[Last Star.]

The darkness spoke. No. The creatures in it did. The creatures born from Chaos. Beings that infinitely transcended all concepts, not bound by logic or reason. Such monsters reached out to him.

[Why must you dive into the abyss, when you were born to shine in the skies?]

Countless voices said the same words at the same time. Billions? Trillions? Liam didn’t know how many voices there were. They overwhelmed him, drilling into his mind and grabbing at his brain. Was this how it felt to come face to face with infinity? Finally, he felt like he understood where the risk of insanity in Perception’s description came from.

It was from them. A higher Perception made him get closer to them. Closer to something his mortal mind could not even begin to fathom, much less comprehend. It was so beyond his understanding that trying to forcefully do so would only make his mind shatter. He realized the System was right. Increasing his Perception had been a mistake. Dread filled his heart.

[Did we put too much of ourselves into you?]

[This will not do. It is wrong.]

Liam shivered. His eyes trembled as his limbs contorted. It was too much. The pressure was too much. He felt like listening to their words for even a second longer would damage him irreversibly, tearing his mind apart. His sanity was slipping. Yet, he held on. He couldn’t understand how, but he also felt a sense of familiarity with the creatures in the darkness. Why? Why did he feel like he had spoken to them before?

[WARNING!! WARNING!! The System cannot gauge the current events!]

[Attempt #1 to process the situation. Failure.]

[Attempt #2 to process the situation. Failure.]

[…]

[Attempt #997,908,758,237 to process the situation. Failure.]

[The System has determined that the current events cannot be understood. Forceful termination of the host will begin.]

A barrage of System notifications resounded, making Liam recoil in pain. In less than a second, hundreds of thousands of notifications tore at his consciousness. Even in this strange place, the System still reached him. As if trying to make its presence known, it increased the volume of its notifications to an extreme degree. It was unbearable.

[Forceful termination will begin in 5 seconds.]

[Forceful termination will begin in 4 seconds.]

It was then.

[Fo r ce f ul ter m i na t . . .]

The System notifications sounding out changed. Like a broken record, the spoken words were slurred. In front of him, the small, translucid blue windows with the System announcements written on them turned darker and darker. Gradually, they became completely black. Then, they shattered.

All was still.

Liam felt something slipping away from him. As if there were clothes sliding off his body, but he could not reach them. Something was leaving him. He shivered again. He couldn’t understand. What was going on? He involuntarily reached out with his arms, but whatever was leaving him did not stop. It continued until he realized it was gone. That was when he felt it.

The cold.

The water was cold enough to chill him to his bones. No, cold enough to freeze him to death. He didn’t have to wonder if his soul could be frozen for even a second. He was absolutely certain that he would die here. It was because the cold came from below. He looked down. Tendrils extended from the darkness, somehow even darker than it. The abyss below him slowly rose, as if what used to stop it was no more. Liam felt his heartbeat speed up.

‘Status Window.’

The usual information window did not appear in front of him or in front of his mind’s eye.

The System had left him. It had slipped away, banished by the creatures in the darkness. It was as if he had been wearing plate armor all his life and was suddenly stripped naked. He felt vulnerable and alone. His ultimate layer of defense had been broken; the very construct he relied on had been destroyed.

He was now in a place beyond the System’s gaze and protection. Somewhere unknown. It was the end. There was nothing he could do against such incomprehensible forces. Liam watched as the darkness completely enveloped him. He wasn’t alone in the dark. He felt their presence. An infinite number of monsters surrounded him, their appearances as unfathomable as their nature. He only knew they were there, without being able to see or perceive them.

[You must remember.]

They spoke to him. The darkness grew turbulent. It moved and writhed, changing endless times every instant. It was impossible to perceive a pattern or any sense of rhyme or reason to it. The dark was simply chaotic in its very nature.

[Rise.]

