chapter 23

While I waited for the dwarf brothers to finish opening their gateway, I tried to get accustomed to my singular eye. Mostly, it's good when I strike with my right side.

My left side would be... lacking. Most of my strikes are inaccurate, but with my reishi sensing abilities, i should be able to patch up my sight.

It'll take quite a bit of practice but I think it's possible.

"C'mon! We got shit to do, gates open!" Brokks voice threw me back to reality and I turned to see that a doorway had indeed been opened.

"Hey Walter. Odin said you forgot this." Tenjiro had walked through, appearing before me with a head in hand.

"I appreciate ya treating me like an acorn. Now, pass me to the lad." The head of mimir, i had indeed forgotten that. I took hold of the rope that was wrapped around his head.

"This looks quite uncomfortable for you." Having a rope just wrapped around his head must've been uncomfortable. Quickly, gathering some reishi, I made a platform on my shoulder that his head neatly slotted into.

"I feel like a parrot. But this is more comfortable, so I thank you for that lad." It was a much more convenient fix.

"Get yer ass moving! We don't got all fuckin day!" I waved goodbye to my sternritter as i walked through the rainbow portal.

"Did I... was what i did right?" Mimir sighed. I wasn't going to like this answer was I?

"That isn't up to me. History will tell who was right, but now, in the present? The only one who can determine right and wrong are yourself. You didn't know thrym or any of the other giants and can't put value on their lives. Right now, it's ambiguous." His words were undeniable, and I couldn't help but think as i walked.

"I guess I just wanted to hear that I was right. Thanks. Mimir." Another rainbow portal appeared on this tree path.

Time to go.

"So... what are we looking for again?"

"The ice of niflheim so that I can make liquid creation." Mimir ponder-

"Wait what? Why in midgard do you need to make liquid creation?" Walter sighed, letting out a cloud of his breath.

"It would take too long to explain. So please just lead me to the ice." Mimir couldn't help but notice how he had flipped, he went from speaking calm and soothingly to stern and fed up. Regardless...

"Your intentions are true. So, follow the rivers of ice, they all lead up to one mountain. There you'll find the purest ice, exactly what you'll need to generate liquid creation. Normal ice won't do. You need to find the frozen rivers of Élivágar." There were lingering thoughts of hesitation in Mimirs mind.

It was said that Ymir was born of the fires of muspelheim melting the ice of niflheim and the droplets formed Ymir's body.

"So... what are you, Walter?" That question... Walter had thought long and hard about that...

"An unfortunate Quincy."

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Sunny was a strange existence. The only one who knew what she was, was the man who remade her.

Walter Newgate

The second Quincy king and heir to the linchpin.

Sunny should've never turned out how she did, it shouldn't have been possible. But Walter...

He changed her name, her gender, her appearance, her identity and her very soul. Not a trace was left of the man once known as ichibe hyosube. Only his memories.

Sunny was modeled in his image.

Like Adam to God.

He was the architect of her rebirth.

Her baptist.

She wouldn't throw this away. Not like she could...

Regardless, the admiration she had for him. Walter had no reason to remake her, but he did. Even with the name curse, that could not impede the visionary.

She had received a glimpse at his power. His history... his fragile mind.

And... Well... the empathy that he had implanted in her was fully in action. Sunny felt responsible and as such, she would serve faithfully to her end.

Simple hospitality. Her everything was fully at Walter's disposal.

It was a strange thing to see him come back... he tore out his own eye. She... watched him. Kept an eye on him, but she couldn't stop his own decisions, especially when he had done it with little hesitation.

Would this happen every time? Each time he comes back... would he be missing another piece of him?

The artist didn't know.

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As I walk along this frozen land. I wonder. Does anything live here? And I honestly couldn't tell. I looked with the almighty... but I still can't tell. It looks like things move in my visions, but I really can't tell.

"What's with the confused look on ya face, lad?" Almost forgot him.

"Does... anything live here?" Mimir momentarily went quiet.

"I'd advise you to be careful lad. The only things that live here are the frost giants and nidhogg. You stand a chance against the frost giants, against nidhogg though? Not a chance. A single bite and you'd be dead or at the least grievously injured and flesh rotting." I don't doubt that, if Odin was able to impale me, nidhogg probably could injure me too.

"Well, if all goes well, I won't need to confront either of them." Mimir chuckled.

"That's right lad. Steer clear of any danger." As I walked by the frozen river, I couldn't help but stare into the ice and wonder what was beneath it all.

"Mimir. Brace yourself." Before the head could respond I hirenyaku'd my way to the top of the mountain.

"You... eugh... bastard. Give me a bit of time to Brace myself before we teleport." I didn't have to look to tell that Mimir was nauseous.

"It's high speed movement. But, semantics. Now, which river is it?" From this mountain top, flowed one river that split into around eleven others. Each were of a similar length, that being extending as far as I could see.

It was quite hard to discern width from all the way up here, especially with only one eye.

