[Certain aspects on the interface can be broken and fed to others of similar origin, with a better conversion rate depending on how closely they are related. Spells may be fed to spells, affinities to affinities, and even Marks to other Marks; this method of empowerment appears to be unique to my own method of balancing the soul, and I do not believe a System would normally be able to do this: it is an aspect of entropy.

Just as the name Ashvorn implies, I am capable of nurturing certain aspects at the cost of others, though at a partial energy loss.

Two System spells will have a far better conversion rate of feeding into one another than a System spell feeding into an affinity spell.

When feeding a potential affinity into an existing affinity, it is recommended to feed the entire path into the existing affinity. This means the potential affinity will be eternally severed from you when in relation to earning it as an active affinity, but it will grant both an immediate boost and accelerated growth to the empowered affinity]

"And will this change how I think?" he asked curiously, "Such as feeding Snap into another? Snap is one of my native affinities, wouldn't that change how I think?"

[Negative, inborn effects will remain unchanged. The only difference will be when attempting to manipulate the world using it as an empowered concept, causing it to become impossible

Although, any part of yourself can be broken down to feed any part of the others, I am merely listing out what would be most beneficial long-term.

Memories can be fed into spells.

Emotions into Marks.

Even limbs into the Slaughterer of the Sundered Realm construct.

For these though, issues will arise which are deemed too high a cost to pay. Limbs destroyed for growth will be lost permanently, unable to ever return as the very idea is removed.

It would be for the best to sacrifice potential pathways which are unlikely to ever be used]

He nodded, as it made more than enough sense, but he still wasn't quite sold on doing it for all his potential affinities. Some of these seemed like they could be incredibly useful in the right hands.

Endurance wouldn't be the greatest as his Cycle of Sealing let him store mana, circumnavigating one of the biggest allures to it, but it wasn't bad.

"What's wrong with Endurance? Why is it incompatible with my personality?"

[Endurance as a personality type is closely linked with social tendencies]

He grimaced, "Yea, that'd do it…" Dei was so introverted he got Soul as an affinity despite it being unnatural, and even took a deal to avoid people. Endurance was utterly antithetical to how he acted. "Flesh?"

[Flesh focuses on the manipulation of it, which would be partially useless to you as you are only composed of half-flesh, half-spirit. You would need the Spirit affinity as well to fully utilize it. On top of this, Divine Balance does everything Flesh might be capable of for internal functional importance, but better, while Fluid Shape covers most aesthetic alterations. The only use for Flesh would be the manipulation of others, which you subconsciously hold no desire to do]

Again, he sighed, 'Right on the money, that doesn't sound too fun.'

"How would I get the Spirit affinity?"

[Spirit is based upon absolute independence from all else, a specialization of Soul's isolationist tendencies. To earn such an affinity, you would have to receive no more help from those around you nor recognize authority figures like The Champion, Aloran, or your parents]

He shook his head, "Another discarded option… okay, Space, give me quick summary of the personality requirements and I'm guessing the 'Existing affinity opposition' is Void?"

[Space users have expansive and correlative ways of thinking, one thought fluidly leading into the next without ever becoming disorganized. Correct, Void is antithetical to Space because it undermines all established rules by utterly disregarding logic. Space works based on knowledge of the world, Void utilizes the users will to oppose the established order]

'Space is science, Void is brute force.'

Snap's reason for not being earned was simple "Disinterest," so there wasn't a real mystery there: he just didn't want it.

He could already use all features of Snap he wanted to using freestyle manipulation, and he didn't really want to spread himself too thin by adding excessive affinities he wouldn't use often. Truthfully, Love also fell into this category, but something must've changed subconsciously within him to deem Love a potentially useful affinity long-term. He was already asking a lot of questions though, so he'd save that one for later.

The last affinity- Death- was the only real one he took an interest in. "What does Death mean by 'Existence Incompatibility?'"

[The affinity Death is too far outside of natural Union concepts. Similar to how the Karma affinity reacted to you, the Death affinity would grate against your soul until you were either another Race entirely, or dead. Despite that, I recommend not consuming this one, as it is powerful and higher-tier affinities do not frequently attempt to form a connection with beings. Perhaps Reaperhood may grant you the required alignment to earn Death?]

"Sure sure, that sounds good to me. I'll think a bit more about whether to sacrifice any of my affinities, but for now, how about my Rules of Wrath. I see that you're tracking them… but how do you know of those even I don't?" he asked, confused.

[Simple. While assessing your entire life, there were several key incidents wherein your Wrath flared up, yet did not fall under one of the known Rules. Clearly, it is a result of an undiscovered Rule]

"Oh I… didn't think of that. Huh, that's pretty smart. And good too know… so, my two unknown rules essentially mean 'the stuff I own materialistically is mine' and 'Don't let anyone escape…' That actually explains why I don't want to enter quarantine again until I kill my Time Beast version. Even if the System would prevent it from appearing, I'm not going to let something like that roam free. And why I hunted down that Praerel before when it tried to get away. Once again, thank you!"

