The First Enemy [III]

The city was enveloped in darkness; the void surely liked dragging me into it. The sea of stars flowed into the darkness and my aspect forced itself out of my body, returning back to its original form. It seemed bigger than before.

「 Your Stellar Aspect is displeased with you. 」

"What did I do?"

「 Stellar Form, Aspect Insight, has activated. 」

「 Direct communication bridge is forming. 」

A flow of energy emitted from both of our centre points, connecting in the middle.

「 Direct communication bridge has been established. 」

The energy stream dispersed and the void became filled with angry screeches.

"WHAT ARE YOU PLAYING AT?"

The scream of the aspect forced immense pain into my body. I was locked in stasis so I wasn't even able to cradle myself. The pain ceased when chains wrapped around the aspect and tightened, then faded away.

「 ■■■■■ chose not to help you. 」

Thanks ■■■■■.

"Huh?"

"Are you stupid or just acting?"

"I have no id-"

"You're trying to force me out of existence for star's sake."

"When?"

"Using your stellar forms for that long while I'm only level 1? It's like you want to use up all my aether."

"Aether?"

"Oh my star."

I could tell the aspect wanted to find itself a new human.

"Aether is the sacred energy that fuels the Stellar Games, and, in turn, ME. If my aether is gone, I'm gone. Do you understand?"

"Yes. I'm sorry."

"No time for your 'soRrY,' what are you getting at?"

"My friend told me that to level you up I have to use my forms. No need for the mocking.."

"Then you or your friend must've misunderstood what that meant. It doesn't mean using me for long periods of time, it just means that you have to use the forms every now and then. Plus, that's not the main way to do it."

"What is?"

"I can't reveal that unless I want the Stellar Games to extinguish me themselves."

"What?"

"If you keep saying 'what' I will happily extinguish you with me."

"Sorry."

"The Stellar Games are, in essence, the creators of everything. The being you met previously that came to announce them was like a.. uh.. representative of the Stellar Games. If we don't abide by their rules, we get punished. Which is why you saw the chains wrap around me when I inflicted pain on you, they like to call it 'Stellar Equilibrium,' anything that knocks the equilibrium has to be resolved."

"How do you harming me disturb that?"

"We're meant to be bonded so I'm not allowed to harm you."

"How would something like that be resolved in the world?"

"The game would be modified, the cause would be erased, no idea really."

Sadistic system.

"So.. now what do we do?"

"I'm almost levelled up so that'll unlock forms 3 and 4."

"How many forms are there?"

"10."

"Why is it so easy?"

I could see the star twitch in anger at all of my questions.

"It's not. After the 3rd and 4th forms, you'll need to be level 5 for the 5th form. Then you need level 10 for the 6th, level 15 for the 7th, and so on."

"So your max level is 30?"

"No, by my level 30, you should be nearing level 100 at which point you'll pick an alignment and the continued 70 levels will become available."

"What are your alignments?"

"Enough questions."

The aspect dispersed into stardust and forced its way into my body. The sea of stars distanced itself from me and the darkness chipped away.

「 The effects of 'Thousand Dreams' have been interrupted. 」

「 A backlash effect occurred due to the interruption: you feel worse than usual. 」

I felt the familiar fatigue of waking up. My mouth was dry and my eyelids stiff, but I still managed to get up.

"Jeez, what happened to you?"

Khai's face became filled with worry at my dishevelled appearance.

"Got abused by my aspect.."

Rubbing my eyes, they slowly returned to their relaxed state.

"Not even going to ask."

Thankfully, as we were in a dental clinic there was an abundance of toothpaste and brushes. I grabbed a random pair and headed to the bathroom. The water, to my surprise, was still working. I brushed my teeth quickly and stared at the bandaid still sticking to my jaw.

Should I peel it off? Nah.

