An Age of Mysterious Memories

B 3 C 35: From Elysium to Maelstrom

I can’t respond to Tenith Grayl without touching her mind with electropathy, but I don’t know if either Teuila or I can survive long enough to make it close enough to the goddess.

Wait, I know how to set timed detonation sparks. I know how to fire bolts of lightning. I can set a spark to ride along a bolt of lightning, I don’t have to worry about killing a god of the sky with a lightning bolt to the brain.

I aim two fingers forward towards the oncoming storm personified, and I launch a blast of electricity carrying a simple thought. My message is, “Mighty Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending, Goddess of Sky and Storm, we come to beg an audience. We won’t survive your method of communication, please forgive our intrusion.”

Suddenly the storm frying the insides of my head and Teuila’s ends. As we wait for Tenith Grayl’s arrival, it’s obvious that she is the most majestic serpentine dragon there could ever be. Her cerulean scales flicker with a mild iridescence in the light cast by the storm that seems to perpetually surround her being. Though her features are smooth and effeminate, her whiskers and mane are impressive beyond imagining As she coils about the Elysium Ascent, it shudders with the impact of her landing. She first aims upward to rest her face upon the tip of its spire, then thinks better of it. She reverses the many miles of elongated form that make up her whole body in an instant, setting her face in front of me and Teuila.

I try to bow as respectfully as I can, and approach with a hand up, palm forward. There’s the most minute nod as Tenith Grayl allows me to approach, but even this microscopic motion shakes the foundation of the Elysium Ascent. I’m permitted to approach and lay my hand upon her face, so I begin sending a constant stream of sparks towards her brain. Normally I would need to be much closer, but this is a living lightning storm we’re talking about, even her draconic scales seem to conduct the tiniest spark faster and further than they’d ever normally flow.

Once Tenith Grayl realizes I’ve established a safe connection, she deigns speak, “Mortals? When did mortals even get the ability to survive the approach to the Elysium Ascent? Moreover, when did the ofbloods begin mingling with the rezzers? Even more surprising, you smell like my brother ‘Card.”

It takes me a moment to realize she combined ‘of blood’ into one word as a name for those that bleed, or that ‘Card might mean lord Deckard Agni. I respond, “I’m not certain when mingling began, mighty Goddess, but during my very brief existence in this world, I have spent most of it amongst rezzers, and I’ve worked to foster peace between our kinds.”

The sky god shushes me, “Hush that now, drop the formalities, you made it here, call me Tenny. I haven’t had to play my role as mediator and messenger to the mortals in so long, it’s nice to have one that I can speak to without melting their brains! Peace you say? I didn’t know they were at any particular war, they just never bothered to breach the divide of their language barrier. You say yours is a short existence so far, do you mean that compared to me, or even compared to other mortal ofbloods? Go on, tell me your story, all of it, I’m dying to hear anything other than the sound of my own thoughts! Please spare no details, I want to know everything from the very beginning!”

My jaw drops, as does Teuila’s since she’s riding my thought waves and reading my logs. I’m dumbfounded. Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending, is chatting me up like an old friend, telling me to call her by an endearing nickname. This was not the outcome I expected.

I start, “Very well, as you wish, I’m honored to be allowed to do so, Tenny. From what I understand about my life’s story, it began before I spawned…”

Tenith Grayl patiently listens to my entire narrative. She even waits with bated breaths as I ride out my panic attacks caused by certain triggering memories that I share with her. Her questions are myriad when topics that she doesn’t understand about mortal lives arise. Still, after many hours, we begin to reach the topics that lead to the reason for my arrival. In fact, it has likely been almost an entire day of standing here as part of a constant stream of sparks that send and receive thoughts with Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending.

Tenith Grayl whistles into my mind as she hears about my last few weeks of life, slaying my brother, him being brought back before fully derezzing, Lord Deckard Agni beginning to awaken, and my own plea for him to remain slumbering. Teuila slugs me in the shoulder when she hears about how I was torn limb from limb along Lord Agni’s back, since I didn’t go into detail about losing my limbs or why they hurt so much as they began to heal. Tenith Grayl is even more surprised to hear about my attempts to forge a connection with purest Umbra.

Tenny realizes my tale is nearly at an end, as I describe our approach to the Elysium Ascent, and I’d swear the goddess pouts. Tenny states, “You’re right, that is an incredibly brief existence, even by mortal standards. It was full of adventure though! What an interesting creature with a fascinating tale. Still, I’m afraid your journey here is in vain.”

My heart sinks into the pit of my stomach as Tenny continues, “If Levy forges the Hallowed Maelstrom, and the old goat ‘Card makes it there, that’s the signal, Maka has to wake up and I’m supposed to give her a lift to the maelstrom, there’s no fighting that, it’s our purpose, our destiny. During the convergence, we’ll wipe the slate clean. Rezzers and ofbloods get a fresh, barren world that starts from the barest seeds of the old one, well, when they begin to spawn again anyway. That could be years, decades, centuries before it starts happening. It sounds like you convinced ‘Card to not want to go to the Maelstrom right away at least, but if something is really powerful enough to force him to get his tail moving, then you’re fighting fate itself little friend.”

I gulp as I fight back a mixture of emotions. Tenny just called me her friend, and she doesn’t actively want the destruction of mortals either, maybe she can at least tell me about the Hallowed Maelstrom, or this Maka sister?

I ask, “Tenny, would you be willing to tell me as much as you can about Levy, the Hallowed Maelstrom, and this Maka sister? If I can somehow convince even one of your siblings to somehow prevent the tide of fate flowing in this direction, I have to try. I’ll try anything that might save my family.”

