Chapter 40 Lovely Fairies.
We are greeted by an army of golems, forming rows upon rows that seem to fade into the background. If I did not feel the vital energy radiating from them, I would have thought that they were merely armored humans. I guess she pulled out all the stops, since she has real guests this time, not just one person who owes her his life in a way and has to pass an annoying trial.
I hold back my annoyance for the girls' sake and make my way forward. I am here to check some stuff and show this place to the girls, so the sight does not interest me much. However, I still let the girls wonder at the spectacle. Ammit comes out to play, too. She would not want to miss the fairies. That puts a smile on my face.
We enter through large doors leading to the main hall. Followed by the party, I make my way to the throne and bow curtly to the little girl sitting on the throne.
Arianna "Welcome! And welcome back, you two! I take it that you were successful in your mission? That was a lot faster than I anticipated!?"
"Well, success and failure are not the whole case here. Ari! That sword entered my body and I can't find it anymore! I'm sorry!!!"
Dogeza!
Ari "Pfff.... Giggles..... Hahahahaha!"
"What the hell!?"
Ari "That sword entered my body! .. Pfff WAHAHAHAHA! I-I can't find it anymore, HAHA...."
She is literally rolling around on her throne, which is far too big for her.
(If I was alone... It would be fine, but she is insulting me in front of my conquests! ARG! DAMN IT! She is actually so much more powerful than me... sniff. What a greeting. I will get back at you later, you little girl!)
Once she is done wiping her tears of laughter away, we get down to business.
Ari "You don't have to worry about the sword. I am a lot more worried about you, dear. After all, this is a primordial, sentient treasure, predating God itself. If she is inside you, that means she has business there. She is waiting for me to pull her out, actually."
Arianna extends her tiny hand toward my forehead from meters away. When she calls to the sword, a strange thing occurs.
"HAAAAARRRGGG!"
It feels like a hundred mirror images and sounds are multiplying from my forehead, extending to the sword that is now appearing in her hand. My body stays in place, but I feel myself passing through different spaces. Afterimages can be seen trailing from my body to Ari's hand, where the handle of the sword sticks out of my forehead.
She puts her other hand on it, and:
- Crick! Crash! -
The sound of shattered glass reverberates in the hall. My body falls to the floor, eyes wide open.
"SAM!"
The shout comes from five different voices at once. The girls grasp my warm body.
Tenka "Not again!"
Katriel "Does this type of thing happen often?"
Salaba "Not often like this, but he has almost died a few times now."
Sam's P.O.V., somewhere hot and stinky
I open my eyes and find myself standing in front of the Grim Reaper.
"Seriously! What is this?"
Looking around, I realize I am in the mythological Underworld. In the distance, I can see the golden Samsara River. I see the souls of the dead, skeletons walking about, and ghosts, you name them.
??? "YOU!!!!!! CAN'T ESCAPE FROM ME!"
"Sorry to break it to you, but I never ran from you in the first place! And now, you think you can judge me! FUCK YOU!"
The large skeleton seems to become even larger. He slowly raises his hand and points directly at my forehead. I can feel the space stretching again, just like what happened in the throne room. Once his finger touches my third eye, a shockwave blasts him apart. The sound of a giant gong resounds loudly through space.
Before I retreat, I can see the large skeleton's true face. It is missing half of a rotten human face, looking like neither man nor woman. One of its arms is missing, and its tattered robes are ripped off and flying to the winds.
Reaper "ARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!"
Back in the throne room
A dark, purple light shoots out from Sam's forehead, and the Sword of Destiny flies from Ari's hand just as fast and collides with the purple light.
BONG...wongwongwongwong!
The sound reverberates through space and time. The whole reality shakes from the collision between the two primordial weapons. Ordinary people struggle to stay on their feet everywhere in the world. The shockwave spreads to other stars in space, reaching a magnitude never seen since "The God" moved this planet from its original spot. However, this is only around one eighth of that power, appearing just in a shockwave instead of a spell.
Two swords now fall to the floor. Except for the color and the writings on the blade, which I cannot read, they are identical. One is silver with black runes etched into the center of the blade, featuring a golden dragon handle. The other is a shiny dark purple with white and gold runes, finished with a black dragon handle. Right now, they are both sized for human use. In fact, they are sized perfectly for my use: around a 1.5 meter blade, a 35 centimeter handle, and a 15 centimeter guard.
(So, this is the primordial stage of power? Amazing! I can't begin to imagine a god wielding it. They can't fight in this time space, heck, not even in this reality at this point! They would shatter our world if they did!)
I wobbly get up from the ground. I just think about it, and the purple sword flashes into my third eye and disappears.
Ari and I look at each other, completely dumbfounded.
