The azure flames of Astra's soul swam through the roaring fire of the sun, moving and mixing with the fusion furnace as if it was simply returning home. There was no pain, no discomfort. There was not a single hint that this was anything more than where it was meant to be.

Even as it spread across the surface of the star, the dancing flames of her soul didn't dwindle or allow themselves to be consumed by the sun. Instead they danced with glee as they grew brighter and brighter, her soul growing stronger the more it mixed with the star.

Seth's eyes twinkled as he witnessed such a beautiful sight, mainly because it meant that whatever insane gambit Astra had taken had undoubtedly succeeded. She was going to evolve and hopefully, she would return to them.

When the azure flames started to plunge into the depths of the star, piercing its surface and swimming down to nestle in the embrace of its core, Seth shifted his vision back to normal with a soft smile on his face.

Of course he trusted her. Why wouldn't he? He trusted her with his own life, and so why should he not trust her with her own?

He really was stupid to doubt her. But then again, could you blame him? Seeing someone kill themselves like that would make anyone doubt everything they had ever known about sanity or reason.

However, the fact of her success brought a strange feeling to Seth. She was evolving, completing whatever strange requirements had been asked of her. But he had gotten to the last requirement far sooner than she did.

Sure he had a little help along the way... Okay it was a lot of help. But still, he should be the one to evolve first. Maybe that was just his bruised ego talking, but it just felt right. Besides, a little competition never hurt anyone.

Perhaps, it was just the motivation he needed to finally push him over the edge.

"Your Mum is gonna be fine Nixie, I promise. But she is trying to outshine Daddy, and we both know that can't be allowed, right?

So I need to finish off my own requirements, so I can rub it in her face that I was first and didn't have to throw myself into a star to get there. Unfortunately... it requires mediation.

Which means, I am trusting you to be on your absolute best behaviour. Okay? There is plenty of food to last you long enough and you know where the bathroom is. Here, this also has plenty inside it to keep you entertained."

He summoned his journal, placing it into Nixie's hands and instructing Angel to give her access to all the entertainment that had been stored in it. Which mainly consisted of the shows, books and anime he had consumed in his life.

Which was... a lot. Even if she were to stick with that journal 24/7 for a year she probably wouldn't finish it. So it would be more than enough to keep her entertained. Hopefully.

He gave her hands an extra firm squeeze and looked into her eyes as he spoke softly,

"Do you think you can do this for me? I know it's probably not what you were hoping for, but can you be on your best behaviour for dad and keep yourself out of trouble?"

A bright and utterly adorable smile spread across Nixie's face, her eyes twinkling as she nodded quickly.

"Yes! I promise I'll be extra extra good!"

"That's a good girl, on you go now. There should be a room for you back there."

He smiled back, patting her on her back as she strolled out of the room, clutching Seth's journal tight to her chest. As she walked, he could practically see a halo appearing above her head with how much of an innocent air she was letting off.

She was so innocent that, as soon as the door closed behind her, Seth leaned over to the captains console and immediately locked the door to his workshop, along with a few other rooms.

{Maximum Security Settings Activated}

The ship responded, seemingly in agreement with his decision, before he finally let out a sigh of relief. It wasn't that he didn't trust her. He was sure that she completely intended to be on her best behaviour.

The problem was he knew that it would probably last for all of five minutes before her mischievous and curious side got the best of her. She was his daughter, after all. In fact, Five minutes was probably a bit too optimistic.

Did this make him a bad father...? No. No this was fine.

With parental responsibilities taken care of for the current time, Seth pulled up a chair to the window and plopped himself down into it. He took one last look at the raging inferno that Astra was taming into her own power, before closing his eyes with a smile.

He pulled his legs into a classic lotus position and turned his mind inwards, his breathing slowing and steadying. Meditation like this had become common practice for him, but this time his breathing seemed to coincide with the flares and pulses of power emanating from the star.

Seth's consciousness fell into his Abyss, until he was once more confronted with the sight of his broken soul. Before he thought that it had looked like a planet, a comparison he had made mainly because of the size it appeared to him.

But that comparison became even more apt with the addition of his black blood, Prometheus' Blood, merging with his soul. It was a planet with vast black seas that flowed around its surface, lapping at the edges of the pure white landmasses that represented his shattered soul.

A few stray shards of his shattered soul still lingered, drifting aimlessly in the abyss and tethered to the main planet by a few strands of spiritual threads. The same threads that wove a barrier around the entire Abyss, his previous attempt to stop the shattered pieces from drifting away.

However, while the black oceans were much more effective at keeping his soul glued together, thus stealing his spiritual weave's initial purpose. It didn't mean it was entirely worthless.

Instead, he had adapted it's use and was now intrinsic to how he was adapting the blood into being filled with his own.

Seth's consciousness appeared outside of the weave's protective barrier before he reached out, touching against the weave of threads like he had a thousand times. It flexed against his touch as he forced his hand further. At least, that's how it felt.

As a consciousness he had no hand, no arms. No limbs to speak of. But as a being that was used to those things, it was how he rationalised his current existence. In reality he was merely extending a piece of his consciousness forwards and pushing against the weave.

Yet, despite having no hand to speak of, as the Weave flexed and its form gave way to Seth's encrosion, it formed itself into the shape of a hand. It was like he was pushing his arm through latex and it was forming itself around his 'arm' to form a glove. A glove formed woven entirely of spiritual threads.

The woven hand reached down, stretching an impossible distance for a real arm, and touched against the undulating surface of the black ocean. Its fingers plunged beneath the surface, and when it retracted it brought with it a wispy, red strand that flickered like a candle light.

With the wisp in its clutches, like a prize in a claw machine, the hand retracted back a few metres before clenching itself into a tight fist. The wisp of candle light was clenched tight in its palm as a pulse of power emanated from Seth, travelling down the lines of spiritual threads and forced itself into the wisp.

This process lasted for a few seconds before the hand uncurled its fingers, revealing the same wisp although it's colour had shifted. Instead of the crimson flame of Prometheus, it had become the same silver as the threads around it, as it had been bathed in Seth's essence.

The hand returned the silver flame to the black ocean, before plucking a new crimson wisp from its dark embrace and starting the process all over again.

It was a dreadfully slow and monotonous process, but as someone who had worked in an office, Seth was well experienced in the dreadfully slow and monotonous. Tedium was the only kind of employment he had ever known, so this was nothing to him.

This was still better than an hour long video meeting with Sandra that could have been an email.

Of course, Since Seth was not actually using real hands in this process and simply manifested them, he was not restrained to ridiculous 'two arm limit' of the feeble human body.

Thousands of hands woven of spiritual threads descended from the heavens, plunging into the black oceans of the Soul Planet, each one performing the same tedious process over and over. But even like this, it was still a slow process. He could only imagine how slow it would be if he wasn't used to using his mind on multiple bodies at once.

With so many hands working together, he really thought Octopus' had something going for them.

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