BOOK 2/61 - Beyond

Earth.
Region 5, Sector 2.

A large hospital took up an entire block of the street. Its height blocks off the harsh rays of the morning sun, casting a comforting shade over those loitering and crossing the streets below. The traffic below was clogging up slowly, honks and yells filling the morning air as it itched to be going, their destinations tugging and beckoning like a beacon.

Melvin took in all the sight. Yet, while his eyes were busy on one thing, his mind was elsewhere. Home. A cleared throat behind him drew his mind back to reality and his eyes away from the increasing tensions below.

"You'd think for such a wide road, traffic jams would be lesser and nearly non-existent." He turned facing the older, sickly looking male that lay on a white hospital bed with various machines and life support connected to him.

"All wish to follow the route which is wider, comfortable, open to them." He stepped away from the door, right hand patting away invisible dust from his white suit. Melvin took his seat. For a split second his mind was drawn to old memories. A past that had been both harsh and glorious.

The older male shook his head, shutting his eyes for a brief moment to return to the now. When he opened them, the stormy gray orbs within his eye sockets locked on the old man.

"So, are you sure of this Mr Twistle Oram?"

The old man on the bed opened his mouth to cough but ended up in a coughing fit. Melvin said nothing, his body relaxed his arm holding his weight on the armrest as he leaned on it. Finally the old man's coughs halted and he spoke.

"What more do I have to lose?"

"I'd say your wealth but I know how much you despise the gluttons as you call them. What you require will need funds, a lot of them. Deals will be paid, palms will be greased, payments made. Your children will have nothing, or very little when this is done.

"Then so be it." The old man coughed again. "They can go work for their wealth."

"Very well," Melvin nodded. Fishing a round like disc from his pocket he set it on the table. Clicking some weird buttons, he kept his eyes on Mr Twistle as a red light on the disc went to blue and then to green.

A voice echoed into the room and Melvin spoke. "Please arrange a meeting with the top player."

The voice in the disc said nothing for a second before it spoke up. "We just finished a meeting with her."

"There are more matters to be discussed. Make it happen." The disc light went from green to red. Melvin stuffed it back into his suit's left breast pocket and leaned back.

"Now, we wait."

****

Star Rings

Hildelith floated in the nothingness, staring down at the bands, the flowing star river and the realms held within their binds. From this spot the new Sub-realm of Ayarat was unclear. The realm looks like one massive sphere. It made sense as everything would appear to be one.

"What to do?" There were only a few things she could do now. With the Elder Players holding back the realms opening she had to wait. In two weeks, the beta launch would come. But in here, that was quite a long time away.

"I could Cultivate now, see what this new power and progression is like." She turned and looked at the Aether. "I could see what else the System Dungeon: Primordial Gates have for me. Or I could leave this universe and finally see what lies beyond."

Something made sense to her when she thought of all these. "I can't cultivate here. There's no Primordial Chaos here to cultivate, if that's the energy I need to cultivate." That gave her a reason to pick heading outside.

On the other hand, Hildelith had the thought to stay here and do something. "It's too early. I still have a week to plan for want comes next.”

Deciding, the Star Titan vanished in a puff of white flame and black mist. The nothingness spat her out right at the edge of the aether and Primordial Chaos boundary.

"Time to see how good this new form is." Slowly, hands stretched out before her, she floated into the black and purple storm. Hildelith could feel the energies crawling over her, trying to get through, trying to eat her flesh up, to destroy and erase, as it was meant to do. The white flames that made up her form kept the chaos at bay as she floated on.

Something moved within the sea of destruction, catching her eye. Some serpent-like creatures or was it a dragon. Akasha showed her what it was clearly. Some Primordial serpent. It reminded her of a certain Godbeast.

The memory was cut off by a notification. Hildelith had come to know the difference between Akasha's notifications and the Will's notifications. This one was clearly from the Will.

[Creator 79 crossing Universe Boundary]
[Beyonder Status Detected]
[Universe Shield Detected]

[Warning!, Warning!]

