"My name is God-Killer, and I have felled the rulers of many Iterations. I do hope you understand what it means to form a soul contract with me, Obelisk. Even if you do obtain Ruin, you will have earned the ire of many existences less friendly than I. While I choose to operate with honour and pride, many Unbounded do not. This is your final warning. Regardless of your response now, if I may say, it has been a pleasure talking to you. Your opinions are always... interesting to me to say the least. End message."

-?̡͠?̴̷͜?̸̴

God-Killer had only sent the message to Obelisk mere seconds ago when he received a response. Without even viewing the message he could tell it was a yes; it seemed the foolish god was determined to follow this path of destruction. Not that God-Killer complained, of course, this was his job after all. Pushing against the boundary of the iteration, God-Killer escaped into the spiritual ether, becoming but a drifting soul amongst the great cloud of soul energy. God-Killer knew that doing this, without a shadow, would mean other existences would know he was working again and try to protect themselves, but he didn't care. No one survived the God-Killer's wrath.

Setting his sights away from Obelisk's iteration, God-Killer began his hunt. Though he had no qualms killing powerful gods, he instead resolved for a weaker one this time. God-Killer's presence spread far and wide searching for either a new iteration or a weak god. If people didn't know God-Killer was active when he entered the ether, then his overwhelming presence surely made everyone aware. Found it, God-Killer smiled, setting his eyes upon a certain Iteration 8034, governed by a fairly weak Old God called Ussan. In fact, Ussan didn't feel like an Old God at all, but a new Unbound posing as a ruler of an iteration. Either way, if his scan picked up on him, Ussan's soul would be good enough of a first target. So, he shifted.

Infinite swathes of colour passed by, God-Killer shifting through the ether at incredible speeds even for an Unbound, clearly very skilled in spiritual manipulation of the ether and his own soul. Within moments, God-Killer reached and burst through the boundary of Iteration 8034, the shards of the broken boundary being sent far throughout the bounds of the iteration, and he then felt his target. Ussan noticed the presence of another Unbound almost instantly, the boundary shards that reached the extent of his rule only confirming his suspicions that someone had broken in. And how did he react? Ussan tried to run.

God-Killer thought it was hilarious that Ussan's first instinct was to abandon the people he supposedly ruled over and rush to an iteration boundary to escape. To be fair to Ussan, it wasn't a bad idea, since God-Killer can't do much to Ussan in the ether or any UAI governed area. However, this wasn't his first rodeo and God-Killer doesn't let his prey go so easily. Pulling out a small superfluously decorated tube from his pocket, God-Killer pulled it up to his mouth and breathed. Though there were no gaps in the tube for air to enter the tube, his soul-infused breath passed straight through into the inner-workings of the device. With a quiet mechanical click, the Administration-Level artifact took effect, and the World Singed Singer let out a bellowing hum. As the strange hum vibrated the entire iteration itself, the iteration boundary hardened to an almost impossible degree, cracks and imperfections in the spiritual wall healing whilst a robotic voice spoke into the minds of those with high enough authority.

"Please do not be alarmed Unbound, this iteration has been scheduled for repair by a World Bout administrator. This repair should hopefully be short, so we hope you are patient while you wait. Thank you for your compliance." A strange androgynous voice said into God-Killer's head, permeating all of his mental and spiritual barriers with ease. If this message was reaching him, then Ussan would have also been contacted. Hopefully that'll cause him to panic even more.

God-Killer put away the artifact and began to complete a full physical teleport into the spiritual realm before, surprisingly, Ussan teleported to him instead.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Ussan shouted, a mix of fear and rage on his face, as the two men floated in space next to the boundary, "You come barging into MY iteration, and then this quarantine happens? What ev-"

Without letting Ussan finish his sentence, God-Killer moved behind the self-proclaimed ruler and slashed at him with his signature weapon. Even though Stagnation wasn't a very powerful artifact, only being a Tiered-Level one after all, its sheer destructive power alongside with God-Killer's own skills could challenge even the greatest gods. Its main ability was its only ability, and the one it was named after.

