"You're really going to ascend, my god?"
"Reah, Pride. Why don't you as well? I know they don't want me up there, but—"
"No, my god. I can't ascend yet; it's only been two of this planet's daily cycles. Remember, I said it would take six?"
"Why not try anyway?"
"What?"
Ahahra, he forgot the 'my god' part. I've never made them do that. I don't know why they follow it so religiously.
"I'm an Annihilation Maw. You're attached to my Origin. Why don't I eat whatever barrier is stopping you from ascending?"
A few moments pass in silence.
...
...
"Can... Can you DO that, my god?"
"I have no clue. I seem pretty good at breaking the laws of the universe at random, so why not do it on purpose?"
"Wait a second, my god. You just said you're an 'Annihilation Maw.' I thought your status panel said you were an Annihilation Dragon."
Smart. Too smart. I surround myself with too few clever dragons. I'd better find some more, so they can pick at each other instead of always catching me in the act. Or maybe they won't need to ask if I make dragons even smarter than we already are.
Roh, hey! Now there's a good idea.
"Rahhh, yeah. Remember how I said I can change my status panel? Here's the real one."
Name: Chronovoid
Talents: Annihilate, Causal Coherence, Causal Conduit, Causal Decoherence, Causal Void, Deific Will, Endless Will, Void Will, Parasitic Infinity, Parasitic Void, Spatial Absorption, Spatial Conduit, Spatial Infinity, Spatial Void, Temporal Conduit, Temporal Diffusion, Temporal Infinity, Temporal Void
Lineage: Origin
Rank: Chronovoid (Void)
Species: Annihilation Maw
Weapon: None
Stats:
Str: ∞ / 4.11 (771.1b)
Sta: ∞ / 3.98 (771.1b)
Int: ∞ / 6.22 (771.1b)
Wis: ∞ / 5.59 (771.1b)
Will: ∞ / 1.15 (921.2n)
"My god! You're not a dragon!"
"Reah. I'm really sad. Though, I've been hiding my mood. It doesn't feel as fun... Well, rawring, when I'm just a giant death monster with no draconic roots. I'm a THING mimicking a dragon. I think Dracosect figured it out too, which is why he went so far to mimic my... My actual species."
"My god, is— that why you added the species column? I notice it showed up right after your name dropped the 'Dragon' portion."
"Reah! I was hoping it would show my species was still Dragon. I got a rude awakening when it showed that I'd fully and truly become the enemy of all existence."
"My god, why haven't you and Temp been able to fix this?"
"For the same reason we had to study your body in order to make a safer size-altering inscription. I didn't do that just to stoke your pride, you know. I have a very good size-altering body myself. Except it's been almost impossible to study my body properly."
"What's going wrong, my god?"
"Initially, I had perfect Mana conductivity and was impervious to existing physical tools. Magic is right out because of the first one, but physical tools seemed possible if I made some tougher ones. So, I decided to try making said tools from my own body via my shapeshifting ability. That worked after a LOT of trial and error. We really started to make progress on figuring everything out. Actually, studying your body was extremely useful for getting my tools working on myself."
"My intelligent god! I'm proud to know that studying my former, slightly less incredible body, was more useful than I knew. This must mean I'm even more worthy of being studied now! Please let me know if you have ANY new quandaries that my form may yet solve."
Pff, hraw hraw!
He's even looking over himself in admiration! Hraw! Hr... Hr... Ah. Awwww.
Damnit.
"Right, I will. I do have a few ideas."
"Excellent, my god! I'm so happy!"
I'm glad.
I mean that, but I can't be happy along with you right now.
"So, we were starting to make breakthroughs toward pushing my body in the right direction. Then, the Abyssal was released and I ate it. Now we're back to square one. Worse, all the tools I made don't work because—"
I stab my claws into my own arm. As I pull my hand and arm apart, both stretch like wet glue. The two masses flicker and bend in spatially-nonsensical ways as they deform. There's a loud screeching sound like nothing describable. I can't even compare it to any sound in a way that would make logical sense.
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The two spatially-merged parts separate, then quickly snap back and reform into their mostly-dragon shape.
"This disgusting 'whatever it is' may look shiny and gem-like, but it deforms like sludge. It's nigh impossible to form into tools that can measure anything. Even when I've managed, forget getting valid measurements. Not even averaging the data works."
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
He's staring at my now-reformed arms.
Reah. I know, Pride. I was also stunned the first few hundred or five times. I kept doing it because I couldn't understand what I'd become.
"My god... At the risk of being insulting, that isn't terrifying. It's breaking my mind when I to try to... What ARE you?"
It's not an insult. I've become a freaking eldritch god; that's the sanest way to look at it. Which is really, really bad.
"An Annihilation Maw. The embodiment of annihilation. The end of all, the death of existence, the void that consumes. I had a hunch this would happen, but it's SO much worse than I'd hoped. I'd thought science could fix it, but my existence may fundamentally lie outside the laws which make science... Rehm, rational."
"My god, that means when Deception said—"
"Reah, he nailed me down hard. For the guy who lies and tricks non-stop, my little show must've been nothing more than a transparent charade."
"We do often say you're transparent, my god."
"He was mad when I cornered him. Lies may hurt, but the truth can sometimes hurt more. Me being transparent? It has nothing to do with that. I'm of a mind to smack him upside the head to tell him to be less of an ass when he gets called out. Vindictiveness helps nada. Except, I DID lie, so I can't argue."
"My god, he'd probably require many smacks upside the head. He doesn't listen to himself never mind others."
"I know. He's smart— but also very destructive. The one with the hula-hoops and vat of monster serpent venom was..."
