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Chapter 168 - The Universe Between
🕑 Added 2022-03-23 18:28:34 +0000 UTCA warning sign pops up on Senka's screen, showing that detachment procedures for the colony section have been initiated. She takes note of it and removes the message within a split second to continue her work. Right now, she's using her Limit Break to work as fast as if she were directly plugged into the computers. She's thankful that the input delay is so negligible with this advanced technology that she can do this.
The tesseract's unfolding is documented to her in real-time, although none of the cameras inside the cubic space can capture it. It has already progressed more than halfway to the walls, but the effect of the other side has moved far beyond it. Even here, in this empty command center with no minds to manipulate reality, she can tell that something is changing.
"What are you?" The holographic Shelnir wonders when she watches the doll girl's hands moving at speeds comparable to Rolan's when he uses Roshanee.
Ironically, her Limit Break has a limit. It comes from the spiritual energy she has saved up over time after consuming the life energy from her victims. Once it runs out, she won't be able to so much as move a finger. It's how she ended up in that strange magic store where Chaos ultimately found her. If that happened before she completed her work, it would all be for naught.
"A deus ex machina." Senka takes the time to respond, lining up the sounds of her voice in a meaningful way for those not experiencing the slowed-down world that she sees. She shouldn't have any leeway for conversation, much less with a mental imprint of somebody who is already dead. But watching Chaos and the others' fight against Mataku makes her want to show off.
She has reactivated the force field to contain the tear in space, but it won't hold if there is no physical tesseract left. She is now manually moving and arranging the cube's modular wall sections to create a new core for the Imagination Engine. It's not something a single mind should be able to accomplish on the fly, considering it took a team of many dozens of experts many years to construct it in the first place.
"This can't be happening!" Shelnir complains when she sees a real-time graphic of the cube's walls shifting and floating around on the big screen in the command room. They're already forming into larger structures and taking on a vaguely cuboid shape.
If Senka makes a single mistake in her calculations and the fitting of the pieces, there will be an opening. The unfolding tesseract will crash through that weakness, and all of her work will have been for naught. And at that time, she won't be able to stop it anymore. Even if space and time don't hold much meaning on the other side of the rift, their effects are still very real here.
"You will not end my final revenge!" The Guide of Tomorrow moves through the room toward Senka with her arms outstretched as if trying to choke her. The latter doesn't have the leeway to react to a hologram, especially since her spiritual energy is running dry quicker than she would like.
But to the doll girl's surprise, she senses something brushing against her. And it would seem that Shelnir has noticed as well, as she looks down at her hands. It would seem that her soul, which the Outer One consumed before, has found its way back to this side now that the boundaries of reality have become muddled.
"I'm back?" She seems to realize the truth as her soul overlaps with her mental imprint on the computer. All she needs now is to create a physical body for herself, and she can come back to life.
Before she can even begin to imagine creating a new body, something tucks on her very being. It's not quite like what she experienced when the Outer One sucked her in, but she's terrified at the prospect of being pulled away from this world once more.
"How thoughtful of you." Senka suddenly says in a sinister tone, and Shelnir looks down at the doll girl in shock. A butterfly-shaped pattern of darkness has spread over her eyes and their surroundings like a mask. Her completely black irises seem to suck in the ambient light from the computer screens. "Now, I won't have to worry about running out of energy."
With these words, Senka opens her mouth so wide that the seams holding her cheeks together snap. The inside of her mouth is an abyss that seems to grow before Shelnir's eyes. She realizes too late that rather than the doll girl's maw enlarging, she's being shrunk.
The Guide of Tomorrow's soul is swallowed into Senka without so much as a whimper. The doll girl's eyes return to normal, and she continues to type away on the console before her with newfound energy. Shelnir's holographic version remains in place, glitched out from the computational error of having part of her ripped away in this space of infinite possibilities.
"Thanks for the top-up." That is all Senka mutters as she returns to light-speed work on rebuilding the tesseract. To her, consuming Shelnir's soul was akin to downing an energy drink. With the energy gained from the Old Human's soul, she will be able to finish this long before running out.
