After the little ball, who is apparently an angel, explained a few things to me, it decided that I should go ahead and try to sleep. Of course, after being trapped in what I now know is called ‘the Void’ for who knows how long, I wasn’t too keen on being by myself. Still, I knew I was going to get over myself at one point or another, so I tried to just agree with the Angel’s plan. It thankfully saw through my thinly veiled fright and decided to stay in the room with me, while staying floating in the corner, to which I only tried to argue very weakly. Perhaps I can indulge myself a tiny bit, for now.
Either way, there was no way I was going to sleep, after the onslaught on my senses, the ridiculous amount of information pushed my way, and the slow realization that this might all be real, even if my sanity is still in relative question. The fact that my surroundings and extremely comfortable bed were constantly shifting its looks were also not exactly calming for the mind. An especially interesting aspect about this place though, is just how quiet everything is. My room is inside a small house, yet it sounds like nothing at all is happening outside, though the truth is pretty close to that. And so, I laid there in my bed, going over everything I was briefed upon.
According to my Angel, I was now what you would call an Ultimate God, beings who had made reality itself. My Universe exploded, and was or is now being used to assist in the creation of something else, as all things do eventually. Though the sadness for those who I loved had passed long ago, hearing that all confirmed made me feel a bit emptier. My soul had somehow made its way into the Void, an endless place that existed between Multiverses, which apparently existed. The Void existed outside of time and space, and so the time I could have spent might really have been timeless. Such a thing happens very, very rarely and though there are suspicions that there is some sort of higher being who controls such things, it was never confirmed. As my soul rested there, the aspects of the Void melded inside of me, granting me the chance to power straight out of fantasies. Once those aspects manifested, my body grew, basing itself off of my perception of myself. One day I can perhaps change just what I look like, but for now all I should focus on fixing the damage I’ve put on myself.
I was told that there were supposed to be others that ascended with me, and that me being by myself has never happened before. I ended up trying to get angry at this but failed. I had already mentally exhausted myself far too much, and gone through too much anger to feel such a thing right now. It would have been pretty nice to have some company though.
This line of thought had caused me to look back at my Angel, I wasn’t sure it even slept. Ascending, being told I had the power to collapse planets, having someone rush to my side like that, and promising to never leave? That last one was perhaps the most unbelievable of the three. I’m not sure I had known someone like that even before I ‘died.’ I mean, why in the world did it come for me? Why would it even want to stay? It’s not like I’m exactly presentable right now, or know how to even act around others, especially glowing balls of electricity. Despite my best wishes, I couldn’t help but be filled with hope, though. Hope that I’ll finally be able to find happiness, hope that I can finally leave my isolation, hope that I, that I…. I’m not quite sure what I want, after that. I mean, the only thing I had ever wanted in the Void was to leave, and I remember little of my past life by this point. Perhaps I’ll ask my angel, who I still need to know the name of…
I woke up in what I thought was the next morning, though the time exactly is hard for me to find out since the amount of light changed depending on the current setting of my surroundings. I found myself covered in sweat, essentially ruined the bed, unfortunately. Odd, I don’t remember having a nightmare. Suddenly I heard a voice frantically call out from right next to me.
“Oh Master, I’m glad to see you awake! I couldn’t quite seem to get you up, and had no idea what to do… I was worried I did something wrong,” the angel muttered the last part to itself, turning from a yellow to a light shade of pink. Maybe it had just about as much social interaction as I did. I most definitely did not want my savior to think that it had done something wrong though.
“No no, you’re fine! The fault was completely on me, I just probably had a nightmare,” I said, trying to reassure it. Not sure how good I was at it though, since the ball suddenly turned back to an alarming orange. “W-what?! A nightmare! Are you okay? That doesn’t sound too good at all,” It responded quickly and in a surprisingly alarmed tone. I don’t think it knows what a nightmare is, though I may or may not have felt a little happy at the concern, even if it was unnecessary.
