Turns out, finding Stellar Essence inside of the void and bending it to Arden’s will was a lot tougher than he initially thought.

  It had been a long time since Arden started this endeavor, but he had made very little progress.

  All he had been able to do reliably was locate the Stellar Essence. It was vaguely familiar to him, as he had felt it once before taking the plunge off the cliff, and remembered Vera’s words. All he had to do was focus on the memory of that feeling, and he could feel the Stellar Essence out there in the void. It would take some time to get himself across the void to whatever empty corner of existence the Stellar Essence called home.

  Along the way, Arden was pleasantly surprised by how calm the void was. No monsters four times his strength attacked him. No hooded assassins with a hard-on for homicide either. His serene mood was ruined somewhat by the realization that this was his own mind, so the emptiness could be representative of his mental capacity. In other words, his head was empty.

  “I don't buy it,” he had said to himself at the time. “I think I've got some good brains.”

  The first time he found the Stellar Essence had surprised Arden.

  Flowing like a golden river, the Stellar Essence carved a path through the empty void somewhere above Arden. Its radiant light mesmerized Arden as he slowly ascended towards it. When he was level with the Stellar Essence, he extended his hand towards it, and it recoiled away like a scared snake. In less than a second, the Stellar Essence flew away over the horizon leaving a comet trail behind and a very annoyed Arden scowling in its direction.

  “God damn it.”

  That was the first time. The second and third times were very similar to the first. On the fourth time, he tried imposing his will on the glowing energy, just to test what would happen.

  “This is my soul!”

  It resulted in Arden crumbling to the ground in pain after what felt like a bolt of lightning striking him. Rejected.

  He flipped himself onto his back and watched with a sigh as the Stellar Essence moved to pastures new. So he did what Arden did best while in here. He started thinking.

  “If it rejects domination, maybe I should be a bit more passive with it next time.”

  The next time, he extended his right hand towards the energy. Like it was a cat, the energy slowly approached his hand. It slowly coiled around his arm and entered it through his skin.

  “Ooh that feels good.”

  He closed his eyes and smiled. Despite being trapped in his own mind after his head was caved in in a sadistic trial meant to push him to the edge, he felt truly comfortable.

  “Now what?”

  Immediately his arm exploded in a violent mess of gore, and the Stellar Essence flew away in a flash of golden light only slightly discolored by the carnage. Arden yelled in pain and held his left hand over the spurting wound. As his hand slowly regrew, the irony was not lost on him that he lost another hand due to his personal actions.

  “At least no teeth were involved this time,” he muttered, as his hand reappeared in perfect condition.

  He balled it into a fist and clenched it a few times just to make sure that it was alright. Arden heaved a sigh and sat down with his legs dangling off of nothing like he was sitting at the edge of a cliff.

  “I need to think more about this. Clearly, Stellar Essence isn't meant to be used by Mundanes. My arm getting torn apart was probably proof of that. But my body is fine in here, as this isn't my physical body.”

  Arden leaned over with his elbows on his knees and his forehead resting on his right hand. He closed his eyes and continued thinking aloud.

  “To absorb it into me, I need to be passive, but after that,” he trailed off. “I need to use the Stellar Essence quickly if I don't want it to burst again. I don't know how to use it, but I’ll figure it out at some point. I’ll just throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. I’m more of a learn by doing guy anyway.”

  If this were on the outside, Arden would never have even considered this method. Brute forcing control over the essence would kill him a hundred times over in reality, but here, he would be fine. As shown with the destruction and recreation of his right hand moments ago, he had dominion over his spiritual body here.

  The soul was inviolable. The essence was invited in, so it was able to run rampant. But it was Arden’s soul. Here, he had dominion. So long as he didn't give up, he could keep coming back and healing.

  Arden stood up and began the arduous journey to where the Stellar Essence had flown to.

  Like last time, the process of absorbing the essence went smoothly, but what came after was anything but. He had a mental picture of the Stellar Essence emerging from his arms and draping itself around him like a haze. He gently prodded the energy inside of him, starting from his heart like he was taught.

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  It responded by tearing itself out of Arden’s chest and flying away at Arden’s agonized yell. He didn’t try to look down at the wound, but he imagined it looked like chewed up berries. He ignored the image and sat down to recuperate.

  On his seventh attempt, he tried forcing the energy out of him with the same mental picture that caused his previous injury. This time his chest exploded, instead of the essence just tearing through him. He groaned in pain and exasperation, mostly pain, and got to healing.

  On the eighth attempt, he only focused on the mental image of the energy surrounding him. He didn’t try and force it, prod it, or coerce it. If being aggressive didn't work, and neither did being passive, the only logical step to take was to do absolutely nothing.

  For a moment. Nothing happened. Then Arden noticed the essence was hovering around him just like he imagined. Then he fell to the ground with blood pouring out of every orifice. With his body broken, the essence moved on.

