Chapter 42
(teeth and eyeballs)
Before Jarow could move or take any further action, her body began to shake violently, from her limbs down to her core. Her vision darkened, but her inventory screen popped open within her vision, and the soul coins she had stored there began to spin. They slowly rotated faster and faster before disappearing from their slots in a puff of rainbow sparkles.
Jarow blinked several times at the brightness of the miniature explosions. As her vision returned, before her floated several familiar people in a semicircle. To her left was a small female halfling, whom she recognized instantly from the time she had used the body and had seen that face in the mirror of the room at the inn. The short blonde hair and soft curves of her face were even more attractive to look at from outside of the body, and Jarow immediately understood why Mediv had been so attracted to her while she was in that form.
Next to the halfling stood a male dwarf with a bald head and a huge beard. The plaited beard was braided in three separate braids, the center braid consisting of three separate braids braided together. The dwarf smiled at Jarow and nodded his head, which Jarow noticed was tattooed in unfamiliar runes. The glyphs were done in a dark purple ink that slightly glowed as if the ink had some special properties or magic.
This was the first time Jarow had been able to actually see the dwarven body she had once occupied. The face was craggy with deep wrinkles at the corners of the eyes and along the forehead. But under those wrinkles and bushy eyebrows, the Dwarf held a youthful gaze and wore a mischievous smile.
As during the time Jarow had used this body, the dwarf was nude, which allowed Jarow to see the strong cable-like muscles that ran along the dwarf's body, muscles born from hard work and a long life. There was a layer of short white body hair that seemed to almost cover his body like a fursuit, it was so dense.
Jarow could now appreciate the small, thick body much more than she had while wearing it. She still remembered the knowledge of all things stone-related she had known and felt while in that body and wondered if the runic tattoos along the body’s head had something to do with the senses she had while occupying that body, since they weren’t exactly the kind of powers the dwarves in her memories were said to have.
Floating next to the dwarven body was a very familiar figure: the large female Orc whose body Jarow thought she was still inhabiting. The green-skinned face looked down at Jarow and grinned widely. Her tusks stuck out prominently, and her muscles bulged like a bodybuilder's, just as Jarow had seen in the mirror at Isilandra and Suhry's house.
With a curious look down, Jarow found that she was now back in her original human body. This frail, feeble human body looked so out of place here amongst the other fantastical bodies she had used during her adventures.
Jarow didn’t know what was going on, why this was happening, or what the possible reason for this was. Confusion was rapidly setting in, but before he could ask any of the hundreds of questions percolating in his mind, he looked back up and his eyes met a very familiar, very furry face.
Floating next to the Orc was his good friend Noruff Wagglebottom, someone Jarow knew very well but hadn't had a soul coin for. Jarow's face split wide with a huge grin as he noticed his friend was here with the others.
"Noruff? Is that really you?" Jarow asked, only now realizing he was using his original human voice.
"It is, friend Jarow! Good to see you again, although I remember you looking more like him." The white-furred man pointed at the dwarf, who smiled back at the Quigza and winked.
"Aye, he did look quite dashing in this body, didn't he?" The dwarf spoke in the typical Scottish-esque accent typically associated with dwarves. As he did so, the dwarf struck a strongman pose, which was somewhat awkward for all of them, since the dwarf's body was the only one present whose dangly bits hung down to knee level.
Jarow had a worrying thought about his own attire and looked down to see his body covered in the Aether Skin armor he had been wearing only moments ago while still in the Orc body. The shimmering color of the overlaying armor covering him obscured any embarrassing parts of his own body. He let out a small sigh of relief and smiled, looking back up to meet the gazes of the people surrounding him.
His curiosity quickly overpowered his confusion. Questions swirled through Jarow's mind, but he couldn't decide what to ask first. Did he want to know who these people were before they died? Did he want to find out what Noruff had experienced after dying? Or did he want to ask the main question on his mind?
