Chapter 194 – Floor 21: Part 4

Mathew felt his soul detach from his body.

The separation was painless and seamless; one moment, he was whole of body and mind, and the next, his spirit was standing behind his body. He watched the Celestial’s touch linger on his body’s forehead, but Mathew could feel nothing.

Strangely, the world around him was utterly dark. Nothing existed except for his spirit, his body and the Celestial. They floated in a void, silent and unfeeling.

But soon, Mathew could hear whispering in all directions. More Celestials emerged from the darkness; they stood in a circle around Mathew, and their numbers stretched into the infinite nothingness around him.

The whispers lacked cohesion and meaning, but Mathew slowly began to recognize some of the words. After a moment, another Celestial approached him from the crowd and began speaking to the Celestial who was touching his forehead.

“He has agreed?” The Celestial asked, and Mathew recognized that it was a woman’s voice. It was strange; he couldn’t distinguish their genders by their appearance, but their voices were distinct.

“He will help us.” The Celestial touching Mathew’s body replied, and Mathew knew that it was male.

“We have hope. Our people will be liberated.” She responded.

“Perhaps. The ones in power will not want to see us return.” The male Celestial answered, and Mathew’s body shivered as the Celestial came slightly closer.

“Take what you need. He has agreed to help us.” The female Celestial commanded, and the other Celestials in the throng whispered their agreement.

“Not willingly. He was left with no choice by the ones he served.” The male Celestial said after hesitating for a moment.

“That is their failure and his circumstance. It is not up to us to assist him. Take what you need.” The female Celestial repeated, but still the male hesitated.

“I have watched him. He will serve us well.” The male Celestial clarified, and Mathew had the impression that the female shrugged with indifference. If Mathew could have spoken, he would have asked a multitude of questions, but he was held silent in this strange void.

“Then he will serve us as a ‘Speaker.’ You will bear responsibility.” The female said, making it a statement rather than a question.

“Agreed.” The male responded.

Mathew felt an odd sensation sweep through his soul. It felt like the Celestial touching him was drawing something out of his body and spirit. It travelled through the connection between them and up into his body’s forehead and through the Celestial's finger.

Aether.

It was taking the Aether from him! Mathew could feel his spirit grow weaker, and his body visibly lost the muscle mass he had accumulated from his high ‘Body’ attribute. The hard-earned Levels were being drained!

Even his mind was slowing; his crystal clear memories and his thoughts' enhanced ‘processing’ speed were becoming cloudy. In response to his loss, the Celestial in front of him was growing stronger. Its pale skin was darkening slightly, its body growing more corporeal.

The crowd of Celestials began to ‘hum,’ a soft high pitch keening wail that was growing stronger.

When his levels were gone, the Celestial fed on his Blessings. Mathew could see them as visible streaks of light flying out from his spirit and forming into additional Aether that the Celestial consumed. When there was nothing left inside of him, the Celestial slowly retracted its finger.

Mathew felt his spirit merge with his body once more, and he would have collapsed if he were able to. Instead, a foreign power kept him standing.

“Why?” Mathew managed to ask, his voice coming out as a croak as if his throat were parched.

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“You have asked for our assistance in saving your life. This was part of the price.” The Celestial responded.

“Part?” Mathew inquired, and the Celestial responded by reaching out its hand once more. The three-fingered hand passed over Mathew’s head and grasped something to the side of him. Turning to look, Mathew saw it was an incorporeal, golden thread that stretched into the void.

“Your connection to the Tower of Avarice. Through it, so too will we be linked. A member of our race will have a chance to ascend. A chance for our deliverance.” The Celestial explained. It drew its hand back, pulling the golden thread closer to itself.

The male Celestial paused for a moment and turned to its female companion. He seemed to offer the thread to her, but she shook her head negatively.

“This is your responsibility now.” She responded, and the male Celestial nodded solemnly.

It gripped the thread tightly and yanked. The void disappeared in an instant, along with all of the other Celestials. Mathew felt the sensation of rapid movement as if he were being hurled through space at tremendous speed along with whatever platform or vessel was carrying him.