“I’m fine. Nightmares are when you dream of bad things happening, but I didn’t even remember it, so it’s all good now. Thank you for your concern though. You’ve already done so much for me, and I’ll never be able to repay you. I don’t think I’ve said that, yet. If you have any need for anything from me at all, please ask.” I said, getting a little quiet in the last half. I’m not used to expressing my emotions so clearly, but someone who had saved me from torment deserved my everything, and I felt that the least I could do is man up a bit and thank it for all it's done. From that though, it returned to pink, though a deeper shade than last time.
“No, the pleasure is all mine master! I am here to serve you, not the other way around! I have already failed you in being so late, so there should be no thanks necessary,” It slightly stammered. To this, I frowned. Did my savior really think so little of itself? After all it’s done? I’m not sure I can convince it then, and I most definitely don’t know how to. Still, I’ll say what I think I should, and we can focus on this in a future time. I think. I don’t know how this should all be tackled.
“Look, no matter how long it may have taken you, you’ve still saved me. No one else had done that, and no one else had said that they would stick with me. You have done both. I won’t forget this, even if you still feel that way, and I just want you to remember how grateful I am. And please stop calling me Master…. Dave would be, uh, preferred,” Ah, I have no idea how to say this. To that the Angel got quiet, and then moved its body up and down in a nodding motion, showing that it at least won’t argue, which had me smile. I don’t care if it is supposed to serve me or not, but I do know that I don’t want a servant, just a, well, a friend. Not sure if I could even say that aloud though. After a moment of silence, the Angel decided to speak up.
“Well Mas-Dave, I shall do as you wish. And, though I don’t deserve it, thank you. Now, I should continue our lesson, but first, I really should heal you, and have your clothes changed. You, uh, wouldn’t mind, right?” The Angel said as it turned back to a neutral blue. A change of clothes does sound pretty nice right now.
“Right, please,” I said, and a sudden blue glow filled the air around me, and I could see my body cleaned and wounds healed. Amazingly, even the comfort that the Angel had given me is being cleaned. A sudden curiosity filled me, a feeling that I hadn’t felt in quite a while.
“How did you do that?” I asked, with a slightly awed tone.
“Oh, it is nothing compared to what you’ll be able to do one day Ma-uh, Dave. This place has some power residing in it that allows us Angels and its residents to utilize. Simple healing is one of them,” it said, seemingly happy to show its knowledge. The ability to heal me just like that, that does sound quite amazing. I know that there’s a lot I need to get done today, but first I want to ask something of the Angel. I’ll use my incredible subtlety to make sure that I don’t say anything wrong though.
“Hey, what’s your name?” Hah, nailed it. Upon me asking, the Angel quieted for a second, then responded with a simple “I don’t have one. We Angels aren’t created with names, only born with orders,” it responded neutrally. Well, that was interesting, though it would be much easier to talk if it had a name.
“Well, would you like to have a name? I’d hate to not be able to call you anything,” I responded. “Oh Dave, are you sure? I mean, names are a powerful thing, and it’s not like I need one or anything…” It said, faltering as it finished. It seems that we both have our fair share of problems if it doesn’t think it even deserves a name.
“Of course! Is there anything you’d like to be called?” When all I got as a response was a vertical movement I took as a no, I tried to make one up. “Well, how about… Ann? If you don’t mind, of course,” Aw man, I thought I was trying to be clever with that name too, but saying out loud sounds a lot worse than I thought it would be. Still, suddenly the ball turned a bright yellow, and said excitedly “Yes Dave, that sounds wonderful!”
Huh, better reception than I thought. “Well, uh, I’m glad you like it. So what kind of lessons do we need to take today?” Admittedly, I wasn’t sure I was particularly excited, though I’m pretty sure that with the exception of my meeting, that my feelings are slightly subdued in comparison to the normal person. Not that there are many people to compare too.