Tenny hems and haws, hearing a god be telepathically indecisive is not something I ever thought I’d experience, “Hm, well, it doesn’t hurt to try your best I suppose. Maka’s our littlest sibling, but she’s crazy powerful, since hers is also the lifeblood of so much of our world. Her full title is Maka-Akari, Gaea’s Cradle, and she really lives up to it. After the convergence, when things begin anew, it will be from her back that everything is born. If you could convince her to stay asleep, or that her precious creations are trying to fight fate itself to save other creations of hers, she might be willing to delay the convergence for a while. Since she can’t make it there without me, and if she doesn’t accept my help to get there, we’ll be at a stalemate, neither she nor I will be able to go if she refuses.”

Tenny chews on her enormous scaled lips as she continues, “As far as Levy, he’s probably going to be all too happy to create the Hallowed Maelstrom, but you might be able to convince him to make it, and destroy it, so that he can make it again and again over time, making it more perfect with each cycle. Play to his ego, maybe. Levy can forge the Hallowed Maelstrom at any of the seas in any of the four winds, but he’s likely to at least try to make it in the south sea first. If old ‘Card has any control left, and he doesn’t want to hurt you little guys, that would make his journey slow and meandering if he had to swim north around the continent to eventually get there.”

Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending graces me with images traveling along our electropathic sparks. They’re points in space, or rather in the seas, four distinct locations at each of the cardinal directions around our island continent. Tenny says, “Hopefully you can see that, it’s pretty neat for an ofblood to have gotten enough power and creativity to be able to talk like this. Most of them never seem to be able to break past their first stage of limitations. The Hallowed Maelstrom itself is what it sounds like though, a godly divine whirlpool of epic proportions. When the four of us meet within its swirl, we will spiral and mingle until we become one. I don’t know what happens after that. I only know that the candle is snuffed, melted down, and lit anew. Oh, right right! If you’re going to want to talk to Maka, sometimes her veins open to the surface where she slumbers. She lies beneath the eastern forests on our little continent. Lots of little creatures like you spawn within her veins, though most never seem to leave. The vein nearest to her head probably has some sort of field, like the ones you talked about at your pond, or near ‘Card with the cragbeasts.”

Realization dawns on me, those translucent walls that could block entry or exit are somehow tied to the gods of this land. The blue one at Shellcracker Pond when fighting Vampguppy was probably tied to Leviathan, the red one which kept the cragbeasts in their warren was likely tied to Lord Agni. I think Teuila mentioned the one room in the dungeon she had found was covered in one as well, if she didn’t already tell me, I could hazard a guess that it’s probably green.

Two of the forcefield-like structures are already destroyed. As much as I’d like to talk to Maka-Akari first, I don’t want to risk finding out what happens if the field related to her is destroyed as well, if I can avoid it. That means Teuila and I have a date with a sea serpent. One that I can only hope isn’t currently possessed by the red-eyed entity.

I clutch my heart as panic grips me. I topple over against Tenith Grayl once again, as I have many times during the sharing of my tale. I don’t know how much influence the red eyes can exert over creatures that are far apart. It always seemed like the entity needed to be fully present to exert strong control. Whenever it was just a spark of its essence, it could be washed away by the river after knocking some sense into someone. I thought I might have to sneak onto Tenith Grayl’s back and fight off creatures that lived along her body, to be able to make it to her head to speak with her. Is there any chance in creation that I could sneak onto Leviathan’s body, possibly knock some sense into him to free him of any partial control he might be under? The idea that he may be under sway, or simply happy to act hostilely to mortals sends me tumbling into frightened day terrors. It takes time, but I ride out the panic, slowly calming my breathing. Teuila and Tenny both comfort me.

I’ve lucked out with two of the four siblings so far, but this luck can’t hold. Tenny herself has said she’s positive I won’t succeed against Leviathan’s desire to create the Hallowed Maelstrom. I’m surprised he hasn’t done it already, but maybe it takes time to forge it. Maybe he has been starting its forging and stopping it, over and over, if he’s some sort of perfectionist. I will take her advice and appeal to his ego if I can survive approaching him. Or maybe Leviathan is already done forging it, and Lord Agni has just been slow to rouse.

Tenny has another question for me before I leave, “So you said those snake friends of yours, well, I guess enemies, the ones that tried to kill you had my blessing. Your brother, also the one that tried to kill you, wow, you’ve got some bad luck, anyway, that one maybe took the blessing, yeah? Any idea what he could have wanted with those blessings? They can create a strong enough gale to send almost anything basically flying for a short time. Should I reclaim the blessings of ‘Quetzalcoatl’ from the mortals?”

I shake my head, “No, I think whatever Mataalii has done is something that had to be done in the end, somehow. Luni has him in some fashion or another, so I guess she technically maybe possesses the blessings at the moment. Maybe that’s why she had to capture him. I don’t know if I’ll ever know, at least not before the end. Thank you Tenny, for not killing us, for being willing to talk, for hearing me out, for sharing your advice and information, for everything.”

She responds, “No worries little friend, your hand on my snout’s the closest thing I’ve gotten to a hug in an eternity, maybe longer. I feel a bit like you in all those long tunnels when you shut your brain off. It can be years, centuries between times when I check back into reality. It’s a rather boring existence. Thanks for spicing things up a bit. If I wasn’t so sure that things are going to go, well, the way they are, I’d say come back and see me some time when you’ve had more adventures to share. I’m fairly positive this is the last we’ll ever see of each other in these forms though. I don’t know what I’ll be after the convergence, but I doubt it’s going to be someone that sits around to listen to your stories. Good luck Reggie and Teuila Shellcracker. You have your work cut out for you. Oh, one last tip! Try connecting with that Umbra stuff near us, maybe our divinity can help your message reach?”

