Whatever it Takes

The dimensional trip was just as rough as Axel remembered it. But this time, he had company.

Reality folded in on itself and it was like everyone was aging in both directions at once. Though the actual reality of his situation sobered him much more this time around. He couldn't stop thinking about how quickly things had unraveled him when he thought he was finally taking the first big step in achieving his goal.

Finally, they all opened their eyes and found themselves surrounded by stone ruins. Mother nature had already claimed them as vines and weeds overtook what was left of whatever this used to be. The ruins appeared to be in the middle of a large grassy plain - more damaged and forgotten structures dotted the horizon.

"AHHHHHH!"

Everyone almost fell over as Jayden suddenly screamed out.

"Jayden, what in the actual hell?!" Iris yelled.

"I'm...I'm sorry." Jayden said as he could feel his heart beating through his chest. "But am I really the only one that felt like I was eating myself and then shitting myself back out? Like...I don't know if I can recover from that experience..."

"I...have no comment on that." Jun replied. But yes, he thought to himself, I felt the same thing.

Axel stood up as he clutched his chest as he felt even worse now after the trip. His chest was heaving, but it was like there wasn't enough oxygen in the air for him to breathe." Alright..huff...Admin. Where is this...huff..huff..magical thing that'll fix me?" Axel said without a hint of humor in his voice.

Admin walked past the slayers as they recovered and over to the closest ruin. There were several cracked and broken pillars surrounding them - some were completely toppled over and others were on the way to that point. Beyond the pillars were remnants of some type of structure but it was far too old and broken to tell exactly what it was.

She touched the pillar and ran her hand across the rigid stone surface. The feel of the stone seemed to lock her in some type of memory that the others weren't privy to. Sadly, the whole 'voice in your head' thing only worked one way.

"Admin?" asked Iris.

Admin snapped out of whatever thought she was having and refocused. "Right. So, I'm going to need everyone but Axel to clear out from this space. If you don't I can't guarantee your safety."

"What exactly are you going to do to him?" Jayden inquired.

"I'm going to release the energy of the God core and use it to re-figure the seal."

Axel shoved his sword in the ground and pushed past Jayden to approach Admin. "I don't care what you need to do, just get rid of this thing so I can get back to doing what I do best."

Admin looked into Axel's eyes and saw the desperation that he was trying so hard to hide. She then turned her head to the others. "When I release this energy, I only have seconds to contain it. You don't want to be close if I fail." They nodded and walked outside of the pillars.

"Take your shirt off." Admin said to Axel.

"What?" He replied.

"Take your shirt off. What is with you humans and nudity? It's just flesh. Get over it."

Axel was a little taken back by her boldness, but did as was requested of him and threw off his shirt. "Now what?"

"Go lie down in the center of the pillars and DON'T move."

He walked over to the center and saw an odd symbol - it was hard to make out but it looked almost like a crescent moon sitting atop something. He decided not to question it since he honestly didn't care.

There was only one reason he was here.

Axel lay down on top of the symbol and looked straight up towards the sky above. Even though it had been daytime where they just came from, it was currently night in this dimension. Stars upon stars dotted the sky - much more than where they're from.

Admin stood over Axel and held her hand out with her palm facing towards the sky.

< Releasing bound core >

A gust of wind kicked up around her and Axel as the core started to materialize in her hand. Around her, all of the pillars began to light up with an unknown language that was inscribed on them. The others braced themselves as the wind from the incoming power source pushed against them.

"Wait, how can we still hear her in our head?" Jayden asked.

< Even though I'm physically here with you all, there are still replicas of me maintaining the God Core System at all times. It's a single consciousness controlling hundreds of connections - I can truly be in more than one place at one time to put it simply >

The core began to quickly grow in size - once it reached the size of a basketball the gust of wind slowed to a brief stop and the direction flipped so that it was sucking towards itself now.

Axel looked up as dust kicked up all over his face. All he could see was the bright light illuminating everything around him. He looked down at his hands and saw the same overlapping symbols appearing on his skin as they did every few moments. "I'm trusting you!"

As the core continued to grow in size, the lettering on the pillars began to float off of the pillars covered in energy and converge on each other into a spiral of unknown letters right above where Axel was. They then sifted downwards and floated around the core like an electron shell.

Once the odd energy began to spiral around the core, it started to shrink in size until it was about that of a basketball.

"In my hand I hold the condensed version of a God Core." Admin stated. "Normally you would be able to siphon the energy via your system, but since yours is corrupted...this is the only way.

Jun rubbed his chin. If she is essentially the God Core System....why isn't she affected by this as well? Shouldn't she also be corrupted? He thought.

"Now," Admin continued, "I'm going to release the energy inside you, Axel."

"Whatever it fucking takes." Axel said as he couldn't stay like this for a moment longer.

Jun, Jayden, and Iris watched on as Admin prepared herself.

"Initiate God Core." Admin stated.