“Ah, that’s right! Today we’re going to be deciding what kinds of powers you get!” The now blue ball seemed to glow much brighter at saying this and led me to a building that I couldn’t quite seem to find the top of. Once I went inside, that fact seemed to have still held, with the walls forming a circle that was surely at least a mile long, staircases that went up for forever, and bookshelves and cases full of fascinating objects filling up the walls and floor around me, and unlike the outside, the inside seemed to not shift at all. It was all absolutely incredible. Ann led me to the center, where a small room in the middle of it all sat. it couldn’t have been any larger than my room, where there sat only a small wooden desk and a simple chair, with a couple of filled bookshelves, all spotless.
Ann was somehow able to use a string of lightning to pick up a series of scrolls and place them on the table. I suppose that isn’t exactly the weirdest thing I’ve seen so far. I went ahead and took a seat, and the lesson began.
“Now, as an Ultimate God, you have gained a potential power within your soul. You use that power to decide which abilities you can choose, as well as the ability to unlock a couple of relics on Aerb, and even on what powers I get. Of course, I wouldn’t worry too much on that last one, since I can always get the base powers for free since I’m now the angel of an Ultimate God. We get our perks too. You won’t have to use any of your powers on choosing aspects that you have an affinity with, and are even able to advance those particular abilities, unlike the abilities of other aspects you choose. The old Ultimate Gods have made this process much easier by putting down each power of each aspect within these scrolls, and you can simply unlock the ability to use the future by pushing your power into the scrolls. The old way of doing this took much longer. The scroll that contains your aspect is unnecessary to put your soul in, though you may be able to speed up the process of mastering it through studying the scroll, and the textbooks related to your aspect. The same goes for unlocking relics, and even me. Unlocking relics has you give some of your power to the God who brought it here, whether or not they’re still alive since they were the original owners. Deals have been made to where all prices are fair though before all of the Ultimate Gods left in one way or another. Does this make sense to you? It’s perfectly fine if it doesn't, it has been a while since you’ve had to take in so much information… You’re alright? Well, if you say so Dave.”
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“Keep in mind you won’t be able to retract your choices, or make more once your potential power has run out. Even without using any though, you will still be incredibly powerful, since there are passive perks to becoming an Ultimate God, which we will be mastering here on Aerb, to prepare you for the future,” Ann paused, probably to make sure I understood everything. This all sounds very important, so doing so is probably a good idea. It seems like I’ll be taught for quite a while.
“Uh, okay, I think I get it all. So I’ll be using the power in my soul to gain abilities through the methods the old Ultimate Gods left for me, as well as for you, by pushing my soul into whatever enables this process. Is it because of my soul being in the Void for so long that I’m able to take in these aspects in the first place?” If Ann could beam in a way that wasn’t literal, I have a feeling it would be doing so now. It did literally do so though.
“That’s right Dave! With the speed you’re picking up on this, I’m sure you’ll have your abilities mastered in no time flat, definitely no longer than a hundred years!” Wait, what?
“W-wait, a hundred years? Isn’t that a really long time?!” I mean, from what I’ve been told I’ve probably been going through worse for a whole lot longer, but the number still surprises me.
“Oh yes Dave, going through simply the first phase of mastery will take a century at max, a time where you’ll have to rely on me to protect you, which of course will be no problem! The second phase is when you’ll be learning your abilities that have cost you potential powers, which should take no more than ten thousand years. Learning your ultimate abilities, however, will take quite a while. Of course, this is all a very rough estimate,” Ann says, keeping a very teacher-like tone. It seems to be enjoying this quite a bit.
One hundred years, then ten thousand years, and after that probably even a million years or longer… Well, I imagine I’ll be quite immortal, but I’m not quite sure I can even begin to perceive time in such a way. Still, it’s not like I need to, not unless I’ll have the natural affinity of something silly like time. Heh, that would be ironic in more ways than one. Whoops, zoned out there a bit, Ann’s already back to talking.
“Right, the first step (I think) we should take, is to find your aspect. Simply put your hand on this globe, and the color should reflect your aspect!” Well, that’s easy enough. I pick up the small glass orb, and suddenly the ball fills up from the middle with a small wooden clock with golden outlines. It brought back some memories, but I’m not quite sure of what. This seems to surprise Ann, as she goes to a shade of orange.