Stagnate

Ussan was weak, but he was still Unbounded. The instant God-Killer had moved behind the man, Ussan was in the middle of turning around and drawing a Unbound-Level artifact of his own, a sword from the looks of it, but it wasn't enough. With the willpower of one of the strongest Unbounded in existence behind the command, the soul energy of the entire spiritual realm of the iteration froze. No matter how hard someone resisted, the soul energy outside of one's soul stopped moving and couldn't be manipulated. By the look of realisation and overwhelming fright clouding his target's eyes, God-Killer could tell that Ussan's artifact needed soul energy to operate; soul energy that he could now no longer control. The only downside to using Stagnation's ability was that it prevented even the user from manipulating soul energy, making it only a Tiered-Level artifact rather than a more powerful one. Yet, in the soul-energy-frozen environment created by Stagnation, the weapon's true form took shape.

Stagnation adopted the appearance of a standard translucent sword when fully manifested, having a very thin blade, straight at the bottom but curved at the top, yet the blade itself continued on for miles and seemingly had an infinite length to the undiscerning eye. Due to Stagnation's ethereal nature, any presence of soul energy that moved into it with any amount of force could jeopardise the artifact itself and even possibly destroy it, as the blade existed in all realms simultaneously. The only way the artifact wouldn't be disrupted is if stray soul energy couldn't collide with it, and, if it chose to, it would be the one to collide with particles of soul energy instead. In spite of being the owner of the artifact, God-Killer had no idea how the actual weapon came to being or how it works, only that it can kill and kill well. Faster than the speed God-Killer can shift at, Stagnation was swung. And, in its infinite trail, reality itself cracked. Ussan barely managed to dodge the first swing before God-Killer attacked again. The hunt had begun.

Ussan couldn't comprehend what was happening. First a stranger had broken into his home and then the World Bout administration declared a quarantine. Now this stranger was trying to kill him! At first Ussan suspected that the stranger was the issued World Bout administrator, but that thought vanished the second they tried to kill him. That strange ability of the artifact the man was carrying stopped Ussan from doing most things in his arsenal, keeping him almost permanently on the defensive. Looking into the spiritual realm and seeing nothing move was an alien sight; it was the visual equivalent of hearing absolute silence, when life is almost never completely quiet. Only stranger was that the iterational damage the artifact caused to the space around him, the cracks in reality caused by something too powerful to be contained within a normal space. The damage never healed. Usually when such an attack occured, the crack would appear and then reseal itself within moments, the longest Ussan himself ever seeing a crack persist being a few seconds and that being an attack he himself had caused. The artifact's long, infinite-seeming cuts wounded the iteration permanently, only making the battle harder for Ussan who had to avoid being stuck in one of the cracks unless he wanted to be kicked out of the iteration and left as a spiritual mush from the sheer power of the iteration itself churning him through. Ussan surmised that it was something to do with the freezing of the spiritual realm, and, if not that, then definitely the quarantine of the iteration. No, the more he thought about it, it had to be the quarantine, right? He knew of no weapon and no man wielding such a weapon that could achieve such a feat. Unless... no, it couldn't be. Ussan cast the idea from his mind immediately, because if what he had thought was true, then he was dead long before the man entered the iteration. The God-Killer was supposed to be dead after all.

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Using his inactive artifact, Ussan traded blows with the stranger the best he could, avoiding the almost two-dimensional holes in reality caused by their own artifact. Fortunately, his own sword-artifact, despite being inactive due to the frozen spiritual realm, was able to stop the blade and its reality breaking effects; but, a weapon like that being stopped by a currently weak Unbound-Level artifact? It seems there's more to that artifact than Ussan had initially thought. If Ussan survived this he would have to look into it.

