"Which part of not upsetting the terrifying Leviathan did I not get?!" (I2)

"Hah, I remember when I was like this. Nice times. Or were they? To think I would come out to help myself out like this." (I∞)

"I didn't do it for you nor for this reason. So first things first, could anyone make us switch dimensions? Because I just heard something that makes me concerned and therefore intent on bringing the blast radius that makes up my less-controlled parts far away from my family if my concerns prove to be valid." (I2)

"Sure, should be no problem to connect." (I∞)

What?

Connect?

"Whoosh"

I can't even process what happens so fast it proceeds.

From one moment to the other some kind of wave rushes over me and even my structures, and once it settles after less than a split second, I find myself with the other two in some kind of black room.

More disturbingly, I just know that I'm cut off from the outside.

"Wha-what just happened?!" (I)

"I transported us into a certain partition of our dream dimension. It's quite the remote place, so it should be fine if you freak out here as long as you don't go completely mental on me." (I∞)

My dark side doesn't seem the slightest bit disturbed by this development.

"So to get started, I’ve had a hunch ever since you showed up here, but something isn't quite right. You aren't really here. Not in total at least. Rather it's like I can see a glimpse of something immeasurable behind you, or with you. But at the same time, it's detached. Like baggage you held on the wrong side of a closing subway door, which you still won't let go of. Probably nothing I should even try to analyze." (I2)

"Okay." (I∞)

"Don't be like this. I just want an answer from you. As I see it, you are so massive that you can't even fully cross the borders of time. This kind of growth... It can't be without consequences. So pray tell, how far did you go for it?" (I2)

"I wouldn't exactly say that I went very far. To a degree, there's quite a lot of natural development. As long as I dream I'm going to create things, which in turn expands our personal dream." (I∞)

"You said to a degree. What about the rest?" (I2)

"Well, that might be the two or more bazillion dimensions I swallowed. Do they make me look fat?" (I∞)

"Rather, errh... bloated. You know, more to supervise than our mind could possibly handle. Yet I'm sure you found a way around this." (I2)

"You bet I did!" (I∞)

Did she just say that she swallowed dimensions as if there's nothing to it?

God, am I evil?

"You, you said you ate dimensions. I, I still am not completely convinced about who you claim you are, but uh, if you hypothetically are saying the truth... did I become evil?" (I)

"Evil? I wouldn't say so. I still have rules I abide by and usually try being nice and friendly to everyone I interact with." (I∞)

"You just mentioned swallowing dimensions." (I)

I deadpan.

"They're still all fine in there. It's just more like I took over their general administration. I may control the fabric of their reality, but that doesn't mean they have it bad inside me. You should've seen those worlds before I came. Well, you eventually will." (I∞)

"Yes, yes. It's very interesting to hear how far we came, but what I'm really interested in would be that tidbit you just let slip through a moment ago." (I2)

"Which would be?" (I∞)

"I'm sure you know perfectly well, but fine, I'll humor you. You said Iori is going to become 'a part' of your future self. Not 'your' future self. I'd like an answer to the question that raises." (I2)

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

Huh?

I, I completely overlooked that part.

But if this wasn't just a slip of tongue...

"I believe I know where you are going with this. Let me try to explain the concept of our time relation if you're fine with this." (I∞)

"If it helps you to finally get started." (I2)

"First and foremost, Iori is, by all accounts, my past self." (I∞)

"So, you're still saying you're me?" (I)

"Well, yes and no. In some way you're right there, but not quite. Nothing and all at once, while everything comes down to all the same stuff." (I∞)

"You're not even supposing that I am able to understand that, right?" (I)

"Nah, it was a joke. But seriously, timelines are complicated stuff. In a way, you're my past me. I remember all the stuff that right now happens. On the other side, I can't be you as I'm currently tampering with this path and certainly no one did this for me, as I wouldn't even get this idea if there was no original path. However, the only reason why I can remember both paths must mean I'm both of us, which consequently means we're the same, which cannot be, as different memories and experiences lead to different people. You're following me so far?" (I∞)

My head hurts.

"So what? You're both of us? The only way how this could apply would be..." (I2)

I think I finally understand.

Even if I would've rather not.

"D-did you eat me? I... am not really you. Just something you absorbed. Is that it?" (I)

I don't want to believe this.

It means the real me is dead!

Or rather that I'm eventually going to die and she's just grooming me to be a tasty treat!