"I think your sword just protected me from death itself! At least, the death from my past life...? Plus, she stole his, or her, weapon?"
Ari "Of course she did. After all, Lydi is the one who asked her to help you."
I think of the tapestry of time. Strangely enough, it responds.
Swish!
The wall by our side gets filled with the tapestry. This time, it takes up the whole wall, and I feel that I have perfect control over it.
I look at Arianna, who has her mouth wide agape.
Ari "Ho... How is that possible!"
"Hey! Who is a few thousand years old here? How could I know how I got my hands on a primordial treasure? And how can it control your tapestry?"
Khonsu suddenly appears from my forehead.
Khonsu "What the hell is this? I was sleeping soundly when a sword just fell from the sky, straight into the purple brazier, and started changing my temple! Damn it!"
"Hoooo~ Yes! I can feel it. She is mending the damage from the battle with Ammit's mother and fixing our mistakes in the power aspects. During our evolution, bad things got in our body, like radiation..."
I can feel the structure of my mind becoming firm and organized. My power channels are reshaping themselves, and my soul gets toned down by a lot. Only a small bit of my soul power can flow into my vessel now. I gain complete control over my powers!
I look at my status and realize I still have the same stats as before, but she has removed all the limiters. It is only indicating one number instead of two, accounting for the now nonexistent maximum potential.
It feels amazing. I don't feel like I am restraining myself anymore. My current stats have doubled already. Everything seems clearer now. I breathe in the pure air of this place.
"Seems like I made a new friend. I will name you Mirai no Shinjitsu, as in Future Truth. I might not be true today, but I will strive to make it true tomorrow."
I can feel the hum she lets go in approval, vibrating from my soul palace to every cell in my body. It is like she sees my potential and corrects the missing bits to make sure I steer in the right direction. And all of this is according to my will, apparently!
(What a nice sword! That is Death's ability for you. Did I actually steal his weapon!? No, impossible. She came to me of her own free will!?)
The sword hums again, and then the tapestry rolls back to millions of years ago, when "God" activated the planetary array. My eyes lose their focus, and I watch the information that comes to play in front of me.
In space, above the planet Yollan
When you are working with a universal scale array that operates above light speed, you are bound to get some unexpected results. God actually transported a whole solar system across the universe at an instant speed. This is one of the things he did not account for one hundred percent because it is out of our perspective, and he had a time limit to save this world. Dying here, or there, did not make a difference in the end. They just hoped for success.
Disasters were already striking Yollan when they activated the array. They could not wait any longer.
From the outside, you can see the planet exuding beams of light that converge and collide in the darkness of space. All around the system, stars begin to appear. The system gets cut off from the space outside.
It is just like what happened to me when Ari pulled the Sword of Destiny from me. From this position to the position that Yollan occupies now, millions of trillions of miles away, afterimages appear and disappear in a mere second. It looks just like two mirrors reflecting each other. Once it passed, space seems to wiggle back to its rightful place, minus the system that was there before. However, the implosion is covered by the incoming cosmic disaster.
On the way, Yollan crossed paths with many worlds and realities. Sam, who was embracing his death at that moment, got snatched from between realities. This happened to six different entities.
Following the tapestry showing me the life of each transmigrator, I come to know that they all came from higher realities than mine and Yollan's. They either died and went back to their own cycles or went back there themselves. In the process, they shared some knowledge about higher states of being. In turn, this created a batch of godlings from a new faction. In the end, after millions of years, they became all the same, mixed in the tapestry extending back to an entirely new tapestry. However, I cannot see far into this other world's tapestry because, like I said, they have higher states of being.
There is one white line, though, that was always left by itself, not belonging to any worlds. It is a soul that escaped the Reaper but has been stuck for millions of years, his astral body wandering about in the forest. He spent that time listening to the symphony of nature. It was a soul that was awaiting judgment, thanks to his parents' religious teachings, chuckle.
This continued until the day when Elnora, one of the self-made godlings, found him and decided to help him, just a bit. In the end, she used a massive amount of energy for this act and even lost a friend along the way.
My story continues until today. My solo line, which was previously not touching the tapestry, is now fused with it. A new tapestry comes out of the void from my old world, mixing in with the one from Yollan.
(Did I just change the whole world!?)
The sword hums, and the tapestry in the void presents its extinct story. I actually closed a loop in time, created by the Sword of Destiny, that hid me all this time while waiting for this day...
Before I died, the Earth did not have that many years left for humans. When I was snatched from Death's jaws, this created chaos in the Underworld. It was just like the flapping of a butterfly's wings causing a storm. Earth felt the waves and started its apocalypse, which was partially blamed on the humans experimenting with snatching souls. Slowly, all life became extinct from the globe. Only one soul was missing since the beginning of time. Death, unwilling to gift it its freedom, cast his spell to bring the soul back to the Underworld. His spell crossed space and time to reach us today, traveling from a few million years in the past and millions of trillions of miles away.