"My god, how he killed so many sin servants with solid gold hula-hoops is beyond my comprehension. He only had three of them and yet dozens of sin servants died."
"My point exactly. He's got a real disregard for life; I'm not sure what can be done about it. It was incredible the venom didn't kill anyone when it detonated."
"He does always manage to baffle, my god."
I shake my... Not dragon head.
"Rahhh. Alright, let's do this. Try to ascend, if you get blocked, I'll eat the barrier."
"You're going to embrace the whole 'eat everything' vibe you've got going, my god?"
"Always have. It's probably why I got turned into this. Worse, it's not like that fate talent went away."
It hasn't. I just didn't know where it went, and 'status all' wasn't showing it anymore. Instead of 'status name' or 'status rank,' it turns out I need to query my name itself.
Status, Chronovoid.
Chronovoid (Active)
Your fate is forever pinned to the chosen pivot. You can no longer die, for even if your Will and body are destroyed, your fate has slipped far outside the bounds of fate itself.
Chronovoid invariably claims all.
None shall escape.
Pivot Type: Evolution
Related Fates: Chronovoid, Chronovoid, {err...}
Bonuses: Chronovoid
It dropped all the flowery language. All the waxing philosophical about fate and about bestowed lineages. All the cute little things that used drive me nuts.
Now it simply says 'You're going to evolve until you devour existence, sucks to be you.'
It's downright depressing. Losing my dragon heritage was bad enough. Then I find out— I can't even stop myself anymore. Nobody can. The train's off the tracks and yet somehow keeps gaining steam. What'll be left?
Anything?
No, really. I am THE void.
Anything at all?
"What's that fate talent you keep referring to, my god?"
"Pride, rehm. You're not gonna like this."
I show him the talent.
He stands there, slackjawed, for several minutes.
...
Not a look I see often on a dragon— especially one of Pride's stature.
...
...
...
"My god... NONE SHALL ESCAPE?!"
"Rep. The sins and virtues really screwed up by releasing the Abyssal. My already too-powerful fate talent morphed into that horrific thing. Worse, I've tried removing it, but the reason it's not on the talent list is because it's an innate part of my Origin. It reinforces my fate but also IS my fate, so it's like a feedback loop. I can't make it stop. At all. At least before I could be killed, which would theoretically regress the talent's encroachment. I'm not sure what would happen if I died at this point."
"My god, knowing what we know about the God of Time. What if you're his reincarnation? What if the previous fate talent you mention was the one he had? If so, is the talent itself evolving? Is it going to get MORE powerful?"
Shit, Pride. I hadn't thought of that. Probably because I didn't want to think about it.
"Fair question, but what comes after consuming reality?"
"Consuming fate as well, my god?"
"What would that even DO? I mean, reality is..."
"Other realities that might come into existence, my god. Say you consume this one. Okay, you're here, you ate everything. Fate spins up another reality over there, metaphysically speaking. You can't get there from here because you're a single Chronovoid. If you consumed fate, everything that would ever come into existence would be subsumed by Chronovoid— by you. What if you're fated to void time itself; the highest order metaphysical concept? Not a thing, but a concept."
Well.
You really know how to pick up my mood, Pride.
I get to be an unkillable annihilation machine for all of eternity! If anything gets in the way of my rampage, I'll evolve and grow more powerful until that ALSO falls into my endless maw.
I'm sure THAT won't drive me crazy.
"Can we, like, ascend instead of thinking about how much worse the end could be? I mean— I am the end, so, how much worse I'll become? Please? I was already in a bad mood. Now I feel like crap. And don't make a joke about the unstoppable killblob having hurt feelings. Said killblob IS trying to figure out how to fix this. That's why we need to ascend."
"Honestly, my god? I don't want to come with you. I'm afraid if you eat the block that's preventing me from ascending, it'll push your evolution up another notch."
Fair point, but still. Ouch.
He continues.
"Before you go, my god. Have you thought about putting back all you've eaten? You seem to have the talents to do that."
"Reah, there's another part you don't know about, though. Remember this?"
I show my Origin thread.
"Of course, my god. I know you use it for your followers, but don't know its full function."
"Hragh. This thing breaks apart and spreads like an invisible virus. I've infected everywhere I've been— even if I haven't used it. You, Dracosect, literally every single one of my hoard does the same. This crystal contagion spreads out from all of us in a spherical pattern even if we remain absolutely still in empty space. Plus, I can't remove it from anyone I've infected."
"Let me guess, my god. Since you can't remove it, that means putting the matter back would add another way for the contagion to spread. And, hmm. Does this contagion make it easier for your body to fold reality into itself?"
I roll my eyes. Do dragons even need to be smarter? Well, the answer to that is always yes.
"Right on both counts. This fate talent has likely designed my abilities to complement and cover my every weakness. Heck, I haven't used some of my talents because I don't know what new fresh hells may emerge."
"May I suggest something, my god?"
"Of course, Pride. You've never needed to ask before."
"My god, you've scared the pride right out of me."
Oof.
He continues after a brief pause.
"I'd start looking for differences within your talents' functions. If they work better on one thing versus another, there may be a reason for that, which you can exploit to crack this stranglehold your fate talent has created."
"Rah, so NOT looking for interactions between the talents, because that's not working. Instead, look for weaknesses in the talents themselves. Thanks Pride, you really do deserve your name."
"I feel quite rewarded hearing this from my god! All the moreso now that I know your true power. Don't worry, just work it out. Getting upset wastes time you don't have."
"None of us have. Will do, Pride."
He walks to the exit of my temple.
I look around at said temple.
Why did I make a religion?
I didn't want to be a god.
All I wanted was...
A better life.