“What’s going on? Why are you guys here?” he blurted out.
The smiling faces surrounding him beamed, but it was the halfling female who answered. “We are here to answer your questions. This will also be a type of final goodbye. These bodies can’t continue, but we wanted to leave you with some advice.”
Jarow was momentarily dumbfounded. He hadn’t expected anything like this to happen. He was all geared up to figure out how to mend the universe. Now a new question entered his mind.
"Do you guys know what I should do then?" Jarow asked, his smile faltering and deflating as the burden placed on him weighed once more on his mind.
The other avatars, instead of ducking the question or looking to avoid responding, smiled and reached out a hand to Jarow.
Their touch was comforting, and Jarow raised his head again. The friendly faces of these people, these bodies he had occupied, helped to lift his spirits. Seeing Noruff also did wonders for Jarow's mood, as his death had been difficult to deal with, especially when Xinpo released his memories and the past emotional issues from his humanity re-entered his mind.
"Jarow, you wonder what happens when you die, and you want to ask me," Noruff said, a statement rather than a question. His cute snout moved as he spoke, forming words without the necessary lips.
"Let me explain that first. You have been experiencing it yourself since meeting me. Your reincarnation cycle was accelerated, and because of Xinpo, you carried your own memories and consciousness with you. But death is not an end; it is just a pause. The spark of consciousness, the soul, can't be eliminated. It's that part of a person that continues to move on."
At this point, the halfling spoke and continued the explanation where Noruff had left off, her voice familiar and high-pitched, almost squeaky, just as it sounded when Jarow had occupied her body.
As you see from all of us around you, the possibilities of where your soul will travel to next are infinite. Not only can the soul traverse through the Aether, leaving the universe it was originally in, to find a new home elsewhere, but even while staying within a single universe, the possibilities of where a soul might end up are so vast that a billion lives could pass before a soul becomes truly aware and transcends its need for a physical form."
As Jarow's mind grappled with the idea of the soul moving from one person to another, evolving and expanding, Noruff's body shimmered and transformed. The Quigza's form shifted into something new and strange, something beyond Jarow's comprehension. It became a being of crystal and energy, simultaneously solid and gaseous. It emitted an internal light yet filled Jarow with a profound chill at the same time.
"Yes, Jarow, my life as Noruff was the last life I required." The new transcendent being didn't speak to Jarow's mind but to his soul directly. It was as if Jarow felt the thoughts rather than heard the words in his mind. He realized this was akin to how he perceived Xinpo, on a deeper level than mere telepathy.
"Don't be burdened by my passing or let the consequences of the monumental decision ahead worry you. Life will persist, whether in a new form or by transcending to another realm," the being formerly Noruff told him.
Jarow understood the message of the being once known as Noruff. In fact, he now understood it on a level beyond his own cognizance; it was as though he felt it throughout the cells of his body. His soul resonated with this understanding, embracing the truth of the cycle of life and death, or metempsychosis, across the universes.
Jarow felt an urge to ask about this transcendent soul's current existence, but he also realized that this knowledge was beyond even the new life form's experience. In his mind's eye, an image formed: a pyramid symbolizing the journey of a soul. The foundation represented a soul's earliest lives, each subsequent life bringing incremental growth and wisdom until the soul was finally able to ascend to the next level up.
This pattern continued until the soul reached the apex of the pyramid, representing a single final life. In this mental diagram, that final life belonged to his friend Noruff. Jarow felt, rather than saw, the short passage of Noruff's life: from his birth as a sickly pup, to the moment of his body's passing.
Rather than transcending then though, his spirit was transitioned to the Liminal Divide. This occurred not because Noruff had done something wrong, as most people there had done, but because Frank and Tenebrous had chosen him as Jarow’s guide.
He witnessed the centuries Noruff had spent pondering the nature of his own life, never knowing why his fate was to stay trapped in that place. Until he finally encountered the person who was to guide him to confront his final mortality.