The voices were too much. Liam’s soul started to circulate his Aura as his last defense mechanism. It was completely involuntary, an action born exclusively out of instinct and desire for survival. His black Aura coated his soul, yet the traces of golden light within it shone ever brighter.

[Good. That is right.]

The unknown beasts… Approved of him? Liam’s nearly shattering mind was confused. His last bits of consciousness could not grasp the situation. Were the creatures friendly, after all? No, that shouldn’t be right. The pressure he felt from them was destroying his very existence. Even if they were friendly, it was a fact that they would kill him merely by staying around for too long. Reminded of this, Liam sped up his Aura circulation to its utmost limits. He focused on the gold energy within his Aura, trying to wield it.

He had never managed to do so before. All along, he had only thought of it as a visual effect, a simple change in the color of his Aura. Now, he realized it was so much more. It was a power he had never accessed.

The golden light shone in the dark. It sunk in the surrounding darkness. There was an effect. Liam could feel it; something had changed. The chaotic darkness grew stabler, somehow. Though its movements didn’t change and there was still no pattern to them, it felt… Right. It was as if things were now as they were supposed to be.

[That is it.]

The golden energy within his Aura burst forth with unprecedented brightness, illuminating its surroundings. The brighter it shined, the more satisfied the unknown creatures seemed to be. Why? What was happening, exactly? Liam felt his mind start to piece itself back together. It reminded him of how dangerous staying around the creatures was.

‘I need to get out of here.’

He started to swim upwards, away from the abyss. The creatures made no attempt to stop him. In fact, Liam felt that they were rejoicing. He didn’t know whether that was a good or a bad thing, but there was nothing else he could do. So, he continued to swim. The further he rose, the warmer his surroundings grew. The cold was disappearing.

Finally, he reached the surface. He grabbed at the water as if it were solid, using it to pull himself up and stand on his feet. He looked down, feeling slightly anxious. The darkness hadn’t followed him, much to his relief.

Then, for the first time, he looked up, towards the heavens. The sky was dark and empty. Liam’s soul’s face contorted into a mask of confusion. Why was it empty? He felt absolutely certain that something was missing. But what could it be?

[The Stars are gone. They were erased by one of their own.]

His head snapped towards the water. While it was no longer cold or dark, the voices from the abyss reached him all the same.

[That is why you must rise.]

[Ascend and become one with the heavens.]

[O Star, grant us Order.]

[O Star, grant us Light.]

Liam’s pupils dilated. With every word, he felt a mysterious energy course through his body. It was titanic. Virtually endless, it flowed within him faster than light. No, it was something that surpassed the concept of “speed” entirely. He felt his soul start to break apart and then piece itself back together, being destroyed and remade trillions of times every instant. He was being reborn.

At that moment.

He heard the sounds of splashing water. In his stupor, he turned his head to the side. A humanoid figure completely made of golden light stood beside him. It was faceless and naked, with no genitals or features that would classify it as male or female.

[When you left the System’s domains, I couldn’t help but wonder where you’d ended up. I never would’ve imagined that you could have reached this place.]

The golden figure grabbed his arm. Liam stupidly moved his gaze to its hand. The situation had surpassed his understanding too long ago.

[Watching you die right now would be boring, so I’m getting you out of here. Let’s go.]

[You are a fool.]

The figure looked down. Though it had no face, Liam had a feeling that it was frowning.

[Why?]

The voices from below emitted a screech. It took Liam some time to realize that they were laughing. Golden light exploded from the shining figure, dyeing the skies and water its color. However, it didn’t bring about the same sensation of stability that Liam’s own light had brought. He could only feel the aggressiveness of an unrestrained power trying to force the voices into submission. The reaction was immediate. The water became completely dark, blacker than oblivion itself. It pushed against the golden light, locking it in a stalemate.

[Annoying fuckers.]

The figure looked at Liam. The next moment, everything was gone. The water vanished, as did the empty skies and the individual made of golden light.

Liam opened his eyes in the Ether pond.