A continuous siren blares throughout the colony section. The civilians prepare for the detachment by finding shelter and safe places where they secure themselves to railings. Although the entire Rhodos station has triple-redundant life support systems, including the inertia dampeners and gravity generators, it's always better to be safe than splattered against the walls.
Surprisingly, the system for detaching the colony section is simpler than expected. It shows that Alexander or Elaine prepared for a situation where they had to jettison their new humanity followers. Luckily, it has a heat shield that will protect it from the proximity of the Sun, so at least it wasn't created to erase them all in one go.
As Exla fills General Willis in on the details of their confrontation with Mataku and the state of the Imagination Engine, the others head for the Queen Pelomyx ahead of her. The Maid Corps are still there, barricaded in to keep out the new humans trying to enter and apprehend the intruders. The general has already given the order to let them pass, so they can progress unhindered toward their destination.
Kamii looks at her right arm as they ride an elevator that will take them close to where the Queen Pelomyx is embedded into the outer wall of the Rhodos station. She trusts that Kuroeh will return from this battle against Mataku and reunite with her. Her people are incredibly long-lived, so being separated for two summers as they had been was nothing special. But being given this normal arm shortly before separating feels like it carries some finality to it. As if this was a parting gift.
She glances at Korenga, whose unchanged tattoo-covered pale skin and muscular frame belies the shift in her. Her eyes are no longer wells of blackness and show light and warmth for the first time since they met. Although she carries the powerless and unmoving Elaine under one arm and Kerry on her back, seemingly without feeling their weight, her gaze shows that she senses the gravity of the situation. Before, she would have been unfazed by anything, but there's worry in her mind now.
"She will return." Hestia puts a hand on Kamii's shoulder and speaks in a reassuring tone. She may try to sound confident, but her hand is shaking slightly, showing that even her conviction isn't unwavering. After all, their beloved left to fight a being so far removed from reality that they couldn't even begin to imagine standing up to it.
"She better return soon, or I will take over as the queen of the Dominion." Aurelia comments with a disdainful sniff. Coming from the Golden Queen, it doesn't sound like a joke.
"That would be acceptable." To everybody's surprise, Rewera speaks up about Aurelia's statement. She's not one known to joke either, but they can tell that it must have been a quip. Somebody as loyal to Chaos as the maid leader wouldn't dismiss her merely because she did not return in time.
"I can wait." Tokomaha joins with a shrug. When she says it, they can believe her. Although the Old Humans, such as the Lady of Brilliance traveling with them right now, have been alive for over ten thousand years, they spent most of it in stasis. On the other hand, the little goddess lived for many millennia before Sintress and the others woke up from their slumber.
Rolan keeps quiet and glances at Runa. As a half-elf, her lifespan is quite a bit longer than his, but she isn't ageless like pure-blooded elves. Even without the Imagination Engine, Kamii will live for centuries and Hestia potentially for millennia. With it, they are as immortal as Aurelia, Tokomaha, and Tahiri.
He saw that time and space held no meaning in the realm beyond this one. Who knows how long Chloe and her brethren might take to fight Mataku there? Will he live long enough to see her again? Will any of them?
"I will not wait. If she takes too long, I will go and get her." Tahiri states in a playful tone and interrupts Rolan's grim thoughts. Everybody knows that the other side of that tear in space is a hostile environment not made for mortals, so she's clearly joking. But underneath her careless façade, one can tell that she's also anxious. Eons might pass in the blink of an eye for those on the other side. Chaos might return to find herself alone in this universe.
The party sinks into silence after everybody has expressed their thoughts and wishes. All they can do now is escape the sphere of influence expanding from the damaged tesseract and wait for Chaos and Senka to fix it.
They soon reach the breached area created by the Queen Pelomyx ramming into the Rhodos station's outer shield. The Rhodos station's coating of self-repair nanites has plugged the gaps created in the structure, so they have a breathable atmosphere all the way to one of the airlocks of the city-ship.
