Volume 4 - Epilogue - Part 2 (Patreon)

Volume 4 - Epilogue - Part 2

Edit #2 on Nov 23:

I've thought about it a bit more and decided to include this chapter as a "bonus" epilogue at the end of Volume 4, instead of as a prologue for Volume 5.

.. .. .. .. .. ..

Many months earlier, in a place far, far away...

.. .. .. .. .. ..

“How unsightly.”

A plain, brown haired man frowned to himself as he considered his current predicament.

“This is… less then ideal.”

The brown haired man wore a set of common, brown pants and a dusty gray shirt. His face was nondescript, so completely ordinary that one might look at it one second and forget it the next.

His appearance as a whole could be described with a single word:

Forgettable.

‘I stand a real chance of dying if I’m unlucky.’ The man quietly considered.

It should’ve been a ludicrous thought.

He was the one they called Boundless, the Breaker of Chains, the Maker of Paths, an all-mighty Titled Deity that had earned his Title more than four thousand years ago.

‘The Unbound.’

It was he who led the Background Rebellion that freed his people from the Jester of Fate’s slimy grasp.

It was he who guided the Blank Resistance to victory during the First and Second Angelic Wars of Aggression.

It was he who stood guard for millennia, until the day Ixon sol Eden, the charismatic present-day leader of his people, achieved a Title and relieved him.

He was Jay sol Arget.

And…

He was on a mission.

“I expected to face challenges moving upstream.” The Deity muttered,

“But this… this is… difficult.”

The world around Jay sol Arget was a sight that would’ve driven most sane creatures mad.

The Deity stood on nothing, floating in the middle of a vast, turbulent plane of existence. In this disturbing, distorted realm, there was no air, nor water, not even land itself. Here, the concept of time often lost meaning, where seconds could last hours, and hours could last seconds.

Jay sol Arget was standing in the In-Between.

The phrase ‘In-Between,’ had been popularized by the Newlanders, an incredibly advanced magic civilization. The term itself was self-explanatory — it referred to the not-quite-empty space that exists in between Dimensions.

Abruptly, Jay snapped back to the present as he shifted his body backwards several dozen meters. As he sailed back, his eyes zeroed in on the massive, undulating black mass that now occupied his original location.

“Why are there so many damned Outers here?”

The In-Between was a mostly empty pseudo dimension incapable of supporting conventional life… but not all life was conventional.

Especially not the Outers.

These behemoths were horrifying eldritch monstrosities that scoured the In-Between, devouring everything they came across. They thrived off energy of any kind, from the life force of a hapless Dimensional Traveller to the exposed underbelly of a fractured Dimensional Wall.

There was no set appearance for an Outer. Some came in the form of massive, undulating blobs of darkness, while others possessed vaguely humanoid forms that had far too many arms and legs, while still others possessed thousands of eyes spread out among eerily long tentacles. Some of the Outers were weak, while others were strong. There were even a notable few Jay went out of his way to avoid.

After a moment’s pause, Jay scanned his surroundings and counted at least 24 Outers within range of his senses.

It was an absurdly high number considering that, before Jay was pulled into the 7 Layers, he could travel the In-Between for hours and hours without encountering even a single Outer.

“I knew the formation of the 7 Layers would be disruptive… there’s no way any being can move around thousands of Dimensions without creating a stir.” Jay began to walk forward, observing the Outers in his immediate vicinity.

None of the Outers reacted to his presence, but that was to be expected.

Jay sol Arget was, after all, an Endwalker.

The Endwalkers were an unusual Tribe of Deities that, unlike nearly all other beings, lived in the ‘background’ of reality, a sort of inexplicable state of being that made it incredibly difficult to grasp their presence.

In simpler terms, say a watchman glances off to his right and happens to see an Endwalker waltz into camp. Immediately, that watchman leans forward in his chair and begins to scan his surroundings, ready to raise the alarm at the slightest discrepancy.

What does he see?

A cluster of oak trees, a campground full of sleeping soldiers, a small stream rushing nearby, a plain, forgettable man with a knife entering the General’s tent, a loud group of frogs croaking, a campfire crackling, a soft breeze stirring.

Yes, the watchman agrees. Nothing particularly alarming or unusual happened here.

That was the power of an Endwalker.

“…"

Jay wasn’t particularly bothered by the many Outers now crowding the In-Between.

No, the real problem came from the massive Dimensional Wall in front of him.

Behind this Dimensional Wall rested the Realm of Chaos, otherwise known as the Sixth Layer.

“Phasing through the Wall is no problem.” Ease of movement was a perk that came with ‘The Unbound’ Title.

“The real issue is that.” Jay’s eyes narrowed.

“…why is the entire Dimensional Wall enshrouded in Time Energy?”

Time Energy was an incredibly unstable type of energy that could fall apart at even the slightest misstep. Controlling it required an incredibly deft hand and powerful Soul, at bare minimum.

An ocean of Time Energy big enough to swallow an entire Dimension could never exist. Pure Time Energy was simply too volatile.

On the other hand, Time Energy derivatives like Causality and Paradox shared the same appearance as Time Energy and were far more stable… but also drastically more dangerous.

And so, Jay sol Arget found himself back at square one.

‘If I cross that, I’ll stand a real chance of dying.’

The Deity paused for a moment.

‘Not if. When. I cannot abandon this mission.’

The Endwalker let out a long, irritated sigh.

‘If it’s Paradox, and it probably is, as long as I’m prepared to shear off parts of my Soul, the risk of death drops to zero.’

Jay accepted the horrifying thought with a casual nod before closing his eyes for a few brief moments.

“If this is here… I need to consider the possibility that the Fifth, Fourth, and Third Layers will also be shrouded.”

The Titled Deity grimaced.

“Worst case scenario, all the Layers I need to cross are shrouded with Paradox derived Time Energy.” The Endwalker began to calculate for several seconds before his eyes flashed.

“It’s doable.” It wouldn’t be pretty and would leave him with crippling injuries to his Soul, but he could manage that. As a Titled Deity that had reached the 7th Layer, his baseline stats, even as a cripple, should be more then enough.

Finally, Jay sol Arget began to smile.

“Ixon, take care of our people. You better keep an eye on that damned Clown, I don’t trust him to stay on the Fifth.”

The Endwalker’s eyes began to glow with gold light.

“As for me… I will take things from here…”

“Aaron Bartram, the White Knight. Founder of the Knights of the Round Table.” Jay’s voice echoed silently as he continued,

“Humanity’s Strongest, the man who kills me in the future.”

Jay sol Arget pondered his words for a few seconds.

“He should be present on the 3rd Layer when I arrive… ”

And it was here that the tides of Fate and Time finally began to shift.

In Micheal’s first life, Jay sol Arget travelled down the Layers for only one target: Aaron Bartram.

The choices we make pave the path our future follows.

Now, here in Micheal’s second life…

That number changed from 1 to 3.

“The Sundering Swordmaster, Bastien Amiot.” Jay recalled the precognitive Foretelling that Ixon had shared with his mind.

“He becomes incredibly dangerous in the future, but is still quite vulnerable now.” If left alone for even a few years, this particular human would grow up to cause enormous problems.

‘However…’ Jay sol Arget finally began to think about something he had been avoiding.

“HIM.” The Titled Deity twitched, his eyes laced with anger.

“That human absolutely must die. I, no, the Coalition of Endwalkers as a whole cannot accept his existence.”

“The future he wrought cannot be allowed to come to pass.”

Jay sol Arget’s voice dropped to a growl,

"The highest priority target, superseding all others..."

The Titled Deity slowly nodded.

“Shin Hopefell must die.”

.