A sphere flew over to him as fast as it could while he fell through space. The size of the ship that he was just on was further reinforced by the fact that he fell for quite some time.

“Please return to the ship. You are about to enter forbidden territory. Death is imminent.”

He didn’t ignore the warnings, but he did get the wrong message. It only served to confirm his theory that this was how he would complete the hidden objective. After a few minutes of perpetual free fall, he felt something pulling on him from the direction of the black hole. Its gravity was strong, strong enough to yank him out of his descent.

He hit a solid mass of darkness with a thud, but he was at least able to land on his feet thanks to his training from Juno. The sphere that had been trying to get him back to safety had been pulled in alongside him, apparently against its will. He assumed that was the case because it was doing the flying robot’s equivalent of pacing back and forth.

“Oh no, this isn’t good. We’re going to die. We’re not supposed to be here.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s forbidden!”

“Yeah, I get that, but why?”

“This was made to lock away all knowledge that breaks the fundamental laws of reality. Magic has to follow rules, but rules are often broken. The Designers couldn’t destroy the information, so they locked it away in a trap that would forever hold anyone foolish enough to covet these taboos.”

“Who are the Designers? That’s a cliche name, yeah?” He started walking forward, paying attention to the flow of mana. He assumed that every individual cluster where the mana gathered was the location of a book, so he could find something fun as long as he went there. He could more or less guess who the Designers were, but he still listened to the robot’s explanation about how they were an ancient civilization that made it their mission to watch over lower life forms across the universe and guide them in the right direction.

“Oh, that name is just a translation I can understand? Thanks, I don’t like hearing things I can’t understand.” He was being serious. The thought of going through the same pain he did when Juno spoke his real name to him wasn’t a pleasant one! “So what happened to them?”

“They’re currently spread across the universes of the Tower, increasing their sphere of influence. They conquered this universe in its entirety so there’s nothing else to be done here.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“I see.” He reasoned that they probably weren’t from the same universe as he was. Nobody had conquered Earth to his knowledge.

He came upon the first book and focused on it.

‘How to Completely Rob Someone of Free Will. Unknown Author.’

He picked it up and started thumbing through the pages, skimming it just to see if he could gleam anything from it.

“Why are you so calm? We’re going to die here. There’s no way for us to escape the gravitational pull. Even the strongest of beings would be stuck here.”

“What’s the point in stressing certain death?” He knew he was going to be fine, but there was no reason for him to tell the robot. It was created by the Designers, so it was probably recording information for them since they had an affinity for gathering knowledge. Since they were still around, he would run into them one day if he was going to be exploring every floor in hopes of finding his home. They didn’t need too much information on him.

‘Further reading of this forbidden text will expose its true secrets. Is this the book you would like assigned to you?’

He returned the book to where he got it from. He knew he didn’t want something so trivial, it wouldn’t be worth the effort in the slightest.

“Do you know what books are here?”

“I only know that, the closer they are to the center, the more dangerous they are. That’s why the pull gets even stronger.”

“Oh? That makes this really simple then, thank you.”

He took off at full speed, running right into the mouth of the black hole with reckless abandon. It didn’t take him long to arrive there, seeing as he was much faster than he was before his training, and he had the gravitational pull of the black hole pulling him in as well.

“Mmcht.”

That was the sound of him sucking his teeth once he made it to the center. The book wasn’t just haphazardly lodged in the darkness like the other books he had passed. No, this one was suspended in the air and covered with thick black chains plus a padlock. That wasn’t what upset him though.

It was the fact that the key was right in front of him, attached to the hip of an eight winged angel standing guard over the book with a golden spear in their hand.

What the hell is in the book for there to be two extra methods of security on top of it being in the center of a black hole?

“Your presence here is a violation of universal law, mortal. Pray to whatever foolish God you serve and ridicule them for allowing you to throw your life away.” said the angel.

Shit, that’s a cool line. What should I say back?

“It’s a pity that you’re so blinded by your devotion to the Designers that you are unable to comprehend a real God when he’s in your presence.”

Good enough.

He could tell from a glance that this wasn’t going to be an easy fight. Most of the paths leading to the angel were doused in crimson, but there were a few yellow ones mixed in as well. He would have to create his own green paths, but that was okay.

Wait, I can only have three points set and one of them has to stay on the ship. He wanted to curse himself for his circumstances, but there was no helping it. He had no way of knowing there would be such a powerful foe protecting the book.

He had to admit that he was excited that the odds were stacked against him, especially when a creature that seemed to be made from pure darkness rose from the ground below the angel and served as a mount. It was a serpent of moving shadows, giving it a deathly smokey appearance. Everything about it was obsidian in hue other than its piercing pink eyes.

I hope I can get the snake as a summon. Was his final thought before they lunged in to attack Amon.