"So, does that mean you are going to kill us? I know, we probably can't do much about it, but I detest beating around the bush, and your actions just now contradict my conclusion to a degree. So would you finally get out with what is the case?" (I2)

"To soothe all of me present here, it's not the way you think it is. I'm by all accounts purely Iori. No one else, without any alterations or circumstances that would differentiate me from you as an entity or even pit me against you in any way. Neither am I going to harm nor take action against you as we share the same interests as one being." (I∞)

I can't contain myself any longer.

I got that she is immensely powerful, but this situation really gets to be too much for me!

"If I'm not really you that means you eradicated my old self! I'm dead, you liar!" (I)

"Woah, no! What do you take me for?" (I∞)

A dimension devouring calamity!

"How can anything else be the case according to your explanation?!" (I)

"After all, you're one of the infinite versions of me that are and will make up my current self." (I∞)

"But that does mean... gulp, I'm gone. My old self is lost..." (I)

"It's... a bit more complicated." (I∞)

She isn't even denying it anymore!

"You really ate me!" (I)

"As I said, no, and for your own sake, put the tentacles away. You don't want to merge already." (I∞)

"Already?" (I)

"Yes. It's more of an event horizon thing. When all of us at parallel running moments in time get big enough we start crossing dimensions. However, alternate realities mean alternate us. And as our body does not really distinguish it leads to a merging event." (I∞)

This, this still means I'll cease to exist in the future.

"Your look is telling enough. It's not the way you imagine it to be. At this point, far in the future, though we led different lives we were all kinda the same. If we'd have been too different there would have been a distinguishment. Instead, it was more like with that part of us we cut off and then recovered. That wasn't so bad to her, do you remember?" (I∞)

"But different from her I'm fine with myself! Also, I still got that part around, she's right here!" (I)

At this, number two waves with her hand.

"Ah, sorry. As I already mentioned, my memories aren't the most accurate. Anyway, what I wanted to say, it was no gory, brutal, mind-destroying battle royal. Far from it. Rather it was for all of us like simultaneously remembering things we didn't. A progressive fading of the lines. An oscillation of blurry lines that overlapped until they couldn't be differentiated any longer. Eventually, we were all the same, in the truest form of this meaning." (I∞)

"I, I still don't want to vanish." (I)

If there were more than one Iori and after that happened only one remained that means those others are gone.

Lost forever.

"Sigh. You apparently still don't get it. This merging isn't about getting absorbed. Rather, it's some kind of oscillation. In terms of existential crisis, how bad would it be for you if you'd wake up tomorrow with another favorite food?" (I∞)

"Uh, a one? Maybe two?" (I)

"Well, that's about the level you can expect after the two of us merge. Plus maybe knowledge about one or two trillion parallel worlds, which are quite similar and which you're assessing at the same time in different versions of yourself, which is honestly leading us too far. In addition, it's not exactly an immediate process. Rather, the pairs closest to each other's persona start to merge first, forming ever greater bulks. After all, those with opposing opinions aren't as compatible. You can think about it like this: Our inevitably growing mass and power is like gravity while contradicting thoughts are more like opposing magnetical poles. Meaning, that the more contradicting the Ioris were to our usual personality, the harder it got to merge. However, just as time, opinions are fickle things that won't hold forever. I honestly didn't even notice much of a change. It's probably not even quite over yet." (I∞)

"Which might be because you altered your own perception to this kind of thing?" (I2)

"Yep, that could totally be it. But what I was trying to get at, to quell your fears, you have probably several millennia for a process to start that proceeds so gratingly slow that you could see the continental drift as fast forward in comparison. There's nothing forceful about it." (I∞)

I'm not exactly sure if that truly soothes me.

For now, it might help that it's no immediate problem.

Also, the fact that she's not going to outright eat me could be considered positive.

"Well, so much for my time here. While exploring the past sounds somewhat tempting, I just know that pissing myself off isn't worth it. I mean, talk about getting you bad memories! Haha!" (I∞)

At this, a swirling portal of liquid that glows in all colors, some of them I didn't even know existed, opens behind her.

"So farewell! Until we meet again, as we eventually will." (I∞)

That ominous part was really necessary huh?

So she moves closer to the event horizon.

Before stopping right in front of it and turning back to me.

Damn, so close!

"Oh right, greet Switchy from me once you meet them!" (I∞)

What the heck is this supposed to mean?!

However, she finally steps through the portal and gets ripped away by it.

To me, it looks like the forces are tearing her apart.

However, from her demeanor, it seems like that has been included in the calculation.

"...and the other one." (I)