Chapter 66 – The Infinite Onion Theory

She caught glimpses of prediction dots warping around the invisible collider, but she couldn’t spare any milliseconds to see the full effect. Something was going to happen to that damned worm, and she hoped it would at least turn off its UFO tractor beam. 

Three. 

Darya jerked her hand away from the gauntlet, moving it fast enough to phase through. Looking straight up, she targeted Nerima again. 

[Vainfall: Frame Selected Entity]

She had to count the last half second on the way. The world flickered at the edges before she even arrived. 

This is the last Terminate. Well, I’m fucked. No time for telescopes!

She turned immediately to the whale above Nerima. There was a bigger whale there now alongside it. Lurim had sent it there to pull the rope harder.

She left the rest up to her instincts. Go up. Somehow. As far as possible. 

[Vainfall: Frame Selected Entity]

The first second had to be over by now. The counting wasn’t even going to be accurate. 

Two. Lurim. 

Appearing under the whale, she turned to the right. 

She could see the bright mana pulse of the frozen whale. It was a tiny circle, but she already knew it without using the telescope. 

[Vainfall: Frame Selected Entity]

Three. 

She looked up. Only half a second left. She wasn’t sure how much air she had in her lungs. Enough to last a few seconds at best, but she didn’t know what effect this exact depth would have on her body. Was she even going to survive the first split second? 

At the very least, I should be weightless. 

[Flying Celestian]

Darya pulled both hands to her face as the monochrome world faded. She sealed her nose and mouth.

When the world caught up to the prediction dots, she felt everything at once. It was a split second, but she felt as if she got stabbed from all directions.

The corners of her vision darkened immediately. She saw the whale turn towards the explosion of bubbles, and Lurim circling behind it. 

Darkness. 

Did I just fucking die?

It was a long while before she had another thought. At least that’s what it felt like when she finally had it. 

It was the strangest way she had ever woken up. It actually felt like she was suspended in jelly. Thinking in this state was a recently unlocked ability. She felt as if a hundred years had passed. She had no idea why. 

Where the hell am I?

There was no way to answer this question. She had felt exactly like this at the very start when she was resurrected as Darya Altazark. Back then, she had been able to perceive some blurry shapes and lights. This time, she was truly in the void. 

It didn’t feel like the /dev space either. That at least had the basic representation of space. It was a place. This was nowhere. 

“Hello?” 

Nothing. Only the void. She didn’t hear her own voice either. She wasn’t sure if she even had a mouth. 

“Well, shit. Now what?”

That was a scarier question than she thought. She was a consciousness trapped in a void. What if it didn’t end? What if this was death? Just thoughts in nothingness for an indeterminate amount of time. Thoughts, and boredom. 

She wondered what would happen next. How long before she went insane? Would she even go insane? What would she be thinking about that could last forever? 

What would she dream about? How to kill time when time was unlimited. 

Perhaps she could just dream. Endless, increasingly elaborate hallucination. She could give infinite attention to everything. Wait. Maybe that was how everything worked. Maybe that was God, and she had always been a figment of his imagination. Now she could dream her own figments.

Maybe one of those figments would also work on her universe’s equivalent of a VRMMO; she could end up terminally afflicted (if that existed in her universe), she could die at thirty. (in her own interpretation of time), and…

She could already see it all happening.

It was figments of imagination all the way down.

Really, it was just layers of an infinite onion. Earths inside Vainfalls inside Earths and Vainfalls. 

In conclusion, she had a profound realization. She actually said it out loud. 

“I’m so fucking high. What kind of shroom did I eat?”

Something flared brightly in the void as she finished saying it. Two shapes sprang into existence. Two colossal eyes. She felt as if she was less than an ant. 

→ [You interrupted my sleep. What are you doing here, Strum?]

She stared at the colossal eyes and the letters that flashed across them. She was unsure why she was petrified. Was it fear or confusion?. Either way, she really had no idea what to say. 

The text was familiar. She remembered that ghost she met on the giant shipwreck island. This was the same way it talked to her back then. This didn’t ‘sound’ like that ghost at all. This ‘voice’ was more flowery. Feminine. 

“I just woke up here. I think I died or something. Uh, Nice to meet you, God?”