The soldiers standing by with their breaching equipment silent see their approach and raise their weapons reflexively, but Sintress's glowing halo informs them of their identity. Although the new humans are angry about the damage these invaders caused to their station, they follow General Willis's orders and let them through unchallenged.
"Welcome back!" As the party boards the ship, they are greeted by Kleihn's voice. "Lady Exla has informed me of the situation, and I have prepared the Queen Pelomyx's systems for departure."
Sintress blinks her eyes in fascination, then glances at Sigurd without him noticing. She's an Old Human, but she has no idea how to operate any of the technology that Alverost created after they awakened from stasis. In that regard, she truly admires the adaptability of the new humanity and demonkind. Although she may be immortal due to the Imagination Engine, her children are not. She believes that they each come to surpass her in one or more aspects during their short lives, showing that life truly only has meaning when there is an end to it.
Aurelia has noticed the Lady of Brilliance's gaze but doesn't speak up. She can roughly tell what Sintress is thinking but disagrees. Living forever carries with it a duty toward those who don't. And she believes the Old Human has done her best to fulfill it. As they walk through the corridors of the city-ship, the Golden Queen considers what it is that she must do as the potential future queen of the Dominion.
They split up at the elevators, with Korenga and Kerry bringing the listless Elaine to the infirmary. The others head for the command center, where they are greeted by Exla's face on the giant main screen. All systems are blinking green, showing they're ready to move despite a decided lack of crew.
"The ship was built so that a single person can fly it. You can do it, Kleihn." The cloud girl encourages the gremlin maid sitting in the commander's chair. The latter shows off her sharp teeth in a fearless grin and inputs something on the console before her. "The influence from beyond has reached the outskirts of the colony section. Get ready to depart on my signal."
With these words, Exla's face vanishes as she turns away. Everybody can hear her speak, but they can't tell what she's saying since she's too far from the microphone. A moment later, she returns to look at the camera, an encouraging smile on her face.
"Detachment procedures will take a little more time. Leave without me. I'll catch up to you." She says, trying her best to sound reassuring.
"What about the people of the Rhodos station?" Sintress argues, knowing that the remaining core section of the Queen Pelomyx couldn't even hold a thousand people, let alone the millions living in Rhodos city.
"We'll do our best." Exla replies with a wry smile. There really is nothing else she could say. Evacuating the city onto the many ships of the Rhodos garrison forces would take far longer than the detachment procedures. And even if they had the time, there would still not be enough capacity for all of them.
All they can hope is that Senka will succeed in rebuilding the tesseract and reinitializing the Imagination Engine before reality is overwritten by the thoughts of the people in the Rhodos station. Any single negative imagination could cause devastation, both physically and mentally.
"You're good to go." After a moment of somber silence, Exla finally gives the signal for their departure. The garrison soldiers waiting around the airlock to the Queen Pelomyx have evacuated to places that won't be depressurized when the ship pulls out of the Rhodos station's hull. "Don't think about staying around in the vicinity and coming to our aid. Go back to Earth. I'll return with Chaos and Senka."
"I'll hold you to that promise." Kamii points at the screen with her normal right hand and declares, eliciting a chuckle from the cloud girl. But she doesn't reply and cuts off the connection as if saying it aloud would jinx them.
Hestia clasps her hands in prayer. She doesn't pray to any of the gods she was taught about or even one of the Old Humans. If there is somebody who can bring Chaos back, it's Chaos herself. And she has more than proven that she is a goddess.
Our fists clash. Since there is no atmosphere in space, there are no shockwaves. Instead, the sheer gravity between our masses as they smash together causes the surrounding stars to be pulled in toward our contact points. As our hands draw back, entire galaxies swarm around our forearms.
This is still the Outer One's realm even though Mataku has gathered all its mass into him. Reality has no meaning here, so the space can be filled with the universe of the Outer One's unconscious dreams and the physical manifestation of Mataku's will in the shape of a monstrous humanoid.
