Chapter 294 - Soul Seed
When facing the Star Consciousness of a star beneath Tier 6, a Neo-Demon with a True Will at the Star Holder Rank would be forced to spend several months or even years in seclusion, focusing all their power in suppressing the raging consciousness trying to seek freedom.
A Neo-Demon with a True Will at the Star Defiant Rank would have an easier time. Although they would still need to spend a long time subduing the Star Consciousness, they do not need to enter seclusion, and as long they don't use the power of the True Doomsday Body, they would have no problem going into battle.
A True Will at the Star Holder and Star Defiant Ranks would take a moderate approach, slowly weakening the Star Consciousness until finally sealing it. However, the response of Zatiel's True Will was much more direct and aggressive.
The three humanoids that formed Zatiel's Path of Powers were all adopting meditative positions with their eyes closed. But the moment the Star Consciousness began to resist the sealing, the golden humanoid opened his eyes, and an extremely overbearing and prideful will could be seen in them.
He was the king of the triad formed in the soul dimension and would not allow any consciousness or will to challenge its might. The True Will's eyes shone like two imposing suns, and an invisible beam of energy was fired from them.
The offensive power that the True Will could display in a battle between life forms at the same Rank was average at best, and it could not compare to the battle power a Neo-Demon could express using the True Soul or True Doomsday Body. Nevertheless, when it comes to fighting an alien consciousness inside the Neo-Demon, there was no Path of Power in the universe that could equal it.
Inside the dimension where the Star Consciousness of the Tier 1 blue star was beginning to awake, what could only be described as a golden sword of apocalyptic proportions appeared. Without giving it's opponent an instant to understand what was happening, the sword buried itself into the star.
To the naked eyes, one would see that the sword had pierced the blue star, but no damage was done to this one. It was like they operated in two different planes of existence, but although no physical damage was done to the blue star, the Star Consciousness was shattered.
Only when the Star Consciousness was thoroughly defeated did the True Will closed his eyes once again.
Without any resistance, the crystallization of the dimension advanced without a problem, and once the white whirlwind was fully crystallized, it began to compress itself.
Finally, what was left inside Zatiel's stomach was a bright stellated dodecahedron with a blue orb in its center. Now that the dimension formed by a heaven had finally sealed a star, it became an Apocalyptic Star, which are the energy cores of the True Doomsday Body.
From the Apocalyptic Star, a wave of unbelievably dense and heavy energy filled every cell of Zatiel's body and charged him with amazing power. This was Astral Origin, the equivalent of the True Soul's Soul Origin and the energy pool unique to the True Doomsday Body.
The changes inside Zatiel were not over. From the Apocalyptic Star, pieces of the laws contained in the blue star were being guided into fusing with the stomach's cell.
Unlike in the Law Engraving Rank, when life form would obtain a subtle control over the laws engraved in their bodies and automatically enhance their comprehension of them, Zatiel did not receive any of those benefits regarding the laws fusing in his cells.
However, just like Ancient Dragons could display their dragon breath and drive the power of the laws due to the law runes fused in their flesh and blood, the Neo-Demon's body would obtain supernatural abilities due to the star's laws that were fused in it.
Zatiel remained in a meditative position until the changes on his body finally stopped. A new form of energy was contained now inside him, and while his stomach's external appearance had not changed, its cells became something completely different from what they were before.
'Astral Origin, although it is not as flexible as Soul Origin with whom you could even create a continent if you have enough of it, the enhance in power it granted the body is superior to its counterpart, the Apocalypse Star can replenish it by itself, and it allows me to activate the unique ability of the True Doomsday Body, Doomsday Incarnation. It is supposed to be as powerful as a Law Avatar created by the True Soul, but that was only in theory, and I would need to test it in a battle.' Zatiel was extremely satisfied with the power he felt in his body.
"A.I. Chip, display the changes that Astral Origin and the creation of the first Apocalyptic Star have provoked in my body. Also, use the power and density of Soul Origin as parameters to quantify Astral Origin."
Immediately after the command was given, the chip showed Zatiel's enhancements.
"Bip...