I place both my arms on Tenith Grayl’s snout in the best approximation of a hug I can make, and Teuila joins me as well. While I’m embracing the goddess, I ask the systems of the world to let me gaze upon purest Umbra, to let Teuila see the connections, the greater truths. We’re not asking to cast any specific spell, not desiring any outcome or effect, we just want to understand the connection.

The universe, the world and all its systems relent, and slowly motes of purest Umbra begin to wriggle their way into existence around us. Each of us, Teuila, Tenith, and I all gaze with wonder upon these floating flecks of shadow, these matte obsidian spheres. None of the three of us can resist touching a spec as we gaze upon them. My understanding broadens ever so slightly. More of the tale unfolds. The story that is told is one of a simple soul. That’s as much as I can consciously grasp at the moment.

Tenny, causing a mild shower of sparks to fry my brain in a slightly painful fashion, says into my mind, “Trippy!”

I can’t help but burst into laughter. I send back a spark saying our farewells and our gratitude once more, as I take my leave to at least get myself and Teuila back to the mainland before we plot our next course of action.

We’ve been awake for probably over a day and a half, maybe two and a half days at this point. We waited for Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending to return to the Elysium Ascent after taking quite a number of hours to travel there, which was most of a day in and of itself. While there it took me ages to relay my life’s story, I think it might have been an entire day of just telling my tale. I’m exhausted and starving, as is Teuila. As we make landfall near the split twin cliffs, I rapidly construct a shelter, bedding, and consume a morsel of meat quickly as I begin to pass out in the middle of falling onto the makeshift bed. Teuila does much the same as we land in each other’s arms, falling asleep immediately.

“I’ve got a lovely bunch of, oy, what’s this now?” The captain leans down to pick up a small object that’s obscured from my view from this angle. He buffs and shines it while facing away, and a gale begins to pick up.

“Batten the hatches lads, seems we’re in for surprise stormy weather! Hoist the mainsails, secure the yardarm! You there, stow those below and get to cover!” The captain of this piratical vessel carefully observes each crew member to make sure they’re tying themselves off and securing everything as needed. They disconnect the sails to run under bare poles and stow them against the port and starboard railings as they tie them down.

It seems like they’re sailing under these conditions for weeks on end. The captain finally relents and has the crew reapply sails. Cautiously at first, but as the wind fills the sails, the ship virtually takes flight.

I come to with a snort, and Teuila giggles as she flicks my nose. I ask with a start, “Hm? Huh? Oh, Te. Are you ready to head all the way to the other end of the continent to look for a terrifying serpent creating a massive divine whirlpool?”

Te shakes her head, “Honestly, no, and neither are you, but what other choice do we have? What can I even do on this mission?”

I respond, “Well, for this next part, I’m hoping you’ll be able to bail me out if ‘Levy’ won’t even let me talk to him. You might be able to fight off some crab creatures or weird things attached to his back like giant remoras or something. Also you know I couldn’t reach these speeds without you, let alone maintain them. Your powers are allowing me to make trips that would take weeks take days instead.”

Teuila grumbles but relents, “Okay, fine, I suppose. This is so much bigger than anything before though. We chose to prepare to fight the snake and we chose to go on an adventure to get bags and stuff in the cragbeast place. This just feels like it’s forced on us, and it’s not fair. It’s not fair that any misstep or failure might be the last one, ever, for everyone.”

I nod. It really isn’t fair. Something Lord Agni said springs to mind. He said not even the elders could force the gods of this continent to do something. Did he mean elder gods? What if he was underestimating them? Could we make contact somehow? Plea for them to stop the convergence? Somehow I doubt our minds could connect without me being erased from existence for trying, or me losing my sanity or all my memories.

There’s also the fact that the siblings are lesser gods of our single small continent. Could we find the next nearest landmass? Would it be spared the destruction that follows the convergence? Still, it would take weeks, maybe months just to construct vessels large enough to begin evacuating the population, maybe just as long to find the other continent or continents if none of the humans still living have been back and forth to Geawerene. Even after finding a path, it could take as long to sail, all that time we would be at Leviathan’s mercy, or the Hallowed Maelstrom itself, or the effects of the convergence. I doubt we have any of those luxuries, or would survive any of those outcomes. Plus, even though they’re lesser gods of this continent, I don’t doubt that combined, they have the power to reset our entire world. I just don’t know if the candle of mortality that they are intended to snuff out encompasses just that of the creatures here, or those of creatures everywhere.

Te and I hold each other tightly, trying to steady our nerves and support each other as we continue our travels, this time far to the south, to the point where we expect Leviathan to be forging a whirlpool. After an extended travel time, we camp at the beach Teuila and her family once called home. Both of us cry in each other’s arms as destiny reminds us once more of the fate of her family and their allied clan, the Rocksmashers.

Still, I’m filled with new determination to set Leviathan on a path that either delays him, or snaps him out of his efforts to follow his destiny prematurely. If I stood the remotest chance of even possibly killing even just one of these god siblings, I would undoubtedly choose this one. Still, it wasn’t his fault, the Night of High Water. Maybe.

Teuila and I carefully take our bearings so that it will be a straight shot out over the ocean to seek the location where we expect to find Leviathan. This feels even more fraught with danger than when heading to an unknown location in the sky with Tenith Grayl. At least we were pretty certain we’d be able to land on something where we could breathe when we sought out Tenny. Here there will be no land, and the godling will likely reside beneath the waves the entire time. We will be slower, and at the mercy of our oxygen limits, even with my ability to help separate out the carbon and re-breathe our air within an airtight shelter, our oxygen is not endless. Not to mention Leviathan could just swallow our shelter, trapping us forever, or killing us.

