Chapter 39 : Breaking Fate's Own Rules, Miracles never Come Alone (1) "Your friends fought hard." '...' I had nothing to respond. While the Revered Mother controlled my body, I was stuck in a kind of etheric form that allowed me to feel everything happening in the Singularity, and what I just felt was pure destruction. The Scyllas attacked the remaining Void ships with their entire fleet, and they completely obliterated them. During the battle, I saw Aubouros sacrifice himself by blowing up his Battleship to disable the mother-ship shields and create an opportunity for the massive dreadnought to engage at full power. I assumed the War Chief would seize this golden opportunity to inflict a fatal blow to the Scylla mother-ship and try to destroy it by aiming at its main deck or reactor room, but he didn't. Instead, his dreadnought focused its heavy weaponry on the mother-ship engines and ended up severely damaging them thanks to an exceedingly powerful cannon I'd never seen before. Only after seeing this did I understood what was their plan. Aubouros seemed to have persuaded the war chief to believe the information I provided regarding the dimensional rift, and they decided to trust me to finish things off. Instead of fighting for the win and gambling the destruction of the mother-ship on whether they could destroy it before its shield regenerate or not, they preferred to fight a losing battle from the start to be sure they would immobilize the whole Scylla fleet, so they can't escape the Singularity before the rift collapse. 'Do you not feel anything, looking at all these brave lives being lost ?' "I do not. Why should I ?" 'If by miracle, you happen to be reincarnated after blowing up yourself and consuming your essence…I really hope for you to become a being capable of feeling emotions ; to love and to be loved, to hate and to be hated. Only then, would your life have a meaning.' Despite conversing casually, we both knew that the end for both of us was close. My body was at the heart of the Revered Mother's outstanding spell formation when she activated it. The rift formed itself from inside the temple and in just a few minutes, it grew wide enough to absorb the whole black sphere on which we were standing. When the black sphere plunged inside this dimensional rift, the atmosphere around us greatly changed. Being in an etheric form allowed me to be much more sensitive to my surroundings. Compared to the overpowering red-tinted aura of the Singularity, the inside of the rift was pure darkness and it strangely felt calm...as if everything around us was frozen in time. It seemed as if we fell into a super-massive black-hole, everything around the temple was so dark that even if I had my main body with my insanely good night vision, I wouldn't be able to see further than a few meters in front of me. The only light source came from a little circular part in the sky through which we could see not only the mother-system, but also the entirety of the Singularity. It was as if we were trapped in a dark prison but we could see the entire outer world only from a single small window. "Tell me, Human. If you were given the choice to live an eternity of suffering trapped here or to escape this tragic future by dying, wouldn't have you made the same decisions as I did ?" 'If my decisions would have led to such mass slaughters and the loss of incalculable billions of innocent lives, I would not have done what you did. I am far from being a decent person who cares about other lives more than mine, yet I still respect and value innocent life.' "You speak as if you never killed yourself. Did you forget all those who have been taken out by your own hands ?" Despite being a cosmic deity full of wisdom, I knew that the Revered Mother was ignorant of the most basic things in life. She was like an immortal child trapped inside an observatory since its birth, where she could see everything happening outside of the mother-system for millenniums but she has never been able to taste any of it. 'I do not forget what I have done nor those I killed, but the lives I've taken were everything but innocent. I'm not using this as an excuse, but just as a reason for my actions.' "What about the other Void Rifters you killed ? Weren't they innocent ? They were nothing but puppets controlled by my children. They didn't choose to fight nor did they want it." 'You may not comprehend because you are an eternal deity, but every day was a life or death situation for me and my squad. Since we woke up inside your children's mother-ship we have been forced to survive inside this hellish dimension as mere humans ; as one of the weakest biological life-forms in the rifters' ranks... It has always been the survival of the fittest, and we started as the weakest of all the Void Rifters species.' I took a brief pause to recollect my emotions, then continued. 'Maybe most of the rifters I killed were just unable to bypass the Scyllas' mind-control and go against their orders, but still, it doesn't change the fact that they wanted to kill us.' Before I could continue, the Revered Mother interrupted me. "Your squad ? You mean, those ridiculous weaklings that rushed straight inside the rift thinking that they haven't been noticed yet ?" 'What ??' These words surprised me, but I knew she was serious since I don't believe she is capable of joking. I instantly spread my consciousness and tried to locate them. I thought the Lance of Kar'goth left the Singularity through the gates already, I didn't expect them to still be here. After I had been concentrating for a while and was still unable to find them, the Revered Mother interrupted my concentration. "Do you want your body back, human ?" 'Why would you give me my body back ? Isn't it needed to complete your spell until the rift collapse ?' Since the Revered Mother had been crouched in the center of the spell construction without moving since the rift formed, I assumed my body was already done for and beyond saving. "I finished the spell long ago, and my essence is already being depleted and close to be exhausted. Your body already served its purpose as a tool to create the spell formation in the material world, it is now worthless to me." 'Would you really give it back to me and let me free ? It seems too good to be true... Isn't this just a trap ?...' "If you wish so, I would. Do not misunderstand, Human, you can not avoid death this time. It is already too late for you to escape the Singularity, and the foolish beings who entered the rift inside your ship to get you back just signed their death warrant by doing this." 