Pitch-black darkness. Everything was cold and numb. Dross could feel the life escaping his body, as his barely active subconsciousness was experiencing the effects of the shimmering. It felt as he was present in many places at once, and for a brief moment he was able to grasp a hold on the invisible; the veil containing Prius, the source of all arcane energy. It was calling for him, wanting to recollect his essence for the next cycle. And he accepted the offered hand; Dross felt his soul fading away into the veil, ready to be taken in for another round. Dross' subconsciousness was ready; ready, finally letting go of it all. But something pulled him back - trying to keep him in the now; Far away voices and memories were calling towards him, shards of himself screaming to him from all directions. They were aching to be kept together as a single individual, but neither them nor he was strong enough . . .they have never been.
His soul widened, grew like a sun in its dying moments to an enormous size, and the voices vanished. The threads of his self were straightened, aching ready to be torn apart . . . begging to rip apart. But then, right in the final moment, when Dross felt that the strain was getting too much, a bright light suddenly appeared all around his soul. The light reached closer with every second passing its form got clearer. A thin, carefully woven net of arcane energy . . . no. There was more behind it - it felt like divine energy, a true sensation. The net caught the escaping parts of his soul before the veil was able to claim them as their own. The gleaming net slowly closed in, and Dross felt his scattered memories returning to their owner. That was it! The saving grace for his lost soul. Getting compressed back into a single, stable piece by that divine power. It getting recreated as it once was . . . no, in even better.
The memory of the god of knowledge calling his father the true God of creation flew past his subconsciousness to be reintegrated into the puzzle that was his self. Dross realized that this was his doing, Demiurg was currently fixing his shimmering soul and with what power! The doubts from before vanished all at once, got washed away by the only truth. That was a power no mortal nor Eternal could ever hope to be able to harness from. It was too strong, too potent . . . too beautiful.
The net was now quite close to Dross' position, holding everything of his self in its grasp. Dross realized what was about to happen and braced himself for the unavoidable impact of his on himself, and that led by the powers of a god. Then the parts collided with him and the net got pulled shut. The pressure was rising, and the heat was unbearable when the net compressed Dross' soul back into one piece. He got molten down and reformed at the same time into a resilient core of a soon to be massive planet that will be his new self. In a moment of brief tranquillity, Dross was able to feel the divine presence of Demiurg, who was now pulling in his catch. Dross couldn't help himself and ignored his own beliefs, letting out a thank-you prayer towards this unknown god. Upon receiving the words, the net's owner grew in power and might and pulled him with a single, enormous pull out of his demise. But just when he thought, he could get a view on the behind pulling the net, a heart-shaped casket was closing itself around his core; imprisoning him inside his very own miniature cosmos, enough space to give his newly reformed planet core the necessary space to expand and enough restrictions to be unable to fall again for the darkness, that was the veil. At the moment the casket closed down, his subconscious did as well.
...
A while later, was it minutes, or hours, or even days - weeks!? A single spark of life struck through the casket awaking now Dross' reformed consciousness out of the below. The time had come; he was able to feel it quite clearly. Dross was unsure what exactly was happening, but it was happening now. He wasn't a goner; E.V.0 and Demiurg did it! He will arise again! But Dross felt that there was still much missing, patience got required for this. Then a second crackle struck into his new core. The microcosms, that was his soul, was heating up forming matter out of the energy it got bombarded with. His core started spinning, and with each arriving bolt, it harnessed the new food, pulling it in in long bands. A planet was in the process of forming; he got created once again. And that slowly, but surely!
...
Dross was now hovering for a felt eternity as a personified idea inside of his soul, watching the scene of him rebuilding himself, as another shock arrived. But that one was different; it had a different colour and sound. Suddenly his personified idea was wearing headphones, and he was able to hear voices talking from the beyond. Dross heard Raja's voice asking around if she could be of any help. He heard Unimata and E.V.0 trying to explain Raja, what they were currently doing; they sounded quite happy. Then Terminus' voice rose, announcing to all, that Dross' soul had now access to its hearing modules again - he rubbed his imaginary ears - no kidding. It felt like an eternity, since Dross heard any of them, so he laid back in his retreat, and listened to Raja encouraging him. Now to wait for his other senses to arrive.
...
As smell and vision got eventually added to his repertoire, Dross was sitting inside a tiny room at the outer edge of the microcosmos, that was his mind. He was watching how his planet was rapidly going through an evolution; the oceans had just been created, and the first life started to thrive. With the arrival of two more senses, his imaginary self got a few new tools. Additional to his headphones, he got provided with a pilot mask and was now able to smell the dirty air around him again. Dross was now sitting in a blank cockpit without any buttons, and a big screen started flickering up in front of him. Dross was able to make out through the screen the wires growing out of the ceiling, reaching down to his new body. He was suspecting, that he was currently laying on an operating table, and he was able to see his friends busily walking around operating on screens or working on his body. Dross quickly realized that this screen was covering his entire future field of vision. He was able to see so much more than before, while still being unable to move his head. The screen, that was on Changeling's face . . .the entire screen was his new eye, and it covered so much more! Dross looked around him, feeling the empty cockpit. Everything, that was currently missing inside his base of operation, was a way of speaking as well as a joystick and engines for motion and feeling. He was sure, that those will be returning as well at one point, but not before he will finally get resurrected. All this was a mere teaser he could enjoy while waiting for his friends, for them to finish their work on his body and soul; concluding the construction.
This chapter is very clear. Great idea and concepts at play.