Chapter 2

I found myself falling through a kaleidoscopic tunnel that felt strangely like I was going down a waterslide. I looked out through the walls of the tunnel, which seemed to be a membrane of some sort. The uncomfortable thought that I was sliding down the throat of some giant being replaced the image of a waterslide in my mind. However, I distracted myself by looking at sights beyond the membrane. I immediately found myself struck dumb by the sights. Even though I knew what I was looking at and had read about their descriptions, nothing could have prepared me to look at the real things.

As I slid past a section of the membrane that was colored white, I looked out at a white shapeless cloud that lacked substance and permanency. It was as feeble and immaculate as a dream, but sometimes colored splashes gave it variety. A red star here, a green bird there, a blue data stream-shaped helix. These phantom images only existed for an instant before returning to the white and the shapeless blob at its core.

Next, when the membrane was red, I found myself gazing at the energies of the universe made manifest. I saw a crimson, vibrating storm of energy full of lightning bolts, burning stars, and lights. A shining heart of nuclear chaos, shaped like the eye on an immeasurably large giant, burnt at its center, the first and greatest sun illuminating the universe. When I gazed long and hard at that chaotic center, I saw what I had only read. The eye looked back at me, and I felt unimaginable pressure seek to crush me and ground my body to its base atoms, but the membrane protected me from the being's attention.

I sensed no malice in what I knew to be the red Ultimate One's gaze, just simple curiosity. However, that curiosity was enough to destroy the denizens of lesser dimensions in a mere blink of an eye. If I had been subjected to the full force of the red Ultimate One without protection, then I would have been reduced to particles and incorporated into the never-ending chaotic storm of power. It was an existential experience, to say the least, but there were still five more to go through. I guessed that to reach the world of the Perfect Run, then I would have to pass through the fringes of each of the colored dimensions.

As I slid past the red section and sighed a breath of relief as I approached the orange-colored section of the membrane. I gazed out at a Rubik's cube with countless stickers made of different matter: steel, glass, iron, stone, gold, zinc, water, gas… all metals, all liquids, all inorganic matters of every universe and dimension were represented there. Other stickers contained substances he had never seen, crystals that shifted like living beings, blackened metal as dark as night, or pinkish liquid. Orange lines separated each pit of matter from one another. I stared in wonder at the myriad sights of materials that I would never know the name of or even begin to comprehend. I found myself lost in the sights, and my wonder only grew as I slid toward the section of yellow membrane. 

More fantastical and bizarre sights than what I had witnessed previously greeted my eyes as I slid into view of the yellow dimension. I saw a strange golden carnival of cubic angels, many-legged demons, cohorts of ghosts, and 2D picture-like worlds. It was the strangest of them all, a patchwork of chaotic ideas made real. Nothing unified the creatures and places of this realm except that they only ever existed in human dreams and imagination. Creatures born from the most wonderful dreams and the most insidious and terrible nightmares stalked the boundless yellow space. I tried not to dwell too long on many of the sights as they seemed to stretch and tear at the limits of my conscious mind.

A more subdued interest was all I could muster when it was time to gaze into the green dimension. There I saw a green sphere that superficially imitated a planet, but one where everything was alive. A pulsating cell with seas of green slime and endless mountain ranges made of teeth ranging from those of humans to creatures that I couldn't even guess at. My eyes caught on entire forests made of blood vessels that contacted and expanded in time with some heart that I could not see. The atmosphere itself buzzed like trillions of microscopic flies, and the poles briefly opened to reveal eyes and jagged tongues. I felt my stomach turn at some of the more disturbing sights, but my suffering didn't last long as I slid into a section of blue membrane.

