That night, as Thanos drifted off to sleep, a hazy figure appeared next to his cot that reached out and touched him on the head. He didn't resist and waited for the expectant falling feeling as he dropped into slumber.

"Welcome back, young man. Looking at your memories for the past few weeks, it seems like you have been busy." The elderly man softly said, his strange eyes still as Thanos felt himself adjust to the dreamscape.

"You have successfully cleared up the issue within your body, completed the merger between your two souls and discovered the root of essence. Impressive." The older man said with an encouraging smile, giving him a nod of appreciation.

He was expecting some form of belittlement or condescending remark once he next met the old ghost again, but seeing this now pleasant, warm gentleman spun his mind into confusion.

They had returned to his old flat in the dream, sitting on his furniture. He decided it was time for some answers as he watched the older man conjure up a hot drink and settle into his chair.

"You didn't mention any issues with my soul, and I had to work out how to control essence myself. Shouldn't we have gone through that first? Also, what's with the nice guy act?" Thanos half complained to the older man.

He knew his mind was being read, so being blunt seemed the best approach. He couldn't sugarcoat his thoughts after all.

The man before him had noticed an issue with his body, and he helped him rectify it. He was grateful for this assistance but preferred getting more information than being left to fend for himself on a critical task that could have enormous implications for his future.

"Regarding the merging issue between your souls, some things are best left to be discovered independently. To get involved in such a thing might have the opposite effect." The man said with a calm smile as he continued.

"About controlling essence, that was an oversight on my part. You must understand that I'm just a slither of soul kept on life support by an ancient failing formation. This might give my personality certain peculiarities or cause things to slip by me. I apologise and ask for your patience." The elder said as he stood and bowed his head, hands clasped around a mug with prints of nude ladies, making the entire thing look ridiculous.

This different version of the man he had met previously caused Thanos to be a little out of sorts, but he didn't take long to adjust to it. The entire situation was bonkers anyway, so what was a personality-challenged ghost with a love of hot drinks and naked women to add to it?

"I don't have much time left, as you've realised I came to you earlier than I said I would. This is because the vessel that houses my soul is failing now that I am active again." Said the old man, his gentle smile wavering for a second.

"Is there nothing that we can do about it? Perhaps there is some way for me to repair it?" Thanos asked as he sat back in surprise at the news. He forgot that he was stuck in a baby's body, unable to help much with anything in the real world.

"No. I wasn't meant to last forever. If I'd not detected your arrival and awakened when I did, my vessel would have failed within the next hundred years at the most. The matrix is deep underground, and many dangerous creatures exist between here and there. You would never reach it, even if you tried."

"Why are you here in the first place? How long have you been down there?" He asked, curious after discovering this man was some broken piece of soul in a spirit housing.

"I was a failsafe, meant to guard a repository of knowledge left behind for later generations during a war of extermination we were losing. I volunteered because my mastery of the soul was far better than the others." The elder patiently explained.

"Wait, so you're telling me there is a cache of hidden knowledge buried deep underground nearby?" Thanos asked, intrigued by the thought.

If only there were some way I could get my hands on it and fix the old man's problem.

"Not any longer. There was, but it was found by our enemies and destroyed. They left me trapped in the ruins to go crazy at my failure. That's why I went into a dormant state. I should've been down there millions of years by your measurements." The man said, pouring cold water on his burning desires.

This number also blew him away. He hadn't thought that humans had existed that long ago. He wasn't sure how that made sense—the people of his new world looked like they had stepped out of ancient times, and there was no way it was a coincidence they spoke an old language from back on Earth.

There was a connection there somewhere, but he wasn't seeing it.

"Time really is short. I may be able to come to you a final time, but I'm unsure, so we must do everything we need to accomplish now. Instead of wasting our time going back and forth, why don't I talk and you listen?" The elderly man said, then his figure shimmered a little, looking less natural than he had done a moment ago as if evidence of his words.

Thanos nodded as he realised time was running out, and he felt a little sad that there was nothing he could do to help. Even though they weren't close, it gave him someone to talk with who knew what he was going through. Finding out that person wouldn't be around much longer was a slight blow.

"As we're short on time, my explanations must also be. The root of essence is something you must discover on your own. Even when alive, I wouldn't say it's something I understood. It's easy to find, there for all to see, but seemingly impossible to understand. That is part of what will make up your journey of cultivation to become an expert. Everyone's experiences will be their own, so do not worry about it now." The grey-haired man said, and Thanos noticed the ghost looked like a wizened old master when he was teaching.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"The way you managed to control the flow of essence inside your body, whilst it allowed you to stumble onto the root, isn't the correct way to do things. It would be best to have honed your willpower and manifested it inside you, for example, in the shape of a bubble, using it to surround the essence, allowing you to manipulate it and manoeuvre it that way."

"What you did was far more complex. You had to discover the commonality between the essences and then work out how to use that as a handle to grab and move it. It will allow you a finer degree of control but lacks the power and scope of the method I mentioned. You should learn and practice both from now on if you want to grow strong."

The pair remained silent for a few moments, and Thanos knew it was to his benefit to allow him time to take this advice in and make his own connections. The elder walked over to stand in front of him before speaking.

"Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Turok, but many knew me by my title as the sage of a thousand illusions, and I am the progenitor of your bloodline." Turok said as he performed a deep bow with hands held to his sides, his graceful movements perfect. He didn't even spill his drink.

Thanos felt a little undressed at the courtesy and didn't quite know how to respond to such a display, so he just nodded his head deeply in acknowledgement.

"So you are a master of illusions? Is that because of your eyes?" Thanos asked.

"Yes, as I've mentioned previously, my eyes are due to me being born with a natural essence body. This gave me a natural talent with Illusion essence." Turok said as he looked like an old teacher with a peculiar dress sense.

He quickly walked around the room as he paced back and forth, muttering. Thanos took this time to quiz through some things in his mind, with only the main question lingering.

Who was the war against?

As if answering his question, the TV came to life as the old man spoke.

"These are some of the races that warred against us back then. Many of them you already know in some ways. Dragons, Phoenix, The Demonic Kin and the Celestials, among others." Turog said as images of familiar but strange creatures flickered across the screen.

He saw dragons of various shapes and colours. Some looked like the Western types, and others like those depicted in Eastern mythology. There were large, majestic-looking birds bathed in flames and sinister-looking grey creatures with blood-red eyes shrouded in darkness. The images flew by like a slideshow, eventually stopping, leaving behind a blue four-armed humanoid.

Thanos looked at the blue being, noticing its four arms. It wasn't ugly and could be considered attractive in a certain kind of way. The blue alien, covered in what looked like purple tattoo designs, reminded him of the ones from his amulet.

It had strange fluorescent green hair that ran backwards across a head that seemed longer at the rear than a human's.

"These blue-skinned bastards are the reason you're here, and as you have recognised, they manufactured your amulet," Turok said as the image rotated on screen.

"I doubt you will ever encounter them in the flesh, just their lesser evolved kin."

"Why won't I encounter them?" Thanos asked, a little confused.

"Because something has happened in the few million years I've been dormant here. The flow of essence is far weaker than it used to be, and none of those races have appeared here in a long time. Before you ask, I don't know what happened to them, but I have a theory about why humans are here now." Turok said, stopping Thanos from his further questions.

"I know that back then, during the war, we put in place a fallback plan in case the worst should happen and we were to lose. My authentic self removed that plan during my creation for security reasons, but I can make some deductions after seeing your memories." The elder said before carrying on.

"I suspect the world you come from was that fallback plan. When you left it, you encountered those dangerous clouds that surrounded your world. These should have hidden that world very well."

"Those ancient gods and heroes in your legends should have been the cultivators hiding there. That is also why you have stories of mythical monsters and demons that match those I have shown you today. Even the language in this world matches one from your antiquity." The elder said as he sat down and adjusted his clothing.

"That doesn't make sense. We don't speak that language anymore, and if people could use essence back on Earth, it would have been all over the news." Thanos said as he tried to make sense of the man's speculations.

"It does when you factor in those clouds. Think about it: they changed you on a fundamental level when your soul passed, and your soul was using a higher dimension to travel at the time. They would have been much more destructive in real space. They are a perfect defence hiding your old world from being found." Turok said and carried on explaining.

"Your world has no essence. It is barren, with only the most basic laws present. I think that is related to those clouds. The cultivators back then would've brought materials with them to keep developing, but these would run dry eventually."

"That's why you only had stories of them after time because those cultivators left your world before they withered away due to the lack of essence. They left and populated this world and probably others."

"Those strange clouds also seem to warp space and time. Time in your world seems to move much slower than it usually does elsewhere because of that warping. That's why the humans on this world seem to be from your world's ancient past." Turog explained in between sipping from his cup.

"That still doesn't make any sense. If time back on Earth passes slower, wouldn't that mean thousands of years or longer have passed here? Why are they not more advanced? Why has the language not changed?" Thanos asked as he tried to wrap his head around everything.

It reminded him of his science lessons as he attempted to grasp relativity and how time might act differently.

"With the availability of essence, the humans of this world have had no reason to go down a technological path to solve their problems. Why invent a mechanical digger when you can clear a mountain with a wave of your hand? Even though it may seem primitive, this world may still surprise you." The elderly man said with a sigh after giving it some thought.

"As for the language, some cultivators that left your world might still be alive. The more powerful you are, the longer you live. Why would they change how they speak or evolve their language?"

Thanos took some time to process. The old man's theory seemed to tick many boxes and explain many things that had puzzled him upon arriving here. He went through it again to put all the information into coherent thought.

"So, in summary, humans had a war, lost it and stashed you and a vault of knowledge on this world for the future generations of humans to find. A plan also puts humans on Earth or lets cultivators hide amongst those already there."

"Time on the outside passes much faster for those foreign races, and something happens that causes them to vanish, leaving behind a less evolved version of themselves whilst the density of essence drops substantially."

"After they disappear, cultivators posing as gods on Earth eventually venture out to find our enemies gone and spread across the many worlds in peace." Thanos narrated as he solidified everything into a coherent thought.

"I cannot say for sure, but at my best guess, that sounds right. Apart from missing the vault getting destroyed and me entering into slumber," Turok replied.

He thought for some time before asking a question that was bothering him.

"Doesn't that all sound a little too convenient?"