Having a thought, I ask, “Te, do you think you can create a tether of wind? On one of your arrows? Could you fire it into a godbeast’s brain for my sparks to travel along? Then we wouldn’t need to follow him beneath the waves.”

Teuila pauses before replying, “I’ve been practicing my archery with Linti in The Hollow, I kinda wish my dorky Lil Dragbutt was here with those invisible goggles, I’d ask to borrow them. Still, between bracers and raw skill, I could probably do it. I’m not sure how long I could maintain it, especially if Levy is moving around.”

I nod, I wish Lil was with us for different reasons, but Teuila’s answer is good enough for my plan, “That’s okay, that’s fine, Tenny was certain Levy wouldn’t respond well to us anyway, we can’t afford to die trying to convince him. We still have a shot with Maka-Akari, and we still don’t know what the six books do.”

Te playfully socks me but then pauses to look down sadly at her own fist. I’m suddenly reminded that Teuila once felt trauma at roughhousing with me, a favorite activity of hers. I think that was way back in Fire Biome, our first time there. We worked through that, but she still carried the burden of that pain for at least a while longer. She was afraid that I would become re-traumatized by her, and retreat from reality for a long period again. She begged me not to leave her. It was the most vulnerable she had ever been with me at the time. When our bodies purged the majority of the Radiance from our systems, and we temporarily lost our telepathic bond, Teuila thought I was punishing her, losing faith and trust in her. Thankfully it didn’t take much to convince her that I would never do such a thing. She had a brief period of self-doubt is all.

When she was manipulated into attacking me near the river, when her Valkyrie form seemed to not respond properly for her, she subconsciously shut down our mental link. She was likely panicking, railing against the fear that I would backslide into being traumatized by her. She could feel me sliding into that trauma-space at the end of the confrontation, when Luna had separated us. My mind had begun to set the neurological links between Teuila and my strongest triggers of panic and trauma once again. She snapped me out of it just in time.

I’ve relied on Teuila to accept my love, to constantly support me during my short life. I’ve relied on her to accept how hard it is to love me, to fight through my panic and traumas and burdens and self-doubt. She comes through time and time again. My first love, My-Wings. Now I’m relying on her to set up a communication method and keep us out of reach of a deadly water god. I am completely unfair to her, I don’t deserve her love and I don’t know how to become worthy of her affection.

Teuila noogies me for my train of thought, “Come on spootbrain, there’s nothing special to it, you’re already worthy and deserving of, of well, stuff, you know, words.”

I chuckle slightly. Even Te’s inability to fully express her desired intent is endearing. Even though I’m not strong enough to just snap my fingers and cure my own emotional wellbeing issues, I appreciate her regardless. I can’t change my neurologically atypical nature. I think there might even be a term for that, neurodivergent. She doesn’t seem to need me to try to change things though. She smiles at me and holds me while she rides my thought waves. She trusts me to always come back to her, no matter what rabbit hole my thoughts send me down. She’s always willing to wait patiently and offer her hand in support. She’s even willing to break down my walls if need be, if she can tell that I’m hurting or punishing myself.

As we sail south over the seas, scouring for either signs of Leviathan, or of a Hallowed Maelstrom, a titanic whirlpool comes into view at the edge of the horizon, and within its spiral, enormous loops of the great serpent himself. Teuila motions for me to take us in closer, so that she can find his head to aim the tether shot for our communication. Upon approach though, our nostrils, ears, and tear ducts flood with seawater, we begin vomiting forth saltwater as well, still not in position, as Leviathan reaches towards our minds to speak.

Leviathan chides, “What mortals come bearing the scents of the old goat and haughty bird among my siblings? How do you have the audacity or power to even approach Leviathan, Storm of the Endless River?”

Struggling to not die of drowning, we plummet towards one of Leviathan’s scaled loops that seem to hover as if they were a floating mountain range amidst the spiraling torrent of his maelstrom. Teuila is able to struggle against the pain as she grips her head, to hold me with one arm and reduce our gravity as we land with a soft thud. A great wall of water begins to rise before us, cascading off of Leviathan’s face as he raises it to spy where we’ve landed.

Between pulses of vomiting seawater I call out, “Great and powerful Leviathan, Storm of the Endless River, we wish to speak, we will not survive your method of communication, but we have one of our own.”

Leviathan of course does not understand me or my words. The gods are all probably rezzers. Teuila tries to repeat what I said, though less tactfully, “Great serpent, come closer so we can listen and respond without dying!”

I gulp as Leviathan seems to oblige Teuila, because he approaches, jaw open,and his massive fangs drag against his scales with a sound like boulders across sheet metal. His mouth encompasses us, but at least he’s no longer speaking, and our bodies are no longer flooded with his element. His tongue is an island, an enormous serpent in its own right, which tries to catch us and flick us down his throat. Teuila and I sail upwards into the mucus membranes at the roof of his mouth. We find purchase in his porous soft tissues, which buys us a few precious moments of safety. Should he simply hold his head beneath the waves, we’ll eventually drown.

I look to Teuila, certain that I can’t get a spark to reach his mind from our current position. Our only hope is that a mana-tethered arrow fired from Te’s bow, guided by wind, might possibly be able to reach near enough to Leviathan’s brain. She takes a deep breath, and aims her shot upwards towards the back of the goliath serpent’s cranium. Teuila exhales smoothly as she releases what appears for all intents and purposes to be little more than a glowing green mass of swirling wind. I lace the mana trail from her bow to the arrow with a constant stream of sparks, carrying my thoughts to Leviathan.

My statement is repeated, “Great and powerful Leviathan, Storm of the Endless River, we wish to speak, we will not survive your method of communication, but your thoughts can be carried back along this one, should you deign us fit to speak with. We have indeed spoken with your brother and sister, Lord Deckard Agni, the Pure and Desolate and Lady Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending.”