[Crossing the Universe Boundary earlier than designed will have several consequences. Unknown and Known. Proceed to your Detriment]

Now that has her pausing in her tracks. Hildelith looked at the notification over and over trying to understand what it meant by consequences. What consequences would leaving one's home bring? That thought dragged up some memories and fears that Hildelith once had, burning another place.

Floating there, she stared ahead. She could see the Primordial chaos coming to an end. But what lay ahead was just impossible to see or understand. "I won't go far, let me just see what's outside."

The edge of the boundary was molded into a spherical side and then covered by a thin veil that she didn't understand. It was something beyond her. Fortunately the veil didn't hinder her.

Poking it with a finger, it let her through. Outside, she tried to feel for anything with that finger but there was nothing to feel. Hoping it has to do with her body being hard to influence by environments she pushed the rest of the way through.

Notifications blared into her sight rather than mind this time.

[Universe Boundary Breached]
[Creator 79 has exited her Universe]
[Entity: Creator -> Beyonder 79]
[WELCOME BEYONDER 79 TO THE MULTIVERSE]

It was hard to describe what she was seeing, feeling, the moment she removed the notification. It was like floating in water, only this water was neither hot, cold, nor warm. This water didn't feel like one that could be swam in but like thick air. It was confusing and yet beautiful.

The colors here were numerous, vast. Some that were strange, Eldritch, weird. Outside here her White flames turned dark almost like the environment had painted her over.

Another worry rose up as she floated forward a bit. The multiverse was so vast, so large that a step in the wrong direction and Hildelith was certain she'd be lost. "I won't be going far then."

Turning, she stared at what she came from. Compared to the Multiverse, it was dull. Her universe was a spherical ball covered by a shimmering veil that made it look like the red of the Multiverse. "If not for it being mine, I wouldn't even know it was there."

She floated backwards, keeping it in sight as she moved. Her universe slowly shrunk as she gave it space until it was just about the size of a ball to her.

"Now what?" Exploring the Multiverse could get her lost. "Unless I have a way to get back here." Seeing the universe would be hard from so far away but ..."What if I could sense it from any distance? I mean it's me right." Shutting her eyes Hildelith tried sensing it out.

'I can sense it.' Akasha noted.

"You can?" A hum came from her Force.

'I just need to look for a similar energy to me that's not me. It's just right there.'

"Let me try." Shutting her eyes Hildelith tried sensing Akashic energy that wasn't around her. "Hmmh." She hummed as she realized she could detect the energy all around her. It was all Primordial Chaos. But raw. 'Almost like the Chaos serving as my outer boundary is diluted.’

She soon found the energy she wanted amongst the chaos. Akashic energy. But it was hard to find since the veil seemed to be blocking anything from entering or leaving her universe.

"Do you think we can find it even if we go far?"

'I can. As long as it's my energy, I can find it anywhere.' Akasha assured. Convinced, she turned away and looked around. With a flex of will, she flexed or swam through the thick ocean of energy and towards the first physical shape she could see.

It was a large earth looking thing. Like an asteroid or debris. But the energy that came off it was large. Floating around and scanning it she got a single word.

**Primordium ???**

Getting closer she poked it. Black and purple flowed through her finger at an absurd speed and into her arm. Hildelith jerked away but it was too late. The energy rushed through her body, ignoring her Star Titan body as it wrecked her insides.

Panicked and about to flee back into her universe she realized something else. The energy had stopped wrecking her insides and faded. Now she was healing, fixing the damages.

'It feels better. Like that Milestone.'

She nodded to Akasha as she noticed it too. Slowly she reached out and touched the stone again. The energy flooded into her body through her arm and she stiffened up as the pain came. As it continued and she kept her palm on the wall Hildelith learned something else. As much as the pain continued, she could endure it. Even more, the energy could not do more than break down her inner body. For some reason it couldn't affect her outer shell.

A ding echoed in her head and a notification popped up.

