He returned to his consciousness field, seeing himself in a new, literal light. Those constellation points weren't just abstract energy; they were the source code ~ the raw packet of information that defined what made him, him.
Curiously, he applied the Dao of Life, attempting to channel and shape that specific packet of information into an independent energy field construct.
Denied.
It was negated again by his own mind shield.
For months, he had banged his head against this wall ~ trying to weave a segment of this soul-light into a separate vessel using the Dao of Life, only to be blocked every single time.
LoHP returned: 404 Error not found directly to his face as a joke.
For the first time in eons, he felt a flash of pure, unadulterated frustration at his own impeccable defenses. It was an absurd irony ~ to be the master of a fortress so secure that even the owner couldn't break back in to renovate. It felt reckless to even think it, but he needed a way through.
After several attempts, he managed to gather the will to influence his own defenses, to seek a loophole in the logic.
Then, a breakthrough. By analyzing the information stream of his own thoughts, he learned to mimic its frequency. He didn't break the shield; he spoofed the ID. He tricked the barrier into believing the foreign packet of information was just another one of his brilliant ideas passing through.
The result wasn't a clone. It was a schism ~ a pseudo-consciousness born with all his quirks, his genius, but absolutely none of his access to creation energy. A sibling. A split personality.
Him, yet decidedly not Him.
And with that shared knowledge came an inborn, burning desire ~ to be unique. To be his polar opposite.
To be Not-Me.
In the moments of achieving awareness, the entity seized control of the body. It shifted the form to the feminine aspect of his soul, locked the aesthetic, and named itself. She.
And he became, simply, He.
In the space between heartbeats, she solidified her control of their shared spiritual form. Bones shifted, features softened, and energy realigned into a harmonious, feminine expression of the soul's potential.
He felt her curiosity ripple through their shared link. Giving her a moment to feel around, to test the center of gravity, he waited until she turned her attention inward to respond in similar fashion. But their conversation was brief, efficient ~ the dialogue of one mind split in two:
"You know what to do?" he asked.
"Yes, I now know." She was already reaching for the one thing that could make her more different ~ a sense of purpose.
***
Without his shield to protect her, 'She' was instantly drenched in the floating Psionic energy.
I felt it ~ a deep, existential terror radiating from her.
It wasn't just pain. It was erasure. As the Psionic energy hit her, her very sense of "I" began to be rewritten. The raw packet of information that constituted her existence was creeping back to her, being deleted into nothingness, while simultaneously drowning in millions of eons of my memories crashing against her like a tidal wave to keep her stable.
It was a pain deeper than the soul. It was a distortion of the highest order shared between them. He realized instantly that she wouldn't survive the assimilation on her own. The adaptation on her own is very slow.
I allowed the adaptive nexus to target her ~ for she was now a part of me.
And it did its work.
It was over in an instant. Her structure was unchanged, but the syntax she used to communicate with the energy was transformed. The boiling chaos calmed. She wasn't fighting the current anymore; she was acting like a packet of information in its purest form.
She was no longer a foreigner trying to speak the language; she was the language, a consciousness field native to this reality.
The Psionic energy aggregated, knitting together a soul for her independent of his instructions. Following her lead, he condensed his own avatar in the Astral Plane.
This form was vulnerable ~ it couldn't access creation energy or any power unique to his old self ~ but the Psionic energy obeyed his thoughts like a loyal hound, creating environments on a whim. The field around him condensed new laws unique to this reality.
Time and space had no meaning here.
It's a game of imagination, he realized, flexing a hand that didn't truly exist. But getting injured here means feedback directly to the psyche. Without my mind shield, I'll have to be careful.
Meanwhile, She was doing the same alongside him, two artists learning the same new medium until both got the hang of it.
***
"So," he asked, floating in the void. "What do you want to do now?"
She looked him in the eye. A faint, knowing sigh escaped her lips. "Why ask a rhetorical question?"
"Very well. Get ready!" He grinned. He was genuinely excited for his first encounter with a cosmic entity on its own turf.
With a thought, he conjured a spark of creation energy ~ the only cheat he allowed himself ~ and within it, a flicker of the captive Phoenix speck from earlier.
He released it into the Psionic sea of their consciousness.
***
The result was instantaneous and violent. The previously dormant or devouring energy ignited, a cosmic fire poured onto a sea of thought.
From nowhere, a new consciousness coalesced from the inferno, drawn to them both like a moth to a supernova. While flames didn't touch him, they scorched Her.
In the split second before she could react to how a new sentient was born from nothing but energy, he was swept into her cognitive plane.
He saw his life flash through her eyes ~ Glory City, his infancy, a rapid cascade of memories slowing only to analyze his every ability. It swept through the Apotheosis reality, the TDG world, his entire journey ~ a lifetime read like an open book in a heartbeat.
Then, it receded. The fire condensed elsewhere, forming a face of pure Phoenix energy ~ his face. Meanwhile, his female sentient construct reappeared, radiating pure, unadulterated annoyance and grievance.
"Damn it." She looked aggrieved at the fire, smoothing down her astral dress. He, too, felt her frustration. The only memories safe were his first life and his arrival. Left had been exposed, their histories laid bare by this reality's own consciousness mechanism formed on that energy.
His attention snapped to the third entity.
"You are He, she is She. Then I was, I am, would be... Phoenix," it declared, its voice echoing with the sound of burning stars. "Tell me... why are you confining me here?"
