Chapter 160 - Singularity and Dreams

Zoning out Cedric's mirthful laugh, Vern analyzed their whole conversation from start to finish.

Okay, so the first prerequisite is already met. Cedric had given him too much information—half of which was nothing but random acts of this character named Maris. Far more than what he'd have in most realistic situations. He narrowed his eyes and thought, Cedric's too confident.

Or maybe I am underestimating the difficulty of this process.

After a bit, he moved on, So, the second factor is supposed to be my viewpoint. If Cedric's explanation was to be believed, then one's viewpoint helped comprehend the knowledge gained through means other than perception.

Means other than the perception.

Other than the perception…

Other…

Vern snapped his notepad shut and realized what the heck Cedric was on about. He meant the knowledge gained from exploring the Unified Perspective!

"I see…" he mumbled.

Due to a lack of relevant context or maybe in his haste, he'd jumped at the conclusion that 'means other than the perception' were aspects of reality his perception couldn't already reconstruct.

Instead, Cedric actually meant that whatever one learned from Unified Perspective would be then turned into knowledge after being filtered by one's Thought Space.

Lady above, he facepalmed. Turning towards Cedric with a dark glare, he cursed, I hope your pillow is warm on both sides!

The old fogie had literally explained things in the wrong order! Only if he'd first talked about unified perspective and then brought up the viewpoint, everything would've been clear right from the start.

Vern shook his head in frustration and focused again. Okay. So…the actual order is: First—information, then make contact with the unified perspective. Then, finally, whatever I experience in there will be interpreted based on my viewpoint.

After checking it again and again, he didn't find any flaws with the methodology. It made sense.

Gods. Cedric could've just told me this, no?

He walked a bit farther and settled on the sofa by the exit. Okay. So, now I just have to infuse the query with my singularity and chant it as I go to sleep.

There was one small problem.

He hadn't really infused his words with his singularity before today.

As for sleeping? He'd found a trick to that in the few days he'd spent experimenting with his powers while laying low after the incident at Steamscript station.

Okay, but what about the singularity?

He could ask Cedric, but something within told him that he should know already, almost like an instinct. After all, the singularity was essentially like a signature of everything he was, but in a more primordial representation—an unobserved one.

He closed his eyes and searched.

Stars that represented prayers.

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Thought space.

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Third rune.

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A void.

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A…spiral?

No.

It was more than that. Far…far more. Even his mind's eye was unsure how to process whatever it was that he felt. It was more than sight, sound, or sensation. It was a concept he couldn't really express with words. Not even using the runes of convergence.

But then, suddenly, his perception expanded, and another spiral became apparent. It was even…heavier? Bigger? More prominent? Substantial? He didn't know how to describe it, but it was obvious that this one had more impact on it than the other.

Except, something was wrong with it.

In his small, uncomprehending mind, he saw them as two nebulous spirals—one small but cohesive, while another was gigantic but illusory.

In an uncanny chain of events…the larger one was attracting the smaller one yet also…losing itself in the process? Both swirled as tiny insignificant flakes broke off from the larger one, only to instantly appear at the edges of the smaller one and merge with it.

However, the process was slow, like a single grain falling down a full hourglass. At this rate, it could take years, or even millennia, for them to reach each other and combine.

Amazed, awed, confused, excited, and everything else in between by this marvelous sight, he felt his very mind burn by an unseen flame. Almost as if the sight was too much for his mind, and every moment in contact with it was an immense burden.

He couldn't help but let his thoughts run rampant with wild conjectures about the meaning of it all.

Soon, however, the shallow flame turned into a forest fire and began searing his mind. So, he gritted his teeth and left the analysis for later. With a flourish, he made to reach out towards the higher—weightier—and more substantial spiral.

Sizzzzz

The forest fire raged into an exploding magma, threatening to engulf his mind.

Damn this…I—I can't

He didn't even manage to take a single step closer to the larger singularity, which most probably represented Axiom. It almost felt like doing so would be an instant death sentence.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Fuck!

Cursing, he focused on the smaller, more cohesive spiral, and before he knew it, a jolt ran through his body. It was as if something wound around his body and mind, constricting his very essence, but at the same time, an energizing warmth washed over him.

His eyes snapped open, and he took deep breaths, only to feel... fine? Except for the terrible sensation of being choke-held while bathing in warm liquid simultaneously.

Lady above, this feels awful and delightful at the same time.

At least the smoldering magma had returned to being a mere cinder that warmed his being.

Okay, I think I'm channeling my singularity right now. I need to make every word count.

He relaxed on the stuffy sofa and covered his eyes with his palm—elbow propped on the furniture's handrest. Then, he visualized a calm central point within his mind. He focused on this point, allowing all his thoughts to converge and settle there as he whispered…

"How many times was Maris rejected in the book called Scion's Love Theorem."

He felt that odd warmth and chokehold change its pattern, but it didn't make much sense, and he was too focused on the sole point in his imagination to care much about it.

Soon, when he began to feel a tad drowsy, he pulled out his trump card.

Stability Inducement.

Any and all stray thoughts left him as a pulse of stability echoed through him, and the origin of his mind became…faint.

Fainter, and fainter, and fainter. Until everything became…silent.

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In what could only be a dimly lit study, a room's structure was starkly evident, each graying line and angle crisply defined. A…couple sat on either side of a massive desk, its surface a lattice of intersecting grain patterns, each fiber and knot formed by lines. The bookshelves lining the walls were regimented ranks of tomes, their spines creating a uniform grid broken only by the occasional gap or protruding volume.

