Even though Ash decided to rest, he still spent the next 100 days going over and comprehending the glyph knowledge from the golden books. Only after completing that did he finally allow himself to take a proper break.
The first thing he did was wake Eric up. That little one was not so little anymore, yet Ash still liked calling him a kid. There was a strange and unexplainable satisfaction in it, almost like it grounded him emotionally and reminded him of his role as the responsible one.
Maybe all those characters in the novels also felt this strange satisfaction after calling someone a kid....
Eric woke up soon from his hibernation, and the first thing he did was gulp down another large chunk of herbs and pills. His appetite was still heavy, though noticeably less monstrous than before, so Ash assumed things were stabilizing for him.
Eric could not leave the Soul Vault. Ash’s entire soul still lacked the capability to properly accommodate a living being, and only the Soul Vault possessed the structural stability to sustain Eric’s existence without causing damage to either of them.
Because of this limitation, most of Eric’s time was spent inside either the Library or the Vault. Technically, the Library was also never designed to house a living entity, but for reasons Ash could not fully explain, it still managed to support Eric’s presence without rejecting him.
Ash himself could summon certain non living objects in other areas of his Soul Space apart from the Soul Vault, which led him to form a few possible explanations regarding this unusual phenomenon.
He suspected it was either the gradual influence of the Soul Vault expanding its nature into the whole soul slowly, or the strengthening of his Soul Tree that was causing these changes.
His Soul Tree had grown enormously after absorbing 10 Runes along with 1 fragmented Rune. Its scale had already surpassed the legendary World Tree in size, though the comparison ended there, because its presence carried a mystifying beauty that felt deeply personal and surreal.
If anyone were capable of witnessing Ash’s Soul Space, they would likely be stunned by the serene and mesmerizing atmosphere that filled every corner of it. The scenery carried a calming stillness that made thoughts feel lighter and emotions easier to control.
Whenever Ash was not accompanying Eric, he often found himself sitting on a rocking chair, quietly gazing at his Soul Tree.
Ash did not know why he repeated this behavior so often, yet every time he sat there, a strange comfort filled his chest. It felt peaceful in a way that words could not properly explain, as if the sight itself was stabilizing his mind and emotions.
From that position, he would look out into the vast expanse of his Soul Space, where the black sea stretched endlessly toward the horizon. It appeared infinite at first glance, swallowing all sense of boundary or limitation.
Yet, Ash instinctively knew it was not truly infinite.
He had no logical explanation for how he reached that conclusion. The knowledge simply surfaced within him naturally, like an undeniable truth that did not require proof.
The realization surprised him slightly, though not enough to cause him any real disturbance. By now, Ash had grown somewhat accustomed to instincts guiding him toward truths he had not consciously derived.
"Its been a more than three month, but after all this time I am feeling restless again because I am doing nothing...."
Ash muttered those words quietly to himself while rocking slowly in his chair. A faint bitter smile formed on his face, carrying a hint of self awareness and helpless amusement.
Despite acknowledging his own restlessness, he chose not to pursue the thought further and allowed silence to reclaim the atmosphere around him.
Still, he closed his eyes and tried to have a quick nap, hoping to let his mind drift into brief rest. However, before he could sink deeper into the embrace of sleep, his entire soul shuddered violently, and the Soul Space itself trembled as if struck by an unseen force.
Ash instantly jumped to his feet, his expression turning serious as he felt a strange and suffocating sensation, as though an overwhelming pressure was pressing down on his entire existence.
"What is happening now..?"
Ash muttered under his breath while scanning his surroundings, trying to detect the source of the disturbance, yet finding nothing that he could immediately identify.
Unknown to Ash, numerous drastic changes were taking place outside. More precisely, the changes were occurring to his physical body.
**
Approximately around 8.3 months had passed in the outside world while Ash remained inside his Soul Space. His physical body, which had previously transformed into a white sphere covered in countless runes and glyphs, had now shrunk even further in size.
