Chapter 123

The only way I could describe the current situation was complete and utter confusion. Space and time behaved in ways I couldn't grasp. The surrounding matter didn't always act consistenly, just to make the situation even more absurd.

I walked in a straight line just to find out I'd been drifting to my right and had compenetrated a rock, just for the rock to distort and disappear. I climbed a mountain for hours, evading the falling, rising and suddenly manifesting boulders, and ended up at its base further away from where I had started.

At least, my eyes and senses were adapting to the absurd situation and I could more or less discern my surroundings. It was still extremely uncomfortable, as sometimes the defences of my ichor dropped and my body was hit by the distortion of the fractal space. It wasn't painful per se, as my body was resilient enough to keep itself together, but losing a few dimensions here and there was still unpleasant.

I moved blindly, guided more by my guts than my brain, but that was the only option. I routinely collected myself and tried to draw out my innate capabilities, with fluctuating success. I knew deep down inisde that I was moving towards my goal, but neither my senses nor my brain could confirm it. I had to trust a side of myself I still needed to explore.

Yet I carried on, as it was my duty and my will. I had to return home, reclaim and protect what was mine from the ones who wanted to take it from me. But even before that I had to find the way out of this bothersome place.

It was after a while that I came across something different. It was a large field where the land and sky had become one. It was like being immersed in a thin layer of bubble soap, a border between two states. It appeared to extend infinitely in all directions, even those I was not used to, and yet to be thinner than a split hair.

I didn't know when or where I had entered this space. I may have popped up inside it suddenly or I may have been walking through it for a long period of time. There was no way to tell. Nevertheless, I knew I was in the right place.

It was here that innumerable broken strands of time converged and branched out, got shredded and glued together, were destroyed and made anew. The weight of existence was different here. An ephemeral, self-replenishing power imbued the weave of reality, keeping the fractal space alive.

I realised my entire body had tensed up, my fingers were digging into my palms and my jaw had clenched. It felt familiar. A raging fire was coursing through my veins. I felt the need to rip it apart. But I didn't know what "it" was.

I opened my hands and calmed myself down. There was no merit in getting riled up without even knowing why. It had been a long time since my instincts had acted outside of control. That shouldn't have been possible but it had happened nonetheless. It was a memory I remembered yet couldn't recall.

There was something more important to concentrate on. With every step I took, I was nearing my destination. This place was a liminal space, the place between the slices of my world, their sole connection and divider. Without thinking, in the space between two instants, I jumped the fence.

It was like swimming in a dream. The landscape had changed drastically. The ground beneath my feet didn't wriggle around and the sky above my head didn't mix with the mountains in unforeseen ways. Everything behaved as it should.

I took a deep breath and filled my lungs with the oxygen I had been long deprived of. The air in between the sides didn't behave as it should and while I didn't need it, I still enjoyed it. I looked around myself. I didn't know where I was. I was surrounded by withered trees and walked on a carpet of dry grass. I heard sounds coming from my side and focused my gaze towards the horizon. Herds of herbivores were scouring the land in search of food while hungry carnivores walked by their side, lazily nipping at them with their teeth, unable to inflict wounds. They weren't in good condition, with flakes of hair and skin falling off.

I didn't understand. My instincts had told me I was in the right place, yet I had emerged in the wrong space. It made no sense that living beings other than archumans still inhabited my world. This world wasn't made to sustain life.

I ran around, looking for clues. My step made no sounds and the grass I stepped on suffered no damage. This place appeared to me as a dream and I appeared as a dream to it. I could move around, but not interact. The dying creatures I came across didn't react to my presence and I couldn't engage with them in no possible way.

I scoured the land and discovered there was no trace of human life of any kind. The rest of civilization still persisted in the form of decaying buildings, but not even a hair or other parts of human bodies. The species had entirely disappeared.

I carried on and stopped only when I was forced to. A blank canvas stretched across the entire horizon, slowly advancing and devouring everything in its path. It didn't destroy what it touched, it simply made it vanish into nothingness.

I froze. Unreadable memories resurfaced. I stepped back and continued to do so, not daring to confront the advancing deletion front. I started to tremble. Tears fell down my eyes. That really surprised me. I didn't believe the vestiges of my old life still resided deep within me. Sadness filled me at the sight in front of me.

The land and the sky. All things were disappearing, with nothing left behind. True nothingness and destruction, the destiny awaiting this place replaced by simple not being, an open canvas.

It became clear to me. This vision was the manifestation of a long-lost remembrance, and I couldn't tell if it belonged to me or to the world itself. This dream-like place was a nightmare and my emotions became clear to me.

I was witnessing the death of my world. Not the one I had made, but the one I was born in. This was the moment everything was being rewritten.