2 and a half years.
Dream was surprised at how long he had spent in the legacy space. He had thought that he had a pretty good grasp on everything he was faced with. Sure he took a while studying the script behind Dust, Ash, skills, and Gray Mist, but he didn't think it was that long. Time really flew by.
The Keeper smirked at Dream's surprise.
{The knowledge and inheritances of the Emperors are not so simple as to be completely grasped in a short amount of time. What do you take their knowledge for? They were forces far beyond your understanding!}
"I'm sure they were. Then again, they were obviously told to dial themselves down when writing this script, otherwise I doubt I would be able to understand any of it."
Dream sighed as he looked at the faded silver script of the 14 monoliths. If the Emperors were placed in today's universe, they would be demigods at the minimum, likely far above that. Plus, these were the greatest 14 Emperors under the Archons, so they could very well be gods themselves. Dream would barely be able to understand a fraction of their true power, so they had obviously been held back when writing the monoliths.
The Keeper nodded.
{That is only natural. This legacy space was created in order to find the Archon's successor. It both creates an Archon and doesn't create one. You are still required to carve your own path, and this place provides the last knowledge of how to do so the correct way, without the interference of the System. You are walking the most profound path of power that existed during the time of the Archons. You should be honored.}
"Yes, I'm crying tears of gratitude. Anyway, I've spent plenty of time processing the script. I think I have a grasp on how to go about this. Form my Divine Seas from Divine Light. Enchant the vessels, and fill them with water. Seems simple enough.
{Simple? It could take decades to make contact with one's own Divine Light, and that was during the time of the Archons. I doubt you coul-}
*Flash!*
Suddenly, the Keeper was interrupted by a bright light. His eyes widened as he saw Dream's hand raise, pointing his finger and piercing space with it. Light flooded from this tunnel he created, releasing a wave of profundity.
As if it were a faucet, drops of pure white liquid came dripping out. Dream cupped his hands and contained some within his palms. The Keeper was shocked.
{...Is that-}
"Divine Light."
Dream smiled a bit. He had already seen Divine Light before. He had done so when he first arrived on the asura world and killed the class 5, seeing a bright light. That was when he glimpsed at experience without aid. After that, when he had killed the class 6's, he hadn't gotten any notifications. That was because he had controlled the Divine Light personally, and there was no need for the System to guide the experience to him.
So he already knew how to touch Divine Light. And using Death's Knell that made contact with one's experience and Level, he was able to locate the source of his own Divine Light.
"Now, I just need to form the Divine Seas with this. After that, I solidify the vessel and enchant it with my soul, making modifications in the process. I do that for each Sea, thus forming my class 5 soul. Very well. Let's get started."
With a wave of the hand, the white Divine Light began flowing out of the tunnel Dream created, swirling around him like an obedient snake. This Divine Light was already a part of him, so there was nothing preventing him from using how he wished.
The snake gradually took form as he gathered it together. It created a flat plane, a vessel. Dream's cosmic form took this vessel into his hands, pointing his finger and placing it onto the liquid vessel.
Under his finger, the white Light solidified. Dream infused his comprehensions from the first monolith of mana, directly engraving the enchantment. He was crafting his own soul.
After another long period of time, Dream's finger made its way across every surface of the vessel, and it was now a solid object about 3 feet wide and long. It looked like a simple square, like a table top made of marble. Only, this table top would perhaps be the most powerful dining surface in the universe.
With that, Dream looked downward at the glass floor containing swirling gray fluids. He extracted some, turning the gray mist into mana and infusing it into the vessel. He filled it with more mana than he had ever stored in his life, and despite the obscene amount of mana flowing into the vessel, the gray fluids from the ground never dried. It was an infinite source of energy, it seemed. Dream wondered if that assumption of his was correct.
Finally, when the vessel was filled, Dream nodded.
"There. One down. Next."
Another wave of the hand brought out more white Light, forming it into another vessel. Like this, Dream created the second Divine Sea for Runa. The comprehensions he engraved had to do with the chaotic nature of Runa, insights that gleaned into the nature of chaos itself. It was the opposite of the docile mana which obeyed Dream like a slave to a king.
Another long period passed, and this one finished as well. With that, Dream moved on to the third Divine Sea for Flux, forming another vessel and filling it with nothing but Flux.
The same happened with the fourth Divine Sea for Aether. When he reached the fifth Divine Sea though, Dream had to slow down a bit.
He formed the Divine Sea for what was supposed to be Magic, and for a while, he infused some of the comprehensions he learned from the monolith. However, when he was done with that, Dream looked to his soul.
"Alright Sophia, time to do some surgery."
[I'm with you.]