'Then... why would you give me my body back ?' At my question, the Revered Mother stood up with my body and gazed at a certain glowing point growing bigger in the dark sky surrounding us. "Because I want to know, what it is fighting to stay alive. Even if your destiny is to die here today, I am myself trying to break my own fate by forcefully terminating my life. Thanks to your highly compatible body, I had an opportunity to achieve my goal much faster than planned. By giving your body back, I am merely returning the favor." She paused for a few seconds, then added. "I am just giving you a chance to fight against your own fate, as you did for me. Consider it an equivalent exchange." I didn't have the time to respond before a sudden bright flash blinded me. I felt my ethereal form slowly getting dissipated, and my mind suddenly got hazy. After some time, I completely lost the link to the ethereal form and all my previous senses that were boosted to their maximum now felt numb. When my soul went back to my organic body and I lost the capacity to feel everything happening inside the Singularity as if I was a part of it, it felt weird. Thinking about it, if what I could feel while being in an ethereal form was just a tiny part of the Revered Mother ability, I can't fathom the depth of her real power. I am sure she could have eradicated the entirety of the Scyllas and the Void forces in just a few minutes if she really wanted to. I guess it was true when she claimed no caring at all about the war, the Void or even about her children the Scyllas. I should be glad she didn't show up earlier, or else we would all have died without knowing what happened. Once the flash dissipated, I slowly felt myself back inside my body. It was a disturbing feeling... My own body almost felt like a foreign entity to me. Being in an ethereal form for too long seems dangerous... If I feel this uncomfortable after only a little time as an ethereal entity, I seriously wonder what would have happened if my soul had roamed alone for a longer period of time. I don't know how the Revered Mother felt when she took control of my body and how she got used to it so quickly, but I am now sure that the drawback wouldn't have been bearable if she wasn't an immortal deity. I felt the tip of my toes first, then my entire feet, then my legs... It was as if a ray beam was slowly moving up my body, activating every tissue, joint, bone, muscle and blood artery until it reached my visage and the top of my head. It seemed like I had pulled my head out of the water after being submerged for an eternity. Although it hadn't been long since the Revered Mother had seized possession of my body, it already seemed like a distant memory now that I had regained its control. Despite regaining my body, I did not move yet. I was startled by how many things have been altered within me and the black matter. The most surprising was my left arm. Before the Revered Mother possessed me, I was unable to feel my left arm. I could move my left hand but only my fingers by a few centimeters, just enough to aim when I was using Void energy. No matter what I attempted, the injuries I sustained during my first combat with the centipede never entirely healed. I always assumed that losing control of my left arm was a blessing in disguise because of the unusual chemistry that occurred between the black matter, the Netherite stone fragments, and the Void energy particles. Yes, losing the use of an arm severely limited my overall combat capabilities, especially at close range. I always considered it a small price to pay to be able to manipulate the Void Energy efficiently, so I never regretted it. However, I could now feel something else circulating through my left arm in addition to the Void energy and the Netherite fragments. It seems like Tassadar has been greatly affected by the Revered Mother presence, and he already mutated even after being her host for so little time. 'Human, the two entities who reside inside you are unique. I'm not sure what experiments Primus One and my children performed on you to fuse together three living beings so unlike to one another, but it's certainly a miracle that you all survived and can operate as a single entity without devouring each other.' While I was getting the control of my body back, the Revered Mother answered my hidden concern as if she was reading my thoughts. 'It would be a pity if you died today without at least attempting to change your fate, so prove me wrong and survive to see another day. The same way I gave my all to break those unfair and restraining absolute laws, it is now your chance to go against the current of the river of fate. If you can overcome this trial, you'll be able to accomplish things that even I couldn't.' I slowly stood up and stretched my legs. "This dimensional rift you created, aren't you curious where it is linked to ?" 'How could I know ? Being a deity doesn't mean having answers to everything. I made this rift with my own essence, Human. The energy released when it collapses will undoubtedly destroy both the Singularity and the Void that surrounds it. If it is linked to somewhere, it would be a place so far away that you couldn't reach it even with the gates technology you stole from my children.' "If I happen to escape this rift alive, your sacrifice won't be forgotten. While I can not forgive the Scyllas for what they did, nor could I forgive you for giving birth to these arrogant bastards and letting them rampaging free for so long... I still empathize with the hardships you had to face. My problems aren't comparable to being trapped here for an eternity. From you, I learned that even deity are bound to face tribulations they can not endure." 'Do you pity me ?' I could feel the connection with the Revered Mother consciousness getting weaker and weaker. Her end was close, which meant that her essence was almost completely exhausted. If her soul is about to disappear, it means that her spell formation worked as she planned and she achieved a feat supposedly impossible : going against the River of Fate. "No, I do not pity you. I merely am grateful for giving me a chance to escape by letting go of my body before your end. I hope your soul will survive this ordeal and reincarnate inside an organic body, only then would you truly know what is living. If not, may you rest in peace." 'Such words for the responsible of your pain ? No matter how hard I try, it seems impossible for me to understand you nor how your mind work, Human. This may not be of much help, but I sincerely hope for you to survive and find what you seek.' Her voice became so weak and feeble that the last words were nothing but a whisper. 'Good...luck...' Her final words faintly resonated inside my mind, until I couldn't pinpoint her position anymore. I could still feel traces of her, which means a part of her essence was still being combusted by the spell formation inside the temple, but her soul and her self-consciousness had definitely been extinguished. The Revered Mother, an immortal deity trapped inside the Singularity Origin who lived an uncountable amount of times, traversed the ages and even experienced the Great Collision...had died. As much as she tried to end her existence, now is the time for me and my squad to fight for our lives and escape this damned place.