“Oh dave, it seems that your aspect is Time! I would’ve thought you would have the aspect of heart, but this most certainly works too. All aspects are incredibly powerful, anyways,”
“Wait, what determines your aspect?” I must admit, having my aspect be time sounds, uh, kinda lame. I think.
“Well, it’s a combination of your personality and the aspects that have soaked into you most while you were in the Void. The aspect of time focuses mostly on cause and effect, how everything that begins must come to an end, and to value just what time is. Aspects such as the heart, are, well, an awareness and embracing your feelings, an extreme empathy, to find power in your emotions, and to find joy in those feelings,” huh, well, it’s nice of Ann to think that it had thought I had an aspect of Heart. I suppose having an aspect of time made sense in the end, since losing myself in the endless passage of it had essentially broken me. That thought brought a sad smile, but there’s still much to do today, so there’s no point in dwelling. Back to work.
“Right, so that means I won’t need to worry about getting any Time powers, what about the other abilities?” I might as well get these decisions out of the way. I’m not even sure I’m exactly excited about it all, to be honest. I mean, what would I do with it? Seeing more sights, experiencing more in what I’ve gained sound nice though, maybe I should make that my goal? Isn’t that a bit shallow? Meh, whatever, I need to keep paying attention to Ann.
“Well, let’s look through the scrolls! There are twelve aspects, with them coming in pairs as polar opposites. Your aspect’s opposite would be space, and those who are naturally tuned to it are going to be the most dangerous against you, and you to them. The other aspects are death and life, creation and destruction, freedom and unity, light and darkness, and heart and mind. Each aspect has three abilities that you can take, and three abilities that only those attuned to it can choose. Each ability costs the same amount of potential power,”
Alright, so it’s not like I’ve got an infinite amount of choices then, at least there’s that. I can also pretty much only worry about eleven aspects to choose from. Hmm, if I take many aspects, wouldn’t that make it take longer to improve on? Ah, I guess time isn’t exactly a problem right now. I was just opening the first scroll, the space aspect scroll, when suddenly Ann frantically started talking.
“Ah, Dave! I forgot to mention that you need to choose an ultimate form! Sorry about that, haha…” An ultimate form huh? Sounds interesting.
“Don’t worry about it Ann, it’s not like I’ve already made any important choices or anything, though what’re the choices?”
“Of course! Each aspect holds its own special form. Though the abilities you achieve can help you in improving your true form, it is not always the case. For example, your true-time form gives you the ability to take on a mechanical form, from a stationary clock to a fully functioning robot. You will be able to implement any form of technology you understand along with it, which also coincides with an ability of yours, something that assists you in understanding the technology that you find. No matter what, as the mastery of your true form increases you too will be able to increase its power. Your true form will also always display your Godly aura along with it, and will not be able to be repressed, as you usually can do so,” Ann said, seemingly getting out of breath from all this talking, though I’m not exactly sure if Angels need to breathe.
“Also, your true form is only what you’re naturally attuned too, so… Wait…” Ann suddenly grows very, very blue, and then switches to deep pink. Then, it started making incoherent noises and fled the scene.
Uh, am I supposed to go reassure it? I want to go after it, but I have a feeling that I wouldn’t help too much. Seriously, with how helpful it’s being, I can’t understand why it doesn’t value its importance. Though I’m not quite sure what I do understand at this point, after learning about how there are apparently Gods and Angels and such. I mean, I used to be religious, I think, but as many other things did in the Void, such beliefs were things I simply stopped thinking about. Well, I guess I can look over all of these abilities since I can’t exactly choose my Ultimate Form. Ah well, you deal with the cards you’ve been played, there’s no point in complaining.