Unfortunately, Ussan was never someone with large physical strength, and the well-built stranger easily overpowered most of his own swings even with swinging a blade of that length. Sometimes he was lucky and the infinite-seeming artifact was stopped in its tracks by his small dainty shortsword, or at least what seems like one when inactive. The stranger adapted quickly though and the second he recognised that his swing was about to be blocked fully, the translucent blade that was already partially ethereal became completely immaterial with the exception of the handle, passing straight through Ussan and rematerializing on the other side. With the swing continuing after materialising, Ussan became trapped between a pair of giant two-dimensional holes in reality either side of him, the only space in the rift created in the region where the blade was immaterial. And, inhumanly-fast, the stranger pivoted the artifact around for a complete overhead swing at Ussan who was now unable to move anywhere but down.

Hovering downwards and out of the way of the slash, Ussan felt the shudder in reality pass by his face too close for comfort. Then, just when Ussan tried to survey his environment to try and figure out where to go next, he realised that he was trapped. All around him, in calculated and precise slashes and rips in reality, an impassable cage was formed where it would only be a matter of time before he was sliced in half. Ussan, Chosen of the Heavens, King of Cokktra, World Ruler, was going to die. Ussan, Spear of Johktan, Leader of the Analias Coalition, manoeuvred the best he could into what he deemed a good enough position so that the next attack wouldn't isolate him too much. Ussan, The Storm of Trak, Wielder of Paragon, sharpened his gaze, trying to predict the next attack; the next attack that never came. Moments passed, moments long enough for anyone to wonder why the next attack hadn't come. Then, it did. Just not in the form he expected.

As if nothing had ever happened to it, the spiritual realm began to move again. Soul energy flowed back into Ussan's control like a sweet nectar invigorating his body once more, the inactive artifact in his hand glowing with a white haze again too. Paragon had finally revived and Ussan could fight back. Only, the time to fight back never came, as the stranger shifted to Ussan and pierced his belly with a fist. No, how can that be? A person shifting in the physical realm? That's impossible, it has to be. Yes, it must be an illusion. An artifact of that power wielded by the stranger must have more than one ability. That ability must be related to its ethereal form, only further supporting the idea of an illusion. It has to be an illusion. The pain feels too real for Ussan's liking so it must be a realistic illusion. Yes, too real. Too real.

"Oh." Ussan said, the realisation escaping from his lips with blood filling his mouth. It wasn't an illusion.

Ussan had always believed his last thoughts would be of his family: his lovely wife Saria; their three children Karyon, Sirie and Filik; and his brother Useys. No, Ussan's last thoughts were not of them. The last thought of Ussan, Grand Hero of the World, was 'How?'.

God-Killer finished dispelling his spiritual-resonance as the light in Ussan's eyes faded away. The resonance itself was useful, an unintended side-effect of his artifact that coincided with God-Killer's own abilities, enabling him to treat the physical realm like the spiritual realm under certain circumstances. Intricacies didn't exactly matter anymore now, Ussan was dead and he had a soul to collect. Pouring his soul energy and will into Ussan's corpse, God-Killer disintegrated the body, and a small lightless ball of light settled into his grasp before disappearing into the spiritual realm entirely. Whilst God-Killer was making the proper measures to preserve the soul for Obelisk, he floated down towards where Ussan's artifact was falling from his grasp, catching it mid-air and pocketing it. It seemed that the place they fought at was relatively close to a planet given that the artifact could 'fall' but God-Killer couldn't see anything obvious for a while. It seemed that the planet it 'fell' to was quite a large one to display this much of a gravity, even small, this far out. Scanning through the last cognitive impressions left by Ussan in his soul, filing away the thoughts of family and wonder at his own apparent shifting, God-Killer found the name of this artifact; Paragon.

For a name as grand as that, the artifact didn't look very impressive. The main use of it was the ability to recycle soul energy in the environment, empower it, and then expel it in any form the user wishes. From what God-Killer had seen, though briefly, of what can be done with the thing with the remaining cognitive imprint of Ussan, the artifact may have been incredibly powerful for a mortal and even to a lesser extent a recently-ascended Unbound, it was useless to someone like himself who could do the same thing easily and at a greater level. At the very least it would make good feed for Stagnation.

