"How do I start then?" Lutious questioned.
"Pretty simple, go deeper into your soul. Remember what I told you at the beginning of this, you're not an ordinary soul, the very first mortal to ever make it here." Krias told him.
"I know that's supposed to be impressive, but I have no point of reference for it," Lutious replied unsure of how to feel about the situation.
"Forgot that, back to this, it will need great focus, so just try to think about yourself and what you treasure from an outside perspective, to dive in, you first must leap out," Krias informs him.
"I'm not sure that's something I can do at all. I'll try though." Lutious responded and began attempting it.
Focusing on his dreams, and himself, he tried to change his perspective. Sticking to it for hours upon hours, until the problem started looking unsolvable.
There was no easy answer in sight, no reference he could just copy, honestly the purple orb wasn't even sure he fully understood what his so-called Mistress Mom wanted, after all, Krias did not prove to be the best teacher at least when it came to explaining things.
However, at some point, he began seeing things, differently.
Extending from his spherical form, he could feel the textile and burning power that composed his soul, the spiritual connection, just being there, like a star in the sky seeming beyond it all.
Truly an Enlightening moment, he was so much more than he knew, and as was asked of him, he got closer until the star that was himself consumed him.
In reality, it was a simple matter of him extending his soul form via a tendril, and then pushing his consciousness there, then back into himself, a process better understood by most through abstract ideas rather than a literal explanation.
What was found inside could only be described as a whole new world, as Lutious witnessed a vast greatness that extended forever, filled with planets, stars, and all manner of celestial bodies.
It was a tapestry woven from stardust, and soul bonds portraying cosmic forces. It was a symphony of emptiness interrupted by bursts of light, golden, blues, and reds in hues painting the canvas that swirled into the countless galaxies.
Nebulas of ethereal clouds of gas and dust, all flowing in a dance of chaotic harmony, the order of the universe, so simple, yet to look any deeper is to begin a never-ending chase for knowledge.
"This is me? Me? Hahahaha, it's far more amazing than I could ever imagine. I'm humbled, worry not. I will live up to my potential I promise. After all, I have a very important question to answer." He commented to himself being graced with such a monumental visage.
A cosmos so grand it was completely overwhelming, and as quickly as he was met with the beauty of the world in him, that was taken from him, as he was spat out.
Back to the white space with Krias smiling upon noticing his return.
"How was it, your first meeting with yourself?" Krias asked their face carrying actual curiosity.
"Weird… But gorgeous… It felt right to be there." Lutious expressed his experience.
"Good, now you can mold your spiritual connection, so take form," Krias tells him.
Hearing that, the purple orb began expanding and taking shape, a humanoid one, but he didn't stop there, no. He gave himself more arms until he had six, wings, a tail, two legs, horns, and even a connected halo, but he could not give himself any features.
No hair, or textures, just a blank face with a mouth, and he was also able to give himself the sacred spear of life back.
"I guess I'm still limited… though I think this is a cool look… Even if I didn't intend for it to go this way, exactly." Lutious commented as he found himself a bit confused, while he did want a humanoid form with his spear back, the rest just came on.
"Don't worry, that's just my influence on you. Remember you are my child, my descendant, and my heir now. So it doesn't matter who your parents end up being, you'll have my influence engraved in you." Krias explained.
"Ohhh! That's amazing! I'll get to have six arms, wings, a tail, and even horns... Is that a halo?… odd… nice." Lutious was happy about the new form now that he understood its origin.
"You were lucky, usually connecting to the soul is a task that even great mortal masters of the forces struggle to do, but when you are just soul and mind, it's so much easier. You have no idea how much of an easy time you had just now, but you'll understand someday." Krias pointed out.
"Thanks, Mistress Mom, one step at a time, I'll get you out of here." Lutious smiled as he said so.
"Oh, so cute. Anyway, the next one is mental, it's similar to spiritual, so you should be able to do it the same way. Be sure to expand your mind. Go at it." Krias responded.
Nodding his head, Lutious focused on his mind, and with great ease, he got in.