There I saw a strange blue sphere of data, pictures, and numbers, a compendium holding all knowledge and information that ever was, is, and would ever be. The azure glow of a supreme godmind cast the light of enlightenment like a lighthouse in the night while its neural tendrils constantly organized galaxy-sized libraries. My head seemed to throb just by observing the being at work in its never-ending collection and categorization of data. I focused on the central sphere once more and was amazed as it rapidly flitted through all the experiences of a single human's life, with each second represented as a photo that blurred by too quickly to register, but somehow the knowledge was absorbed into my mind. As I left the blue membrane, so too did the knowledge I had absorbed leave my brain.

I finally found the most familiar colored dimension of them all, the purple dimension. I gazed out at the sight that had been described so well but at the same time horribly, as the description had no way of conveying the nuances of what I was looking at. A violet expanse of compressed space and strange mirrors expanded off into the distance indefinitely but also seemed to join everywhere and nowhere at once. All points in spaces and time merged endlessly, forming loops that had been going since the dawn of time and would most likely continue long after every star I knew had burned out. An eerie, inverted pyramid at the center of the purple dimension oversaw all of this.

Finally, I sped toward the last section of the membrane, which was pitch black. While I gazed out at the wonderous and disturbing sights of all the rest of the dimensions, I closed my eyes as I slid through the black. While my mind's limits had been tested by the other dimensions, I knew that it would only take the sight of one particularly confusing and brain-busting paradox for my mind to shatter and my sanity to leave me. Despite my precautions, I swore that I could see the forms of impossible figures lurking in the darkness of my closed eyes. They seemed to come closer and closer through the darkness, but luckily before they could reveal themselves, I was out of the tunnel.

Now, I found myself sitting on the edge of a soft bed. I expected a surge of painful memories to disorient me or knock me to the ground due to agony, but that wasn't the case. Fortunately, all the memories were simply a part of me now. I knew that my name was Aurelian and all the members of my new family. I knew their personalities and quirks like I had been living in this body my entire life. That and more information about the dystopian world I found myself in came as second nature to me now. However, before I could begin to sort through more of the memories, there was a knock at the door to my room. 

A teenager who looked around 13 popped her head into my room. Her deep blue eyes sparkled with a mix of nervousness and excitement. I could tell that she had been up for hours due to her well-groomed platinum hair that she brushed whenever she got nervous. It wasn't a habit I remembered mentioned in the story, but one that came directly from my new memories since this girl was my sister, Livia. I quickly reflected on my age, which was one year less than hers, meaning I am currently 12 years old. Since Livia was described as being in her early 20s when Ryan first met her, that means I probably have around nine years until the start of the story.

Livia snapped me out of my thoughts as she spoke in an urgent whisper, "Come on, Aurelian, everyone is waiting for us in the living room. I don't need to remind you what day it is, right? It's time for you, me, Felix, and Fortuna to get our elixirs at last!" 

Janus, aka Augustus, our father, had taken his orange elixir years ago during Last Easter. He had forbade us from doing the same for a few years until he felt that we were ready. Of course, it wasn't like we needed to fend for ourselves once Dad had turned himself into an invincible statue that was immune to all damage. The rest of the family and Dad's closest allies, like Luca and his wife, who would become the future Mars and Venus, took their elixirs as well. Since they were already part of a crime family before the world was destroyed, they already had the group structure and trust to establish a new gang in the new world called the Augusti.

Now, we lived on the outskirts of what was coming to be known as New Rome. We didn't yet have the whole Mt. Augustus set up yet, but we still lived in luxury on the outskirts of the city. By this point in time, the Augusti were becoming a big group, but since Augustus didn't have his red power yet, they weren't the most infamous faction in Italy yet. However, I know that the balance of power is about to change once Livia gets her power in a few minutes and sees that she and our father can get another power risk-free. 

Speaking of powers, I stood and followed Livia out of the room and toward the living room to get my own powers.

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There is some stuff that doesn't have a ton of information in the story or just that is too obscure for me to find easily that I will make up some minor stuff like names or abilities. If I end up getting something wrong, you can comment on it, but you can also just consider this story about the MC entering a slightly AU version of The Perfect Run.