Chapter 2456

Chapter 2456

Randidly Ghosthound left the Nexus.

Congratulations! For pushing yourself beyond the edges of your Universe, +1 Muse’s Reverie! Muse’s Reverie: 7/8.

His first impression of the environment was frigid chaos. He blinked as waves of colors, gravitational, and temporal forces hit him. The conflicting currents slammed against him, powerful enough to tear a lesser individual to shreds. Probably no one under 1000 in Vitality and Endurance would be able to survive, not while the absence of dimensional fabric meant that images were restricted.

Yet obviously, it was less a torturous way to dive for Randidly Ghosthound and more like diving into freezing water.

His skin prickled at the cold bit of entropy as he passed through the gaps between isolated spaces. His powerful senses pinged outward and he abruptly wished he had pulled back on his curiosity; the folded dimension of cracks and spaces through which he now cracked possessed depth on a scale that left Randidly alarmed. Like just peeking too deeply would overbalance him and he would be pulled down into the abyss, tumbling forever and ever, unmoored and lost.

And then he finally finished passing through the dimension of crooked thresholds, finding a veritable sea of foreign images that washed against him. He straightened subconsciously but felt an instant sense of relief as he felt the firmness of the ground beneath his feet.

He had made it. So he looked around, careful this time to limit his exacting senses in their scope.

Randidly found himself standing in a luminous starfield with nebulas rotating slowly above and comets drifting sluggishly below. He floated in the middle of ‘space’ in its most stereotypical, awe-inspiring form. Yet that was just the beginning of the sensations that rushed to tantalize him. In a more than physical way, he felt very, very small.

Congratulations! Your Skill Arch-Heretic’s Thaumaturgy (P) has grown to Level 1943!

Congratulations! Your Skill Emerald Eyes and Dove Whispers Certify the Objective (GD) 1809!

The small hole in the depths of his Nether Core hinted at it, but the outer multiverse was filled with movement and force from a billion conflicting ideologies. None were manifesting close to him, but Randidly could vaguely feel the shadows from those entities populating the Sea of Statues stretching in every direction. The grouping of gleaming stars to his left had a stale scent of bone dust and stone crypts. Below him, amongst the asteroid belts, he felt an almost overwhelming urge to grow and procreate reaching up from fields and fields of mutated plant life.

Congratulations! Your Skill Emerald Eyes and Dove Whispers Certify the Objective (GD) 1857!

A surly red dwarf behind Randidly rang with the clang of hammers and unending fire. He felt a nebulous feeling of unreality from one glittering cloud of celestial debris, all dreamscapes and swirling kaleidoscopes. One cluster of three tiny moons released a piercing craving for a sword strong enough to cleave apart the fabric of space. Each of these represented at least a single universe, with many housing multiple, even hundreds of universes, making the shadow of the statues darker and more weighty in this outer multiverse.

Randidly chewed on his lips as he considered the vast expanse of power he sensed in every direction. “Tch, guess it’s a bit much to expect me to waddle out of the Nexus as a heavyweight fighter... Laplace is an Eternity that wasn’t even strong enough to possess his own universe. That’s why he was desperate enough to invade the Nexus with his actual body...”

Still, the multiverse around Randidly was rather inert, for the fearsome wider domain that had repeatedly attempted to invade the Nexus. The areas of influence of the varying statues were clearly defined, but Randidly didn’t see another living being in the area. Or traveling in the channels between these zones Which, at least, meant that maybe this would be a bit easier than he had-

Just as Randidly allowed his tense muscles to relax with relief, a notification popped up in front him.

Welcome to the purview of Providence. Examining parameters...

New User noted. Scanning... Identity set as Randidly Ghosthound. Please proceed to your nearest Hub in order to register your Identity within the official Providence System. Unregistered Users will experience restrictions to their capabilities until they comply.

Establishing restrictions on new user-

Pine hated them, just a little bit, as he looked at them. He blinked his eyes rapidly. Where were the answers when I needed help?

His mood quickly soured, even as the Engraving grew larger and larger, the momentum of change more and more powerful. It hummed up through the ground and through Pine’s legs. Because right next to them stretched an overwhelming threat.

The dark subconscious of the Nexus had spatial cracks undulating and crackling around it like tentacles. It inched closer, no longer just falling, swelling to press against more and more of the Nexus in every direction. Those few golden sparks that were unfortunate enough to tumble toward the darkness were devoured.

Even worse, Pine could feel the souls from within the subconscious. He remained connected to them all, even if his flight from Laplace had severed a portion of that sensitivity.

Yet they shouted and screamed. Their emotional demands racked across his psyche. Those dead souls, so long trapped, frothed at the mouth to escape. His hunger came from a physiological place, but this... this was something deeper and darker. Disappointment and resentment had transformed hunger into weapons that would destroy as much as they could manage.

Even just to be acknowledged.

Pine’s fur stood on end. Just like with the development of Fates, he could feel himself shrinking away from the present, withdrawing into himself. Even though he was briefly sated, staring that wild hunger in the face reminded him what he would need to encounter in the future, just to survive. Please... I don’t have anything more to give...

“It’s normal to be afraid.”

Pine hopped sideways. He hadn’t expected the Ghosthound’s Soulbound companion Neveah to turn up next to him, her fingers smoking vaguely from recent Engravings. He spared her a glance and hunched his shoulders. Pine decided denying he was afraid was pointless. “This is not about fear.”

“You don’t want to help us. Do you disagree with our goals then?” Neveah tilted her head to the side.

“Your goals-” Pine shivered as a particularly dense wave of entropy scythed through the edge of the Engraving area and hit the group. A split second later, the roots running through the whole of the Engraving released an indignant pulse. The Engraving spun and grew larger. The geyser of golden sparks began to flow in particular patterns, forming a better defensive barrier.

Pine shook his head. “I have no issue with your intentions. However... my own place in your new order... I am not sure...”

Pine trailed off, staring into the looming darkness. Perhaps because of the lights helixing up in the foreground, the backdrop of oblivion felt so stark. And so peaceful. A peace he dearly craved, after having pounds of his flesh ripped away for so long by greed. By suffering in silence with only his hunger for company.

He stared at the darkness and believed, with his whole heart, that it would just be easier this way.

Neveah stepped in front of him. “The truth is, Pine, you don’t know what you want, do you?”

“I want a cessation of pain.”

Neveah’s eyes crinkled. “Not a true desire, but a reaction driven by base survival instincts. Something bigger. Bigger than all the other things, what do you want?”

To go back before I ruined it all, Pine thought miserably. He remembered his mother and father, and even if the hunger was fearsome back then, he at least had them.

After a few moments of silence, Neveah scratched Pine’s head. “Come with me. Let me show you what I desire.”