《Of Deities and Dimensions》16. The man at the center
Advertisement
A sealed portal in a corrupted dimension. And a very well hidden one at that. If not for the insane luck of one of his high-tier minions, it would have remained undiscovered in an empty void forever. On the other side, Ulgroth was sure to have hidden something interesting.
Akmadouric sat on his analytical chariot and typed a few commands into the armrest. The swirling black circle in front of him reversed it's rotations for a second then went back to it's original form.
"So much for the easy way." he hated it when machines failed. Intelligent beings capable of using willpower energy always yeilded better results.
Drawing upon his massive reserves of willpower energy, he bent the universe around him according to his own will, and purified the portal of it's corruption. It slowly undarkened until it became white. Then the energy that was naturally exerted from his body changed the portal's color to blue. Making the passageway safe for travel.
After typing a few commands, a stream of probes inhabiting many planes of existence launched from his chariot and entered the portal. Once on the other side, every single one of them were almost instantly destroyed. Akmadouric frowned, in order for that to happen, the dimension on the other side had to be one that contained a great force of some kind.
According to the data that came back. The molecules that made up the probes had been pushed into a single direction with such force that their bonds ripped apart. Which meant that they had been subjected to intense gravity which could have only been produced when all of the matter of a universe had been gathered into a single place.
Akmadouric stood up from his analytical chariot, causing it to automatically summon itself back to one of his sanctum dimensions. And with a few skill activations, he summoned a breach sphere.
Made for incursions into dimensions that contained extreme forces of physics or bolstered defenses. The breach sphere had multiple layers of the hardest and densist alloys from multiple dimensions. Upon exiting the portal it was sure that some of them would fail to materialize due to not being compatible with the breached dimension's physics.
Advertisement
It opened and he went inside, immediately an anti-ballistic gel filled the chamber. Providing a cushion for Akmadouric when the geforces got too high.
Knowing that it was safe enough to proceed, Akmadouric clad himself and the breach sphere with an anti-gravity field in order to resist the effects. It was well within his abilities to make himself completely immune to all types of gravitational particles, but there was a far more economical method available. First he checked how much matter the ten foot by eight foot portal could transfer through at once. Then he summoned a gas giant behind himself, with as much gravity as a miniature sun.
Hesitating for just a moment, he maneuvered the sphere into the low orbit of the gas giant and moved the huge planetoid towards the portal with as little momentum as possible. It's atmosphere entered the event horizen of the portal and the speed of the planet began multiply several times per second. Space bent and compressed the planet into the passageway to another dimension. The momentum increased exponentially by the millisecond and he passed through to the other side almost instantly.
Akmadouric fell through the gas giant as he and everything he brought with him accelerated towards the super massive corrupted black hole. Frantically he delved into the universal code to gain some dominion over the dimension. The thrusters on the breach sphere fired and propeled him away from the black hole. But after a minute the gas giant approached light speed. He exited out the other side of the enormous planet just before it reached it's maximum momentum possible of 99.9999% of the speed of light. Exotic particles erupted from the gas giant, each with their own individual effect. Chaotic spikes of energy caused a multitude of reactions to make a lightshow that included every color.
He looked through the corrupted universe's code and found what he was looking for. Then used his willpower energy to gain a small amount of dominion over the dimension. The localized space around him became immune to the gravitational effects of the black hole and his momentum came to a halt.
Advertisement
With the dangerous phase over, he exited the breach sphere and went back to the code. Liesurely looking through it in order to find the most cost efficient method for taking control over the universe. After searching for hours he spent almost one million points of willpower energy to gain the dominion he had sought. He looked through the corrupted universe for several days, but only couldn't find whatever Ulgroth wanted to be kept hidden, there was only the black hole at the center. Finally he had had enough, and commenced with the purification process, turning the entire dimension into yet another void.
Just as Akmadouric was about to leave he noticed a peculiarity. A tiny piece of matter floating in the nothingness. He tried summoning it, only to find that the ability had failed. In all his years, that had never happened. With his interest piqued, he teleported himself to it instead and was shocked to find that it was a humanoid, and from his location he had been at the center of that compacted mass of matter.
"How could you have survived in this universe, when even a deity like myself couldn't do something so incredible?" he held the ten foot tall man in the palm of his hand. He had pale white skin and black shaggy hair that was twenty yards long. His bright violet pupils showed no reaction whatsoever to Akmadouric's giant face looming above him.
Using his universal translation skill he said "Who are you?" but got no response from the man.
Akmadouric began to scan the man with every type of sensory device he had knowledge of. After he got through the first thousand methods and retrieving no data on the man, he started using the more harmful methods. Some of which included radiation. Yet still nothing penetrated the man's skin.
