GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

It took him an entire day to construct the array. He was meticulous and extra careful so as to construct a functioning array instead of an expensive high class bomb. When he was done, he rose into the air to admire his work. His array was a circular and intricate thing of beauty about 50m in diameter.

It resembled the teleportation platform outside planar gates but cannot compare to it in terms of complexity. The function of the array is to teleport his Origin soul fragment across space into the wombs of pregnant females.

He had chosen the stage at which the fetus does not have a soul. He selected this over the bodies of recently dead people because of several reasons. The body and bloodline will be fully formed by then, his aim for reincarnation is to gain the bloodline and the divine ability of the races he has chosen, but he prefers a fresh start so that he can easily perfect it during the growth stage.

Another reason he doesn't want a dead body is that his soul fragments might be too weak after reincarnation, a dead body won't be able to support it, only a living body will be able to nurture his soul, but the soul fragments won't have the strength for possession.

The third reason is that a dead body will have an identity and probably enemies that come with that identity, reincarnation will not give him the memories of the deceased. All in all, he wanted a fresh and pure start.

"Next comes the soul fragments," he said with anticipation. He pulled the soul fragments to him and brought out divine vessels. He had bought the divine vessels and the divinity they contain from the tower of heaven. He brought out a point of divinity and examined it. Divinity looked like tiny stars as if a star is compressed into a grain of sand. They look this way because the divinity used to belong to a sun god.

He refined the entire vessel of divinity in the blink of an eye by wiping out the divine will inside them. His soul was too strong for the will to resist. Then he started feeding seven of the eight soul fragments the divinity. He chose seven because he didn't want to lose all of them at once and he also has a plan for the eighth regardless of the success of the array.

He fed the soul fragments until they turned they reached their limit. The soul fragments had turned into round cloudy crystal balls that couldn't fuse with more divinity. Then he pushed one bead of origin essence into each one of the seven.

He rubbed his hand together and said "Let us begin"

He placed the seven souls into the seven focal points of the array. He took a seed of power that looked like a bigger version of divinity and fused it with a bead of origin essence, then he threw it into the center of the array to power it up. He started up the array with his divine sense and it started to shine.

It was like a sun had appeared inside the inner world. He was full of excitement and anticipation, he wasn't scared that it wouldn't work, he had confidence in his plan. Plus failure will also be good, he would be able to learn from it, he wasn't going to lose much anyways. He had minimized the risks so he could do it again if it failed. After a few seconds of accumulating energy the array exploded and sent out his soul fragment, but for a split second after that, his consciousness blanked out.

When his consciousness returned he found himself in a dark place, he could sense terrifying energy around him but he couldn't see anything. All he could see was darkness.

"Where am I?" He thought. He was confused, one second he was inside the inner world, the next he was here. He knew he wasn't inside the inner world anymore or at least it doesn't seem like it because he couldn't sense his soul or his body. He had only his mind. Suddenly 3 consciousness appeared beside him.

"Another one it seems." one said.

"Truly it is." another voice said but Gehald couldn't tell which was which. He was trying to keep his consciousness intact against the immense force that was battering his mind. He only knew they were talking amongst themselves.

"What has he done?"

"Let us look."

"Truly insatiable."

"Commendable."

"Stupid and risky."

"But it worked."

"Yes, it worked."

"He has broken a tenet of the universe."

"Rules are rules."

"Yes, they are."

"He will be rewarded for his feat."

"Mediocre it may be."

"Weak he may be."

"But he will be rewarded all the same."

"What is the verdict?"

"Let him be given artifact no. Xcsg@98gh2+."

"Too dangerous."

"Then what do you suggest."

"artifact no. Hzwy-67je9&."

"Not bad."

"I think so too."

"Truly fitting."

"It is agreed."

"It shall be so."

"Let it be so."

There was a sudden flash of light that pushed his consciousness to the brink of collapse. At that moment he felt something latch onto his mind and pulled it together. He felt his mind pulled out of this mysterious space and back into his soul in the inner world.

"Am I back?".

He looked around to ascertain he was back. The array construct had been destroyed but other than that the inner world was the same. He scanned his body but didn't find anything amiss. He was about to calm down but he felt his soul was oddly stronger and he could feel his soul fragments like they were next to him.

"Strange." he muttered. He could feel that the seven soul fragments had reincarnated. He could also feel the existence of the eighth soul fragment beside him.

"This isn't right," he thought. He didn't feel like this before, something must have changed. He directed his perception into his Origin soul and was shocked by what he found. Other than the beacon for his personal dimension, he saw a sphere residing within his Origin soul.

"What is this? What did those things do to me?" He was truly scared. He didn't think his plan for reincarnation would have brought him to that space, he didn't even know that such a thing existed.

"What is this thing? Have I been branded by those things with the spherical construct or whatever this thing is?"

"There is only one way to find out" he steeled his mind and directed his divine sense to the sphere. He approached the sphere slowly so as not to spook it. He didn't want to agitate it, but if it would be staying in his soul from now on he must at least find out what it is. It is just common etiquette.

A moment after he touched it with his divine sense he screamed "I screwed up."