17 – Dipping your toe into the …

17 – Dipping your toe into the ...The genetic sample was worse than shit. It was degraded by the ravages of time over many millennia and the parts that seemed to be just missing or 'clawed' out didn't help. I didn't gain much but the basic principles that went into designing it long ago were somewhat discernible. Boosted growth, enhanced organs, strength and endurance were the simple ones to find but I could feel fragments of others too but those parts were far too damaged to discern. Annoying but not much was lost, it would have been nice to have what I assume is Astartes genes but even from this fragment I could tell that the Lictor's physiology was comparable if not superior to this. I was curious about the organ they had to absorb knowledge through eating the flesh of their enemies but even that just so I could use my similar ability better. Most other capabilities of regular space marines weren't too tempting for me, my current body could already do most things they could but better. Now that that's taken care of let's consider the elephant in the room, I don't think I can push it much further. The Warp. The chaos corrupted ream of the souls, the home of some of the most terrifying and dangerous beings in this universe. I sat down on the floor and crossed my legs, I'd like to have as much of my focus on what I'm doing if I doing this. I closed my eyes and number my senses connected to my body, I could still feel it clearly in the back of my mind but like this, my soul sense was much cleared. My soul as I call it looks like the humanoid form I'd constructed instead of my original body from before. Huh, that was interesting, I raised my arm in this state and watched the weird energy it was made of. It was different from the other souls down there, they were dim and glowed in a whiteish colour while my soul looked more solid and instead of white it was closer to gold. The distinction between myself and everyone else was rather clear combined with that my soul shone much brighter than any of the souls I could see through the dark ocean, no, the Warp. When I was staring at my arm I suddenly realized that I had moved it, something that I couldn't do when I was floating listlessly 'up' there before transmigrating here...or was this reincarnation? I recollected myself and quickly checked over my range of motion and I found that I could move my body just as easily as I could outside of here but now came the less certain tests. I willed myself to move, not with any part of my body I just told my soul with my force of will to move. It obeyed and with a feeling of detachment I floated away, I panicked at first but I realized that I'd just removed my soul from my body, sort of like an astral projection. I left behind a tether to the body I'd left behind and I could still feel what my body went through with that but it was getting number the further I went. I reattached myself to my body to check the other stuff I wanted, now came an interesting one, could I use the powers of my new body as just a soul? If I could it would prove that I wasn't just a soul inhabiting the body but that it was my body and that it in turn was affecting my soul. From what I knew, in this universe, the soul should be the reflection of the person in the immaterial universe but that was a dumbed-down description. After all, Tau were people and they barely had a soul, blanks had 'negative' souls because of their genetics and Necrons didn't have souls despite being sentient beings. Yes, I knew they had once long ago but it was ripped away if it was just the reflection of who they were then it should have reformed if they stayed the same people and yet it had not, they were soulless beings inhabiting living metal bodies and were steadily going insane one after the other. I didn't know what it told people about me as a person that they were my favourite faction but I liked my crazy sci-fi weapons and the Necrons had the most overpowered, bullshit weapons imaginable. They stuffed stars into wrist-mounted launchers for fucks sake and their Silent King's dais was powered by the broken fragment of one of their gods. I recollected myself after promising myself to get some toys from the Necrons once I was confident enough to do so. I stared down at my arm and guided by the familiar instinct I forced it to morph and to my astonishment my soul obeyed. My regular human arm transformed into dozens of white tendrils glowing with the same golden light I was. Right, this was my soul, I should have full control of it just like my body, it was so human to not even be able to control your own body and I was beyond that now. This thought didn't disturb me in the slightest, I knew it should have, humans have a natural distaste for change but I accepted it wholeheartedly. If becoming something more was my reward for struggling in this universe until the end of my who knows how long life then so be it. Now came the part I wasn't too sure about, the clear water that I knew was pure soul energy was coating my soul like a second skin, it flowed in small streams along my skin like it had a mind of its own