That person was Jarow.
Due to Noruff’s soul’s arrival at the top of the pyramid, and its ability to move on and transcend to another place, Noruff felt no ill will towards the universe and its will to leave him there in the Liminal Divide to await Jarow. His time spent there was difficult, but acceptable due to its briefness, although hundreds of years being brief was a difficult thing for Jarow to fathom, still being in a mostly human mindset.
Once Noruff's soul was free of the Liminal Divide, his body quickly degenerated. Jarow knew now that even without dying from the Thu’kri, the Quigza wouldn't have had much longer to live. As Noruff died his final death, his soul underwent a strange metamorphosis. It transcended its physical form and became the being now floating before Jarow. The need for a physical body was gone, and his soul was finally free.
Jarow was briefly shown another diagram before he was withdrawn from Noruff's memory. It was similar to the pyramid he had seen as the path of a soul, but this diagram more closely resembled a ladder. Noruff’s soul, as it was now at least, stood upon the bottom rung of the ladder. Jarow had the notion that this ladder represented a similar path as the pyramid, the rungs of the ladder being similar to, yet completely different from, the escalation of tiers of the pyramid. However, there was no end in sight to the ladder he briefly glimpsed.
Jarow staggered back from the weight of the information his mind and soul had just digested. It was far beyond what any normal person should know, surpassing any religion or belief system held by mortals. It revealed an underlying pattern not just within their universe, but throughout the cosmos itself. The ramifications of an endless advancement for a soul to ascend bewildered not only his mind but his inner self.
It was a pattern of multiple lives where the essence of a being learns different knowledge through each incarnation until it can transcend the need for a body. Then, once again, it has a path to move upward. It resembled a school, Jarow realized. The soul learns until it can move on, or graduate. Then, once it has completed the entire curriculum, it progresses to the next level. The analogy was simplistic, but it seemed to fit well and elucidate the path for a soul in a way his limited brain could more easily understand.
"So this life, the lives within the multiverse, they're like grade school," Jarow pondered internally. "Life as I know it, whether it be on Earth or any other planet, that is where the soul learns what it truly is, going through thousands, if not millions, of lives; learning and building the understanding of itself until it can finally transcend, but even then it has only graduated to the next grade.”
This new way of thinking and experiencing lives was extremely interesting and useful, and Jarow would have liked nothing more than to sit and ponder this revelation further. But unfortunately, the knowledge didn't really help him make the decision before him.
The Orc spoke, bringing Jarow back from his ponderings. It was interesting to hear her voice. He had of course heard it while speaking as her, but the timbre and depth it held were much different from hearing his own voice pass through her vocal cords.
"You've skipped a large part of this journey now," the Orc explained. "To acquire the artifacts and learn the necessary abilities, you needed more than just your own body. We, on the brink of transcendence, lent you our physical forms, making room for your fractured soul. We stepped back, allowing you to navigate, as your world would say, took the backseat."
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The body of the female Orc, its arms wide to indicate the others as she spoke, shifted then. It contorted, folding into itself and morphing from flesh to a state of crystalline energy. Before Jarow now, where the body of the Orc once floated was another transcendent soul, similar to, but somehow different from, the other which had been Noruff.
The Orc body wasn't the only one to transform in front of Jarow either. The dwarven body waved to Jarow and gave him a cheerful smirk as his body began to change in a similar fashion. The halfling gave Jarow a huge toothy smile as her physical body transformed as well. Within seconds Jarow was surrounded by these transformed and transcended souls. They no longer spoke to him with their mouths or even telepathically; they now spoke directly to his own soul.
"We tell you this to help you understand and make a more informed decision," the beings said; although Jarow could now ‘hear’ them all speak as one. Hearing was the wrong way of putting it though, the spiritual voices directed their thoughts directly into him.