I walked back out and saw Khai sitting on the floor behind the receptionist's desk. He signalled with his hand for me to walk over quietly then I saw the shadows penetrate through the window covering. Quickly ducking behind the desk with Khai, we got to discussing. In whispers obviously.

"Do you have a plan?"

"Go to sleep and find out what they're doing, I'll wake you in case anything happens."

After crawling to the couch and retrieving Thousand Dreams, I went back to the desk and wrapped it around my head.

「 Thousand Dreams lulls you to sleep. 」

「 Overuse of Thousand Dreams has caused its slumber to lighten. 」

「 Stellar Form, Sky's View, has activated. 」

---------

"This is annoying, did they find out about us?"

The woman spoke in an annoyed voice. In fairness, she seemed to always be annoyed.

"Not possible. It's probably just a general cover."

Continuing to remain neutral in his emotions and responses, the man responded. I could tell his patience was wearing thin and the desperation for our items was outgrowing his doubt. We didn't even have that many things to take. Three items, one ability (Monk's Mind), and some snacks. It turned out that Khai would've eaten them all if I didn't hide them.

"So what do we do now? They'll see us coming if we just barge in."

"We can either barge in and fight, or befriend them and stab them in the back."

Sorry to break it to you but it's too late for that trick.

"The second option is so boring and cliché."

It also wouldn't succeed.

"It's our best bet."

It isn't.

"Can't I just get my spiders to scout them?"

Please don't, your spiders will kill me before you will. Time to relay this to Khai.

---------

「 Sky's View has ended. 」

So they were either going to trick us, kill us, or scout us. I informed Khai of their nefarious plans and he activated Ichor Infusion in case they picked the second option.

「 Your Stellar Aspect has started to absorb aether from a distant constellation. 」

Could that mean it's levelling up soon? Two more forms would be useful about now...

A knock came at the glass window of the door and the face of the woman peeked through - luckily, she didn't see me see her. We both ignored it and continued to hide in case they decided to leave seeing as nobody was home. However, they continued to knock.

"Hello?!"

Her voice sounded clearer than the times I heard it during Sky's View.

"Anybody there?"

She walked away from the door and her voice became more muffled. The man's voice joined in and they were discussing. Maybe if I used Sky's View again I could level up Astral Wanderer and get my forms? I slipped on Thousand Dreams.

「 Thousand Dreams has awakened. 」

「 Thousand Dreams will remain awake for 5 hours before becoming usable again. 」

Just my damn luck. I turned to Khai for a better plan.

"What do we do?"

"Use Sky's View."

"I can't."

I tried to explain the situation with Thousand Dreams but I was rudely interrupted by the knock of the unknown man. His was way louder than the woman's, and blatantly less patient.

"We know you're in there!"

They lied. It was obvious. I've seen them not watch us during times we could've switched positions. The girl's spiders wouldn't be able to communicate with the man as they're made of aether, and even if they could communicate with the girl she would've known my ability in the same as how Khai knew my ability: my sleep-talking.

Khai almost stood up at the threat but I pulled him back down. I could tell that continuing to use Ichor Infusion was weakening him as his body felt lighter.

"He's lying, stay hidden."

The sigh he let out was weak as well and the golden coating of ichor on the blade thinned. Astral Wanderer needs to level up soon and those two new forms better be useful or else I'll drain all the aether out of this aspect. At that thought, Astral Wanderer got angry and slightly pained me.

「 ■■■■■ chose not to help you. 」

Thanks ■■■■■. Two unknown beings teaming up on a simple human, how kind and thoughtful.

A screeching sound came from the door. It sounded like claws were scratching against the windows. A tiger pounced at the door and revealed itself through the small window opening. If not for the barricade we put up the door would've broken down and let them in.

"How did he get that? Is there a zoo nearby? Where did he hide it?"

My whispers were filled with a mixture of confusion and respect. Whoever can rival a tiger's will deserves some sort of respect, and being able to hide it from me meant he had it caged up somewhere.