The male Celestial continued to grip the golden thread, its alien face showing no sign of discomfort at their method of travel. Mathew blinked, and suddenly, they were somewhere else.

The endless black was replaced by white. An infinite white void without beginning or end. There was nothing in this space aside from Mathew and the male Celestial. Mathew looked around in confusion. He had been expecting to travel somewhere from the sensation he had felt.

The Celestial noticed his bewilderment and explained.

“Your mind is not yet capable of perceiving this space. What you see as ‘nothing’ is in fact ‘everything.’” The Celestial described, but it did little to help Mathew’s understanding. It didn’t seem interested in further explanation as it patiently stared out into the white void.

Mathew was about to speak, to seek further clarification, when he felt something shift in the void. Nothing visibly changed; there was no sudden appearance of strange beings or powerful entities, but Mathew knew that something had arrived.

The Celestial beside him continued to calmly stare out at the emptiness.

“Speak!” The sudden, thunderous outburst caught Mathew by surprise. It was made of countless voices speaking in chorus, their tones mild but made terrifying by the sheer amount of them. The Celestial seemed unconcerned; it merely waited for the voices to fade before speaking.

“We seek ascension.” The Celestial responded, its voice soft in comparison to the tumultuous cacophony of the other party.

Mathew knew there was more happening here than what he could see or even hear. There were undercurrents, invisible to his weak eyes, that only the Celestial beside him could comprehend. There was a long pause in which things were discussed beyond Mathew’s ears.

“Granted. Conditionally.” The voices replied. Some were jubilant, while others were begrudging. The emotions and tones were as varied as the voices themselves. The Celestial seemed content with the response as it suddenly gripped Mathew’s shoulder and tugged him.

The white void disappeared, and Mathew was back in front of the Mona Lisa. Everything was still frozen in time aside from Mathew and the Celestial. It ignored everything around it and focused on Mathew.

“Speaker. Our fates are intertwined, for the moment.” The Celestial said, and Mathew was once again lost in its eyes. They were like galaxies now, the blackness filled with specks of light. Whatever it had gained from that meeting in the white void had changed it.

“You are a child, learning its first words of a language as beautiful and powerful as the universe that birthed us. From this moment forward, you are the only mortal granted the privilege of their use.”

“Serve me well, Apostle.” The Celestial said, and Mathew gave a start of shock at the title. The Celestial began to fade away, returning to its incorporeal form when Mathew regained his senses.

“Wait! I didn’t agree to that!”

But the Celestial didn’t stop. Soon, for the first time in decades, Mathew was entirely alone.

While the flow of time was still halted, Mathew felt a sudden vibration in the silver wristband. A new status screen greeted him.

Name: Mathew Larson

Formal Title: The Enduring, Apostle of the god of Unyielding Declaration.

Discipline: Celestial Speaker

Level: 1

Blessings: None

Words of Power Known: Burn, Break, Burst.

Deity: The god of Unyielding Declaration

The screen confirmed it. He was now an Apostle to a god. Although, if he had understood the meeting the Celestial had, its current status was conditional. Unyielding Declaration.

Worse, Mathew was now a Level 1 with no Blessings or abilities outside the few Words of Power that he retained. He had a new Discipline now, but there were no ‘Level up’ requirements on the screen. Was Celestial Speaker a single Level Discipline?

Mathew needed to figure all that out later as the flow of time was beginning to crawl forward again. The oppressive power that the Mona Lisa had unleashed was slowly returning, and Mathew was even weaker now than he had been before he had asked the Celestials for help!

Before he could be wiped from existence, Mathew raised his hand and spoke a Word of Power.

“Break!”

The world reacted to his call in a way that he had never experienced before. In the past, when he had used the Words of Power, it felt as if he were drawing on a foreign power, taking something that wasn’t his and using it in a way that wasn’t intended.

That changed now. When Mathew spoke, the universe listened.