[1st Rank: Celestial Ascendant (Lv1 - Lv2)
[1st Rank Insight: Universal Force Manipulation - gained]
[1st Rank Insight: Universal Awareness gained]

'Uh-oh!.' Akasha would have blinked if she could. Well she could if she formed a body but that was unnecessary for just that. Her exclamation though was for what she knew was coming next.

Hildelith doubled over and screamed. Her brain felt like it was expanding, stretching, being pulled in all directions. Akasha quickly brought up the description for the insight she just got.

**Insight: Universal Awareness**
**Universal Awareness is the intuitive ability to perceive and understand the entirety of a universe's state and anomalies in real-time. This includes the balance of cosmic forces, the flow of energy, the stability of physical laws, and any disruptions that might occur within the universe**

Hildelith screamed again and Akasha waved the screen away as she winced. She could understand what was going on. There was a reason Hildelith used Akasha to know and see all the edges and vastness of her universe. Because Akasha knew the truth, this was a game to her physical self, a game where no matter what powers one thought they had, at the end of the day it was all down to data, to ones and zeroes.

It was easier for Akasha as she lacked what one would call a cap, a limit. For Hildelith at the end of the day she was still a normal girl in a Creator's form.

Akasha shivered as she watched her physical form's brain shift and expand. Not physical but in a mental and spiritual form that few eyes could ascertain. As this expansion grew Akasha realized something.

'If this happened before the milestone...' she shivered at the image. 'Sure death'. The reason was simple, rather just giving her awareness of just her universe, it was also going to apply to this place.

Akasha brought up the second insight she'd gotten. A rush of pity filled the Force. 'It'll be over soon' she comforted herself.

**Insight: Universal Force Manipulation** **Mastery over the fundamental forces of a universe. The user becomes a master of the universe's physical framework, able to bend, reshape, or even rewrite its foundational laws **

This was bad for Hildelith. While Awareness stretched her perception and more to all the last corners of her universe and more, Universal Force Manipulation was a whole other problem on its own.

Akasha understood that Hildelith had a limit as to how massive an effect she could create if, say, she intended to cause an earthquake. For the mortal realms it would be massive but somewhere like Sol or Torheim would require massive amounts of mental strength to break the realm.

It wasn't that she couldn't do it. She could, it was both easy and energy wise, hard to perform. And that was just by using an insight on its own. With Akashic Force it would be easy. And that was because Akasha was already doing what the Universal Awareness in her universe was doing.

Now to use Universal Force Manipulation she could focus on the whole universe and turn it all upside down without Akasha's help. She'd need a lot of mental power for that though.

Akasha could foresee the head splitting aches the Creator would be having whenever she used these insights. 'Worse, if it's like me and even more than me, then she won't have an off and on.'

Returning her attention to the insight as her physical form suffered, she peeled through its information.

'It seems she won't have to use much of it outside.' Another thing stuck out to Akasha.

'Oh. I guess we can explore now without getting lost. I wonder how far the range is.' Akasha couldn't see anything in this place. Any bit of her energy that slipped out was destroyed without the protection of the Star Titan Form. She was wondering if dragging the white flames along would help her move around here.

'At Least I'm not blind.' Being part of every last tongue of white flame on the Physical body, she could see in all directions.

Hildelith suddenly gasped and opened her eyes. If she was more human in form, then everyone would notice bloodshot, crazed eyes. Alas, there was no visible evidence of the torment she just suffered.

'I need a break.'
'I need a break.'

Muttering like a mantra, she turned to her universe. It was like a glaring ball of white light that called to her. Worse, she could see more than just that. Hildelith shut her eyes, trying to look away, retract her focus from things. It was hard. The best she could do was make things blurry and unfocused. But they were there.

'Are you okay?' Akasha's pitiful voice echoed in her head. It brought a slight ache that faded soon after.

"Yes, I'm good."

'Okay. You'll need this then.' And she poured all the things she'd gleaned from the insights into Hildelith's head.