  As he healed, Arden couldn't help but laugh. He figured it out. He learned how to contain Stellar Essence, and how to exert a modicum of control. And as a Mundane no less! Ideas ran through his head as he healed and the blood faded away.

  “Almost there.”

  Arden’s momentum was crushed soon after. Every time following his eighth attempt, his body would fall apart the same way and the energy would move on. It didn’t seem to matter how he varied his approach, it would always end the same way.

  After the 40th attempt he sat down in a fit of rage. He once again sat with his legs hanging over nothing and cradled his forehead in his hand. This time though, his nails were digging into his forehead as he glared over the vast expanse of emptiness.

  “Think, Arden, think! You have the essence inside of you, but you can’t properly control it, and it won’t heal you. Podren was able to heal people, so why can’t I? What’s the difference between us?”

  Arden groaned as the obvious answer came to him.

  “He was a Starborn already. He had the powers that allowed him to do it. He had the blueprints for a house, and the materials, while I only have the materials. But I can’t emulate that! The one thing that has stayed constant ever since the StarFall was that your powers are dependent on the results of your trial. There is no way around lacking the powers granted by the Status!”

  Arden furrowed his brows as a thought occurred. He tapped his chin.

  “So what if I can’t emulate the powers of a Starborn? I can’t even control the essence properly. It would take forever to learn how to control the energy alone, not to mention copy Podren’s powers.”

  His tapping stopped.

  “But what if I just copy the properties of a Starborn? They are stronger than the average Mundane and possess a strong healing factor. I can’t copy Podren’s powers, but maybe I don’t need them. What if I become Starborn enough to heal my body?”

  Arden’s mind raced as he tried to figure out how to accomplish the task.

  “I need a Stellar Core. Every Starborn has powers, Stellar Essence, and a core to go alongside both. According to Vera, the core produces and circulates essence around the body, as well as acting as a shield to prevent the energy from harming the human body. I don’t need to recreate powers; the innate properties of a Starborn is more than enough for what I need.

  Arden stood with a wild grin and raced towards where the Stellar Essence had flown to.

  “An artificial Starborn, huh? The girls would go crazy if they heard that.”

  The essence moved through the empty space as Arden approached. He could hear his heart beating in his healed chest and feel sweat roll down his face. He didn’t bother to question why he was sweating in his mind.

  All of his attention was focused on making a core.

  Before he extended his hand to let in the essence, he thought about what it would look like.

  He pictured a small red marble, identical to the ones dropped by the skeletons from the Mausoleum of the Maverick and the Spawn of the Stonelord. The difference was, while those cores were still with nothing circulating inside, Arden’s would have golden energy swirling inside the marble.

  His core would be active, so it made sense to have Stellar Essence circulating. It would not be a vestige of power. It would be an active engine.

  Arden extended his hand with stoic determination on his face.

  “This'll be the last time.”

  He didn’t have any evidence that it would end up alright this time. He just had faith, and a burning desire to finish the trial. To him, that was all he needed.

  Arden let the Essence in. Once it was all consumed by him, Arden quickly sat down in a meditative position.

  He focused on the image of his perceived core. He focused on the act of Stellar Essence condensing into a solid shape. He did nothing but imagine the warm energy doing what he wanted it to.

  Arden felt his body getting warmer, focused around his chest. The essence was resisting. Arden’s nose started to leak a trail of blood, but he ignored it. Even when it crossed his lips and chin, he ignored it.

  The only thing he thought of was slowly condensing orb of stellar essence.

  The golden energy inside of him began taking on an amorphous spherical shape. It was like an orb of water, each edge bobbing in the current.

  Warm blood trickled out of Arden’s ears as he focused more.

  When the orb of energy grew smaller and tighter inside of Arden, it started lashing out with more ferocity. Each time it flared up, Arden would lose more blood, but he didn't care.

  He was so close.

  His body was incredibly hot. It felt like he was burning himself alive, but he refused to yield. The energy inside him continued to fight back against his control. It was just like Arden. Defiant until the end.

  They were a perfect match.

  The energy gave one last defiant struggle in the form of surging power that threatened to rip Arden apart.

  Arden coughed up blood as the amorphous blob of golden energy’s resistance ended. Arden opened his eyes and gasped for air, which caused him to cough up even more blood. He continued coughing up blood for several minutes before he managed to clear his spiritual airway.

  He placed a hand to his chest and felt his heartbeat. Unlike before, there was a strange, warm energy with it. It was almost electric.

  Arden stood up triumphantly. He could feel the energy flowing through his entire body, from his head to his toes.

  He had done it.

  He formed a Stellar Core.

  On his 41st attempt, he wrestled control of Stellar Essence, and became an artificial Starborn.