I wait with bated breath for the series of sparks to travel back. Leviathan replies, “What troublesome, irksome gnats. That you’ve survived two of my siblings is no matter, our convergence will soon wipe you all from the lands and seas and skies. I’m curious what you hoped to accomplish however.”

I don’t think Leviathan cares that he was roused prematurely, should I even bring up the entity? No, I think he’ll be ashamed and insulted if I insinuate that he could have been controlled. Teuila agrees with my assumption as she rides my thought waves. I see a future where we try to convince Leviathan to stand down because he was controlled, manipulated into waking up early. Such a truth enrages him. In that future, Leviathan doesn’t wait for the convergence, he floods the lands, he would take everything from us, not that we’d be alive to see it. Then we should take Tenny’s advice, and play to his ego.

With reverence, I return, “Great lord of the seas, at first we feared the stirrings of Lord Agni, then we learned of the existence of more deities, and that you were among their number, destined for convergence. We had always been terrified of you, but Lady Tenith Grayl extolled to us your artistry and mastery over the seas. She said your job was to create the most perfect, Hallowed Maelstrom that could allow the mingling of divinity. We had to see the last, most perfect thing that would exist within our lifetimes, as they are soon to be ended.”

I really hope that doesn’t sound sarcastic, or like a lie. It was mostly true. I don’t want to try to push the ruse, I figure one or two more messages back and forth and we should try to escape with our lives, or I should rewind time and prevent us from seeking out Leviathan at all.

Leviathan’s thoughts reach me again on the trail of sparks, “Yes, her high and mighty birdship is correct, I alone bear the power and responsibility to create the perfect circle. The drain funnel through which our powers and minds will mingle to become one. This one is not perfect however, as you can no doubt tell. It is not my most magnificent work. I have acted in haste, my siblings must acknowledge my prowess when they arrive to join the convergence. The very foundation upon which this Maelstrom has formed is flawed, I must begin anew. Maka would never accept less than perfection, except from her own feeble creations of course, the hypocrite. Sadly you won’t live out the several, hm, many days it will take me to remake the Maelstrom in its perfect form, for now is the hour of your demise.”

Leviathan’s tongue begins to thrash at the fold of tissue in which we find ourselves. We need to get out of here! I don’t see a path to escape through though. Is there any chance that I could cause enough damage to Leviathan’s lip to open just a tiny crack for us to pass through? It looked like there were hundreds of meters of lip. What if Teuila and I throw everything we have at it together?

Teuila grumbles, “I can get out along the path my arrow took, but I couldn’t bring you with.”

Te can get out? That’s great! I beg her to go, “Te, get out of here, take to the skies, wait for me as high up as you can get while still being able to breathe. If he pursues you, hold your breath and go even higher.” I’m hoping that Leviathan can’t leap more than a few kilometers out of the seas, or he’d have probably flooded all the lands by now.

Te argues, “I’m not leaving you, what would you even do without me that we can’t do together?”

As I adopt my mite-hulk busting form, equipped with a multi-layered Umbral helmet, I telepathically joke, “Where I’m going, you shall not pass, but I’m hoping I pass through. I’m going to hope that Leviathan has an actual digestive system and a butt. If not, I’ll do my best to blow a hole in his rear and join you as soon as I can.”

Te tries to stifle her laughter, “You’re wearing the skin of some giant bug as armor, and you’re going to try to get pooted out by a god? Only you my wonderpunk, only you. Fine, but only so that I get to let you never live this down. And you are going to live for me to make fun of you! Got that?”

I don’t have to hide my smile that’s covered by several layers as I begin rocketing off into Leviathan’s internals. I’m trusting Teuila to use whatever power she hinted at, to follow her arrow out through Leviathan’s brain and ears canals or something.

There’s a whole world in here, well, a fraction of one. I have a limited time that I can sustain this form without siphoning heat as mana from my surroundings, but even what I’m able to siphon through the air won’t let me wear this form indefinitely, plus the energy I siphon will be expended creating my rocket thrust with thermokinesis. I have to hurry, thankfully this exoskeleton can withstand my fastest JT propulsion velocity. But even using JT propulsion and rocket thrusting, it could take dozens of minutes to make it out of here. My mana won’t last more than three or four in this form if I’m trying to keep its alien impulses at bay. If I don’t have enough mana to suppress whatever alien parasitic symbiotic nerve signals or cells are trying to combine with my own, I don’t know what will happen. I really don’t want to find out.

Uh oh. Even though this exoskeleton can withstand the forces needed to propel me at mach speeds, and is immune to acid, it apparently isn’t immune to the environment within a godling. The moisture within is corroding my exoskeletal form. Not good. I still have the king’s exoskeleton, it should be even hardier than this form. But I don’t want to switch to it unless absolutely necessary. It drains my mana even faster to fight off whatever it tries to do within my body. Maybe I should just send a message back in time to not seek out Leviathan. Though I do think we succeeded in buying a few more days, maybe weeks or months, before the convergence, I don’t want to die before trying every last thing to prevent it entirely.

Everything is beginning to hurt as Leviathan’s internals try to make my internals my externals, by melting away my externals. I side-eye myself at that particular inner narrative sentence. It sounded very ‘please allow myself to introduce myself.’ Ugh, this is no time to get distracted. At least Leviathan has a gut structure, but it’s unlike any I’ve ever seen. Which I guess is accurate, as I’ve never seen any guts before now, except some weird viscera that dropped as loot from certain creatures we’ve slain.

