The Void Engine] was still being cooked inside his Hidden Node , but that didn’t mean Zac could sit around . From the second he began the process , there would be no rest . His core was currently just two treasures pushed against each other , gradually being distorted by the immense pressure released by the Core Formation Array .
The next step was to mix and shape the temporarily malleable materials into a proper nucleus , adding the critical pathways and connections that would make up the inner circuitry of his Cosmic Core .
Zac was full of anticipation , sending the mental tendrils forward like a swarm of snakes . Everything until now was just the warm-up . The next step was what he’d truly practiced for .
The actual Core Formation was finally starting .
79
UNCERTAINTY INTO TRUTH
The pressure the Core Formation Array levied on the treasures was immense , and they sporadically released bursts of energy that shook the Hollow Core] . The energy was then forced right back into the materials after wreaking havoc , leading to a volatile cycle .
Zac controlled the Mental Energy tools to mold the blobs of Conflict and Life , relieved to find the surgical tools mostly unaffected by the gravitational force . The refined Calamity Core] and Warstone] were very responsive , like putty . There was one problem , however . He had no way to interact with the deathly half of the Calamity Core] in his human form .
His Life and Conflict-attuned Core Formation tools were blocked when trying to pass through the Death-attuned half of the Calamity Core] , but they couldn’t mold or move it at all . It lived its own life , changing shape based on pressure and the movements of the other two materials .
Similarly , he’d lost his connection with the tools filled with his Branch of the Pale Seal the moment they entered the Duplicity Core , transformed by the mysterious quantum state that influenced all Death in the core . But that was fine . He would start the process in his human form and then swap over to his Draugr side .
The pressure was almost too great to form his core next to the two spheres . However , it was the pressure which kept the energies contained and the materials malleable . If he turned off the main array , the materials would rapidly cool and harden . Since that wasn’t an option , Zac used the tendrils to force the materials to spin while pressing against each other . The gravitational force and the spinning treasures created a makeshift roll press , a technique only possible when having surgical tools to assist the formation .
From there , he extracted a piece from each blob , like string pulled from spools , and pushed them together . He formed a simple braid before it was crushed between the rolling spheres . The braid emerged significantly more compressed on the other side and stuck to the Warstone]’s surface . The more condensed the nucleus was , the stabler it would become .
Zac added a few more sections of Conflict to the braid while preparing half a braid on the other sphere . Each cycle fused and arranged the preliminary connections in the Cosmic Core’s center .
A surge of energy warned that the materials wouldn’t come together without a fight , and Zac was forced to give up a cycle as the braid released a tremendous shockwave of intermixed energy .
A large section of his budding creation was damaged , undoing most of his work in one go . This was the uphill battle any mortal would face , especially one wanting to create such a complex core . He salvaged what he could and let the rest rejoin the spinning blobs as he extracted new strings .
Thirty minutes passed as the super-condensed nugget grew bigger and bigger , where every layer was earned after multiple setbacks . The Death-attuned energies were unsurprisingly the source of the biggest headache . The growing ball of yarn was filled with uneven spots of Death dragged inside by the process , only some of it intentionally . The nucleus was roughly 60% in line with his blueprint , and every eruption came with the risk of pushing that number lower .
Not being in control of one-third of the matter going into the nucleus created a lot of difficulties . Zac did what he could to indirectly influence the uncontrollable half of the Calamity Core] . He intentionally created empty pockets between Life and Conflict where Death squeezed inside . Along with temporary blockades when too much Death was about to be pulled into the roll press .
Not much time had passed , yet he’d already lost count of the number of explosions the Hollow Core] had been forced to absorb . Zac avoided some of the disasters , but most didn’t even give him a chance to react . His mental tendrils were repeatedly shredded , forcing him to expend energy reforming them .
During this time , there were no signs of Void Heart] releasing the missing piece of the puzzle .
It was for the best . While getting his hands on the refined Void Energy would be one less worry , it was liable to complicate the process . He had no idea how much control he’d be able to exert over the Void Energy , especially with the Core Formation Array unable to help .
If he could build an operational base on the other three materials first , he would simply need to push the Void into the - empty space , - similar to how he used his Dao Molds . While the models of his blueprint looked porous , that was just because it was impossible to properly express the Quantum States of his core in three-dimensional space .
In reality , he needed to infuse the Void Energy into the untouchable Quantum Death in his human form , then repeat the process with Life as a Draugr . And since he had no idea what that infusion would lead to , it was a good idea to finish as much work as possible beforehand .
Another thirty minutes passed , which meant he’d crossed his estimate on the Void Heart] .
Still nothing .
Zac slowed the rotation of the growing nucleus as much as he could while taking out three new treasure boxes . They were all top-tier materials of Life , Death , and Conflict , all sourced inside the Perennial Vastness . Zac added a set of engravings before placing them on their respective refinement array .
Just as Zac finished his work on the third treasure , a huge energy fluctuation shook his core . Zac urgently turned his focus back to the Hollow Core] . A whole section had destabilized , and Zac was forced to cut it off . He threw the piece to one corner while moving the nucleus to another , shielding it with Mental Energy .
A second later , the alloy shattered , and an unprecedented explosion raged , forcing the energies back into the nucleus just like the energy from outside , but that wasn’t the case for the physical material . Until now , the eruptions had only been energy . This time material itself exploded . That section was gone , and he suddenly had less material to work with .
It had also lost its spirituality , and he could only extract the fragments from the Hollow Core] . Zac sighed , beginning the process again with new material to patch the damage .
Meanwhile , the three new treasures began absorbing the ambient Dao from the Dao Tapestries on the Dao Platform . The treasures sank into the refinement array fifteen minutes later , just before they risked destabilizing . With his full focus back on the core , Zac didn’t lose any more material .
The explosions continued as incessant solar flares that refused to relent . But the nucleus also grew more compact , to the point the innermost regions were forcibly stabilized .
It took a full ninety-five minutes , but Zac managed to fuse all the matter from the Warstone] and Calamity Core] into an almost perfectly spherical blob of alloy . Zac’s soul trembled from the effort , having been forced to constantly split his consciousness into twenty threads to maximize efficiency .
Zac said a silent prayer of good health for Mossy . If not for the living planet’s Moss Crystals , he’d never have managed to evolve his soul . And without a Three Fates Soul , he wasn’t sure if he would have endured the process .