"Hey!" It was too late. Another brain racking headache struck and she froze grasping her flaming head.

'Oops. You said you were good!'

Hildelith tried to glare but without a form to see she could only hiss. Still the information in her head showed her a lot.

"So it helps with navigation and control of her immediate surroundings but nothing more." That was good enough. Her head was still aching.

Whether it was a game thing or outside things she didn't know. It was best to log out and let her avatar rest the headache.

"For now I've learnt a lot."

Flying back to her Universe she slipped right through the veil and back home.

_


The Multiversal Stream, as only a few knew it, was home to quite the lot of things and beings. And one such entity swam through the energies leisurely. It had been so long since it lasted any form of life. Since its birth in the stream and subsequent growth it had known only this place and nothing else.

It had studied and learned everything about the stream. What existed in it and what was useful for it. So, when it found a sight that confused it, the entity couldn't help but draw closer.

It watched from a good distance as the thing did something. It understood what it was only when energy spilled from the thing. While it was far enough it still knew what it was looking at.

But if one could understand the Eldritch and strange language it spoke in its mind then one would hear the queries, "Why is it weak?"

When it meant weak it didn't mean the thing it was seeing but the energy it was perceiving. This was something that all entities it had met, fought and killed used. Without it, traversing the Stream was useless and dangerous.

But this energy felt weaker and off. Like it was meant for a marked out position and not everywhere.

It watched in curiosity as the thing then moved and suddenly vanished. Alarmed and surprised it chased. Searching for the entity that had suddenly vanished.

It couldn't see anything. Couldn't find anything. There was nothing around here. So where did it go? Cautious but curious it stared at the position the thing was meant to be. Quickly it cut off a part of itself and sent it to that spot.

The Eldritch was shocked as its body part vanished as well, it had followed the stream for eons in all directions. Calmly it floated away making sure to give itself as much distance as it could from the weak energy of that thing.

Only then did it stop. Sending its awareness into the body part it discarded it was shocked, astounded and afraid of what it was seeing. A place where the Multiversal Stream failed to reach.

It returned its awareness to its main body and stayed there deep in thought. Now that it knew there was something there, it could see the shimmer of a veil blocking the place. A protection for it.

It looked beautiful. Full of energy. Just a glance within had shown him energies he'd never seen or known. 'But first, that thing. It didn't look weak.'

It contemplated. 'I'll wait.' It knew, whatever that thing was, it would come out again. And when it did, it would go inside this place. Now it just had to wait.


_

Earth,
Region 5, Sector 1

Helen stepped out of the pod with a look of relief on her face. The in game headache had been quite the new thing. 'Hopefully it'll be done when I log back in.'

She was done with showering and settling into her workspace to look at the forums when she noticed the time. Blinking, she checked her Holopad.

7:51PM

She stared in confusion . 'How...' mentally working out all her activities today and her to and fro she remembered getting back and logging in by noon.

"It should be afternoon at the latest." Frowning at the time that didn't make any sense, she navigated on the forum to her account profile where she found her name with an offline icon. The time next to it showed her logging out ten minutes ago.

"But, that's...I didn't spend much time in the game for the time to have crossed like this." Helen was already used to the time difference so it was weird to see the time after only a few minutes of traversing beyond her universe.

'Beyond' Suspicion rose in Helen's mind. The only thing she'd done in game was to leave her universe. There she'd cultivated increasing to the 2nd Level of her current Tier. 'But what if I spent more time cultivating or getting over that headache than I thought?'

It had to make sense, after all, the beyond was the only place she'd been. "If it's correct, then time outside my universe is vastly different again."

A notification popped up in the Holopad drawing her free from her mental speculation. "Another email from Ancient Inc?"

They were trying to schedule another meeting. An important one. It was more them informing her and telling her that she had to go. Shrugging, she messaged Dexter to inform him of the meeting the next day. Looking at the time again, she thought back to the beyond.

"I'll get food first. The headache should be gone by the time I log back in."