Lucky for me. The Sword of Destiny, which is about ten thousand times stronger and belongs to a stronger world for a lot longer than Mirai, my sword, protected my soul. Death suffered a huge backlash from the spell and the attack caused by the primordial weapons colliding. He lost his own weapon in the other reality and space-time. By now, it is too late to do anything, as this was his or her own primordial tool used to do what he or she just did. The only way I would come to him or her is if he decided to come here himself. It would be challenging, especially since he knows that life on Earth is extinct, so gaining back his lost power might be more challenging. Or if Death can find another primordial weapon, which is also impossible since they choose their users, then he or she could come here... The time loop just closed, but it would take forever to come here, even at the speed of light.
God or I are the ones who caused the apocalypse in my world... LOL. The worst part is wondering how many worlds did we destroy on the way? Yes, I can now see myself as part of this world integrally, thanks to Mirai and this incident with the tapestry.
The limit is the power that I can use, in exchange for its action. It is equivalent exchange, but resulting in destruction, using it to make the target disappear forever from the world. While the Sword of Destiny also uses equivalent exchange, it tends to blast the power back into the environment. This created the gong sound from earlier, since Mirai cannot absorb all the power from the Sword of Destiny. Crazy...
Back in the castle and in my body
I come back to myself to find that not even a minute has passed in the real world, while I saw millennia of history flash in front of my eyes—history that Mirai judges important for me to know. All that the girls could see is the tapestry and my eyes moving left and right at the speed of light, processing all the Intel that was being crammed into my brain.
I realize that the sword has been protecting me since the very day I appeared in this world. It was not just five years ago, but millions of years ago. She delayed Death's spell in a loop until today. The best proof is simply asking: why would a sentient primordial weapon accept to play with a boy who is less than an ant in its eyes? God could move planets, and he used the sword before gifting it to the fairies.
It was waiting for me...
I get some information on what a primordial tool actually is. They are shaped after the user's perceptions. In my case, it is currently a sword, but now it is invisible because it is like nanobots made of power, residing in between every cell and power channel in my body.
They are not actual matter, but energy that was there during the creation of this reality and dimension. There is a fraction of a second when the primordial energy is everything and nothing, creating two types of primordial energies: destruction and construction. The beauty of it is that destruction is a painting just as much as creation is. The example is the two swords that collided. Mine represents destruction and is darker, while hers is silver and gold, gleaming brightly. It has no relation to evil or good, just the two original energies of this world that get found by powerful people and used as tools.
Mirai was bored and chose to come here because of the potential that Death severed and stagnated. She hates stagnation, as her desire to destroy needs movement and creation. It is a paradox from the beginning of time that is tied to the very concept that I put in my mindscape and evolution, and it is the reason why she chose me as her wielder.
I bow to the sword, which has returned to its tiny form in Arianna's hand.
"Thank you!"
Before we can continue on the subject, the original Sword of Destiny flies to the section of the tapestry depicting today's events and slashes through it. A blinding flash of light passes through the hall, and the girls forget all about Mirai no Shinjitsu. Only Ari remembers, but she is not stupid enough to go against her toy's wishes.
All they remember is that we successfully brought back the sword that Ari was waiting for. I will also keep the secret.
"On to the next subject! I need more Aresnium. Do you have any, or can you point me to where I could find some?"
Arianna "No! You took it all last time! Can you imagine how long it took us to gather a tough metal like this? A few millennia! They gather the dust naturally falling from the location. You can't harvest it anyway because it is too hard for you! We are not very good at metal works anyway!"
"OK, OK! I will bring you back some and make you a golem if you tell me where to go!"
Ari "Hpm! Fine! You just have to follow Aldrich when you are ready."
A small green ball hovers and hops in a motion that looks like a bow in front of me, then it disappears after.
"Thanks. Well, would you mind showing the ladies a good time while I'm away? They came for experiences, after all."
Ari "Girl time! Giggle!"
"I forgot to mention, she might be one of the most powerful beings of this world, but she is very funny and a good friend! Have fun! Let's go, Aldrich!"
With that out of the way, I run along with Al, weaving between the crystals and plants all around us. We go around 100 km/h, dashing through this strange wilderness. I can see a variety of lizards and insects scuttling about. They seem to enjoy this environment a lot. It is warm, humid, and darkish. At least, it is a kind of natural, artificial light, chuckle....
I can tell that there should be a few bosses around, but I am not here for this. As we advance, the crystals suddenly become tainted with another color. Instead of green and clear, they are half cloudy with burgundy at first, then they turn into obsidian further in. This should be close!