However, it was very different from his vast soul that never ended, his mind space was just a room, more specifically his old room from Earth, and nothing more.
There was a single bed, a desk with a chair, a wardrobe, and a few shelves full of figurines from all over fictional media. Not to mention the many posters on the walls, from art, design, and so on.
"This place… How weird, I still remember it, and how it smells, yet I have no idea about the people… who did I leave behind? Family? Friends? Maybe Love? Hah, as if, not the last one." As he wondered the boy walked up to the room's door and tried to open it.
But it would not budge at all, and while light came in through the window there was no outside through them, just light, and he could not open them either.
Not finding a normal exit, he tried to break the window, but it did no damage, and neither did the door. He was trapped.
"So what now?… Well, Mistress Mom said I should expand my mind, so it probably should be that." Lutious sat on his bed and closed his eyes.
Pushing his mind out to this world, he came to see the room and go beyond to the rest of the house.
"… I had a family. Dad was a busy man, but Mom was always there. I even had siblings, but I don't think I did the best job as an older brother… I still don't know too much about them, but I'm starting to remember." Lutious looked at his hand just as his consciousness was back outside.
"Did you remember something?" Krias asked.
"Yeah…" Lutious responded.
"Are you ok?" Krias questioned.
"Of course… it's just a lot of back and forth with all this memory stuff." Lutious replied.
"Don't worry about it, you'll get it all back. If anything, I'll be here." Krias smiled at him.
"I know, thanks." Lutious nodded with a slightly mischievous smile.
"Hmph, moving on. Magic, let's leave essence for last. Mana is everywhere naturally, for the most part anyway." Krias said.
"Sounds just like what I know about magic," Lutious said finding it familiar from the many stories he consumed.
"Good. This seal dimension is filled with my mana, and it was what was consuming you earlier, but luckily for you, while I can't do much else, I can still suppress my mana aura. So you can try to sense it, this time when you expand your senses don't stop." Krias explained.
Thus Lutious got to it, having done it twice by now, he was used to it and simply expanded his senses until when he opened his eyes and noticed that the place was filled with mana.
"It's weird to see, it's like some sort of transparentish dust particles." Lutious points out.
"I was not sure if you were just lucky, but this cements it, you're a genius prodigy… It's far from normal to just learn these so fast… If I had to say you're a once-in-an-eon genius prodigy, in other words, a prodigy among prodigies at least when it comes to the 12 axiom forces…" Krias said with shock and even doubt in their voice.
"Hahahahaha! I am? Are you sure? I was never really good at much, you know." Lutious was a bit skeptical of this notion.
"Yes, try to control the mana in you, and see what I mean," Krias responds.
So, he focuses and rather quickly atunes the flow of many in his spiritual body.
"… I don't know… when I first started it seemed hard, but the more I do it just becomes clear." Lutious comments starting to believe it was not a joke.
"I see, interacting with the 12 axiom forces directly must be awakening your latent potential and talent. Hehehe, It looks like my heir will be a total monster in the future." Krias spoke proudly as if they had just won it all.
"… I don't think I'm all that…" Lutious smiled in embarrassment.
"Be proud! You are my child, so you have to be proud of who you are, and all your talents!" Krias scolded him.
"Yes, Mistress Mom." Lutious chuckled at this attitude and was left with a smile.
"Now finally, essence. Go deeper than all the other times and never stop no matter what. Then burst it all out at once." Krias explained.
Just like before, Lutious immediately got to it.
Going in, and this time it felt like a cakewalk as he passed his soul universe and went further into his mind Earth house.
"Where to now?" Lutious finding himself unable to simply go deeper stopped to look at his room, once more.
In the end, though, he didn't find much, looking at the wardrobe, under the bed, and trying the windows again, he checked it all. None of it worked.
Having nothing more to do in his room, he left it and went into the rest of the house.
The house had two floors and various rooms between both.
There were paintings, photos, vases, and various other miscellaneous items. However, when it came to the images of anyone, they were all missing the face.
"It's so odd..." A sigh escaped his mouth then he continued his search.