Yet, just a couple of inches away from the focus of this study, the world was a mess. Objects floated and moved incoherently. Some passed through each other while others lost their shape completely.

Turning back, the man's face was a mosaic of planes and angles, his jawline sharp, the contours of his cheeks and forehead precise but devoid of the warmth or nuance of emotion. His eyes, dark and steady, revealed nothing of his inner thoughts, only the mechanical movement of his gaze as it shifted from his manuscript to the woman across from him. He tapped the cover of his book with an almost rhythmic precision, the sound of a metronomic tick in the otherwise silent room.

The woman mirrored his posture, her form equally defined by the crisp lines of her dress and the rigidity of her seated stance. Her fingers, long and slender, traced the edge of the desk in a pattern of deliberate movements, their motion suggesting an unspoken dialogue but lacking the vibrancy of genuine interaction. When she spoke, her words were measured and precise, each syllable clipped and exact, devoid of the usual fluctuations that convey sentiment or spontaneity.

"please cedric can you read for me today i am tired," originated a monotone staccato of a voice from the figure that looked like a woman—a series of perfectly articulated intonations, lacking any emotional undertone.

The man paused, the silence stretching like a taut wire between them. "no I did it last week too and i am more tired of listening to myself." he replied, the delivery methodical.

Their conversation unfolded with an eerie detachment, the structure of their dialogue more akin to an architectural blueprint than a lively exchange. Each statement was a building block, and each response was a calculated reinforcement, but there was no warmth or emotional mortar to bind the bricks of their interaction. The relational aspect between them seemed frayed as if the threads that normally weave people together were thin and barely holding.

Then, the other figure began again, "okay which one and no…"

Crack!

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"Hahhh," he awoke with a start, and his body jerked forward. He barely stopped himself from falling face-first down the sofa as the fully realized world of colors greeted him once again.

Resting his hand on his manically pumping heart, Vern took sharp, deep breaths.

"Hey, you okay, kid? You look like you seen a ghost," Cedric asked, only to answer the question himself, "Well, I guess the first time can really be terrifying."

Vern, still reeling from the whole experience, turned towards the floor clock by the smothered hearth. Three minutes. He had no clue what the fuck happened in that…dream? Dreams were meant to be nonsensical, but this was…beyond that.

"Well…" Cedric knocked on the table. "Did you get anything?"

Vern looked up, and opened his mouth to speak, but didn't know where to even start.

Cedric smiled, "Need some help interpreting your dreams? That's exactly my job, after all."

After a while, when he finally found his wits, Vern eked out a couple of words, "Give me a few minutes."

The scholar shook his head, returning to his reading with a winner's smile etched on his face.

His breathing finally in check, Vern ruminated on his experience. Forget what happened when interacting with a singularity—he'd expected it, but what the fuck was that vision?

That whole scene was still vivid in his mind. Ever since he'd become an observer, he didn't forget the dreams he saw easily, but this was on a whole another level. It was like a bizarre horror show—more nonsensical than his most confusing nightmares.

It was as if many aspects of reality were straight-up missing from that vision.

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That threw him for a loop…Hmm, on another thought. That might very well be exactly what happened!

My thought space is mostly populated by insights from the structure fundamental, so the dream was constructed mostly based on that. However, he only had cursory insights into the rest of the fundamentals.

So…there were no emotions because I can't comprehend cognition fundamental, and I noticed little to no chemistry between the couple because my understanding of relationship fundamental sucks.

Dots connected in his mind as he explained the oddities of that room one by one due to a lack of insights into the rest of the fundamentals. He wondered if he'd only see floating particles had he no insights into the force fundamental at all.

Would I see a perfect reconstruction of everything if I was well versed in all fundamentals?

Lady above…

That was…exhilarating.

Except that I didn't even come close to the answer I wanted from that dream, he sighed. It ended so abruptly he couldn't make heads or tails of the situation. Was that what Cedric meant when he said the results were garbage ninety-nine out of a hundred times?

However, that didn't even come close to diminishing his excitement because he had a clue as to why the divination failed.

He turned towards Cedric and muttered, "Sly bastard."

In the dream, the female figure had spoken the name Cedric. This was to say the query was somehow linked directly with the number-crunching scholar, and Vern was essentially competing with Cedric's singularity to glean it—who was most probably a second or third-shade Interpreter of his pathway.

Vern wondered why the dream included Cedric instead of the original author of this novel. Wouldn't that be the 'path of least resistance' for the divination to succeed? Hmm, maybe because the information I have doesn't include anything about them?

Or maybe this was just one of the enigmas of making contact with the unified perspective. Who knew?

What to do…? Vern chewed his lips. By no means was this a total failure, but it wasn't what he'd hoped for either. Given that his dream landed on Cedric of all people, it surely meant something, but what?

Hmm, should I try again? Maybe the next dream would show him something more relevant?

In this internal tussle that went on for a while, his eyes landed on his notepad, and he suddenly jolted upright. An excited gleam crossed his eyes as he remembered the peculiar method he used to observe the strange lists of convergence.

What if I… His eyes shone with brilliance as a plan formed and solidified in a mere fraction of a second. Unable to restrain his curiosity, he did it.

Keeping Cedric's warning about not naming entities incorrectly, he once again reached into his singularity—the smaller one and it washed him with warmth as well as constricted him. This time, instead of asking the same question as before, he chanted without making any sound…

"Oh Lord Axiom, Arbiter of Balance, I beseech thee, grant me insight."