"In order to mend this universe, you will need to give up not only your physical life, but it will be your spirit that becomes the bond which will hold the universe together. Your soul will in essence become the glue which holds the pieces in place."
This information gave Jarow pause. He hadn’t known how he was supposed to accomplish his goal, but he hadn’t ever imagined he would have to use his own soul as sacrifice.
Jarow, now with a better understanding of what it truly meant to have a soul; understanding its essence and potential, was shocked by this news. A new image formed in his mind's eye, a vestige of the journey he had undertaken when reading Frank’s quest. It was his soul surrounding the universe, watching, waiting, until finally the universe stopped expanding. At that point, the Void Weaver would no longer be held at bay and would devour not only the universe that Jarow had covered and protected with his own essence from beginning to end, but also Jarow's own soul. It would be a complete and total end to him.
But instead of feeling remiss, Jarow could feel the satisfaction coming from his soul as it finally found its conclusion. He had saved this universe, had borne witness to everything and everyone ever who had passed through. He was happy and content as everything ended. It was in essence Frank and Tenebrous put back together, he was both of them as well as himself, and yet also separate. The uniqueness of the conglomeration gave his soul the fulness it longed for.
"You can make this decision and meet a final ending in peace, secure in the thought that you saved everyone. Content with your sacrifice and decision to live vicariously through the almost infinite number of lives held within your boundaries," the beings spoke to Jarow again.
"Or you can choose to transcend yourself." They said in a slightly different way. Jarow wasn't sure how he knew the difference, but the feeling of the soul speaking to him was not quite the same, as though a different speaker had moved to the forefront.
This time, before him, a new image began to form. The image shifted and became solid, then floating there in front of him; was himself. But this newer version was small and rather than interacting with him, it began moving of its own accord and Jarow quickly understood he was seeing what could happen, like watching a TV show, but without the boundaries of a screen.
The small him stood over the splitting universe and fought off the tentacles whipping at him. He fought and battled them until finally reaching the universe. Then he spoke some words, which he couldn't make out, and leapt forward, bringing his sword down and completing the tear of the universe.
With a quiver and a jerk, the two halves split, and Jarow watched as the darkness streamed almost completely from one half, just as the light did from the opposite side. The now-split universes drifted slightly away from each other, and Jarow's body finally succumbed to the unending tentacles of the Void Weaver.
As he died, an energy slipped from his body. It coalesced and expanded, then shrank and became one with everything while residing in nothing. It was the shadows as well as the light. Jarow's soul transcended and began its next journey, becoming one with the beings he was communicating with and continuing on with them.
The vision disappeared, and Jarow was once again floating within the strange space with the transcended souls encircling him.
"The watchers who have guided you thus far are split: Frank embodies the light, while Tenebrous embodies the dark. Like you and Xinpo, they too are separate parts of a whole, but unlike mortals, they can be reunited, be started over, basically born once again in a perfect unison. They are the spirit of the universe itself, and their desire is to become one within the boundaries of the universe once more, to be held within your soul where they experience peace until the end of time," the same soul speaker continued.
The explanation paused for a moment while Jarow's mind continued to process what was being told to him. Other questions began to haunt him, questions he wasn't sure he dared to ask, or even if he did, he doubted they would be answered.
"You can choose to join us instead," the beings continued. "Become transcended as we are and continue the path your soul desires." The last words rang of happiness and love. It was obvious to Jarow, the magical feeling of freedom these souls now felt, pausing only briefly as he made his decision. Their lives, their connection to this plane of existence, tethered only by their curiosity as to what would come of him and the universe.
Jarow felt as though he regained consciousness once more. The words being spoken were felt within him, taking him to places far beyond the Aether in which he floated. His body remained in the same place, surrounded by the souls of his previous bodies and his friend. Their shimmer of energy guarded him from the Void Weaver, which undulated just beyond the circle of light given off by the transcended souls.
His mind raced with all that he had been told. From Frank's message to the souls' explanations, the vast amount of information was overwhelming.
