After everything that's happened, the embarrassment, the sudden declaration, Anathasia's manipulation (Probably something similar to when she planted false memories of herself to my family...? Morally questionable, yes. Potentially dangerous if I don't eventually call her out on it), I found myself sitting on my bed inside the room we were assigned in.
"These beds are pretty soft..." I murmured, trying to distract myself from the sharp stares I got from the guys during dinner in the cafeteria.
Besides, it wasn't my fault Anathasia was attached. And I certainly didn't make her drink anything as well. She's the one who invited herself into my house, then my life.
Either way, the room itself was quite decent actually. Just enough for two people, a pair of fans to keep us cool in case we felt hot, smooth white walls, half drawn curtains, soft pair of beds, a faint smell of salty air... And most importantly, a well-maintained bathroom!
"This is pretty neat, to be honest."
On the other bed, lay Anathasia sprawled out, already engrossed in her book and dressed in the same loungewear she wore at home. An oversized shirt and cotton pants.
Then for a moment, Anathasia suddenly perked up, putting her book aside, her eyes... seemed to focus into slits as she looked out the window. I could see a small bead of sweat slide down her temple.
"Is something wrong?" I asked, walking over to her before sitting on the edge of her bed.
"It's..." she hesitated, then shook her head. "It's nothing, don't worry."
It wasn't nothing, I'm sure. Not with how she reacted, the sudden change in her tone, her body language; it screamed "something isn't right". But I understand if she didn't wanna talk about it... For now.
As I tried to dismiss the matter, I heard her voice faintly:
"It's unstable..." she whispered, not to me, but to something else.
A sudden tremor shook the whole building, easily a magnitude four or five. But strangely enough, even as I tried to listen to anyone trying to get out of the building, there was none.
It was as if only I could feel it. The fans kept spinning, steady, unaffected. The water inside the bottle I had on top of the small cabinet beside my bed remained still, not even a small ripple.
Then, as I looked back at Anathasia, I could sense it. For a split second, the air around her wavered, like heat rising from asphalt.
Her pupils tightened, then widened as if something passed through her.
Silence followed, stretching between us. I tried to speak, but the moment I stared into her eyes, I saw it.
It wasn't otherworldly
Not ancient.
Not divine.
It was...
A reflection of something beyond all those things-
Something I couldn't possibly put into words...
My mind screamed at me to look away, my body shuddered. I felt my stomach drop, my fingers went numb. Something, instinct maybe, forced me to lower my gaze.
What the hell did I just see?
I know she wasn't human, but that wasn't a god or anything either...!
A moment passed, but it felt longer than it should've.
Then, a hand gently stroked my hair, and slowly, I looked up. Only to see Anathasia now with that soft, somewhat caring expression on her face, as if she hadn't just acted out of the ordinary earlier.
Her touch was gentle, but she couldn't hide the tension beneath it. The way her shoulders tightened, the faint clench of her jaw.
She was comforting me, I knew that. But something in her touch felt... different. Cautious, as if afraid I would break... and something... I couldn't truly understand.
But one thing was for sure.
She was no longer that cosmic anomaly she told me she was. In fact, she wasn't anything from this universe even.
Something.
Someone.
That shouldn't be here.
And knowing that, a cold sweat rolled down my cheek, then at my back.
---
"He's finally asleep." I murmured, stroking the boy - Kyle's cheek as he fell into deep sleep. He was endearing, just like this.
Vulnerable.... and comfortable. A truly disarming combination.
But that wasn't important as of now. I retracted my hand as I stood beside his bed, then sat on the edge of mine before closing my eyes.
I needed to get to the bottom of that sudden fluctuation, and this... sensation I've been feeling since that fragment integrated itself into my existence.
Leaving my physical form behind, I dissolved out of the universe I was in, where countless universes, infinite in fact—similar to the one I just slipped out of, drifted in the same threads of law I weaved. Spanning as far as I could physically see and beyond.
But this wasn't the source of that fluctuation. It had to come from beyond even this. So I continued, leaving behind faint ripples in the existential strata, then forced my way out of the structure that contained those threads. And there, more structures, countless of them, containing the same enumerable numbers of threads came into view.
"The Demiurge's Image..." I murmured to myself. This was the echo of the act of creation itself. I may have weaved those threads, but this... wasn't a part of it.
So I pressed further on, slipping past the boundaries of the structure, assimilating myself into the Collective Sphere, which contained countless Demiurgic Images.
For a moment, I paused, then found myself inside a white room. And in the middle of it was a bar counter. Black top, white sides, around a hundred and twenty centimeters in high from the white floor.
Then in there, stood a bartender... or rather, her.
Rania Eon Augthorth. Third Fragment and Third Outer God, amber gold eyes, long white-blonde hair, wearing some sort of tuxedo or suit. Once a mortal noble turned ascendent divine being who transcended the physical realm and entered the higher stratum that contained the lesser stratums below.