…
After looking and considering all of my choices, it seems that all of these abilities are most definitely extraordinary, at least from my perspective. They each take about the same percentage of my potential power, and I think I might be able to take in my polar opposite’s abilities too. I’m going to need to want to look at the relics and how I can improve Ann first, but creating a rough outline helps. The whole time I couldn’t help but worry about Ann though, it’s not as though I can talk to anyone else here. All the other Angels seem essentially mute, and time by myself makes me uncomfortable. I’ll respect Ann’s privacy though, it’s the least I could do, though perhaps I can get an ability that could get me a robot buddy or something.
Looking at another scroll through, options appear to me that don’t have any particular aspect. Some are useful, some are more situational, and some are just downright useless. I mean, the ability to reincarnate into something weaker? And then do what, let the universe explode on you again? No thanks. Still, those are definitely going to be something to consider as well.
I got out of the chair and stretched, it seems like this new body of mine is quite good, if it could read after being trapped in infinite darkness forever. I want to go and do something though, perhaps I could go find those relics, or see where Ann is. I’ll definitely be coming back here though, those books seem like they hold something special. I exit the building, and am met with another onslaught of beautiful, interchanging buildings. No matter what the buildings look like, it is all consistently made to look as though it came straight out of a piece of art, with the lighting always hitting just right to make the perfect mood that the setting creates. Ah, this is bliss. Or maybe I’m just happy to be able to see things again. I don’t want Ann to not be able to find me, but I have a feeling it wouldn’t have any problems, since it knew this place much better than I do. The huge library would be hard to miss, so there’s not going to be any missing that. Feeling a trickle of joy run through me, I go on a walk.
Ch. 3: Boy, our main character is kinda boring
“So, uh, how about we go ahead and look at the Angel options?” I say nervously after hearing Ann apologize profusely. We’re gonna need to work on the whole berating oneself for every mistake thing, I think. I mean, I have my own problems, but I’d much rather help my saviour first.
“As you wish Dave, though keep in mind you don’t have to worry about giving me any of your valuable potential power, as simply connecting our souls would be enough to give me baseline powers, I probably wouldn’t be too much help anyways,” The dark gray ball said to me. I’m really no good at being blunt, and am made very uncomfortable by this, but clearly this problem isn’t going to magically go away, I think.
“Listen to me Ann, please stop degrading yourself like this. I understand having the constant negative thoughts, perhaps more than you understand, but I still really hate hearing you like this. So please, if you really have to, then just please stop self deprecating yourself,” I try to say kindly, though insistently. Embracing your negativity is very, very easy, and I have more than enough experience with regret and such. After that though, I just became empty, but now perhaps my life can amount to something again. Letting Ann follow something similar to that path sounds awful, especially considering how it saved me and all.
“...Alright, Dave. I’m sorry for causing so much distress for you, and having you worry over me. I’ll try to improve, however,” Ann said quietly, changing to a slightly lighter gray.
“Don’t worry about it. Now, what are the options for Angels?” I said, trying to steer the conversation out of the awkward situation.
“Ah, right, of course! Let’s go back to the library, so that I can show you everything,” Ann says, excitement being injected slightly in its voice. Ah, it was already hard for me to pay attention. Oh well, at least it gives us something to do.
After being explained everything that Ann could become, I was impressed, and already had a rough outline. I’m not sure it would like my decision though. Afterwards, we went to a yard that had glass cases around the incredibly large variety of relics.
“Each relic is surrounded by a near indestructible case, and only through giving your potential power can you be granted access to it, whether or not you somehow break in. They’re all quite incredible, and definitely worth considering!” Ann exclaimed. “I will be there if you need any advice or questions Dave, and the library holds extensive knowledge, but the earlier you make your choice is when we can work on your mastery,”
“But for now, let’s go back home, since though you won’t need sleep the more you train your body, you will for now,” Ann finished. There were truly so many ways I could expand my power, but for now my abilities seemed the most important. I could only give so much power to Ann, and I should be able to find my own relics as I adventure, though some of these will give an incredible head start. I mean, robes that are essentially indestructible? Well, I can worry about it all later. For now it’s time to go to sleep.