He let the two tie each other up while he dealt with the volatile situation in his Soul Aperture . The shroud of Creation and Destruction released by the prison had increased the agitation of the energies , to the point large scars appeared at the edge of space . If those two Daos were left unchecked , they’d turn his whole breakthrough on his head .
Zac spent the next couple of seconds trapping the two clouds before they mixed with the ambient clouds of Life and Death . Some of it slipped through the cracks , but there wasn’t much Zac could do about it . The escaped Creation and Oblivion would likely slip into his reformed soul , but he had the experience and skills to deal with that in the future .
It looked like the battle between Mossy and the Remnants wouldn’t take long , which was an immense relief . Incredible amounts of Divinity and Death had already been dragged into his Soul Aperture by the vortices formed from the array disks . The Outer Cores had absorbed more than they could withstand , making them ticking time bombs .
Luckily , it was just as Zac expected . Mossy , especially not the fragmented consciousness hidden within its crystal , had no Dao Heart to speak of . It had never encountered real trouble as it grew to cover Emerald Eye . As such , it was incredibly ill-equipped to deal with the urgings of the two ancient wills inside the Splinter of Oblivion and Shard of Creation .
The previously radiant green had become mottled , and the crystal groaned ominously . This was it . Zac finally entered the fray in the most direct way possible—launching his central core right at the battling sides . The central core was over five times as large as the emerald crystal , and it looked like a meteor about to shatter the core to pieces .
The weak light hurts . Betrays , ’ a sigh echoed through Zac’s mind as his core drew closer . - So be it . We both fade . But Moss remains . ’
Zac braced himself but did nothing to prevent the incredible implosion that swallowed both his central core and the Remnants . Zac’s core was instantly ground to dust , and he ignored the soul-rending pain as he erected barriers around the lingering remnants of Mossy’s fading consciousness .
Having sealed the final vestiges of Mossy’s trap , Zac breathed in relief . His breakthrough was still in an incredibly precarious situation , but this was one major hurdle dealt with . For years , he’d known a piece of Mossy hid in the depths of the Moss Crystals . It had concealed itself well and never done anything except silently observe .
But not even a mighty dragon can subdue the local snake . The moment Zac realized what was going on , he’d started scheming for Mossy’s demise . Having another consciousness inside your soul when you reforged it was incredibly dangerous , especially if the soul was hostile .
It was easy for impressions and characteristics to slip inside at a moment of such weakness . And if Mossy wanted , it would have been able to launch an attempt to take over his body . One reason he’d targeted the Moss Crystal was that he needed its massive stores of Mental Energy to fuel two cores instead of one . However , getting rid of Mossy to continue the process was just as important .
The Remnants were much sturdier than Zac’s central core , but even they could not come out of that sudden implosion unscathed . The lights surrounding them had mostly faded as they emerged from the blast zone , their surfaces covered in cracks and scars that leaked tremendous amounts of energy .
Zac found it increasingly difficult to rouse his soul after it had been reduced into a cloud of swirling dust , but he readied himself for another battle . However , he watched with surprise as the two Remnants voluntarily fled back toward their brethren , entering the prison of their own accord . They didn’t even look at the great cloud of vaguely emerald-green that had mixed with the dust from Zac’s soul .
All that Mental Energy was left on the table . Zac had thought he’d have to wrangle and throw them back , but it looked like they’d had enough of the outside . Or perhaps they knew the prison wasn’t long for the world . The cage for the Remnants had never been a permanent solution , and he’d known since first getting the runes installed that they’d sooner or later fail .
The prison hadn’t been maintained since he fled Orom because the mysterious sigils rebuffed his attempts to repair or bolster them . Two runes had already broken apart during his secluded cultivation . Even the one he’d destroyed would shatter in a year or so , Zac only hastened the schedule a bit .
With each rune crumbling , the next one would last even less time . If nothing changed , Zac guessed the prison would be gone before he even entered Ultom . Of course , that was a worry for later . Now , he had to stop his Soul Aperture from exploding from the rampant energies .
The new batch of escaped Creation and Oblivion had created another round of mayhem by the time Zac managed to trap it , to the point there was now a replica of the Calamity inside his Soul Aperture . The whole miniature cosmos was a constant battlefield full of eruptions . Each collision put Zac’s Outer Cores under further duress , not to mention the aperture itself .
Zac took a deep breath as he imposed his will on the chaos , beginning with the spreading dust cloud that was a mix of his central core and the ownerless energy from the Moss Crystal . Two small swirls appeared a moment later . One spun clockwise , while the other one counter-clockwise . In all other regards , they were the same .
For now .
The swirls started gathering up Zac’s soul before it drifted away , allowing him to turn his attention to the rest . The other parties , his Outer Cores and the native energy of the Calamity , weren’t as easily controlled . But Zac was unrelenting . True , on the outside , he was just a small E-grade cultivator—an ant compared to the true masters of the Multiverse . But inside his aperture , he might as well be the Heavens themselves . His will was akin to a divine decree , and he refused to let anything revolt .
From Primordial Chaos , Yin and Yang were born—the delimited Dao . In the same fashion , Zac’s aperture was soon split between Life and Death . In the middle were two vaguely green spirals turning in opposite directions . Right behind them , the Dao Avatars of Kalpataru and Pale Seal hovered . It felt like they towered toward the Heavens , reaching thousands of miles in height , each a monolith floating in space .
The soul shroud rotated in a plane spiral around them like petals . And behind , nine cores floated in an orderly line , each vibrating with barely contained energy . Surrounding the Divine Cores were opalescent streaks of Creation , which attracted all the Life-attuned energies in the aperture to its side . A similar scene took place on the other side , and it only took five minutes for Zac to completely separate the two .
It really looked like he had created two cosmic flowers , where the stamen and core were attuned while the petals were yet unblemished . But that was about to change . The innermost attuned cores floated into the center of the swirling galaxies , dragging with it a huge amount of ambient attunement . The cores and their tails passed through the respective Dao Avatars and were given a final anointment in Zac’s Dao .
Zac infused his will , and the two cores shattered simultaneously , unleashing years of condensed and refined Dao . Most of it drifted into the swirling clouds , the small motes fusing with soul dust and painting them with their path . Some were thrown over to the opposing spiral , but it was rebuffed and relegated to the outer reaches of the spiral .
One explosion after another followed as Zac detonated the Outer Cores . The glittering dust of his refined inner core gained an increasingly majestic aura . Gone was the matte pastel green leftover from the Moss Core . One spiral now shone an oppressive black , and it felt like just looking at it would suck your soul inside . Opposing it was a divine spiral of utmost Life , illuminating half of his Soul Aperture in magical light .