Lowly Ascent

"Lord, are you sure you wish to commence the test now? You haven't had enough time to rest!"

A young man stood tall with his messy black hair facing Doctor Ivan. Cain was reading the latest reports from the Scientists and found the new drug had a satisfactory success chance. He no longer wanted to wait.

"I'm fine, I spent the last week resting did I not? Anyway, you said there were some new changes up above. The country got into a scuffle?"

Ivan shook his head and gave up trying to stop Cain, instead answering his question, "It was not a mere scuffle, the other countries have evidence of the Bureau's kidnappings. If it's not handled properly we will go to war. Everything's a mess and we have less funding as a result. The Bureau's doing everything in its power to recruit new agents. Haahh. I have no idea how it got to this point."

Cain noted the event and focused back on the preparations occurring in the room beside theirs.

'With things escalating outside, the perfect environment will be born for me to spread my influence. With this drug, I'll be untouchable.' He fiddled with his soul energy, having it move through his hands like a magic trick. 'So strange...although it's made from my soul, I can sense Pure Energy...'

Walking up to the glass window, Cain's face reflected in it.

'My cores were modified and the result was an object meant to destroy the system by taking in specialized energy. To do that, the efficiency of gathering pure energy is strangely lowered even though that's what I turn the specialized energy into.'

He focused on the energy in his hands. 'And now, Pure Energy seems to have helped in the creation of the Specialized Energy called Soul Energy; without a core no less. I wonder, are the cores even needed? That strange voice said there were many paths to power, are the cores like these paths, one of the many? Is there a different way to utilize Pure Energy?'

Ever since entering the Augmentation Stage of the Soul, Cain wondered how the Paths worked. There was no specialized energy in the Land of Souls, only Pure Energy.

Yet somehow, specialized energy was created from the paths, not distinct like the energies of the Landfill, but they used Pure Energy in different ways and diluted it with things like the soul or natural forces. Cain had never known there were uses for Pure Energy like this besides the cores.

'If I'm right...and the cores aren't the only way to manipulate Pure Energy, I must switch my methods. I've always had a strange feeling using tools that belonged to my enemy.'

Cain's mood soured. 'Bah! What am I thinking, I must focus!' Readjusting his mindset, his thoughts were only on the drug and the commencing experiment.

Entering the chamber, he went to lie down in one of the pods.

Through the intercom, Doctor Braun's voice was heard.

"Sir, are you ready to commence the experiment?"

"Commence," Cain confirmed.

Taking the pill, he found himself in the familiar feeling of hallucinations. Once again, Cain awakened in a dream world.

"It's...different from before...why is this place so dark?"

Cain was in lightless space, running water fell from above, its source unknown. As for him, he stood on a river of ink, only the translucent water surrounding it proving the river was of a different source.

"Well...following the Dream helped last time. This time can't be too different."

Following the flow of the river, Cain walked along. As he passed certain strange landmarks, like large rocks or floating lights, he would gain an increasingly worrisome feeling in his chest.

"Is this a vision of sorts as well? I wonder what's influencing it. The Dream Core maybe?"

The river got deeper and thicker the more Cain walked. When he came to the end, the ink was up to his waist.

"How ominous..."

At the basin of collected ink, there was the statue of a raven just like in the last dream. However there was a difference from the statue in the other dream, this statue was crumbling and ink was leaking from its cracks.

As if bestowed with knowledge, Cain understood what the dream was trying to tell him.

"So it seems I have to finally choose...or else It will be my downfall."

The dream deconstructed and again, Cain was above his dream world, overlooking the others happening around him.

"Well, for now, let me finish completing this project. This time I won't mess up."

Cain knew why he failed last time, it was because he destroyed the worlds and then incorporated them. Knowing the truth of this world, it made sense why that was the case.

Everything was a shell, even the dream worlds. The shells containing the dream worlds were not like Cain's, they were connected to their actual shell to act as a barrier and protection. If the shells were destroyed it would be like losing connection to their shells in reality and they would end up dying one way or another.

To fix this issue, Cain found another way to incorporate the worlds.

"Crumble." Cain first destroyed his Dream World.

"Expand." At a rapid pace, Cain's soul grew smaller. All the while, the remnants of his dream world expanded and stretched, overtaking the nearest dream and covering its entirety, fusing into it without invading its internal structure, effectively locking it in place.

Seeing the world fused with his own but now harmed, Cain knew he had succeeded at last. "Now that I know it works, I don't need the rest." He spared no time to wake up in his pod.

'The fusion was successful, that dream world will stay connected to me until the owner dies, and then I can absorb it. The only issue is that the person still needs to return to their dream world before leaving. But that's fine, it will cull the stupid who try to use the drug.'

The pod opened and Cain escaped out to breathe.

"M-My Lord! You did it?" Ivan stepped forward, not sure whether to be excited or not.

Cain looked at the aging man and smiled.

'Ah...Ivan, didn't I tell you I would grant you immortality if you proved yourself?'

The tension in the air began to rise, Cain was staring at Ivan without uttering a word. Sweat formed on the old fossil's back.

"My L-Lord?"

Cain's thoughts bubbled, 'Guess what.'

A sharp energy permeated around his hand. With a single swipe, a head was lopped off its shoulders.

'I lied!' Cain's mouth curved as a feeling of euphoria washed over him.

Blood sprayed from Ivan's body as it fell to the floor. No words were said by the other scientists besides one female member who began to scream.

Turning to them, Cain tilted his head and crept open his mouth.

"You are all worthless now! I have everything I need! So keep your silence in death!"