Previously, the sphere was roughly the size of a football. Now, that same white sphere, still engraved with an unfathomable number of glyphs, had reduced to the size of a ping pong ball.
The white sphere continued drifting across the universe without direction or resistance, carried silently through the endless void. However, for the first time in all these years.....the white matter stopped moving.
In an unknown and desolate corner of the universe, far beyond the presence of stars, planets, or any trace of life, it came to a complete halt. The surrounding space remained empty and silent, as if even existence itself was holding its breath.
Then, an intense amount of pressure began building upon the white matter. The compression started gradually, yet its weight carried an unimaginable heaviness that could be felt even by Ash within his Soul Space.
The pressure continued to intensify, layer after layer of invisible force pressing inward. The white matter began compressing further and further, shrinking steadily under the overwhelming force. At one terrifying point, the pressure became so immense that cracks began forming across Ash’s soul sky, spreading like fractures across a fragile glass dome.
Ash felt the tremors echo throughout his entire Soul Space, yet he remained powerless to intervene or even fully comprehend the source of this catastrophic event. What Ash did not realize was that the majority of this unbearable pressure was being absorbed and redirected by the Soul Tree within his Soul Space. Without the towering presence of the Soul Tree, Ash’s entire soul structure would have collapsed instantly under such cosmic force.
After all, this was not an ordinary pressure. This was the very pressure that once gave birth to existence itself.
Soon, the white matter compressed further until it became no larger than a single grain of sand. Inside that microscopic form, every material Ash had submitted for the creation of his new body had completely melted and fused together, undergoing compression beyond any natural limitation.
Even under such unimaginable pressure, not a single atom within the white matter shifted out of place, nor did the surrounding space show any disturbance or ripple, it was frozen still, as if time has stopped.
For a brief moment, everything became still. Silence.
Absolute silence filled the void, and then, without warning, the pressure vanished abruptly in the very next second.
But what happened next was far beyond anything Ash had ever experienced or imagined.
Ash literally experienced the birth of a Big Bang while being within his Soul Space.
The moment the pressure vanished, the grain sized white matter exploded with a terrifying speed that completely surpassed the speed of light.
The explosion was a wondrous yet silent, as incomprehensible combination of light, runes, fundamental laws, raw existence, dark matter, void, space, time, and countless other unknown elements that even the universe had yet to fully define.
The brilliance it unleashed was so mesmerizing and overwhelmingly majestic that it would have left even the strongest beings in stunned silence. It was truly unfortunate that Ash was unable to witness such a phenomenon with his own awareness.
The radiant white light merged with surreal, otherworldly colors that no mortal eye could properly perceive. These streams of existence expanded rapidly across several light years before abruptly halting, as if an invisible boundary had been reached. Then, as though obeying an unseen command, everything began receding back at the same insane and incomprehensible speed at which it had expanded.
During this entire process, an unimaginable amount of power, energy, and presence was unleashed into the universe. However, despite the magnitude of that event, no ordinary being noticed anything unusual.
Even many upper tier beings merely felt a subtle and momentary shift within the fabric of existence. They sensed that something monumental had occurred somewhere beyond their perception, yet they casually dismissed the feeling, assuming it must have been the work of the Eternal Supremes, since they were already doing something within the universe.
As for the Eternals themselves, they would have unquestionably noticed this phenomenon. They would have recognized that pressure. They would have sensed that unique energy. They would have understood the terrifying implication behind such a cosmic phenomenon.
But unfortunately, the three Eternal Supremes were completely absorbed in comprehending the newly revealed and previously unknown universal laws that had surfaced due to the formation of the Universal System.
Their focus remained entirely locked onto deciphering those revelations, which were equally rare and significant.
Thus, this extraordinary phenomenon quietly passed through the universe without drawing any attention, remaining mostly unnoticed and silently ignored by all of existence.
***