Slowly tracing the five threads with his eyes and at the same time, with far more than them. Feeling them connect himself and his soul, creating a bond stronger than he had ever experienced.
It was a bizarre experience that overwhelmed him instantaneously. Experiencing all happenings within the entire soulsea at once was overwhelming, only contained by its everlasting tranquillity, brought about by Nox himself being in it, with his body not taking in any stimuli; humans were not supposed to, or able to, fathom such depth, such greatness was simply too much for the human mind to endure.
Nox's body fell forward into the soulsea. He was confused and disoriented by the influx of information and sensations. Colliding with the surface of his entire being created ripples in the tranquillity of its endlessness, intensifying the sensations.
"Argh"
Letting out a startled scream, the sea released a few bubbles, popping the moment they left its expanse, as the overwhelming sensation intensified and pressure began to accumulate, intuitively disconnecting one of his threads. Sensations lessened, as it was still too much, releasing two more... and then a fourth.
Lying there motionless, Nox would have let out a breath of relief if he were in full control of his body.
Some attempts led to movements of it, while others ended in movements of the sea surrounding him.
This, however, was not the case. More precisely, he was in control of his body, but his mind was too strained to keep it under control, on the brink of collapse. Luckily, he was in his soulsea. The body he had projected into it was nothing more than a projection. It needed neither to breathe nor eat and was just his subconscious creating a vessel for him to traverse the realm of souls. Theoretically, if he could control his subconscious impression of himself, he could change his appearance here. At last, this was impossible for the mind of a mere mortal. If he could, something would have been seriously wrong with him.
Engulfed by the myriad of sensations a fifth of the soulsea revealed, Nox explored with eagerness and excitement. He had always found his life predictable, boring, and, above all, dreary.
This new, interesting experience truly opened up a world of unexplainable, mysterious, and unknown things.
Most found the unknown scary, and Nox was no exception, but Nox found the idea of living out the rest of his days as a slave, slowly driven to his death, much scarier than the unknown ever could be.
What am I at this moment? A body of water, a person, both, neither?
Nox did not truly know; he was aware of so much and so little at once, feeling that he was part of a greater whole and, at the same time, a singular organism.
Trying to lift his arm, a small body of water began to rise instead.
Trying to lift his head, the water started to breach out seemingly at random. Frowning slightly, Nox attempted to trace the feeling emanating from the singular remaining thread. Feeling his consciousness drift along with the thread, he quickly reached the motionless body lying on the surface of the sea, covered halfway in the water.
His hand slightly twitching, Nox regained control of his surroundings, finally seeing out of his own eyes, but at the same time taking in his surroundings through the part of the soulsea.
A bit disoriented once more, but much more stable than before, Nox slowly acclimated to the weird way of taking in the world, realising he was experiencing it from two perspectives at once: that of his physical self and his soulsea.
Taking in the world from two points of view at the same time.
Slowly sitting up, a dazed look in his eyes, simply waiting and getting used to the sensation.
Below, feeling my body move slowly, sitting up, creating small ripples in me.
After a while of being in this state of mind, Nox slowly stood and unsteadily walked forward, the consciousness below following, the white thread leaving a golden shimmer behind with each and every step.
With each step forward, Nox felt safer in his movements and in his control. Willing the water before him to rise, it slowly did. Watching as it erected a staircase, Nox took one step at a time in his attempt to reach the centre, first ten, then twenty, then thirty. then forty. Looking down at no more steps ahead, Nox let out an audible sigh.
"So this is my limit."
Nox had indeed hit his limit, no longer able to continue; he did not have enough control over this space to reach the web above. More precisely, his mind wasn't strong enough to fully control this space.
Shaking his head in regret as he watched the web above, still hundreds of steps away. Taking one more step forward, Nox let himself fall, reaching the ground in the blink of an eye.
Feeling his return to the surface, as little more than a ripple in a vast ocean.
Focusing his mind, no longer following random chaotic desires, Nox decided to go after his original goal before he lost track somewhat.
Thinking about it, how much time had passed? This place made it quite easy to lose track of it. He had made arrangements for a meeting with Trisha the following day during a conversation the day before.
This shouldn't become a problem. Feeling that it couldn't have been more than an hour or two, Nox concentrated on his goal.
The way he would further his soul's assimilation was a simple but effective method: manually helping the soul open to the idea of fusing with the fragment hanging above.
For this, Nox first had to deepen his control over his soul.
While even normal people could enter their soulsea with the right instructions, it would not help them in any meaningful way, making it a little acquired skill and not spread among the general public.
After first entering the soulsea and having such a magical experience, he would have expected this practice to be more widely spread, even if it was only to experience it at least once. It was so sparse that Nox had never heard of it in the first place.
For Authority Wealders, however, there was a difference; it was essential, as the soul was a major part of their being, with which they would have to actively interact.
Authority Wealders could influence their souls to a certain extent. This was done through many means, with the most essential of all being the fusion of soul and mind.
This was what Nox had done, the medium of his symbolism; he had fused his consciousness and mind to a certain extent to gain power over the space. As it was, HIS soul fusing with the space was not a problem; however, taking in all that the soul would take in was .