Before Jarow could ask for a moment to reorient himself, the entities disappeared, fading into the darkness that surrounded him, giving him the space to decide. Without their presence, the area darkened, and Jarow once again looked out into the darkness at the Void Weaver's large, bulbous eyes staring back at him.
"Xinpo, can Frank or those other souls or anything else like that hear us when we talk like this?" Jarow asked his companion. His soul basically talking to itself.
"No, suzerain. We speak within the boundaries of our own soul. This is the one thing which is truly unassailable," Xinpo replied.
"Good, because I need someone to talk to, to help me figure something out," Jarow said to his soul’s other part. "I don't like either choice. I can see the benefit to both, but I don't think those can be the only choices. I think we need to make a third choice."
Xinpo perked up and waited for Jarow to continue.
"What I'm thinking would require a huge sacrifice, and while I would be willing to make the sacrifice, it would ultimately be up to you to choose to do so because you are the only one who has the powers to do it."
This both intrigued and somewhat frightened Xinpo, but he urged Jarow to continue.
"I think the universe is better for being apart. I think Frank and Tenebrous are better for being split, and I think everyone in the universe would be better off being able to live their life as they choose, whether that be as mundane as our life was before, or as something exciting and exotic like the adventurers we have become. I also think there is room for both."
"I say we split the universes, but also keep them connected," Jarow said excitedly.
Between the two parts of his soul, Jarow communicated in ways beyond simple words. It was similar to how the transcendent souls had spoken to him, causing visions to accompany the words, but also invoking even more intimate and personal feelings.
He and Xinpo shared thoughts and ideas, assessing what could work and what probably wouldn't. Their separate yet interconnected minds worked together to craft a third option: a plan to not only allow them to fix the universe, but also to continue living in it, at least to some extent.
"I agree and am ready," Xinpo finally spoke to Jarow after several moments of deliberation and planning.
Jarow's face widened with a smile, but behind it was a great sadness. They both felt this plan should work, but it wasn't without consequences.
Jarow was finally ready. He had made up his mind and knew what he was going to do. Within the images and messages he had experienced while conversing with the transcendent souls was the guidance on how to make his choice and enact his plan.
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For a while now, Jarow had noticed that the universe he observed appeared barely larger than himself. Initially, he dismissed it as a distortion of distance and space, considering the vastness of the Aether. However, it occurred to him that his perception of the universe and himself might now mirror each other. Within the Aether, size and relativity were tailored to the task at hand. Therefore, as Jarow needed to comprehend how the universe was being split by the Void Weaver, he had assumed a size that facilitated this understanding.
Yet, there was also the matter of distance. While from Jarow's perspective it appeared as if he only needed to traverse a few yards to interact with the universe, his attempts to move revealed a significant expanse separating him from it. Whether this was a trick of his vision or the Void Weaver itself attempting to thwart him remained uncertain.
Without further hesitation, Jarow began moving forward toward the universe in which he resided, yet was now completely apart from. He felt a surge of determination as the tentacles of the Void Weaver loomed around him. He withdrew his Xinpo from his inventory, only to realize that throughout his time here, through all the conversation and interaction with the transcendent souls, Xinpo’s physical housing, his sword body, had been locked away in his inventory, yet Xinpo’s consciousness had remained with Jarow.
Their bond had grown so strong that the physical form of the sword was no longer necessary. It was for this reason that the gleaming artifact sword could now reside within the inventory area, whereas it could not when they had first met. The very thing that made the sword sapient, Jarow’s soul, was sufficiently reattached to him that his body could carry their separate parts together wherever their body went.
Jarow felt the familiar heft in his hand, but replicated the sword, and took the other in his left. The sensation of having his swords was familiar and comforting, especially in this alien environment. He began to dance through the Aether, running the moves of Wind in the Willows; his swords a shimmering blur as they cut, parried, and stabbed.