While I didn't exactly hold any contempt towards her, nor any reason to, something about her just grates my nerves. Perhaps her righteousness? No, it's more of her idealistic views of reality. I prefer handling matters with a pragmatic approach, so she and I often clash with our ideologies.
"How long do you plan on standing there?" she suddenly spoke up, preparing some sort of drink.
"First Fragment, The First Outer God as well as The Law Weaver," she set the drink down, then looked at me with a smile. "Anathasia?"
"Those titles sound lofty, please don't refer to me as such ever again." I retorted, sighing before glancing at the drink.
"I don't drink alcohol." I added, deadpan.
She blinked, perhaps she didn't know. After all, the last time I visited this realm was approximately a billion years ago if I use Earth's time as reference.
No.
I didn't tell her actually.
Outer Gods like her don't forget anything.
So do I.
And yes, I didn't forget the answers from those exam questionnaires.
I was merely pretending.
"Here's a cappuccino then." Rania slid the saucer to me, then carried on with her act of being a bartender.
I didn't comment, I just picked up the cup, took a delicate sip, then set it back down.
"So, those fluctuations," I muttered, tracing my finger on the rim of the porcelain cup.
"The sudden destabilization," I continued, observing the foam on the cappuccino.
"It's exactly what you're thinking." Rania proceeded to cut me off, as if she could read my mind.
"I see... what about Kagariel and Drovkah?" I asked, keeping my tone steady while lifting the cup near my lips as I took another sip.
"The Ruin Guardian hasn't said anything," she paused, setting the glass down before turning to check on the wine bottles behind her. "The Causality is still nowhere to be found."
"The Ruin Guardian being silent is expected," I murmured, setting the cup back onto the saucer. "The Causality being missing is not surprising."
I rose, smoothing the faint ripple in space that clung to my hair, and turned to leave.
"If the The Constant has finally stabilized as its final state," I said, glancing back at Rania. "then our authority has expanded. And that gives us more options,"
There was nothing else left to discuss.
I left her behind the counter, her quiet gaze lingering on my back.
"In that case," I whispered to myself, stepping out of the white room, a space Rania made for reasons I wouldn't bother to understand. "it seems my worries were unnecessary after all."
I left her little bar-dimension behind and let my form dissolve into the higher strata.
Reality folded, obedient, as I slipped through the Collective Layer's membrane and pushed into outside where the Contradictory Sphere rested beside it.
A reflection, not an ascension.
A paradox wearing the Collective's shape.
Its inhabitants turned their gazes toward m. Senseless, illogical things born from the Unwritten tilting the scales of existence. But I ignored them and moved on. They were noise, nothing more.
And then, with a single step, the noise fell away.
I arrived at the Ruins of the Eschatological Constant's Ascension.
The fractured origin.
The foundation and container of every stratum I had passed.
The boundary where Kagariel keeps silent watch...
and the highest point I could ever reach.
Until earlier, that is.
Kagariel was nowhere to be found, nor would he bother trying to talk either, so I left.
The Ruins, the highest stratum I could manifest within, folded, allowing me to pass through and into the comparability domain of my Loomkeeper Interface, the All Fiction Archive.
The library that contained all of the stories, mythos, novels, comics, and everything else ever written by humanity. And now I wasn't just able to manifest in it, but I could also decide the fate of any of those books now.
"She's really done it..." I mumbled to myself. Once again reminded of the fact that the one whom us Outer Gods were connected to, was no longer with us in that manner but became something else entirely while also allowing us to grow without having to do anything.
"I suppose I shouldn't try defining her. I have no desire to unravel myself." I murmured, followed by a small chuckle.
The story that contained my fellow Outer Gods as well as the boy Kyle. Now in the palm of my hand as a book, with countless others surrounding me as I held it.
"So this is what she felt... tethering on the edge of existence, from the real world and fiction where beings like myself come to be." I whispered, opening the book before flipping through the pages like a reader, then stopping at the latest chapter.
"It's still unfinished..."
I paused, then closed the book, then let myself assimilate inside it once again. Like a person walking inside their house.
Things went blank for a second, but I knew I was going back to that physical form I used to interact with Kyle. Not more than a second passed, I was back inside my body.
As I opened my eyes, Kyle's sleeping form came into view.
He looked exactly the same before I switched interfaces. That's good. That means everything stabilized itself without needing my intervention.
"Now..." I laid back in my bed, it's softness enough to make my body sink into it. "my only concern... is that girl Marianne."
I now had the power to rewrite the story as I liked. So whatever that girl would do, I would know. That is, if I let it happen, of course.
"Just thinking about how clueless she is... makes me feel all tingly..." I whispered in excitement. I sounded like a sadist, yes. I suppose that was not be entirely incorrect.
Nonetheless, as I've promised to myself a few chapters back.
Anyone who dares to harm him, will answer to me.