"You can probably just melt the wellspring itself."

"And that might cause disastrous complications."

"... fair. Look for the river with a humanoid shaped chunk in it." Hah... okay... thats wonderful. Its not like that'll take quite some time...

Fuck it. I'll just use the almighty to find it.

"Well, are you gonna start looking?"

"I already have." I just observed the futures where I went to each river and determined that it was...

"Second from the left." Casually, I backed up from the enclosed summit, time for a running start.

"Oh not again!" The head couldn't say anymore words as I launched us off the mountain with unreal speed. Ah, to feel the wind blowing like this... its wonderful!

I could feel the wind getting more intense, quickly, I corrected my falling pattern and landed straight on a river of ice. Cracks under my feet...

Not good.

With the momentary high gone, I couldn't help but notice how clean of an outline the humanoid was.

Unsheathing Mereoleona, the flames flared before I inserted the sword into the river.

I could see the ice bubbling, melting and boiling. So this is liquid creation... it looks normal but... I can tell, no, my very existence feels insignificant to that.

Maybe it's because I don't know its nature. Maybe... I couldn't tell.

"So this is the stuff Ymir was made of. Reminds me vaguely of my Wells water." The wisdom Well? That's a liquid that grants wisdom... this is a liquid that creates. Liquid that embodies concepts... I see.

"Hmm. Stick me in it, Walter." Sujin? Why... would I do that?

"So i can absorb some of it. Mereoleona got a Primordial power, why can't I get one?" Really... you could tell that it was in a joking way... but it just wasn't the time. In hindsight...

If I do... I can essentially produce liquid creation at any point in time... taking out sujin, I inserted her into the boiling mess of creation.

My zanpakuto started to slurp it up like it was a source of water after weeks of dehydration. Strange analogy considering her constitution.

"Right. I'm done, take me out." Again, she had been sheathed.

"Hey lad... I think, somethings going wrong..." my focus came back to the forming... of... a...

Humanoid.

Oh no.

The entity swiped its hand lightly through the area.

Decimating the surrounding area, creating a massive crater... 50 km wide. This really isn't good.

Someone leapt through from the frozen forest...

"Blacken out, Ichimonji!" Sunny, the being I had made from ichibe, splattered the black ink across the liquid being. A single Shunpo moved her beside me.

"Walter, listen very closely to me, we cannot let this being name itself. Whatever name it had has already been removed, but, we absolutely cannot let it name itself or be named. It will embody whatever name it is given." This... this may be a situation where I have to use the visionary.

I... don't want to. But I have to if we want to live.

"It would seem I've got no choice." As fun as this fight would be, why am I thinking about that? No, there's no time to question myself.

For the first time in a while, the switch was flipped.

"It is time, for you to begone from this realm!" As my mind begun to work like clockwork, space seemed to hug the being, tearing itself apart to envelop it and just like that... the being was gone.

Did I...did I do it?

Ah.. ha... HAHAHAHA! How absurd! Killing that thing... it cannot be killed because it isn't alive in the first place.

My mind is going... I need to turn it off.

"You did it, Walter. Don't worry anymore." That was all i needed, to flip the switch. I'm going insane. I didn't imagine it dead... just gone somewhere!

I... I don't want to kill! I just wanted peace, i wanted people to not suffer through conflict. But why? Why curse myself to walk this path?! The path of a martyr...

Is this my fate? Has it always been this way? Was God the one who planned all of this?

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The... being... gathered itself after being rudely abandoned by his creator upon its birth, it didn't even name it.

What a terrible father it had, if only, if it could go back to that moment, form a mouth and speak to its father.

Modoru...

A fitting name. That would be... his... name. What was Modoru to do in this endless land of sand? Where a moon hung above it all?

He would find something to do. He didn't even know his own fathers name.

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Walter Newgate, you are so very entertaining to watch. You surprise me at every turn, every twist is a new challenge.

It will be quite boring when you die, but i can always do it again with some different conditions, so long as that... thing... doesn't try anything.

Even I cannot oppose... it. That thing possesses power beyond imagination, not only that... but those 8 beings cannot even be harmed by those of a lesser dimension!

A preposterous rule that was set... by...

The 'god' found a force gripping his throat, clear indents as if a hand was gripping tightly onto his throat.

"I... apologies... I wasn't... going to think... your name!" A being materialised, a humanoid of pure white. Standing at around 6ft 4, the being was clearly muscular, clear vein throbbing on its hand.

"You should've known better." A singular eye appeared on the left side of his face, blood red and clearly angry.

"The eight have long since forgotten my existence. When I made sure of that, I couldn't erase it from the few vestiges of my power. So... I'll take it back!" The echo... the shock of a gods extinguishing rippled through the void of creation.

"I... am whole once more."

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How is everyone today? Bought skyrim today, and I'll provably take my time with it.

Anyways, join the discord, tell me any issues you got with the story, I might be able to clarify.