I’m getting too low on mana, and I’m nowhere near an exit. I’m going to have to either risk letting the mite form change me somehow, or risk meditating somewhere in my base form. Either one won’t last much longer anyway, my base form is nowhere near as strong as this one, and this one is already almost spent. My exoskeleton is pitted, scarred, caved in in places. My tender flesh beneath the exoskeletal suit is suffering what feels like a constant chemical burn. Well, that’s sort of exactly what it is. The vapor in the air in here seems to be pure acid.

I wonder if my original spherical vehicle would last long enough to recover a full pool of mana. I jet myself towards some tissue up ahead that looks like nested webbing, and I drop to my base form as I begin to summon my sphere around myself. The sphere crashes into the webbing which acts like an airbag, slowing its velocity and reducing its impact. I exhale a quick but smooth breath as I scrub some of the carbon out of my own air supply. I end up accidentally gasping for breath as I begin trying to meditate.

My nervousness about my current predicament slows my meditation somewhat, but I’m still at least able to recuperate nearly all my mana. I once thought of my Umbral duplicates as invulnerable. They aren’t, as is evidenced by the fact that what once was a spherical vehicle for me has now disintegrated around me just as I’m topping off my mana. My real flesh begins to suffer burns this time, the pain is excruciating as welts form up and down my limbs.

I retreat into accelerated thinkspace to try to decide my course of action. I need to transform into the king mite-hulk stage to even stand a chance of getting out of here. Even with that transformation, it’s going to take more than a minute to find my way out, and I’m burning through mana just jetting around using thermokinesis for rocket propulsion on top of my JT movements. My mana pool would last maybe fifteen seconds, thirty if I’m lucky. I can’t afford to try to rest every quarter of a minute.

At this point, the lesser mite-hulk exoskeleton is almost completely disintegrated. My soft flesh beneath is entirely exposed. Alright, I’ll have to abandon that form. But how do I handle the king-mite-hulk’s exoskeleton? I can’t afford the electrokinesis to fight back whatever strange alien impulses and cellular activity is going to go on. Not if I want to survive. I couldn’t even make it back to Leviathan’s mouth at this point with this amount of mana. Should I send myself back in time? I don’t feel defeated yet. Will I still have control of my senses?

There’s a problem. If I lose control of myself to whatever is within the king exoskeleton, I won’t be able to reset time to stop myself from making that mistake. Crap, it’s now or never, reset time, or wear the king exoskeleton. Which one? If it takes me over, will I still love Teuila? Will I be myself, or ever see her again?

“You can still be you. Never lose yourself, never give yourself up, or give up on yourself.”

Future-me? Is that you? Those were fairly kind and inspiring words. Thank you. I’m sorry that I thought you were nothing but cold, cruel, and calculating. Anything else to add? No response, huh? Oh well, thank you regardless. Mite-hulk king exoskeletal armor it is then. Unless that’s a future-me controlled by the alien impulses of the exoskeleton. Awe heck, that’s a terrifying thought. Okay, okay, get it together. I can’t afford decision-paralysis. I’ll have to trust future-me.

I exit accelerated thinkspace and swap forms to my larger exoskeleton. Immediately my heart and mind struggle against a vicious cellular invasion. It feels as if a mildly acidic viscous sticky sludge is crawling about my insides and sending out pulses of electricity carried by spike-coated cells along my nervous system. If normal cells, such as my own, have a plasma membrane, the cells invading my body have a hardened spiky tar, almost an exoskeleton of their own.

I continue my sonic flight through Leviathan’s innards. It’s odd, once I passed the esophagus, there was this feeling of entering an entirely new location. I’d thought on several occasions that consuming food seems like it simply teleports the food away to some transdimensional stomach out there beyond the universe. As if it were simply being moved to our inventories, rather than actually eaten. This somehow feels like that, yet I’m traveling through what are essentially familiar biological structures from my fakeworld memories. I know that there’s a misconception about intestines being able to be miles long, but for Leviathan, they actually are miles long. I had to actually blast through an area where Leviathan’s stomach acid had created chyme, an acidic paste. I occasionally have to swim through the paste to continue moving through the intestines. Thankfully, the greater exoskeleton seems to be weathering the acid almost perfectly. At least I can’t sense any damage being done, though my senses are slightly overwhelmed by the alien nerve pulses and cells running rampant.

A reverberating, smoky, slimy voice with an underlying confidence asks, “What’s your name?”

I nearly vomit into my multi-layered helmet as this voice speaks to me like an undulating pond of muck. The voice is definitely not one of mine. My stomach invents a new acrobatics routine at each syllable uttered into my mind.

The voice reiterates, “I said, what’s your name, little girl?”

Though I’m mildly sickened, I’m now more irritated as I respond, “I’m neither little, nor a girl. My name’s Reggie, who the hell are you?”

The voice mockingly retorts, “Well hello mister fancy pants. You can call me The King.”

At this point, I know I’m being egged on, and I feel less threatened as I deny its request, “I’m not calling you that. I’m more likely to call you Bruce than The King. At the very least, I’m not saying ‘hey, The King, cool it.’”

Indignantly the voice chimes, “Okay, alright, alright, we can drop the ‘The.’ Just call me King. After all, that’s what your name means more or less, right? Regicide, Regina, regime, region, it all means some kind of ruling or ruler, one way or another. So, one ruler to another, I have a question. What in the salted earth are we doing in some worm’s food canal?!”

Despite the sickening roil of the voice as it cascades around my brain, I can’t help myself as I burst into a brief bit of laughter. I can feel King trying to worm his way into my neurons, trying to eke out a permanent spot amidst my psyche. But I’m confident, due to my note from my future self, that I can hold him back without spending mana to do so.

I tell the voice, “At the moment? We’re trying to survive. If we make it out in the end, I might have more energy to answer you.”

