Upon setting up the 60th rune in my sea of consciousness.
I punctured a hole in my soul.
Surprisingly, I didn't expect this to happen.
It started to crack.
The disguise that Gaia had put over it broke off completely.
But before Owtz could detect it.
I did the unthinkable.
In a panic I completely shattered my soul to get rid of the 'evidence'.
The possible consequences?
Bitch! I'm a Paradox!
Immediately I went braindead and my visualization technique started to slow down.
My vision began to fade to black.
Is consciousness simply the manifestation of a soul.
Or does soul birth consciousness?
I hadn't a clue.
You see... I always return.
I come back.
Again and again.
Whenever I physically die.
I return to the abyss.
I return to that loop.
It doesn't even matter that it is a loop.
Because while that aspect loops in the abyss.
The rest of the multiverse keeps on chuggin.
So in that moment when the disguise over my soul collapsed.
I had a few options.
1: I could let Owtz Eerth find me.
Then what?
Battle him, with my nonexistent power?
Have him wipe me out repeatedly?
He is rank 8.
He can probably do some bullshit like trace me back to my hivemind or the abyss itself and wipe me out.
2: I could try to recreate the disguise.
I come from a technologically advanced society.
But we don't know shit about the soul.
So this option is out of the window
3: I quickly destroy my own soul so he isn't alerted. I kill myself before he can even get the option!
This is risky...
But... I do quite like risk.
I'm also quite curious as to what will happen.
----------------------------------------
Zero's body sat there... braindead.
Zero had a contingency in place for this situation.
Well not exactly for this situation.
He had ordered his nanites to vaporize his body upon brain death.
This was to prevent another moon situation.
So after a few minutes he was vaporized.
Upon dying.
'He' returned to the loop in the abyss.
Except he was still braindead.
The visualization technique refused to stop though.
Although it was getting slower and slower.
After a few more minutes of no activity.
He was vaporized again.
This happened over and over.
His body reformed.
But his soul was gone.
He was an empty shell.
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Everything was slowing down.
He didn't even feel like he had returned to the abyss.
This wasn't even non-existence.
His consciousness was truly wiped out.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
But yet... something remained.
It as at that instant.
Clarity.
He heard an echo.
He had no soul.
He had no body.
But there was a will to it.
There was a thought.
He heard a voice call out to him.
"WHO ARE YOU?!??"
He responded back in kind.
"I AM... "
He saw an infinite version of his visualization technique.
Right now... in this very moment.
He wasn't just a Paradox.
He wasn't just a human.
He wasn't Zero
He was an idea.
The original incarnation Infinity would recognize such a will.
He saw an abyss.
Then he saw thousands of them.
Millions.
"INFINITE"
No, it was truly infinite.
Each holding his body.
As he reached out to them.
He crossed 50% of the distance.
Then another 50%
Then another 50%
But even as he was touching his body.
Even as he was trying to reconnect.
That last little bit of percentage.
Just kept getting cut in half.
This was infinity.
The first law he had formed comprehension of.
[ECHO]: 'Infinity' Comprehension has reached 1%
As soon as he comprehended this.
He found himself back at the academy.
Right before he had formed his 60th rune.
"How interesting."
His soul was still disguised.
But underneath that disguise.
Was something ancient.
He had some inspiration after this event
So he went ahead and recorded down his experience in ECHO.
Immediately he began construction of a level 1 spell model.
He couldn't use it now as an acolyte.
But it would be the first spell to be his passive.
What the spell was called?
Infinity.
Instead of using an elemental shield like other mages used.
He would use pure mana.
But... within it would contain his insights of infinity.
Any attack he would take.
It would cross 50%
Then another 50%
Forever.
It would never be able to reach him.
This is applying what he learned in that space.
"Was that the cosmic order?"
Now... even his fear of having his soul erased was gone.
"Not only am I immortal... but I also have an immortal soul!"
"Kinda..."
He was slightly tempted to do it again.
But thought it was better to not tempt fate.
----------------------------------------
Upon setting up the 60th rune in my sea of consciousness.
I punctured a hole in my soul.
Something snapped in my mind. I was finally able to feel energy particles in my surroundings.
My rune chain was like a sword stuck in a rock that was my soul.
My soul was bleeding mana.
The chain was absorbing it like a sponge.
The chain you built is also what stores the mana.
So the longer the chain and the more runes on it.
The more mana you can hold.
Each rune can hold a unit of mana.