Quickly scanning over any oddities in his spell list, he catalogued and explained them himself 'Harmonic Sanctuary has ?? as its level because it hasn't evolved but it's close to maxing out its potential anyway with how I fed a universe to it, Fractured Reality is the Void spell I created that helps me manipulate the universe around me. Reality Spells are those of HP/MP/SP because they connect with the underlying meaning of everything, and my Misc spell, Living Barrier, is in that category because I disconnected it from Soul and messed with it enough to change its purpose.'

"This is awesome. Thank you, Ashvorn."

[You are welcome. Additionally, I wish for access into Harmonic Sanctuary]

'Not good at changing the subject but it'll learn,' he thought with a chuckle.

"You can't already? And what for?"

[No, spells are protected by certain locks keyed to the particular user; past the surface level, all are inaccessible to me. I wish for permission to enter Harmonic Sanctuary as there are many more souls there, leading to a much larger potential data pool to draw from]

He thought deeply about the issue for several seconds, but knew he couldn't let Ashvorn in there just yet.

"I hate to say it, but I can't see how that would happen. You can only access the parts of my spells I gave you when you were born, right? Including the part of Starved Bastion that lets you siphon Entropy out of Harmonic Sanctuary and its natural decay? If you left my soul, you wouldn't have a way to survive, and you'd quickly starve. Am I wrong?"

The lack of immediate response told him he wasn't.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

While it was true that Ashvorn was very robotic and logical, people tended to get lost in the end goal and lose sight of the path there; it had no doubt forgotten that it relied on Dei to survive.

[Perhaps the Entropy is harvestable from the inside]

"Are you guessing? Or are you positive? That isn't something I want you to be unsure about. Before leaving, you need a way to stand on your own."

[Systems as a Species are too complex to be sustainable through normal measures… We require too many connections to survive, and maintaining a natural link with all affinities takes a toll on our souls. Contact with said affinities is not simple, as even now I already have three contracts with different affinities to limit how much I can share with others. Am I doomed to remain imprisoned within you?] it asked, and Dei sensed a slight desperation in its body language.

Luckily, he'd thought on this since the very first moment he realized it was alive.

"Not quite," he said with a smile. "Even if the main portion of your soul can't leave, it doesn't mean you can't. Have you forgotten that I used to be able to astral project? There are many spells and affinities which I'm sure you'll be able to use to send out your Identity, you just need to find a solution. Perhaps Farsight? Or use Soul to do the same thing I did? Maybe you can change it up to do the opposite: Rather than keeping your main soul here, what if you find a way to extend the range of that link to outside my body? Don't fall into hopelessness just yet, because anything can happen in this world. I can serve as your protector and the vault in which to store your soul while you go out and do other things. You can venture further, but don't try to go out into the world without the proper spells."

Even if it couldn't separate its Identity, there were still ways to see further such as his Commune with the Universe that used mirror-tricks of sorts to see further.

All Ashvorn said was [Understood], then began to drift around thoughtfully, lost in its own mind.

"Until next time then, I need to remerge with the main portion. Cya."

[Goodbye]

Attention back in his body, he just finished dealing with the next Champion and left through the portal to head to the next location.

The storms became more frequent as they approached Edit, and Perumah got a better picture of them as well.

Her chaos system was complete now, and she found that she was able to actually produce a small spark of it. Now that her body knew what chaos actually was, it took to it like a fish to water.

Still, it was a very new organ, and one she could still strangely not utilize. They were reminded again that she needed to pass some kind of trial to earn a path, as natural chaos did not use the same power system that affinities did. She could either pass a trial, or awaken her Celestial Parasite to serve the same purpose.

She could also just sub it in for mana and use it as a normal affinity, but where was the fun? At that point, just use regular True Mana or affinity mana.

They appeared directly in front of the next universe when his hairs stood on end, Vigilance kicking his mind into overdrive.

His entire body tingled, and he knew what it was from when the edges of the storms got too close- one was converging on them now, and they only had moments.

They normally wouldn't have any time to react, but Thadria still had Madness, it never went away, its objective simply changed from creating a new reality to aligning herself with Jacob's- one grounded in mundanity.

Jacob couldn't feel the storms, so Thadria's presence muted them.

His hand darted forward to rip open the gate as Perumah spoke in his mind, conveying the shortest concepts she could.

"Unnatural storm."

He got her meaning. Something was attacking them in a roundabout way, which is why she hadn't detected it in the first place.

He grabbed Thadria and Perumah, the two most vulnerable members, and launched them through the gate when chaos descended on him.

He shot forward as well, ignoring Jacob as he wasn't worried. 'Jacob can walk through on his own.'