This space, called the soulsea, would subconsciously interact with other nearby soulseas and vice versa.
Creating tiny ripples, the soul was one of the most isolated parts of the human, and, despite its considerable size, taking in all stimuli consciously was overwhelming.
Normally, the soul would automatically take in all information, then have it sorted out instinctively, discarding bits and pieces, sending the rest to the subconscious mind, leading to sudden ephifanies or thoughts.
So what Nox was doing was comparable to manually breathing, just on a much larger scale.
He was not yet able to take full control, so he limited himself to a fifth of the soul, slowing the soul's assimilation, as he couldn't fully make the soul susceptible to the fragments' descent.
Taking a deep breath, Nox put most of his concentration on the part of his consciousness that was fused with his soul. Moving his control towards the edge of the soul, he reached a few golden threads that stood there isolatedly.
Staring at them for a moment or two from the perspective of his soul, he quickly caught himself again and started moving his body above the surface towards the edge, following the trajectory his other consciousness had taken. He could not fully split his consciousness, but leaving behind simple commands for what essentially symbolised his body was no problem; he simply let it follow like a puppet.
As it moved towards him, the location was marked by the streak of ripples left behind; he felt the golden threads descended from above pierce his body, sprouting roots and pulling the mass above down towards the sea.
It hurt a bit, but somehow different from when the hollow tooth bit off his finger, it felt more real, more primal, more personal.
Slowly letting some of the water of the soulsea flow up the threads, as Nox's main body, if one could call it that, arrived.
Not hesitating in the slightest, Nox brought both hands together, his right index finger still bearing a thread of golden light, now quite long, illuminating the travelled path. Placing his two middle fingers together, Nox slowly pulled some distance between the two, a pure white thread now connecting the two fingers.
Looking at it with a solemn face, he crouched down near a golden, thin thread that was connecting his soul with the tapestry above. Touching the surface of the lake with his right middle finger and now hurrying, not wanting to connect to a bigger part of the soul, he touched the golden thread, which had a light layer of water upon it, breaking through without resistance.
Breaking his connection on both sides, Nox held the threads in place through the water, letting them slowly connect to the gretar tapestry above, strengthening its connection.
The white, colourless thread, slowly illuminated with a golden lustre, streaming from the golden thread to Nox's own creation, and then connecting to the soulsea, creating a new golden thread connecting the above with the soul.
Taking a step back in satisfaction, Nox looked at his work with a brilliant smile.
Noticing some mental fatigue, Nox estimated himself to be able to create nine more threads if he pushed himself. Deciding to create a few more, not wanting to overexert himself.
As he began repeating the process from before, Nox suppressed a shudder deep within him.
He had to fully concentrate on this process; any mistakes could have catastrophic consequences.
What Nox was doing was quite simple in essence and, at the same time, had a certain brilliance. Using the symbolism of threads, he slowly strengthened and deepened the connection between the soul and the fragment of fate. This was an arduous and tedious process, in which he would slowly strengthen the preexisting connections between the two, letting them then naturally speed up the fusion process.
This was the most fundamental way of progression in the first rank. It might have been simple in concept, but as a whole, it had many difficulties and dangers.
Most of these dangers would not be life-threatening, but they could not be ignored.
The most imminent danger would be while connecting the symbolism and the tapestry above, which is why Nox allweys started by connecting to the soulsea, as the biggest consequence would be a bit of shock. On the other hand, he was unaware of what would happen if he let the connection with the fate fragment solidify. If he let it happen, things spanning across the spectrum could happen, with his personal theory being that he'd simply fry his brain in seconds.
What kind of moron would stare into the vast expanses of fate? Only someone with a death wish who plans to become a dullard would do such things.
Chukeling slightly as he placed down the fifth thread, he stood up and started walking towards another golden thread that lonsomly stood there; he was unsure if it made a difference or if he should simply place all threads on the same golden thread, but he was quit shure that every thread had a limit as the thin thread he had just placed the fith thread on had started trembling slightly.
Five should be the maximum for a thread of this size, from the looks of it. Was the size even of importance?
The thread he was now standing before was slightly thinner, feeling his mind flare up with enthusiasm and an exploratory spirit. Nox wanted to find out whether the thread's size was important or whether the rules were of a different nature. In the process, he forgot all caution and his previous concessions.
Comparing the thread size before him to the one before, it should be able to take around three threads.
Placing one thread carefully, mimicking the way he had done it before, nothing of note happened. Placing the second in a similar fashion, the golden thread in the middle seemed a bit strained.
Should I continue?
He was unsure, but in the end, his craving for answers overruled his common sense.
Carefully connecting a third thread, it slowly began to glow in a golden shine like the others.
Taking a step back, he saw the pillar, which now had three branches, tremble.
"snap"
A sound of tearing could be heard. As the thread before him slowly tore before him, first slow, then quicker and then the lower part falling into the water, cut cleanly by the highest connection, which Nox had made. The upper part now motionlessly sways, without aim or direction.
"Interesting"
Did I just slow down the rate of assimilation? A bit of a weird expression blooming on his face as his thoughts drifted off in a joking manner.
Well, this might have destroyed most of today's progress, but at least I got an answer to the age-old question: Does size matter?