Depths of the Abyss (2)
Gaold had a dream.
He was flying fast above an endless sea, and he was clearly in pain.
His hair had gone white, and bloody tears ran from the whites of his eyes.
"Air Press!"
A pitch-black monstrosity, two thousand times larger than a deep-sea whale, shrieked and writhed.
The demon god Leviathan.
The strongest, most terrible being dwelling in Imyr's mind, at Mental Depth Two.
Kraaaargh!
A single roar raised a tidal wave hundreds of meters high, and Se-in's face contorted.
"Sun–Moon Radiant Wheel."
Two rings of light meshed like gears and seemed to quiet, but—
Kraaaargh!
At the second howl they couldn't hold, and the rings shattered into fragments.
"Oh no…"
With the restraining force gone, Leviathan twisted like a stallion with its reins cut loose.
Every strike on the sea sent shockwaves out; the falling water hid the party from view.
"Yaaaah!"
At Miro's shout, the incarnation of the Thousand-Handed Kannon tore through the curtain of water and appeared.
Palms the size to dwarf the demon were multiplied into tens of thousands and pounded its torso.
Kieeeeee!
A cry from the beast none of them had heard in ages.
"It's wrong. It has no effect." But that was all—Leviathan rose again unscathed.
Shirone drew ragged breaths.
How long had they been fighting?
They'd gone so deep into something so vast that real-world time was meaningless here.
But by the numbers they'd agreed on with Leviathan…
"It feels like six months have passed."
The total force they expended could have scorched a planet in reality, yet Leviathan would not break.
"Because it's a dream."
Even so, Shirone and the others were beings pushed to the limits of their mental endurance.
"Is this Imyr?"
They could not strike Imyr's mind itself. The worst part was that no attack could frustrate Leviathan.
Luber flew up.
"Lord of the Five Great Stars, your stamina is drained. No—your mental endurance. If we drag this out, there's no chance."
Six months against a demon god was probably as long as their minds could sustain continuous combat.
"...Understood."
They braced themselves quickly.
"Whether it works or not, we have to try. If we fail this time, it's truly the end."
There was only one option.
"An ability from the outside world."
Since Luber's object, Zhuangzi's Butterfly, had activated, Shirone's thinking had changed.
"A god's perspective."
The enlightenment Shirone reached was a plane the waking Shirone hadn't yet attained.
"We need power that surpasses infinity." Yahweh's mind might be infinite, but why wasn't that power boundless?
Because the world is closed.
"Cause and effect are just logic produced by time. Reverse the direction of time—
results become causes, causes become results.
Infinity cycles into infinity."
Shirone's Hand of God opened and particles of light compressed.
"Uuuuuh!"
As cause and effect bit each other's tails and circulated, Shirone's body began to change.
Luber's eyes widened.
"That's—"
Like a thread unspooling from a tangled skein, Shirone's flesh began to disassemble.
"More, more!"
The more the cycle ran, the stranger the unravelling became; his waist twisted like a braided pastry.
"Arghhhh!"
"No—Lord of the Five Great Stars! Stop!"
As Luber shouted, black lines began to braid through the light of the Hand of God.
On a law so bizarre that light and dark coexisted—
The photon cannon born with a thunderous sound showed colors grotesquely blotched, as if ink had been splashed onto a sphere of light—a hue from the outside world, unknown here.
"A world where cause and effect reverse." Luber's expression hardened; his gaze toward Shirone turned ice-cold.
"The outside world is—"
Shirone seized Leviathan's tail, which had been sweeping toward Kangnan and Arius, and flew after it.
"Yaaaah!" As he swung, a massive flash streaked out and struck Leviathan's flank.
"Kraa—"
Another roar burst out, but this time the sound was sucked into Leviathan itself.
From the hundreds-of-meters-deep gouge in its side, a black-and-white photon cannon began to spin like a drill.
When Leviathan's enormous jaws opened wide, everyone went pale.
"Damn it—"
Before Gaold could finish, a roar poured out of the demon god as if it were vomiting life itself.
With each writhing of its massive body, the world shook and cracks formed across its black hide.
"It's going to explode."
Anyone could feel that the light seeping from those fissures was not normal.
"Enough!"
Arius shouted.
"We've delivered a shock to Leviathan. Finally, to Mental Depth One—Imyr…!"
Before she could finish, the whole world flooded with white light.
Glug! Glug!
Arius suddenly began gagging as seawater filled her mouth.
"Are we falling?"
No—the sea was rising.
The explosive light that filled the sky shrank as the water surged up.
"It's okay. Now we're heading into Imyr." How long had they been waiting for this?
"Ugh! Ugh!"
In a darkness into which not a single beam of light penetrated, Arius flailed her limbs.
"When will we arrive?"
They were being buried without end.
It was pressure—precisely put, Imyr's mind was pressing down on them.
"Gurgle…"
As the air left her lungs, Arius's jaw froze cold and open.
Meanwhile, Luber searched for Shirone.
"He's there."
Yahweh might have been able to endure Imyr's pressure, but Shirone didn't move.
"So he's affected too." With the repeated reversals of thought, his mental state was hard to guess.
"At this rate he'll die."
Luber's eyes flashed with resolve as he looked at the darkened Shirone.
"A dream barrier."