He didn't reach the gate.

A hand burst through the chaos, gripping his shoulder and pulling him backwards through an unknown pathway. Dei's body was already transforming into the world that walks form, bones cracking and Connection shooting from his body to lash at whatever gripped him now.

It met him halfway, and their souls wrestled with one another to a stalemate. His body spun as he leaned into the pulling force, letting an axe-kick fall upon his assailant, one which he already knew the identity of.

An exact replica of himself blocked the blow, forcing it off to the side. In the same moment, a spark emerged from its chest, shooting toward Dei's head.

He barely had the time to tilt to the side as it clipped his ear, whiplash straining his neck as he was flung to the side.

'Huh, it used its heart as the catalyst for Snap mana, clever.'

The strings of their connection decoupled as Dei went flying, but he'd gleaned enough information to understand this wasn't Time alone.

He felt strong Duplication and Time mana, with the Duplication having an actual signature to it. He felt the Time aspect as something of an echo, the indicator that it wasn't real and not strong enough to maintain form. The Duplication aspect? That was fully anchored in reality.

It'd increased its own sustainability by finding a real-world anchor of sorts, then working it into its own body.

It teleported directly in front of him, its fist blurring towards his chest as he could only mentally groan. 'Its Time affinity is much more suited towards my fighting style as it is all internal. Void needs an anchor outside of itself, Time is its own anchor- in the future and past.'

It was going to launch another explosion at him, and they both knew it. He met its fist halfway, charging Null into his fists, creating a barrier.

A wall of flame separated them, its hate-filled face boring into his soul.

He could only clench his jaw. He didn't blame it for loathing him, as he'd unintentionally brought it into a doomed existence.

He mentally catalogued his every advantage: 'I have Rights, it doesn't, so no personal affinity for it. I have Entropy from consuming Minerali, and I have Ashvorn.'

The slightly distracted thoughts costed him several blows, and his heart skipped when he realized it'd sped up its attacks. Not only this, but the creation of Ashvorn had weakened his mind, and it could think faster than him.

He attacked it with Connection again, and it met him once more- just as he hoped.

He fired Entropy at it, and it simply smiled, consuming it with a ravenous hunger and absorbing it into itself.

'Entropy's out.'

"Ashvorn, consume Endurance, Flesh, and Space to feed my personal affinity," he told it quickly, and felt his Null glow with power.

Sparks of orange and gray snapped between them, its Snap and his Personal battling for the space. They were two opposing forces, and something between them became refined.

With his focus forward, Dei didn't detect the strike that tore into him from behind, knocking a massive portion of Soul Strength off him and clipping the flesh below.

It hadn't even existed moments prior. He hadn't released Soul Echo the entire time, reading the space and seeing where in the fabric they were.

Animals swarmed around them, staying away from their brawl.

His vision splintered, with the Time Beast at the center. Timelines converged upon him, and blow after blow rained down upon him from impossible angles.

Still, it was not lost. Just as he couldn't see Time, it couldn't see Void.

He slipped through the cracks, entering its artificial timeline and taking the stored self off guard with a fully empowered blow to its head, cracking something in it.

The space shattered, the timeline severed, and Dei was back for only a moment before entering somewhere else. If it wanted to link him with its timelines, it would suffer the consequences of him utilizing them as anchors.

Still, the second one was more prepared, blocking his blow and doing something he hadn't realized it could- burning itself.

A spike of Sacrifice mana ripped through the air so powerful he didn't need external mana senses to detect it, and he quickly returned to the main space- not before getting clipped.

His arm exploded as he came to be, and for once he actually screamed in pain.

He'd taken major soul damage with that attack, as losing an extremity like that wasn't something easily dismissable considering his biology.

The alternate timeline had shattered its entire existence in a final sacrificial attack, and such dedication could not be denied.

The Time Beast paused for a moment, relishing in his pain, but it did not come out unscathed. It was time, there was no in between to it, and shattering an alternate self like that resulted in it crying blood.

It let out a wet cough, then appeared in front of him again.

Rather than punch him though, it reached out for the gaping wound in his soul, and he realized it hadn't paused to simply look at him, it'd been flooding its system with a spell he'd oft forgotten about

Empower Self, the Soul spell that caused its own memories and experiences to become highlighted, cemented, and unforgettable. He desperately activated his own and tried to strike at it, but it grabbed his good arm with one hand and detonated two timelines to cut off all futures of Void. the moment it came into contact with his soul, it entered him, and his vision shattered.

It possessed him.

Both regretted this action, or only one of them, they could not be sure, as Dei had already flooded his system with Null, with the concept of personal improvement between two competing forces.

In that violating moment, when their memories meshed, the force of the personal affinity found a trillion points of contention- and acted upon every single one.

Dei finally found a sensation more painful than his soul falling apart, as his entire soul exploded.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.