King hassles me in return, “Other than the poor choice of words, we’ll be fine in the end. What’s the wo–”

I interrupt, “I swear to all that is holy and hellish that if you finish that question I will rewind time and eject you from my body down into Leviathan’s open gullet from above.”

King gulps, “You can do that?”

I’m not certain, but I’m not telling him that. The intrusiveness of his parasitic cells and nerve impulses die down as he recoils slightly. I think he’s trying to determine whether or not he can overwhelm my psyche all at once or not, rather than risking annoying me further while trying to gain control. Dangerous bedfellows we make. I’m not sure if I can ever risk using this form again unless I massively reduce my internal electrokinesis cost, or find an unlimited wellspring of mana that doesn’t burn me apart from the inside to use en masse.

King’s burbling voice tentatively asks, “What’s the plan?”

I figure that’s an innocent enough question to answer, “For now, keep flying, digging, swimming as need-be. If there’s no back door, we make one ourselves.”

King replies with emphasis in his sickening voice, “Groovy.”

I barely stifle my chuckle. I could swear his personality is ripped straight from campy horror movies from fakeworld. But his essence is more like something from gritty grimdark comics from that world. An alien, parasitic, symbiotic entity that’s in a constant struggle for dominance and control over the body it resides in. I’ve bought myself some relaxation time with my vague threat earlier, and unnerved him by not answering about the threat. I can’t afford to let my guard down though. I don’t know if he can redouble his efforts in a massive incursion into my thoughts and mind that might take me over in an instant. Staying vigilant around him is taking up most of my concentration.

Whatever gut flora and fauna that might exist in fakeworld, thankfully our reality is quite different. This is no twenty thousand leagues of incredible journeying microscopically into someone’s insides where they’re attacked by giant eukaryotic cells. I’m exceedingly grateful for that. If microscopic things were multiplied in scale to the mass of Leviathan, each cell would be monstrously sized, something like sixteen feet in length.

My mana reserves are getting low, and we’ve finally made it through the small intestines. I’d better meditate quickly, neither King nor I want to get caught in the colon while out of mana. At least I assume so. I’m not even going to bother to ask though. I’m grateful that Leviathan doesn’t seem to be able to smell his own insides, or have wide scanning telepathy. If he simply spoke into my brain long enough, I’d just die of drowning.

I hazard an uneasy alliance, “King, do you feel like you can handle firing one claw pistol ahead and breaking through anything clumped ahead of us while I work on propulsion?”

King replies, “If you relinquish control of that arm, I could handle that, yes.”

I nod, agreeing to his terms, and I feel his cells receding into my left arm. The impulses and nerve signals from King die down, but so does all sensation from my left arm. It feels, for all intents and purposes, as if I no longer have that limb attached to my body at all. Dangerous bedfellows indeed. We make good time as we approach the various sphincters of the rectum, still unsure if rezzers have even the slightest rear exit. I’ve never had to use one, nor have any of my family, but it’s not like I ever closely inspected that area. That’s just weird.

Sadly as I feared, there is a dead end, a scaled wall of flesh where an anus should be. I’d like control of my left arm back to focus my spells.

I request, “King, I’m going to need my arm back to get us out of here.”

His response annoys me, “No can do little fella.”

I’m neither little, nor a fella, and I want my arm back. I could risk changing back to my base form, but I’m literally wading in, ugh, waste matter. I tap the scaly flesh wall and my danger wrap equipped to the softer body inside my exoskeleton susses out its weakest point.

I relent, slightly, “Fine, then I’m going to need you to work with me. You see where I’m aiming? I need you to aim at the same spot. I’m going to create a steam explosion right there by combining lightning, fire, and ice.”

King seems jazzed as his twisted burble of a voice calls into my mind excitedly, “Now that’s what I’m talking about!”

I draw as much moisture to the weakest point as I can with thermokinesis, and I freeze it in place after using electrolysis to separate some of the oxygen and hydrogen. I then work at conjuring three simultaneous spells spiraling around one another, a lance of frost, a beam of fire, and a bolt of lightning. King seems to be able to sense my attack forming, and prepares my left arm to do something. I’m not quite sure what.

King asks, “If I help get us through this, do I get anything? A little sugar to sweeten our relationship? A few more inches? Maybe some brain stem?”

Ugh, I ignore King and his pulsating wave of a voice. As my triple spell spirals outwards towards its target, I sense a growing power in my left arm. My spell detonates how I’m hoping, and blows the smallest hole in Leviathan’s hide. The bad news is, it begins sealing immediately. The worse news is, I can’t fight forward against the blowback of my own attack to reach it in time. The good news is, King’s attack goes off. The pistol claw snaps, firing intangible essence, and it’s like he slices a narrow path in the blast wave, reflecting a portion of it back into the wound, pausing its sealing momentarily, and freeing us up to move forward.

King once again calls out, “Now that’s what I’m talking about!” His voice, a bubbling pustule, then adds, “Who else wants some?! Come get some! None of you primitives have anything to say? That’s right, nobody wants nothing. Hail to the king baby! Now you, Reggie, gimme some sugar.”

Ugh, and we’re done here, I’ll risk getting to the surface of the maelstrom on my own. I realize he wasn’t asking about romantic affection, but rather more control over my body while we shared that form. I’m not sure which idea grosses me out more however. I reset to draconic Reggie form, and do my best to launch skyward out of the swirling sea. The Hallowed Maelstrom itself is dying down as Leviathan swims opposite its current rotation. Hopefully my scent won’t reach him beneath the waves. I fracture my legs as I risk accelerating to near sonic speeds without the protection of the mite-hulk forms. Ow, at least it’s just a fracture, or several. I can heal that in a few days.