The movement felt strange yet effortless. Despite the lack of ground beneath him, he moved through space as though his feet had never required solid footing. His body and soul projected him through sheer willpower alone.
Recollections flooded Jarow's mind as he moved in this manner; it felt very similar to the way he had moved in his Naga body. The instinctual movement without the constant need to think about where to step. The sensations were similar, and navigating through the Aether felt almost identical to when he had slithered through the tunnels fighting the Thu’kri.
It didn’t take long before Jarow’s swords began biting into the tentacles of the Void Weaver. It was difficult not to hit them as they coiled and wrapped around everything. Jarow felt as though he were caught within a giant bowl of spaghetti, yet the noodles in this scenario were black, semi-opaque, and varied in size. Some of the tentacles were barely as thick as his arm, while others were thicker than Jarow was tall.
As he looked again at his target, the yards he’d needed to traverse had continued to expand and now looked more like kilometers. The universe still seemed close enough for Jarow to jump to, yet the distance he would have to travel felt like it would take days.
Jarow checked his UI, his swords reflexively swinging in the ingrained movement of his elegant and dexterous combat style. To his amazement, all of his powers were active once again. He began to experiment with incorporating them into the battle, though the results were not what he had hoped for in most cases.
Molecular Fusion still caused two opposing molecules to fuse, but since there were only two substances in this interdimensional realm—himself and the Void Weaver—it took flesh from Jarow's body and used it to change a small part of a tentacle to a creamy white bit of flesh. However, this transformation lasted only a brief second before the flesh was disintegrated, and the Void Weaver quickly reformed into its original state. At the same time a small amount of his HP would drain and take a moment for his regeneration to bring him back to full.
Essence Transposition had no noticeable effect, though Jarow felt the tentacles he swapped skip a beat or two, but that was difficult to determine since their movement resembled more of a random wiggling than anything done with actual thought behind it.
Spatial Exchange had a similar effect, although there was a visible movement between the swapped tentacles. This minute pause in their movements allowed Jarow to avoid a strike from time to time. The tentacles were quickly reattached though, as though they had been there the entire time.
Temporal Inversion had the most surprising effect. When cast on a tentacle, all of its eyes and rows of sharp teeth fell off. The tentacle itself seemed unharmed, but Jarow found that it was also slightly easier to slice through, as if the power had aged the limb. Jarow knew that time was a measurement of movement, which in this place was subject to perception rather than physics. However, he thought perhaps the Void Weaver could still fall victim to entropy.
He kept his Aural Armor active, but it was like adding blue to a black painting. It was there, but its effect was imperceptible.
Finally, there was his Dimensional Stream power. This was the only way Jarow could find to actually move forward in any noticeable way in this place between the universes. The thirty-second paralysis after the power ended was tricky to navigate, but it only applied to his physical body.
Xinpo noticed that his Telepathy ability had evolved to Telekinesis, allowing him to control additional duplicated swords created using the Copy ability. Even though Jarow's body floated prone after the Dimensional Stream power ended, Xinpo could still fend off the tentacles of the Void Weaver and keep Jarow safe. Additionally, this allowed Xinpo to control two additional swords in addition to the two that Jarow fought with, essentially giving Jarow four swords dancing around him at all times.
Thus, Jarow and Xinpo slowly fought their way forward through the mass of the Void Weaver. Jarow had attempted to use Passe-Partout multiple times, hoping to create a portal that could move them closer to the universe, but the power only allowed small, quick teleports which didn’t seem to move them any closer to the universe ahead. The quick short teleports were still useful at times as they danced through the mass of intertwining tentacles.
After what could have been hours or possibly years, Jarow finally moved far enough through the Void Weaver to encounter one of its large eyes. He had seen the large eyes glowing in the distance before, but as of yet hadn’t encountered any on his path; there had been none between him and the universe before, but that was no longer the case.
