I've sat here for what feels like an eternity. I don't know how long I've been here exactly. Time seems to lose its meaning when you're stuck in sensory deprivation and isolation.

[ You've been in this plane for 20 minutes. In your Earth, 18 minutes have passed. ]

Why are they different?

[ Relativity from plane to plane changes. Typically, they're about equal, but this plane is unstable. Right now every second here is 0.9 seconds on your Earth. In a minute, that could change to an hour. Time is a strange concept, isn't it? ]

Well, I've been here for 20 minutes, apparently.

The System stopped the bleeding, kind of. They said one of their abilities was to create an aura of magic elements. However, this place hates mana; it dissipates mana almost immediately. As such, the aura can only just stop the blood before it gets absorbed by this place.

[ Oh, I've got a response from…oh no. Not her. Please, anyone else. ]

I feel a tingle on the edge of my mind; Telepathy is reacting to something. Hmm, I guess Telepathy would be a viable method of communication in the absence of air. I send a small pulse back.

[ NO! WAI— ]

Noise, where there once was silence. Parts of my mind I was unaware of fill to the brim with…everything. I understand, yet it is too much. I can see all of time. I can taste the sun. I can hear the little steps of an ant far across the multiverse. Nothing can hide from my gaze. It's just all around me. And it hurts. It's so much. So much. So much. Too much. So much. H-Help.

Can everything PLEASE STOP?!

————————————————————————————————————

[ Oh, good. You aren't a vegetable. ]

I blink crud out of my eye, vision slowly fading in. Even though I still can't see anything, I'm still mostly conscious. I pounding migraine sears behind my eyes; a familiar feeling from my alcoholic period. My eyes themselves also seem to be burning, but not as heavily as my brain which feels like it was cooked.

[ So…good news and bad news. Good news: The Ruler is here to help. Bad news: This Ruler—the Ruler of Physics, Magic, Reality, and Wishes—isn't exactly human. She kinda transmitted all of her sensory input into your small, human brain; thus frying your brain and leaving you a corpse for the last hour. ]

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I…died? Am- Am I still dead? Or is my soul just left to wander this plane for eternity?

[ The Ruler of Physics, Magic, Reality, and Wishes contacted the Ruler of Time and we reset your timeline back an hour. ]

Disregarding my official-unofficial death, my sense of touch reports something off about my environment. Instead of the absorbing non-atmosphere…something wet surrounds my limbs. Something fleshy, pulsating; and giving a light multi-colored glow of red, purple, and yellow.

Thick, dark tendrils coil themselves around my limbs and torso, lightly caressing each square inch of skin. I feel slime seeping through my skintight uniform. I try to move, but a pain shoots up my spine, causing me to spasm. The tendrils squeeze to hold me until I stop.

[ Don't move. Even rewinding you still left some residual damage since it was a rush job. ]

Yeah, yeah. I understand.

A free-floating, softly glowing tendril—tentacle—glides up to my face. The tip lined up with my eyes. The tip glows brighter for a second before an eye sprouts on the end.

I blink. A purple eye blinks back. I blink again. The eye closes. The tendril inches closer, ever closer to me.

Then it pats my forehead.

'Hello,' a childish, young girl's voice rings through my head. It's loud though, and each word makes the migraine pulse in protest.

'Are {YOU/SELF/BEING} okay?' The voice asks, much quieter as if they heard my thoughts, though rising in volume and a cacophony of octaves and voices when referring to me. For once, I can feel the blood coming from my nose. The tentacle wipes the blood away.

'Kind of?' I send back with Telepathy.

'Sorry for the {VOLUME/DECIBEL}. I had to pull this language from your head. I'm still getting used to it. I haven't had to use it in thousands of {MINUTES/YEARS/SANDWICHES/PERPETUITY}.'

I wince at the random words. 'Yeah, are you just confused on word choice, or…?'

'{WHAT DO YOU MEAN?/WHY ARE YOU HERE?}'

'Uhh. Never mind for the first question, and I got here from an errant bomb. Something cheap, apparently.' I would shrug, but everything hurts so, so much.

'Then, let {ME/DREAMER/ALL} fix you up.' The slightly passive tentacles tighten considerably. Looking towards my relative up direction, I see HER. An INFINITE BEING formed from singularities and mass, yet nothing at all. SHE is the origin and the end and the continuum of all. HER many teeth, eyes, tentacles, and orifices all pulsate at random intervals. No, not random, just in beat with the pulse of energy throughout all of the multiverse.

And I'm being pulled slowly into HER.

Soft flesh surrounds her, gently caressing my limp, phlegmatic body. Huh. What does phlegmatic mean?

The shifting mass freezes for a moment, simultaneously glowing to a blinding point. My body, strangely, doesn't hurt anymore or protest to my movements. This is…fine, I guess?

I'm unceremoniously spit back out, lacking the grace with which I was pulled in.

I tumble through the low-gravity environment before I get tethered once again.

'{INFANT/YOUNG ONE/FOOD}, I still don't know your {IDENTITY/NAME}. Some call me That Which Dreams Between Eternal, or some variant. Those that I am {CLOSE TO/FRIENDS WITH/TRUSTING IN} call me Dreamer.'

'I'm Alice. Alice Windshaw.'

[ Alright, now that you're okay, I've detected someone attempting to breach this plane of limbo. I'll help them open the gate, but that's all I can do. Once you get on the other side, I'm afraid I can't talk to you anymore. ]

I wave my hand at the screen. I mean, I didn't expect you to be able to follow me.

[ Hmm, that said, Dreamer had to make some…changes to you. Nothing too major, I can assure you, but your Status Board might have changed slightly when you get back. ]

Uhh, too major?

[ You might get a title, and some…skills. ]

I feel like you aren't being completely honest with me, but I really don't have a choice in the matter either way.

[ Well, uh, as compensation, I've enabled some…options on your Entity class. Uh, you can set font size, color, family now. Small stuff. You can also minimize parts of the Status Board since you have a lot of skills. ]

Is that all? I feel like your list is incomplete.

[ There is another thing, but your body is incapable of handling it right now. Some day, you'll see it. I think you'll like it. ]

A blue, swirling portal opens up. Light pouring through to reveal the walk-in fridge I left behind. A figure jumps through—Thomas in his power armor—with silken threads wrapped around his body, and another set on a hook on his waist.

Looking over to me, he grabs the spare silk off his waist and begins spinning it like a lasso. Dreamer's tentacle does the same with me on the end.

I get chucked through the empty Void like a baseball, only to be slowed down by the threads wrapping around my leg.

Thomas pulls me back through the portal, supporting my shoulder. At the other side, Sophia looks close to collapsing, and we both do. At the same time.