I felt a bit of pain and got a slight headache.
Energy particles!
I wasn't really able to control them all that well.
But this is amazing.
Because control isn't something I need to worry about.
I can spend 400+ years in VR mastering my control of the particles.
So I enter VR, but find it is unable to simulate the environment properly.
That is unfortunate.
The only particles I should have good control of are those with the metal or darkness element.
But there aren't any of those in the air around me.
There are water particles and light particles.
Based on my vast knowledge of this worlds magic system.
I release some my nanites into the air around me.
I clump them together so they are a bit bigger and what do you know.
I can feel them as metal particles in the air.
I wave my hand and they form around me.
Normally a metal mage has to infuse their mana into metal and manipulate it that way.
But due to nanites...I am able to use my element without a source.
A metal magus would need to get a custom artifact made by an artificer that would release metal energy particles into the air.
But I don't need that.
The source is my nanites.
I decide to check my properties.
[ECHO]: {Name: "Zero #119", Species: Abyssal Paradox (Human), Energy: 1 GR, Strength: 11, Vitality: 21, Nanites: 3.03164e+14. Mana: 60, Spirit: 999, Soul: 99}
It seems both my soul and spirit have decreased in strength.
Although my strength and vitality has increased.
It feels pretty good.
Only took me two centuries!
I'm a little slower then I predicted... but I had to spend a lot of the time making fake spells with my nanites... what a huge time sink.
A few years ago I was approached by the principal of the academy.
He offered his position to me.
It turns out that rank 2 wizards are rarer then I thought.
He is the only one in the entire academy.
Besides me that is...
Well... I'm not even rank 1 yet.
Since I've stayed at the academy for over two centuries.
To avoid people finding out I don't age.
I notify everyone I will be leaving to go on a journey of self-discovery.
I have pretty much all the knowledge from their library.
I'm already an acolyte.
I have always had decent fighting power.
My friend Steiner has left.
There is no reason for me to stay here and teach any longer.
People assume I am coming to the end of my lifespan and want to spend my days in retirement.
Ha! I'm still basically eight years old!
Although, I suppose now my mental age isn't so out of whack with my physical age.
I'm truly over two hundred years old now.
Although I don't age anymore.
I remember a talk I had with the principal.
We had talked about our goals.
His goal was immortality.
This surprised me.
I'm already immortal. So someone else's dream is already my reality.
But I feel as if I lack a goal.
I mean sure... I have to kill Owtz Eerth.
I have to map out the chaos realm.
But besides the mapping part.
It has always been a third party telling me what to do.
First it was Genesis.
Now it is Gaia.
Have things really changed much?
Just what do I want to accomplish?
Then it hit me.
I want to experience all the multiverses have to offer.
I want to reach the top.
I want to surpass it.
Rank 9 existence?
I'll go further!
I'll become a rank 10 existence... even if it doesn't exist! I'll do the impossible... because that... will keep me entertained.
If something is possible, what is the point of doing it?
Anybody can do something possible.
But only a Paradox can pull off the impossible!
We must accomplish the impossible.
So I told the principal that my goal was to become a rank 10 existence.
He thought me a mad man.
We didn't talk much after that.
There actually is some magic that I am able to do.
By using magic stones and magic formations.
All one needs is knowledge to perform magic with formations.
It isn't great for fighting though.
Since there isn't enough prep time.
It is time consuming to draw out the runes.
During my second century at the academy.
I was personally taught by a formation master.
I was praised for my perfect memory and knowledge.
I didn't think much of it at first, but once I really got into it.
I realized it had so much potential.
Put a formation on paper?
You got yourself a magic talisman.
Engrave it on the inside of an object?
You have an artifact!
It was through my studying of formations, that an idea came to me.
Because of the proofs I had solved and my knowledge of magic.
I was able to make a portal open up with formations to any other area that had the same parameters.
I did release my discovery publicly, and I was heavily praised for my contribution to the world.
But I kept a theory to myself.
Pocket dimensions.
If I'm able to open up a portal to any other of my other formations.
What if I tattoo a small formation onto my wrist.
Then have nanites change a few parameters when I need to.
Use my mana to activate it.
I can basically open up whatever size portal I need to.
And I'm already connected to all of the academies that use my network.
The problem is, that isn't why I'm doing this.
I want to have my own pocket dimension where I can store things.
Then open up a portal to that pocket dimension.
Now that I'm actually an acolyte. I can power my formations with mana!