After barely a minute, I’m approaching the areas of thinnest breathable air. I begin to panic as I don’t see Teuila anywhere. I suppose I didn’t take into account that Leviathan was going to be moving and spinning, and that we were going to be leaving Leviathan from miles apart. Crap. Te could be stranded up here, waiting for me to find her, running out of air. She’d have a hard time getting any horizontal velocity to head back towards home. She could purposely drop down to sea level, and leap off of Leviathan again, or maybe drop down to the sea itself, set her gravity coefficient to zero, and possibly leap off of the water. It wouldn’t provide as much purchase, or thrust, since the third law of motion’s reaction would mostly be the water moving away from her feet.

Really future me? We lived through that, and I didn’t think to tell myself how to find Teuila, somewhere up to miles away in the sky? Oh wait, tracking something up to miles away in the sky. I have something that’s perfect for that. I withdraw some of the aura-vision-enhancement toxin, and apply it to my eyes as I soar quick spirals above the Maelstrom.

Frustrated when I still don’t find Teuila, I dive down a ways to see if I can pick up her original aura trail. As I’m flying around, I’m constantly sending out love and affection across our telepathic wavelength, hoping Teuila is able to respond. Her stats page is fine, so she’s alive, and not suffering anything weird, but it’s annoying not being able to find her.

Wait, what’s that? There’s a beautiful burst of colors coming from a cloudbank. It’s mostly a vivid deep sapphire with hints of frosty azure. The faintest striations of crimson and verdant lines adorn this swathe of colorful energy, those would be the touches of Lil’s and my souls. Is she literally napping on a cloud? Te you butt, I was worried about you.

Still, it was quite an adventure, and we’ve bought ourselves more time. It’s not a win, it’s a failure, yet again, but at least it wasn’t a costly failure. We’ve learned more information than we had when we originally set out, and probably have at least as much time as we had when we originally left Can’Z’aas.

I gaze towards my Teuila sleeping atop a bed of clouds and can’t help smiling. Even though I can only see her as a brilliant splash of aura, I can sense my beloved Wings in other fashions. She seems so peaceful as she rests. I have no idea how exhausting her archery tether might have been for her, or what method she used to escape. I suppose I can let her sleep. She literally weighs nothing as I scoop her into my arms. She drops her Valkyrie form as she snuggles into my embrace, still sleeping. Her gravity increases slightly, but she’s still basically as light as a feather.

I’m not sure I want to risk breaking my legs further, or breaking a sphere vehicle by using enough JT force to hit near sonic speeds, so this will be a slower flight back to the coast. If Teuila were awake, her reducing our drag and gravity would mean I could use less JT force and gain more velocity without nearly as much impact. Traveling with Te is similar to traveling with Lil being in Lilagnewt form. With Lil, I can afford to JT strike with more force, due to Lil’s distribution of mass, and achieve high velocities that way without hurting them. With Teuila, the same or less force gets me the higher velocities due to our lower mass.

I wonder if I could just straight up fly if I fully unlocked telekinesis. If so, how fast would it be? Would it be a slower, hovering float? Would it feel like wrapping myself in a massive invisible hand and dragging myself around with my mind? I guess there’s no use speculating. About the only person I know who could even possibly help me safely raise my psi resistance is in a coma. Even Dehlia never attacked me psychically, so I’m not sure if she had any power to do so. Actually I’m sure Tenny would be willing to talk into my brain at length, but I’d probably die long before I gained enough psi resist to unlock telekinesis or psychokinesis. Plus, she’s fated to join the convergence and wipe our slate clean. I’m not going to have time between now and the end to go have a friendly chat with the goddess of the sky, much less, a long enough mentally straining chat to earn a thousand psi resistance.

Back there, huh, I could have sworn I saw a bunch of auras incredibly far away. It was like a large group of people on several vessels, like ships or boats, but the ships would have to have been enormous to reach as high off the water as I thought I saw them. Maybe I’m just hallucinating things again. It’s either that, or there’s a small fleet of ships sailing the skies around our continent. I doubt it’s the latter. I feel like Tenny or the Roc, or someone would object to vessels hanging around in the skies. Maybe it was a couple of large sky whales or something, or, again, a hallucination.

We’ll make camp inland, in one of our dugouts in the swamp. After resting, Teuila will have to show me the dungeon she found in the eastern area of her surveying sweep. I’m almost positive that that’s the location where we’ll find Maka-Akari’s head. Sadly I think we’re going to have to break the third barrier. I’m not sure what effect that will have on our world, if any, but I really didn’t want to have to find out.

Te rouses as I’m landing us near a dugout, “Yawn, hey sweetypootz. Did you get to the bottom of the Leviathan situation? You look a little flushed. Did you join Luni in becoming a bard? I bet you had to create an epic movement to do your duty in escaping. Did you make sure to log the whole thing? If TQ was grading you, do you think you’d be passing?”

I burst into laughter and tackle Teuila into the dugout, sealing it behind us. We roll around trading pins and holds for a while.

I ask, “You’re really never going to let me live it down are you? You’re at least as bad as Agwai. Is this what I have to look forward to when we grow old together?”

She cheekily replies, “Yep!” We both chuckle at her brazen reply, forgetting for a time that growing old together might not be on the table.

I kiss her happily, laughing all the while, “Haha, I’m perfectly fine with that. Better than fine, I’m glad that’s the case. I love you Te.”

Teuila slugs me playfully, gently in the shoulder, clocks me softly on the noggin, and gingerly swats my face. We settle in, our limbs entangled, as we try to ignore how harrowing our circumstances are. We still have each other, we still have time. We’re still in love and happy to be alive. Tomorrow we set out for Maka-Akari, Gaea’s Cradle.