We keep going and come across giant, obsidian octagonal crystals, stretching from the ground all the way to the ceiling.
"Is that it!?"
Al shakes from left to right. Then he moves up and down.
"So it is Arsenium, but I can't pick this one?"
I get the same answer. I just try my luck anyway. Once I touch it, I realize the problem. How the hell am I supposed to mine it if it is connected to the floor and ceiling....
"Sorry Al, I could not hold back my curiosity. It would have made things a lot simpler. Is there a big crystal not so stuck in the bedrock? Or even better, one broken off? As long as the pillar or rock is not connected to something else and is broken off!"
The little ball jumps happily and zips toward our goal. I bounce after it, leaving afterimages behind me. We quickly make it to a fallen crystal, or I should say a pillar, as it probably weighs hundreds of tons, not pounds. Tons!
Using my claws, I try to cut it, but I can't even scratch it. My claws should be able to leave a scratch since my crystallography is near perfect. That means those natural crystals are even more perfect than my own work! Now I understand how this place can be so different than the outside world! The whole place is protected by Noble and God level materials.
I will make sure this place remains a secret, but I bet if she doesn't want you to come in, you could not end up here in the entrance tunnel anyway. The magic in this place is insane, and I understand now how she can literally make true illusions in her castle. It is acting like the capacitor of this place, floating in the center of the giant geode pocket.
Returning to my normally impossible task, I find a solution. In my case, I just imagine a few small pockets of compressed air appearing under the object. The block can easily slide on the air cushion generated by my stomach's space manipulation. In the industrial sectors of Earth, they use this exact method to move very heavy stuff with air instead of using wheels.
My end game is to make it slide, then seamlessly make it appear inside my stomach, as if it were still sliding on the floor.
I now have a hundred tons of Arsenium! Hahaha! I AM RICH! Ammit just sucks on it like a popsicle. After all, inside my stomach, she can use any shape and size she wants. It begs the question: is it the thing getting smaller, or is the girl getting bigger?
Anyway, she will make ingots out of it like usual, and prepare my skeleton coating! It is good because now, even though I am weak, I can survive a clash of entities at the Noble level. Though, "survive" is a big word. A clash would mash my organs and brain, only leaving my skeleton and soul behind. However, my power could regrow my body once, leaving me weak as hell...
"Well! I'm done, buddy! Do you mind if we explore a bit more? I will follow you."
Aldrich nods in response. He proceeds to give me a tour of this magnificent place.
First, there are crystals of all shapes and colors and creatures residing in those peculiar environments. Then there is the vegetation and the different "weathers," which don't change over time here in the ground. Some are created by the mix of gases and humidity, generating mushrooms and fumes of different colors. These fumes hide insects, many spiders, and other hoppers, but also butterflies and mosquitoes, which are too big to ambush a human without being seen...
He shows me a place where a type of low-level dragon lives. The silver and black crystals are neatly arranged from floor to ceiling in a beautiful pattern. Its nest is a very nice place. I know, it is just a lizard and it does not have wings, but it has more of the look of an Eastern dragon, just with bigger legs and no carp features. It is more like a Komodo dragon with horns and a back full of silver-grey scales, bearing the same gleam as the place it made its nest in. Of course, I would not try to face its breath either, especially seeing the plants die just from its exhaling. It gives me the shivers.
There are also endless flower fields. It almost looks like I am standing outside if I overlook the rock ceiling. Butterflies and crickets are hopping around. It feels like prehistory when I think about it. It is like this place was stuck at this evolutionary stage. There are no birds, which are descendants of dinosaurs, but the ancestors are still walking the ground here. However, some bats made it in from the outside world. They are like flying rodents and love caves, so they naturally came in. Thinking about this makes me want to know more about myself. How did I come to be the way I am as a human? Anyway, moving on...
(The evolving story of this planet must be insane! Of course, I could check it with the tapestry right now, but that will have to wait... I can't fill up my brain with this much useless knowledge just yet.)
The last place that we visit is a scorching magma pool and a massive lava fall. This is my first time seeing real lava in person. Some of it actually falls from a large opening in the ceiling, pooling a bit on the floor before draining into another hole deep in the ground.
"Alright, I've seen enough for today. Let's go back, shall we?"
Al seemed to enjoy the tour, too. However, I swear I heard him whisper something with a despondent voice.
"Don't worry, Aldrich. The next time that I need a guide, I will call you without fail!"
Now, I clearly heard him cheer up. He has an adult male voice. It is just that I can only hear it in a strange way, like someone speaking three different words for every single syllable.
"WOW! Your language is complicated! And amazing!"
Al chuckles three times in response.