"Not supposed to be here," Hou repeated them, "what do you mean?"
"You, both of you, I-I..." They trailer off after stuttering and raised their hand to their head. They groaned and stumbled backwards, muttering something under their breath.
"We come in peace, we want your help." Xavier spoke cautiously but noticeably stepped back, keeping a hand ready to grab hold of Hou in case of an emergency hop.
"M-my help?" The opposing figure slowly looked up, "Yes, I'm a God. And you two, well...one of you are also." They pointed at Hou, "what is it?"
Hou looked at them, it was strange. Just a few moments ago, they felt different. Not fully formed, but now, they felt complete.
Hou explained the problem, how the Devourer of Worlds is approaching. That they need to figure out how to stop it for good or they all die.
"Die?" The figure had stabilised and taken on a form resembling a mixture of Hou and Xavier. Before then, they were simply the shape of a human, but blank.
Perhaps because it was only just born, but it had something all other Gods lacked; something they had lost long ago. Hou was the exception of course, being a unique self-created God.
Xavier was curious about that, he had never seen any other case like Hou's. Even the explanation he had given, it felt like it lacked something. He shocked his head, "Yes, we are going to all perish if we don't do something. Do you have something to say about that?"
The figure nodded and raised its palm to its stomach, "I do...I don't think that death is the right word. I understand your meaning, but that is not what it does."
"It?" Hou said, "The Devourer?" Xavier added.
"Before you two arrived, I...I wasn't me. Whoever that is, I had a name, I wasn't them yet. Not entirely." The figure thought for a few moments.
"Call me Gwynn, that name is important to me I think. As I was saying, before you arrived at the start of our conversation I wasn't quite myself. There's some kind of connection between myself and Hou."
Hou unconsciously nodded.
"I could tell he was like me, a God. And even now, there's something that connects us and us to something else."
Xavier furrowed his brows, looking to Hou, "Why have you never mentioned this feeling? You can feel it, cant you?"
"I...I don't know. It never occured to me that it was there, it's subtle. If it wasn't brought up, I wouldn't have realised it was ever there. I'm as confused as yourself, Xavier. I assure you." Hou was feeling that sense of connection in his mind.
Xavier groaned and turned back to Gwynn, "So what does this have to do with the Devourer? And death?"
Gwynn nodded and explained, "I believe that, the connection is Gods have is to the Devourer. I can sense it in my Causality, it comes from a dead world. And I also come from a world much like it, I was chosen." They stood up and looked bright, "I was chosen by that remant to be a keeper of this Causality."
***
In Araxis' World,
"So this is a rift?" Lydia stepped up.
"We have heard of them but non of us have encountered them with the consciousness we have." Beorn continued.
Araxis coughed, "Well, now you have." He looked into the abyss, it was alluring. He walked up to it and held up his hand.
He tried to push through but it wouldn't move any further, he was stuck. He looked back, "Can you enter? With your...peculiarities."
Wadall hummed, "Perhaps," he walked closer to the rift than the other Collectives, "it is logical, we do travel the Sea of Worlds in limited ways."
He stepped to the edge of Araxis' World and the rift to another. He took a small breaths and tried to move forwards, ready to be transported to another World.
However, he too, was stopped. Not discouraged, he pulled on his Causality and started again. Unlike normal Causality which Gods used, the Collective could adapt.
It was a secret that Xavier and Hou were eager to learn. However even the Collective themselves didn't understand why, at least not the common operatives. Perhaps the older pieces would know...
Wadall pushed, using his Causality at the same time. "I can enter" he pleaded, yet the Causality merely dissipated without any result.
"Strange..." Araxis noted, "Even you cannot get through, so why can seemingly random people do it? I've seen it myself, the person had no special powers but were sucked into the rift to who knows where."
Behind them, Beorn stepped forward. He slammed a fist I to an open palm and asked, "Have you sent any of your Mages?"
"Of course not, what if they really can enter? I'll have lost a valuable asset! Not to mention if I like any of them, rare as that is!"
Beorn pinched his glabella, "That is a terrible excuse, but think. If our knowledge is accurate, they would still be connected somehow to this world. Perhaps you can use Magic to somehow communicate with them through the rift?"
***
"In your Causa...li...ty," Hou's words slurred as he slowed down upon a realization, "Perhaps that's it!"
He turned excitedly to Xavier, "the Collective's adaptive Causality?! It isn't tainted by being tied to a World and isn't affected by this remnant link!"
Xavier raised his eyebrows, "That is...hmm."
Gwynn pouted, "not tainted, it's a privilege. The feeling is dying now but I felt it at the start. It's loving, not hateful. I...felt...it."
They looked at their own hands, "and it's gone. It's all...if I didn't tell you two..." It was almost entirely erased, that initial understanding. Was the remnant emotions gone, but whatever contaminated the Causality was still there. It just felt...like it was theirs.
Hou looked up, "Did you say something?" He had normal human senses in the other World, he thought he heard something but wasn't sure.
At the same time, he did think that his body was only human because that is what he made back in Hamartia. What if he materialised a stronger form then hopped with Xavier? He would need to experiment, he thought.
"No, it doesn't matter." Gwynn thought for a moment, "I want to help." Though not for killing but understanding, she added in her mind.