Our battle has devolved into a slugfest seemingly devoid of any meaning. Physical attacks are useless against our kind, especially with the unfathomable mass we possess now. But our imagination is what limits Mataku to playing at our level. He can't swallow us due to Korenga's curse, and we can't hurt him because he is a literal universe of matter and space. In other words, turning him physical allows us to fight him.
At this point, he may possess a billion times more mass than we do, but the difference isn't as overwhelming due to our collective imagination. Still, it is as if we were back in a human body, fighting a professional boxer twice our weight.
But we make up our lack of strength with ingenuity. Kamii's curse still works, and each strike scatters Mataku's matter into the surrounding stars. But he collects himself quickly each time and follows up with newfound rage.
Suddenly, he grows countless tentacle spikes from his forearm, aiming at all our vitals at once. Our left fist turns into a giant drill lance powered by jets of ignited celestial gas. It crushes through the array of spikes coming for us and pierces the Primordial Terror's fist before shredding his forearm. It's Svanhild, the Dragon Knight's favored weapon.
Mataku doesn't let up and performs a kick toward our midsection. We grow a pair of cosmic wings and beat them to put distance between us before unleashing a barrage of stars from the tips of their feathers. It's an application of Hestia's wings with Kleihn's mechanical wing covers and their inbuilt lasers.
The Primordial Terror charges through the storm of beams that would annihilate galaxies and attempts to tackle us even though his damage isn't fully repaired yet. But we can tell it's not desperation or pain that drives him; he is merely enraged that we continue to exist in this realm when it should be fully under his control. And it's true that, by all accounts, he shouldn't need this much time to annihilate us.
"What's wrong? Where is your absolute power?" Asoko comes to the forefront and taunts Mataku as we dodge his lunge with a swift beat of our wings. We can tell that she's using this attitude to hide her nervousness, but I let my confidence flow into her to calm her down.
But her words already show their effect, as the Primordial Terror roars and spins around while turning his tentacle arms into several titanic blades to cut us apart. Uten and Saten counter it by splitting our arms into the same to meet them.
As the cosmic edges collide, they generate sparks that each birth a new star. Such is the scale of our battle that all that came before seem insignificant.
The first battle at the academy, the territorial dragon, the duel against Aurelia, the return to the academy, the first meeting with Zenlith, the many contests with Tahiri, the defense of Aoranam, confronting Rapania, the Black God's rampage, teaming up against Roamukao, the siege of Kairaki, Mataku's revelation, the battle for Arkaim, foiling Shelnir over Zohigal, the invasion's climax at Erbilan, Zylos's meltdown, Zenlith and Serent, Oinos in Kairaki, Alverost and his city-ship, Chaos-Juzual on the moon, the Venus Fleet, the wrath of the Sun, the Collective's takeover, the Oinos clones, Elaine's final evolution...
All of those battles led us to this moment. Even if they were child's play compared to what we face now, we will use everything we learned along the way.
As the blades clash repeatedly, we grow a new pair of arms underneath them and gather the newly created stars into one galaxy-sized sphere of pure energy around our right fist. When Mataku notices it, it's already too late, and we hit his chin with a spinning uppercut. The impact force shatters his head, causing his interior to bleed into the surroundings.
We don't let up and shoot his body with the wing lasers as we take our distance, then reverse thrust and slash into him with the bladed tentacles. Although there's nothing to stand on in space, Mataku staggers as he quickly gathers back into a humanoid form.
But before the deep gashes in his form close, we extend our tentacles inside them and unleash Tokomaha's growth. Roots take hold inside his body and spread quickly. The Primordial Terror bursts open from within a moment later, and a cosmic tree grows to fill out this infinite space.
Mataku wouldn't let that stop him, though. He quickly pulls himself together and entangles the tree with his matter to consume it. We induce a spin into the many stars around us and transform the energy into an electric discharge that whips through the universe. It's conducted by the tree and explodes into the Crawling Chaos clinging to it. In a massive lightning blast that would make Tahiri proud, his matter is scattered into the cosmic background.
