For the following three days, Aeron sat next to Daniel's unconscious body, and used his powers to prevent Daniel's brain from waking him up before he could properly rest. At the end of these three days, Daniel woke up from his mental exhaustion feeling reborn.
With wobbly legs, he turned to look around, and quickly recalled where he was, and what he was doing before falling asleep. He had painstakingly managed to reach the core of the artifact thanks to his own power, and in there, he would be able to refine it. "How long?" He asked in between yawns.
"Three days." Responded Aeron with an emotionless tone while standing up, and rubbing his own legs. This action had no purpose, as Aeron's being was entirely made out of mental power, and fatigue only existed mentally. If not out of habit, he would have not bothered with doing it.
"Three days.." repeated Daniel with a pensive tone. He then said with a hint of annoyance, "Are you sure you couldn't have just removed the artifact's cultivation beforehand? This took forever."
As if bored with answering the same question over and over again, Aeron shook his head lightly and responded by saying, "For the last time.. You can't remove the artifact's cultivation. You can only replace it."
"ALRIGHT!.." said Daniel before taking a small pause. He then added with sarcasm, "You tend to forget things when you are trapped in mental sludge for weeks! Let's get this over with."
After they finished speaking, the two walked towards the house that was still present in the middle of the fifth layer. In it, were the measures taken by Akkah, in order to trap his former host for all of those years. A torture which he enjoyed inflicting on him, until he got tired of it.
Daniel had already witnessed how Aeron had refined the artifact, so instead of standing around, he walked to the middle of the room, and sat with his legs crossed. He then closed his eyes, and focused on the space around him.
What he felt, was a sea of blurriness. A feeling akin to the one he had felt when trying to force himself through the fourth threshold, locking him in place, and stopping each of his senses from working properly.
The only thing that saved him from being lost in this blurry sea of nothingness, was a golden rope whose end wiggled in front of him. This rope kept going into the blurry nothingness until it escaped Daniel's sensing ability, making it impossible to see its other end. With a single thought, Daniel's consciousness reached for this rope, and as the two were about to touch, the rope unravel into thousands of little threads, which surrounded Daniel's consciousness.
On these threads, Daniel could feel the presence of Aeron, who was the last one to have refined the artifact. However, contrary to what Aeron had felt during the process, his presence welcomed Daniel calmly, backing away as Daniel pushed his own consciousness into these threads.
Aeron observed as the threads which only he could see, and were connected to the many elements of the artifact, started to disappear. In the span of two hours, Aeron connection to the artifact was erased, disappearing completely only moments before Daniel stood back up on his feet, and opened his eyes.
Contrary to what he was expecting, there was no happiness in Daniel's face, and there was a reason for it. If he had tried to read into his mind, Aeron would have seen a windows inside Daniel's mind, and on it, was a writing different than most of those he had seen before.
"What is it?" Asked Aeron, wondering if something had gone wrong.
"Take a look at this." Responded Daniel, allowing him pry into his mind, and see what he was seeing.
____________________
The wielder of the Karmic System has successfully stolen an alien system's (Mental) artifact.
Artifact already present in the Karmic System.
Pick one of the following options:
-Destruction: Will award the wielder with one trillion karmic points.
-Fusion: Will allow the wielder to merge the two artifacts (75% chance of mutual destruction).
-Assimilation: Will add two random effects of the Mental System, to the Karmic System.
_____________________
"This answers a portion of your questions." Said Aeron, recalling when, during one of their many conversations regarding the children of Iewah, Daniel had wondered what the purpose of such an innate warmongering behaviour was. It was only now that he had learned the truth.
While many believed the children of Iewah to be needlessly violent, there was an actual reason for why they could recognize one another, and couldn't help themselves but to fight the moment their eyes would meet. Luckily, through the long years in which Iewah's faction had existed, none of his sons had ever learned about this. If they had, the wars amongst one another would be even more violent and frequent than before.
To them, fighting against one another was an enjoyable sport, while becoming aware of this secret would mean turning this sport into a bloody race for power.
"What do you want to do?" Asked Aeron with slight disappointment. He then added, "Assimilation seems the most reasonable choice."
Aeron's words were correct. From the standpoint of a system wielder, the ideal decision would be to obtain a portion of the powers of the artifact's former wielder. These powers were similar to his own, and just like Time is Precious, or Karmic Retribution, they were both likely to be extremely useful skills.
Nevertheless, for Daniel personal power was not as important, and the karmic points, while useful, were just a currency which he could earn more whenever he wanted. So without thinking too much about it, he thought of the world "Fusion."
As soon as this concept appeared inside Daniel's mind, he felt an incredible pain drill into his very being, making him feel as if he had fallen into a pool of acid.
"Nghh!"