While he could go to general rooms like the living room, the rooms belonging to his family were all locked. So he continued to look through all the accessible areas of the house, and nothing, not even a single clue.
"I guess it's time to try that door." He said to himself.
Eventually, he turned to the main door of the house, the only one he hadn't touched yet, and he walked to it and grabbed the handle before turning it.
"Nothing makes sense…" Lutious commented.
In front of him stood an opened door leading to pure slimy darkness like a world made of black sludge.
Taking a deep breath, he stepped into it.
The experience embraced him, and he was pulled deeper and deeper into a sludge sea of black.
Remembering the words told to him before this started, Lutious plunges deeper and deeper with no worry.
The time it takes is unknown, but eventually, he sees something and begins going closer to it.
From there, he reaches a transparent sphere containing all the colors swirling around a white center, and a black outer layer.
"It must be the core… Mistress Mom said burst, right?…" Lutious grabs the sphere and crushes it in his hands. "BURST!"
However instead of an explosion, like a black hole it sucks him in and begins sucking everything else in, all the black sludge, the earthhouse mind, and the soul universe all of it is consumed leaving absolutely nothing.
Then a big bang takes place bursting it all out, much greater than ever before, all of it now filled with his just awakened mana.
That instant, Lutious opened his eyes once more in the white seal space.
"… You're unbelievable… So quickly?" Krias was surprised.
"Quickly… I thought I was there for a while…" Lutious replied feeling a bit different as he looked around almost confused.
"Of course, you were, anyway, you unlocked all 4 of the 6 axiom forces a mortal like you can access, if you had a physical body, we could get all 6 basic ones on the practical level, but that's not the case. So 8 of the axiom forces will stay theoretical." Krias sounded disappointed as they spoke.
"Ok, I unlocked them, how will I make them stronger?" Lutious asked.
"That's where the next part comes in. Come and touch my head, place your hand on it." Krias ordered.
Then Lutious did as asked and placed his hand on their head.
"What now?" Lutious asked.
"Just pour essence fluid into me, and follow my lead," Krias said.
Nodding his head, Lutious poured essence fluid as asked, and immediately felt it be sucked and its flow redirected, but after the initial startled reaction, he began following the flow that was presented to him.
What happens next is a transformation takes place.
Krias's long red hair turns pink, and their eyes turn purple with cross irises and a soft, but sharp symmetrical face. Black markings appear on the face and an overall more feminine look takes over, a contrast to the red-hair-tough man look from before.
Meanwhile, Lutious fell to the ground, drained.
"You're amazing, kid, you know that, right? To think you could help me restore my original look. I honestly didn't think it would work. I guess I can finally be your mom for real, now. I missed the female form, quite a more comfortable and light one." Krias expressed her smile as being as wide and mischievous as they get.
"… You could have at least given me a heads up. Especially if you didn't think it would work!" Lutious who was still on the ground recovering complained.
"It seems I was a bit too rough with you. I'll be more careful next time." Krias replied to him.
Soon, Lutious got up and looked at her, before saying.
"Why are you so hot suddenly?" Lutious knew the answer but he could not help but ask the question.
"Be happy, I've decided to live as a female to be your mother. You should be honored." Krias complained calmly.
"I am honored! Mistress Mom!" Lutious seemed to be in better energy even bowing to her.
"…. You're way too easy, you'll have to overcome that if you believe yourself to be worthy of my legacy and inheritance. Though, I'll say it's cute to see that reaction, you can keep it for me, and maybe whatever girls you take as partners." Krias said licking her lips.
"… Sometimes I forget you are dangerous, then you remind me." Lutious felt shivers down his spine.
"Come here, Mommy wants to help you grow stronger," Krias responded looking him right in the eyes, as she opened her mouth.
The primal feeling of excitement that was missing from him so far arose, and he was fully ready to engage.
As the rising dragon entered the cave of wet warm, it was coiled and embraced by it, getting sucked deep within as if a black hole had given ahold of it.
"Holy!…" Overwhelmed by the heaven and earth-wide between the dragon and the black hole, the flames were let free, and Lutious was instantly defeated, he was one-shot.