Without wasting a second, God-Killer wrote and sent a report to Obelisk about the successful elimination and harvest of Ussan, before finding and immediately adding to the message with where his next hunt was. For God-Killer, after all, the hunt never stopped.

* * *

Daniel blinked open his eyes, trying to find out where he was. The last thing he could remember was making a soul room, yet, Daniel could remember it from two different perspectives. He would definitely have to ask Gulliver about that later. Looking around Daniel found the familiar high roof of the Avitson Fishing Shack staring back at him, and a large array of bait and fish hung up around him in shelves; the store-front then. Taking one long, deep breath, Daniel slowly sat up and looked for the nearest person; and found Gulliver opposite him and staring straight into his eyes.

"Who are you?" Gulliver asked, wearing a mask of complete seriousness.

"What-" Daniel croaked, his throat parched but still not broken. "What do you mean?"

"Daniel shouldn't know how to make a soul room yet. I don't doubt the Academy's teachings and reckon they did talk about the mechanics of how to use and make a soul room, but you shouldn't be actually able to make one yourself and you admitted to me yourself that you didn't exactly listen to lectures on the soul. On top of all that, someone who doesn't have a speck of soul control especially shouldn't be able to make one. So, I'm left with a couple possibilities, one far more likely than the other.

"You are actually quite talented, and in the spiritual environment created by a failed soul link, your consciousness was somehow propelled into your own spiritual space and you managed to make a soul room. Or, much more likely, you're an imposter who replaced Daniel and are trying to get something from me and the other Platinums. Teachings perhaps? Secrets? Answer me and fast. You won't like me when I run out of patience."

"Sir, I- I don't know how I can prove to you that I am indeed-'' Daniel paused. Was he actually Daniel? Gulliver, in a way, wasn't wrong in his line of reasoning of there being an imposter. But, who is to say that the Daniel that Gulliver knew wasn't dead, and an entirely new person is inhabiting Daniel's body? That's what happened last time, wasn't it? Who's to say it didn't happen this time? Daniel knew that the 'Original' him and what he now knows as Nameless were the ones who created that soul room of his, but then who is he right now? Is Daniel truly Daniel? Or is he Nameless again? Or is he someone entirely new, a mix of the two personalities? No, I don't think I actually care if I'm Daniel or not. I'm just Daniel after all. "No. I... I don't think I do need to prove that I'm Daniel to you sir. Because, I'm me."

Before Daniel could say anything more, Gulliver's 'aura' enveloped the room, smothering him. Breathing came slowly and didn't feel like Daniel's own, as if someone was using his body to breathe for him. For a small instant, Daniel could swear he could see tiny particles hanging in the air like motes of dust; no these weren't motes of dust, these were particles of soul energy. With a pulse of the 'aura', the vision of the soul energy disappeared and the pressure only intensified. Daniel didn't dare to breathe under the watchful gaze of Gulliver, his pupils becoming points that bared down upon him.

"You don't think... that you need to prove to me... that you are Daniel?" Gulliver enunciated, each word pronounced slow and methodically, sounding like he was on the edge of exploding into rage. "That is certainly something... Daniel may say. But, I don't believe the part of you that wished... for death was still so present. The soul link may have changed you more... than I had thought."

Never letting up, the pressure continued to build until Daniel could feel the lack of air getting to him, teetering ever more on the edge of collapsing.

"Fine." Gulliver relented, the pressure vanishing, Daniel taking short, exasperated breaths to try and recover. "Even if I do believe you are Daniel, I still have no idea how you constructed a soul room. All of my previous points still stand.

"So, 'Daniel', you have a lot of answering to do."

It seems that Daniel's confrontation with Gulliver had only just begun.