A forbidden of the forbidden—but to save Shirone, the choice was unavoidable.
Luber's body seeped into the water, and the sea's color deepened to violet.
"Please be safe!"
As his consciousness thinned rapidly, Gaold searched for Miro.
"Where are you?"
Even without understanding dream theory, the body knew its condition.
"Gurgle! Gurgle!"
A human body can't hold its breath forever, but this was a dream world.
Still, physical metrics translated into mind were eroding Gaold's consciousness.
"Don't give up. Find Miro—"
At that moment, deep in the abyss, Gaold felt Miro approaching him.
"Garrrk! Garrrk!"
When she finally reached him, a cold hand gripped Gaold's throat. A voice, like an auditory hallucination, whispered: Gaold.
Gaold woke and blinked, replaying the dream he'd just had.
Sunlight streamed through the window. The air was dusty, but it smelled warm.
"Darling, wake up."
When he slowly turned, Kangnan was carrying a basket of food into the kitchen.
"Ah."
Right.
"Kangnan is my wife."
Then—who was the woman in the dream who had hugged him and whispered in his ear?
"That dream again?"
Kangnan asked as she chopped vegetables.
"Huh?"
"Yeah."
Kangnan's voice was hoarse because she, too, had been having the same dream every day.
Always the same.
They'd wake from the dream, walk together, eat, sleep together.
"And then fall asleep again."
The hellish battlefield from the dream would press into reality.
"Phew."
Gaold exhaled deeply.
"It's just a nightmare."
Yes, just a nightmare.
There were none of those self-replicating mutant horrors here that tormented him in the dream.
"It doesn't hurt."
For Gaold, that alone was reason enough to live in this world.
"What happened to us?"
It was a question he had to ask.
"That again?"
"I don't know what's real anymore. Sometimes—doesn't this place feel strange? If this were truly the real world—"
"Stop it!"
Kangnan snapped.
"It's only a dream! I don't care who you love in your dreams! But this is too much!"
Their confusion sprang from lacking a cause.
How had they come to live here? Why had they fallen in love? Why the nightmares?
"Sorry."
Gaold climbed out of bed and pulled Kangnan close.
"I was oversensitive. Yes, it's only a dream. Now I'm awake—let's have a pleasant day."
"...Eat."
Pouting, Kangnan handed him the soup and Gaold moved to the table.
"It doesn't feel wrong."
No cause—wasn't that natural?
"But it's odd." He had the feeling he'd missed something.
"Time."
He'd lived in this house a long time, yet it felt like they'd only moved in today; he had nightmares every night, yet sometimes it felt like this was the first morning.
"Let's go out."
His wife's cooking was good, and the relief he felt was something the dream could never give.
Gaold set down his bowl.
"Let's get some fresh air. Go shopping for the first time in a while."
Had he ever earned money?
"Okay, sounds good."
Kangnan's smile offered comfort against that lukewarm, nagging unease.
Outside, between high-rises with exposed steel frames, people in refugee dress moved about.
Swoosh. Swoosh.
Somewhere waves could be heard, though no one here knew their source.
"Cheap! Cheap!"
Market stalls were set up and most faces were familiar.
Gaold felt relieved.
"How much is it?"
Kangnan, interested in a necklace of wolf teeth on a leather thong, asked.
"Two hundred Fisk, but I'll let it go for one-fifty. Very fine piece."
"Honey, I'll take this."
At that moment a large dog ran from across the market.
Woof! Woof!
"Arius! Wait!" Gaold turned and saw a dog with its eyes bandaged charging toward them.
"Oh, come on—"
Gaold shoved Kangnan aside, but the dog slammed into his abdomen.
"Damn it! What the—"
Pinned under the dog's weight, he grimaced as a wet tongue licked his chin.
"Arius! Are you okay?"
At the woman's voice the dog turned, and Gaold sprang up, angry.
"Kid! You can't just let your dog run loose here—huh?"
Gaold stopped mid-sentence.
A little girl, maybe eight years old, had wrapped her arms around the dog's scruff.
A common sight anywhere, but Gaold's heart thudded.
"Miro?"
"Huh? How do you know my name, mister?"
Confused, Gaold looked between Kangnan and Miro and fell into thought.
"That's the name of the woman who appears in my dream. But… she's a child here?"
Kangnan must have felt it too.
"Kid."
As she prepared to ask him something with a serious face, a tall man approached.
"Is something wrong?"
Gaold realized the man's features matched the man called Se-in in his dreams.
"Oh, the dog ran off."
Se-in surveyed the mess, pieced things together, and bowed his head.
"My daughter must have made a mistake. Arius can't see. He isn't the sort to get excited."
Woof! Woof!
No sooner had he said that than Arius began barking furiously at Gaold.
"Good grief, why today of all days?"
Grrrr! Grrrr!
Arius, biting Miro's sleeve, tugged repeatedly as if pulling her toward the man.
"You really... huh?"
Frowning, Miro noticed tears seeping out from under Arius's bandage.
Grrrr! Grrrr!
As if determined to reach that man at all costs, the dog strained with everything it had to pull its owner.
"Arius—"
At last, a flicker of intuition crossing her face, Miro slowly turned her head and looked up at Gaold.
"Who are you, mister?"
"Kid."
Gaold asked, "Have you… ever had a strange dream?"