The reason why Daniel had decided to merge the two artifacts despite the chance of failure, was because, thanks to one of his gifts of True Immortality, he was one with his artifact. Therefore, unless the failure of the fusion eradicated the artifact from its very being, he would at least be able to keep it. Unfortunately, the pain he was feeling was just that.
The fusion attempt was on the verge of failing, but for some reason, it was unable to destroy either of the two artifacts. This pain kept increasing to levels which Daniel did not believe possible, until every part of his body felt as if it was on fire.
The agony that Daniel felt was so intense, that he could not even scream, and it went on until, denied of the chance of failure, the two artifacts finally merged into one. When that happened, the pain instantly waned, leaving Daniel on his knees, gasping for air.
The shock brought by this sudden pain lasted longer than the pain itself, only stopping when, with the help of Aeron mental powers, Daniel finally managed to calm down. "Are you okay?" Asked Aeron with worry. Pain was not something that could be empathized with, so even though Aeron had guessed what Daniel had felt, all he could empathize with, were his feelings of panic and desperation that lasted for as long as the pain was present.
"I-I am o-okay.." stuttered Daniel before swallowing a mouthful of saliva. He then stood up as straight as he could, and took a few deep breaths of constructed air.
After calming himself down, he noticed that the Door to Dream State, the artifact in which they were staying in, felt differently than before. While the artifact's cultivation hadn't changed, and still emanated powerful mental essence, the threshold were different from before, and by simply showing the intent of wanting to walk through them, the barrier would disappear completely.
"I am assuming things went well." Said Aeron before trying to feel the differences in the artifact. It did not take long for him to realize that now, even if he wanted, he would not be able to retake possession over the artifact, as scanning the artifact did not feel different than scanning Daniel himself. "Do you think you can still do it?" He then asked with uncertainty.
"We will know only after we try." Said Daniel before opening each threshold. He then stretched his left arm, and opened his hand with his palm facing up.
Back in Daniel's planet, which was now floating in the endless space while covered by Daniel's spatial measures, to the shock of those who inhabited around it, a small island rose from the water, and began to fly in the direction of the black castle at an incredible speed.
The inhabitants of the city which surrounded the black castle looked with shock as the floating island approached, and right when it appeared that it would crash against it, the island shrunk in size until it reached the size of an adult's fist.
This small island pierced through the large entrance of the castle, and before anyone could stop it, it reached the training room where Aeron had helped Daniel train his mental complexity for the past few months. Without losing a bit of its motion, the fist-sized island directly entered the Door to Dream State, and barged through one threshold after another, only to stop once it was above Daniel's hand.
As the small island reached his hand, Daniel put his arm down, allowing the island to stay right in the middle of the room. He then said, "Let's go," and along with Aeron, Left the artifact.
At this point, the artifact was now a part of Daniel, just like his planet was. He could feel the internal part from the outside, and could control it however he wanted. So with nothing but a thought, he erased the cultivation of the artifact, and allowed it to absorb the power emanated by the small-sized island.
—–
For the following few days, the two observed as every bit of power was absorbed by the portion of Daniel's planet, and recycled as ownerless true immortal essence. This true immortal essence was a form of power which could refine the body, the mind, and the spirit of a cultivator all at the same time, and could be found nowhere else in the universe.
Originally, the Door to the Dream State would consume people's consciousness until nothing would be left. However, Daniel's body technically existed in two separate parts, and while his consciousness was safe in his body, the other part emanated the same form of power, which was formed equally by the three kinds of essence. Thanks to that, he had been able to nurture the artifact without losing his life, although having to feel his power be constantly depleted for as long as he left a portion of his body into it.
After more than ten days, the power within the artifact had reached the level of ten phases per layer, allowing anyone who could reach the fifth layer, to be able to cultivate by absorb true essence of the fiftieth phase.
Unfortunately, contrary to mental power, true essence had turned the artifact into a mindless cultivation resource, and resources, had limited power. The absorption of this power would drain the artifact, which would require a few hours to be recovered.. making it impossible for a large number of people to cultivate in it at the same time for long periods of time.
"Seems to be working." said Daniel while sending the small island back.
"Was it worth it? You will never be able to cultivate in it." Responded Aeron with confusion.
"You and I both know this was never meant for me to cultivate."
"I know." Said Aeron, looking proudly at the large door, which instead of glowing with the green light of mental power, shone with the pure white light of true immortal essence. "The Secret Realm of Hiel Academy.. You know that as soon as someone gets a whiff of this, we are probably dead, right?" He then added.
"Oh yeah." Responded Daniel as a smile formed on his face. He then added, "Let's go."
"Where are we going?"
Daniel turned to look at Aeron, and with a grin, he asked, "Wasn't Than close to the state of immortality?"
