GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

Not only has his strength been stagnant, he has tried to break the barrier of the spiritual dimension but he failed. It seems he is still too weak to break out despite reaching his limit. If he can't evolve like the great mother, then he won't be able to leave.

His other option for evolution is the fragmented Origin god that is sleeping at the center of the black hole. But it is still too dangerous to attempt to eat such an entity. He has grown stronger but the zone of no return has only grown larger. It hasn't shrunk at all. This is due to the increase in the gravitational force as time passes. That means he is still in danger of dying if he approaches the Origin god.

"I can't approach the fragmented Origin god yet. The only path for me is to try and absorb souls. But I don't want to contaminate myself." He said as he looked at the black hole with longing. "If only I could create a technique for the perfect devouring of souls."

He has not been completely stagnant all these years. He made some progress in his techniques. He created a new movement technique and perception technique. He can now notice other entities around himself without being noticed in return.

His use of soul force has become too fleeting to be sensed by others but it also makes it impossible for him to acquire details and information about the entities other than their positions.

So he has not wasted his time but the technique he wanted above all else is the ability to devour souls. He wants to be able to devour souls like the fragmented Origin god. He wants to mimic the dead Origin god since he can't eat it.

The major problem with this wish is that devouring souls is not a good thing. It is possible to assimilate another soul completely but it comes with the side effect of madness. The memories of others are already enough to contaminate a soul. The soul imprints they have is like a curse to any other soul.

Other souls have soul imprints which is the unique mark of their consciousness. Imbibing these marks will contaminate his own soul imprint and surely make him mad.

He is just a soul fragment and not a true Origin god like the black hole. He doesn't have a concept that to make his soul imprint immortal and indistructible. He can devour souls without having side effects if he decides to use Origin essence but he is not willing to be wasteful.

He believes that it is a waste to use Origin essence which can grant him immortality to devour souls. His stance on that might change after a thousand years of lack of progress in devouring souls.

Desperation might make the use of Origin essence not a waste. In the meantime, he tried to learn how to devour souls from the black hole. His divine sense can only observe the fragmented Origin god from afar. It always gets devoured if he tries to make contact with it.

His lack of progress in devouring souls frustrated him but he is not without ideas.

"Let me pursue immortality then. When I have immortality I will be able to devour souls without any problem. There has to be something that is indestructible in this place that I can fuse with to achieve immortality."

He decided to search for something powerful in the spiritual dimension that might help him to evolve if used together with the Origin essence. It is a good idea since immortality would solve his problem. He would be able to transform himself into a living black hole in the spiritual dimension. Every soul fragment and soul prowler that comes close to him would be devoured.

It is a good plan but it is not one that can be achieved easily. Origin gods achieve immortality by fusing with their concepts. Concepts or seeds of power are indestructible. If he could assimilate law fragments and cosmic energy with them, he would be able to at least evolve his soul if not achieve immortality.

But there are no laws here and no way to get Authority or cosmic energy. So he turned his search towards something that he could use as a substitute. There is no trace of such a thing in the small amount of memories of the great mother he has and the memories of other soul prowlers so he doesn't know where to start looking for it.

He racked his memories of the spiritual dimension both from his personal experience and the memories that he gained from grafted souls. But he couldn't find anything remotely immortal or eternal apart from the fragmented Origin gods. Even those will leave the spiritual dimension after a while.

"There is nothing in this place apart from nether water. There is only nether waters as far as I can see." He complained.

Then he got an idea. "Nether water." He exclaimed. "It is everywhere. Is it strong enough to raise my existence?"

"There is only one way to find out." He said.

There is Nether water everywhere. He has mostly ignored it because it doesn't affect him. It is a strong energy that is capable of digesting souls so he wants to see if he can gain any sort of power from it. He believes he should be able to comprehend something about it.

He opened a gap in his cocoon of grafted souls and allowed Nether water to reach his soul. Then he removed the protection of soul force so that he could make contact with it.

It was a decision he regretted immediately. "Noooooooo!" He screamed in panic.

He felt death at that point. The docile nether water became unusually active. It latched onto his soul and didn't let go. It tried to drill further into the depth of his soul from the surface. It was as if his soul had been set on fire.