Thus he fell to the ground, let free as he was already drained, the black hole took everything he had.
"Not bad the taste is decent… Wait! Just what are you?! How is the quality this good?! Hahaha! I might have just accidentally hit the jackpot with this child of mine. Your yang is so pure it might as well be the essence of all yang. If I get enough I might be able to escape…" Krias' eyes began shining as hope arose.
{Foolish to think you would soften this much from a singular mortal, had I known I would have allowed one much much sooner, then again, this one was able to bypass the seal on his own, how interesting.} A voice could be heard inside the seal and it carried the weight of oppression with every word.
"As expected, you finally decided to ruin it, just free my kid, and let me be miserable in peace, we both know you can't kill him," Krias responded with a serious expression.
{Such a limited mind, I guess isolation can have this effect. No, I won't try to kill him, that would be a pointless waste of time, but just letting him go is no better, so instead let's play a game.} The voice responded with an amused tone.
"No! I refuse!" Krias shook her head frantically.
While Lutious who was finally recovering a little bit, could hear what was being said but was still dazed from earlier.
{Refuse? Presumptuous of you, unfortunately, I'll be giving your so-called child a gift, you gave him 2 things, your bloodline inheritance, and a pet, maybe we can count it as 3 with the free domain awakening. I won't even count the training.} The voice replied.
"He doesn't need anything from you!" Krias was furious with bloodshot eyes and a raging tone.
{So to not overshadow the mother, I'll only give him 2 things, a personalized system, and a pet of my own. So we have one matching gift, how nice, don't you think? After all, I've known you so long that I've decided to help you and become the child's father.} The voice responded completely ignoring her.
"Why?! Why bother? You don't win anything from this!… Please don't do it! I'm begging you! Leave him out of this!" Krias despite her anger and hate, realizing she could do nothing to stop it, resorted to begging.
{Come on, you can't push me out of the life of our son, and, I've already marked him anyway, plus just because you are being so complicated, I gave him my bloodline inheritance as well, and now we both have three gifts.} The voice seemed to revel in the feeling of tormenting her.
"… What is your plan here?! Why?!" Krias insisted on asking.
{Since you asked nicely, it's simple, if our son can overcome my influence and chooses to stay under you instead of coming under me, you win and you can go free, but if he comes under me, you will be executed by him. A simple game.} The voice replied.
"He's not your son, nor our son, he's my son, and he would never accept you!" Krias rebuked.
{Great, now I'll talk to "my son" and send him on his way, while you calm down.} The voice responded.
"No! Don't you dare! Beast! You hear me! Don't-" Krias was yelling but her voice soon faded out.
Then Lutious found himself in a dark place similar to the void or the black sludge, yet, not the same, he was unaware of where he could be, but he felt much better as his energy was back to him.
"… What did you do to Mistress Mom?! Listen here, I don't know what you are or your game, but if you hurt her any further…" Lutious yelled at the dark space.
{Like mother like son, you hurt your old father's feelings. Your mother is fine, the same as you left her. I could never hurt her.} The voice responded.
"As if I would believe anything you say!" Lutious replied.
{Come on, I just brought you here for a little father-son time before you go off to be reincarnated. After all, you have to start the journey to someday decide to be on my side or your mother's side.} The voice said.
"… I would never choose you. I don't even know who you are!" Lutious frowned.
{At least pretend you don't hate me to get my trust or something. Anyway, I'm known as the Unity Abomination Beast, Transcendent-Ruler Of The Unknown. You may call me Beast.} The Beast answered.
"What do you even want from me?" Lutious asked.
{A son, that's all. Though you probably won't believe me. Anyway, I just wanted to give you the 4th gift away from your mom, can't have her feeling less, can we know? Hehehe, so don't tell her. I'm giving you the unknown domain as well. Stay well, and live wisely, kid.} The beast said cheerfully in its pressuring voice.
"What?! I don't want anything from y-" Before Lutious could refuse he was plunged into the void once more.
{So rebellious, though, I wonder if this son of ours will be the one to reach the grand throne. That would certainly be interesting.} The beast wondered as it faded away.