Lowly Ascent

Chambers moved without taking a step, phasing from one place to another like magic.

"It seems this mist can hit me even when I slow down time! Fascinating, it can even shake my mind!"

Cain threw attack after attack, his power increasing as he got more and more used to his abilities.

'To think I was taken advantage of! Those two pests tried to expunge my very existence!'

Cain was indifferent to the life he had previously lived, what about Luna? Who cares about John? They are people important to the robbers who stole his life! He was the Heir of Manus, a Noble of Magic, and an exile sent away to die!

"It won't end like this, I will return, I will kill the Ruler and recover my family's lost honor before destroying this so-called system and overthrowing the "One"! Nothing will stop me from rising to the top now!"

As Cain yelled incessantly, a new memory flashed in his head. 'A move from father? Hmm, I have the power of imagination, I can try and copy it! Haha, even if I didn't study magic the powers those two stole are useful!"

Without pause, he copied the move, the power of imagination boiling, almost crumbling under the power.

The Dream core gained a crack.

Chambers and the rest were taken off guard.

"What is this?! How can this be!"

Everything visible boiled, the clouds, the sky, the air. Marble turned to puddles as attacks melted. Even time was affected, Chambers' abilities stopped and his flesh was like wax to flame.

Cain roared, "This is the power of Manus, this is the strength of the Creator of all Magic, the All-Father of Humans!"

The Time Lord was flustered, but only momentarily. Soon, his flesh recovered and he entered a constant state of healing, similar to Cain in his peak state. The power of time was like so.

"You are an interesting child! I would use my killer move if I had enough time to spare but I also have no interest in making you an enemy. I have something I need to do, to hell with this territory and the punishment about to befall it. I shall take my leave!"

A massive door in the shape of an hourglasses appeared. Chambers took no time to walk through and left. He had no interest in this place any longer, Cain was intriguing but he could not forget his main objective. He knew things no one else did and took the appropriate action to leave.

The rest of the cultivators had to make due, even so far away they had to force themselves to over-exert themselves. Fang Yuan had the worst of it, being so close.

...

In the mindscape, the massive lump of soul had lingering flashes of light, these two lights communicated.

(Quick! We must act together, the soul is unstable and we can emerge victorious if we overpower it for only a moment!)

The other soul flickered, (I don't know, we won't disappear, we'll just get absorbed. Isn't it better for the original us to come back?)

(Sigh, to us, he is our original, but to him, we're similar to a disease that needs to be eliminated. We are him but he isn't us, understand!?) The red soul retorted. 

The two communicated for a moment longer. In the end, the green light was swayed by the red and they conjoined to fight the main soul. When they did, the entire structure of the lump shook and the cores inside went to the small lump of green and red.

To the cores, these two were their owners. With this, the status quo changed and the soul began to collapse as a fight between two sides erupted.

Outside, the melting stopped and Cain became enraged.

"What's this!? They dare! Damn it!"

In the mindscape, the main soul became active in its defense.

"You rats tried to stop this? I won't be forgiving any longer! Die for the last time!"

Even with the help of the cores, everything else belonged to the original, its strength was unrivaled. The Dream Core was the only solid defense against it.

Lights flashed and the mindscape began to crumble against the sheer mass of the Original's soul and the power of three cores going into overdrive. 

Even with all this power, the two wisps could not escape defeat, the power of the Original was boosted by the fact this world was now his home turf.

(I have to gain an advantage, damn it, this will make everything in the future much harder to do, but I need to do it!)

At a decisive moment, the red wisp made a decision. In the heat of battle, it pushed the green light forward, towards the main soul.

"What, no! Why betray me, we are two sides of a coin, we are one! You can't do this!!!!"

Under the attacks of the main soul, the green wisp fought tooth and nail, but the fight was decided.

The green light was indignant as it was sucked back to become one with its origin, its thoughts plagued by the thought of death. It gained the desire to live. 

Near the red light, a shadowy figure emerged.

"To think you found me to make a deal, I messed with that guy's mind. You promised you would let me go when you regain control, deals a deal." The Demon of Desire laughed dryly. It tried to act tuff seeing the power at the behest of the wisps and the main soul.

In truth, it was terrified. To meet such an enemy, even weakened, that could kill it with a single move. The Demon of Desire just wanted to leave and escape with its life.

The red wisp watched everything with coldness, not saying a word.

Inside the lump of soul, green sparked before rioting. The green soul was going to pull the main soul down with him!

"What?! How did you! Noooo!"

The green Cain was diluting the origin, using his existence to estrange the mind and the soul, taking this chance to remove large pieces of origin, which were absorbed by the red wisp far away.

This was all thanks to the Demon of Desire. The green wisp lost its rationality. 

In this suicide attack, green mixed with white, but it did not win and was consumed and dissolved, leaving the white with a pale green color.

But the attack succeeded, the main soul took massive damage and lost its status, becoming half. Once again the soul was balanced, and the main soul fell from grace in an instant, reaching an equilibrium with the red soul. All at the cost of the green wisp.

'Sacrificing the pawn was good, but now I must deal with a player, albeit a foolish one. If that idiot was still here I could continue smooth sailing, but the main soul poses trouble, I cannot easily access it like I could to the other me. We are like two different people sharing a soul instead of two people making up a single soul. Damn it, this spells trouble, but for now the Main soul is resting so I can take control!'

What Cain did was necessary, he not only gained control for a time but lost nothing in the process, even gaining the origin that was never present before, locked away in the deepest reaches of the subconscious.

The origin of the soul was the foundation of a person, it was why neither Cains could exist without the other, neither gained the origin yet. Even now, with the origin split, the two souls of Cain were locked in a cage together until one came out on top.

'Without holding the entire origin, I can't leave this ticking time bomb of a body with my cores! I'm still in the same situation as before, but now my opponent is even tougher!' Cain sighed. 

Stabilizing, the mindscape began to split again, one a world of blood, the other a forest of fire.

'Fusing and then splitting again is all very tiring. This process will take time to settle and rest is needed to heal, but now is not the time!'

Opening his red eyes, Cain awakened once more!