"You couldn't be..." his hypothesis was highly improbable. In fact the odds of him actually finding such a being was literally one over infinity. But he had to be sure. He placed his hands over one another and the intense heat of a sun erupted between them, but it had no effect. The giant deity struck the man with a gray anti-life bolt, and still there was no reaction. He accelerated time in a localized field around the man but he did not age at all. After a hundred different types of attacks he stopped.
"You...you're the invulnerable one? Aren't you?" it was the only explanation for how this man had survived with the entire weight of a universe pressing down on him from every direction. But the question is: How did such a treasure get to this current unresponsive state?
The answer was simple; a complete cut off of all outside stimuli combined with a great span of time. To lose sight, sound, taste, smell and touch. Although the man is and forever will be invulnerable to any kind of external harm, his mind still required a constant stream of information, just as a machine requires maintenance. Enforced prolonged sensory deprivation, the most extreme form of solitary confinement.
Losing his mind would have been slow. After weeks he would have created his own inner world but even that mental defense would have been limited by his own creativity. After years, he would have forgotten what it was like to have a body. After eons, there wasn't a single thought left in his mind.
Akmadouric left the newest void dimension with the ragdoll in his hand, or livng corpse as some would come to call him. Traversing through a series of portals to get to one of his inner sanctum dimension's. And left the man on a world made entirely of diamonds orbitting a green sun.
Maybe one day, over another great span of time, the invulnerable man would once again regain a concsiousness.
Advertisement
- In Serial158 Chapters
Nero Zero
Monsters plagued the lands for too long. No matter if one had fangs, beak, teeth, skin, fur, or feather, or was tall, stout, or diminutive, the people suffered. Until the Gadgeteers came with a device that could allow people to fight back. Powered by one's own magical power, feeding off of monster Essence, the Arbitrium bracer turned the tables. It also changed society. Strength of one's level cap was all that mattered. The strongest were Kings and Emperors. The weak or those too poor to afford the marvelous device, destitute. And so it has been for millennia. All that mattered was one's level cap. High, low, a fate decided the moment the strange contraption came alive. Too high and you were a threat to those interested in keeping the status quo, a weed to be nipped before it could grow and take root. Too low and you were nobody, fated to be a bit more than a simple farmer. What if someone, somewhere, came up with a zero for their level cap? Unable to use Essence, unable to level up. On all of recorded history, it never happened. Until it did. In a small village of fur-less and tail-less ape-beastkin, a boy found out he was uniquely handicapped. Nero's level cap was Zero. But he'd never let that stop him from reaching his goals. ------------------------------------------------ All stories have already been told. We merely reuse elements from them. From Joseph Campbell's Monomith to Stephen King's advice, and that encyclopedia of tropes you've visited, fiction has been dissected and reassembled countless times. One will surely find elements inspired on other works here. Just like cooking from basic ingredients, the recipe and presentation is what really matter. This is a fantasy adventure, of someone that goes from a zero to a slightly bigger zero. It will have romance but no harem. Cruelty but with hope dimly shining ahead. Lightweight where it can be, heavy where it must. Thanks for reading. Cover Credits (The cover is CC-BY-NC-SA): Steampunk Spider Bracer, by Daniel Proulx. CC-BY-NC-SA Picture Frame, @anaterate, Pixabay license. Some odds and bits from here and there.
8 262 - In Serial42 Chapters
The Tempestatem
When Gale Storm is murdered, death brings with it an unexpected ticket to the fantastical world of Mioverold - a place rife with dangerous creatures and political conflict. While the adversaries may be driven by common goals, they have vastly different approaches. Faced with these uniquely powerful combatants, and no chance to return to life as he knows it, Gale must decide what to do next. Choosing a side to spend his afterlife with isn't going to be easy, since war is just as much about perspectives as it is about the absolutes of right or wrong.
8 208 - In Serial12 Chapters
Reborn with 1600 IQ
8 828 - In Serial19 Chapters
Paths of Life
Death is the end of the journey for most but not for Zhang Gui. For him it is only the beginning.There are many paths of life, which one will he walk on ?
8 203 - In Serial18 Chapters
Padding the Grade
High school. New semesters, (hopefully) new classes and new teachers.When a young new English teacher offers his class the chance to decide their final grade on the first day. A 60% that they would thoroughly enjoy, or a 90% for which they would have to suffer. And sign a contract stating their choice. Five students decide to boost their averages.They would soon learn just how much they could despise going to class.
8 95 - In Serial135 Chapters
Cubits Can't Save You Now (In Progress)
A crossover between Pibby, Mixels, and many more. What had planned to be a relaxing camping trip for the Infernite Cousins had been completely flipped on its side and turned into a frantic attempt to survive a new foe, and it's nothing like any mixel has battled before. HØW WĮŁĻ ĪŤ ÊŅĐ??¿ WARNING: This contains spoilers to various episodes from various shows and some possibly intense scenes. This is not for young viewers.
8 131