Sophia was serious as she followed Dream's gaze. The two locked in on the skills [Arcana] and [Arcane Transmutation]. Then, without much hesitation, Dream sharpened his Will, cutting the connection of the skills from his main soul. He cut out the entire [Arcana] skill and half of the [Arcane Transmutation] skill.
"Ouch."
He let out a pained sound. Hearing this though, the Keeper was shocked. Dream was carving up his own soul and only slightly expressed his discomfort. It was like he merely stubbed his toe, not dismantling his very existence.
Of course, Dream was actually feeling the most extreme pain one could feel. But his mind had gone far beyond pain. It was merely a sensation, and he could ignore it like any other.
With that, Dream was able to isolate and carve out the two skills together. Once he was done, the soul strings drifted out from the chest of his cosmic form.
Those gray strings embedded themselves into the Divine Sea, connecting to predetermined points. As Dream knew, the material of the soul was only enchanted Divine Light. Thus, his soul strings merged flawlessly with the Divine Sea, connecting with the rest of the enchantments he had already laid.
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Like that, a complete system was created, and the Divine Sea flashed in completion. It was at this point that Dream's awareness suddenly appeared within the five Divine Seas he had created.
Because the Divine Seas were created from his own Divine Light, they were a part of him. They were his soul. So even though they were still only just being formed and were outside of his body, he could still utilize them. With his new sea of Magic created, Dream's magical abilities were expanded, and he could indeed still utilize magic.
"Good. Next."
After taking a short breather, Dream formed his sixth Divine Sea. This was supposed to be the Divine Sea of bodily existence. But Dream decided to make it the Divine Sea of Physical Reality. This wasn't him putting his concept into it, just making it the center for all things material.
Dream engraved the comprehensions from the monolith, within it a small skill that touched upon true information. Then, Dream looked to his soul and cut out the skill [Particle Manipulation] along with the other half of [Arcane Transmutation].
Like this, he infused his skills into their new vessel. When this completed, Dream was hit by a wave of information as his awareness sprouted within the Divine Sea. Suddenly, looking around, he could feel the physical phenomena around him with greater than ever clarity. More than that, he felt like he could pluck photons out of the space around him like they were little flies. The entire material world around him was laid bare, subject to his very thoughts.
"Physical Reality... This is true control over the material world. Truly amazing."
Dream basked in the euphoria of greater awareness, but he was quick to stop himself. He wasn't finished, and only when all the Divine Seas were created would his abilities truly shine. He couldn't get ahead of himself.
Pushing back the urge for research, Dream formed his seventh Divine Sea. This was the Divine Sea of Will. Here, Dream didn't cut up his soul. He did, however, engrave a few comprehensions before dumping all of his energy, the entire quantity of his Will, into the Sea. This wasn't difficult for him who had absolute control over his Will.
However, it was still a risky operation. After all, Dream's Will sustained everything from the form of his body to the various systems that constituted his power. Even his inventory that held the neutron star was reserving nearly half of his power in order to contain the star. Dream needed to infuse all of his energy, down to its very source, so there was no room to spare.
Getting to this point, Dream turned to the Keeper.
"Hey Keeper, I think I'll need your help for a moment. You see, I've got a neutron star in my inventory, and I'm going to need to let it out for this."
{Neutron star? Very well. This place cannot be destroyed by mere gravity. I can hold it in place.}
"Really? Thanks."
Dream was surprised as the Keeper easily agreed. Then, he opened up his inventory, and light spilled out.
Suddenly, a massive 10 mile wide ball of pure energy appeared above the legacy space. The spatial containment layer that Dream had covered the star with was dispersed by him, and gravity exerted astronomical force on the surroundings. Amazingly though, nothing was sucked toward the star. Not the Keeper, not the legacy space, and not Dream. Everything in this place was beyond gravity, or at least could easily circumvent its effects.
With a pleasant nod, Dream continued. He turned back to his Divine Sea and infused the remaining portion of his Will into it. When he did so, his cosmic form began to droop, like a melting snowman.
[You're melting!]
Sophia didn't know whether to laugh or panic as Dream turned into a literal puddle of cosmic goo.
"Sophia, would you still love me if I turned into a slime?"
[You're already a slime!]
Sophia retorted as the last of his energy was infused into the Divine Sea. That wasn't all though, as she quickly felt another burst of energy come out of him. With that energy, Dream's body, that was now cosmic goo, dispersed into nothing.
{So you've transferred your source.}
The Keeper nodded as he saw the cosmic dust cloud that was now Dream's body. He had transferred the very source of his energy regeneration to the Divine Sea. Now, his soul strings had no energy to speak of, causing any functions or enchanted systems within his self to shut down.
For a moment he was in a suspended state, and actually on the verge of death. His soul had no energy, and not even his mind could operate. He was in limbo.
