This wasn't the case now for Astor. What he just did was insane on many levels.

Let's say you had a spatial device that opened up a portal to its contents inside. What happens if you throw that object into the portal it created.

What happens when something holds itself?

You will face destruction or a complete collapse.

So if Astor's soul had his sea of consciousness within it.

By moving his soul into his sea of consciousness. It was like pulling at the hair on your head in order to fly.

But then having his soul be consumed. His sea of consciousness should've been destroyed. But since the source of its destruction was within.

Something interesting started to happen.

Each of the souls consumed by 'Aspect' had abilities. But what sort of ability did Astor's soul itself have?

There was a reason John named the technique he gave Astor 'Path of Aspect'. John realized something by observing 'John Hell'.

Humanity has a lot of potential. Not just when it comes to technology. But even when it comes to the supernatural.

The hourglass that John Hell gave John gave him abilities that he had struggled to unlock before.

John was planning on making another Aspect here.

"Aspect of Soul! Don't disappoint me..."

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Astor Nelius's POV:

The intelligence in Astor's eyes vanished.

Everything faded to black as he realized he had wiped himself out.

But instead of entering oblivion. He found himself in a white room surrounded by souls. It was as if he had become an observer of some special room.

John was still using 'Eyes of Time' this entire time. So he knew that Astor wasn't really dead. He was surprised. Eyes of Time followed the consciousness.

"He entered the Otz room?"

This was the place where most souls resided. Soul can exist in multiple places at once.

Astor didn't have a spirit body to explore this space. But he could still look at his inner world. He saw 'Aspect' within his sea of consciousness.

He focused on 'Aspect' and it started to glow white. The darkness of his sea of consciousness made it look like a sun.

Astor opened his eyes and found he was no longer in that special space.

"I survived?"

Astor focused on his soul. But there was nothing there!

"How am I alive without a soul?"

He then focused on his sea of consciousness and looked at 'Aspect'.

"I see... these runes have become my soul."

That's right! Astor had developed a phylactery.

It seemed to be these special runes.

Astor tested all of his previous abilities. It seemed that he was unable to use them.

He even tried to use his original ability...

No matter how hard he tried. He wasn't able leave his body. But he discovered that he could transform into his spirit body!

It was like his body had two states. Just like '0' and '1'. His normal state he was in at the moment, and then the spirit body state.

He did many test over a few days and learned the mechanics behind his transformation. It turned out, he was able to use all his abilities while transformed.

He called his transformed state 'Aspect'.

From his experiments. He found out that while he was transformed. His physical body entered a layer of his consciousness.

He was somehow storing physical matter in a spiritual space!

Then another 'version' of his body that was made from the souls he had consumed would appear in its place.

It was almost as if he was transforming into a spirit body. But in this case, it could still interact with the world.

As he explored his consciousness through meditation. He found hidden layers. He located his body and found that his 'Aspect' body was also stored in his consciousness.

It was as if he controlled two bodies from two different worlds. But the other body remained frozen when not in use. Even the clothes he would wear would get swapped out upon transformation.

This gave him some unique ideas.

He was only a level 1 acolyte and couldn't cast spells. But he was quite satisfied with the ability to transform.

He found that while transformed. His hair and eyes would turn a glowing white. He could also use all the soul abilities at the same time.

But when not transformed... He was no different from an ordinary person.

John had observed all of these changes and found the ability to store things in spirituality interesting. This outcome was the result of some of his experimentation and energy particles of this universe. What if John could also design a transformation?

John's avatar in his paradise couldn't manifest itself in reality.

What if Astor was the key to bringing his eldritch body into the universe? Turning spirituality into reality... this could be extremely powerful.