I shrank the barrier around the trapped demon bit by bit.

"Hmm... To destroy a soul... Hmm..."

How are souls normally destroyed? How? I need something cool and flashy!

"Vorte, souls are made of energy, right?"

"Yes, in a way."

"What about soul cores? I need to destroy the soul core to fully destroy a soul, right?"

"Indeed, in a way."

"You were able to damage my fey core before, but can you interact with the soul core?"

"No but possibly indirectly."

"Does that mean a soul core is of a higher order than the soul itself?"

"Most likely. I only have knowledge of its existence."

"If my soul is eaten, would the soul core be empty and null?"

"Not that I am aware of. Over time, it should regenerate soul energy but with the lack of original."

That meant, basically, if my soul was completely eaten, in time, a new soul would grow out of it. However, everything would be lost. Experience, knowledge, wisdom, all that would be lost permanently. It wouldn't exactly be a new soul but it might as well be.

"If I destroy a demon's soul, would its soul core regenerate another demon's soul?"

"I am uncertain, but likely not if it was completely destroyed."

"Perfect!"

With Vorte's confirmation, I knew exactly I should do now. It was really a simply matter. I simply had to wipe the demon's soul squeaky clean so that eventually a pure soul would grow from its soul core.

My trait, |void|, could recycle energy, and since souls were made of energy, that basically meant that I could recycle souls or soul energy. By recycling souls, I could gain immense about of energy from doing good work! Seriously though, this felt like a death god's duty.

I'm doing god's work...? But why?

The barrier around the demon kept shrinking while absorbing the demon's flesh, bone and soul. Once trapped in this barrier, nothing could escape it unless I allowed it. Any attempt at retaliation would only fuel the barrier and quicken its demise. In time, the physical matter that made up of the demon was purified and became merely dust. Of course, I was always short on dusts for my construction projects.

Before long, the barrier could no longer shrink anymore once it was the size of my fist. However, the energy it was generating had not reduced but rather increased exponentially.

"So much energy! How does that thing store so much energy?"

"It's an ancient demon and likely ate many other souls."

"Yuck! Is there a way to free the other souls?"

"No. They are merged."

From what I could tell, soul energy and mana had drastically different qualities. Even though I couldn't see or exactly feel soul energy, it was for sure of a higher order energy unit. Mana compared to soul energy was like comparing a sugar cube to a gold tesseract. No matter how much mana was condensed, it could never reach the energy density of souls. Though, it might reach that state at mass <999>.   

Speaking of which, this demon's soul was quite something, and even after hours of recycling it, I could still get more "Juus" out of it like a super battery.

It was a bad pun.

Anyway, it didn't look like it would run out of energy any time soon. Interestingly enough, I could convert soul energy into mana and vice versa through my special trait but I normally wouldn't do that because the reverse meant a loss of information stored in soul energy.

Unlike the tiny pieces of my soul that I had absorbed earlier, I kind of felt I was lacking, severely lacking in soul mass. And here I was, taking so much energy for myself. Moreover, unlike those who steal energy from others, my special trait would completely neutralize energy signatures making all energy I recycled with |void| to be perfectly useable for anyone. There was no risk of undesired contamination.

I'm sorry. You met a bad match. If it was anyone else, you would have gotten away or ate their soul. It's a dog eat dog world, you know? Unfortunately, you're the underdog being eaten this time.

While thinking to myself, I got bored of waiting.

"This is taking a while. Maybe I should just use this to power my subspace? It's free energy anyway. Vorte, do you want any?"

"I do not."

I bet you're drooling inside and just too shy to speak out! I'm kidding.

An image of a silly drooling Vorte popped into my head.

"Pfft! Ahahaha... I'm sorry."

I quickly covered my mouth and turned away from him. I knew it was rude, but I couldn't help it!

"Ehh... I guess I better start scanning my subspace for that Oortez fellow. If he's a jerk, I could wring some juice out of him as well. Ehehe... The more the merrier!"

This is my subspace. You can run but you can't hide!

After I became a celestial being, my control over my subspace had increased substantially. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have survived. That being said, I still didn't have perfect control. Certain special access functions were still locked, such as adding more dimensions or actively adjusting the more unique forces. Furthermore, the limit on gravitational force was only up to the point of a small stellar body which was an improvement from before.

Mana usage within my subspace for me was negligible or nil for my current self. This meant as long as I had the resources and the knowledge, I could create anything! However, because I lacked knowledge, I had inadvertently limited myself to what I could create. If I wanted to create a television, I needed to know all the details. Otherwise, I would have to rely on pure magic to replicate an illusionary device with the same function. No matter how I thought about it, physical things were superior because they didn't need mana to sustain their presence.

Back to the issue at hand, I had to track down that lizard demon. With my new power, I began isolating parts of my subspaces like jigsaw puzzle pieces, completely locking them down piece by piece. This was to prevent this fellow from moving around while I scanned my subspace.

Oortez had a lot to answer.

After hours of searching, I found that demon hiding in the outer layer of my subspace.

In fact, he was pretty good at hiding and nearly fooled me. His ability to erase his presence was quite outstanding, to be honest. It was something I could learn from.

While was I busy with all this, Vorte was enjoying his life inside my home. Or rather, he was just enjoying his usual silent meditation. It was hard to fathom how meditation could be enjoyable but at least he took a neutral stance to my demon hunt.

"Oortez, there's no use hiding anymore. I've found you and you have nowhere to go now. You're completely quarantined in this subspace."

"As expected."

He revealed himself in a calm demeanor. Of all the demons I had met, he was probably the weakest. He had no |evil eyes| trait or any dangerous abilities that I had to be cautious of. He might have an astronomical arsenal of spells and knowledge but currently they posed no threat to me because he lacked the mana to properly use them. Furthermore, when faceing between trait skills and magic, trait skills would always triumph so he was a lost cause.

"You have a lot to answer."

"I only answer to those whom I have contracted with."

"Oh? Do you also have a contract with him? In this space, you can't call anyone, not even De Planck."

When I became a celestial being, although in terms of raw power I was inferior to De Planck the legendary demon. Now, we were in the same league. We stood on the same field, no longer could he just bully me into submission, at least not in my subspace. My subspace was my world, and my world alone. I had absolute control over my subspace, at least theoretically speaking.

"I will not break my contract with him."

"Fair enough. Tell me what you're allowed to tell me then."

"What will you exchange for my knowledge?"

"Nice try, it's not going to work on me this time. Once was enough. Oh and my thoughts are no longer being manipulated."

"Oh? Your thoughts were being manipulated? Fascinating." He nodded with a satisfying smile.

Oh crap... So it really was De Planck!? Wait, no, does De Planck have the ability to control through the |devious| trait?

"Tch. You got a new piece of knowledge. Tell me what you know if you know what's good for you. Cough it out if you have to."

I had the perfect threat to use against him if he wasn't willing to answer to me. Since he loved knowledge so much, I could threaten him with erasing a bit of his soul.  

blanksphere

It's holiday seasons for many. I decided to break the schedule for today. Happy holidays. As for the spoiler, not yet applicable.