Essence Visualization

When it came to esoteric and obscure things such as concepts, the mind, or complex magic. There was only two way to go about them. You knew how they worked, or you didn't.

And Julian unfortunately didn't.

But...

He still had the magical system, power system and cultivation inner working of countless work in his head, as well as logic on his side.

Thus, where could the things he saw in his vision possibly reside?

Going with the option that they were indeed real, or at the very least represented something real. Because if not, then he was going nowhere.

It was quite certain that the endless staircase, pedestals, and pillars of blood were on another plane than the physical one. Something like the mental plane or similar to it.

But he couldn't see his mind, or his soul in any way per see not in any way he tried at least. Maybe he could naturally see spirits or ghosts, but seeing another plane of existence was another thing altogether.

Julian pondered hard on the issue as he thought back upon what Kass had said about the signification of essence.

Essence... It was the presence of an entity on existence. Meaning that it was the body, the mind and the soul at the same time.

As he 'stared' at the circle representing all that he was. Julian had the sudden realisation that maybe essence had a plane in itself.

A plane he was supposed to be able to see for himself.

But how?...

Julian mind-shrugged as he destroyed all his 5 sense signals before they could reach his brains. This kind of control was taxing as it was wide spread and rather sirurgically precise. But he had a little of experience in it because of him always destroying his signal of pain during his fights.

Doing this literally cut him off the world around him. Making him blind, deaf and leaving him sensationless. And leaving him totaly alone with his thoughts.

The absence of everything was maddening. It gave him the impression he was but a lonely voice in an endless darkness. So much unnatural was this state that his brain began to simulate fake sensations, halucinating sounds and tastes to keep himself sane.

Fortunately, his brash idea proved right when the little rainbow colored circle stayed before his mind eye. Becoming more consistent, and ancred in his own reality by each passing seconds.

It became such an important part of his perception than at one point. All he could feel was somehow that circle. Taking his entire conciousness in and while it did not fusion with it, they certainly almost became one and the same.

It was in that state, where he was bathing in that little circle that some knowledge came into his mind, as well as when the 2d circle became a 3d globe.

All in all, he just made this power his own.

Julian didn't really know how to react about his new knowledge as he sank into his own essence. Coming first into contact with an empty white space before meeting the familiar towering gray box.

Experimenting a bit, Julian with but a thought reduced the several kilometers wide looking box to a house side, and then to thumb size. While he changed the white space to black and filled it with little white stars. Finally adding grass to the bottom part of the dimension as he tried to grasp the gray box in his hand.

Seeing it phase through his hand, he smiled as he changed it back to it's former size and put it in the middle of the grass plane.

This dimension, it was his essence. And in it, he was but an observer that could interpret his own being however he wished.

While he could influence the appearance of things in there, he couldn't delete anything or do any substancial change really.

He could modify the background, the size of things or how they were presented. But that was it. He couldn't even physically touch what was of true importance in here, AKA the gray box.

This space also had no relation to the outside world, it had no influence on it. The only thing this space had an influence on was himself.

Not wasting anymore time, Julian phased through the box only to find himself at the bottom a set of stairs. Surrounded by pillars of blood.

Space had no signification in this dimension, so no matter if he set the box to be infinitely small. It wouldn't matter because the laws of space were not present.

Gazing at the set of regal but cracked stairs, as well as sending a look to the pillars of blood. Julian confirmed that he could make the pillars disappear but not the stairs.

In this realm, he had an inherent understanding of everything he saw. Because this was the power in itself, seeing your own essence. And if you could see it, then you knew what it contained.

For exemple, the pillars were purely esthetic. So he could delete them. But the stairs he could not, because they represent something.

What did they represent? His potential, the reason why they were endless. Why were they broken in that case? Because his potential was related to him being a Nephalem, and him being a Nephalem was related to him being an impossibility. And he couldn't use his full potential with just having a spark of it.

Julian just wished himself to be transported on a platform somewhere up the stairs, and there he appeared. On a amber platform representing his mind.

And there he found them, the 15 pedestals of his vision. Each representing a sin or a virtue while the last one he had no idea. Only one of the nearer pedestals had a flame burning atop it. And it was the Lust one.

Frowning a bit, Julian enlarged the platform as he brought all the things of importance on it.

All the information related to his bloodline, body, magic, and soul.

The initial form each of these things took to his perception was subconsciously set by his mind to be esthetic and clear.

This ability, which Julian called Essence Visualization for appropriation purposes. Was a status he couldn't directly interact with, at least not in the foreseeable future.

As such, he could change the interface the informations was presented on. But not the content. He could even make a system like interface if he wanted to.

As he gazed at all of unavailable or locked away abilities of his bloodline or the property of his Trinity magic, which he realized had a true name. Julian was feeling quite complicated.

If it was not for Kass giving him this ability, he would have never known what exactly it meant to have endless potential.

It was also now that he had the first true doubt about her intentions.

Why? Because the first step to get access to all his potential was again laying on how much of an impossibility he was.

