He didn't feel the annoying connection of his soul to a host. He couldn't feel the presence of The Law.
He woke up inside of a black void that he automatically associated with punishments.
...Except this time he was free.
He made an attempt to pick himself up off the ground but it didn't work for two reasons.
For one, his entire body was incredibly weak. Even moving a finger caused him to tremble and shake like a thin little leaf in the wind. Honestly, he could only be thankful for all the punishments. Compared to the pain of his soul tearing apart this was practically a minor inconvenience on the same level as a paper cut.
The other reason being that there was a strange force pressing down on him like gravity.
...He simply chose to lay flat on the ground. What was the point of resisting when he needed rest to recover his strength?
After encountering that force so many times he almost immediately recognized it as the thing that restrains him during punishments. Which would align with his first assumption that this was the same void. However, this was a completely new experience for him. The thing flowed through the empty void like a gentle stream, invisible but always present, passively emanating an energy that made him subconsciously want to fall prostrate. It seemed as if... it was sleeping?
Nova didn't feel the overwhelming fear that usually came with entering this place. Of course, he wasn't cocky enough to assume that the energy he's gained was the reason for it. Most of that energy had been used up in order to destroy the soul's attachment to The Law. All that remained of it was now thrashing around his soul and causing the current state of his body as he slowly and patiently tried to tame it.
If he did have the full power of a small world then maybe that amount of strength would make him fearless, but with the way things were right now?
That energy might just destroy him from the inside out before he's able to process it.
So why wasn't he afraid?
After exploring many different ideas he came to the conclusion that it wasn't the force occupying the void that made him feel that unavoidable, all-consuming terror. It must have been something The Law did on its own.
How could he tell?
This force had a power that, despite being very strong, was absolutely not spiritual energy at all.
After so many punishments they would occasionally decide not to block his memory. During these times he would always try to find any clues he could in order to get an opportunity to escape this life. He would do his best to experiment by doing little things like holding onto his consciousness for as long as he could. Or attempting to communicate with the thing that was not part of The Law. It was probably his own biases against The Law of the World but after a while he came up with the idea that this thing, whatever it was, was just another being that was held captive by it.
His attempts would never work. He would pass out in what felt like mere seconds. Gaining absolutely nothing from his time in that little hell.
That was until one day. He had been obedient and carried out his duties peacefully for over a decade. All his system peers were shocked that a rebel like him had finally been reformed.
Nova had not been reformed. He was just observing. Planning. Waiting.
At this point he had made a breakthrough in his search for freedom. Realizing the true use of the systems as tools for spiritual energies to travel through. So he settled down and instead of fighting against The Law blindly, Nova decided to wait for 10 years.
More than 10 years of trying to secretly retain just a crumb of spiritual energy from every successful mission. And how much did he collect?
Barely enough to support the soul of a fly.
But the amount didn't matter! What mattered was that he had a chance!
After so many years Nova couldn't even remember what he had done to earn the punishment that time. It didn't matter. He used the tiny amount of spiritual energy he'd collected to protect his mind from the memory blocking. As soon as he entered the void he spread out his arms and made himself open and vulnerable as all his instincts told him that this would get him killed. That he needed to run and hide. Do anything other than stand and wait. His stomach turned and his soul trembled in fear. At some point his knees had buckled and he'd ended up kneeling.
He had to wait. He needed to wait for it to approach him.
...And it did.
Soon enough he felt the pressure of that strange force coming towards him. If he wasn't on his knees already, that thing would have made him do so.
In the space of what must have been less than a second between the thing touching him and The Law torturing his soul, Nova used the miniscule amount of spiritual energy he had left to make an attempt to link with the thing.
....It didn't work.
Rather than being disappointed, Nova was unbelievably delighted.
The link didn't work because the thing had rejected him! Rejected him! It had consciousness!
The force restraining him loosened slightly... It showed hesitation! It didn't matter for long though, seeing as The Law had already started the tearing of his soul.
Haha~!
Nova gave an unhinged grin at no one in particular as he felt what seemed to be the death of his soul. He barked out a laugh that would be considered a sob by anyone who heard it. The burning, blinding pain made the black void white in his eyes as they blurred with tears. Tears of pain and of victory.
This was the longest he had ever managed to maintain consciousness. This was the most he had ever discovered in such a short time period. He had finally figured out how to get what he wanted. Finally he was going to get free.