It gives us a short breather, but we prepare ourselves for the next round. After all, there is no way he could be defeated by only this much.
The universe swirls around us, and from the stars themselves, a new Mataku is created. Now, all human vestiges are gone, and he doesn't have a perceivable face anymore. He's a vast field of tentacles speckled with starlight - countless close stars and distant galaxies woven into the fabric of his very being. Once more, he has become the universe around us.
"Are you done already?" We ask in a challenging tone. Our senses have adjusted now, and we can feel the light of movement even when it surrounds us like this. Mataku is definitely planning something.
That's when the universe comes down on us once more. But unlike the first time when he tried to swallow us, he attacks with every celestial phenomenon imaginable and unimaginable. Streams of hot gases surround us and sear our surface. We react by coating our skin in the Black God's curse.
Then, a rain of neutron stars, accelerated by the spinning gravity of supermassive black holes, pummels us from all around. As before, the limits of Korenga's resilience are shown here, at the edge of possibility. Entire galaxies melded together and made critical to explode into supernovae against our body, shattering our armor into stardust.
Yet, the soft flesh of a Crawling Chaos underneath it is better suited for weathering a hard attack such as this one. We absorb the neutron stars and supernovae into our body as if they were nourishment.
"Keep going. Give us all you got." Asoko taunts once more, and I quickly pull her back under. But it's already too late as Mataku realizes he's only making us stronger and changes his approach. He comes down on us again to melt us into him while at the same time continuing his barrage of cosmic attacks. We can't grow Korenga's armor to defend against him this time and are engulfed by the vast Primordial Terror.
"I cannot keep you all separate from this." Flann's voice reaches our minds, sounding strained by the pressure of trying to maintain our boundaries. She has already been doing her best to keep the four of us separate, but Mataku's overwhelming consciousness is a different matter altogether.
We unleash a blast of energy from our entire surface in an attempt to dissuade the Primordial Terror's attempt at swallowing us. But considering he's made of energy himself, Mataku merely consumes it the same way we did earlier.
Then I have a thought and take the helm alone. Our skin turns to gold, and Mataku's encroachment stops. I remember when I ate Aurelia and tried to digest her, but nothing happened. Be it the strength of her imagination that made her golden body impossible to corrode even for a Crawling Chaos, or merely my lack of imagination back then, it works now. Whereas the Primordial Terror couldn't come in contact with the Black god at all, he can touch but not consume the Golden Queen.
At this point, Mataku is no longer speaking. Perhaps breaking him apart earlier has erased all remaining traits of his humanity, and all that's left is the wish to eat this foreign body within him. As his tentacles move across our surface, we consider how to best destroy him now that he has returned to being space itself.
Suddenly, our surroundings begin to heat up. Trillions of galaxies swirl about our body, their movement generating immeasurable heat beyond what we could have imagined. The entire universe is compressing on us from all around as if Mataku is attempting to return everything to the initial singularity.
We always thought that a Crawling Chaos's greatest weakness was fire when my worldview was still limited. But the truth is that absolute zero and infinite heat are still extremes even cosmic gods can't overcome easily.
The many layers of our gold coating evaporate under the immense heat. Mataku is still trying to eat us while he melts us down, so it's only a matter of time until he whittles away our mass. We have to come up with countermeasures beyond anything we've tried before, or this will be our end.
"Don't worry, we got this." Uten and Saten speak in our mind in unison, sounding as self-confident as they never have. But we're connected, so I can tell that they're trying to convince themselves.
"Even the end of this universe won't stop us from returning to ours." Asoko declares fearlessly in an attempt to grandstand. She doesn't come across as convincing, but she speaks my mind.
"Universes... dimensions..." I realize something when I consider my other half's statement. With a thought, Asoko and the twins are on the same page with me. They understand that what I will attempt to do could very well lead to our demise. But it's worth a try given these circumstances. "Let's see if this theory is correct."