But given a few more moments, the cosmic dust cloud suddenly shot back together, and Sophia felt a burst of information from Dream's mind. His entire being fluctuated with an energy surge. The Divine Sea was completed.
"Ah! Nice. That was an odd feeling, being suspended. Felt like both an eternity and an instant."
{That's what this legacy space is subjected to. Both an eternity and an instant.}
The Keeper chimed in, causing Dream to tilt his head.
"But which is it?"
{It is both. You wished to know how long I have been here when you first arrived.}
"You told me that the time you had been here cannot be expressed with a mere number."
{Indeed. That is because the time here is dynamic. If I wish, I can spend an eternity here. I can also spend but an instant. It is both, and it depends on the perception of the person within this space. You could say that there is no time here, yet there also is.}
"Huh. Well that's a mind-bender. I can't understand that at my level."
{No, you can't. Not even I fully grasp it. After all, this place was built by the Archons.}
The Keeper stopped there, and Dream pondered for a moment. Eventually he shrugged.
"Oh well. Now, time for the actual mind benders. The Eighth Divine Sea of Mind. Let's see if I don't shatter my mind space doing this."
Saying that, Dream drew upon more of his Divine Light as if it were endless. He formed another Sea before calming himself and looking inward. He saw his mind space, a place with monoliths matching the legacy space and two pedestals, above which were two books, one black and one silver. One was infinite, constantly and unceasingly flipping pages, while the other was much slower.
The mind space was the place where Dream's mental faculties resided. It was where his intelligence, the Catalog, and his Wisdom were dynamically combined to produce various intellectual results. This was the nexus for his sentience and sapience. Normally it was wondrous, but right now it was cracked and not far from directly shattering.
For a moment, Dream viewed the mind space. Then, he pondered how he would go about doing this. If he isolated his mind space, then his intelligence and wisdom would have nowhere to go. He wouldn't have the mind to combine them after constructing his Sea of Mind, because they would be separated. Dream's mental faculties had never actually been separated before. This was a very dangerous operation, even more so than transferring the source of his energy.
After a moment though, he suddenly waved his hand. More Divine Light shot out from the tunnel, and Sophia watched as he made three more Divine Seas. Four Seas now sat side by side.
"Here's how we're going to do this. I'm going to construct and transfer my mind, intelligence, you Sophia, and my wisdom all at once. If I do that, then they'll all be moved and brought together upon completion of the transfer."
[Hang on, you're building a Divine Sea for me?]
Sophia was surprised, as was the Keeper who overheard. Sophia was a separate entity, despite being inextricably linked with Dream. While she did indeed have a literal spot in his soul, she didn't expect him to construct a Divine Sea exclusively for her.
There was one thing Sophia came to understand as Dream formed more Divine Seas, and that was the limitations of building them. One couldn't build as many as they wanted. They were limited by their accumulated Experience, or in other words, their supply of Divine Light. With the supply they had, they had to build Divine Seas and fill it with their aspects. Even if someone had the ability to build 20 Divne Seas, that didn't mean they had the Divine Light necessary to build that many.
And Dream was planning on building every Divine Sea he could. Sophia knew that much. But even he had a finite supply, despite him pulling out Divine Light like it was tap water.
She resisted.
[Build the others first.]
"I wasn't asking."
[Isolating me is going to hurt you. You'll damage the nucleus of your soul. Do it later.]
"I'm doing it now. My soul nucleus contains my intelligence and mind, so I'm handling it all at once."
[...]
"Just go."
Dream sharpened his will as he said that. Then, the soul strings that comprised Sophia were cut out all at once. Sophia felt isolated when that happened, going from having vibrant senses to seeing absolutely nothing. There was no vision, no data from skills, and nobody she could talk to. For the first time in a very long time, she was totally separated from Dream. It filled her with fear.
Meanwhile, Dream was isolating certain parts of himself. After cutting out Sophia, he sent her into her own Divine Sea. Then, he began the process of transferring his intelligence, mind, and Divine Light.
His intelligence and mind weren't so hard to move. Dream's intelligence came in the form of the Catalog, something that contained all his memories, as well as the data contained within the soul strings of his nucleus. Then there was his mind that was something like a virtual dimension, the platform that his intelligence and such worked off of.
Finally, there was the Divine Light, the bridge between intelligence and power, an energy that connected the two. Dream needed to move these three things at once because going without any one of them at any given time was not good for his health. So, after enchanting certain comprehensions from the monoliths onto the soul seas, he began.
First he wrote certain instructions into the existing Divine Seas. Then, he wrote instructions into his own soul strings. Finally, he took a leap of faith, separating his intelligence, mind, and Divine Light.