Void, chain mummy, man, despair—these, and only these words, could describe the scene inside of Samuel’s soul space. For many minutes now, Samuel had been stuck trying to figure out what this figure is, and how to utilize it. His conclusion, based on the aura it emits and its creation, was that it was an amalgamation of his soul and mind. How? He had no idea. For all he knew, his soul remained stuck in that godforsaken hellish place, and his mind functioned perfectly. Yet the truth was there, ignoring him.
“Please? Pretty please? I’ll do anything; I promise!”
At a loss? Beg! Or so went Samuel’s train of thought. It didn’t matter if the object was alive or not; he’d try it anyway. To no avail, of course. Begging some runes located on your strange body-soul-mind union is ridiculous and really puts his assumption about his mind into perspective.
“Well, this might not be working. Hmm, whenever I use my trusted incantation I just get expelled, but surely this is not here for show. There must be something like a code to activate the effects.”
Uttering ‘Gowla’ resulted in nothing but disappointment, as he’d be removed every time. He was unsure why because nothing else he said had the same effects. Normally this would not be a problem, as his trusted time sphere was itching to be used. He could then brute force a password. But this luxury was ironically lost to time. The addition of outside pressure also didn’t help much. Whatever was approaching was doing so with haste and purpose.
“Think, Samuel. If this thing is me, or I’m it, then we should have similar traits. There is no apparent personality, but it might be hidden beneath all that coverage. If so…there is only one option left.”
Taking a deep breath, Samuel entered a theoretical position. With the deepest intent ever perceived, Samuel conveyed the feeling of absolute subservience, inferiority, happiness, and admiration toward the chain-mummy.
“Oh, mighty Samuel, please grant the pathetic me some aid in these troubling times! I’m nothing without your guidance and help. I understand if you do not want to, but please consider aiding this worm I call self.”
Ego. Satiating his ego was the only possible path left to pursue. If this didn’t work, then he might as well resign himself to his fate. All the recent improvements Samuel knew of were related to this thing. He was banking on receiving hidden boons to salvage his terrible life choices. He was stalked by an ungodly being, and another was probably approaching at their fastest speeds. This all wouldn’t have happened if not for Paul. Damn that guy! How dare he possess such an outstanding physique?
When all was lost, and Samuel began to wallow in his now blooming hatred for the bastard Paul Ballitz, something changed. A resonance of sorts occurred. Like a call from beyond. Samuel felt himself connect with the behemoth abomination. His entire being, from body to cultivation to thoughts, formed an indescribable bond with what he could now realize was him. It was not a projection, but his true form. If anything, the body in the outside world was the projection.
Only now did it truly strike him that those chains are his talent restrictions. Instead of distracting himself with silly tangents, however, Samuel, for the first time in his life, decided to do the practical thing. With this connection now established, an entire new world opened up to him. Figuratively and literally.
Stolen novel; please report.
Through the resonance, Samuel gained both insight and access to his true form. Hidden underneath the unrelenting chains, inside the black person-shaped mass, was a planet, found in countless different variations. A planet of pure fire, similar to a star, a planet of pure water, rock, metal, wind, light, dark, time, space. Every fathomable element a creature can hope to comprehend constructed their own planet inside of Samuel’s unholy being. What they could be used for remained unknown, but their effect must be transcendental.
“This is amazing, but also not what I need. I can’t interact with any of them, and I require tangible boons, not potential ones.” Samuel was both elated and sad at his discovery. The future implications and benefits to these things were bound to be great, but they would most certainly not help his current predicament. “I need something like the time sphere to extend my time to plot. Or access to a new rune, effect, or item.”
Samuel was lost in the sauce, so to speak. If given ample time to explore these planets and his other prospects, then nothing could tell the heights he’d reach, but such luxuries were not for him to possess. He couldn't alter time outside either, due to his disturbed perverted stalker. All in all, there was light at the end of the tunnel, but two behemoths blocked his way, and he possessed no way of getting past them.
“Gowla!”
With perseverance in mind, Samuel attempted yet again to cast his incantation, only to be greeted by uncomfortable silence. It neither worked nor expelled him, leaving him with nothing to go off.
“I have three fucking minutes to find something, anything to help me out. Focus! The chains are there, meaning my talents should be the same. If my talents are the same, then access can be gained. If access can be gained, I just need to know the password. Gowla used to be the password, but it no longer works. The time rune is now complete and too complex for me to grasp, so it might despise being lumped with its previous form. If this is the case, then I need to know what this rune is called. But how?”
The clock was ticking down, and with no solution in sight, Samuel was forced to think out of the box, but within the confines of simplicity. Since the rune was some manner of time, he’d try voicing it in different languages. English didn’t work. Neither did the language they spoke here. Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, French, Russian, German, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, the Celtic languages, Greek, none of them worked.
“Tempus,” Samuel uttered with a defeated cadence. Latin was the last language he could remember and speak from Earth, making it his last hope. The final gambit before his doom arrived. Did it work? Surprisingly, no. There was no main character luck this time around. There was no last-ditch effort saving the situation. He truly was fucked.
“Well, I hoped and prayed, to no avail. I’ll try to bullshit my way out, but these thoughts are not indicating a willingness to negotiate.”
After the incoming entity neared a few minutes away, their thoughts directed towards Samuel finally became clear. They were unsure of his identity, but were searching for him to administer what they perceived as justified revenge. Apparently, he slew the entity, causing him to waste a lot of time and money, and he was not happy about it.
“Why would someone possessing such ridiculous power need to pray to wandering and mindless gods in the Nothingness? It doesn't make any sense. That clown was also weak; how could I have expected such repercussions? You know what, I can just ask the guy. His mind is hyperactive, so perhaps he’s the chatty type.”
The time of judgment was upon him. Samuel exited his soul space, pretended to awaken, rose from the bed, retrieved the regal robe he stole from Greg before folding it nicely. It needed to be presentable. Perchance Greg would be so ecstatic about his robe not being tarnished he’d forgive him.
Abruptly, instantly after finishing his preparations, the entire solar system began to vibrate and quake under the pressure of Greg. The planets’ orbits and rotations froze, the people trembled and prostrated, and the qi was devoured. Anger was felt in the pressure. Anger that, after a quick spirit sense search, became directed towards him.
“Hello, my name is Leumas. It’s nice to make your acquaintance!”
Zhong Greg: “...”