It was laying on how many similar fragment to the tiny yellow crystal like object now floating in the center of the platform. Keeping and binding all that he was together like a core.

It was like Kass was prompting him to become strong the fastest he could. And what would it matter to her what he did with his life? To repay a debt?

He didn't know how hard it was to become a 5th dimensional being, but it certainly wasn't just a matter of centuries or even milleniums.

At least, it was undeniable how much help she gave him. He very much doubted she had any kind of malicious plot going on in her backyard.

Julian shook his head as he associated his existing abilities to a degree of mastery and progression, as well as power. Only problem was that he only had himself to make the comparaison with, so in the end he asked Kass for help.

"Could you give me a hand with this? Maybe you could lend me some of your knowledge?" Uncaring about the fact that he just had doubtfull thoughts he was well aware she probably heard. Julian only hummed as he received no reply but a bundle of wispy black threads seeping into the fabric of the space around him. Infusing it with not quite a conciousness, but some basic processing ability.

He would be lying if he said that he wasn't excited when he was all done. Because with that, his progress would be much more concrete and graspable.

Even if he didn't design it like a system interface, it still kinda felt like he was now one of those dude whose entire existence could be transcribed into a bunch of numbers and words.

Now, only thing he need to do was to use EV (Essence Visualization) in the real world.

It would probably take some practice, but he already knew the method to do so. He only had to stay concious while overlapping the visualization of his essence on the physical realm.

Julian came back to the physical world and he immediatly began to practice. And while it was really not that simple to stay concious while using EV. Since he had already entered it once. He had a grasp of the state he needed to be in to be able to do that.

Stopping after an hour, Julian realized he had skipped school today. And while it wasn't that important, he should probably keep going. Or else he would miss many interesting events in the future.

There was also plenty of eyes candies around Kuoh, so there was that.

He paused in the middle getting dressed as he caught up on his own thought process.

That was new. Since when did he care about eyes candies?

Julian shrugged as he let it go in the end. Today was a good day.

The first day he hadn't the impression he was threading through some kind of impenetrable fog. Or going on autopilot.

It was useless questioning himself about things like that. Because it wouldn't do if he began pausing on every single changes of his mentality. For if it was the case then he better be prepared to stay frozen for the better part of his days in the future.

—————

~ Later that day, late in the the evening.

"You want me to help you put paintings to sale?" Sirzechs asked Julian for verification as he was led to his room.

Julian nodded as he opened he grasped the door handle. "I'm in need of some money to build myself a place, as well as for some projects of mine."

Sirzechs, Grayfia and Julian adoptives parents, Jacob and Kassidy. Just had a wonderful supper where both couples met for the first time.

Julian before that, had of course told Jacob and Kassidy beforehand that he had found and met his biological father. Something that surprised the Marquis to the core, but overall very happy for Julian. And afterward very nervous when he announced that they were coming to eat today.

But overall, Jacob otherworldly cuisine and the eccentric dynamic between Sirzechs and Grayfia quickly warmed up the atmosphere at the table. Well, given the fact that Jacob and Kassidy were both quite odd and easy going people themselves. It took no time at all for the devil powerhouses and the human linguists to become the best of friends.

Julian was impressed by Grayfia's cunning move of bringing some of Millicas' baby pictures to mark easy points with his mom. Leading to Kassidy of course bringing his own baby pictures to the table.

And he had to admit he almost chocked on his food when he saw that his baby self was doing JoJo pose on each of them. Sometime totally naked.

Anyway, that's what the two mother were probably still doing. Fawning over each other childs. While his dad was knocked out cold on the table because he couldn't take his alcool.

"Money? You want money? I can give you money. How much do you want?" Sirzechs brought out some kind of magical wallet from his pocket as he almost arrogantly handed out a thick wad of banknotes to Julian.

Julian's eyes flickered between the banknotes and Sirzechs' smiling face a couple of times before he turned around and entered his room. "I don't want your money. And we both know for a fact that Grayfia would beat you up if she knew how much you just offered me."

Sirzechs flinched and sent a look behind him to be sure that his wife wasn't there before he followed Julian.

Plenty of things caught his eyes in Julian's rooms. A pristine looking basket lying in the corner of it. How much it was devoid of any sort of decorations and presences. And the three naked girls sleeping on the bed. At least they were covered by a sheet.

As for Julian himself, he had totally forgotten that Raynare Mittelt and Kalawarner were still in his room.

So, he just decided to just ignore them and and act like they weren't there. He picked up one of his old painting as Sirzechs sent him a conflicted gaze, wiping away a tear in the corner of his eye. His expression saying something akin to 'They grow up so fast'.

"So, is it possible or not? I have a quite a bunch of these laying around."

Sirzechs inspected Julian's painting as he stopped playing. He took it in his hand as his eyes began to shine. "You painted these?"

"Of course not. I stole the soul of my enemies and infused it in a canvas and that's what I got." Julian rolled his eyes. Suddenlly becoming pensive as he thought seriously about the possibilities...