but the moment I thought about one particular stream going up between my breasts being annoying it shifted sifted in an instant, now going around it. I was astonished but with a few more tests I realized that it obeyed my thoughts, no that wasn't quite right, I didn't have to command it. I just had to express what I wanted and it rushed to please me as fast as it could which put a smile on my face. It was cute, like a cat I had before dying. When he was being nice, that little shit could be the most vicious ball of fur on Earth if he wanted. He died before me, having grown up alongside me he was getting very old by the time I turned 13 and he passed soon after that. I wasn't sure what to use this water for though, it was nice and all but it was neither a lot of energy nor did I know how to use psychic stuff. I wasn't sure I wanted to get more of it now, that wave of disgust that hit me before was disturbing and considering how little of the stuff actually touched my soul, I'd rather die than take a dip in the endless ocean of the stuff. Little by little could work but for now the only way I knew how to do that was by absorbing chaos-tainted biomass. The genetic template was probably so messed up because I pulled the chaotic energy out of it as I absorbed it not that it would have been much better when whole. I needed to set goals for myself for the time when I got off this barren rock,I need someone who would be willing to teach me how to use Psychic stuff.I need to learn how to get the memories of people I absorb in case 1. is a bust.Stock up on as much energy from biomass as I could, having a foreseeable expiry date on myself was rather disheartening.I want to get some Necron toys plus I might be able to incorporate necrodermis into my body which would be cool. (optional)Get some other cybernetics to see if I can interface with it in case 4. is a bust.Maybe help out in places so the galaxy doesn't go to shit. (optional)Yeah, that was a great list. I'd like to keep to it for the foreseeable future. For the last test, I tried extending the clear water towards the dark sea below me. Let's call it soul energy from now to stay less confusing, so the soul energy as eager as it was to fulfil my wishes extended down from my feet and reached halfway down towards the Warp's surface. Well, I clearly miscalculated how far down it was, the soul energy was unwilling to detach fully from me so I didn't force it too lest I lose it all and instead I morphed my leg to extend down like I was some poor Mr Fantastic imitation. When the thin thread of soul energy touched the surface of the warp I felt my blood run cold as for a single moment I felt like I sensed the entirety of the Warp and the entirety of it sensed me. The thread of clear water diluted and thickened as it slurped up large quantities of warp energy. I started to feel disgust setting in but I held on, keeping the thread now as thick as my thigh connected to the Warp. I didn't even need to pull on the Warp energy as it came at me like a torrent, I wasn't sure if it was eager to be purified or if it just wanted to corrupt me that much more for my ability to purify it. As it turns out my soul is much more resistant to human feelings such as disgust, I felt it just as heavily as I did before but it didn't stop me from focusing on the task at hand, collecting as much of this stuff as I could. I knew that while I was connected I could sense through the warp energy for a distance but the things inside could also sense me. The revulsion threatened to overwhelm even my soul but the warp energy was also getting purified along the way, it was far slower than the rate I was pulling warp energy into me but it helped me pull more. I felt several of the things swimming in this disgusting ocean close in on me like they were sharks circling a bleeding prey. I forced the connection to snap but to my irritation, the still contaminated warp energy was clinging stubbornly onto the connection. As I felt the demons getting closer and closer to the still holding bridge I was starting to panic a bit, I didn't know how to protect my soul from demons and I most certainly didn't want them chilling in my purified pond of soul energy. "Break!" I ordered with as much of my will forcing the command to be as I could manage and blessedly with the combination of my purification weakening the warp energy the thing snapped. The mix of warp and soul energy coalesced around me like a protective bubble as the two fought for the right to be closer to me. Despite the warp energy being more vicious and its natural ability to corrupt the pure soul energy, with me purifying it at a much faster rate than that corruption it lost out. Slowly but surely the whole mass of energy got purified and now my soul floated in what could be a lake's worth of pure soul energy. I then noticed that my body was twitching on the ground with its eyes rolled back into its head, it seemed the experience was a bit much to it. I slipped back into it and with the full strength of my soul now behind my will I easily fought through the lingering waves of revulsion. Well, that was certainly an experience.