I was sure I had heard that term somewhere in the past. I just couldn't put my finger on it. 

The Maw. 

It filled me with a very certain type of dread, icy and piercing. 

"What is… The Maw," I asked, the words sounded rotten and dangerous as I said them. 

Silence again, as if the entity that had styled itself as a goddess was choosing the best possible way to proceed in the conversation. 

"The Maw, in the simplest way that you can understand, is a being that has hijacked the multiverse at large," The Goddess began explaining. "It sits below all of creation in a dimension of its own creation, a dimension that acts like a magnet, drawing souls down into its depths." 

That much I had known. It hadn't taken many leaps of logic to understand that the motes of light were in fact the dearly departed souls drifting through the darkness. 

"When the souls arrive in that dimension, Reapers do their work sifting good souls from bad. Souls that would feed energy to The Maw, and souls that haven't had enough positive experiences to merit them. Those that are like you get reincarnated in new worlds, in positions where they are predisposed to have grand adventures saving many people." 

The voice stopped again as if weighing up its next words very carefully. 

"What happens to the others? The ones who have lived fulfilling lives? What does the Maw do to them?" I asked, becoming more frantic as the silence pressed on. 

"The Maw devours them. Absorbs the energy generated by the experiences that they have lived. Any who are devoured in this way become one with The Maw. An unnatural final death for what should be an immortal and immaterial soul," The goddess said, becoming angrier and angrier with every word. 

My stomach churned and twisted. It was despicable. It was terrible. 

"Is that… They're planning on doing that to me, aren't they?" I said in stark realisation. 

"Yes," The Goddess said simply, "they are." 

My mind felt like it was splitting open at the seams. I wasn't meant to have this knowledge. No one was. If anything, I just wanted her to take away the facts she had bestowed upon me, make it as I'd never even heard them.

But then, a thought came to me. 

"If the Maw consumes souls like this," I said, my stomach threatening to spew its contents as I navigated my way around the impossible truth, "Then why are they sending legions of Null Space Invaders into this Universe? What's the point in that?" 

"Heroes are much tastier than ordinary people, and much more substantial too. In universes where people are strong enough to fight against them, the Reapers unleash the hordes to generate scenarios in which heroes can be forged. This is one such universe," The Goddess said. 

It made a startling amount of sense. If The Maw was powered by the energy generated by a fulfilling life, what could possibly be more fulfilling than saving entire worlds, entire universes? Nothing. That's what. 

I was being played like a pawn. 

"And thus, all of that brings us back around to you," The voice of the Goddess continued. "I am giving you a major boost in power, Jacob Lyre. Unlocking your potential, so to speak, so that you may soar even higher than the lofty energy that the Reapers bestowed upon you." 

The white space that I stood in glowed even brighter, so much so that I had to hide my face in the crook of my elbow. 

[Blessing received: Touch of A Goddess]

[Thanks to the 'Touch of A Goddess' blessing, you will now deal an additional 25% damage to any and all Chasm based creatures that you encounter in your lifetime. Additionally, your overall internal energy stores have been doubled, as has your XP gain.]

That was… a lot. Not only had she doubled the amount of XP I would get from every mission and combat encounter, but she had also doubled my level cap so that I could end up utilising even more energy than before.

I'd gone from having the manna equivalent of an exploding star to the equivalent of two exploding stars, though whether that would be enough to deal with a being that had been absorbing the souls of the dead for who knows how long I had no idea. 

"So… now what do I do?" I asked. "After arriving at Actaeon, am I meant to go out hunting Null Space Invaders? Should I be aiming for the Maw already?" 

The tone had clearly shifted with that question because the Goddess gave off another peal of laughter. 

"Go after the Maw now? Darling that thing would snap you up in an instant. No. Right now you play the game you've been playing, you go around finishing your quests and gaining as much experience as possible. You'll need it all for the battle to come." 

And with that… 

XxX

I woke with a start, covered in sweat and tangled in the covers of the bed. 

<Well, that was distinctly unpleasant,> BB said, sounding as groggy as I felt. <It was like your brain had just switched off. All the lower functions were still plodding along, but the bits that made you… you… were gone. What happened?>

What had happened? 

Well, I'd met a being that had claimed itself to be the Goddess of the entire universe for a start. I'd also learnt that the Maw was not the benevolent creature that the Reapers had made it out to be, which honestly was a twist that I probably should have seen coming in retrospect. 

I'd also learnt that the Goddess seemed to be grooming me for the position of saving not just the universe, but the entire multiverse. So that was fun. 

<Well, I've said it before, but you certainly don't do things by halves, do you, Jacob?> BB said with a sigh. 

Without further ado, I disentangled myself from my covers and made for the shower. 

I had a multiverse to save.