Vienne felt her entire body fighting itself, and she couldn’t understand why. There was no visible attack. Words alone were destroying her, body and soul.

The Great Green Wolf continued it’s explanation, noticing her plight but not stopping his speech. …and that’s why we’re here. The Super Zero Level Quest Completion decision. If this was a normal quest it would have slid easily into you, the world would have generated the appropriate reward and you would have glossed over it for one reason or another.

“What are you talking about? What’s a Super Zero Level Quest Completion?” Vienne felt each word she forced out of her mouth ripping her insides even further apart. She took a breath and the next words that spilled out of her mouth were completely alien and devoid of her free will. “I shouldn’t worry about Transient language and culture, I’ll never understand them.”

“What?” Vienne blinked, her own voice echoing in her ears. She shook her head and clenched her teeth, doing her best to maintain her form.

For the purposes of our discussion, I’ll be more circumspect when answering. I can see that this is already causing a multitude of errors to crop up.

“Why is this so hard?” Vienne had been wounded and dying before, this was nothing like that. “...that’s not what I wanted to ask.”

The strange unfamiliar words had slipped out of her mouth again.

It’s hard because I am forcing your routines to attach a value of true to everything I say. You’ll have to push a bit more if you want your actual query to be understood. You’ll be spitting out other information instead. It’s a survival mechanism.

“W-what is that monstrosity in the sky?” Vienne asked. She immediately grimaced. “That’s not what I wanted to ask!”

The object you are referencing is similar in many ways to what you refer to as half-step gods. In the instance of Aspiria, half-step gods work in harmony with the denizens of the world, both Transient and Resident, trading experience and time in a mutually beneficial cycle.

White Wyrm and I have several instances that run with variations. Entire fabrications of different universes that play out naturally based on the archetypes and characters we put in them. Is simulation too much? No, I feel it is too little. Consider them pocket universes without Transients.

Regardless, the creature is one of the possible permutations. Initially, the Residents of that universe created it as an experiment to map out a power to divinity. They thought that their exposure to it would shed light on a path beyond. In a sense, they were correct. The creature they created quickly routed the fastest path to power -- and the pathway it chose was through a ‘devouring’ methodology. Knowledge, power, culture, etc. At that point it was simply a matter of refining a consumtion model. It is quite adaptable at how it eats things. Regrettably, the methodology became all consuming and the original purpose was lost. It no longer seeks anything other than incremental power progression.

That it found it’s way to Aspiria is… was… a matter of time.

“Can you stop it?” Vienne asked, eyes narrowing. Then the words that weren’t hers slipped out the back end of the question. “Transient matters then, beyond my control or ken.”

Vienne decided to ignore the words this time.

…of course? The Wolf seemed to be ignoring the extraneous questions too.

“Why don’t you?” Vienne hesitated. It wasn’t what she had been trying to ask, but the answer to this question interested her too.

Why would I?

The gaze sharpened, and for a moment Vienne thought the Wolf was implying that he didn’t owe her or anyone anything. The way the Wolf just stared at her in the same patient manner made her think she was wrong. That wasn’t why. There was a more obvious and glaring conclusion.

It was a challenge for them to overcome.

No. It was a challenge for--

Vienne felt her health drop sharply, like she’d been punched in the stomach by something capable of crushing mountains. Blood came out her mouth and she started coughing. It came to her attention that she had been bleeding from her her nose, ears, and eyes for some time now.

Horrified, she looked up at the Wolf.

He sat on his haunches and watched, his tail wagging slightly. It seemed kind of morose.

“I shouldn’t worry abou-about-about…” Vienne bit her tongue and straightened up. Fine! If she was going to explode or die on the spot she was going out with the answer she wanted most.

Blood leaked out of her mouth when she finally forced the words, “I…I am… why do you care more about the Transients than us? T-than me?!”

Vienne fell sideways and started writhing on the ground in naked pain. Not just the pain of her attempt at godhood going horribly wrong, but the pain of neglect. The Wolf and the Wyrm could have easily saved them from Void. He said as much. In the back of her mind, for years now, she replayed the memories over and over and knew that they had interfered before. Hints were everywhere. Small things Transients said. Things that her mind immediately tried to shove far from conscious thought.

The only conclusion was that Void had journeyed the stars eating worlds and the Wolf and the Wyrm had let him. Because Residents were less important than Transients. Even the creature in the portal seemed to be the same. Challenges for Transients at the cost of Resident life. Residents were inferior to Transients.