Strength: 3.0-->5.0
Physique: 7.2-->7.4
Speed: 3.8-->5.9
Astral Origin: 1.4"
"Not bad, by increasing my Astral Origin and Elemental Chaos, my body will be tempered, and its power will constantly increase. Now I need to feed my True Doomsday Body the broken Star Consciousness of the blue star and slowly nourish the second heaven while I improve my body so the dimension it creates can be stronger. From now on, I can only take things one step at a time since the True Doomsday Body Path of Power is all about building a solid foundation. If I focus on quickly rising in the Ranks, it will be ruined."
Before going into a world and planting his first Soul Seed, Zatiel decided to try the new ability the Apocalyptic Star and the laws fused into his stomach had granted him, and since he was in the void, there was no better place to do it.
The Neo-Demon opened his mouth, and the image of a black hole appeared in it. This obviously was not a true black hole, but the manifestation of the ability the Law of Gravity developed in his stomach.
This black hole released a powerful gravitational force that drew immense quantities of elemental chaos into the Neo-Demon's body. Zatiel's stomach refined this elemental chaos and divided it into three portions.
The first went to the consciousness that originated in the True soul, where it would be used to supply energy for spells. The second was mixed with Astral Origin and circulated in the body. The last one was compressed into a small orb and left inside the stomach, where it would be used to replenish the elemental chaos in the consciousness or body when they need it.
'Impressive. My stomach now has devouring, purification, and collection skills.'
After getting used to his new power, Zatiel did not waste more time and sent the command to the NRAI to teleport him into one of the eighty-one Middle World.
He appeared in the center of a large forest that covered almost a tenth of the world. Zatiel focused on his True Soul and made the matured Soul Seed appear on his hands.
A Neo-Demon would plant the Soul Seed in a world where it would feed on the natural energies, Origin Power, and even parasite the World Consciousness and consume pieces of it.
Slowly the Soul Seed would grow and form a connection with the laws of the world where it resided and allow the True Soul from where it was created to tap into this connection. In that state, the Neo-Demon would achieve a level of attunement with the laws in the world that would allow improving comprehension over them ten or even one hundred times faster and easier.
The help in law comprehension that a Law Bloodline granted was much better than the one a Soul Seed could offer, but the last ones granted a greater range of laws.
To improve his comprehension of the Law of Life or the Law of Death, Zatiel would focus on his bloodline, but with laws like the Law of Space or Law of Time, the Soul Seed was the fastest path.
However, the marvelousness of the Soul Seed did not end there.
Once it was planted in a world inside the Neo-Demon Realm, it could act as a beacon in case the Neo-Demon's soul was shattered and ended in The Eternal River of the Afterlife.
The Neo-Demon Realm could use the Omega Law of the Incarnation of Death and Destruction to resurrect a Neo-Demon whose soul had been shattered by the laws.
Of course, this type of resurrection had severe drawbacks. First, you would lose your body and forced to train all the way back from a Rank 0 life form, and while your bloodline would not be lost since it is part of your Primordial Essence, the purity of it would be damaged, and you would be forced to spend a lot of time and resources nourishing it back to its prime.
There was also the fact that the more thorough the destruction of your soul was, the more time it would take for you to be resurrected.
Normally a Neo-Demon would choose a Low World to plant his first Soul Seed since it would not have the strength on its own to feed on the consciousness of a higher world, but just like Zatiel's True Soul was connected to its True Will and could use it to enhance its defenses, the Soul Seed could draw its force to help it consume the World Consciousness of a Middle World.
This was possible due to Zatiel's True Will being at the Star Breaker Rank, something almost all Neo-Demons would find impossible before reaching Rank 5.
Zatiel planted the Soul Seed very carefully and looked at it with a smile on his face. Despite all the disadvantages of this type of resurrection, he was incredibly satisfied with it.
A phrase that Zatiel heard in his past life came to his mind as he focused on the Soul Seed.
"As long as there is life, there is potential; and as long as there is a potential, there will be a success!. We Neo-Demons will sprout again when we are cut down! We will rise again even when we fall!"