And so Eldrian attempted the first approach. But not in any way he had previously tried.
No, those attempts had proven impossible. Taking Time and forcing it to act for him. Such an action wasn't possible. Not with any stability.
Thus came his new solution. While his soul lacked mass. It was energy. And energy still obeyed the laws of motion. Thus, to alter the flow of time, he shouldn't use his powers to force it to happen. Instead, he should create a state whereby the natural laws will ensure time did his bidding.
And thus, he settled on the easiest approach. Add spin to his soul's bubble.
Naturally, adding mass was another option. But since everything in his soul is massless, Eldrian had no idea how to do this.
This was all an oversimplification, but he felt it was a logical attempt to try. Everything in the universe, for some strange reason, had a spin property. Nothing was ever truly static. This seemed to stay true even for quantum mechanics. Though Eldrian could never keep up when Ziraili mentioned this.
"Enough delaying. Let's start." The first problem was that his soul truly was static. Unlike physical phenomena, the soul was transient and ethereal. Multiple attempts had failed to make it more 'real'.
Eldrian felt he understood one way of going about making it more real. But that method wasn't possible right now. Instead, he had to attempt Core 1's suggestion.
'Gather the energy within my soul to a core...' This was shockingly easy. Largely due to the amount of XP he had wasted on making Core 1. Twenty-two failures had cost Eldrian an incredible amount.
Almost as if fated, it might have been for the best. With the energy density so much lower, Eldrian succeeded in condensing his soul without much of a struggle.
Since his first attempt, the soul world he had created had fallen apart. Of everything in his soul, only the condensed forms of mana—his mana soul—had survived. But even these constructs had no place in his new vision.
Thus, Eldrian pulled them apart. Pushing the mana (a foreign substance) along with everything else, into a single ball.
This was the first step. But there was a problem. Eldrian couldn't place his consciousness within the ball. Not if he wanted to control it accurately. His senses would become distorted by being limited to an 'inside' view. Hence, he made a second layer.
One that covered his condensed Soul-Core.
Within this second layer, he kept only a sparse amount of energy. Yet, he had another layer beyond the second. That which once was his entire soul. Now empty. A vacuum, containing just enough 'stuff' to avoid being called a true void.
For comparison. The Soul-Core was the size of a golf ball, while the second layer was the size of a stadium. And the third, it was probably around the size of the Earth if one wanted to scale things.
"Now, isn't this something?" Core 1 commented. Eldrian could swear he heard something mocking in Core 1's tone. "You can do this, but you can't understand the classification of matter?"
"Cut it out. I'm focusing." Eldrian replied. Upset being reminded of the dichotomy in his abilities.
They held consciousness and thus could bring reality to his soul. Or so Eldrian had believed.
A logical leap. And one that Core 1 had set straight. It wasn't that consciousness brought forth time and realism. No, consciousness experienced time, and thus realism happened.
"Core 1, are you ready?" Eldrian asked.
"I am to control the spin, correct?" It replied, curiosity bubbling. If this worked, it would change so much.
"Yes. But most importantly, just keep it spinning." Eldrian replied and opened the floodgates. So to speak.
Time already flowed, but now he nudged it towards the core of his soul. He did not attempt to create a bend. Nor did he attempt to force it to interact with his soul. If it simply passed on by, that was fine.
Ultimately, he wanted time to become 'trapped' by the spin of his core. Not trapped physically, but unable to ignore it. Forced to interact with it, and everything within it.
"Faster. Faster. Faster." Eldrain commanded, focusing his entire being on feeling the reaction 'time' had to his soul. Thus far, nothing.
'Perhaps this is truly impossible.' Eldrian thought, but there was no point in stopping here. Thus he kept going. Kept pushing on. Until, finally, something happened.
At some point, his Soul-Core started spinning too fast. So fast that it could no longer be slowed. So fast, strangely, that it somehow spun faster without Core 1 doing anything.
"Ahhhhh! Waiiiiiiitttttt"
Eldrian felt a pull. His soul was finally interacting with time. "Just a little more," Eldrian shouted, ignoring Core 1's screams. Instead, he pushed time just a little closer.
...
Eldrian opened his eyes to a truly strange sight. Darkness filled with light. Visible distortions in space and time before his sight.
"Oh, crap. Core 1? Core 1!" He shouted, but no answer. No, there were something strings... strings of a familiar consciousness. Shredded into thin lines.
All around. Being consumed by the distortions surrounding Eldrian.
'Th-is... i-t... Beu-t...y' Core 1's last thoughts were transmitted to Eldrian as its consciousness faded.
"Well... fuck...." Eldrian cursed, looking at his surroundings and feeling confident this was his last screwup. "I'm dead. Aren't I."