CHAPTER 43: MAJESTIC RESIDENCE

Hadrian was once more in that vast expanse of dull white and fog.

It’s rather useless.

He thought sarcastically, looking at his current vessels. The information he got, apart from his authority, was something he could deduce for himself.

Even that too, given time, I would have learnt.

Perhaps in the future, if I do end up with countless vessels, it would be a necessary helper.

[ Basic lifeform : 9 ]

Those were the currently eight remaining rat vessels and the groper mage when not channeling essence through him.

[ Ascended lifeform : 3 ]

Looking at the two rank two cores, Hadrian had learnt something new. They could not be separated to be in two separate vessels.

They looked to be two different spheres of spinning fog but seemed to exist as one.

Hadrian’s attention went to the fog beneath him. For the past few days, the sensation of something changing had only kept growing.

Like when first he’d entered this space, his consciousness separated from the main Hadrian vessel and descended into the fog.

This time round, however, he didn’t simulate the sinking feeling to leave the space but went down into the fog.

The fog flew past him. Existing only as thought, however, he didn’t feel it. After some time, his perception of the distance he’d travelled was lost to him.

Looking back up where he’d come from, all he saw now was the fog. Of course, just like how "he" could exist in different vessels and have their senses, so did his current consciousness in this space.

It’s the reason he’d decided to make the attempt of descent.

Back up above the fog, the main Hadrian vessel looked down into it. He liked to think he’d separated a part of himself, but it wasn’t really like that. He just existed perceiving things from different perspectives.

With the many vessels, mostly rats, that he’d obtained, he’d gotten a good hang of existing like this. His authority over the mind helped as well. He imagined it did.

After sometime, the descent did get boring and he thought of turning back, but he willed himself on.

Eventually, the fog cleared up. Up above in that space, the main Hadrian vessel’s lips parted and his brow furrowed.

What’s this?

He found himself in a familiar looking space of dull white and a vast stretch of fog. However, it was different, and not just because he could feel it.

This new space was hazy, vague and dark. The fog was still there, though more like faint mist. And in that mist, tiny stars filled it. They did not shine or shimmer like regular stars, however.

In fact, when Hadrian got close to some, they were like a small dull fog filled cores.

He looked down at himself. He had not commanded it, and yet he’d taken the form of the main Hadrian vessel, that teenage boy who was supposed to be Alia’s son.

Up in the previous dull white space, it was as if they had substituted with the part of his conciusness that had descended.

He was nude, and aware of this fact, a natural human shame came over him. He wished for clothes, and to his shock, they appeared and covered him.

They were the black clothes that he’d gotten used to the main Hadrian vessel wearing.

Wha- what’s this now?

In that previous dull white space, he’d covered himself with the fog, just like he had done with his other vessels.

Here, obeying his will, the faint mist had formed into his earthly clothes. They were not real, however, and he was certain of this fact.

It wasn’t for free, neither.

It consumed his essence. Luckily, it wasn’t his personal essence but his collective essence. That meant of all his vessels and the cores.

The mist had responded to him in thought, and this excited him since he had not been able to achieve anything more up above in that dull white space other than look at the information.

Excited, he flicked his wrist, summoning that rank two mystical artifact sword.

It appeared, and he could feel the weight of it, he could tell it was the real thing.

"I can use abilities here.... " his eyes went wide and he simulated a swallow.

Already, he felt the strain of "carrying" the rank two mystical artifact lifted off of him.

He summoned more of his consciousness

below and peered into himself. The main Hadrian vessel projection held the space path rank one core.

It’s still a projection, however.

If I could "carry" my vessels into this space, I could use it as a storage for inconvenient vessels sometimes.

His other vessels, up in that dull white space , substituted into the hazy darker space.

After rounds of testing, all his mage vessels could manifest their abilities here.

And clothes had also manifested for them.

Hadrian found himself smiling as his eyes studied the new space. His eyes narrowed at the tiny balls of fog but he ignored them for now.

He wanted to see what more he could achieve.

This might be it. A chance for true expression of my authority over the mind.

Concentrating his thoughts, he watched as the mist below him formed into a concrete floor. Just like thoughts, the floor was formed disorderly and in an unreal manner at first.

However, once he had the pieces, he manipulated them to join together and form into a realistic looking floor.

Always having been one to be lost in imagination, he didn’t stop there. Pushing himself, the incomplete walls and floor of that cellar basement formed first.

Huh.

Sometimes one’s thoughts wander. I shouldn’t be too surprised. It’s just one of my most recent strong memories.

He’d actually gotten used to spending the night outside. Especially since some of his vessels could "sleep" for the rest, he didn’t have that much use indoors. And with the elemental path cores, the cold of the night was of no worry to him.

Therefore, the last time he’d truly been indoors, was when talking to Truston in that cellar.

He dismantled the projection of that basement cellar and concentrated once more.

If it truly responds to my thoughts, why limit myself?

Next, without a ceiling to it, what was formed was a majestic hall of one of the paintings his mom had shown him of the legend she’d named him after.

In the painting of that folklore legend, Hadrian, sat upon a throne-like seat and had on elegant black flowing robes.

Hadrian looked at the makeshift high back throne projection he’d summoned. He took steps without hurry. The walls of the majestic hall were incomplete and only rose to about six metres. Above it, the vast expanse of dull white and fog stretched.

As he walked, the regular clothes projections Hadrian had summoned dispersed into mist and reformed into those restless elegant flowing black robes.

Sitting upon the throne seat, Hadrian looked down at the space, his chin raised high and a smile on his face.