It meant the barrier of his soul core. Before letting the Phoenix drop in, he simply severed the connection to the outside with the creation energy barrier, keeping only his and 'her' own access. The Phoenix had already tried to take control of the spirit and remove them.
"....Whatever you believe you were has no relevance here. You are my creation. So..." He simply gestured to the sea of Psionic energy below, dismissive.
"Phoenix is under no one's dominion!" The astral field blazed, a desperate attempt to disintegrate him. The mind shield ~ his one constant ~ withstood the attack like it was nothing.
"Why deny it? You read our memories. You know it. You are not the Phoenix itself. Just a copy of an ember," She added by his side, radiating pure annoyance.
***
Silence followed.
Then:
The Phoenix energy blazed with an echo of divine rage:
"You chose to indulge in your whims before coming here.... You stole the essence of the multiverse from oblivion. You... refined universes. Committed the great sin of creating and confining myself. Destroyed a timeline and assumed the role of creation through it. As an agent of rebirth, life, and death, I will give you both a peaceful end."
"I think Phoenix is still in shock," She commented dryly from my side.
The conversation ended. The fight began. She, in a tactical retreat, took control of the physical body, allowing him to fully engage the Phoenix.
His only advantage was his invulnerability here and the slow, relentless refinement of her energy by his creation core. He had to multitask on a godlike scale ~ shield his thoughts from the Phoenix when letting it connect to the spiritual body, shield the outside, and maintain barriers among other things.
Eventually, the Phoenix began to manipulate heavenly energy and divine Dao forces from his memories, and he responded in kind. Essentially, as soon as he devoured her energy portion, the same energy required to hold her back and attack was transformed and hurled at him.
It felt like attacking himself or one that know most about himself.
The battlefield in the mind eventually reached pure Psionic energy manipulation where every probability of every action was tested against. Since the concept of time didn't exist here, the battle of wits and power went on for eternity.
Outside, She emerged, taking control of his form. Adjusting the spiritual form to her liking, she went outside the island in a happy mood ~ contrary to the fire burning inside her eyes.
****
(Narrative Shift: She)
Well the pain earlier is over.Receiving the influx of signals from all over and acclimating to it.
" I guess its worth it. Now its 'his' turn to experience it."
Anyway, I become my own creation for once.
Without access to creation energy, she felt terrifyingly vulnerable. At the same time, it was liberating in another way.
He probably won't let me live after he return, knowing myself so ambitions won't let me anywhere...
I can finally experience death safely, I guess, and not just play around with it. In a sense, he can also gain some insights from it. It's comforting to even think about it. The state of being vulnerable gives me more primal emotions of joy.
She emerged into the world outside his retreat, outside the castle ~ adjusting the spiritual form to her liking, making the hips sway just so. The shield around the island held firm, and she had no control over it. Can't even cross it.
He had been a hermit for eight months, and the place showed it ~ a lush, overgrown paradise. Grasses, sedges, mosses, and lichens thrived in soil engineered by his microbes. It was beautiful, and utterly trapped.
The stable weather pattern was fully formed on the island. The garden and the forest smelled nice, the place was very much to her liking. After all, it was tailored by her alternative self.
After goofing around for a while, she had a question:
What am I supposed to do? She looked at the spatial ring on her finger and had her answer.
A moment later, Xiao Ning, Ziyun, and Long Yuyin materialized outside. Ning and Ziyun looked confused; Long Yuyin, seeing this form again after the first time, was immediately wary.
She recalled his memories of her family proposing a marriage alliance and memories of him rejecting it for that reason.
"Tao. What happened to... the other body?" Ziyun asked, remembering the time she'd spent with this feminine form.
"....."
I should come out truly, can't think about pretending to be Him. That's too weird, even for us.
She held up a palm, fully embracing the femininity, revealing her true reflexes and actions.
"Before we proceed,I am letting you know, I am not the Tao you refer to. I am a copy of his personality and memories in this form. The real person is unharmed, engaged in a mental battle."
Well, wasn't that a nice explanation?
Apparently no.
Enchanted Steel whispered from sheaths as spears were aimed at her heart, locking her aura. Thunder and cold brewed nearby even when the supporting law field was originating was from her body.
She stopped the sharp weapon with a finger and slowly spread her hands showing no threat.
It took considerable time and patience to convince them she wasn't a malevolent entity. She assured them he was in no real danger, that the fight was a foregone conclusion from the start.
***
Long Yuyin, ever the strategist, summarized their predicament. "So, we're trapped here. We can't help in the fight. We can cultivate, and you can help us understand this world without causing trouble? Can we at least use our divine sense to observe it?"
"Yes to all," she confirmed. "Come, let me show you the castle he built for you. Oh, and it hasn't been maintained for the past eight months of time here.... so..."
The day was spent unveiling the magnificent castle, explaining the bizarre laws of this universe, and answering a torrent of questions seated in the comfortable seat of the throne...
Later, Ziyun found her alone, grabbing her collar with a practiced, intimate gesture. "The one back then... was it you, or Tao?"
***
The questions were endless. But slowly, a camaraderie formed. They began to treat her like a sister.
Days turned into a month. They cherished the island's flora, tending to it with care. Their souls, housed in this pocket dimension of the island, began to resonate with one another. She could feel their thoughts, and knew they could feel hers.
In such forced, profound intimacy, budding relationships were bound to be strained, or to bloom.