In this place, Jarow was virtually nothing. His perceptions of size, distance, time, space, gravity, and all other laws of physics he had always known were thrown out the window. To really drive that fact home, Jarow thought about how he was able to use his own body in the way he was.
Despite his inability to develop muscle in the physical world, Jarow swung Xinpo with accuracy and precision, lopping off parts of the unending mass of tentacles. He had never been able to even walk more than a few steps without tiring and panting, but now in the Aether, he fought and moved for unknown, but extremely long, amounts of time without breaking a sweat.
Since his death, Jarow's perception of everything had changed. Being able to actually use the body he had grown up with was the cherry on top of the sundae. He wasn't sure what would happen to his soul once he finished his plan, but in this moment he felt happy, exhilarated, and, above all, content with the existence he had lived up to this point.
From waking in the Liminal Divide and finding his own body, to living as an Elf and perceiving things in magnified ways, to feeling the power held in pure muscle from the Orc, to learning how to perceive things unseen through the Dwarf, his experiences had transformed him.
He had felt the non-humanoid form of the Naga, the nonbinary and inanimate form of the doll, the soft fur of the Gnoll, the soft yet agile body of the Halfling, and the freedom of flight as the Aasimar. Jarow's journey had completely changed his beliefs about what was possible. Even if he corrected and resealed the universe, he knew that nothing would ever be the same for him.
When the large, greenish-black glowing eye appeared before him, Jarow felt no fear. He didn't waver or pause. Instead, he began finding ways to get around or through it. Tentacles surged forward, but Jarow reacted quickly, grabbing his knees and tucking in his head. He knew that his Aether Skin armor would protect him from the tentacles' attacks. They struck him and instantly dissolved, but their force pushed him back and left some bruises. Jarow ignored the pain and pressed forward.
He lunged and took a Superman pose as he flew through the area exposed by the onslaught of tentacles. He flew like a dart, both hands held in front of him, a blade of duality held in both hands. He swung his blades relentlessly and chopped his way until reaching the eye itself. As the semi-solid mass that seemed to be the pupil of the tremendously huge eyeball turned to find Jarow's position, a new construct of reality washed over him. He was immediately withdrawn from the writhing mass of tentacles surrounding him and plopped within a floating sphere of greenish liquid.
The liquid was dense and thick, restricting his every movement. Jarow suddenly felt the need for air overtake him once more, the thought and panic of drowning overwhelming his lungs and brain. In the distance, a dark shape moved closer, its lines morphing and moving, sometimes sharp and pointy, other times soft and sleek.
It was with a great strength of will that Jarow calmed himself, logically reminding his body that oxygen wasn’t necessary. The dark form surged forward, its movements jumpy and erratic. The amorphous shape closed the distance faster than Jarow assumed it would, and at the moment of impact, it took the shape of a large maw with jagged teeth that opened wide to engulf him.
As the mouth closed around him and the greenish hue of the liquid disappeared, Jarow felt the hundreds of teeth, each several inches long, penetrate his flesh. A new fear quickly overtook Jarow's mind: a fear of death.
A fear of death hadn’t been something Jarow had worried about for a while now. He had instinctually known he would return, and to a degree even looked forward to what he would return as. But this was different. He had seen himself completing his goal, but that hadn’t been foretelling, it was only a possibility, and Jarow had not understood. Now, as the teeth sank deeper into his flesh, he realized that this was it, this was his last life, that he had failed.
Jarow had moved forward with the notion of reaching his goal, confident that his Aether Skin armor would protect him. He had never contemplated the possibility of failure, let alone dying. He now not only knew the truth of how his metempsychosis worked, but that he was in his original body, the frail human body that, up until his time here in the Aether, had been utterly useless and fragile. He should have been more careful.
The blade-like teeth sank deeper into Jarow's body, and he felt the darkness surrounding him grow colder and deeper. His consciousness faded as the last vestiges of life left his body.