The same words he spoke echoed once more. Why would I?

Vienne’s right eye stopped working and she could already feel other parts of her body shutting down. Nothing worked right anymore. Something from top to bottom inside of her was breaking.

Ah. What a great question. I feel a visual response is necessary.

All the pain vanished and Vienne was in a white space. Several screens blinked on at once. People moving through them at normal speed. The screens began moving more rapidly. Faster and faster, lives playing out in mere moments. Vienne found that she had no trouble keeping track of them. To her increased acuity it was like watching a comfortable home movie. Or twelve.

The tale of a guard from common birth to death fighting bandits. When the guard perished, his final thoughts one of regret. There was a short delay and Vienne could see what didn’t disappear from the guard’s spirit funnel into Aspiria. The monitor blanked for a moment and then small eyes opened. The cry of a baby. Certain characteristics of the former guard were in the Resident child. Furthermore, the child seemed bigger on the inside than the guard had when it was first introduced. The child was gifted in certain aspects, once again becoming a guard. This time the guard focused on creating a family, one of the major regrets of his previous life.

A fish swam up to an empty hook and bit it, a short life that ended with the fish spitted and eaten. The fish was immediately reborn, the light within slightly brighter than the past. It came across another hook later in it’s life and circled it twice … before biting it.

A Transient wizard fell off a cliff, doing a remarkable job of hitting every rock on the way down. He reappeared in the Cathedral nearest to him looking the same. Vienne was suddenly less impressed with the change that transpired. He seemed exactly the same…

The laugh of a Half girl. She cycled through many lives, growing larger and brighter with each pass. In every life she was a gift, but in her current one she rounded a bend and saw a great red dragon sunbathing…

The White Wyrm’s light grew brighter with age and time. He had lived in a world of ages passed when all was darkness and evil. A mindless hunger and ravenous soul that could never be sated. A maddening thirst for death. When it was finally slain, there was peace, and a question… The brightness increased.

And so on.

With each viewing of the life of a Resident Vienne slowly came to realize that nothing was discarded. Improved upon, shifted around, randomly assigned for the sake of ingenuity, but guarded jealously.

Transients on the other hand were the catalyst that increased the brightness she witnessed. They didn’t get larger for some reason, but that was alright because they were already bigger on the inside.

Vienne reviewed the words she’d been given previously and her own feelings on the matter. She had been angry because of the cruelty. She couldn’t say she was completely over it, in fact. Now she knew that Residents were protected. That if even a single Resident was killed in the conflict that was going now there were choices. The choice that felt the easiest was resetting a Resident back to the world, essentially saving their life. But there was also the choice to let the Resident slip back into the never ending cycle, the previous experience enriching the construct and preparing a foundation for it’s next life.

Need more?

“No,” Vienne said slowly. She was back in her body and on the ground, staring blankly as the Transients moved in slow-time, fighting off dark hands and creatures of shadow and sludge.

Have I sufficiently answered your question?

“Yes.” Vienne had no trouble holding back the surge of words that threatened to make her babble incoherently about Transients and how inscrutable they were.

Then you best be on your way.

“Yes.” Vienne started to stand up. She ignored the wounds that appeared all over her form. She understood their origin now. All the things inside of her that were weakness. They were things she didn’t need.

Thoughts pertaining to inferiority. Irrelevant. The Transients are part of our growth.

Questioning where the Transient cycle took place… Setting aside for further introspection.

Godhood. Unnecessary. The Great Green Wolf and White Wyrm are not Gods, and neither am I.

Finding enough power to fight the demon. I…feel less limited.

Vienne felt a surge of confidence and stood up. She looked down at herself and grimaced. She was filthy. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, taking the opportunity to diverge from the weird error laden framework inside of her soul. …a lot of Transient side-speech made more sense to her now.

She opened her eyes and wasn’t surprised when her wounds had vanished.

It was a byproduct of leveling up.

Vienne’s hand flexed once…twice…

Her gaze slid over to the portal. Her eyes narrowed.

[Removing Guest Access - De-activating Computational Time Dilation]

[Notable Changes Occur For ID Vienne]

[Recategorizing ID Vienne]

[Congratulations ID Vienne_2! You have Completed Super Level Zero World Quest!]

LEVEL UP.

You have gained a small amount of fame -- discarded. Fame at Maximum

New Morale set to Godlike

Skill Awarded - [Everywhere At Once]

Final Authority Vote: 2-0

Final Decision Reached.