→ [What have you done this time…]

The voice trailed off. It didn’t sound too pleased with her at all. It returned before she could open her non-existent mouth again. 

→ [I see, that’s why. Well, at least it’s different this time.]

“Uh, what?” 

→ [It is unusual for you to appear in my Endworld. You’ve never believed in any God.]

“Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?” 

→ [It is a funny thing, considering you were there when Vainfall’s Gods were concepted.]

“Do I know you?” 

→ [Irrelevant. You may leave. I have no use for your Outworlder soul.] 

The void flickered gray around her. She saw the horizon line. It looked like the /dev space. The colossal eyes closed into slits. 

“Wait, which God are you?!” 

→ [You have my dagger.]

Darya gasped. It all finally clicked. The sacrificial dagger that she stole on the Ferry. The ghosts only appeared after she began using it. She remembered Fominel delivering it back to her after she broke the handle. He had told her some ‘mana ghost’ wanted her to have it back. Next, the ghost that she saw on the beach when she was alone. It had something to do with the Eternal Demoness. 

She could think about it later. Now she was eager to know where she was. 

What if I’m still underwater? Well, only one way to find out. 

[/close]

She woke up. It was dark. She couldn’t tell where she was, but it sure as hell didn’t look or feel like underwater. She was lying on her back somewhere. It took a while for her eyes and ears to adjust. 

First, she saw a blurry luminous blob moving everywhere. It was really close to her. She could feel its movements on her neck, chin, and collarbone. 

Sound became clearer. It was familiar. The gentle sound of creaking wood. She was lying on a bed—her bed, in the princess room of her princess yacht. 

She opened her mouth, trying to raise her hand. She couldn’t move any of her limbs. They felt heavy, as if they were made of iron. Something heavy lay across her. 

Seris? 

She couldn’t see anything. That wasn’t the only weight pinning her down. Something was on her waist. Another was on her shoulder. 

The blurry luminous blob appeared right in front of her. She felt gentle tickles on her nose. Darya felt a sneeze coming. She inhaled. 

“AchoO!” 

Something flew off her face. A piece of cloth, or some membrane. Now it made sense why she couldn’t see anything. 

Her sneeze also sent something else flying. The glowing ball was floating high above. 

“Enta!” 

“Eek!” the baby wisp said, wiggling itself back towards her. He landed on her face and glued himself to her cheek. 

One of the weights on her shifted with a mumble. She heard clattering and fumbling. A light fell on her face. 

Seris’s green eyes stared at her behind her. Her small mouth fell open. “Princess, oh thank Gods!”

The lamp flew off her hands. Darya was immediately smothered and pushed deep into the soft sheets.  She would’ve hugged her back if any of her limbs could move. 

She let Seris fuss all over her, squeezing her like a toothpaste tube. 

“Guess I didn’t die then…?” Darya said meekly as Seris nuzzled her face, planting kisses all over the side Enta wasn’t covering. 

She heard other mumbles in the dark. More weights shifted. She saw two glowing balls over Seris’s shoulder. There was no sound. 

Lurim landed on her as if he fell through the ceiling. He buried his face on her chest, clinging onto dear life like a koala on a falling tree. 

“Mother Goddess, I feared the worst!” Darya heard Sarka’s voice somewhere in the dark.  

The heaviest weight lifted off the bed, creaking all the floorboards. Darya barely had the time to see iridescent scales reflecting light off the lamp. She saw ribs, gills, and a belly button. 

“It worked!” Darya laughed. She had saved Nerima. 

The mermaid fell across her, wrapping her thin arms around her neck. Darya was buried in a mess of her long dark green hair. She was unusually dry for a mermaid, and she smelled like flowers. 

The rest was a bunch of incoherent whispers, sobs, and laughs. It all reduced to sighs of relief that tickled her. Now it seemed as if everyone went back to sleep while hugging her. 

Suddenly, she heard footsteps on wood. The door opened with a loud creak. 

“Wh-what was that noise?! Is everything alright?!” 

It was Fominel. 

“I’m down here,” She said, her voice muffled under all the bodies lying on her. 

“Swordsman! The princess is back!” 

She heard heavy thumps, falling chairs, and creaking boards before another heavy weight fell on her. 

“Uff! Not you too, Fom…” Darya grunted.